Community_Opinion_2023_Survey_Results.pdf

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Table of C ontents iCity of Thousand Oaks True North Research, Inc. © 2023

T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

Table of Contents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i List of Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv Introduction

Purpose of Study Statistical Significance Overview of Methodology

Phase 1 Phase 2

Organization of Report Acknowledgements Disclaimer About True North

Key Findings Quality of Life

Overall Quality of Life Question 2 Question 3

Ways to Improve Quality of Life Question 4

City Services Overall Satisfaction

Question 5 Specific Services

Question 6 Question 7

Performance, Needs & Priorities Individualized Priority Analysis

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Items that are Difficult to Obtain

Question 8 Question 9

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Statements Question 10

Suggestions to Improve Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Question 11

Civic Arts Master Plan Priority Improvements

Question 12 Flexible Space Interests

Question 13 Spending Priorities

Question 14 Staff & Governance

Local Governance Question 15

Staff Contact Question 16

Assessment of City Staff Question 17

City-Resident Communication Overall Satisfaction

Table of C ontents iiCity of Thousand Oaks True North Research, Inc. © 2023

Question 18 Information Sources

Question 19 Background & Demographics Methodology

Questionnaire Development Programming & Pre-Test Sample, Recruiting & Data Collection Margin of Error due to Sampling Data Processing Rounding

Questionnaire & Toplines

List of Tables

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L I S T O F T A B L E S

Table 1 Changes to Improve Thousand Oaks by Study Year Table 2 Importance of Issues by Study Year (Showing % Extremely & Very) Table 3 Satisfaction With Services by Study Year (Showing % Very & Somewhat) Table 4 Resident Service Needs & Priority Matrix Table 5 Agreement With Statements by Years in Thousand Oaks & Child in Hsld

(Showing % Strongly & Somewhat) Table 6 Agreement With Statements by Ethnicity & Home Ownership Status

(Showing % Strongly & Somewhat) Table 7 Agreement With Statements by Age & Gender (Showing % Strongly &

Somewhat) Table 8 Agreement With Statements by Employment Status & Overall Satisfaction

(Showing % Strongly & Somewhat) Table 9 Civic Arts Plaza Priorities by Years in Thousand Oaks & Child in Home

(Showing % High Priority) Table 10 Civic Arts Plaza Priorities by Ethnicity & Home Ownership Status

(Showing % High Priority) Table 11 Civic Arts Plaza Priorities by Age & Gender (Showing % High Priority) Table 12 Civic Arts Plaza Priorities by Employment Status & Overall Satisfaction

(Showing % High Priority) Table 13 Interest in Including Flexible Space for Community Events, Activities by

Years in Thousand Oaks & Child in Home (Showing % Very Interested) Table 14 Interest in Including Flexible Space for Community Events, Activities by

Ethnicity & Home Ownership Status (Showing % Very Interested) Table 15 Interest in Including Flexible Space for Community Events, Activities by

Age & Gender (Showing % Very Interested) Table 16 Interest in Including Flexible Space for Community Events, Activities by

Employment Status & Overall Satisfaction (Showing % Very Interested) Table 17 Rating Aspects of City Governance by Study Year (Showing % Excellent &

Good) Table 18 Rating Aspects of City Staff by Study Year (Showing % Very) Table 19 Top Sources for Thousand Oaks Info by Study Year Table 20 Demographics of Sample by Study Year

List of Figures

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L I S T O F F I G U R E S

Figure 1 Quality of Life by Study Year Figure 2 Quality of Life by Years in Thousand Oaks & Employment Status Figure 3 Quality of Life by Age, Child in Home & Home Ownership Figure 4 Quality of Life by Ethnicity & Gender Figure 5 Quality of Life in Past Five Years by Study Year Figure 6 Quality of Life in Past Five Years by Years in Thousand Oaks & Employment

Status Figure 7 Quality of Life in Past Five Years by Age, Child in Home & Home Ownership

Status Figure 8 Quality of Life in Past Five Years by Ethnicity & Gender Figure 9 Changes to Improve Thousand Oaks Figure 10 Overall Satisfaction by Study Year Figure 11 Overall Satisfaction by Years in Thousand Oaks & Employment Status Figure 12 Overall Satisfaction by Age, Child in Home & Home Ownership Status Figure 13 Overall Satisfaction by Ethnicity & Gender Figure 14 Importance of Issues Figure 15 Satisfaction With Services Figure 16 Resident Service Needs Figure 17 Services, Items, Amenities Difficult to Obtain Figure 18 Services, Items, Amenities Difficult to Obtain by Years in Thousand Oaks &

Employment Status Figure 19 Services, Items, Amenities Difficult to Obtain by Age, Child in Hsld & Home

Ownership Status Figure 20 Services, Items, Amenities Difficult to Obtain by Overall Satisfaction, Ethnicity & Gender Figure 21 Hsld Most Important Services, Items, Needed Difficult to Obtain Figure 22 Agreement With Statements Figure 23 Suggestions to Improve Issues of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Figure 24 Civic Arts Plaza Priorities Figure 25 Interest in Including Flexible Space for Community Events, Activities Figure 26 Spending Priorities Figure 27 Spending Priorities Among Those Who Are Dissatisfied With City or Who Feel

That Quality of Life Has Worsened in Past Five Years Figure 28 Rating Aspects of City Governance Figure 29 Contact With City Staff in Past 12 Months by Study Year Figure 30 Contact With City Staff in Past 12 Months by Years in Thousand Oaks & Age Figure 31 Contact With City Staff in Past 12 Months by Ethnicity, Home Ownership &

Overall Satisfaction Figure 32 Rating Aspects of City Staff Figure 33 Satisfaction With Communication by Study Year Figure 34 Satisfaction With Communication by Years in Thousand Oaks & Employment

Status Figure 35 Satisfaction With Communication by Age, Child in Home, & Home Ownership

Status Figure 36 Satisfaction With Communication by Ethnicity, Gender & Overall Satisfaction Figure 37 Source for Thousand Oaks Info Figure 38 Information Sources Categories by Overall, Age & Home Ownership Status Figure 39 Information Sources Categories by Child in Home, Ethnicity & Satisfaction

With Communication Figure 40 Maximum Margin of Error

Introduction

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I N T R O D U C T I O N

Nestled against the Santa Monica Mountains in beautiful Ventura County, the City of Thousand Oaks is often referred to as a model master planned community. Incorporated in 1964 and cur-rently home to an estimated 124,592 residents,1 the City provides a full suite of services through nine departments2—City Attorney, City Clerk, City Manager, Community Development, Cultural Affairs, Finance, Human Resources, Library Services, and Public Works. In addition to the administrative, safety, and other services offered by most cities, Thousand Oaks provides addi-tional services and amenities to its citizens that are designed to enhance the quality of life and sense of community, including world-class cultural arts and entertainment, a teen center, adult community center, 18-hole golf course, indoor and outdoor banquet facilities, equestrian center, childcare center, and thousands of acres of natural open space for outdoor recreation.

As part of its commitment to provide high quality services and responsive local governance, the City engages residents on a daily basis and receives regular feedback on issue, policy, and per-formance matters. Although these informal feedback mechanisms are valuable sources of infor-mation for the City in that they provide timely and accurate information about the opinions of specific residents, they do not necessarily provide an accurate picture of the community as a whole. Informal feedback mechanisms typically rely on the resident to initiate the feedback, which creates a self-selection bias. The City receives feedback only from those residents who are motivated enough to initiate the feedback process. Because these residents tend to be those who are either very pleased or very displeased regarding a particular topic, their collective opinions are not necessarily representative of the City’s resident population as a whole.

PURPOSE OF STUDY The motivation for the study was to design and employ a methodol-ogy that would avoid the self-selection bias noted above and thereby provide the City with a sta-tistically reliable understanding of its residents’ satisfaction, priorities, and concerns as they relate to services and facilities provided by the City. Ultimately, the survey results and analyses presented in this report provide City Council and staff with information that can be used to make sound, strategic decisions in a variety of areas including service improvements and enhance-ments, measuring and tracking internal performance, budgeting, policymaking, and planning.

To assist in this effort, the City selected True North Research to design the research plan and conduct the study. Broadly defined, the study was designed to:

• Gauge residents’ perceptions of the quality of life in Thousand Oaks.

• Measure residents’ overall satisfaction with the City’s efforts to provide municipal services, and their satisfaction with a variety of specific services.

• Gather opinions on specific topics of interest for 2023, including diversity, equity, and inclu-sion, the Civic Arts Plaza Master Plan, and future spending priorities.

• Profile the effectiveness of the City’s communication with residents.

• Collect additional background and demographic data that is relevant to understanding resi-dents’ perceptions, needs, and interests.

1. Source: California Department of Finance estimate for January 2022.

2. Fire prevention services are provided by the Ventura County Fire Protection District.

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This is not the first statistically reliable ‘resident satisfaction’ survey conducted for the City— similar studies have been implemented in prior years dating back to 1989, with the most recent being completed by True North in 2009, 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2020. Because of the natural interest in tracking the City’s performance in meeting the evolving needs of its residents, where appropriate the results of the current study are compared with the results of identical questions included in previous studies.

STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE Many figures and tables in this report present the results of questions asked in the current study alongside the results found in prior surveys for identical questions. In such cases, True North conducted the appropriate tests of statistical significance to identify changes that likely reflect actual changes in public opinion between the most recent prior survey (2020) and the current (2023)—as opposed to being due to chance associated with selecting two samples independently and at random. Differences between the two studies are identified as statistically significant if we can be 95% confident that the differences reflect an actual change in public opinion between the two studies. Statistically significant differences within response categories over time are denoted by the † symbol which appears in the figure next to the appropriate response value for 2023.

OVERVIEW OF METHODOLOGY Although a full description of the methodology used for this study is included later in this report (see Methodology on page 46), it is important at the outset to note that the study proceeded in two phases.

Phase 1 In the first phase, households were selected at random from the City of Thousand Oaks using a comprehensive database of residential addresses. Among these sampled house-holds, the study employed a combination of mailed invitations, emailed invitations, text invita-tions, and phone calls to recruit participation in the survey from 1,765 residents during the data collection period, which lasted from January 7 to January 23, 2023. Respondents were provided the option to participate in the survey by telephone or online at a secure website hosted by True North. These interviews constitute the Main sample as they represent a statistically reliable, rep-resentative cross-section of the adult population in Thousand Oaks. The results discussed in the body of this report and the crosstabulations in Appendix A are based on the Main sample.

Phase 2 To accommodate the City's interest in allowing all residents the opportunity to partici-pate in the study—not just those selected at random for the Main sample—the second phase of the study will make an identical, but separate, survey available to interested residents. All house-holds in the City will be mailed a postcard inviting them to participate in the survey online at a secure website. The postcards will include two unique personal identification numbers for each household, thereby preventing non-residents from accessing the online survey and preventing resident households from participating more than twice. Surveys collected in this second phase of the study will constitute the Supplemental sample.

The Supplemental sample will represent a non-random group of interested residents, and will not necessarily be representative of the City’s adult population. For this reason, the results for the Supplemental sample will be analyzed separately and presented in a separate set of crosstab-ulations. The question-by-question analysis, key findings, and conclusions of this report are based on the Main sample findings only—not the Supplemental sample.

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ORGANIZATION OF REPORT This report is designed to meet the needs of readers who prefer a summary of the findings as well as those who are interested in the details of the results.

For those who seek an overview of the findings, the section titled Key Findings is for you. It pro-vides a summary of the most important factual findings of the survey and a discussion of their implications. For the interested reader, this section is followed by a more detailed question-by-question discussion of the results from the survey by topic area (see Table of Contents), as well as a description of the methodology employed for collecting and analyzing the data. And, for the truly ambitious reader, the questionnaire is contained at the back of this report (see Question-naire & Toplines on page 49) and a complete set of crosstabulations for the Main survey results is contained in Appendix A.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS True North thanks the City Council for having the foresight and the interest in conducting this survey, as well as staff at the City of Thousand Oaks who contrib-uted valuable input during the design stage of this study. Staff’s collective experience, local knowledge, and insight improved the overall quality of the research presented here.

DISCLAIMER The statements and conclusions in this report are those of the authors (Dr. Timothy McLarney and Richard Sarles) at True North Research, Inc. and not those of the City of Thousand Oaks, its City Council, or staff. Any errors and omissions are the responsibility of the authors.

ABOUT TRUE NORTH Founded in 2002, True North is a full-service survey research firm that is dedicated to providing public agencies with a clear understanding of the values, percep-tions, priorities, and concerns of their residents and customers. Through designing and imple-menting scientific surveys, focus groups, and one-on-one interviews, as well as expert interpretation of the findings, True North helps its clients to move with confidence when making strategic decisions in a variety of areas—such as planning, policy evaluation, performance man-agement, organizational development, establishing fiscal priorities, and developing effective public information campaigns.

During their careers, Dr. McLarney (President) and Mr. Sarles (Principal Researcher) have designed and conducted over 1,200 survey research studies for public agencies, including more than 500 studies for California municipalities and special districts.

Key Findings

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K E Y F I N D I N G S

As noted in the Introduction, this study was designed to provide the City of Thousand Oaks with a statistically reliable understanding of the opinions, priorities, and concerns of its residents.

Operating from the philosophy that you can’t manage what you don’t measure, since 2009 Thousand Oaks has periodically used the survey as a community needs assessment and perfor-mance measurement tool. In short, the study presents an opportunity to profile residents’ needs and priorities, measure how well the City is performing in meeting these needs through existing services and facilities, and gather data on a variety of quality-of-life, issue, and policy-related matters. More than just a profiling exercise, the City uses the information gained from the sur-veys to adjust and improve its services—all toward the goal of building and sustaining a high level of community satisfaction.

Whereas subsequent sections of this report are devoted to conveying the detailed results of the survey, in this section we attempt to ‘see the forest through the trees’ and note how the collec-tive results of the survey answer the key questions that motivated the research.

Have residents’ opin-ions been impacted by the pandemic?

The three years leading up to the 2023 Community Opinion Survey were punctuated by difficult and dramatic events in Thousand Oaks. The coro-navirus pandemic that arrived in early 2020 has taken lives, threatened livelihoods, and forced dramatic changes in the way residents live, work, socialize, and play. Non-essential businesses were shuttered for weeks or months at a time to curb the spread of COVID-19, and the City’s oper-ations were also adjusted to protect public health and adhere to State guidelines. Services that could be effectively moved to an online format were able to continue in that form, whereas other programs and services were modified, curtailed, or canceled to protect the safety of the public and city employees. Many city facilities were also closed for portions of the pandemic to prevent the spread of COVID-19, including City Hall.

Of course, the pandemic was not the only challenge during this period.

The killing of George Floyd in May 2020 during an arrest in Minneapolis sparked outrage, prompted thousands of protests across the nation, and prompted a national discussion about structural racism and calls for social justice reforms. On the economic front, inflation reached a 40-year high last year, supply chain issues persist, and both the cost of housing and the cost of borrowing for a mortgage trended sharply upward. Envi-ronmental factors have also conspired to make this a difficult period, as severe drought, heat waves, and wild fires impact many aspects of our lives, such as the cost of utilities, the availability and cost of home insur-ance, and the quality of the air we breathe.

The events of the past three years form the backdrop necessary for understanding and interpreting the results of the 2023 Community Opin-ion Survey. Although the vast majority of Thousand Oaks residents con-tinue to have positive opinions of the overall quality of life in the City and are satisfied with the City’s overall performance in providing munici-

True North Research, Inc. © 2023 5City of Thousand Oaks pal services, many of the metrics tracked in the survey were understand-ably lower in 2023 when compared to the 2020 survey which was conducted just two months after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic. At that time, few residents anticipated (or had experienced) the full scope and depth of the pandemic’s impacts on daily life, the economy, and the City’s operations.

How do residents view the quality of life in Thousand Oaks?

More than nine-in-ten residents shared positive views of the quality of life in Thousand Oaks, with 39% describing it as excellent and 52% rating it as good. Just 8% of respondents used fair, poor, or very poor to describe the quality of life in the City. Although there was a shift in the intensity of ratings, the percentage of residents providing a positive rat-ing remained statistically consistent from 2020 to 2023. Positive assess-ments of the quality of life in Thousand Oaks were also widespread, with at least eight-in-ten respondents in every identified subgroup providing a rating of excellent or good.

Perhaps the most telling sentiment change from the last survey was the question that asked respondents who have lived in Thousand Oaks for at least five years to assess whether the quality of life in Thousand Oaks has improved, stayed about the same, or gotten worse. Forty-five per-cent of residents (45%) perceived little or no change in the quality of life in Thousand Oaks over the past five years, offering that it is about the same now as it was in the past. Among those who did perceive a change during this period, 13% said that the quality of life has improved in Thou-sand Oaks, while 41% indicated that it had declined over the past five years. There were statistically significant changes within every response category for this question between 2020 and 2023, with significant declines in the percentage who felt the quality of life had either increased or stayed about the same over the past five years and a signif-icant increase in the percentage who perceived that it had gotten worse.

It is worth noting that this change also correlates with an increase in res-ident concerns related to homelessness, public safety, and availability of affordable housing. It will be of particular interest to see how this metric tracks in future surveys as the pandemic and it impacts stretch further behind us.

How well is the City per-forming in meeting the needs of residents?

Against the turbulent backdrop described in Have residents’ opinions been impacted by the pandemic? on page 4, it isn’t surprising that resi-dents’ opinions about the City’s performance in providing municipal ser-vices dipped from 2020. What is surprising is how modest the magnitude of change in opinions was (8%) considering the challenging circumstances and that the City had to reinvent how it provides many services during this period. Overall, 80% of Thousand Oaks residents indicated they were either very (32%) or somewhat (48%) satisfied with the City’s performance in 2023, while 12% reported being very or some-what dissatisfied with the City’s performance and 7% were unsure or

True North Research, Inc. © 2023 6City of Thousand Oaks unwilling to share their opinion. At the subgroup level, once again the most striking pattern was the consistency of the results and the fact that more than three-quarters of respondents in every subgroup indicated they were generally satisfied with the City’s performance in providing municipal services.

The strong level of satisfaction expressed with the City’s performance in general was also mirrored in residents’ assessments of the City’s perfor-mance in providing most specific services, with the highest satisfaction scores assigned to the City’s efforts to provide fire protection and emer-gency medical services (95% very or somewhat satisfied), provide library services (95%), maintain park areas (92%), maintain public landscape areas (89%), and protect oaks and landmark trees (88%). For 15 of the 20 services tested, the City is meeting the needs of at least three-quarters of its residents—and for the majority of services the City is meeting the needs of more than 80% of residents.

Contributing to the positive ratings the City receives for specific service areas is the day-to-day customer service provided by city staff. Indeed, staff at the City of Thousand Oaks are often the “face” of the City for res-idents who are using city facilities, participating in various programs or events, or in need of assistance from the City on any number of matters.

Close to three-in-ten (29% of) respondents indicated that they had con-tacted Thousand Oaks staff at least once during the 12 months prior to the interview (which is consistent with 2020), and at least 87% of resi-dents indicated that staff members were very or somewhat professional (93%), accessible (89%), and helpful (87%).

With regard to local governance, the City was rated highest for its perfor-mance in providing access to information (56% excellent or good among those with an opinion), followed by being responsive to residents and businesses (53%), engaging with residents to get their feedback (52%), managing development and effectively planning for the future (48%), working through critical issues facing the City (47%), and spending tax dollars wisely (45%). Positive assessments trended downward across this question series from 2020 to 2023.

Where should the City focus its efforts in the future?

In addition to measuring the City’s current performance, a key goal of this study is to look forward and identify opportunities to adjust ser-vices, improve facilities, and/or refine communications strategies to best meet the community’s evolving needs and expectations. Although resi-dent satisfaction in Thousand Oaks is strong (see above), there is always room for improvement. Below we note some of the areas that present the best opportunities in this regard.

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Considering respondents’ verbatim answers regarding what they feel city government could do to make Thousand Oaks a better place to live (see Ways to Improve Quality of Life on page 15), the list of services and their respective priority status for future city attention (see Performance, Needs & Priorities on page 22), and how residents prioritize specific proj-ects and services for future funding (see Spending Priorities on page 35), the top priorities for residents are providing housing and shelter for the homeless, facilitating development of affordable housing, managing growth and development/protecting open space, managing traffic con-gestion in the City, promoting economic development, and maintaining funding for fire protection and police services. Although many of these priorities are similar to those identified in past studies, addressing homelessness and facilitating affordable housing have risen in impor-tance in recent years.

With the recommendation that the City focus on these areas, it is equally important to stress that when it comes to improving satisfaction in ser-vice areas, the appropriate strategy is often a combination of better com-munication and actual service improvements. It may be, for example, that many residents are simply not aware of the City’s ongoing infra-structure improvement efforts, or the limits of what a city can do to address homelessness. Choosing the appropriate balance of actual ser-vice improvements and efforts to raise awareness on these matters will be a key to maintaining and improving the community’s overall satisfac-tion in the short- and long-term.

It is also important to keep in mind that although these areas represent opportunities to improve resident satisfaction, the City should not over-steer. Indeed, the main takeaway from this study is that the City does many things very well, and emphasis should be on continuing to perform at that high level. The vast majority of residents are pleased with the City’s efforts to provide services and programs, and have a favorable opinion of the City’s performance in most areas. The top priority for the City should thus be to do what it takes to maintain the high quality of services that it currently provides.

What are residents’ opinions on diversity, equity, and inclusion in Thousand Oaks?

One of the cornerstones of an egalitarian community is that all members have comparable access to basic services and amenities, including edu-cation, healthcare, healthy foods, employment opportunities, and social services. Accordingly, one of the objectives of this survey was to profile Thousand Oaks residents’ access to essential items, services, and ameni-ties and gather opinions on the topics of diversity, equity, and inclusion and how they may apply to Thousand Oaks.

When asked if their household has a need for any services, items, or amenities that they have difficulty obtaining, 18% of respondents answered in the affirmative, with those generally dissatisfied with the

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City’s overall performance in providing municipal services being the most likely to report difficulty. Residents who have lived in Thousand Oaks for 10 to 14 years, those 25 to 64 years of age, Latino/Hispanic residents, those who identified their ethnicity as other/mixed, and female respondents were also more likely than their subgroup counter-parts to encounter difficulties accessing needed services, items, or ame-nities. The most commonly mentioned items that Thousand Oaks residents reported having difficulty accessing or obtaining were waste collection and recycling services (15%), affordable housing (11%), and water (10%).

From an attitudinal perspective, more than three-quarters of Thousand Oaks residents agreed that Diversity makes our community stronger (80% strongly or somewhat agree), My neighbors look out for me (78%), and the City and Conejo Recreation and Park District-sponsored events and activities help residents feel and stay connected (77%), while just over two-thirds agreed that There is a sense of community in Thousand Oaks, and I am part of it (68%).

A majority of residents agreed that The community of Thousand Oaks welcomes people with diverse backgrounds and perspectives (60%) and The City of Thousand Oaks is inclusive in its approach to governing. The City wants to hear from all individuals and groups (54%). Although a majority of residents also agreed that I have been invited to participate in community events and causes in Thousand Oaks (54%) and The com-munity treats all residents the same regardless of their color, income, age or identity (53%), it is worth noting that more than three-in-ten dis-agreed with these statements (as opposed to being unsure).

When compared to the other statements tested, fewer residents agreed that All neighborhoods receive the same quality of services from the City (44%).

Three subgroups—African-American respondents, renters, and those generally dissatisfied with the City’s efforts to provide municipal ser-vices—expressed the least positive attitudes for most of the statements tested. Meanwhile, older adults (65+) and retirees expressed higher than average positive views for the majority of the diversity, equity, and inclu-sion statements.

What do residents view as priorities for the Civic Arts Master Plan?

The City of Thousand Oaks recently adopted a Downtown Core Master Plan to shape the vision for a new Downtown for the City, with the Civic Arts Plaza at its core. In addition to improving the theaters in the Civic Arts Plaza as part of the Master Plan, there will be space available for dif-ferent types of amenities and establishments that people can visit before and after events. When asked about various items that could be included in the updated Civic Arts Plaza, restaurants was viewed as the highest

True North Research, Inc. © 2023 9City of Thousand Oaks priority (85% high or medium priority), followed by live outdoor perfor-mances (82%), and art galleries and exhibits (70%).

Residents were also informed that as part of the Master Plan, the new Main Street and Town Square will include a flexible space for community events and activities. Among the events tested, having a Farmer’s Market received the highest level of household interest (89% very or somewhat interested), followed by pop-up performances and exhibits (73%), public art (68%), and family movies (57%). At the other end of the spectrum, less than half of households expressed interest in attending outdoor yoga (38%) and car shows (43%).

How well is the City com-municating with resi-dents?

The importance of city communication with residents cannot be over-stated. Much of a city’s success is shaped by the quality of information that is exchanged in both directions, from the City to the community and from the community to the City. This study is just one example of Thou-sand Oaks’s efforts to enhance the information flow to the City to better understand the community’s concerns, perceptions, and needs. Some of Thousand Oaks’s many efforts to communicate with its residents include its newsletters, timely press releases, website, various social media accounts, and live cablecast and replays of Council Meetings on Thou-sand Oaks TV and the City’s CTO Meetings Youtube channel.

Keeping up with the challenge of communicating with residents has been difficult for many public agencies in recent years. As the number of information sources and channels available to the public have dramati-cally increased, so too has the diversity in where residents regularly turn for their information. Not only have entirely new channels arisen to become mainstream and nearly ubiquitous (e.g., social media), within these channels there exists a proliferation of alternative services. To add to the challenge, resident preferences for information sources are also dynamic, subject to change as new services are made available while oth-ers may fade in popularity, making thorough, effective communication a moving target for public agencies.

The present survey provides mixed-news with respect to city-resident communication. On the positive side, city-sponsored sources were well-represented among the sources respondents mentioned when asked where they turn to find out about City of Thousand Oaks news, services, programs, and events. Indeed, the City’s website and email notifications from the City were within the top five sources. In True North’s experi-ence, a high level of satisfaction with a city’s communication efforts is generally associated with and likely caused by a greater reliance among residents on city-sponsored sources of information such as newsletters, websites, and related publications.

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The above notwithstanding, the study did find a significant percentage of respondents who were either unsure (14%) or dissatisfied (23%) when asked about their satisfaction with the City’s efforts to communicate with residents through newsletters, the Internet, social media, and other means. The percentage who reported being satisfied with the City’s efforts to communicate with them (63% very or somewhat satisfied) also decreased significantly when compared to 2020 (72%), in the early stages of the pandemic. The relationship between city-resident commu-nication and perceptions of the City’s overall performance in providing municipal services was also pronounced, with those satisfied with the City’s communication efforts also being much more likely than their counterparts to be satisfied with the City’s overall performance in pro-viding municipal services.

Q uality of Life

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Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E

The opening series of questions in the survey was designed to assess residents’ perceptions of the quality of life in Thousand Oaks, as well as what city government could do to improve the quality of life in the City, now and in the future.

OVERALL QUALITY OF LIFE At the outset of the interview, respondents were asked to rate the quality of life in the City using a five-point scale of excellent, good, fair, poor, or very poor. As shown in Figure 1 below, nine-in-ten residents (92%) in 2023 shared favorable opinions of the quality of life in Thousand Oaks, with 39% reporting it is excellent and 52% stating it is good. Just 8% of respondents used fair, poor, or very poor to describe the quality of life in the City. When compared with 2020, the percentage of residents providing a positive rating (excel-lent or good) remained statistically consistent. There was a shift in the intensity of ratings from 2020 to 2023, however, with a statistically significant decline in excellent ratings (-15%) and an increase in the percentage who rated the overall quality in Thousand Oaks of life as good (+13%).

Question 2 How would you rate the overall quality of life in Thousand Oaks? Would you say it is excellent, good, fair, poor or very poor?

FIGURE 1 QUALITY OF LIFE BY STUDY YEAR

† Statistically significant change (p < 0.05) between the 2020 and 2023 studies.

For the interested reader, figures 2 through 4 on the next page show how ratings of the quality of life in the City varied by length of residence, employment status, age, presence of a child in the household, home ownership status, ethnicity, and gender. As shown in the figures, there was a high degree of consistency across subgroups, with at least 83% of respondents in every sub-group rating the quality of life in Thousand Oaks as either excellent or good. Examining the intensity of ratings, the age subgroups showed the most variation in excellent ratings, ranging from 29% among those 18 to 24 years old to 51% for those 65 years and older.

54.1 56.7

64.5 61.1 66.2

39.6 39.0

31.4 35.8 31.2

7.2 5.3 4.1 2.9 2.5 1.7

39.2†

52.4†

2023 2020 2017 2015 2013 2009

Study Year

R es p o n d en ts

Not sure/Prefer not to answer

Very poor

Poor

Fair

Good

Excellent

True North Research, Inc. © 2023 12City of Thousand Oaks

FIGURE 2 QUALITY OF LIFE BY YEARS IN THOUSAND OAKS & EMPLOYMENT STATUS

FIGURE 3 QUALITY OF LIFE BY AGE, CHILD IN HOME & HOME OWNERSHIP

FIGURE 4 QUALITY OF LIFE BY ETHNICITY & GENDER

37.5 37.8

43.9 48.7

29.8

54.9 45.0

51.7 45.9

57.8

39.033.1 41.1

Excellent 41.7

53.2 56.2

51.9 Good 51.1

Less than 5 5 to 9 10 to 14 15 or more Full time Part time Self-employed

Retired Other

Years in Thousand Oaks (Q1) Employment Status (QD5)

R es p o n d en ts

41.2 51.4

40.7 40.1 43.2 32.0

52.3 44.7

49.8 52.5 49.5 58.2

Excellent 28.6

31.1 42.5

34.3

Good 56.2

54.9 48.3

60.6

18 to 24 25 to 34 35 to 44 45 to 54 55 to 64 65 or older

Yes No Own Rent

Age (QD1) Child in Hsld (QD3) Home Ownership Status (QD4)

R es p o n d en ts

37.1 42.1 40.0

49.8

50.5 51.9

Excellent

39.4 35.2

43.5 40.3

Good 50.1

53.849.8 57.1

Latino / Hispanic

Asian American Caucasian / White

African American /

Black

Other / Mixed Male Female

Ethnicity (QD8) Gender (QD2)

R es p o n d en ts

True North Research, Inc. © 2023 13City of Thousand Oaks

Having measured their perceptions of the general quality of life in Thousand Oaks as it is today (Question 2), the surveyed next asked respondents about perceived trends in the quality of life in the City over the past five years.3 Forty-five percent of residents (45%) perceived little or no change in the quality of life in Thousand Oaks over the past five years, offering that it is about the same now as it was in the past (Figure 5). Among those who did perceive a change during this period, 13% said that the quality of life has improved in Thousand Oaks and 41% indicated that it had declined over the past five years. There were statistically significant changes within every response category for this question between 2020 and 2023. Overall, there were signifi-cant declines in the percentage who felt the quality of life had either increased or stayed about the same over the past five years and an increase in the percentage who perceived that it had gotten worse.

Question 3 Over the past five years, would you say that the quality of life in Thousand Oaks has improved, stayed about the same, or gotten worse?

FIGURE 5 QUALITY OF LIFE IN PAST FIVE YEARS BY STUDY YEAR

† Statistically significant change (p < 0.05) between the 2020 and 2023 studies.

For the interested reader, figures 6 to 8 display how perceived trends in the quality of life in Thousand Oaks varied across resident subgroups. When compared with their respective counter-parts, those who have lived in Thousand Oaks at least 15 years, residents 45 to 64 years of age, home owners, and those who identified their ethnicity as other or mixed were the most likely to perceive a negative trend in the quality of life in the City. Notably, there were strong, linear rela-tionships in the negative trend by length of residence and age, with negative ratings climbing as length of residence increased and age increased between 18 to 64 years of age. Interestingly, there was a sharp drop in negative ratings among those 65 years and older, with the majority of seniors indicating that the quality of life had stayed about the same over the past five years.

Additionally, residents 18 to 24 years of age and African Americans were the most likely to feel the quality of life had improved.

3. Only respondents who indicated that they had lived in the City at least five years received Question 3.

4.4 4.3 5.1 5.3

14.9 14.2 18.3

8.9

53.1 54.8 52.8

62.5

23.7 23.4 18.3 19.7

3.7 2.6 4.0 3.4

2.5†

10.9†

44.7†

32.8†

7.8†

2023 2020 2017 2015 2013

Study Year

R es p o n d en ts

Not sure

Much worse

Somewhat worse

About the same

Somewhat improved

Much improved

True North Research, Inc. © 2023 14City of Thousand Oaks

FIGURE 6 QUALITY OF LIFE IN PAST FIVE YEARS BY YEARS IN THOUSAND OAKS & EMPLOYMENT STATUS

FIGURE 7 QUALITY OF LIFE IN PAST FIVE YEARS BY AGE, CHILD IN HOME & HOME OWNERSHIP STATUS

FIGURE 8 QUALITY OF LIFE IN PAST FIVE YEARS BY ETHNICITY & GENDER

13 13

13 12

5 to 9 10 to 14 15 or more Full time Part time Self-employed

Retired Other

Years in Thousand Oaks (Q1) Employment Status (QD5)

R es p o n d en ts W h o H av e

R es id ed i n

C it y Fo r at

L ea st

Y ea rs

Better Worse

15 16

13 13

18 to 24 25 to 34 35 to 44 45 to 54 55 to 64 65 or older

Yes No Own Rent

Age (QD1) Child in Hsld (QD3) Home Ownership Status (QD4)

R es p o n d en ts W h o H av e

R es id ed i n

C it y Fo r at

L ea st

Y ea rs

Better Worse

13 11

Latino / Hispanic

Asian American Caucasian / White

African American /

Black

Other / Mixed Male Female

Ethnicity (QD8) Gender (QD2)

R es p o n d en ts W h o H av e

R es id ed i n

C it y Fo r at

L ea st

Y ea rs

Better Worse

True North Research, Inc. © 2023 15City of Thousand Oaks

WAYS TO IMPROVE QUALITY OF LIFE Respondents were next asked to indicate one thing the City could change to make Thousand Oaks a better place to live, now and in the future.

This question was asked in an open-ended manner, which allowed respondents to mention any improvement that came to mind without being prompted by or restricted to a particular list of options. True North later reviewed the verbatim responses and grouped them into the categories shown in Figure 9.

Question 4 If the city government could change one thing to make Thousand Oaks a better place to live now and in the future, what change would you like to see?

FIGURE 9 CHANGES TO IMPROVE THOUSAND OAKS

Overall, the most common specific responses to this question were addressing homeless issues (20%), limiting growth/preserving open space (13%), providing more affordable housing (12%), improving public safety (7%), increasing recreational facilities/programs (6%), and providing more dining and shopping opportunities (6%). Responses of not sure/cannot think of anything and no changes needed/everything is fine collectively accounted for 18% of all responses. Both of these responses are indicative of a respondent who does not perceive any pressing issues or problems in the City that can be addressed by local government.

Table 1 provides the top five responses to Question 4 by study year. Overall, there has been a fair amount of movement during the past three years in terms of the types of changes residents think are most needed to improve the quality of life in the City. Addressing homeless issues increased in saliency to top the list in 2023 and providing more affordable housing and improv-

19.7 12.7

12.1 11.5

7.0 6.4 6.2

5.7 4.1

3.6 3.5

3.2 3.2

2.7 2.7 2.6 2.5

2.2 1.9 1.8 1.7 1.6

1.4 1.3 1.1 1.0

3.4

3.9

1.6

0 5 10 15 20

Address homeless issues Limit growth, preserve open spaces

Provide more affordable housing Not sure / Cannot think of anything specific

Improve public safety No changes needed / Everything is fine Increase recreational facilities, programs

Provide more dining, shopping opportunities Reduce traffic congestion

Address water issues, conservation Improve, maintain streets, roads

Provide more bike lanes, walking paths Improve public transportation Address trash services issues

Beautify city, landscaping Improve, provide walkable downtown area

Provide more police Improve traffic light synchronization

Engage in economic development Improve schools, education

Improve environmental efforts Improve diversity efforts

Reduce cost of living City Council change, improvement

Enforce traffic laws Enforce City codes

Improve communication, outreach efforts Improve economy, job

Improve parking

% Respondents

True North Research, Inc. © 2023 16City of Thousand Oaks ing public safety both rose to top-five status for the first time this year. Responses of not sure/ cannot think of anything dropped from second place in 2020 to fourth place in 2023, and no changes needed/everything is fine dropped off the list for the first time in 2023.

TABLE 1 CHANGES TO IMPROVE THOUSAND OAKS BY STUDY YEAR

2023 2020 2017 2015 2013 2009

Address homeless issues

Limit growth, preserve open spaces

Reduce traffic congestion

Not sure / Cannot think of anything

No changes / Everything is okay

No changes / Everything is okay

Limit growth, preserve open spaces

Not sure / Cannot think of anything

Not sure / Cannot think of anything

Reduce traffic congestion

Not sure / Cannot think of anything

Not sure / Cannot think of anything

Provide more affordable housing

No changes needed /

Everything is fine

Limit growth / preserve open spaces

Improve maintain street roads

Limit growth / Preserve open space

Limit growth / Preserve open space Not sure / Cannot think of anything specific

Address homeless issues

Engage in economic development

Limit growth / Preserve open space

Redevelop downtown areas

Redevelop downtown areas

Improve public safety

Increase recreational facilities, programs

No changes / Everything is okay

No changes / Everything is okay

Reduce traffic congestion

Reduce traffic congestion

Study Year

C ity Services

True North Research, Inc. © 2023 17City of Thousand Oaks

C I T Y S E R V I C E S

Having measured respondents’ perceptions of the quality of life in Thousand Oaks, the survey next turned to assessing their opinions about the City’s performance in providing various munic-ipal services.

OVERALL SATISFACTION The first question in this series asked respondents to indicate if, overall, they were satisfied or dissatisfied with the job the City is doing to provide municipal services. Because this question does not reference a specific program, facility, or service and requested that the respondent consider the City’s performance in general, the findings of this question may be regarded as an overall performance rating for the City.

As shown in Figure 10, eight-in-ten Thousand Oaks residents (80%) in 2023 indicated that they were satisfied with the City’s efforts to provide municipal services, with 32% stating that they were very satisfied. Approximately 12% of respondents indicated that they were dissatisfied with the City’s overall performance, and an additional 7% indicated that they were unsure or unwilling to share their opinion. From 2020 to 2023, there was a statistically significant decline in overall satisfaction (88% to 80%), driven by declines in the percentage very satisfied (-11%) and increases in the percentage somewhat dissatisfied (+3%) and not sure (+5%). After factoring out the ‘not sure’ responses from the comparison and isolating just those respondents with an opinion, the percentage satisfied was 4% lower in 2023 than 2020 (87% vs. 91%).

Question 5 Next, I would like to ask a series of questions about services provided by the City of Thousand Oaks. Generally speaking, are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the job the City of Thousand Oaks is doing to provide city services?

FIGURE 10 OVERALL SATISFACTION BY STUDY YEAR

† Statistically significant change (p < 0.05) between the 2020 and 2023 studies.

The figures on the next page show how ratings of the City’s overall performance in providing municipal services varied by subgroups of residents. Although there was some variation in opin-ions across subgroups—e.g., residents who have lived in the City less than five years were much more likely than long-time residents (10+ years) to indicate that they were very satisfied with the City’s performance—the most striking pattern in both figures is that the high levels of satisfac-

58.3†

44.4 46.0 37.8

30.1

7.1 6.7 5.8 6.4

2.8 3.0 4.2 2.4 4.4

53.350.1 43.043.4

32.1†

39.7

47.9

1.5

10.1†

1.07.4†

2023 2020 2017 2015 2013 2009

Study Year

R es p o n d en ts

Prefer not to answer

Not sure

Very dissatisfied

Somewhat dissatisfied

Somewhat satisfied

Very satisfied

True North Research, Inc. © 2023 18City of Thousand Oaks tion exhibited by respondents as a whole (see Figure 10) were also shared by all resident sub-groups. At least three-quarters of residents in every identified subgroup indicated that they were satisfied with the City’s overall performance in providing municipal services.

FIGURE 11 OVERALL SATISFACTION BY YEARS IN THOUSAND OAKS & EMPLOYMENT STATUS

FIGURE 12 OVERALL SATISFACTION BY AGE, CHILD IN HOME & HOME OWNERSHIP STATUS

FIGURE 13 OVERALL SATISFACTION BY ETHNICITY & GENDER

30.5

37.5 37.4 39.7

24.2

50.6

42.6 39.9

46.0

53.9

Very satisfied

48.1 33.6

24.3 27.9

Smwt satisfied

36.4 50.1

51.1

51.2

Less than 5 5 to 9 10 to 14 15 or more Full time Part time Self-employed

Retired Other

Years in Thousand Oaks (Q1) Employment Status (QD5)

R es p o n d en ts

31.1 42.7

30.7 34.9 34.0 32.2

48.2

43.8

50.7 46.6 48.1 46.5

26.1 32.931.9

Very satisfied

26.8

44.7 46.9 51.8

Smwt satisfied

55.4

18 to 24 25 to 34 35 to 44 45 to 54 55 to 64 65 or older

Yes No Own Rent

Age (QD1) Child in Hsld (QD3) Home Ownership Status (QD4)

R es p o n d en ts

28.1 33.2 34.4

51.2

51.0 45.1

Very satisfied