The actions of the Mt. Diablo school district and Antioch officials, whose use of privately funded polls to craft ballot measures without disclosing results in a timely matter, once again has rung the bell demanding for full disclosure.
A summary was presented at a hearing in March, but the district’s lawyer said the full survey is limited to the campaign committee. From Lisa Vorderbrueggen’s Contra Costa Times column:
That could change. Trustee Gary Eberhart says he has told staff to “find out where the poll is, get it and release it. There is nothing that can possibly be in that poll that is going to harm the district. What is going on right now harms the district.”
Antioch handed over a poll summary a few days before its council placed a half-cent sales tax measure on the Nov. 2 ballot. It did not reveal the poll questions until after the vote.
Campaigns conduct polls all the time. They are under no legal obligation to share the numbers although they must reveal the sources and amounts of contributions. Why keep a poll quiet? Read the full column here.
A Contra Costa Times piece reported that the Mt. Diablo Unified School District has refused to release the full results of a survey commissioned for its successful $348 million bond election in June.
