Politics & Government

RB Community Council Explores Creating Own Version of 'Poisoned' Welcome Sign Survey

Several lingering concerns about how the survey is being conducted have prompted some to call for the council to take control of the process.

The Rancho Bernardo Community Council on Thursday discussed alternatives to current online welcome sign voting amid concerns that the process is flawed and has been "poisoned" by business interests. Council members took issue in particular with a business group email, repeat voting by clearing internet browser cookies, and the inability of non-computer users to have their say.

The council's monthly meeting also included a guest speaker on redistricting and updates on the election and upcoming events.

The latest twist in the welcome sign decision began Thursday with the second round of voting, a runoff between a new contemporary design and the traditional concept which received the most votes but was not declared the winner in the first round of voting last month. The Refresh RB Committee, a group of community and business people, decided the first round was inconclusive due to a small vote gap between the traditional design and the two contemporary contenders. A new contemporary design blending the contenders was created to run against the traditional design from round one, a move some believe springs from the business community's desire to have a contemporary design.

Find out what's happening in Rancho Bernardo-4s Ranchwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

An email sent Thursday from the vote's online administrator, the San Diego North Chamber of Commerce, to its members encouraged participation in the survey. Some council members said the email had gone out to all of the chamber's members, even though voting is supposed to only be for RB residents and business owners, raising their suspicion that business leaders are trying to flood the vote with contemporary design supporters. A copy of the email provided to Patch begins with the address, "Dear Rancho Bernardo community members, businesses, and invested patrons." A chamber representative on Friday said it was only emailed to members in the 92127 and 92128 ZIP codes.

Similar emails also went out Thursday from the Rancho Bernardo Business Association, whose president designed the new contemporary concept, and the Bernardo Town Center Property Owners Association. The association email, which came as a "member announcement" through the RBBA mailing list, included a specific appeal for people to vote for the contemporary design. The other RBBA email, sent on behalf of the Refresh RB Committee, did not cite a preference.

Find out what's happening in Rancho Bernardo-4s Ranchwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Also at issue was the contested assertion of Refresh RB members that people can only vote once per computer, or IP address, to prevent repeat voting. The council reported hearing that clearing internet browser cookies—little bits of stored information—will allow multiple votes from the same IP address.

To test these claims, Patch voted once for Concept 1 then tried to vote again but was shown a message saying that a vote had already been placed. Seconds later, Patch cleared the cookies in the browser and went back to the site again. This time, Patch was able to vote once more, this time for Concept 2 to avoid any net impact on voting results.

The survey also required the age of the voter, a change from the first round in which responders only had to indicate a design preference. Patch selected the 21-35 age group for both votes. The age question was added to see which age groups prefer each design, the committee said. Voter age has been an issue throughout the online-only voting process, which some feel excludes older residents who may not use computers. The committee has said paper ballots are cost prohibitive.

In response to these several concerns, the Community Council is looking into conducting its own informal in-person poll outside of local stores, similar to gathering ballot initiative signatures. Some council members tried to vote Thursday to take control of the voting process from the Refresh RB Committee, which was formed by Councilman Carl DeMaio, but that move did not have majority support.

Welcome sign voting is open until 11:59 p.m. April 7 at RefreshRB.com. The committee has said the design with the most votes will win, and be forwarded to the Community Council and RB Planning Board for final approval. The design will then go to the city of San Diego's MAD for implementation, with funding through the insurance settlement from the accident that destroyed the old sign.

Other notes from the meeting:

  • Midori Wong, chief of staff for the city's 2010 Redistricting Commission, gave a brief overview of the nine-month process—which is slated to end in August—of realigning City Council districts to correspond with the latest census data. Each of the soon-to-be nine districts is expected to have 145,267 residents. Creating population-equal districts and "identifiable communities of interest" will be key to redistricting she said. What makes a group a community of interest depends on a number of factors such as shared economic interest, Wong said. "What constitutes a 'community of interest' is varied; there is no one single legal definition. The Commission is therefore relying on San Diego residents to provide testimony as to what they believe is their 'community of interest' to inform creation of the redistricting plan," Wong said in a follow-up email Friday. More about redistricting, including dates for public forums, can be found here.
  • The Community Council will be holding elections in May and members hope to get some new people involved. For more on elections, click here.
  • Registration for the first "Chalk it Up" Sidewalk Chalk Event on May 21 is now open. Children and adults are able to compete for several prizes from local businesses, such as and the . Applications can be downloaded at RBCommunityCouncil.com.

 

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