Brian Godbe (survey firm rep): ...Godbe Research and Analysis has been in business since 1990 and we have specialized in doing market research for government agencies like cities, school districts, counties, special districts, transportation agencies, and we've done government affairs work for corporations that have issues that are in front of cities.
Probably the best testimony to the accuracy of our work is for cities like yourself and school districts and counties that have had revenue measures on the ballot, or considered placing them on the ballot, that we've done surveys for, to find out the feasibility of a tax measure. Of those that we have recommended the cities and the counties and school districts place on the ballot, 83% of them have been successful. That's generally the 2/3 level which as you probably know is very difficult to attain in a tax measure. That's the kind of government work and government affairs work that we've specialized in doing over the years...
Josh Williams [another rep from the survey firm]: ...This is one of the bellwether questions of the survey, let me read it to you and then we'll talk about the results:
I'd like to read you the opinions of two residents of the City. Smith and Brown disagree on their opinions regarding the Long Beach Airport. As I read their opinions, please tell me which one is closer to your own opinion. We randomized the order of the two so there wasn't any position bias. Brown thinks the Long Beach airport should be shut down because it creates traffic, increases the number of people coming through our City, and degrades our air quality. Smith sees the Long Beach Airport as a valuable asset in our community because it stimulates the economy, enhances tourism for our city, creates jobs, and provides a convenient transportation option for residents and visitors. Whose opinion is closer to your own opinion?
And we can see here, overall support for the Smith position, which was in favor of the Airport, was 83%. Overall opposition to the Airport was 11.7[%] or 12%. Let me end with about 5% that were undecided or a combination or neither.
We actually break this down by district, and one of the reasons that I think this cross-tabular table is important is because it shows that we really, if anything, it tells us there's not a whole lot of discrepancy in support of the Airport versus opposition. The lowest district supported the proposal by 78% for and 17% in opposition, still four to five to one in favor of the Airport. Support went as high as 90% in one district, but I guess the important kind of cross-tabular analysis is there isn't a huge distinction between any of the districts, that an overwhelming majority support the Airport in each district...
...The next question we ask, I'm just going to read the question itself:
The Long Beach Airport does not have enough permanent facilities to meet the current demand for parking, waiting areas and facilities, services such as car rentals. In the upcoming months, the Airport is developing a plan to replace temporary facilities at the Airport with more permanent structures. The permanent structures, if built, would not expand the capacity of the Airport, only replace the temporary facilities that exist today. Do you support replacing temporary facilities at the Long Beach Airport with more permanent structures?
And then we asked is that definitely or probably, either yes or no?
And we can see that we have approximately 79% that said either definitely or probably yes, with over half saying they definitely would support that. Opposition to this question was at about 13% with 7 1/2[%], 8%, saying "do not know" or not answering the question.
Mr. Godbe: I think it's important to note in this question and the previous question, while there isn't anything contemplated being on the ballot at this particular moment, if this were on the ballot, and I'm sure any of you who've looked at public opinion polling over the years know that this kind of number is a slam dunk. It's amazing how strong these numbers are in favor of this particular proposal...[survey reps' presentation continues to conclusion. Kell defers remarks until hearing from other Councilmembers]...
Councilwoman Reyes-Uranga: You know, when I saw this agenda item I was really excited to find that we were going to get an update on the operations and community outreach of JetBlue. I was hoping also that maybe we could include some outreach efforts from the Airport itself. However, after hearing this market research, it really doesn't relate to anything in terms of community outreach. I don't understand how this agenda item relates.
But in saying that, I would hope that at some point we could come back and find out about what your true community outreach is, not from the research firm but from JetBlue the company and find out what they’re doing to outreach to the community...
...On another item [on] overall perception of the Long Beach Airport, it was interesting that you asked two questions...could you just repeat those two questions?
Mr. Williams: Certainly, certainly...and I'll read the question and I’ll tell you kind of what the objective behind them. [verbatim question text above] I'd like to read you the opinion of two residents...Smith sees the Long Beach Airport as a valuable asset in our community because it stimulates the economy and enhances tourism for our city, creates jobs, and provides a convenient transportation option for residents and visitors. Brown thinks the Long Beach Airport should be shut down because it creates traffic, increases the number of people coming through our city, and degrades our air quality.
Councilwoman Reyes-Uranga: Well, you have all these beautiful positives and then you have all these terrible negatives and you have nothing in between...
[survey firm rep, hard to discern voice]: Right.
Councilwoman Reyes-Uranga: And I guess my concern is, I agree with statement one and I don't agree with statement two that it should be shut down. But I also agree that it shouldn’t be growing out of control, so there’s some in between point where if you ask these types of questions, and I understand market research, and that's why I was upset that it was not community outreach, a report on community outreach, because I think you would have gotten, in market research you develop the questions, you craft the questions to get the answer you want. So if you're going to ask me do I want to shut down the airport, well maybe not, but that doesn’t mean that I totally agree with everything that’s happening there either.
So, if you wanted someone to say where do they fall in between this, people more often, because of the goodness of the their nature I think are probably go towards the positive...actually I was surprised that you had 12% [to shut down the Airport]. That to me was pretty high, given the question that you asked: Do you want to shut down the Airport? To have 12% of the people say yes, you know I think if you would have asked something a little more in between...maybe about curtailing growth or if you wanted to do a more reasonable question you probably would have had a much higher response...
Mr. Godbe: Well I think it’s important to note that the two options are the polar opposites. People can say the combination of the two if they want and the number for a combination was 1.5% which statistically is insignificant. They could also say neither of them, so you've got mixed opinions and middle opinions that are allowed in the question, that we present the polar opposites but we allow both of those. The mixed opinions and the neither account for less than five percent. So I think that, there are mid-points and there are shades of gray built into this question but you have to...
Councilwoman Reyes-Uranga: Well, I think even if you ask people who are here that are going to say that they are concerned about the growth of the Airport, they’re not going to say...that maybe it should be shut down. I mean they're realistic, but I thought that that was totally fantasy questioning, but that’s market research, what can I say?
Mr. Godbe: Well, I guess I would also say, respectfully, market research is designed to be accurate. I mean we're...
Councilwoman Reyes-Uranga: It’s accurate as to the, I mean I took the statistics class. I know that when you ask the question, you craft it so that you get the, anyway, let me go to the next item. The first ballot test, you have a thing about hold room capacity to fly....[N]ow the question you asked..."The Airport is developing a plan to replace temporary facilities at the airport with more permanent structures. The permanent structures, if built, would not expand the capacity of the airport." But the permanent structure is replacing a temporary structure which is expanding the capacity of the airport. So I’m not sure what you’re telling people...
And then another item: Features and Services of the Long Beach Airport. You had five...and I think the last one, no flights after 10:00 PM...
I'm not sure how you'd phrase that question, because if you would have asked, "Do you feel the airport or JetBlue are doing enough to restrict flights after 10:00 PM?" you might have gotten a different response. But what is this? Were you asking them do they feel that no flights after 10:00 PM, I mean we know now that right now we...
Mr. Williams: Right. The purpose of the these questions are [sic] to, just like in a political campaign, people learn more information about a given proposal. So, if you heard that there were no flights scheduled after, let me read it...
Councilwoman Reyes-Uranga: And if that were true, that would be a different story, but there are flights after 10:00 PM and I guess that's the thing, is that when you say "if there are no flights after 10:00 PM, would you be inclined to support the Airport?" Sure, but is that true?
Mr. Williams: If you read the question, it says "does not allow flights to be scheduled to arrive or depart after 10:00 PM." So, the point being, is if you heard that, would you that make you more or less likely to support the measure? I guess maybe we need to emphasize "scheduled" there.
Councilwoman Reyes-Uranga: Well, I guess we need to discuss that in item 32 of the agenda then [item was City Prosecutor Reeves discussing his office's Consent Decree with JetBlue relating to late night flights], because that's coming up...That’s why when I'm talking about outreach, community outreach, I was really excited to think, hey, you know what? This is a real good educational tool. Let's cross that bridge between those people who really don't know about the Airport, and may be inclined to find out a little bit more, use it as a, not just a slick political thing to say this it what we need to do but, hey, if you can educate people about what's happening there I think you’ll go a lot further than trying to pull the wool over their eyes, which I think some of these questions do.
My last thing, that’s all I wanted to say, is issues regarding the Long Beach Airport Proposal. You talked about that the majority of them did agree with Long Beach bringing jobs into the community and the Airport has played an important part in that growth. But, no information on the types of jobs, whether they were good jobs or not, and actually if any of the people in Long Beach were actually benefiting from those jobs...
...And [my] last question is, what political measure are you going to put on the ballot and why did you gather this information I guess I need to know?
I know that a community outreach effort is to inform the community, not to try to win some political battle. I mean, hopefully it's about building relationships and so I would hope that someplace down the road that we would get a community outreach report and not a marketing report.
Mr. Godbe: Obviously, JetBlue has its internal staff that can speak to that in more detail. I mean our charge is to assess, in a scientific manner, what the community as a whole is thinking about these issues.
Councilwoman Reyes-Uranga: Based on your questions.
Mr. Godbe: Based on the questions in this survey, that's absolutely true.
The survey was presented to the Council by the survey firm's reps in a "power point" presentation using the Council Chamber's graphic equipment. [Mayor O'Neill's practice has been to let Councilmembers use the graphic equipment to illustrate items they agendize (and Kell agendized the JetBlue item.)]
"I feel like I just listened to a JetBlue infomercial," Ms. Gabelich said, adding "Never in any time that we have come before Council to discuss our concerns over Airport expansion have we tried to degrade or put down the operation of JetBlue. We support what they do and what they provide for the community, but we do not support growth at this Airport..."