It is survey season in Flagler, with three separate government agencies soliciting resident feedback on distinct tracks: the City of Palm Coast and Flagler County are gauging satisfaction with daily services and quality of life, while the county’s Tourism Development Office is looking for input to shape a 10-year plan for the region’s visitor economy.
The City of Palm Coast and Flagler County Government are conducting similar, coordinated community surveys via the National Research Center. This coordination allows data to be shared and analyzed community-wide, offering a comprehensive picture of resident priorities across jurisdictional lines. (Register here to be notified when this community-wide online survey option is available.)
Randomly selected households will receive invitations for the city and county surveys by mail over the next few weeks. A broader, community-wide version of these surveys will become available online at the end of February for those who do not receive a mailer.
“It will only take a few minutes to complete this survey which will help us align our planning initiatives with residents’ top priorities,” County Administrator Heidi Petito said of the county’s second take on the initiative. She noted the feedback plays a pivotal role in crafting policy for county-specific needs, including public libraries, growth management, and economic vitality.
Similarly, Palm Coast City Manager Mike McGlothlin emphasized that resident input is essential for the city’s strategic planning. “This survey gives us valuable insight into what we’re doing well, where we can improve, and how we can continue to maintain the quality of life our community values,” McGlothlin said.
The city has used the National Community Survey tool since 2002 to benchmark its performance regarding public safety, infrastructure, and mobility against similar communities nationwide, typically getting extremely high marks for public safety including policing, and for the city’s focus on parks, recreation, trails and natural resources. The curveys have just as typically drawn lower marks for transportation and the local economy. More information about the survey is available at here.
Simultaneously, the Palm Coast and the Flagler Beaches Tourism Development Office (TDO) is asking the public to look further ahead. The TDO is seeking input from residents and business owners to help develop a “Tourism Master Sustainability Plan.”
Partnering with Clarity of Place, an advisory firm specializing in visitor economies, the TDO intends to draft a comprehensive 10-year plan that protects the county’s character while managing tourism growth. Unlike the city and county’s phased rollouts, the tourism survey is open to the public immediately. The 10-minute digital questionnaire covers topics such as beaches, sports, eco-tourism, and the arts.
Residents can track the availability of the city’s survey at www.palmcoast.gov/about/community-survey. Residents can sign up to be notified when the county’s online survey opens at Polco. The tourism survey is currently available here.
Dusty says
One might arguably ask why? It is obvious from their actions that they do not give a damn what we think anyway. Start making things better in Flagler by voting for Santore.
Trudi says
Surveys such as these end up having only two purposes. The first is to make citizens FEEL as if they have any power to impact the direction our leaders will take next. They are also then available for those same leaders to use to justify, not determine, their future choices on behalf of their constituents.
A real survey to accomplish citizen’s needs, has to dig deeper, such as the one that Flagler Beach last used in 2000 to guide planning and leadership for the next 1-2 decades. It was similar in length to the one recently issued by the county, but its complexity was far greater and paid off with much more information as to how citizens really felt.
Yes, it began like most, with satisfaction ratings of all issues then facing the city. But every single question later had to be weighted: from least to most in “How Satisfactory” each topic/issue was, most to least in “Needs Improvement,” and possibly most helpful — most to least in Worth Extra Taxation.
Priority ratings force a survey taker to help their commission and/or other boards to understand where to put their best efforts and dollars. It is not simple, but an active and participatory citizenship appreciates the task and assigns seriousness to the effort. It is not a purely venting or “feel good” exercise.
One might think that a survey with that level of complexity might be an obstacle to participation, but instead the one that Flagler Beach did at the time, garnered an unusually high response rate which was accompanied by a high level of commentary, which was both thoughtful, and productively full of suggestions.
So, as most people may look at these long, and repetitive and multiple surveys, and possibly throw them on the pile of things to do later, which often becomes never, we should consider and encourage real citizen surveys. The very end of the county’s survey does start to touch on these valuations, so if cititzens are going to fill out the form, they should definitely focus their best efforts there.
This will only succeed though, if the leaders are committed to following the paths their citizens have urged them to pursue. That is what Flagler Beach did 25 years ago, and which produced a Vision Statement displayed in the City Chamber as a reminder of priorities for years to come.
Ray W. says
A news outlet called SimpleFlying reports that compared to the first six months of 2025, scheduled flights from Canada to Mexico for the first six months of 2026 are up another 46% and scheduled flights from Canada to the U.S. are down another 6%.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I continue to assert that if a government treats a foreign nation’s populace like shit, they tend to remember how they were treated.