City Funds Phony Survey

Check out the latest spin from the City of Mission Viejo eNewsletter, Oct. 15, http://www.cityofmissionviejo.org/News.aspx Residents received an email blast titled, “Poll shows voters support idea of creating a new MV school district.”

Responses in the survey of 325 city voters demonstrate no such support. Survey questions inject bias without information on negatives or cost, and even the statistical findings show mixed results for push-polling. Among laughable findings, the “most compelling reason” for forming a city school district is different calendar schedules between the two districts, Capo and Saddleback Valley. If that’s a compelling reason for changing anything, will the council now ask the two districts to coordinate their calendar schedules? What the survey really shows is that the city should stop doing surveys.

An alert Mission Viejo resident posted a letter on Brad Morton’s blog, http://missionviejodispatch.com/?p=11792#comments , revealing the true nature of the poll and its creator, Adam Probolsky. Probolsky Research’s Website, http://www.probolskyresearch.com , touts its services: “move public opinion” and “provide cover for decision makers.” Is anyone surprised that Wilberg and the council majority of MacLean, Ury and Kelley (MUK) need help covering their ass(ets)?

The city’s concept of a survey is propaganda – inventing opinion instead of measuring it. For further information, the survey and its results are available on the city’s Website, www.cityofmissionviejo.org Incredibly, the city’s email about the survey came in the form of a press release from City Attorney Bill Curley. By the time a lawyer is charging $400 an hour to write a press release, residents should grab their wallets and run.

The taxpayer-funded survey is designed to show that residents want the city government to meddle in public schools, which it is legally barred from doing. School district constituents – parents, students and other taxpayers – should now respond to the city’s intrusion into public education with one voice: STOP! Whatever problems the two districts have, the solution isn’t to have city hall flexing its muscle with more taxpayer-funded lawsuits and the city attorney crafting press releases.

How did the MUK majority wander off the page? As a matter of authority, school boards – not cities – have decision-making powers to divide districts. When the city (in the person of Frank Ury) began talking about meddling in school district business, a CUSD trustee expressed surprise, saying the district had not been approached. While the city cannot divide the school districts, Ury is capable of leveraging division in the community to attack his old nemesis, SVUSD, where he was thrown off the board of trustees after one term in 1994.

Regardless of Ury’s motives, city taxpayers just got billed $15,000 for another phony city survey.