{"id":272509,"date":"2026-04-17T12:07:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T12:07:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/272509\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T12:07:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T12:07:22","slug":"supervisor-wants-to-set-guardrails-for-county-funded-polls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/272509\/","title":{"rendered":"Supervisor Wants to Set Guardrails for County-Funded Polls\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the wake of controversy over the county board chair using taxpayer dollars to poll-test potential ballot measures<\/a>, Supervisor Joel Anderson is pitching reforms that would govern the use of county funds for polls.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Anderson wants county lawyers to review and approve proposed questions, plus the scope of work and compensation for polling firms hired by county leaders.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His proposal, set for a board vote on Tuesday, also calls for poll questions, results, participant demographics and contract details to be posted publicly online within 30 days after the poll is completed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Anderson said Chair Terra Lawson-Remer\u2019s recent use of a reported $40,000 for a poll floating county governance reforms<\/a> spurred his proposal. Anderson \u2013 and a San Francisco-based election law attorney who spoke to Voice of San Diego<\/a> last month \u2013 both raised concerns with some questions in the poll. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think moving forward to make sure that no one\u2019s making any mistakes, whether intentional or otherwise, I want to see it go before our county counsel that they can approve it to make sure that we don\u2019t have any complaints against us,\u201d Anderson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Anderson also argues that the polling funded by Lawson-Remer\u2019s office should have been more readily available. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Voice obtained detailed polling and procurement records in March, more than a month after a Jan. 28 public records request. In early March, Lawson-Remer\u2019s spokesperson notified Voice her team had posted\u202fcharter survey<\/a>\u202fand\u202frevenue measure poll presentations<\/a>\u202fon her county website.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lawson-Remer\u2019s office said she already followed the rules Anderson\u2019s seeking to set \u2013 and supports them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSupervisor Lawson-Remer has gotten every question for every community survey \u2014 including the survey on charter reform \u2014 pre-approved by county counsel. Everyone should,\u201d Lawson-Remer\u2019s office wrote in response to questions from Voice. \u201cShe also shared the questions and the results of this survey in December 2025 with both Supervisor Anderson and the public.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Anderson\u2019s office, meanwhile, said the supervisor himself didn\u2019t get to see the polling until this spring \u2013 and that his staff only saw a high-level Power point presentation about it during a meeting with a staffer for Lawson-Remer in December. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Anderson spokesperson Matthew Phy said his office spent weeks seeking the polling from Lawson-Remer\u2019s office after Anderson requested to review it himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lawson-Remer\u2019s office later clarified that her office shared initial documents with Anderson\u2019s office in December but that it took time to get legal clearance from the county counsel to share it with Anderson due to turnover in the office late last year and early this year. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Anderson said that struggle helped motivate his proposal for policy reforms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat poll was conducted with public money. It should be available for the public, and it should be in a reasonable timeframe,\u201d Anderson told Voice. \u00a0<\/p>\n

In response to questions from Voice, Lawson-Remer\u2019s office said she agreed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c(Lawson-Remer) is supportive of establishing a clear process for getting questions approved by county counsel and a reliable timeline for publicly posting results.\u00a0 She has run into so many hurdles with both getting community surveys into the field and getting approval to share results because there is no clear process \u2014 it would be great to not need to reinvent the wheel every time,\u201d Lawson-Remer\u2019s office wrote in an email.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her office also suggested she might propose strengthening Anderson\u2019s pitch by proposing training for staff on how to ensure surveys are unbiased and accurate and potentially, to seek an opinion letter from the state Fair Political Practices Commission to ensure the county\u2019s policy follows state and local laws.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSupervisor Lawson-Remer thinks having a policy framework for conducting community surveys is a fantastic idea,\u201d her office wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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