Comprehensive Plan - Survey Results June, 2008 

To obtain citizen input, Lynn Thomas, Easton’s Long Range Planner, created an online survey. This is available for viewing on the Town website, address in the first paragraph of this report. There was much concern about this survey, noted below.

1. It was not a random survey. Random surveys are done by an independent party, and responses can be validated as coming from a random selection of people.

2. Even though an effort has been made to prevent duplicate answers from the same people, anyone could forward the survey to their entire e-mail address book with suggestions on how to respond. Al Silverstein stated publicly in the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting on July 17 that he had forwarded it to 1,000 Chamber of Commerce members. This alone invalidates the random concept. There is no way to know whether responses to the town survey are even from the Eastern Shore!

3. Valid surveys are put together by an independent party to ensure that they are worded in such a way that answers are not elicited that produce biased results. An independent party can also insure that the wording is clear and understandable. This survey was created by the Town Long Range Planner.

4. Basing the Comp Plan largely on survey responses diminishes the input of citizens interested enough to come to four meetings. These people learned about the various aspects of growth, and voted resoundingly by a show of hands that NO ANNEXATION IS NECESSARY during this 6-year planning period. Those who took the e-mail survey did not have the benefit of the education done by the Planning Department in the four meetings.

5. It is disturbing that the survey was to be evaluated by “a few clicks of a computer button.” A statistically valid analysis would surely have required more than that.

6. Most egregious, is the fact that on one question that obliquely addressed the issue of annexation, the order of response was changed from the time the survey originally went out to a different order later. Even assuming that the website can correctly identify the changed responses, to change the survey in mid-stream is unacceptable. It would be one thing if the question were clear: is more annexation necessary? However, the poorly worded question needed clarification as to what responses would achieve the desired results, and then that clarification could easily have produced unwanted responses since the order was changed.

7. A poor survey effort does not constitute citizen participation and should not be the basis for the Comprehensive Plan

Survey Results: While the survey was really quite flawed in terms of using the results as a basis for the Comp Plan direction, it is interesting to note that generally public sentiment reflects a desire to keep Easton a nice small town. While we believe that the message is clear in terms of limiting annexation over the next five-ten years, we do not know exactly what will be written in the draft that Lynn Thomas will prepare for the P&Z Commission and the Town Council.