Since
the late 1970's, the City of Visalia has annually conducted some type of public
opinion survey to gauge public satisfaction with city services. Originally, it was conducted via mail-in,
followed by a phone survey, then in-person surveys. Starting in 2017, a combination of in-person
and online surveys were conducted, both in English and Spanish. Questions regarding Visalians' overall
satisfaction with city services, use of city facilities and ideas to make
Visalia better were included. The 2018
in-person survey was conducted on Saturday, April 7, 2018. The online survey was conducted via Survey
Monkey during the period from February 26 to April 13, 2018. The in-person survey was conducted by members
of our Citizen's Advisory Committee, members of the police VIP's program, and
city staff, with tables set up within each quadrant of the city at local
grocery stores. The results of the
survey were reported to the Visalia City Council at its council meeting on August
6, 2018. The information contained in
this article is derived from the staff report as well as from the Power Point
presentation at that time.
In
2018, 1,289 responses to the survey were received. 92% of those surveyed were registered voters,
74% owned their own home, 60% identified as Caucasian, 25% identified as
Hispanic, with the balance being from other ethnic groups.
42%
ranked Visalia's quality of life as high, 7% as very high, and 42% as
average. Interestingly, as reported salary
range increased, the respondents felt more and more satisfied that Visalia had
a high or very high quality of life. As
to Visalia's safety rating, 85% of the respondents felt that our city's efforts
in providing a safe community ranged from average to very high, and 66% rated
police service as good or excellent, a 10% increase from the prior year. As to fire services, 80% of those respondents
that have had fire contact rated fire services as good or excellent, which is
up 3% from the prior year.
Besides
police and fire safety, 39% of the respondents felt that the next most
essential services were road maintenance, 29% as to traffic signs and signals,
11% as to park maintenance and 10% as to recreation activities. 54% felt that bus services were good to
excellent, 63% felt that garbage and recycling collection was good to
excellent, and 52% felt that park maintenance was good to excellent. Similar high marks were received as to
recreational activities, the Convention Center, community services for seniors,
and services for disabled persons. 64%
of the respondents had attended events at the Convention Center in the last
year. Again, the higher the income
level, the more times respondents had attended events there. 79% of the respondents had attended a city
park in the last year, and 46% of the respondents had utilized city
trails. Additionally, 47% of the respondents
had attended at least one Rawhide game in the last year. As to the issue of homelessness, 50% rated
the city's response to the issue as average to excellent, while 41% of citizens
felt that Visalia could do a better job to address it. As to citizen's recommendations to address
the homeless issue, the top vote getter was the work program, which the city
has already implemented. Other ideas
included shelters, mental health services, relocation, and "don't know." The ultimate question was "What is the
most important thing that the city should be working on to make Visalia
better?" The top vote-getter was homelessness,
then gangs and safety and roads. Some
major takeaways were that crime, drugs, gangs, and safety were mentioned more
frequently than the prior year. Road
maintenance is still a concern in northern Visalia, but southern Visalia is
more focused on crime and litter.
Overall,
the results of this survey appear to show that most Visalians are pleased or at
least satisfied with the quality of life in our community. There is still much work to be done to
address the issues raised and discussed.
We thank the CAC, the VIP's, and all who volunteered to conduct this
survey. Rest assured that the council and
city staff will continue to strive to address these issues so that Visalia
continues to be a place where citizens feel safe and we have a high quality of
life.
If
you have questions or topics regarding the city which you would like to have
addressed in future articles, please email Warren at warren.gubler@visalia.city. For past articles, visit
directfromwarren.blogspot.com.
Mayor
Warren Gubler
