Mystery Phone Polling on Land Sales

Photo courtesy City of East Lansing

Residents of East Lansing with landline telephones are sending in reports to ELi of a mysterious political phone poll. A recorded voice has been asking callers a series of questions about whether the call recipients would vote for various versions of a City Charter amendment on the sale of public lands. (See background on the political issue here.)

When asked, City staff today said the City is not behind the calls. Colin Cronin of DTN Management—the company that would have benefited from the land sale vote that failed in November and might in the future benefit from another land sale vote—says DTN and its associated political committee are not behind the calls. And Don Power, head of the PAC Neighborhoods 1^st—which opposed the land sales and now opposes a Charter amendment on land sales—says it is not his group. They all say they don’t know who is behind it.

Recipients of the call are also reporting being asked different questions from each other – with some being asked about whether they would support a simple majority vote of the public as what determines public land sales over the stated minimum value, and others being asked about whether they would support a simple majority (3/5) vote of Council or a supermajority (4/5) vote of Council.

This Tuesday at their regular meeting, City Council is likely to determine what Charter amendment proposal language to put on the May 5 ballot. A majority of Council has expressed interest in putting such a proposal on the May 5 ballot, and to do that, the ballot has to be set by February 10.

Information from a poll like this could be used to try to craft an amendment that would be likely to pass--or to craft an amendment that would likely fail to pass.

If you have any information on this phone poll, ELi would be interested in hearing it. Use our contact link.