Survey Says: Residents Want Cleaner, Safer City

New Port Richey city officials wanted to gauge resident opinions of municipal services provided to them and quality of life in the city.

So they paid consultant John Daly, president of Lutz-based Creative Insights, to . The project cost $8,000, $6,000 of which was paid to Daly.

City officials have said in the past that results will help city leaders determine priorities and make wise budget decisions.

"Believe me, there's going to be a lot of ways that this is going to help out," City Manager John Schneiger said in January.

Officials hoped for at least 400 responses. They received 434 usable surveys back, a “respectable” response of 37.6 percent.

Code enforcement and the appearance of the city got the lowest satisfaction ratings in the survey.

Residents were also concerned about the crime levels in the city. They understood the need for economic revitalization and thought the best way to do so was through redeveloping neighborhoods, improving the community's image and bolstering code enforcement.

They felt the city government’s communication with the public was lacking.

When asked what services should receive the most emphasis over the next two years, 32.5 percent of survey takers chose police services, 16.3 percent said city appearance and 13.6 said traffic flow. Code enforcement, communication with the public and developmental services followed after those three choices.

However, seven out of 10 people opposed paying more to sustain services.

Respondents perceived the city as a place to retire and less as a place to work, start a business or raise a family.

But don’t take our word for it. Daly put it rather well in an executive summary presented to the City Council Tuesday. Here are the summaries of results in his words:

Overall Services: Citizens' service satisfact¡on levels were highest for City of New Port Richey's Fire & Emergency Medical, Recreation & Aquatic Center, Library, and City Park units. Lower sat¡sfaction assessment levels were received for Code Enforcement, Appearance of the City, Developmental Servíces and City-related traffic flow.

Public Safety CitÍzens are concerned about the level of drug prevalence within the community. Unsupervised youths also ranked high for issues ídentified as problematic. Noise, graffiti and panhandlíng were perceived to be less of an issue, Citizens are satisfied with both police and fire-rescue personnel response times, but they desire increased visibility and frequency of police ín their neighborhoods as well as a continued emphasis by the City's law enforcement units to prevent crime.

Maintenance of City facilities: Feedback from respondents indicated that they were highly satisfied with the maintenance of City facilities and commun¡ty traffic signals and street signs. Their greatest concern (dissatisfaction) was with the availability of reclaimed water in their neighborhood. ln terms of the City's facilities maintenance over the next two years, respondents indicated a desire to see the City focus most on maintenance of local neighborhood streets and the City's street lighting.

City Utilities: Citizens expressed highest satisfaction for residential trash collection services and for curbside recycling assistance. Satisfaction levels were consÍderably lower in the areas of stormwater/drainage services and in terms of the quality of the City's drinking water.

Parks & Recreation: Respondents expressed high satisfaction levels for the City's fitness and associated equipment. They also were satisfied with NPR's rental facilities available for citizens' use. Citizens' satisfaction with the availability of walking trails was a bit lower, which may indicate a desire for more walking trails accessible within the community.

Quality of City Communication: Citizens' ratings suggest an appreciation for the City's newsletter and website as sources for gaining information. Responses to the Nixle not¡fication were also good, but only 118 individuals provided a rating, suggesting that many may not know of its existence. A number of citizens expressed dissatisfaction with the public's involvement in the City's decision making process. High dissatisfaction may also have resulted from policy decisions not reflecting their own preferred policy outcomes. Nevertheless, continued creative vehicles to assess citizen preferences and an increased ability to participate more fully in the policy decision making process should be considered.

Code Compliance: Code Enforcement received the lowest level of satisfaction among all City service areas. Citizens are concerned with deteriorating conditions of residential housing, and what they perce¡ve to be a lack of enforcement of City codes. There also is signifìcant dissatisfaction with the City's control over stray animals (especially feral cats) within the neighborhoods. Citizens also indicated concern over the availability of reclaimed water.

Quality of Life factors: Citizens were asked to rate New Port Richey as a place to líve, work, raise a family, retire and start a business. Respondents perceive New Port Richey as a place to retire more than as a place to work, raise a family, or start a business. The image of City operations (in Íts transparency, environmental stewardship, and valuing community input and participation) also received lower positive support than might have been expected.

Economic Development:  
Citizens understand the need for economic revitalization in the City of New Port Richey. Their top three choices for redevelopment strategies are redeveloping neighborhoods, improving the community's image, and bolstering code enforcement. Respondents also were highly in favor of improved economic planning and marketing to retain, expand and bring new business to the city.

Financing Public Services: The survey asked two questions about strategies for increasing municipal revenues,: When asked if non-residents should pay a slightly higher fee for use of Recreation & Aquatic facilities three out of four respondents agreed that higher fees for non-residents were in order. However, when asked if they as NPR citizens would pay slightly more to sustain existing municipal services, seven in 10 opposed such increases.

Library Services: With regards to personal use of the Library, almost half of the respondents indicated that they had not used library services over the past 12 months. When asked to rate which library services were most important, respondents ranked reading literacy programs, free publíc access to computers at the library, and book seryices for homebound patrons as most important. The lowest library service in terms of importance was the Special Collections (exercise equipment, etc.) program.