Checking in on community engagement.

• Position: Brief article

Recent data on American's perceptions of local government leaders from Cobalt Community Research shows opportunities for greater overall effectiveness. Consider the graph to the right, which rates residents' average satisfaction on several aspects of local leadership based on a scale of 0-100, with 100 being a perfect score.

As a basis for comparison, the IRS received an overall satisfaction score of 55, while credit unions and breweries scored 85 and 82, respectively. This relatively low level of citizen appreciation for local government has implications for the long-term health and sustainability of the communities they lead, Cobalt points out, as the graph (bottom right) illustrates.

Cobalt suggests two ways to manage citizen perceptions: 1) ask more, and 2) share more. Asking more questions can help a jurisdiction discover what direction the community wants...