Gavilan College trustees took another step in determining
whether there is enough community support to place a bond measure
on a 2004 ballot.
Gavilan College trustees took another step in determining whether there is enough community support to place a bond measure on a 2004 ballot.
They hired Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin & Associates – a leading political researching – this week to conduct a voter survey.
As early as this weekend, voters in San Benito County, Gilroy and Morgan Hill will be asked whether they would support a tax increase to help Gavilan College improve its facilities.
The Santa Monica-based firm will receive $19,500 to conduct the survey.
“I worked with this group before at Los Angeles Community College,” Gavilan President Steve Kinsella said. “Their results were very consistent. We wanted to put a landscape and lighting district on the ballot. Their data indicated it would pass, and it did.”
Gavilan’s campaign advisor, The Lew Edwards Group, selected Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin & Associates to conduct the voter survey. It is common, Kinsella said, for campaign advisors to team up with research firms they are comfortable with.
Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin & Associates will telephone interview 400 registered voters who historically have shown up at polls on election day. Interviews will last about 15 minutes. Contents of the questionnaire are now being reviewed by Gavilan and the research company.
The survey will be designed to do more than gauge whether voters will support a bond measure. It will attempt to assess what the community thinks Gavilan’s needs are, and which of those needs voters would support by paying more property taxes.
Results from the voter survey should be available for trustees by their July 8 board meeting. The results are the key piece of data trustees will use to decide if a school bond should be placed on a future ballot.
“Hopefully, we can determine what direction people think Gavilan should go,” Trustee Mark Dover said. “If the community says we’re as big as we need to be, then obviously we don’t have a leg to stand on in an election.”
Although the size of the bond has yet to be determined, it would take a multimillion-dollar measure to fund new construction, building renovations and land purchases. Kinsella has said that serving the needs of Gavilan’s growing communities would likely require all of these.
