That printed out well. Now, if you'll just give us address on the return envelope, we can ALL get busy.

Who do you think you are, Emilie Boyles?

I got mine yesterday. It's in the recycle bin.

They ought to give you a $5 coupon off your sewer bill if you fill it out and return it.

Seriously.

Maybe we should organize a movement to write "F THE TRAM" in big letters across it and send it back in the free "business reply mail."

wouldn't failing to answer the survey but using up the postage just waste City money?

What exactly is the problem with the survey? It's the one used by the City Auditor's Office every year to track progress on bureau performance indicators. It's a very well done instrument and process, actually. The question set is pretty stable, which makes trend analysis much easier.

Why'd you throw it away, Dave? Would you vote to discontinue the survey process if you were on Council?

Torrid,
I didn't throw it away, I recycled it; there's a difference.

Frankly, I had no input. Other than turning on the tap and having the water come out and flushing the toilet and having the water go down, I have had no interaction with any city bureaus or services. I suspect that's the case with most folks.

If I were on the council, and I wouldn't be auditor because I don't have the CPA credential, I don't know if I would do surveys or not. It would depend on my bureau assignments and whether I thought surveying was required.

wouldn't failing to answer the survey but using up the postage just waste City money?

Yeah, Dave. Why didn't you fill it out and return it so they could waste it themselves. They're very efficient at waste.

Plus, what's wrong with it - it's what we've always done?

Jeez, if you have to ask...

"What exactly is the problem with the survey?"

Mr TJ, again your bias shows. I think the majority of questions are what do you think of what we are giving you. Not one question on do you think you pay too much or do you think we are wasting money on something.

It is a self-serving exercise that will be buried if they don't like the results. So why fill it out?

Now get back to work :}

Steve,

Huh? I'm wondering who is showing the bias here. Other than question 20, the questions seem quite reasonably worded.

This is a survey intended to gauge your satisfaction with city services. Other folks who want to know about whether taxes are too high are asking the sort of questions you want.

As for the results being buried, issue a FOIA my friend. You may dislike government, but you can always open and look inside, particularly in Portland.

"This is a survey intended to gauge your satisfaction with city services."

I understand the goals, but why not ask more over-arching questions like do we think they are spending money? In addition, if you used FOIA, they would make it as hard as possible (i.e. give you raw unprocessed data) to determine the results of a survey they didn't want you to know.

That is how govt works here. As an example, if Sam wants to know how much people like light-rail, he will ask the 5% who ride light rail, which is not a representative sample.

As for the results being buried, issue a FOIA my friend. You may dislike government, but you can always open and look inside, particularly in Portland.

Oh, how typical of our local apologists.

a) Steve's "biased".

b) Steve "...dislike(s) government...".

and

c) Filing a FOIA request is the simple, easy way to find out those things which any citizen has a right to know about their city's inner workings - WITHOUT using a crowbar.

d) "c" is "particularly" easy here in Portland. Naturally!

For which city bureau did you say you worked, paul?

...it is to laugh

http://money.cnn.com/2007/06/13/real_estate/public_transit_commutes/index.htm

Steve, you don't even know what you're talking about. The survey has been issued annually for YEARS, and the results of every single one have been extensively published in the annual Service Efforts and Accomplishments report, which marks and evaluates the progress of most City bureaus. They are available at portlandonline.com, no FOIA needed. Go to the appendix for the raw results.

Dave--I know you recycled it, but as far as the Auditor's office is concerned it's the same thing. Not using the services mentioned in the survey is not only a valid answer that is just as valuable as if you had, it makes filling the survey out much quicker for you. The survey isn't bureau-based; it's citywide. The bureaus don't actually have anything to do with it; it's all the Auditor's office.