Winter Parkers Respond to Mayor's "Thank You" Survey
Read Results Here
Remember about two weeks after the March 10 election? Newly elected Mayor Steven Leary sent a questionnaire out to some Winter Park residents asking for their opinions about the City.
At that time, the Voice published an open letter to Mayor Leary, asking questions that many of you had posed to us. Mayor Leary has, so far, not responded to our questions, but 1,107 of you responded to Mayor Leary’s questions. The Voice obtained your responses to the Mayor’s questionnaire through a public records request.
We know you’ve been wondering . . . so here it is. This is what you told the mayor.
More Than 1,000 Survey Responses
Not All WP Residents Received Survey
When asked, the Leary campaign said that one survey was mailed to each household in Winter Park – either electronically or by U.S. Postal Service. The campaign did not confirm or deny that all survey recipients lived in Winter Park. The Voice heard from a number of readers who live in Winter Park who did not receive surveys. The Voice does not know the total number of surveys mailed or how criteria for the mailing were established. We could not, therefore, determine the sample size or the demographic used.
City Doing a Good Job
Most of you who did respond think the tax structure is about right and that the City is doing a good job – especially the Police and Fire Departments. More than half of you expressed concern about over-development, traffic and congestion.
Comments Not Included
More than half of you responded “other” and added comments on the survey forms. Because of the individual nature of the comments, we were not able to tabulate them and have not included the comments in the results.
“Protect Winter Park”
The type of comment we saw most often is summed in this respondent’s plea to the new mayor: “Please – keep your campaign promises. Protect Winter Park’s uniqueness. Once it is gone – too late!”
But the devil is in the details, and the details are all here in the charts.
Editor’s Note: The Winter Park Voice received this comment from an anonymous reader. It was not written by anyone affiliated with the Winter Park Voice.
Disclaimer
The surveys were NOT provided to The Voice directly from survey respondents.
The Voice received them only after the mayor had them for several months.
There was no verifiable chain of custody provided that would guarantee that the surveys were not tampered with prior to their delivery to The Voice.
The Voice cannot verify that all the surveys completed and returned to the mayor were provided to The Voice, nor can The Voice be certain that the surveys were not altered by anyone prior to their delivery to The Voice.
Example:
1) “Gateways” scored the highest in the “more funding” needed question.
2) The mayor happens to have an ownership interest in Winter Park gateway properties.
3) The mayor handed over the surveys to The Voice in allegedly the same condition as he received them.
4) The mayor has not shared his method for who received a survey and who did not.
5) The percentages shown in the graphs have never been proven to be a representative, validated, statistically significant reflection of how Winter Park residents or voters think about these issues. We don’t even know for sure what percentage of surveys were completed by actual Winter Park residents, or for that matter if anyone competed multiple surveys. All we know is that this is what the mayor SAYS he got. Perhaps a “reality check” is to ask yourself, if you were asked the same question, would you have responded that “Gateways” should be a higher priority funding need than ANYTHING ELSE in the City?
If not, then as the saying goes: “Take it… with…a grain…of… salt.”
The city should be ashamed that there are no public restrooms in the downtown area. The train station is not open most of the time and the people who come to our city via the Sunrail to eat, drink and shop have no restroom at or near the Sunrail station. Since the restrooms in the train station are not available when the station is not open and there are no other restrooms for public use close by, where are visitors to our city supposed to find appropriate facilities?. My wife has told me that when she is walking in the morning, she has been stopped several times by people getting off the Sunrail needing a restroom and asking where one would be available. This is an improvement that needs to be made immediately.