A Weekly Note from Mayor Gary L. Graham
“Traditional Values, Progressive Thinking”
In the City’s continuing efforts to receive valuable input from our residents and to improve customer service, we recently participated in a national survey program that allows us to compare resident opinions on City services with more than 400 other cities that have taken the same survey.
The City Council and I always want to know what you think about our community and municipal government and this survey provided us with an accurate, affordable and easy way to assess and interpret our residents’ opinions about important community issues and City services.
The survey process occurred in April and May, 2007 with 1,200 randomly selected O’Fallon households. All survey responses were completely anonymous.
The survey results were overwhelmingly positive and showed that residents are pleased with City services and enjoy living in O’Fallon. We conducted the same survey in 2005, and nearly all responses in the 2007 survey are similar or better than in 2005. In addition, the results indicate that citizens rate City services higher than in most other cities that have taken the survey.
The findings include:
· 83% of respondents are pleased with the Overall Quality of Life
· 72% are pleased with Overall Quality of City Services
· 90% are pleased with O’Fallon as a place to live
· 77% have a positive overall impression of City employees
All of these areas are “above the norm” compared to results in other cities that have taken the survey. These are very good ratings and I am pleased that residents have such a high opinion of O’Fallon and city government.
Ratings also were high in specific service areas:
· 88% are pleased with the Police Department
· 91% are pleased with EMS
· 93% are pleased with the Fire Department
· 84% are pleased with the Parks and Recreation Department
· 86% are pleased with the O’Fallon Public Library
Other services received lower ratings but they are in areas that traditionally do not get high marks (such as code enforcement and street repair). However, our survey results still compared favorably to other cities.
We did receive some conflicting opinions in the survey. While 83% of respondents were please with O’Fallon’s quality of life, 72% were pleased with the overall quality of City services, and 90% were pleased with O’Fallon as a place to live, only 42% felt that they are getting good value for the City taxes they pay and 56% felt that taxes are a major problem.
What’s wrong with this picture? Residents who rated City services as “excellent” also felt they are not getting good value for their City taxes. The City of O'Fallon receives 11% of residents’ total property tax bill. For example, if your total tax bill is $2,000, the City’s portion is $220. That $220 pays for police services, snow removal services, street repairs, school crossing guards, school resource officers (sworn police officers), street lighting and many more services provided by the City.
I encourage residents to please take the time to look closely at your tax bill breakdown and review the portion that actually goes to the City of O’Fallon. While I, like you, would prefer to pay a zero amount of taxes to the City, those funds pay for critical services to you, our residents.
If residents feel they are not getting good value for their property taxes, then this is primarily a communication problem. The City of O'Fallon has reduced its property tax rate every year for the last eight years and gets most of its revenue from sales tax (49%).
Most of a resident’s property tax bill goes to the schools (64%). I have always, and continue to, actively support the schools. The troubling fact is that it appears many of our residents think that the City has control over school taxes, when we have absolutely none. The local school boards establish the tax levy for school taxes and the City has no role in that process.
Another factor in the analysis of the survey responses on the tax questions is that the surveys were mailed to households in April, which is the same time as the public meetings and publicity over the township multiplier. Perhaps residents were expressing their dissatisfaction with the total increase of their bill and not necessarily connecting it to any particular taxing body (city, schools, or otherwise).
The survey also contained some customized questions specific to O’Fallon. First, we asked whether residents would support a $3-$5 monthly fee to fund storm water improvements and 65% opposed or strongly opposed the fee. Similarly, we asked whether residents would support a $3-$5 monthly fee to establish a storm/disaster clean up fund and 64% opposed or strongly opposed.
We asked one open-ended question asking respondents the top three reasons why they live in O’Fallon. Here are the top five responses:
· Schools
· Proximity to St. Louis/Location
· Safety
· Sense of community
· Close to work
So what do we do with this information? First of all, it is helpful to know that O’Fallon residents are pleased with City services and enjoy living here. In that respect, we are doing something right and we need to continue to provide excellent services to our citizens. It also is helpful to know why people live in O’Fallon and we need to keep those things in mind when we are making decisions for O’Fallon’s future.
If your household was selected to participate in the survey, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to fill out the survey form. Your input is crucial as we plan for our present and future. The strong working relationship between City Hall and the residents we serve is another example of why O’Fallon is such a great community in which to live.
| 
