Firefighters Local 157 commissioned the survey by SoonerPoll.com after the city council scheduled an election on the firefighters' 2016-17 contract.
Based on his analysis, pollster Bill Shapard said it was his opinion Oklahoma City residents "like firefighters, think they're doing a good job, and think they're negotiating in good faith."
SoonerPoll.com received responses from 419 registered voters who were likely to vote in a special election. Special elections tend to draw little interest and few voters.
The city council agreed in August to ask voters to choose between the "last-best" offers made by negotiators for the city and firefighters.
The sides were at odds over the city's proposals to change the way overtime is calculated and shift dispatching duties from uniform firefighters to civilians.
Firefighters offered to accept less than other employees receive for health insurance and said their overall proposal would save taxpayers money, though the difference was slight.
Negotiators eventually reached a settlement and the election, set for Jan. 10, was canceled.
Among those responding to the poll, 97.8 percent said they had a somewhat favorable or very favorable opinion of firefighters.
Asked the same question about police officers, 94.7 percent said their opinion of police was somewhat or very favorable.
Of the city council as a whole, 58.2 percent said they had a somewhat favorable or very favorable opinion, and 25.3 percent said they didn't know or had no opinion.
Opinions about firefighters and police track well with results of community surveys conducted by the city that show high levels of satisfaction with fire and police services.
Those results are reflected in city council priorities, where public safety tops the list.
"Oklahoma City firefighters Local 157 is proud of the relationship we share with our citizens," said Scott Van Horn, the union local's president.
"Oklahoma City voters have shown they care about public safety and expect their elected officials to do what is necessary to ensure our citizens are safe," he said.
"Firefighters will never take our good relationship with the citizens for granted, and will always work to build on our mutual trust."
Poll detailed
SoonerPoll.com conducted the survey between Dec. 7 and Dec. 28.
The 419 respondents were selected at random from a population of likely Oklahoma City special election voters, Shapard said.
He said the poll was conducted at a 95 percent confidence level and carried a margin of error of 4.79 percentage points.
That means if the poll were conducted 100 times, 95 percent of the time responses to the questions would fall within plus or minus 4.79 percentage points of the findings, for each result.
Of the voters who responded:
• 53.8 percent said they were Republicans and 41 percent said they were Democrats.
• 37.8 percent characterized themselves as moderate and 43.2 percent said they were somewhat or very conservative; 16.7 percent said they were somewhat or very liberal.
• 77.4 percent were white and 14.9 percent were black; 0.6 percent were Hispanic.
• 30.6 percent said they were college graduates; 50.3 percent said they were age 65 and over.
• 44.3 percent said they attend religious services weekly and 12 percent said they go to church several times a week; 21 percent said they never go to church.
• 54.6 percent were women and 45.4 percent were men.
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