2016/08/08 - Walter's Blog: What Do You Think About the City of O'Fallon?
August 8, 2016
What do you think about the City of O'Fallon? Do you think we are doing a good job? Do you feel safe in O’Fallon? Are you satisfied with the quality of life in O’Fallon? These are the kinds of questions included in our recent Citizen Survey.
Drawing on the results of the survey, the National Research Center provided these conclusions:
- O’Fallon residents enjoy a high quality of life.
- O’Fallon is a good place to live and raise a family.
- O’Fallon residents value and appreciate a high level of safety.
- Most City services were rated higher than in previous years and were either similar to or higher than benchmarks compared to other cities.
- O’Fallon residents support the overall direction of O’Fallon.
Overall, ratings for 2016 remained stable or increased compared to previous surveys. Of the 84 items for which comparisons were available, 50 items were rated similarly in 2011 and 2016, and 34 showed an increase in ratings.
Why do a survey in the first place? For one thing, it is difficult to know how citizens feel about City services. A small number of citizens attend public meetings, but they are normally issue-specific. We receive emails and phone calls from residents, but they are usually to complain about a service. We rarely hear from people who are satisfied with City services. Good reasons to survey include: to measure service performance, to assess community needs, and to evaluate potential policies or community characteristics.
We have conducted this survey five times since 2005. The National Research Center compares our survey results with the responses from more than 500 other cities that used the same survey. The advantage of using a national survey is we now have trend data comparing responses over time with other communities throughout the country. We also can compare responses internally through demographics and geographic location of the respondents. We feel it is critical to know what residents feel are priorities and their opinions of City services.
We presented the results of this year’s Citizen Survey at a recent Finance and Administration Committee meeting. In general, the survey results were very positive and showed that residents are pleased with City services and enjoy living in O’Fallon. I believe this is the result of strong leadership by Mayor Graham and the City Council and hard work by City employees to provide quality services to our residents.
Compared to our previous surveys, the results are very similar and indicate that citizens rate City services higher than in most other cities that have taken the survey. The complete survey reports are on the City’s web site.
For those who care about survey methodology, the survey was mailed to 1,500 randomly selected households, and we had an overall response rate of 30% (which is pretty good for a mail survey). The survey has a 95% confidence level, which means there is a 5% margin of error on the difference between the opinions of the survey respondents and the population as a whole.
Let’s get to the details:
- 81% are satisfied with the overall quality of City services.
- 91% are satisfied with the overall quality of life.
- 95% are satisfied with O’Fallon as a place to live.
- 94% would recommend living in O’Fallon to someone who asks.
- 96% believe O’Fallon is a good place to raise children.
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:
- 94% are pleased with the Police Department.
- 96% are pleased with EMS.
- 98% are pleased with the Fire Department.
- 93% are pleased with the Parks and Recreation Department.
- 86% are pleased with the O’Fallon Public Library.
Also as a part of the survey, we inserted some customized questions specific to the O’Fallon Strategic Plan. In particular, we wanted residents to rank the various goals that are listed in the Plan. The results indicate that residents are supportive of the goals and projects in the Strategic Plan but there is no consensus on how to pay for them.
Policy Question 1
Thinking about future population growth in O’Fallon, please indicate how important, if at all you see the following issues:
Service | Essential | Very Important |
|---|---|---|
Safety/crime prevention | 75% | 21% |
Maintaining existing infrastructure (streets & storm water) | 53% | 42% |
Quality of public schools | 70% | 25% |
Avoiding increases in property taxes | 61% | 29% |
Availability of employment/job growth | 37% | 49% |
Development of existing businesses and residential areas | 36% | 50% |
Preservation of downtown O’Fallon | 40% | 43% |
Quality of new development compared to other communities | 25% | 46% |
Attracting commercial development | 29% | 41% |
More parks, recreation opportunities, libraries and other amenities | 27% | 35% |
Attracting higher education | 26% | 27% |
Increase in available housing | 20% | 31% |
Policy Question 2
The Strategic Plan outlines key infrastructure needs as well as major initiatives meant to preserve home values, maintain high quality of life, and best leverage O’Fallon’s future growth. The following items represent goal areas of the Strategic Plan. Please indicate how much of a priority, if any, you think securing funding for each item should be in the next 5 years:
Issue | High Priority | Medium Priority | Not a Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
Long-term street maintenance program | 59% | 40% | 1% |
Long-term storm water maintenance program | 51% | 44% | 5% |
Employment opportunities | 53% | 41% | 5% |
Downtown O’Fallon redevelopment | 39% | 51% | 9% |
Retail/restaurant/commercial options | 40% | 51% | 9% |
Walkable community | 53% | 37% | 11% |
Community Rec/Life Center | 38% | 49% | 14% |
Parks amenities (parks, open space) | 43% | 42% | 16% |
World-class schools (college/university, partnerships with local schools) | 37% | 40% | 24% |
Neighborhood commercial/retail options | 24% | 51% | 25% |
Policy Question 3
Many of the projects in the Strategic Plan do not currently have a funding source. Please indicate how much you support or oppose the following options to fund these projects:
| Funding Options | Strongly Support | Somewhat Support | Somewhat Oppose | Strongly Oppose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Revenue enhancements through creating or raising user fees | 6% | 44% | 24% | 26% |
Revenue enhancements through raising sales tax | 8% | 35% | 35% | 33% |
Expenditure reductions from other City sources (such as cuts in service levels) | 7% | 34% | 36% | 23% |
Do not fund the projects listed in the Strategic Plan | 6% | 19% | 41% | 33% |
Revenue enhancements through raising property tax | 1% | 18% | 21% | 60% |
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. The survey results indicate 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. We will continue to work on the priorities listed in the Strategic Plan and look for creative methods to implement them.