City Hall, Master of Spin

Why does city hall make a practice of exaggerating and understating when the truth would do? Subscribers to the city’s email newsletters get a daily blast of bias.

As an example of spin, the city’s Jan. 28 eNewsletter description of qualifying the Right-To-Vote Initiative was incomplete. Dale Tyler delivered more than 11,000 signatures to the city clerk on Jan. 26. As the next step, the Orange County Registrar of Voters will count and sample the signatures for validity. If sampling finds that the total number exceeds requirements to qualify for the ballot, the verification process is complete. If the sample doesn’t find adequate numbers, the RoV can order a full count. Instead of explaining the process, the city’s eNewsletter jumped to the full count, stating the cost will be $31,000.

Is the amount the point? For a city with an $80-million annual budget, $31,000 isn’t an unreasonable cost to determine the will of the people. The council approved spending considerably more on two phony city surveys that allegedly polled 400 residents to find their “happiness index.” The point is jumping to conclusions two days after the signatures were delivered. The city appears to have begun its PR campaign against the initiative by coming up with highest-cost scenarios, including a potential special election at $226,800. Council members have the option of adopting the initiative as law at no cost.

Blog readers can compare the city’s press release with the Orange County Register’s “news article,” which appears online, http://www.ocregister.com/articles/city-initiative-council-2292489-mission-viejo The same information is missing about the process of validating signatures. When a newspaper adopts the figures and language of a city’s press release, should it be called reporting?

Reader comments within the OCR link note that council members could have saved everyone both the effort and cost if they had represented residents instead of outside interests in prior rezoning decisions.