More and more local governments in the United States appear to be sponsoring surveys of randomly selected samples of the community population. For the most part the surveys have been on a one-time basis for some special purpose (such as for transportation studies or for housing condition inventorying). Only rarely have such surveys been undertaken at periodic intervals with similar questions so that the effects of changes in policies and programs can be assessed and that time trends be identified. The research community, the federal government, national polling firms and some universities have ongoing, periodically repeated surveys such as the current population survey and health interview survey, which do obtain time series information on a variety of topics. Properly administered surveys conducted annually are a potentially very useful management tool for local governments. Why should a city or county government undertake surveys, particularly on a regular basis? The citizen survey has a very appealing characteristic. It is a means for obtaining citizen inputs into government programs and policies that is probably considerably more representative of the whole population than inputs from other sources (except, perhaps, elections) and without the volatility of information sometimes present in other approachcs.
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