INFORMATION 09-02-1998 - Laserfiche WebLink

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1998 PARK REFERENDUM CAMPAIGN Purpose: to organize a get-out-the-vote campaign to vote yes on a proposed referendum on November 3 to allocate approximately 2.8 million for an outdoor swimming pool/water park facility and various enhancements of the current parks/trails system. A separate citizen's committee is required for this purpose. The City can use resources to educate citizens/voters about the proposed referendum-but cannot solicit their yes vote. 97 Referendum: The 97 referendum was the only item on the ballot of a special election held last Tuesday. Voters were asked to approve a 2+ million dollar referendum which targeted specific parks, trail sections, and playing fields for improvements with an average cost just under $2~. In spite of some indications-most notably the early returns from a referendum phone bank-that the residents were favorable to the referendum, the measure lost by 200 votes in an election which has 15% of the electorate voting. A number of individuals expressed surprise at the loss, especially since there was little open opposition to either the dollar amount or the proposed expenditures. 97 Strategy: The 97 referendum was directed by a small group comprised of Parks/Recre Commission members, City staff, and volunteer representatives from various local athletic associations. The group's strategy was to establish a public but low intensity profile so that the community would be aware of the referendum but not negatively motivated by it. Behind the scenes, the group would work to motivate blocks of people favorable to the issue to vote(baseball/softball/football/cross country ski advocate-etc). The group would use these sarne interest groups to man phone banks to identify people positive to the referendum-and then call them back to with reminders to vote. This strategy worked in part-but had three fatal flaws:(1) a number of high participation groups did not commit to the referendum process and so made no effort to get their people to vote, (2) those organizations which did co~nmit produced at various levels and (3) there were insufficient volunteers to mann a fully operative phone bank. On the positive side, the Committee raised approximately $2000 and did carry out the following campaign activities: Educational Motivational Campaign updates to the City Council Organized a phone bank which reached 60% of the potential voters: scripts provided-phones provided by the First National Bank and UPA An article in the Current(City Newsletter) Article in Community ED Brochure Insert in Elk River Utility Bills Signs in target parks Educational flyers Motivational Flyers-identical to educational except for additional words "vote yes on Sept 23"