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But now, the city government in the Capital City wants to know more about its residents, and more importantly, what they think about some hot button issues.

Its called the "Citizen Input Survey."

The 40-question form will be mailed this week to 2,000 Jefferson City registered voters, selected at random.

The survey will come in a red envelope and city officials say it takes about 15 minutes to fill out the form.

Jefferson City Mayor John Landwehr says it has been nearly 20 years since a written survey like this was distributed.

"We have a representative form of government and we have 10 fine city councilman and one mayor who are supposed to be representing the viewpoints of their constituents," says Landwehr.

"But from time to time its good to go right to the source."

Many of the questions hit on recent controversial issues: asking about developing the old Missouri State Penitentiary property, making Adrian's Island accessible, if the new trash/curbside recycling program should continue, and if the city lodging tax should be increased to fund a new conference center.

"Its a great opportunity for a person that's been here a short time or a person that's been here forever to step up and say, 'This is what I think about what the priorities should be in Jefferson City,'" says Ed Stroesser, President of Communique, the marketing company that created the survey.

The survey was not cheap. The Jefferson City Council budgeted $10,000 for the project.

"The council felt that that expenditure was well worth it," says Landwehr. 

"When these results come back its not something that we spend a half an hour looking at and then we put on the shelf. The results of this survey will be used by policy makers for years to come." 

One hot topic question that's not in the survey: the issue of a city-wide smoking ban.

Survey creators say they did not want survey receipients to confuse the survey with the "Smoke Free JC" group's citizen petition.

If you get a survey, you are asked to mail it back before the end of the month.

The results will be mailed directly to the survey creators, not to the city.

Officials hope that will encourage survey takers to open and honest.