FULLERTON : Routine Residents’ Survey Considered

City officials are studying a proposal to routinely survey residents, via questionnaires in their water bills, about controversial issues and expensive projects that are pending before the City Council.

But several council members and city administrators said they doubted that such surveys would get much response or that they would be a valid gauge of citizen opinion.

Longtime resident V. F. Bush-Jordan proposed the idea after noticing a one-time-only questionnaire on fire service that had been inserted in her water bill.

Under her proposal, the 28,000 city residents who get water bills would get a bimonthly list of questions that could be answered and sent back with their payments. Questions would be on issues coming before the council.

“We feel the elected officials should have the citizens’ interests at heart and they should take into review as much grass-roots input as they can get,” Bush-Jordan said. “It is a tool for the city officials to use at a minimal cost.”

Several other residents and Fullerton Republican Women, Federated, endorsed the proposal.

“It is better than little or no input that would otherwise exist,” said Jerry Younker, president of the North Fullerton Homeowners Assn.

But city officials say most similar mailings have ended up in the trash and had a response rate of about 1%.

City Councilman Don Bankhead pointed to several surveys, including one on library use in which the city mailed out 27,000 questionnaires and got only 896 responses, and another on bike trails, in which 46,000 ballots were mailed and 250 people responded.

“I don’t, quite frankly, feel that we’re going to get a tremendous response,” he said.

City officials said water bills go only to residents of single-family households, not apartment, and would represent only 58% of the population.

Also, some topics--such as a proposed 880-unit Unocal housing development coming before the council--require more information than several sentences on a questionnaire, said City Councilman Richard C. Ackerman.

“I don’t think there’s any way you could conduct a poll on the Unocal development,” Ackerman said. “It’s just too complex.”

The council is expected to consider other proposals to improve communication, including mailing citywide notices of public hearings on controversial topics or conducting more scientific surveys through Cal State Fullerton.