Survey Says—You Like Rancho Santa Margarita

Some of the most anticipated moments for Rancho Santa Margarita's elected officials came near the end of the Wednesday City Council meeting—during the city manager's report.

It was in the latter half the meeting, which lasted less than an hour, that Jennifer Cervantez—on the job a day short of one month—delivered preliminary findings from a survey commissioned by the city to find out what the residents thought. The results will be discussed more fully at the Sept. 12 meeting of the council when the administrators of the survey are present.

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The news Cervantez delivered was, on the surface, predominantly good.

According to the survey:

• 99 percent of respondents rated RSM as an "excellent" or "good" place to live.
• Nine in 10 respondents stated that the quality of life in RSM had either stayed the same (68 percent), gotten somewhat better (14 percent) or gotten much better (9 percent) over the last 3-4 years.
• Respondents' outlook on the quality of life over the next five years is that 35 percetn say it will get better, 49 percent think it will stay the same, and 11 percent say it will get worse.
• City government is rated as "excellent," "good," or "fair" by 92 percent of respondents in terms of the overall job of providing services. Only 2 percent indicated a "poor" rating.
• The highest rated—"excellent" and "good" combined—aspects of community life are the general appearance of the community (96 percent), personal safety (95 percent) and accessibility and availability of open space and natural areas (92 percent).
• Respondents reported an 85 percent satisfaction rating of city communication efforts.
• Most respondents receive news from sources outside of City generated news sources such as the eNewsletter, City website or social media.

The sample size of 405 randomly selected registered voters created a margin of error of 4.9 percent, which Cervantez said was deemed a statistically significant and reliable indicator of public opinion.

The survey was conducted June 21-July 2 through phone interviews that lasted, on average, 24 minutes. There were 19 questions asked, as well as demographics.

The proposed survey idea was first broached Jan. 25 by councilwoman Carol Gamble. The survey played a part in some previously tense moments in the council chambers in the . Councilman Jesse Petrilla made a motion to remove councilmember benefits, but Gamble made a substitute motion that the item be discussed after the completion of the survey to find out where the residents stood.

"I will take action on this item when I hear back from the people I work for," she said at the time.

It was at that meeting that Petrilla told his council colleagues he was not accepting benefits from the city; when asked how long he had not been taking benefits, he said "three years from the end of my term—you do the math." He had, in fact, filed paperwork two days earlier and was still receiving benefits at the time.

When asked by Patch in the public comments section of the meeting of April 11 to explain why he lied to the council and his constituency with his "do the math" comment, Petrilla refused to answer, as he has done a number of times when contacted by Patch.