The Forum

Steve,

Survey results become even more interesting when one looks back and compares those previous opinions to the final results!

RE: the shared library services, At the time the WFB and Shorewood library options were under consideration, there was much talk and leanings on both sides toward one shared central location. Following those discussions, each community went out and constructed it's own Taj Mahal! Go figure?

Steve,

While I am impressed with the energy with which you are parsing the data, are you sure that your efforts are worthwhile?  

Does "shared services" for libraries mean sharing facilities, sharing funding sources, sharing staffing, interlibrary loan participation, et al. ?  Sure, we might favor sharing library services, generally; but, as a practical matter, the survey responses do not provide any guidance about how that should be done or to what extent in dollar terms.

You could attack almost all the survey questions this way.  [The demographic data would also be susceptible to considerable selection bias. Your attempt to correct for this bias notwithstanding.]  Am I off base?  It was not a push poll, but the village's effort felt pointless to me.

I agree that the initial Village effort was of questionable value, though perhaps for different reasons than you think so.  At the initial committee meetings when this was discussed, the Trustees were reading results from the previous survey as though they had never seen them before.  As such, I share your suspicion about whether these results will be used in any substantive way to guide decision making.  When guiding clients through survey design, I typically recommend that they focus on topics where they have the willingness and the capacity to make decisions and changes based on the results of the study.  In this case, they certainly have the capacity, though whether they have the willingness remains to be seen.

I rebalanced the data because I was concerned that, should the Board decide to use the results, they would be looking at a respondent group that did not match the actual demographic breakdown of the Village.  As such, the survey results would look like everybody makes a lot of money and loves the parking situation.  Weighting by homeownership was an easy way to get the data a little but closer to reality.  After weighting, the results look somewhat closer to a reasonable projection of reality based on the 2000 Census and a reasonable expectation of wage growth and other demographic changes.  Not perfect probably, but a lot closer.

Also, as long as the Board did the survey, the rest of us may as well benefit from it.  We spent taxpayer dollars on it, so you and I may as well get some enjoyment and education out of learning what our neighbors think about the issues.  That way, the next time we are at a Trustee debate (a few months from now), we can say things like "Candidate so-and-so, the 2008 Community Survey showed that only 33% of apartment dwellers are satisfied with the parking situation.  What steps will you take to address this situation?"

Regarding the format of sharing library services, the data would suggest focusing first of Health Services and Building Inspection, rather than starting out with the Library.  How to proceed with service sharing is something the Village Board would need to explore and plan on their own.  But what this data clearly says is that there are areas where service sharing is of great interest to the residents of Shorewood.

Steve,

I would like to set the record state about the Shorewood library. I attended a couple of the public hearings and sharing services with Whitefish Bay was brought up and considered favorable. The location would not be as ideal, but the residents believe the cost savings justified it. Whitefish Bay would have nothing to do with it. They stopped any plans, nobody in Shorewood did.

There was a problem of getting correct information unless you attended the public meetings. Mark Kohlenberg was less than honest in what he was saying. History showed his assertions were incorrect. And, residents like Mr. Tatarowicz would circulate "researched information" that was completely false. One time, the state director of the department of public instruction who regulate libraries offered to come to Shorewood and dispute Mr. Tatarowicz's information.

Lastly, the Shorewood library was scaled back, the architects aaid it best, the building ultimately built was not even the little brother of the original plan, it was a distant cousin.

I'm not writing this to fight with people in your blog, but to show the difference in what went on and some people perceived went on. People in Shorewood who involve themselves in village govenment usually want to explore consolidation to reduce costs while maintaining service. We already do have some consolidation of health services. The library, is out of the question for some years into the future. When consolidating the police department, it was shown Shorewood would benefit greatly; Whitefish Bay would not. I think we will find Whitefish Bay to be unwilling to start down that path, although there are many similar "support" jobs that could be consolidated (assuming a common location) that would save money and maintain a high level of service. I throw municipal court into this consolidation.

Rob