Survey Says: City performing at high satisfaction level

Posted by Erin Eddy

By Kati O'Hare
Daily Press Writer
Published/Last Modified on Friday, November 21, 2008 4:16 AM MST

MONTROSE — City council members and staff were presented a first glance at the community's view of its services and performance Thursday evening.

Tom Miller of the National Research Center presented the council with results of the 2008 household survey conducted recently, during a council work session. The full results will be available next week and citizens can view it on the city's Web site.

"There's nothing in here that's a big surprise," said Mayor Erica Lewis Kennedy.
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Council was impressed with the high satisfaction ratings residents gave in regards to their interactions with city staff.

However, Lewis Kennedy said she also understands there is room for improvement in other areas.

Of a list of problems in Montrose, responders ranked low paying jobs, lack of job opportunities, high cost of living and traffic congestion as concerns.

"The survey couldn't have gone out at a worse time in the matters of economics and cost of living," said David Spear, the city's public information officer. Referring to the economic concerns nationally, he wasn't surprised those were high concerns with Montrose residents.

Eighteen-percent of responders were dissatisfied with how the city government operates; 5 percent were very dissatisfied. The numbers were consistent with the 2006 survey and the national benchmark, Miller said.

Many city services ranked high in satisfactory including sewer, drinking water, appearance of city parks and trash collection. Services that ranked below 70 percent included sidewalk and street maintenance and repair, snow removal and code enforcement.

Council member Gail Marvel said council is currently looking at and addressing those items that ranked low.

Lewis Kennedy said some city staff have shifted roles and are enforcing codes.

The city approved in its consent agenda during the regular meeting Thursday, a Safe Routes to School grant application for up to $250,000 in federal funds through the Colorado Department of Transportation to complete sidewalk, bicycle and crosswalk connections.

The prior council also approved a resolution to move about 0.25 percent of the budgeted general funds into the capital improvement funds for hard infrastructure.

Lewis Kennedy said council would continue to work to improve those issues.

"A lot of these things deal with finance," said council member Ed Ulibarri.

The survey did show high support, 72 percent, for some sort of funding, either sales and use tax increases, bonds, property taxes or a combination of the three, if it was dedicated to funding street and sidewalk improvement projects.

Services for seniors and youth ranks low on the satisfactory scale. According to the study, only 25 percent were "very satisfied" with services to seniors and only 7 percent were very satisfied with youth services. Miller said the full report breaks down the answers so that council can see how seniors rated their services, instead of looking at the whole population of responders.

Spear said the results might be of interest to other groups, such as the hospital, school and recreation district.

Responders ranked medical services the highest importance when it comes to quality of life in Montrose.

The survey was mailed to all households within the city of Montrose. The city had a 22 percent response rate, receiving 1,563 completed surveys. Results were weighted by gender, age, housing tenure and ethnicity. The margin of error was plus or minus 2percent.