County staff once again gets high marks for treatment of customers
For the fifth year in a row, the Sarasota County Citizen Opinion Survey found that residents believe the most important issue facing the county is “Population growth, new development.”
That was part of the report that Joshua Scacco, founder and director of the Center for Sustainable Democracy in the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of South Florida (USF), presented to the Sarasota County Commission as part of its regular meeting on Oct. 23, in Venice.
A graph that Scacco showed the board members did note that the percentage of the 1,250 survey respondents who cited “Population growth/new development” was down from the highest level recorded for that issue in recent years: 31% in 2022. This year, the figure was 26%, which was up from 25% in 2023, the graph showed.
The second most important issue in the county is “no serious problems,” the graph noted. However, Scacco pointed out that that had “the lowest rating we’ve seen over the last several years.”
In the 2024 survey — which was conducted over seven weeks this summer — 10% of the respondents cited “no serious problems” as their top issue; in contrast, the 2020 survey put the figure at 18%. Last year, 11% of the survey respondents cited “no serious problems.”
“We’ve seen a couple of other issues creep up,” Scacco continued, referencing the same question. “Crime” hit the 9% mark last year, and it stayed there this year, the graph showed. In 2020, only 3% of the respondents cited it.
“Quality of our waterways” jumped from 2% in 2023 to 6% this year.
“You can get an idea of some of the other issues that have bounced around on the public agenda in the last five years, as well,” Scacco told the commissioners, referring to that graph.
The other four issues on the slide were “Economy/jobs,” “Traffic/Transportation,” “Affordable housing,” and “Stormwater/drainage/flooding.”
The number of respondents who said “Traffic/transportation” was the most important issue rose from 3% of the total in 2022 and 2023 to 5% this year, the graph showed.
That part of the survey was included in the County Challenges portion of the Oct. 23 presentation.
The survey was conducted from July 1 through Aug. 24, with the duration of the average call clocked at 12 minutes, one slide noted. The sample size was controlled to reflect the county’s demographics: age, gender, race and educational levels.
When Commissioner Ron Cutsinger asked whether the number of respondents — 1,250 — was sufficient, since the county has nearly 500,000 residents, Scacco told him “Right now, you balance this,” in terms of the number of survey respondents and the county’s expense.
The survey team is able to use cell phone numbers to reach more people, Scacco continued. Nonetheless, he stressed that the survey was in the field for about seven weeks, “which is a very long time” for such an initiative.
The larger the sample size, he added, the more difficulty the callers likely would have in finding enough respondents.
He further noted that the 2.77% margin of error is “fairly low.”
“If you try to increase the [sample size],” Scacco said, “Your return on investment is actually not going to be there.”
Continued high rating for quality of life
The Contentment and Positive Feeling part of the report noted that 56% of the respondents rated the quality of life in the county “Excellent,” followed by 42% who said it was “Good.” The percentage citing “Excellent” reached its apex in 2016, a graph showed, but that answer has been trending upward again since 2019.
In the 2023 survey, 49% of the respondents said the quality of life was “Excellent,” with 49% finding it to be “Good.”
Of those who replied to the question this year, the slide said, 88% had lived in the county for more than six years.
Isabella Rengifo, a junior at USF who worked on the project, told the commissioners that the survey team had been asking the Quality of Life question for the past 18 years.
This is the 33rd year of the survey, Jamie Carson, director of the county’s Communications Department, said during opening remarks about the presentation.
As for satisfaction with county services, Rengifo reported that 94% of the respondents were satisfied. That was broken down into 60% choosing “Very satisfied” and 34% picking the “Somewhat satisfied” answer. Again, the “Very satisfied” answer has been trending upward in recent years, she noted.
None of the respondents chose the “Very dissatisfied” answer, a graph showed, while 2% were “Somewhat dissatisfied.”
In regard to questions about whether respondents would recommend Sarasota County “to a friend, family member, or acquaintance” for various reasons,” Rengifo pointed to the “very, very high percentage” of those who said they would. Among the answers, 70% said they would recommend the county both as a place to retire and as a place to take a vacation. The lowest percentage for all of the “Definitely” recommendations was 55%, in regard to the county’s being a place to open a business.
Turning to the results regarding respondents’ experiences in contacting county staff for various reasons, she noted that only 4% of the respondents had made such contact. Of those, a slide showed, 98% reported that they were treated with respect, while another 98% said they had received the correct information. In contrast, 83% replied that they were helped in a timely fashion.
In 2022, Commissioner Cutsinger noted, the figure for respondents saying they had been treated with respect was 100%. Referring to the 2% drop this year, he jokingly told County Administrator Jonathan Lewis, “You’ve got some work to do,” prompting laughter.
The primary reason cited for contacting county staff was “Permitting,” with 21% of the respondents citing that. Another 11% said, “Building inspections,” while 10% noted “Garbage collection.”
Of those who contacted county staff, the same slide pointed out, 65% reported having done so by phone, with another 33% having spoken to a county employee in person.
Yet another question asked for respondents’ views about the county’s spending priorities. The answers showed that 74% believed those were “about right.” A slide pointed out that that response has been trending upward since 2019.
For the 11% who said that the budget priorities should be modified, a follow-up question asked for specifics. The top answer from 18% of those respondents was “General cuts/Don’t know.” Another 17% said more money should be spend on “Environment (Waterways/Flooding/Conservation),” while 16% pointed to “Crime/Police.”
Among other issues included in the Challenges section of the survey report, Scacco of USF noted that the answers this year made it clear that the greatest stress on county households is “costs; it’s prices.”
Although the response, “no stresses being felt” continued to garner the highest percentage of answers, as shown in a graph, Scacco pointed out that the percentage of respondents choosing that comment has continued to fall over the past five years. For the 2024 survey, the figure was 20%; in 2020, it was the reply of 43% of those taking the survey; last year, the figure was 21%.
This year, 17% of the respondents chose the “Household finances answer,” while 12% picked “Taxes in general.” Both “Personal debt (loan repayments, mortgages, credit cards, etc.)” and “Gas prices” were the choice of 9% of those taking the survey.
Current topics
During his remarks, Scacco also reminded the commissioners that the survey team rotates certain questions every few years and asks for their thoughts on providing questions related to high priority topics.
A rotating question this year focused on what respondents believe “is the single biggest thing that can contribute to the growth of Sarasota County’s economy.”
The answer that the highest number of respondents chose was “Eco-tourism,” he pointed out. Over the past four or five years, he noted, that has been one of the top answers. It was selected by 19% of the survey respondents this year; the figure last year was 16%.
This year, “Arts and culture” was in second place, with 14% — the same percentage as noted in the 2023 survey — followed by “Health and wellness” at 12%, another figure unchanged from the 2023 survey.
The first question whose inclusion the board members had requested this year asked about awareness of the former natural inlet called Midnight Pass between Siesta and Casey keys, as well as whether respondents were aware that the inlet was closed by private property owners in the early 1980s and that the county commissioners have been talking about how it could be re-established.
(Hurricane Helene in late September reopened Midnight Pass, though the waterway closed a couple of days later. Then Hurricane Milton created a new inlet between the Gulf of Mexico and Little Sarasota Bay that has proven more stable thus far in that storm’s aftermath. The commissioners voted earlier this year — before those hurricanes produced the channels — to try to persuade the members of the county’s Legislative Delegation to advocate for a state law that would allow the creation of new inlets. Scacco prefaced his remarks on the survey results by noting that the survey data was collected before Hurricane Helene swept past the county in the Gulf of Mexico.)
The survey found that 52% of those questioned were aware of the history of Midnight Pass and the discussions that had taken place in regard to reopening it. Scacco characterized that as “a bare majority,” adding, “My guess is that number’s a little bit more now, just a bit.”
For the 52% indicating awareness, the survey provided a follow-up question: “How important is it for Sarasota County to invest in reopening Midnight Pass?”
The answers showed that 56% of the respondents considered the reopening of Midnight Pass to be “Very important,” with another 38% indicating it was “Somewhat important.” Scacco called those numbers “pretty robust.”
A second question that the commissioners requested for inclusion in the survey was reprised from the 2023 undertaking. It involved county efforts in purchase land for preservation and for the creation of new county parks. The survey noted that a citizen-approved land acquisition program has been in effect since 1999, but it will expire in 2029. (The County Commission plans a 2026 referendum with hope that citizens will vote to extend the program once again.)
The answers showed that 58% of the respondents were aware of those facts; that was up from 44% in 2023, Scacco said.
In accord with that change, he continued, the number of respondents reporting they did not know about the situation or refused to answer declined from 17% in 2023 to 6% this year.
Then, he said, when asked how supportive they were of extending the program beyond 2029, 49% of the respondents said they were “Very supportive,” followed by 35% who were “Somewhat supportive.”
A new, related question this year asked how supportive survey respondents were of the county’s purchase of more land for public activities. Of those responses, 41% were “Very supportive,” followed by 34% who were “Somewhat supportive.”
A follow-up to that question asked the respondents what types of projects they would like to see supported by the county’s revenue from the special tax whose revenue pays for the Environmentally Sensitive Lands Protection and Neighborhood Parkland programs. The top answer, offered by 71% of the respondents, was “Don’t know/unsure,” while 9% chose “Nature protection,” and 9% said, “Animal protection.”
Another question repeated this year — at the commission’s behest, after its inclusion in 2023 — involved the Sarasota County Jail. It said, “Sarasota County has one jail with a capacity of 836 inmates. To the best of your knowledge, is the jail currently under capacity, at capacity, or over capacity?”
The responses found that 52% of the survey respondents this year believed the jail to be at capacity, compared to 59% in 2023. Another 46% of respondents this year believed the jail to be over capacity, which is the correct answer. That was up from 36% in 2023.
A follow-up question said, “If Sarasota County faced a scenario where the jail was over capacity, how important would it be for the County to invest in a new facility to prevent further overcrowding?” The results showed that 32% chose “Very important,” compared to 29% picking that response in 2023. Another 54% this year chose “Somewhat important”; last year, the figure for that answer was 60%.
“They’re moving into a direction of greater awareness,” was how Scacco characterized the survey takers’ answers in regard to the jail.