The Montgomery County Council has now released their Artificial Turf Work Group report. Included in the report are the public comments received by the Work Group.
Below is one of the e-mails in the public comments. It shows that MCPS staff were told by an MCPS employee that "there have only been 175 positive responses (county-wide) for getting a turf field."
Interesting. Since the Work Group did not meet in public, did not post meeting times and places, and did not produce meeting minutes, how did MCPS staff know that there had "only been 175 positive responses...?"
It's called "insider information" and it's how MCPS stacks public comment. Just like their recent 2,000 "invitations" to parents to show up at a Board hearing, MCPS doesn't like to leave public comments to the public.
The Artificial Turf Work Group Report, therefore, is simply agenda driven propaganda and not an independent report. The report does not have any validity in terms of analysis or any utility as a public participation document. The report is no reflection of the overall community view point as it was not done in an independent and even handed fashion.
Here's one of the e-mails contained in the Report showing how MCPS staff were rallied by an MCPS employee to flood the report with pro-turf comments. Reading the actual report wasn't required.
DamacusE Mail
Clearly there was inside information provided to at least one athletic director inside MCPS. That is wrong. No way to spin that fact.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I'd argue that someone urging others to support turf is no different than smeone sending an email asking others to oppose turf (or maintain a website that posts only anti-turf items).
Advocacy can and should work on both sides of just about ANY issue. There is nothing wrong with advocacy, even by people "within the system". Now the inside information provided is clearly wrong, but advocating for one's belief simply can't be.
The Work Group was not tasked with taking a poll of who likes artificial turf. The purpose of the Work Group was specific. Artificial turf fields already EXIST on Montgomery County football fields. The purpose of the Work Group was to test the water runoff and speak to other specific installation issues.
ReplyDeleteOne of the main purposes of the Work Group, to find out about the water that runs off the AT fields in Montgomery County, wasn't accomplished.
You can listen to the actual Council meeting where the Work Group was created and hear the questions that the Report was to answer:
http://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2011/06/audio-leventhal-id-like-to-feel-we-are.html
Rather than actually complete the task that they were paid to accomplish, some Work Group members apparently turned the "comment" part of the Report into a poll of artificial turf.
Those comments are all non-responsive to the Report and useless. If the MCPS Athletic Directors want to take a poll of artificial turf popularity why didn't they set up an online poll? Easy to do and makes the point.
And yes, there is something very wrong with advocacy by people "within the system" - it's called insider information. The Work Group met in secret and disseminated insider information to select people. That same information was not made available to the public. That's not advocating for what you believe, that's leaking inside information to select people to skew the Report summary. And the taxpayers paid for that manipulation of public comment.