Will satisfaction with city council continue decline?

Voter satisfaction with West Kelowna city council is on a downward trend.

But city workers are holding their own in the estimation of Westsiders, council heard Tuesday.

Council authorized the 2018 citizen survey, which provides insight into residents’ views on a wide range of municipal programs.

The annual spring survey involves the mail-out of a questionnaire to 1,000 randomly selected residents. Since the survey is done by municipal staff, rather than by an outside agency, the cost is said to be only $3,200.

In recent years, the survey has shown a clear majority of respondents would like municipal taxes to stay the same, even it if means a reduction in services.

But council has been averaging a three per cent annual tax hike, above the inflation rate.

While council and staff may pride themselves on what they believe are frugal budgets, survey results suggest residents are becoming steadily disenchanted with the performance of their elected officials, perhaps because of the gap between tax expectations and reality.

In 2012, almost 68 per cent ranked the performance of council as good or very good. That percentage has declined almost every year since then, to just 43 per cent last year.

On the other hand, those who say their quality of life in West Kelowna is good or very good have consistently ranged between 83 per cent and 88 per cent.

And the number of people who rate the level of service provided by West Kelowna municipal workers as good or very good has remained relatively constant since 2012 at about 53 per cent, sometimes hitting 67 per cent or dipping to 43 per cent.