By Robert Haugh
In April, the City of Santa Clara started polling to test the waters for a possible infrastructure bond to be put on the November ballot.
The initial news was not good.
- Mission City residents see the City going in the wrong direction by a 42-40 margin.
- Only a combined 48 percent think the City is doing an excellent to good job. Almost an equal number, 47 percent, think City Hall is doing a fair to poor job.
- Only 37 percent think tax dollars are being used responsibly.
Last week, the City sent out a slick mailer disguised as a survey.
It wasn’t a real survey because residents had to mail the document back and pay for the postage. Seriously.
It was a taxpayer-funded promo.
Yesterday, voters started to get polled for another survey. But this one wasn’t done by the City.
The new survey is testing a $598 million bond for various City priorities like 911 service and sewers, just like the City wants to do.
Unlike the City survey, the pollster asks both positive and negative questions about the possible infrastructure bond and the design-build Charter change issue that the City is considering.
The pollster also asks about the popularity of each Santa Clara Councilmember individually. That’s something the City survey did not do.
(Just a guess, but indicted Vice Mayor Anthony Becker probably won’t win any popularity contests).
The pollster also tested the popularity of Santa Clara firefighters and police officers.
(Another guess: they’re popular).
Interestingly, the new survey is testing a smaller bond measure that would be dedicated just to public safety facilities.
The new survey also tests a smaller bond just for neighborhood parks and pools, including the International Swim Center.
We may have dueling bond measures in Santa Clara. Or opposition is forming to a big, expensive one.
This is a developing story.
[…] some residents were recently polled and asked about a smaller bond measure that would be dedicated to fire and police […]
City of Sierra Madre was warned by fppc not to do this
A good polling question.
Are the 49ers paying their fare shate of expenses regardibg stadium?
These aren’t really polls, they are the modern version of the focus group. They are getting input on the best way to present this. Not to change it, just how to make it seem more palatable. They did the same thing with the stadium, I was part of an in person focus group. The group ended up not liking the idea but they found the best way to present it to voters. I don’t know if there are any real polls anymore. The more questions they ask the more it is a focus group. When it becomes obvious, I hang up. They are trying to tell you that you can pick up a turd by the clean end. JUST SAY NO!
The mailer had a link to fill in the survey online, so it’s not true that we “had to” mail the document back and pay for the postage. It was a weird survey though.