Out Of Control*

Philip R. Klein writes:

So - the City of Beaumont spent the taxpayers money to survey the people regarding a Recycling program for its citizens. Asking the citizens if they would support Recycling after a test program was a flop in the West End of Beaumont. This after some Wanda Do Gooders pushed the city into the text [sic] program.


Well, you would think that the issue would have been dead after the flopped test program? No - the do gooders pushed council into a survey.

Readers can decide for themselves whether the "text program" was a flop as Philip claims. From the Beaumont Enterprise in 2008:

Beaumont recycling pilot program collects 75 tons in first 45 days


Between June 2 and July 16, more than 75 tons of recyclable materials were collected at the single receptacle, which accepts aluminum, other metal cans, rigid plastic, newspaper, card-board boxes, magazines, catalogs, cereal and soft drink boxes, as well as printer paper, junk mail and telephone books.

Indeed, the response has exceeded the expectations of a key partner as well, Waste Management, which provided the $10,000 container and agreed to haul it to Gulf Coast Recycling at no cost for the duration of the pilot program.

"They have come back and asked (if) could we assist because they were not anticipating so many trips," said Tom Warner, director of public works for the city of Beaumont.

In the program's first 45 days, Waste Management emptied the container 60 times, Warner said.

Klein continues:

They [sic] survey on Recycling was sent out. Out of 100% of the surveys sent out - only 13% were returned. And out of the 13% retuned [sic] 50% says [sic] they want Recycling. Meaning less than 7% of the total citizens in Beaumont Texas want or are even interested in a government or private Recycling program.

Klein is either ignorant of the basic fundamentals of statistical analysis, or he purposefully deceived his readers. Consider the Beaumont recycling survey in proper perspective.

• In the latest Fox News survey, the opinions of 309,000,000 Americans were reflected by a sample size of 900 registered voters, or 0.000003 percent of the population.
  
  
• In contrast, the opinions of 113,000 residents were reflected by a sample size of 4,224 responses from Beaumont households, or 13 percent of the population.

For those who know how to read surveys, the return rate on responses in this survey was impressive. From KFDM Channel 6:

“We are extremely pleased that so many citizens chose to make their opinion known on this important issue,” said Mayor Becky Ames.

I promised to revisit a related article on February 1, 2010, when Philip conducted his own survey:

The Southeast Texas Political Review has conducted two polls in two of the county commissioners races in Southeast Texas. The two polls were conducted over a two week period from January 15 - 29th. There was a total of 102 respondents to the phone poll in both races. The following are the results :

If the election for County Commissioner in your pct. was held today - who would you vote for:

• Mark Domingue: 39% Brent Weaver: 43% Undecided: 18%
  
• Bo Alfred: 41% Jamie Smith: 46% Undecided: 13%

Klein's own survey is based on 102 respondents, so his fallacious logic, an appeal to ridicule, is without merit. Here's what really happened:

• Bo Alfred: 69%
  Jamie Smith 31%
  
  
• Brent Weaver: 51.24%
  Mark Domingue: Mark Domingue: 48.76%

How's that recall of the BISD Board of Trustees going, Philip?  Or the complaint on those purported Hatch Act violations? 

 *Answer to yesterday's multiple choice question: (D)