Praises to the people and groups who reach out to invite community engagement through surveys. At the same time, I’m begging for the wealth of the Bay Area’s social scientists to help whoever is creating these surveys.

District 28, Gail Pellerin’s, Community Survey

Here is a link to a blank copy of the survey for reference after the live survey disappears. And, here is the link to the live survey. Fill it out only if you reside in California Assembly District 28, Gail Pellerin’s territory. The deadline is December 15^th 2023.

Who is Gail Pellerin?

The following is Assemblymember Pellerin’s biography, from her website:

Assemblymember Gail Pellerin was elected to the California State Assembly in November of 2022 to represent the 28th Assembly District.

Assemblymember Pellerin served as the chief elections official in Santa Cruz County from 1993 until her retirement in December 2020. Gail served as President of the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials from 2010 to 2012 and as co-chair of the Secretary of State’s Voting Accessibility Advisory Committee.

Gail has a BS in Journalism from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. Before her experience in public service, Gail worked as a campaign assistant to political campaigns, a newspaper reporter and photographer, and a community college instructor.

Proper Survey Methodology

The first thing I instruct anyone who is creating a survey meant to inform their work is: assure that the answers are precise enough to inform your actions. Read the survey carefully with that in mind. Will Assemblymember Pellerin take the issues with the highest votes and focus effort there? Or will Pellerin use the responses to formulate a better election platform? Her next bid for election is November 2024. Maybe it’s a bit of both.

The next thing I tell anyone who is creating a survey is: tell the respondents what you will do with their data.

Neither the survey I posted last week, nor this current survey have anything definitive about how your answers might affect anything. This is a recipe for a low response rate and lowered community confidence in public process, in general. Ostensibly, public engagement surveys are created for just that: to engage the public. Surveys can not only gather information, but they can inform the public about what’s happening.

Another thing I tell survey design folks is to edit their surveys. The mix of words that are capitalized and not is distracting and further leaves intelligent respondents less than hopeful about the outcome of their time filling out the survey.

What to do with “Other?”

Most survey choices don’t reflect my proclivities, but sometimes there’s an ‘other’ choice- where I can fill in my non-conforming response. I get stuck there: if I have a non-conforming response, does that mean that it will be discarded, or will someone take the time to collate all such responses into trends? How to I pose my ‘other’ response such that it will blend with anyone else’s similar answer, so that together we make a bigger impact? Should I take the time to organize a lot of people in my District to fill in the ‘other’ category so that the Assemblymember pays attention?

I hope someone who designs these surveys lets me know, or, better, that future surveys guide respondents better.

First Question: What is Our Community’s Greatest Need?

The first question, “what is the greatest need facing your community,” is an interesting one. The question challenges the respondent to think of themselves as part of a greater community. This is laudable, encouraging civic thought along the lines of ‘what issue can an Assemblymember address that can cause the greatest good for the greatest number of my community?’ It follows that Pellerin chose the list from which the respondent can choose based on a feasibility analysis, but the survey does not clarify. The most important common human need is to reduce greed, as evidenced by income disparity in our community, and all the issues listed have root causes in that arena. Alas, addressing that need must be beyond feasibility.

With this question, I struggled with the previously mentioned “other” box. My base philosophy is that my community’s greatest need is environmental stewardship: we need all species, and we can do a lot locally to help that need. However, the survey offers the choice ‘Additional Park/Open Space,’ which doesn’t quite work. I almost wrote ‘species conservation’ in the ‘other’ box, but chose that ‘conforming’ answer just to be safe.

Question 3: Housing Nonsense

Check it out: the survey says to ‘check all that apply’ as ‘most needed.’ There’s a logical error inherent in that, right? There are undoubtedly statistics about this, and really this is a question for experts…very few civically engaged people would know how to answer this, but again it’s a laudable exercise to engage our community in the question. And, the informational aspect of the question again poses interesting contrasts. For instance, you can vote for “Middle income/moderate-density housing” versus “low income housing” or “senior housing,” suggesting low income housing or senior housing will be anything but moderate density. That is, suck it up low income people and seniors – you’re going to have to live in packed-in spaces. Interestingly, single family housing stands alone among the other choices that reflect income, age status, or density; so, medium or high density housing and housing for low income or seniors apparently also isn’t in the cards for stand-alone homes. Very informative!

Current Legislation

The final question, weighing in on expanding on someone’s list of current legislative priorities, is also enlightening. This question also says ‘check all that apply.’ I would assume any thinking person would check the box ‘combating climate change.’ Beyond that…isn’t it interesting what the Assemblymember has chosen as the menu? This is where the ‘other’ box becomes especially enticing.

Quick! Fill in the survey if you are in District 28!! And, use the survey’s design and information as you cogitate on your vote next November.

-this column originally appeared in Bruce Bratton’s highly enlightening BrattonOnline.com weekly blog- THE PLACE to get the skinny on all that’s worth pondering around California’s Monterey Bay. Sign up for automatic delivery and donate to help keep it going as often as you feel inspired.