Pelham warns residents about telephone ‘push poll’
The Town of Pelham is telling residents to be wary of a telephone push-poll taking aim at the local government and Mayor Dave Augustyn.
“Residents have reported being contacted via telephone by a polling firm asking deceptive and inaccurate questions regarding political figures, Town of Pelham operations, and capital projects,” says a town press release. “The Town of Pelham wishes to notify residents that this poll is not one being conducted nor commissioned by the town and urges residents to exercise caution when being approached for unsolicited personal information.”
Augustyn told Postmedia News that he learned about the poll this week when a pollster called his house.
The mayor said his wife answered the phone and the pollster first asked how she would rate the performance of Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne.
The questions that followed were all about the town.
“They called it the ‘City of Pelham,’ not the town, so you can see they aren’t local,” Augustyn said. “They asked how you would rate the performance of Mayor Dave Augustyn and the town council.”
The pollster, who identified himself as working for Utility Metrics, then asked about the recent town purchases of land and specifically referenced a June presentation to regional council made by developer Rainer Hummel, who accused the town of “potentially illegal” activity related to financing and land purchases associated with its development in east Fonthill.
Augustyn said Hummel’s accusations are baseless. The town is considering legal action against Hummel, who is out of the country and could not be immediately reached by Postmedia News Friday.
Aug us tyn said the questions asked by the pollster were misleading.
“The question was something like ‘What do you think of this land purchase by the council which is alleged to have done this or that,’” Augustyn said.
Push-polls are different than standard opinion polls. Where a scientific poll is designed to try and filter out bias in the questioning, push polls use leading questions to try and elicit specific answers.
It is not clear who is behind the poll. Postmedia News left several messages with the number being used to conduct the poll in Pelham.
A voice message identifies the agency as Utility Metrics, but requests for an interview were not returned Friday.
Augustyn said the pollster’s questions used language that “was very similar” to Hummel’s presentation and the poll itself may be part of an effort by some regional councillors “to directly intrude into the jurisdiction of the Town of Pelham and by extension every other municipality in Niagara.”
Augustyn has locked horns with other regional councillors this year. In the spring Port Colborne councillor David Barrick put forward a motion accusing the Town of Pelham of questionable financial practices.
In response, the Town of Pelham produced a 338-page report and invited members of regional council, including Barrick, to attend a special meeting of town council to review the issue. The regional councillors did not attend the meeting and the issue has been deferred several times at regional council, where Augystyn has yet to be permitted to present the town’s report.