The Polco survey, conducted at the direction of a pro-business/pro-development city manager, Shohreh Dupuis, is full of inaccurate polling methodology. First, the American Association on Public Opinion Research recommends against conducting surveys during the holidays which they did. The Polco representative admitted that in her presentation to City Council.
Second, the findings are based on 553 responses from mailed responses. A 2% response rate—not a representative sample using industry standards. Had they included the 1,310 responses from the online survey, the sample size would have been an 8% response rate and have had validity. Residents who spent their time taking the survey were ignored again by this City Manager/City Council.
Third, responses were heavily weighted to North Laguna and Downtown/Village. Scientific (math statistics) probability sample is that you draw your representative samples according to neighborhood population size along with age, gender, race, and socio-economic criteria. This wasn’t done—again South Laguna was very underrepresented compared to its population. So, a baked-in bias in these findings as a result of not doing a proper distribution.
Fourth, results were benchmarked against Polco’s 500 communities nationwide. That is an inaccurate comparison—do we look like Austin, Texas? For an additional $1,000 to $2,000, we could have gotten comparisons with other coastal cities. Why didn’t they do this?
Fifth, the questions were deceitful. Example: would you be for a new parking structure in downtown? No mention of who would pay for it. Of course, 57% of the businesses supported building one—doubtless at taxpayer expense. This deceitful evidence will be used as proof residents want a new parking structure.
Most appalling was the City Manager’s response to Councilmember George Weiss. When he asked about specific questions in the survey, she responded, “We did what the Council asked us to do, so I don’t want to debate the Council on this point”. Does she know that she works for the City Council?
This survey was meaningless when the City Manager directed its creation, the holiday timing, and used only a tiny sample size from mailed responses. They will use this intentionally false evidence as proof to support what they want to do—again putting downtown businesses before residents’ interests. Build that parking structure that residents will pay for and won’t be able to use our shopper’s parking sticker. Another example of City Hall using residents as nothing more than a blank check.
Michèle Monda, Laguna Beach
“The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie — deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth — persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.” — John F. Kennedy
“Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable.” — Mark Twain
“In a nation ruled by swine, all pigs are upwardly mobile—and the rest of us are screwed until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely. We owe that to ourselves and our crippled self-image as something better than a nation of panicked sheep.” —The Great Shark Hunt, Hunter (Gonzo) Thompson 1979
“Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.” — Mark Twain
The Secret To Monda’s Success Is Sincerity – – Once you learn how to fake that you’ve got it made in Laguna