MOORPARK : City Seeks Data on Residents’ Attitudes

The city of Moorpark has sent surveys to about 8,000 homes to gauge how people feel about their local government and the place they live.

The two-page survey, which was mailed out last week with the city’s summer recreation brochure, asks residents to rate the city’s performance in a number of areas, list services they find most and least important, and identify what they like best and least about living in Moorpark.

Also contained in the survey is space for residents to provide biographical information, including how long they have lived in the city, where they work and whether they own or rent their residence.

“This is a way to begin to build a little bit of a database in terms of what people’s desires and feelings are,” Mayor Paul Lawrason said Monday.

“We’ve had some bad raps, but we’ve also had some instances where the public has felt that we weren’t responsive enough and we’re trying to improve.”

Under its ongoing customer-service initiative, Moorpark has already instituted an after-hours answering service, speeded the processing of community development projects and scheduled quarterly employee meetings and an employee newsletter. A new telephone system with voice mail and automated attendant debuts next month.

Mary Lindley, assistant to the city manager, said she hopes the survey results will be tabulated by the end of June for City Council review.