Laboratory releases 2000 Community Leaders survey

Contact: Steve Sandoval, steves@lanl.gov, (505) 665-9206 (01025)

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LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Feb. 26, 2001 -- The Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory is a dominant economic force in Northern New Mexico, according to more than 80 percent of community leaders surveyed in Santa Fe, Los Alamos and Rio Arriba counties. And nearly 70 percent of those same leaders applauded the Laboratory's education programs.

The nonprofit Los Alamos Laboratory Foundation continues to draw high marks, with 88 percent of the respondents saying they know of the foundation's programs and efforts in local communities. And eight of 10 respondents on average said they were very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with the foundation.

However, the Laboratory, in the eyes of local community leaders, has to do a better job communicating with Native Americans and in the area of Laboratory partnerships with state government entities. Community leaders told the Albuquerque research firm that conducted the telephone survey last fall that the most important information they would like to receive from Los Alamos deals with community involvement, employment opportunities, and economic and environmental impacts.

"No matter what types of new programs or program improvements that [the Laboratory] decides to make now or in the future, it is essential that more is done to improve communication with community leaders," the report states.

The poll was conducted for Los Alamos by Research and Polling Inc. It is the third conducted for the Laboratory. Previous surveys were conducted in August 1999 and June 1998. Two hundred sixty-two leaders were identified as potential respondents to the survey by Los Alamos' Community Relations Office and 162 leaders took part in the telephone survey.

The survey was commissioned to measure the Laboratory's and University of California's perceived progress in responding to the needs of communities in Northern New Mexico, and to measure community leaders' awareness and satisfaction levels of specific Laboratory programs and activities.

Government, business, education, tribal, special interest groups and DOE community leaders participated in the survey.

"The community leader surveys were one of a number of so-called 'off-ramp' provisions of the Laboratory's contract with the university. However, even today after Los Alamos has already met the off-ramp requirements, we believe it is important that we continue seeking input from these leaders through additional surveys and by continuing to address all the off ramp areas in regional involvement," said Albert Jiron of the Community Relations Office.

"The surveys are a good faith effort on our part to work with community leaders, to respond to their concerns and to continue improving in those areas where leaders feel the Laboratory can do better," said Jiron. "We know community leaders are concerned about the Laboratory's regional involvement, where it makes its purchases and how it responds to educational needs in the local communities. We are committed to addressing these issues."

Some 84 percent of the leaders surveyed by Research and Polling Inc., said they were "very satisfied" or "somewhat satisfied" with the overall impact of the Laboratory on their community's economy.

"[The Laboratory's] biggest asset in the eyes of community leaders comes in the way of its economic impact on local communities. The vast majority of community leaders express satisfaction with [the Laboratory's] impact on the economy in their community," the report authors wrote.

However, the survey authors also noted that while the Laboratory and University of California listen to community concerns, they are lacking in follow up. Fifty-nine percent of the community leaders who responded said the Lab and university do follow up with community leaders in addressing concerns; this is down 1 percent from the 1999 survey.

Awareness by the community leaders of Los Alamos' not-for-profit foundation and the Laboratory's technology commercialization program remained high, the survey report noted.

Leaders also were asked to describe what they believe are the major issues they face in their communities. For the third straight year, economic issues, such as diversification, the lack of jobs and high housing costs were the most important issues community leaders said they face.

Santa Fe community leaders cited poor schools and water shortages as major issues, while issues related to last spring's Cerro Grande Fire topped the list of Los Alamos leaders. Community leaders in the Española Valley said lack of jobs and infrastructure/land use issues were the most important issues they must deal with.

The survey indicates that 60 percent of the community leaders have a favorable or somewhat favorable impression of the Laboratory. Eleven percent of the community-leader respondents, however, had an unfavorable impression of the Laboratory, which is consistent with last year's survey.

About half of the community leaders responding to the survey said the Laboratory is a good corporate citizen. But this was down from last year when 68 percent of respondents described Los Alamos as an "excellent" or "good" corporate citizen. However, only 8 percent of the respondents said "unacceptable" when asked to rate the Laboratory as a corporate citizen, which continued a downward trend from the first survey in 1998 when 21 percent said the Laboratory wasn't a good corporate citizen.

Jiron attributed the improvement to Los Alamos' increased presence in local communities and commitment to become involved in community activities.

One area showed a marked decline from previous surveys: 52 percent of respondents were either very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with the Laboratory and University of California's work in encouraging new businesses to relocate to Northern New Mexico. That was down 16 percent from last year.

"We are continuing to increase our outreach efforts and there have been successes," Jiron said. "What I think the latest survey results reflect is the need for the Laboratory to increase our communication efforts with community leaders.

"If we continue to meet with community leaders about what we're doing to bring new businesses to the area and solicit their input, I think we'll see improved results in future surveys."

Sixty-percent of community leaders responding said they are satisfied with the Laboratory's purchasing efforts in the region. This is down slightly from previous surveys.

In the area of education, 68 percent of community leaders responding said they were very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with Los Alamos' education programs. The figure is up from the first two surveys. And only 11 percent indicated they were somewhat dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with education programs.

The survey can be found at http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/cr/LANL_survey2000_.pdf online. (Adobe Acrobat Reader required)

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