Garden Grove Residents Support Key City Services
Garden Grove, CA - A recently commissioned independent survey shows Garden Grove residents are highly satisfied with their quality of life and their vital city services. Seventy-one percent of city residents believe their local neighborhoods are headed in the right direction, and 65% believe the City provides a better quality of life than other nearby communities.
The community survey was conducted July 7 through July 12, 2018 by opinion research firm FM3 Research, who has extensive experience polling in North Orange County.
“Over the last few months, we’ve worked hard to reach out to residents about the community’s key priorities and concerns,” said City Manager Scott Stiles. “We have heard from more than 2,000 residents at more than two- dozen community events, and we’re gratified to see that our residents support maintaining key public safety and quality of life services.”
Residents expressed a strong belief that the City needs additional funds for key City services. Sixty-one percent said that the City has “great/some need” for additional funding, a 17-point increase since 2017.
“It’s no secret that the City has significant financial needs,” continued Stiles. “We’ve seen that when the State has a budget crisis, Sacramento takes millions of local tax dollars from the City to solve their own problems. We’ve worked hard to live within our means, but we simply can’t continue to cut and guarantee the level of services our residents expect and deserve.”
Residents further expressed a strong priority for maintaining public safety services, including neighborhood police patrols and crime prevention/investigation services. “Policies enacted by Sacramento, like early release from prison and other changes to state laws, are putting more criminals back on the streets,” said Garden Grove Police Chief Todd Elgin. “At the same time, the homeless crisis in Orange County is putting more strain on our local police officers. With all these changes, we simply don’t have the resources needed to guarantee strong public safety services in the future.”
Residents also expressed a strong preference for maintaining key public safety services, such as fast 911 emergency response times. “When you have an emergency, you need help fast,” said Garden Grove Fire Chief Tom Schultz. “The American Heart Association says that brain deterioration starts 6 minutes after a person stops breathing, but right now we only meet that standard 38% of the time. Our emergency responders are simply stretched too thin, and we need additional support to respond quickly and effectively to medical emergencies.”
“We want to thank the community for participating in our outreach and we have heard loud and clear that our residents want to keep our public safety and quality of life service strong,” continued City Manager Stiles. “Over the coming months, the City Council and staff will continue to plan and act on our community’s clear priorities and work to keep Garden Grove a special place to live.”
