Richardson citizens have different views about political survey

by Andrew Laska of Richardson Echo

RICHARDSON — Last November Richardson residents reported being asked to participate in a telephone survey about the state of Richardson and its leadership. Some perceived the survey as an attack on newer members of the city council, while others did not. Rumors began to fly as to who the conducted it and what it was about. Some council members denounced the survey without having seen the results and hearing of the questions only secondhand. The phone survey created a minor stir. Recently the Echo was able to see the actual survey questions, and we will reveal what the survey says residents think of City Manager Bill Keffler.

The November survey was conducted by phone and all that most residents seemed to be able to glean was secondhand, and from word of mouth. As I investigated the survey I found many more people who knew that a survey had occurred than I did who actually received the survey by phone. During my investigations, the most negative opinions of the survey I could find – in a limited sample admittedly – came from people who never received it.

I did find someone with firsthand knowledge who was willing to show me the survey and share some results. I will tell you about the back story and my source later in this article but first let me share with you one result.

City manager Bill Keffler is doing a very good job according to the respondents of the survey. In fact, according the consultants who helped with the survey, Keffler scored higher than other city managers on other polls that the consultant had participated in.

My source said that Keffler, “has great credentials and we are fortunate to have this caliber of individual running the city,” and added that, “the citizens agree with that.”

I hesitate to write about this at all. So what is all the fuss about? It is just a survey? Why would someone care about a phone survey?

Answer: because it was claimed by some to be a “push poll” that was intended to cast a bad light on newer council members who had voted to oust Gary Slagel as the longtime mayor.

To give you a bit of historical background, Steve Mitchell, Rhea Allison, Dennis Stewart, and Pris Hayes voted Steve Mitchell into the mayor’s position and voted against long time mayor Gary Slagel. Slagel, Bob Townsend, and John Murphy voted for Slagel as mayor and against Mitchell.

Some rumors had said the survey was “poisoning opinion” (in the words of one resident I spoke to) about newer council members. That person, by the way, admitted that he never himself received the survey.

In January, I asked several council members who were rumored to be targets to the survey what they knew about and what they thought about it.

I thought Mayor Steve Mitchell would have a strong response if the rumors were true. After all, one would assume he would be a prime target if indeed the survey sought to taint opinion of him.

All he told me was that he heard there was a phone survey but he knows nothing about it. When I tried to ask about the rumors several different ways he responded, “I know nothing about it.”

Other council members were not so shy.

Dennis Stewart said a resident told him that a survey had been conducted and that it was perceived as “anti-current city council.”

“From what I know it was concerned about Pris [Hayes], Rhea [Allison], Steve [Mitchell] and I,” he told me and said it seemed to be concerned with how “former Mayor Gary Slagel was treated.”

He seemed frustrated, and quite openly asked me reveal something if I found out about it. “At least give us a chance,” he said. (Incidentally, Stewart’s comment was one reason, amongst others, which led me to pursue it further.)

Council person Rhea Allison said, “Residents are upset” about it.

It was “damning toward new people on the city council,” he said, “It asked, ‘How do you feel about this person who voted a certain way.’” And he said it asked, “leading questions.”

Allison said he had a hunch that the survey was conducted by the “Friends of Richardson” which was a group who ran an advertisement before the last city council elections touting what “What’s right about Richardson.”

In the copy of the advertisement I was able to obtain, no mention was made of city council candidates.

“Whoever is responsible for that survey ought to publicly apologize,” Allison said. “They are no friends of Richardson.”

Pris Hayes said, “I don’t know who did it and I didn’t receive it.”

“It sounds like a push poll and I wouldn’t trust it,” Hayes said, and that it was “probably unscientific.”

How about the council members who voted for former Mayor Gary Slagel?

Bob Townsend said, “I know nothing about it,” and he added, “I might have gotten one e-mail from someone who was unhappy.”

John Murphy said, “I don’t know anything specific, it’s not a council initiative, and I don’t know what the intent was.”

“It’s a touchy subject,” he added, and if we see the results, “we will react and deal with it at that time.”

Lastly, Gary Slagel told us that he did not conduct the survey himself and nor did he commission it.

“It seemed to surprise people,” he said and added that he did not know if anything could be learned from it.

As a disclaimer, the reader should be made aware that the council members I talked to did not receive the survey themselves and openly admitted only secondhand knowledge.

I asked several other people, in January, if they conducted it and got no positive responses.

Did the Richardson Chamber of Commerce conduct it? Bill Sproull, President and CEO of the Richardson Chamber stated strongly that the Chamber had nothing to do with the survey.

Eventually and recently I did find someone who had firsthand knowledge. In fact, this person was willing to leak some of the results. Although I cannot confirm this, I think maybe the person wanted to dispel the negative rumors or maybe they simply thought the data would be useful to the public.

This person spoke to me on the condition of anonymity and told me he would release some of the data under certain conditions.

I agreed but I said there was no way I was going to publish the results without seeing more about the survey including the full set of written questions. I stated that I wanted to respond to the rumors. Was this a so-called push poll or not?

So we agreed that I could see all of the survey questions including data about the methodology and I would be limited as to what I said about the questions. I added the condition that if I determined there was any deception, then all conditions of anonymity would be off the table. My source agreed to the terms.

Before all of that I wanted to find out more about the poll that was given and push polls in general. I consulted experts in political polling.

Opinion Research Corporation conducted the survey itself as reported by people who received the poll. Opinion Research has worked with CNN on nationwide political polls and appears to work with many major companies on market research. They are a well-respected polling organization.

I asked Harold Clarke, an expert on political polling, about push polls. Clarke holds the Ashbel Smith chair in Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas at Dallas.

He stated that technically a “push poll” is done “in the guise of objective evidence in order to convince people of a particular position or candidate.”

He said the hallmarks are “obviously biased questions” and “bad samples” of data, but he warned me to “be careful attributing motivation” because some questions can be unintentionally written with bias.

I inquired with other people with professional knowledge about surveys and with that I was ready to see the survey.

So then my source and I met and I read through all of the survey questions. Was it a push poll?

No. As far as I can determine there was no intention of coloring particular city council members one way or another. The sample was a “stratified random sample of Richardson voters with a history of voting in municipal elections.” The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 points.

A few people told me they had heard that such and such a question was on the survey but all of those descriptions – told to me anyway – were inaccurate. Sometimes they were wildly inaccurate.

So I ask: Who is conducting the survey and why are they doing it? My source states that it is a group of Richardson residents who want, “an independent assessment of whether the city’s goals align with those of the citizens.”

Who are they? He reminds me of my agreed condition of anonymity. Fair enough. My source assured me that nobody on the city staff or on the city council was involved in conducting the survey.

So what of the rumors of push polling?

Unfortunately I am limited in what I can describe about the questions. If I did not agree to that then you would not be reading this story at all. However, it seemed clear that it was not a push poll and the poll itself was not aimed at the newer council members. What the people who commissioned the poll do with the data could be anything. Maybe that upsets some people more than the poll itself.

I could identify one question that maybe – and I say maybe – would be considered biased and that question had nothing to do with city council members. In fact, most were fairly flat and matter-of-fact questions. If this was a push poll then they were not pushing very hard.

Beyond that, several questions would genuinely interest people who are interested in what the public thinks of city hall.

In fact, if one knew nothing of the accusations of push polling against newer council members then several questions might have been considered too favorable to the newer council members. This would lead one to a different conclusion than that of the rumors. A far as I could see, the questions were almost free of biasing adjectives and adverbs that seem to add a premise to the question.

If the poll is a good reflection of what residents actually think then, Bill Keffler appears to have the confidence of a great amount of the citizens and they appear to be happy with his work. There are some other numbers my source shared with me but I will save that for an upcoming story so stay tuned.