Page 1May 2015

Los Trancos County Water District:Household Survey

May 2015

Page 2May 2015

Methodology Overview

Data Collection Online, phone and mail surveys

Universe 544 registered voters and 526 resident records in the Los Trancos County Water

District

Fielding Dates April 16 through April 26, 2015

Interview Length 18 minutes

Sample Size n=194 totaln=153 registered voters

Margin of Error ± 6.72% among registered voters

The data have been weighted to reflect the actual population characteristics of the voter segment in terms of their gender, age, and political party type.

Page 3May 2015

Key Findings

Page 4May 2015

Q1. Opinion on Quality of Life in Neighborhood(n=153)

Excellent70.8%

Good26.0%

Just fair2.5%

Not sure [DK/NA]0.8%

Ex + Good = 96.8%

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Q2. Satisfaction with Job Local Government Agencies are Doing(n=153)

Very satisfied38.0%

Somewhat sat-isfied45.1%

Somewhat dissatisfied

7.6%

Very dissatis-fied2.8%

Not sure [DK/NA]6.6%

Satisfied = 83.1%Dissatisfied = 10.4%Ratio: 7.99 to 1

Page 6May 2015

Q8. Importance of Services & Local Control(n=153)

Note: The above rating questions have been abbreviated for charting purposes, and responses were recoded to calculate mean scores: “Extremely Important” = +3, “Very Important” = +2, “Somewhat Important” = +1 and “Not At All Important” = 0.

Maintaining local control of storm drain improvements

Maintaining local control of LTCWD open space

Maintaining local control of fire safety services

Designing and constructing storm drain improvements

Maintaining LTCWD property as permanent open space

Maintaining fire safety services including removing brush and dried weeds

0 1 2 3

1.40

1.70

1.78

1.92

2.36

2.61

Not At AllImportant

Very Important

ExtremelyImportant

Somewhat Important

91.5%

81.5%

65.6%

46.7%

38.2%

48.2%

Page 7May 2015

Q9. Agreement With Statement That LTCWD has Sufficient Funding(n=153)

Strongly agree10.4% Somewhat

agree15.5%

Somewhat disagree

15.9%

Strongly disagree18.2%

Not sure [DK/NA]40.0%

Agree = 25.9%Disagree = 34.1%

Page 8May 2015

Q11. Importance of Area Issues and Services Assignment of Mean Score Values

To calculate the mean scores for question 11, shown on the following pages, the values assigned to each response were:

Strongly Agree = 2

Somewhat Agree = 1

Neither Agree or Disagree = 0

Somewhat Disagree = -1

Strongly Disagree = -2

Not sure was not assigned a value and not included in the calculation of the mean score.

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Q11. Importance of Area Issues and Services(n=153)

MeanScore

1.20 Permanently protecting the Los Trancos County Water District property as open space and providing for proper maintenance is more important to me than who actually owns the lands (J)

1.03 If the Los Trancos County Water District is forced by LAFCO or other agencies into dissolution instead of transferring our current responsibilities to a Community Maintenance District, taxpayers would not save any money. The current revenue would be spread across 12 agencies that serve our area and we would lose our enhanced fire and storm drainage services, and control of our open space (F)

.85 Contracting with Woodside Fire Protection District to permanently protect and maintain the District’s property as open space is a good idea (I)

.76 The community would be best served by transferring services to a county agency with the assurance that current fire safety services, storm water improvements, and the protection of District open space would continue to be provided (A)

.75 The district spends about one-third of its revenue on overhead. The money could be better spent by eliminating District overhead and contracting for services with a County Maintenance District and the Woodside Fire Protection District which world provide better services to residents, and cut the overhead to just 10 percent (E)

.64 The Los Trancos County Water District does not have the expertise or budget to develop and implement a fair and effective storm drain plan. San Mateo County Department of Public Works can do a much better job for our taxpayer dollars (G)

.58 Transferring the services currently provided by the Los Trancos Water District to a Community Maintenance District and turning the storm drain enhancement responsibility over to the San Mateo County Department of Public Works would make about $1 million dollars of storm drain enhancements available over a five year timeframe, so we should contract with them to do these enhancements (N)

.53 A Board of Supervisors appointed Community Advisory Committee will provide sufficient opportunity for community input to ensure that our community’s changing needs are met (L)

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Q11. Importance of Area Issues and Services(n=153) Continued

MeanScore

-.22 The Los Trancos County Water District was created to provide water service, it should not be in the business of providing fire safety or storm drain improvements (K)

-.40 A County Maintenance District will not listen to local concerns when developing a storm drain plan (H)

-.65 A County Maintenance District and the County Public Works Department cannot be trusted to take control of the District’s storm drain management responsibilities (C)

-.83 The Storm Drainage Master Plan identified $3.5 to $5 million of storm drain improvements, but the Los Trancos County Water District only has the resources to implement $250,000 of storm drain enhancements in our community over a five year period, and must obtain legal authority from LAFCO to do so. This is an acceptable pace given that we retain local control (M)

-.84 The Woodside Fire Protection District and a County Maintenance District cannot be trusted to take control of the District’s property stewardship responsibilities (D)

-1.20 The Woodside Fire Protection District cannot be trusted to take control of the District’s fire prevention responsibilities (B)

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Q12. Contrasting Opinions: Set A and B(n=153)

Not sure [DK/NA]

Neither

Mixed opinions

OPINION B – Giving control of important local services to a County Maintenance District and Woodside Fire Protection District would mean that we lose control over local storm drain, open space protection and fire safety decisions …

OPINION A – Having San Mateo County Department of Public Works and the Woodside Fire Prevention District provide storm drain, fire prevention services, and open space protection and maintenance is a more efficient use of taxpayer dollars...

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

10.7%

9.6%

18.6%

15.6%

45.4%

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Q13. Contrasting Opinions: Set C and D(n=153)

Not sure [DK/NA]

Neither

Mixed opinions

OPINION D – There is grant money or other financing opportunities available to the Los Trancos County Water District, we just have to look harder before transferring responsibilities to a County Maintenance District...

OPINION C – The Los Trancos County Water District is not financially eligible to get $3.5 to $5 million dollars in financing for needed storm drain enhancements. The best choice is for the district to transfer the responsibility for providing storm…

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

16.8%

13.6%

9.4%

13.4%

46.7%

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Q14. Contrasting Opinions: Set E and F(n=153)

Not sure [DK/NA]

Neither

Mixed opinions

OPINION F – If the Los Trancos County Water District service responsibilities are transferred to a County Maintenance District … a community advisory committee would just rubber stamp the County’s decisions without input from local residents

OPINION E – If the Los Trancos County Water District responsibilities are transferred to a County Maintenance District … a community advisory committee, appointed by the Board of Supervisors, would provide sufficient opportunity for community input …

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

15.5%

9.5%

19.8%

11.1%

44.1%

Page 14May 2015

Summary & Conclusions

The survey revealed that respondents have a very high opinion of the quality of life in the Los Trancos County Water District, and are very satisfied with the job local government agencies are doing to provide services.

Respondents are also aware of the LTCWD, its services and current issues. Respondents rate District’s key responsibilities (storm drainage, fire safety and property stewardship)

as very important (92% to 66% extremely or very important). Contrastingly, respondents ratings of maintaining local control of storm drainage, fire safety and

property stewardship range between 47% to 38% extremely or very important – clearly not as important as the services themselves.

In a series of agree/disagree statements (Q11), respondents more often than not agree with statements that support the general position that a CMD would be a good idea.

When confronted with contrasting opinions about the LTCWD options, strong pluralities (47% to 44%) of respondents agree with the positions that: Having San Mateo County and WFPD provide services is more efficient and would save money is

a good idea vs. concerns about loosing local control. LTCWD is not able to obtain necessary financial resources and the best choice is to transfer

responsibilities to a CMD vs. looking harder for grant funding and maintaining local control. A Board of Supervisors appointed committee would provide sufficient community input vs. just

rubber stamp County decisions.

While, far smaller numbers of respondents (16% to 11%) agree with the local control side of the argument.

Respondents give the LTCWD Board a positive ranking (4.98/7) for trustworthiness.

Page 15May 2015

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