Council reviews draft poll for possible 2025 capital bond covering rec center, civic center and service center

City staff and Magellan Strategies presented a draft community poll and engagement plan April 1 as part of Lafayette’s 2025 capital bond exploration. The proposed poll will measure voter support for potential revenue options and gauge preferences among three projects: renovation of the Kroger Recreation Center, construction of a new civic center, and renovation and expansion of the city service center.

Why it matters: council asked whether the city has reliable data on voter priorities and turnout, and whether a future bond placed on the ballot would be supported by likely voters. The poll is intended to provide statistically valid projections to inform council decisions about whether and how to bring a bond measure to voters.

Magellan Strategies’ Ryan Winger described the firm’s methodology and the draft survey. He said the survey will reach a sample drawn from roughly 12,000 Lafayette-area voters via text message, include bilingual (English/Spanish) versions, and be weighted to reflect likely turnout based on the most comparable recent election (noted as 2023). Winger estimated the survey would take “about 10 to 12 minutes” to complete and said the poll will present draft ballot language and project information twice in order to measure any movement in support after information is provided. He stressed that the survey would include benchmarking questions on city performance and fiscal responsibility before presenting ballot language so researchers could track how general perceptions influence ballot responses.

Councilors asked practical and accessibility questions. Councilor Stevenson confirmed the 10–12 minute estimate. Councilor Tapia Vega asked about a paper-survey option; Winger said staff can preprint copies and that paper surveys can be made available quickly when requested and picked up at a city location such as City Hall. Tapia Vega also probed whether the survey language correctly noted Spanish translation; Winger confirmed the draft’s “maybe” language should be removed and that the survey “will be available in Spanish” with a Spanish-optimized version for respondents who prefer it. Several councilors discussed demographic-question design: Winger said that including a “prefer not to say” option for race/ethnicity can reduce the ability to weight results accurately but that survey firms can add that option if the city prefers. The council agreed to add the “prefer not to say” option after discussion.

Councilor Barnes asked whether heightened civic activity or public protests at larger scales correlate with local turnout; Winger said national-level interest can increase younger turnout but predicted only a modest bump and recommended using the 2023 turnout model as the baseline. Councilor Friedland asked whether the poll could include a question about other ballot measures that might increase taxes at the state or county level; Winger recommended adding a general question near the end of the survey asking whether the presence of other tax increases on the ballot would change respondents’ answers, and said that is commonly done.

Staff said the draft survey and project materials were included in the council packet and that Magellan would revise the survey per council feedback and begin polling in April. Staff also noted the engagement plan will include public meetings, facility-based information boards, a project web site, and a May workshop where results from engagement and polling will be presented to council.

Ending: Councilors encouraged broad community participation and staff said the poll results and public engagement findings would be returned to council in May when the city will consider next steps.