The vast majority of Bellevue residents continue to believe the city is a great place to live, their tax dollars are being used wisely and the community is moving in the right direction.

The positive findings from the city’s 14th annual citizens’ performance management survey, completed earlier this year by a market research company, were consistent with those from past years.

“Bellevue strives for excellence, and I think that’s a key to why we get high ratings,” Mayor Don Davidson said. “Mediocrity, average, those terms don’t come to mind when we try to deliver services here.”

Major findings of the survey included:

● Ninety-five percent of residents believe Bellevue is a good to excellent place to live;

● Eighty-five percent believe they are getting value for their tax dollar;

● Ninety-three percent believe their neighborhood is a good to excellent place to live;

● The percentage of residents who believe the city’s quality of life exceeds expectations vaulted from 84 percent last year to 95 percent this year; and

● Ninety percent say Bellevue is close to an ideal city in which to live, up 15 percent from last year.

Residents gave city staff straight A’s this year for topics such as courtesy, knowledge and responsiveness, a jump from scores of A- and B+ in 2010.

“It’s just good news on all fronts,” said City Manager Steve Sarkozy.

ORC International, with an office in Seattle, conducted phone interviews, including mobile phone users, and Internet-based surveys with more than 500 residents in February, asking them questions on a wide range of issues pertaining to the performance of city government.

Complete survey results will be available later this spring and published on the city’s website.