They survey and manipulate

For several months now, the City of Xenia has been using a survey created on their behalf by Wright State University to justify and promote a tax levy and an increase in your city income tax. The survey, they say, indicates that Xenia residents want to pay more taxes because they want more services from the city! But is that true? What if the truth is the opposite? What if the city created a fraudulent survey so they can use it as an excuse for justifying a tax increase?

In a meeting on November 7, 2009, while discussing the survey, the Xenia City Council was trying to decide what the survey content should be. In a rare act of honesty, councilwoman Felton said,

...surveys can be geared to whatever you want them to say.

Mr. Percival thought the survey would do a really good job of getting the information they want. They have done surveys in other communities and were able to identify the information staff is looking for. Based on information they got from the surveys, Councilwoman Felton asked if other communities were successful in passing levies. Mr. Percival said they worked with Trotwood, and Trotwood was successful in passing numerous levies.

The City of Xenia, it appears, had engaged in a purposeful act of designing a survey from ground up for the purpose of justifying a tax levy. This is also evident by the statement made by Mr. Bazelak in the same meeting,

...they are trying to generate specific information, not just asking people how satisfied they are with a certain program or service.

What is even more confusing about the path taken by the City of Xenia, is the insistence today that the levy is about police and fire; they constantly repeat the message in order to manipulate the public and create a certain atmosphere of panic and fear; this is in line with advice given by their consultants from Avakian, as we mentioned in an earlier post here.

The problem is that statements made in private by city employees contradict their public rhetoric. In the same meeting on November 7, 2009, the City Council admitted in plain words that their goals are to bring back all the "lost" employees, and the Parks and Recreation department:

Councilwoman Felton said she understood why Councilman Louderback wants to bring back the employees because people need jobs.

Yes...people need jobs...therefore the residents need to pay more taxes...LOTS more taxes! There you have it folks...in plain English.

Despite what the City of Xenia is claiming in public, the survey conducted by WSU was specifically designed to assist with the passage of the tax levy. Again, their own words support this assertion:

Councilwoman Mills asked if the survey results would tie in with the 2010 levy. Mr. Percival thought it was all tied together. Once they know what our citizens want and will support, they can move forward with the appropriate levy.

The results of the survey in fact contradict the City's message that "police and fire are top priorities." Those residents who were surveyed said that their top three priorities were "downtown revitalization, parks and recreation." The city's own documents recognize that Police and Fire were number four on the list of residents' concerns! Yet the city is promoting police and fire as the top, most critical issue facing the city today. This cannot be explained any way other than manipulating and lying to the public.

The promises made to voters have been even labeled as "fluff" by council people:

...his concern is that they took away the Parks and Recreation Department to save dollars and now we are asking the citizens for more dollars, but we are not giving Parks and Recreation back to them. Councilwoman Caupp said no; instead we are giving them hardcore stuff -- Police Officers and Firefighters/Paramedics and smooth streets. Those are vital services -- Parks and Recreation is fluff. Councilman Smith agreed, but the promise of Parks and Recreation might be what sells it -- "the ribbon on the package."

Those of us opposing the City's use of public funds to sell a tax levy are very disappointed by this public manipulation and outright lying by city officials. We are hoping that Xenia residents will do their best to research this and look hard through the fog of manipulation, and we are encouraging everyone to vote NO on Issue 7.