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Prepared by National Research Center, Inc. City of Louisville Community Survey <br /> June 2020 <br /> <br />Report of Results <br /> 6 <br />represent opportunities for understanding how local policies, programs or public information may have <br />affected residents’ opinions. <br />In 2004, substantial changes were made to the survey instrument and implementation methodology. The <br />surveys conducted in 2004 and thereafter used similar survey instruments and survey methodologies. <br />Comparisons across these more recent years are more robust than comparisons to results from the surveys <br />conducted in 1990, 1994 and 1999. In those first three survey iterations, the question wording and the <br />response scales were often different than question wording and response scales used starting in 2004. <br />The report body notes any differences between the 2016 and 2020 survey instruments. Generally, these are <br />minor changes in wording to clarify a question or note a change in a department name. Previous reports <br />contain detailed notes on the more substantial differences between the 2008 and 2004 survey instruments <br />compared to the 1990, 1994 and 1999 survey instruments. Most of the trend lines did not change markedly <br />with the 2004 change in methods and question wording (about 60% of the ratings were similar, 10% went up <br />and 30% went down). However, caution should be used in comparing the newer trend line (2004 to 2016) to <br />the 1990, 1994 and 1999 results. The differences in ratings may be due to real change in practice or policy <br />but also may be affected by the changes in how they were measured (the methods and question wording). <br />Comparing by Respondent Subgroups <br />Selected survey results were compared to certain demographic characteristics of survey respondents as well as <br />by Ward. These crosstabulations are presented in Appendix B: Comparison of Responses by Respondent <br />Demographics. <br />Comparing to Other Jurisdictions <br />NRC’s database of comparative resident opinion is comprised of resident perspectives gathered in surveys <br />from approximately 700 jurisdictions whose residents evaluated local government services. Conducted with <br />typically no fewer than 400 residents in each jurisdiction, opinions are intended to represent over 30 million <br />Americans. <br />National and Front Range benchmark comparisons have been provided when similar questions on the <br />Louisville survey are included in NRC’s database and there are at least five jurisdictions in which the question <br />was asked, though most questions are compared to more than five other cities across the country or in the <br />Front Range. Additional information on NRC’s benchmarking database as well as jurisdictions to which <br />Louisville is compared can be found in Appendix D: Benchmark Comparisons. <br />Where comparisons for quality ratings were available, the City of Louisville’s results were generally noted as <br />being “above” the benchmark, “below” the benchmark or “similar” to the benchmark and are discussed <br />throughout the body of the report, when applicable. In instances where ratings are considerably higher or <br />lower than the benchmark, these ratings have been further demarcated by the attribute of “much,” (for <br />example, “much less” or “much above”). These labels come from a statistical comparison of Louisville’s <br />rating to the benchmark where a rating is considered “similar” if it is within the margin of error (less than four <br />points on the 100-point scale); “above” or “below” if the difference between Louisville’s rating and the <br />benchmark is greater than the margin of error (greater than four points but less than eight points); and “much <br />above” or “much below” if the difference between Louisville’s rating and the benchmark is more than twice <br />the margin of error (more than eight points). Comparison data for a number of items on the survey is not <br />available in the benchmark database (e.g., some of the city services or aspects of government performance). <br />These items are excluded from the benchmark tables.