Photo by Jon Anderson
Vestavia Hills City Manager Jeff Downes talks to the Vestavia Hills City Council on Monday, Nov. 25, 2024, about a survey that will go out to residents in December.
The city of Vestavia Hills is getting ready to survey its residents about how its city government is performing and what residents want to see in the future.
In December, a national polling company called Polco will mail out surveys to a group of randomly selected residents spread geographically across the city, City Manager Jeff Downes told the Vestavia Hills City Council Monday night.
The mailing will contain a QR code that directs residents to an online survey that asks residents questions about the city. Past surveys have asked about things such as the image and appearance of the city, the value of services residents receive for their tax dollars, the quality of leadership by elected officials, the effectiveness of department heads and city staff, and whether the city is a good place to live, work and raise children.
With about 13,500 households in Vestavia Hills, the city needs to get 500 to 600 surveys completed in order to have a statistically acceptable survey, and the city usually gets 700 to 900 surveys completed, he said.
He and Mayor Ashley Curry said the surveys are very important because city officials will use the feedback from the survey as they do their strategic planning in February.
“We’re very intentional about what we do,” Downes said. “Hopefully we’ll get some positive feedback or constructive feedback on the directions that we need to go.”
Councilman George Pierce said the survey probably is one of the most important things city officials will do.
City officials have been doing it every two years since 2011, Downes said. Typically, the school system, Police Department and Fire Department are some of the most popular city features, and people almost always say they want more walking trails, Downes said.
Curry said he likes to tease the Police Department because the Fire Department usually comes in a hair more popular than the Police Department, but he noted that it might be a little different if the Fire Department were giving people traffic tickets or offense violations, too.
“How we have a positive ranking writing tickets and putting people in jail is beyond me,” police Chief Shane Ware joked.
In other business Monday night, the Vestavia Hills City Council:
- Rezoned a piece of property at 3128 Blue Lake Drive from an R-1 residential district to a B-2 business district to make way for a plant nursery. The property owner, Robert Fuqua, agreed to prohibit a gas station or car repair business on the site, Councilman Rusty Weaver said.
- Authorized Downes to sign an agreement with the Hub in the Hills organization that purchased the former Vestavia Hills Elementary Central campus on U.S. 31 so that the city can continue to use the gymnasium on the campus for youth basketball for the 2024-25 basketball season, which runs from Nov. 4 to March 1. All revenue collected for the recreational system from the Over-the-Mountain/North Shelby teams who practice and play there will go to Hub in the Hills as rental for practice space.
- Heard a proposal for the city to rent about 1,200 square feet of office space in the Shoppes at City Hall next to Vestavia Hills City Hall for offices for the city’s new Human Resources Department. The city will pay $26,400 annually the first year and gradually increase the amount to $34,446 in year 10, according to the terms of the lease. The City Council plans to vote on the proposal in December.
- Heard a report from Melvin Turner, the city’s chief financial officer, that the city ended fiscal 2024 (on Sept. 30) with revenues of $71.4 million, expenses of $68.1 million and a surplus of $3.3 million. Revenues ended up being about $4.4 million stronger than projected in the budget due to conservative estimates, Turner said. Most of the surplus ($2.1 million) was due to higher than projected real property tax revenues, but the city also took in about $540,000 more than projected in business license fees, $387,000 more than projected in other property tax revenues and $147,000 more than projected in utility franchise fees, city records show. Sales tax revenues of $28.3 million were just $30,000 shy of projections.
