Council questions survey

By Morning Star StaffAug 16 2006 http://www.vernonmorningstar.com/
Some Vernon council members are questioning the viability of a public survey.
On Monday, council approved a two-page survey being sent out with this falls’ utility bills, but the politicians aren’t expecting to get much in return. “I’m not sure how meaningful this is,” said Coun. Juliette Cunningham. “There was a six per cent return last year so it’s useless.” As part of the survey, residents are asked their opinion on a variety of city services, and they can rank them from poor to excellent. Coun. Patrick Nicol’s primary concern is the survey doesn’t generate a lot of in depth feedback. “Just ticking a box doesn’t give you a lot of information,” he said. However, some politicians rose to the defence of the study and its $4,000 cost. “It’s a nominal cost method to get the reaction of the public,” said Coun. Barry Beardsell. “It gives us a real picture of what people are thinking about.”
Beardsell believes the city should strongly encourage residents to fill the survey out so any needed improvements to services are implemented. In fact, Beardsell believes the addition of one question would have people scrambling to send their surveys in to city hall. “The question should be, what do you think of your elected officials? We’d get a huge response,” he said.
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DON QUIXOTE NOTE: At the COW meeting on Monday the Council approved a Citizen Survey that will be enclosed in your next Utility Bill. It may also be put online at the City's website. It will be a simple 2 page survey with boxes to tick and room at the end for any comments. The survey can be returned at various convenient location. The added incentive of a prize draw is included once again to try and boost the participation rate from the last year's 6% to a more respectable 15-20% target. The cost of this survey will be less than the $6,000 spent in last year even with the addition of radio and newspaper ads promoting its return. Coun. Beardsell with tongue in cheek suggested a question could be added asking for a performance rating of their members of council. A great laugh but no inclusion on the survey. That suggestion met with the same response as my request for the Council to forego a 3% raise that is built into the budget for nest year. However for readers of the VernonBlog we will be providing a weekly survey of one member of council rating their performance. I'm sure they will all try to get their friends and supporters to boost their ratings and skew the results but that will drive up my readership without having to offer a modest prize as the City needs to.Watch next Saturday for the first weekly rating poll on a selected council member. Unless I get an outcry for a particular council member selection in the comments section it will be done alphabetically. TEST THE VOTING SYSTEM BY CLICKING ON CAST YOUR VOTE LINK AT TOP OF LEFT COLUMN.