Who is DPPA anyway? By Patty McNulty, DPPA board member Last summer, 24 DPPA members participated in a mail survey that was sent to all members. Here is a brief overview of how those members who responded viewed things involving City government during last summer's Mayoral campaign. In a way the survey tells us as much or more about DPPA than it does the Council. Our distribution among Council districts is interesting to note - Ed. A majority (41.7%) of respondents learn about City Council actions by reading the Duluth News Tribune. 20.8% watch meetings on PACT, while 16.7% get their Council updates from radio or television news coverage. Those who responded said they are most likely to attend a City Council meeting when an important issue is being discussed; 45.8%. Respondents were evenly split on how often they watch a council meeting with 20.8% who watch at least one time per month, 20.8% who never watch it, and 20.8% who watch when an important issue is being debated. The reason most often cited for not watching Council meetings was not having PACT available in their area, or not having cable television in their home. KUMD also carries the Council meetings, but 37.5% of our respondents never listen to meetings on KUMD. 29.2% listen when there is an important issue being debated, and 12.5% listen less than once a month. There didn't appear to be a great deal of interest in the Mayor's State of the City address. 58.3% of the respondents said they didn't attend and didn't watch it on television, while 16.7% said they watched it on television, and 8.3 said they attended the speech either "this year" (2003) or "last year" (2002). Overall, DPPA member respondents felt there were serious problems in the relationship between the City administration and the City Council. Former City Planner, Mike Conlan was named most often in areas where respondents were asked to explain where there were problems. Current administrations changes might have solved some of the problems noted by the respondents, since most of the complaints concerned the previous administration. 87.5% of the respondents felt the City Council was more responsive to community concerns than was the administration, so I will not detail the complaints about the administration, as they seem irrelevant at this time. DPPA respondents live in 4 of the City's 5 council district. Distribution was as follows: 41.7% in district 2 33.3% in district 3 12.5% in district 1 4.2% in district 4 8.3% weren't sure of their council district Overall, respondents felt the City Council's performance was acceptable, with 37.5% rating it "good", 33.3% rating it "excellent" and 8.3% rating it "fair". Only 16.7% felt the Council's performance was "poor" or "very poor. Our survey also asked about specific councillors, but since the make up of the council, and the administration has changed, it could be those impressions are no longer valid in any way. We also asked how members felt about DPPA involvement: where should we focus more involvement, and what areas would members like to see DPPA not be involved. Most of the respondents wanted DPPA to focus on open government and accountability and get involved in the comprehensive planning process. At the same time, there was a clear message that DPPA should avoid partisan issues, and get more active in open government and bringing more people to the process. These articles are retained on the web for historical interest and do not necessarily reflect the views or goals of DPPA today.

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