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Published April 23rd, 2014
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Rethinking City Survey Options
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| By Cathy Tyson |
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City leaders recently asked for information on more technology options they could use to survey residents' priorities. Originally city staff had requested approval to spend approximately $25,000 for a voter attitude survey from a professional pollster, but in light of upcoming budget realities, thought it best to wait until budget estimates become more firm in the coming weeks to look at potentially more economical survey options and more focused questions.
"This is the year you will see the true impact of the pension situation," said city manager Steven Falk. The city contracts for police services through the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department. Currently 45 percent of the entire city budget is spent on police services. Because the sheriff's department allows retirement at age 50 after 30 years of service, it's passing on the cost of the unwieldy pension burden, along with increasing health care costs. What's more, crime is up 33 percent in Lafayette; the city manager would like to slightly increase staffing of the police department to address that situation.
We're considering a two part process, explained City Council member Brandt Andersson, looking at preferences and concerns of citizens, and looking at all of those things that cost money - asking what are people willing to pay for, prioritizing concerns such as road repair, police, fire and emergency medical service, preserving open space, parking and more.
Mayor Don Tatzin added that "it's clear we're likely to have a budget problem."
City staff will have a clearer picture of what actual costs will be as they prepare for the annual May budget workshop, and some research can be done on alternate survey methods in the next few weeks, so the City Council unanimously voted to pause. The mayor and vice mayor will work with staff to investigate the breadth of different survey technology and come back to the council with a rough draft of possible questions.
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City Website Wins Award
A survey isn't needed to measure the success of the city website, which was just awarded the California Association of Public Information Officers Award of Distinction for Excellence in Communication for 2014. City manager Steven Falk describes it as, "One of the top awards that a public website can receive in California." Staffers took two years to hone and refine www.LoveLafayette.org into a well thought out resource that clearly organizes civic meetings, e-notification and an Open Government button on the homepage that links to a variety of information. The logical layout is so easy to use it has received over 78,000 visitors since it debuted last summer - that's about 300 visitors per day. "I'm really proud of staff and the website," said Falk. "We believe in transparency and we think this website does a good job of promoting transparency."
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA