- April 18, 2024
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The numbers are in, and a 2018 Citizens Survey from the city is showing that 96% of respondents rank the overall quality of life in Port Orange as satisfactory or better.
This number, along with others, was presented during the Tuesday, June 19, City Council meeting. The survey, which has been conducted for more than 10 years, had 1,490 valid responses during Feb. and March of this year.
According to Assistant City Manager Alan Rosen, there were enough responses to keep the margin of error low.
"The confidence level and margin of error was very good," Rosen said. "So, that basically gives us a confidence level that if we were to ask everybody in the community we could assume that about 99% of the time we'd get the same answer."
Rosen said that overall satisfaction increased by .6%. While that number may seem low, this is the first time in four years that the overall satisfaction rate has increased.
Fire and Police Departments
When it came to fire and rescue, the majority of respondents were satisfied with the services provided while about 190 of the individuals indicated they had used fire or rescue at least once during the last year. Those 190 people indicated significantly higher satisfaction with this department.
More than 80% of respondents were also satisfied with police services, a slight increase from last year. Last year, the Port Orange Police Department handled 59,374 calls for service.
Parks and Recreation
For parks and recreation, 92% of respondents indicated they were satisfied or more in this department, with overall satisfaction with the Parks and Recreation Department services increasing by 3.2% since last year. The highest increase in satisfaction was with the number of parks and recreational facilities, which increased by 5%, according to Rosen.
Additionally, city officials believe this could be due to Riverwalk Park opening last year.
However, some residents wrote that they would like more parks and trails while others stated they hoped Riverwalk Park would bring more development to the east side of the city.
Development and traffic
The steepest declines were permitting and planning and managing for growth, which overall was the lowest measure at 59.1% satisfaction, according to Rosen.
"A lot of times this is tied to development and traffic issues," Rosen said. "And I think they attribute a lot of stuff to this side of what we do even though our agency doesn't drive the development; we just kind of manage how it happens."
The overall satisfaction with community development efforts declined by 3% for the third year in a row. Regarding the ease of driving within the city, 61% of respondents were satisfied, and for the first time in the last three years, ease of driving was not the lowest ranking measure.
Public works
More than 80% of responses indicated people were satisfied or more than satisfied with the public utilities provided by the city; however, overall satisfaction with public utilities decreased by 0.4% since last year, with the most significant decline being in the quality of drinking water.
According to the survey report, "this may be due to lack of knowledge regarding the actual quality of Port Orange’s drinking water."
There was also an increase in satisfaction with stormwater — this was the second increase in the last two years. According to officials, this could be due to less flooding and standing water after Hurricanes Matthew and Irma.
City and resident priorities
Residents surveyed were also asked to rank priorities for adopted city goals, which were later compared to City Council goals. Respondents and Council members rated public safety as a top priority. However, the list of priorities differed after this. After public safety, residents listed quality of life, infrastructure, fiscal sustainability, organizational excellence and economic development as high to low priorities.
Council followed public safety with infrastructure, quality of life, economic development, fiscal sustainability and organizational excellence. Vice Mayor Scott Stiltner said he could see why infrastructure and quality of life might change on both ends from year to year.
"I wouldn't be surprised to see those two flip-flop back and forth every single time we do one of these," Stiltner said. "Because I think these do go very hand in hand."
