Eight years ago, the citizens of Louisville and Jefferson County voted to merge their governments into what we now call Metro Louisville. In the first-ever detailed survey of community attitudes on the subject, conducted at the request of Metro Mayor Greg Fischer, it appears that folks here in River City are not entirely pleased with the results of that merger.
While Louisville residents are generally pleased with the basic services they receive from local government – police, fire, EMS, waste pickup and public transit – there is an “unusually low” lever of support for the 2003 merger of City of Louisville and Jefferson County governments Those are the conclusions of a scientific survey released today by the Merger 2.0 Task Force.
“This survey shows that — overall — Metro Government is meeting the needs of the community. People generally feel safe and are satisfied with the services we provide,” Mayor Fischer said. “However, my goal is for Louisville to be the best city government in America and this data will help us identify problem areas, improve customer-service and continue to develop ideas for continuous improvement.”
The 27-question telephone survey was conducted for one week in mid-July to 1,092 households in the city, with every residential zip code represented. It was completed by IQS Research of Louisville. In general, the survey showed that people who live west of I-65 have an overall lower satisfaction level with government services than those who live east of I-65.
Respondents were also asked about their awareness of the merger that took place in January 2003, as well as their overall satisfaction with the city’s ability to serve the needs of its residents.
Only 18% of respondents are highly satisfied with the city’s ability in this area. These are respondents who indicated either a “6” or “7 – Extremely satisfied” to the question, “Overall, how satisfied are you with Metro Louisville’s ability to serve the needs of its citizens?” However, if you include those respondents who indicated a “5” on this seven-point satisfaction scale, this percentage increases to 56%. Thus, 56% of respondents can be classified as somewhat satisfied with the city’s ability to serve the needs of citizens, while 18% are considered highly satisfied. However, when we look at the individual results for service area satisfaction we tend to see more positive sentiment.
While the main purpose of this study was not to assess satisfaction with the 2003 merger, it did explore awareness surrounding the merger. Simply put, awareness of the merger was very high, with 92% of respondents indicating awareness. However, the specifics of the merger are less known by the public.
Survey highlights:
- Police services received an overall positive response from residents -- 71% of those surveyed “highly agree” with the statement that they feel safe in their neighborhood. However, nearly one in four African-Americans said they were not satisfied with police in their area. Citizens said they wanted more patrols on the streets and more visibility.
- Louisville’s Fire Department received top marks, with 91% of residents saying they are “highly satisfied.”
- 83% of people were confident in services provided by EMS and 85% reported they were satisfied with service.
- A majority of residents — 78 percent — indicated they are “highly satisfied” with the services to collect their garbage.
- Regarding public transit, just over half of citizens — 51% — said they are satisfied with TARC. The biggest suggestions for improvements by residents who use TARC include more frequent buses, more routes and more bus shelters.
- Only 8% thought Louisville needs a light rail system, and a mere 1% believed more bicycle paths are needed.
- Only 37% of respondents believe that the condition of the roads is good in Metro Louisville. Those residents who have lived in Metro Louisville less than one year are on average 40% more likely to agree with the statement, “The condition of the roads in Metro Louisville is good.”
Interestingly, the summary conclusions of the IQS Research survey indicate—contrary to the positive spin the Mayor’s Office is trying to put on the report—an “unusually low” level of public satisfaction with the results of city/county merger:
“This high satisfaction score is considered unusually low. To gain a further understanding as to what is driving this low score we need to focus our attention on the respondents who did not indicate higher satisfaction scores. When we perform this analysis we find that there are 12% of respondents who indicated a one or two on the satisfaction scale and an additional 9% who indicated a three. These respondents represent the least satisfied of the constituents.
“When we stratify the results to focus on these individuals we find that their requests for additional services are incredibly diverse. Some examples include: centralized garbage pickup, noise control for barking dogs, additional police officer, additional busses, better budgeting, more public pools in the summer, better road clearing of snow in winter, light rail, street lights, local arts, and many others. Within the strata of individuals who are the least satisfied, there is not a clear theme with the types of services they feel would meet their needs.
“There is an unusually large concentration of respondents (60%) who indicated a score of 4 or 5 on the satisfaction scale. Typically scores in this range are an indication of apathy or disengagement. Given the results heretofore in this report, this is not a large surprise. However, when compared with other satisfaction studies this result would be considered unusual.”
Read previous article: Louisville’s new mayor plans to review city/county merger
The full survey results, including crosstabs by zip codes and neighborhoods, is available by CLICKING HERE (156 Pp., .pdf).
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