Satisfaction with the city's direction and services were slightly lower than last year, but still encouraging to officials.
By JENNIFER FARRELL
Published August 30, 2003
CLEARWATER - Some 58.4 percent of Clearwater residents think the city is moving in the right direction, and 89.2 percent are satisfied with the city services they receive, according to a new city poll.
The numbers show a slight dip in approval from last year's numbers, but city officials say the report card is still good.
"I was very happy with the results," said Commissioner Hoyt Hamilton. "The vast majority of Clearwater is happy with what we're doing and the direction we're trying to take the city."
The survey results will be discussed next week by the City Commission and used to fine-tune long-range planning, according to City Manager Bill Horne. Horne said he has worked to balance the maintenance of basic infrastructure - such as roads and sewer lines - with projects to spark economic development.
And judging by the survey, people have noticed. Fully 57 percent said the city has struck the proper balance, up 15 points from 2002.
"I think it demonstrates that the citizens are paying attention to what we're doing at City Hall," said Horne. "They are supportive of the direction that we're headed."
According to the poll, taken by phone at random with 500 residents 18 and over, minorities were more likely than whites to express comfort with the city's direction. Minorities make up roughly 16 percent of the city's 109,000 residents.
As for the nearly one in five residents displeased with the city's direction, they cited disagreement with priorities, mismanagement of money, slow progress, not listening to residents, putting others before residents and the beach "roundabout fiasco," the survey states.
On redevelopment issues, residents were split.
One in five do not support redevelopment downtown or on the beach, the poll shows. Nearly a third said they would be most likely to support mostly private funding with possible incentives for developers, rather than a balance of public and private funding.
The survey showed that most residents agree Clearwater is a safe, healthy and caring place to live. More than half rated the quality of life in Clearwater as above average or excellent. And roughly seven in 10 think the city values resident input and is customer service-oriented.
Budget and resource concerns and downtown redevelopment top the issues that residents want city government to address in the next five years. In terms of budget and resources, citizens were particularly concerned about "wasteful spending," and the "decline of the tax base associated with the Scientologists," the survey states.
Traffic congestion, population management and beach redevelopment rounded out the top five issues that residents named when asked an open-ended question about their concerns.
Law enforcement, education, road maintenance, water issues and storm water drainage, attracting business and jobs and beach parking ranked lower on the list.
When asked in what area the city most excelled, residents were most likely to say police and security.
Most residents said the city is supportive of neighborhood concerns.
But one in five residents think the city could do more to address traffic congestion, the roundabout, road improvements and beach parking, the poll found. Nearly 5 percent of residents said there is nothing the city could do better because it already does everything well.
The survey also noted that, for the most part, residents appear unwilling to accept a cut in services to balance the city budget and most poll participants had used the city's libraries and parks.
