City survey shows apathy by a landslide

Fascinating stuff in the recent Carson City survey about residents' attitudes on growth -- except, as far as I'm concerned, the most interesting results didn't have much to do with growth.

Almost half of the 414 people surveyed said the city's growth cap should be less than 3 percent. But that doesn't surprise me at all.

For one thing, although the cap is at 3 percent (of new residences, not of population) growth has seldom pushed against that ceiling. There just isn't that much room to build homes.

Where would you put a 1,200-home development, like the one planned for Lyon County? Not going to happen.

So the market and availability of land in Carson City are pretty much taking care of the issue. For those of us already living here who own homes, the values are rising rapidly.

Anyway, here is some stuff from the survey prepared by Elizabeth Christiansen and Debbie Mitchell for JoAnne Skelly at the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension:

Employment

-- Employed, 51.8 percent

-- Not employed, 2.4 percent

-- Retired, 45.8 percent

Holy cow! Unless a bunch of people were saying they're retired because they didn't want to admit they couldn't find a job, that's a remarkable percentage of retirees living in Carson City. I couldn't find a firm figure, but I think the average around the state is closer to 20 percent.

City departments, the good

-- Fire Department, 92 percent "satisfied" or "very satisfied"

-- Sheriff, 84 percent "satisfied or "very satisfied"

-- Water services, 88 percent "satisfied or "very satisfied"

-- Library, 85 percent "satisfied or "very satisfied"

-- Park maintenance, 86 percent "satisfied or "very satisfied"

City departments, the not so good

-- Street repair, 34 percent "not satisfied"

-- Planning and zoning, 49 percent "not satisfied"

City departments, the indifferent

-- City manager, 32 percent "no opinion"

I don't know how you have opinions on the other departments, but not on the city manager who runs the whole show. Maybe the survey was taken after John Berkich left and before Linda Ritter was hired, so people didn't really know how to respond.

Most people (77 percent) agreed that "the employees in the various city departments are courteous and helpful." I think that's true, probably about 77 percent of the time.

But now let's get to the really good part -- the open-ended question where people were able to say something. Because almost 80 percent said they don't bother to let city officials know their views on growth issues, they were asked why.

Some of the responses:

"All they seem to care about is more tax dollars."

"Because it makes no difference to their decisions."

"Doesn't seem to matter what we think."

"Don't have the time."

"Don't know how."

"I'm too old to get involved."

"I don't believe public input really makes a difference."

"I don't think they listen. The good ol' boy system is alive here."

"I have the mayor on speed dial."

"I feel they're doing a good job."

"I really have no important ideas to offer."

"No one listens anyway; their minds are made up."

"Not that important to me."

"Public opinion seems to matter little."

"Satisfied."

"They are doing a good job."

"Too lazy, I guess."

"What good would it do?"

"Would they listen?"

OK, except for the guy who says he's got the mayor on speed dial (and I bet Ray Masayko can guess who that is), the rest of the excuses aren't very good.

Yeah, they're about growth. But I assume you'd get just about the same percentage and the same kind of responses if you asked residents about any city issue. (Actually, growth in the most general way pretty much covers every city issue.)

Yes, they care about more tax dollars. As we've seen acutely with the state Legislature, the real questions are how they get those tax dollars and how they spend them.

If you think it doesn't matter what you think, or that nobody's listening, then you've given up. That's apathy, and so you get whatever somebody else wants.

The same thing is true with the "good ol' boy" excuse for not speaking up.

It's absolutely true there are good ol' boys in Carson City. Some good ol' girls, too. They tend to have money, plenty of connections and a history with the community.

How does it come as a surprise, then, that they tend to influence the decisions in Carson City more than the average person who just doesn't have the time or inclination to get involved?

I could tick off a pretty good list of good ol' boys. And it would generally be the same people who show up every time a big decision needs to be made. But I could also tick off examples of people showing up in Carson City and making a difference in fairly short order.

Too often, people pay little attention to what's going on in Carson City until the issue shows up on their street. Then they go blazing down to City Hall to demand some answers.

Stay informed and involved. The city has more boards and commissions than you can shake a stick at, and a lot of their meetings are shown on cable TV.

Then make your opinions known, one way or another. You don't exactly have to keep the mayor on speed dial, but you could always drop the supervisors a note.

Who knows? Maybe you'll end up being a good ol' boy.

Barry Smith is editor of the Nevada Appeal.