Survey offers insight into Davenport issues

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By Tom Saul | Monday, August 28, 2006 11:49 PM CDT | () comments

Results of a survey conducted by Citizens for Smart Governance, which supported going to four-year terms in a July referendum, showed that the majority of people who responded were against the change.

Fifty-four percent of those who returned survey forms through the mail opposed staggered four-year terms for aldermen and a four-year term for mayor.

The results were made available to participants and city officials Aug. 14, three weeks after voters shot down the idea.

“It didn’t pass the first two times people had a chance to vote on it,” Jim Hoepner, a spokesman for the group, said of unsuccessful city referendums held on the same topic in 1986 and 1991.

In the July 25 referendum, citizens voted nearly two-to-one against four-year terms. Proponents had argued that longer terms for elected city officials would lead to better planning, a clearer vision for Davenport’s future and better government.

But the survey also found that a majority of respondents believe the city’s red light and speed cameras violate their civil rights and should be removed, that launching an automated garbage collection system was the right way to go and that use of the city’s local option 1-cent sales tax for property tax relief and capital improvements should be left as is.

About 6,000 survey forms were sent out in early July, Hoepner said. The group got about 1,200 responses back but did not finish tabulating the results until after the referendum.

“We put a specific date on the form that said when we wanted them back, but they just kept coming in and coming in and coming in,” Hoepner said. “I talked to some, and that’s a pretty high rate of return for a mail survey. It’s probably pretty representative of people’s feelings.”

Most of what the survey results revealed did not surprise him, Mayor Ed Winborn said. The referendum showed that four-year terms are not popular with city voters, and many people don’t like the red light and speed cameras, he said.

There are four red light systems at various intersections in the city, four fixed speed camera systems and a mobile system in the back of a van.

“I don’t know of any plans to add any more,” Winborn said.

One result that did surprise him was the level of support — 66 percent — for the city’s allocation of its 1-cent local option sales tax, Winborn said. The tax generates $13.2 million a year, with 60 percent used to pay off city bonds and 40 percent used for capital improvement projects.

“People want it spent on tax relief and streets and sewers,” Winborn said.

Alderman Ray Ambrose, 4th Ward, wants a referendum put on the 2007 city election ballot that would allow part of the tax to be used to hire more police officers, he said. Despite the survey results, Ambrose said voters should be allowed to decide the question.

“There seems to be concerns that if we reallocate part of the money, property taxes will go up,” Ambrose said. “Taxes only go up with city council priorities. I believe this can happen if the council decides taxes are not going to go up.”

The questions were aimed at giving the city an idea of how citizens felt about recent issues that have come before aldermen, Hoepner said. His group still plans to stay involved in issues facing the city and will look for other matters where it can have an impact, he said.

Tom Saul can be contacted at (563) 383-2453 or tsaul@qctimes.com.

THE RESPONSES

The five areas of questioning, the number of responses and how people answered the survey by Citizens for Smart Governance:

Red-light speed cameras — 1,205 responses

Add additional cameras — 35 percent

Remove cameras — 49 percent

Keep, but don’t add more — 3 percent

Undecided — 13 percent

Four-year terms — 1,087 responses

Support four-year terms — 41 percent

Oppose four-year terms — 54 percent

Undecided — 5 percent

Automated garbage — 1,209 responses

Right decision — 48 percent

Wrong decision — 29 percent

Undecided — 23 percent

Use of current 1-cent local option sales tax — 1,201 responses

Support moving to public safety — 22 percent

Keep dollars devoted to streets and property tax relief — 66 percent

Undecided — 12 percent

Property tax freeze for homeowners who make less than $25,000 per year — 1,207 responses

Support property tax freeze — 54 percent

Oppose property tax freeze — 32 percent

Undecided — 14 percent