July 5, 2008
Define ’sparsely’ please
Today’s P-I notes that the Efficiency Review will be presented to the city, and then the public, in the near future. Happy words. But I take issue with the suggestion that the two public forums were ’sparsely’ attended. I was present at the meeting at Tabernacle, and I made a rough estimate of 50 people who were very engaged in the process. So I guess if 50 people present and accounted for constitutes ’sparse attendance’, I’m kinda curious what constitutes a well-attended meeting? Interestingly, however, the article didn’t mention whether each of our City Council members submit their surveys to the Efficiency Review consultants - surveys intended to learn our elected reps’ views of core vs. desired levels of service.
Compared to the total population of the city/town, I would consider 50 people sparse, and probably nowhere near a good representation of the citizens of the area.
For this sort of subject, I would certainly expect a great deal of the city to be present.
At least with some number given, folks can make their own judgements as to whether attendance was outstanding vs. scarce. And keep in mind that there were two meetings, with combined attendance near 100 folks from what the consultants told me.
As for representativeness, the Tabernacle meeting boasted residents from the immediate area, Old Towne, and Walnut Hill, to speak of those I know personally.
BTW, I don’t think the question of how many folks attended is among the more interesting/important questions here. Just found that one detail a debatable one, just as others have opined offline that the recent unemployment stats in the RTD may not be sufficiently descriptive for one to infer much.