Survey smurvey

Ever notice how the Dems and left wing politicians love their public surveys?

A few weeks ago the Longmont city council deliberated ad nauseum in shaping questions for the biannual city Customer Satisfaction Survey coming out this summer at a cost of over $27,000. Leading the way in the minutia parade were the three far-left members of council, Brian Hansen, Sean McCoy, and Sarah Levison. They acted as if the survey was the infallible Magna Carta of all things relating to Longmont policy.


Councilman Hansen even had the audacity to suggest that the survey results might be more representative of public sentiment than actual election results. That's curious, considering the progressive agenda was overwhelmingly rejected by Longmont voters in the November 2009 election.

Conveniently omitted in the council's survey discussion was the fact that only 738 people responded to the 2008 version of the survey out of 3000 surveys sent out, a response of less than 1% of Longmont's population. Yet Councilman Sean McCoy suggested that this borderline scientific sampling was the most important element for him to form his decision making?

By the way, I have lived in Longmont for over 30 years, never miss a vote, and I have never been chosen at random to participate in a Longmont city survey. Maybe it's just the odds, but a former city councilwoman who has lived here longer than me relates that she has never been picked to respond to a survey either.

On equally shaky footing is Boulder County's Issues Survey just released from a telephone sampling of the county as sanctioned by the BoCo commissioners. The numbers with this survey were even more meager--a sampling of only 603 people (registered voters) out of Boulder County's population of just over 300,000.

Of course the county commissioners got the answers they wanted--a favorable rating for a new social services sales tax and the usual Boulder-dominated support for any kind of open space tax or extension. It's all "feel good" stuff, without the mention that Boulder County is nearly $300 million in debt for enviro programs such as ClimateSmart, open space, etc.

I contend that typical public surveys are of minimal value since the questions rarely tell the full story, especially when it comes to economic cost. The BoCo commissioners and the Longmont Left may think their programs are popular with the public, but just wait until November to see the only survey that really counts from the voters...Election Day 2010.