Fw: Misleading "Survey" sent to Palo Alto residents

[Sheri Furman]

FYI if you haven't heard about this.

-----Forwarded Message-----
From: Andie Reed
Sent: Feb 7, 2021 11:20 AM
To: city.c...@cityofpaloalto.org, City Mgr
Subject: Misleading "Survey" sent to Palo Alto residents

Dear Council Members:

Neighbors would like to voice a strong objection to Castilleja School sending a misleading "survey" to Palo Alto residents, received in our email boxes early February, directly on the heels of the official City of Palo Alto survey. The questionnaire (a copy of the email invitation to participate is copied below in blue) appears official, inviting voters to weigh in on “Palo Alto issues” and the web site is labeled “Palo Alto Voter Survey.”

 

The survey offers up factual inaccuracies about the school’s expansion plans and provides false choices, including biased and misleading statements about trees, parking, floor area, and other contentious issues. It seems clear the results will ultimately be presented to the Council as widespread support of the school’s efforts. We would like to caution city staff and council members to regard this as a PR tactic, and to regard any results it presents as deeply suspect. 

 

Those who have been following the project since it was submitted to the city four years ago (not eight, as the school is now claiming), take exception to the patently leading questions.  For one example, it asks “Do you want an underground garage or an above ground garage”, disregarding whether a commercial garage, inviting more traffic into an R-1 neighborhood, should be permitted at all, and planting the assumption they will win such a large increase in enrollment that would require one.  Among the questions that Council should be pondering is why does a non-compliant applicant, who regularly misrepresents engagement with the neighbors, appear to assume the City will grant them exceptions to the rules and accede to their demands.

  

This private school has the deep pockets to pay for a deceptive “survey” such as this, while frustrated neighbors contend daily with this private entity in an R-1 zone that has violated its CUP maximum enrollment for the past 19 years. We hope the council and staff will not be swayed by the biased “findings” it will undoubtedly present as a factual accounting of local citizens’ wishes.

The proposed expansion of this private school in an R-1 district is out of compliance, wildly outsized for its small site, incompatible with the neighborhood, and impactful to the entire City of Palo Alto. We urge you to censure the school for its attempt to deceive the public by riding on the coattails of the City's official survey without providing a disclosure of its source, and to reject the biased results as nothing more than a well-orchestrated PR effort.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.  

Signed (a few dozen signatures from close-by neighbors of Castilleja, collected in 24 hours):

Andie Reed

Carla Befera 

Mary Sylvester

Rob Levitsky

Hank Sousa

Jim Poppy 

Neva Yarkin

Kimberley Wong

Nelson Ng

Dr. Jean Waltuch

David Quigley

Pam McCroskey

Nancy Strom

Debby Fife

Amber La 

Kathy Croce

Gogo and Art Heinrich

Chi Wong

Terry Rice

Marie Macy

Bill Powar

Patricia Wong

Yanhua and Guohua Zhu

Carolyn and Bill Schmarzo

Dr. Richard Mamelok

Midori Aogaichi

Alan Cooper

Joan McDaniels

Val Steil

Wally Whittier

Erika Jurney

Diane and Joe Rolfe

Stan Shore

Peter Costello

Lucia Ugarte

Rich Spott

################################# misleading "survey" email ###########################################

-----Forwarded Message-----
From: Survey Research
Sent: Feb 3, 2021 6:51 AM
Subject: Reminder: Palo Alto Voter Survey

	Dear resident: We are an independent public opinion research company that has been hired to conduct a voter survey to obtain feedback on some key issues facing Palo Alto. Your participation and responses to this survey will be completely confidential. The identity of individual respondents and their individual answers to survey questions will not be shared. Please click here to take the survey or copy and paste the link below into your web browser. https://research-opinions.com/index.php/survey/index/sid/547378/newtest/Y/lang/en/token/4365CB099577 Please do not forward the survey link to others or share it to social media as it is personalized for each recipient of this invitation to ensure that the survey link will only work once. Thank you for participating in this important research.
	To unsubscribe, click: Unsubscribe Survey Research, 8174 Las Vegas Blvd S Suite 109, Las Vegas, NV 89123

#############################################  misleading "survey" email###########################

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Andie Reed CPA
160 Melville Ave

Palo Alto, CA  94301
530-401-3809