How Many People Really Spoke Pro and Con re "Feasibility Study" On Customs Facility / Int'l Flights?

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(July 13, 2015, 4:50 a.m.) -- How many people really spoke pro and con when city management asked the City Council to approve a "feasibility study" on a JetBlue sought federal customs facility at Long Beach Airport?

Here's what two LB outlets told their readers:

Gazettes.com: "[C]omment leaned slightly in opposition of the study, but there also was more than a dozen speakers asking the study to move forward." (July 7, 11:34 p.m.)
PressTelegram.com: "Public comments for and against a customs facility were closely split." (July 8, 8:34 a.m.)

LBREPORT.com provides a VIDEO tally below showing that speakers opposed outnumbered speakers in support by a roughly 2 to 1 margin (as LBREPORT.com reported accurately at the time.) Our video tally indicates 12 speakers in favor and 25 speakers opposed.

[Scroll down for further.]

Half of the 12 speakers in support were (as noted by Gazettes.com) JetBlue employees or represenatives. Also noted by LBREPORT.com, the remaining six in support included reps from the LB Area Chamber of Commerce (on whose governing board JetBlue is a member), a LB Airport business association, an individual who previously owned a LB Airport business and the L.A-OC building and trades union. The more than two dozen speakers in opposition were homeowners including representatives of two neighborhood associations (Cal Hts and Los Cerritos) and two neighborhood-protective groups (LBHUSH2 and Neighborhoods First.)

To view our documenting VIDEO tally, click here. [Our video consists of sound bites to identify speakers pro/con; it's edited and doesn't represent their full testimony.]

Following publication of the Gazettes.com story on the meeting, Terry Jensen (among speakers in opposition and author of multiple "common sense" op-ed pieces on LBREPORT.com) posted a reply on Gazettes.com advising Executive Editor Harry Saltzgaver that speakers were 2 to 1 against the study. Executive Editor Saltzgaver replied, "[M]y count was 12 for, 19 against." LBREPORT.com notes that even if Mr. Saltzgaver's count were accurate, a margin of 12-19 in our view isn't "leaning slightly"; in an election, it would be a margin of about 39% to 61%. Our documenting VIDEO tally indicates there were actually 12 speakers in favor and 25 opposed, which is a margin of roughly 32%-67%.

LBREPORT.com isn't perfect (and we don't claim to be.) Although we accurately reported the roughly 2-to-1 margin of speakers in opposition, our figure on the total number of speakers was off by two; we said there were 35 speakers on point; our video shows there were 37.

Disclosure: Neighborhoods First was founded and is led by Joe Sopo. Mr. Sopo and his wife Linda are both ELB realtors and longtime LBREPORT.com advertisers.