The Town of Greenwich has been working for many years to improve the level and the quality of the services that we provide to our customers, the residents of the Town. Two years ago, Peter Tesei commenced a dynamic program entitled “Community First” to reinforce this initiative.
Earlier this year, the Town contracted with the UConn, Dept of Public Policy to help evaluate resident satisfaction by means of a telephone survey.
The purpose of the survey was to identify not only how we were progressing in our efforts, but also to identify what areas where improvement could be made. Over 22,000 calls were made to Greenwich residents and over 1,000 residents responded. We thank everyone who took the time to provide us with valuable feedback and we are listening to your concerns. The complete survey results can be found on www.greenwichct.org.
Overall the residents of the Town are highly satisfied with the services that the Town provides. In the areas of public safety, the respondents were especially pleased with both the Police and Fire Departments. Of our general service departments, Parks & Recreation and the Highway Department were also rated as providing highly-valued services. The Town also received above average marks for the quality of the public education that the Greenwich school system provides. Finally, they felt that overall they received a good value for their Greenwich tax dollars.
In the departments that primarily issue permits and are regulatory in nature the most significant takeaways were the need to decrease the waiting period for permits and the need to improve the information that is available for citizens and their contractors. With the survey now completed, each department will use this data to identify areas for improvement. They will prioritize service improvement projects and work diligently in the next year to achieve our goals.
The total cost of this survey was $11,000. The 2014-2015 budget approved by the BET and the RTM included funds for this purpose.