Johnson County is a premiere community: a great place to live, work, and raise a family. That's the bottom-line response from a recent citizen survey conducted by the Johnson County Government. In fact, Johnson County surpassed the national average and outranked several other urban cities and counties across the United States on factors that include the overall quality of life in the community, the quality of government services, and the value for local tax dollars.
That survey, conducted earlier this year by the ETC Institute, was a part of a strategic planning process undertaken by the Johnson County Board of Commissioners, and was intended to provide a benchmark in assessing citizens' levels of satisfaction with Johnson County Government services and programs. The survey measured community needs, quality of service, availability, affordability, accessibility, expertise, timeliness, and responsiveness, among other factors.
The survey results were shared with the Board of County Commissioners during an afternoon work session on Thursday, April 7. Chris Tatham, vice president of the ETC Institute, presented the findings. According to the survey, he said that nearly three-fourths of respondents indicated they would be willing to pay up to an extra $2 in property taxes in order to preserve the current level of quality services as well as to avoid any delays in capital improvements. However, a majority of respondents indicated they were unwilling to pay increased property taxes to provide for any new or expanded county services.
The survey found that citizens ranked the following county services and programs as being the "top five" highest in terms of overall satisfaction:
Library, at 90 percent
Parks & Recreation, at 85 percent
Fire Services, at 78 percent
Ambulance/Emergency Medical Services, at 76 percent
Elections, at 75 percent
Residents indicated the top five areas for improvement included:
Emergency Preparedness for Disasters and Terrorism, 44 percent
Rural Road Maintenance, 42 percent
Communications with the Public, 41 percent
County Jail, 36 percent
Public Transportation, 24 percent
The following materials are available for public review:
An Executive Summary of the survey results, prepared
by ETC Institute
A copy of Mr. Tatham's PowerPoint presentation to the Board of County Commissioners
For more information about the citizen survey, please contact the Office of the Board of County Commissioners at (913) 715-0430.