Someone -presumably the Hart District- has paid an opinion research company to call SCV residents and get their views on whether a $240 million bond initiative would be worthwhile to persue in the SCV. I recieved the call last weekend and as your faithful blogger/reporter, I took notes.  Step inside to see how the Hart District may be fishing for your dollars.

The telephone survey lasted about 15 minutes and was conducted by Godbe Research, a firm that specializes in “collecting pertinent voter opinion data and using this information to solicit support” on school bond initiatives. I received the phone call on Saturday at about noon and was greeted by a friendly man with a curiously-proper English dialect. I suspected at once that he was from India or one of the other colonies where the English language is taught in a more traditional manner.

He sounded smart in other words.

“Good day to you sir. I’m calling to talk to voters in your community about issues that affect you. Would you mind taking a few minutes to answer some questions?” he asked.

Ahhh yes, I would love to, I told him. I have said it before- I really like that my Newhall prefix land-line gets calls from all the pols, including McKeon and Cameron Smyth. Why am I such a nerd?
The format of the questions was quite limited and stringent. I was given a number of issues and asked to respond with certain answers, most of which were modified by the phrases “Very supportive,” “somewhat supportive”, “Not at all supportive” and so-on.

Up first was “School Infrastructure.” The caller asked whether I thought infrastructure at the Hart District was up to snuff and met fire, building, earthquake and other types of government-mandated codes.

I don’t recall how I responded, but I don’t think it was very positive. I remember stories out of Hart High last year where parents and students were complaining of leaky roofs, moldy carpet, lack of electrical outlets and other things. Then there was the whole Title 1 debacle over at Saugus High, where parents of the girl’s softball team had filed complaints with the US DOE only to see their softball booster club disbanded then reinstated within a week. That fracas was over the terrible state of the girl’s softball field at Saugus High; the girl’s team at that school was forced for a few years to play games at nearby Central Park.

After those questions were over, the caller moved onto my opinion of taxes, quality of education, the state budget crisis, crime, and other “meta” Santa Clarita issues.

I was getting quite bored with the stupid formulaic questions until the caller moved back into the Hart District itself and mentioned the possibility of a $240 million bond inaiative.

Wow. $240 million? A quarter of a billion dollars? An amount that dwarfs the City of Santa Clarita’s own operating budget? Time to pay attention Jeff.

Now it’s important to note that the Godbe worker didn’t tell me what the $240m bond would be for initiatlly. He just asked whether I would be “very supportive”, “somewhat supportive”  “Probably supportive” or “Not at all supportive” of it even though he hadn’t told me details about it.

Of course I’m in-tune with my anti-tax Republican readers, so I decided to say I was “Not at all supportive” of a potential property tax increase until he told me what it was about.

The Godbe guy asked me to confirm and I said again, “I’m not at all supportive of a bond inatitive for the Hart District.” He didn’t ask, but a major component of my response was the fact that the Hart District had admitted misusing funds from its 2001 Measure V campaign for district vehicles, district salaries and the like. In other words, money promised for the classrooms ended up in District administrative coffers.

At this point, the Godbe pollster launched into a “What If?” series of questions.

“What if the bond went to improving infrastructure at the Hart District?” Would you be very supportive….

“What if the bond money went into improving the quality of education?”

“What if the bond money was guarenteed not to go to administrative costs but was guarenteed to go to classrooms?”

“What if the bond money went to help build a high school for Castaic?”

Whoa!  Castaic High is the only issue in the SCV that’s arroused as much and probably more passion than the Henry Mayo Hospital expansion. Parents in Castaic are rightfully pissed about the Hart District’s botched plans to construct a high school there and the District’s controversial plans to shuttle Castaic students to Valencia High and West Ranch high until a new high school is built.

There was only one reason to bring this up in an opinion-research poll call: it sounded to me like this would be a major selling point of this potential bond measure; vote for the $240 million bond measure and we’ll build a high school in Castaic.

After all these questions, the pollster against asked me whether I would be supportive of a property tax increase to pay for the $240 million bond. I said “probably.” What can I say, I’m an easy sell.

The pollster then asked about whether I had heard anything about the Measure V funds from 2001. He then modified his possible answers and asked whether I was “Very satisfied,” “somewhat satsified” etc on how those monies had been spent. I answered “Very dissatisfied,” which probably isn’t fair to Hart, but they deserve it for the Castaic High shenanigans they’ve perpetuated for the last five years.

Our Godbe pollster saved the best for last. He moved onto a separate set of questions, probably designed to tell Hart how it could effectively sell this possible bond measure to voters. The questions revolved around whether various SCV institutions were “believable.” Here they are in rapid fire with my answers:

Hart District Parents: Somewhat believable

SCV Facilities Foundation: Somewhat believable

Signal: Very believable

KHTS: Somewhat believable

Hart District Board: Not very believable

Daily News: Very believable

SCV Chamber of Commerce: Somewhat believable

SCV Sheriff’s Station: Not very believable

City of Santa Clarita: Somewhat believable

In a recent column, blogger Tim Myers said no one in the SCV cared to spend money to poll residents on how they view city politics in relation to the recent city council election. Perhaps we’re seeing a change?