Dec
30
Where’s Gerri?
Filed Under City Council Meetings, Post Election Analysis, Teamwork | 18 Comments
12/31 update: I plan to post details on this coming Monday’s City Council meeting and the agenda sometime on the first. Enjoy the last hours of 2008, and stay safe!
(by Dave Emerson) Today’s News Enterprise included a pleasant letter to the editor under the headline, “Happy Holidays from the City Council,” as follows:
The Los Alamitos City Council wishes to extend Happy Holidays to our residents and businesses. As we look forward to the challenges of 2009, we encourage our citizens to join with us in opening communications and seeking solutions as we face future economic opportunities.
By working together we can develop a vision and a plan for Los Alamitos into the mid 2020′s. Your input and participation will be greatly appreciated.
Personally, I appreciated the sentiments expressed in the letter:
- A pleasant holiday greeting from the Council to residents and businesses alike.
- An encouragement for citizens to communicate and seek solutions.
- An emphasis on opportunities rather than problems.
- A desire to work together.
- A focus on developing a vision and plan for Los Alamitos together.
- Thinking beyond the next few years into the mid 2020s.
In fact, some of that language could have come right out of some of my earlier posts on this blog. Lots of things to affirm there.
Unfortunately, as one astute poster noted here earlier today, Gerri Mejia’s signature was missing at the bottom of the letter. Read more
Dec
19
The new majority’s first Council Meeting: a solid “C?”
Filed Under City Council Meetings, Election Issues, Post Election Analysis, Teamwork | 30 Comments
(by Dave Emerson) Between judging a local Holiday decorating contest and welcoming our newest grandchild into the world, I never got to see all of Monday’s City Council meeting, but I did catch enough to gain some first impressions of the way the new majority started off, some good, some bad.
I also learned a bit from scrolling through the on-line discussion here of that meeting (See “Your comments on the 12/15 Los Alamitos City Council Meeting,” with 34 comments so far.) I’m pleased to see the interaction, some of it actually constructive. Discussion helps us understand each other and find the areas we can work together on.
In this post I’ll focus on item 11, topics B, C, and D, and being the old teacher that I am, grade the Council on each item.
11. B: Purchase of financial hardware and software
The good news is the Council unanimously approved this purchase, despite the high initial cost. To me this was a classic case of needing to spend money now to save lots more money later, and it was gratifying to see the Council agree unanimously. It demonstrated the Council’s willingness to embrace technology and strategic spending, at least in this case. Read more
Nov
13
Job # 1 for our new City Council: Reach out!
Filed Under C.P.L.A. & L.A.T.A., Post Election Analysis, Teamwork | 6 Comments
As I spoke with hundreds of Los Al residents over the past two months, there was one comment that consistently received the most agreement and the greatest enthusiasm.
“I’m running to try to get our Council and our community to work together as a unified, effective team.”
I never got close to knocking every voter’s door, and I didn’t get close enough to win the election either, but I did receive the votes of over 1,000 of my fellow citizens.
Even more significant, with absolutely no campaigning, no signs, no mailers, no flyers, no door knocking, three flyers and an expensive website attacking her, and widespread publicity of her withdrawal from the race, Cat Driscoll still received over 700 votes!
And, despite poor ballot placement, a three-month mudslinging campaign, and tens of thousands of dollars spent on the most expensive negative campaign in the history of Los Alamitos, Ken Parker still received over 1300 votes.
The new Los Alamitos City Council majority now has a choice to make: They can reach out to the thousands of voters who did not vote for their candidates, or they can further alienate them. They can attempt to tear down walls between citizens, or they can build them higher. They can attempt to make peace, or continue a war that has divided our community for well over a decade.
Our town has a sad history of the Council majority ignoring and alienating their opponents. I had hoped that would change with a new majority taking charge four years ago. Sadly, it didn’t change as much as I had hoped. Although a number of positive changes passed with 5-0 votes from 2004 – 2006, the unified team effort I had hoped for never really came to fruition.
Hopefully this time it will be different.
Is it possible?
Over time, almost anything is possible if enough persistence, sincerity, and grace are involved. It is certainly possible to make positive steps in the right direction. It is also possible to drive people further apart. That’s not only counterproductive, but just plain wrong!
One key is for both sides to attempt to put the past behind and move forward. That will probably take some apologizing and distancing from some of the dirtier aspects of the past campaign. Hopefully some reflection by the new majority will lead to an overdue but sincere condemnation of some of the extreme practices of the CPLA and LATA’s campaign advisers. If not, those who have been wounded by those attacks need to find a constructive way to move forward.
Two more steps to building an effective team, as I’ve mentioned repeatedly, are to begin with the goals everyone agrees on, and to make sure all sides feel like their views have been heard and understood.
I’ll be talking more about this over the next few weeks, but tomorrow I hope to get up the agenda for this coming Monday’s Los Alamitos City Council meeting, along with a few more thoughts of my own. In the meantime, your thoughts and comments are always welcome.
Thanks for stopping by.
Nov
10
Closer than it looked?
Filed Under Election Issues, Post Election Analysis | 7 Comments
[Coming Tuesday: What do you think should be our new City Council's top priorities?]
Los Alamitos City Council Election Results, Monday, 11/10, 10 a.m.
| CITY OF LOS ALAMITOS Member, City Council |
| Number To Vote For: 2 |
| Completed Precincts: 10 of 10 |
| Vote Count | Percentage | |
| MARILYNN POE | 1,711 | 25.9% |
| KEN STEPHENS | 1,668 | 25.2% |
| KENNETH C. PARKER | 1,372 | 20.8% |
| DAVID “DAVE” EMERSON | 1,132 | 17.1% |
| CATHERINE “CAT” DRISCOLL | 726 | 11.0% |
.
(by Dave Emerson) Well, that surely was an interesting election, with some very interesting results.
Today I’d like to address a couple interesting items in addition to some of the items we discussed in Wednesday’s “The Day After” post and Friday’s precinct-by-precinct results post.
Anyone who kept track of what they got in their mail know that the winners sent out at least three to six times the mailers that their opponents did, depending on if you count the eleven “slate mailers” paid for by the Los Alamitos Taxpayers Association, not to mention the hit pieces from CPLA and LATA. But we’re going to ignore the obvious money disparity for now and look at two less noticed items.
The impact of ballot order:
It has long been known that candidates whose names appear first receive additional votes. One grizzled veteran of many California campaigns told me that in his experience about 10% of voters automatically vote for the first two candidates in races where the ballot instructs voters are to “vote for two.”
In case you forgot, here’s the ballot order for all precincts for Los Alamitos City Council:
- Ken Stephens
- Marilyn Poe
- Dave Emerson
- Cat Driscoll
- Ken Parker
Back in 1998 a study was conducted on the topic by Jon Krosnick, an Ohio State Professor of psychology and political science (an interesting and appropriate combination.) He found that on average candidates in Ohio received 2.33% more votes when their names appeared first. However, he found that number was dramatically higher in non-partisan contests, and in contests that received less media attention. The factor would be greatest in a Presidential election, especially one with a high voter turnout. It might well be higher in California than in Ohio, and in 2008 than in 1998.
It’s most logical that the influence would be even more pronounced when the first candidate and the last candidate on the ballot were both named “Ken,” with the first being a newcomer and the last a two term incumbent and Mayor. But if we just stick with the California political pro’s 10% of the voters picking the top two, here’s how the results would stack up if Parker and I were listed 1st & 2nd on the ballot instead if Stephens and Poe:
- Ken Parker, 1705 votes
- Dave Emerson, 1462 votes
- Marilyn Poe, 1381 votes
- Ken Stephens, 1338 votes
- Cat Driscoll, 726 votes
If you went with a 5% difference, which seems really conservative in this race, the order would have been:
- Marilyn Poe, 1546 votes
- Ken Parker, 1540 votes
- Ken Stephens, 1518 votes
- Dave Emerson, 1297 votes
- Cat Driscoll, 762 votes.
None of this changes the results. Ballot placement, like bad calls by refs at sporting events, are just part of the program. But it is interesting.
Cat’s 726 votes:
This is the tough one for me. Catherine “Cat” Driscoll’s withdrawal from the race on her doctor’s recommendation was announced by a press release from the City on Tuesday morning, October 7, almost a full month before the election. Cat made it clear that she would not serve if elected. It was posted here and on the city website the same day, and made the OC Register on Wednesday, 10/8. It was also at the top of the left hand column of the News Enterprise on Wednesday, 10/8, although it was dwarfed by the AutumnFest headline and huge color photo of the event’s Ferris wheel.
The newly created “Los Alamitos Taxpayers Association” lost no time getting out a $5,000 full color card stock, oversized flyer announcing Driscoll’s withdrawal in bold 60 point type. Apparently they wanted to be sure she didn’t beat either of the two candidates they supported and then change her mind. I also made mention of her withdrawal in several flyers I distributed targeting absentee voters, who began voting shortly after Cat’s announced withdrawal.
A little while later Cat went on to endorse myself and Ken Parker. In two subsequent flyers I both mentioned Cat’s withdrawal and her endorsement. As I visited homes and called voters even on election day many were surprised to learn that Cat had withdrawn.
Even so, 726 of about 3,300 voters–about 22%–still voted for Cat! That in spite of being listed 4th on the ballot! If 80% of Cat’s votes had gone to me, I would have finished first, with no change in ballot name order. If 75% had gone to me, I would have finished second. If 40% had gone to Ken Parker, he would have finished second, with 45% he would have taken first, despite being listed last on the ballot.
The sad truth about Los Alamitos’ media coverage
22% of the voters apparently were not aware Cat had withdrawn, despite front page coverage in the News Enterprise, on the City’s website, on this blog, and coverage online and in print in the Orange County Register. Plus one of the most expensive mailers this city has ever seen for a local race going to every voter in the city. Plus my one full page two sided color flyer left on most porches the weekend just before the election.
This shows how hard it is to inform voters in our community. We get virtually no coverage in TV and radio, other than LosAlTV3. Unless you live in Rossmoor Highlands, Los Al residents now only get one local weekly paper to one, now that the Sun has cut out the rest of our residences. Less than a third of our residents get a daily newspaper, you really have to search to find coverage of Los Alamitos in the dailies. It’s usually buried on page 5 or 6 of the Register’s Local section, almost never in the Times, and rarely in the Press Telegram.
Which is one reason I intend to keep this blog up and hopefully even growing in the months ahead!
It’s also why everyone is free to post their thoughts, questions, and concerns in the comments box below. (No box? Just scroll to the top and click the blue “Comment(s)” below the headline.) Please remember to use polite language and a relatively respectful tone.
Because the easiest way to Fix Los Al is to learn to work together, starting with the things we all agree on.
