Regarding last week’s front page story in the T.O. Acorn (“City of Thousand Oaks is polling its residents”), I don’t believe I’ve ever seen one of these things which wasn’t set up to give a desired result.

Everyone knows all you have to do is ask or not ask the correct questions. Most fail to provide opportunity for comment outside what’s usually a very narrow band of acceptance or rejection, or on topics not addressed in the document.

Participation is usually very low and commonly comprises more activist types of citizens, which tends to make the data much less representative of actual public sentiment.

As illustrated in the Acorn article, 27 percent responded to the 2004 poll. Seems like a decent number unless you catch the “of residents asked” part.

So what actual percentage of residents’ opinions were actually considered in the decisions impacted by this poll?

I applaud the effort to gather data but feel it could be accomplished more often and more comprehensively via some other method. At least this one will be open to participation by all interested parties.

I look forward to seeing what’s included and what’s not! Joe Silvia Thousand Oaks