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Bettendorf officials report 77% resident satisfaction in semiannual Zen City survey
Summary
Community engagement manager Angie Sharp told the Committee of the Whole that 417 residents responded to the most recent Zen City survey; overall satisfaction was 77% (97% when neutral responses are combined). Officials highlighted strengths in safety, parks and cleanliness and noted areas for attention including transportation, jobs and housing.
Angie Sharp, Bettendorf’s community engagement manager, presented a year‑end review of the city’s outreach and the most recent Zen City community survey at the Committee of the Whole meeting on March 18, 2025. Sharp said 417 residents responded to the survey and the city’s overall satisfaction score was 77%; when combined with neutral responses, the score rises to 97%.
Sharp said the survey and the city’s analytics tools guide communications and program priorities. "Every six months or so, I give an overview of how Zen City is doing in helping our community engagement efforts," she said, outlining highlights from 2024 and early 2025 and noting the city conducted 66 communications campaigns last year.
The nut of the survey: residents rated safety, parks and recreational amenities, and overall cleanliness highest. The lowest positive scores were for ease of getting around by public transportation, availability of jobs that pay a living wage, and availability of affordable housing; Sharp noted the affordable‑housing positive score rose 13% versus the previous cycle. Other headline metrics Sharp gave the council: 986 submissions to the city’s speed‑spots map, 15,521 skaters at the new Landing ice rink in its first season, and a 50% growth in YouTube views to about 77,581.
Council members asked how the city follows up on negative comments and how to drill into ward‑level results. Sharp said Zen City provides open‑ended comment strings and a change‑matrix tool on each council member’s dashboard to see demographic and geospatial trends; she encouraged members to use the dashboards and offered to walk through the data one‑on‑one. She also said the city can create targeted Zen City projects at any time—an option officials said they will use while preparing for a possible police‑station referendum.
Sharp described how social media content supported city services and events in 2024: a snow‑plow video reached 31,508 Facebook accounts and drew 18,878 views on the city’s YouTube channel; the police Facebook page has recently shown double‑digit growth under staff management; and Alert Iowa lists grew 27% in 2024. She credited IT and police and fire staff for cross‑departmental work and said the citizen academy and other outreach programs are reopening for 2025.
Sharp closed by reminding the council that the full Zen City year‑end report, methodology and raw open‑ended responses are available to members on their dashboards and that staff will email the PowerPoint and a month‑by‑month social metrics spreadsheet. She said staff will continue to tailor communications using the survey and social listening tools.
Council members responded with praise for the communications work and followed with technical questions about using the Zen City tools for upcoming bond‑related outreach and localized concerns such as ward‑level satisfaction and traffic in the Bridal Road/roundabout area.
