SAN DIEGO - At today's City Council meeting, City Manager Michael T. Uberuaga recognized City of San Diego departments and programs that were highly rated in the City's 2001 Resident Satisfaction Survey.

The latest annual survey showed that 85 percent of City residents rated San Diego's quality of life as good or excellent and 95 percent are satisfied with the City's services overall.

"These results show continued high satisfaction with the quality of life and City services," City Manager Uberuaga said. "The survey is a continuing annual indication of what citizens think about our work, and it gives me great pride in the dedicated men and women who serve our citizens so well."

For the second year in a row, the highest-rated City service was residential trash collection* with a 96 percent satisfaction rating. Other services receiving a 90 percent or higher rating included library services (95 percent), City-provided home recycling service (94 percent), fire emergency response (94 percent), quality of parks and recreation facilities (93 percent), the City's web site (92 percent), overall quality of police services (92 percent), and police concern for public safety (90 percent). Citizens rated clarity of water/sewer bills as the most-improved City service, up 17 percentage points from last year.

Union Bank of California sponsors the annual awards program. Mr. Joe Benoit, Division Executive and Senior Vice President for Union Bank, helped Mr. Uberuaga make the presentations. "At Union Bank, we pride ourselves on customer service, and, like the city, appreciate and respond to the feedback from customers on the level of service we provide. I applaud the city for conducting this annual survey and for creating this very public way to recognize that San Diego citizens are well aware of the quality of the services you provide in America's finest city."

The survey was conducted in October 2001 by the Behavior Research Center. It involved 600 in-depth telephone surveys to obtain statistically significant results with a demographic mix comparable to the actual population of the City. This is the seventh year the survey has been taken.

The top-rated and most-improved services are commemorated on a perpetual award in the lobby of the City Administration Building that depicts the City's neighborhoods against a backdrop of downtown San Diego on the bay.

* Note: the top-rated City service, residential trash collection, last year picked up 374,082 tons of refuse from 315,000 clients while making 16 million service stops and diverting an additional 37,412 tons of yard waste and 47,939 tons of recyclables.