Community Needs Survey

My head's spinning again. Are we rich or are we poor?

In the May 6th, 2025, City Commission meeting, Estrop mentioned that he was required to read for the minutes the following (I paraphrased, trying to capture the highlights):

This is the Kickoff of a 5-year plan to engage the community in how they invest federal resources and support the vulnerable. In the coming months, they will be engaging lots of people to hear all voices. Committed to transparency and meaningful public involvement. This is barring any federal cuts. They received $11 million in federal funds to support community development opportunities (i.e., HOME investment program. Emergency Solutions Grant program, community-led planning program.)

How you can get involved:

May 6 - June 6 a Community Needs Survey is on their Facebook page and website.

Two Town Hall meetings: May 21st and June 14th. Open to the public. Discussion of what can be funded under each program. Evening and Saturday.

Public notices will be in News Sun and specifics will be online.

They want to create focus groups and one-on-ones with stakeholders. developers, and philanthropic organizations.

Then, on June 30th - They will post a draft of the Plan to allow public comment for 30 days. The City Commission legislates the final plan to HUD.

The problems, as I see them:

The City Commission or any part of the City government does not allow public interaction on its Facebook page. Forward together is the message, but they don't want the townsfolk communicating with each other. We might organize for a stronger voice?

1. The City Commission has been very transparent and brazen about how they spend money and want to spend money. They've branded and re-branded the city to latch onto federal funds, so the town has suffered with the lack of tangible investments in the "community" for years.

2. I don't think a City-led survey will produce fair or accurate results. This needs to be conducted by a third party and not one appointed by anyone involved at the City level. They've proven themselves to be untrustworthy, again, for years. This is the City government's voice being the only one heard or allowed to be heard. The town is corrupt, the Council is the mafia, and Heck is the fixer.

https://www.facebook.com/CityofSpringfieldOH

This is the City's announcement of their 2025 City Needs Survey. It's posted on their Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/CityofSpringfieldOH) that simultaneously blocks any interaction with the public. Their Facebook page has 19K followers, but the emojis on their posts rarely exceed 100.

My thoughts: I don't know how much more evidence is needed to show the Council members' hate for the citizens they "serve".

I haven't found the Survey on their website yet. Maybe it'll be in the Classifieds section in the News Sun? That's where Heck says public notices go, he "thinks". (He wasn't sure when asked at the May 6th Commission meeting.)

I did find a Facebook post about a survey they did in 2024. It had 8 emojis, no comments:

The City of Springfield is collecting feedback for its update to Part 11 zoning code of Codified Ordinances. The survey can be completed at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SpringfieldZoningUpdate, or by following the link below.

The survey will be open through Aug. 31.

I'm thinking of sending this into the Commission comment area of the website (It would be a first, so I have no idea if anyone even reads them.) But it's too emotional and I need to rest with it before sending:

"I don't need a response. Any reply would carry no weight or meaning for me.

The Community Needs Survey should be conducted and managed by a third party, independent of any city government official in Springfield.

That is the only way to have a fair, transparent, unbiased, unedited, and accurate representation of the citizens of the town, rather than being a reflection of a Council that not only doesn't represent us at all, but has only spoken hate about us locally and nationally.

In the May 6 Commission meeting, Estrop said a Survey Monkey survey would be published on the Facebook page, but you don't even allow public interaction on any online or social media site/page. You have made it clear that the City wants no information or data available to citizens. And you don't want the people communicating with each other about events, meetings, solutions, etc. And you certainly don't want anyone submitting opinions about the community's needs. Only <1,000 people, on average, even watch the City Council meetings. The citizens here have given up, because of one reason and one reason only: Bryan Heck. You all know it; we all know it.

Please make some effort to be honest. If not, the survey is meaningless, and yet another example of Heck's wasting our federal, state, and local money on things that make absolutely no sense.

Why would you even be doing an $11 million dollar (I can't believe I heard that right?), five-year survey now? Three of the Council members are about to get voted out (which I can only hope leads to Heck FINALLY losing his job. None of us can find anything he's done in just the past five years that hasn't been riddled with either failure or fraud.). Why would you not start an independent five-year plan in January 2026 as a fresh start effort to show you do want actual community engagement? That you don't hate the people you serve? Because currently, your behavior still demonstrates the polar opposite.

All that to say, please open up the online communications with the people you are paid and sworn to "serve" and rethink and re-market this Community Needs Survey in 2026 and have it conducted and managed independently. Voted on by the people, not appointed by Heck or anyone on the current Council.

If not, your message to the citizens that you hate so much remains crystal clear. (I do understand that you think you have had to vilify us for the federal welfare - even though the city has LOST money since the influx $$$.)"