Focus group: What Infrastructure problems?

Eron Ben--Yehuda

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- Convincing residents about the need to spend $1.3

billion over the next 20 years to fix everything from streets and sewers

to sidewalks and storm drains may be even more difficult than first

imagined, a city committee learned last week.

A focus group study showed that locals believe more money, especially in

the form of a new tax, is not necessary to fund the city’s

infrastructure, which they think is in fine shape. And if there truly are

pressing problems, the study said it is the fault of city government,

which residents aren’t inclined to bail out.

The results of the study, presented to the city’s infrastructure advisory

committee last Thursday, contradict what committee members have learned

over the past two years about the condition of the city’s infrastructure.

The public’s views disturbed many at the meeting.

“We have a much deeper problem than we anticipated,” member Chauncey

Alexander said.

The committee needs the public’s support to help convince the City

Council to accept its final recommendations, expected by May, which will

almost certainly include issuing a bond to be paid for by taxes.

Bringing the public on board will be especially difficult because most

focus group participants didn’t even know what the word infrastructure

refers to, said Barbara Foster of Irvine-based Market Research

Associates, which ran interviews with two groups of about a dozen

residents last month.

Some defined infrastructure as including residents and city officials,

she said.

The residents interviewed -- registered voters from various age groups

who have different backgrounds and come from all over the city --

strongly resisted the idea of having their taxes raised, although they

had a hard time differentiating the money the city charges as opposed to

the county or state, she said.

“They didn’t want to go there at all,” she said.

Their message was simple: “Learn to live within your budget. Do what we

do,” she said.

Richard Harlow, who chairs the advisory committee, did see a silver

lining in the focus group discussions: Their hard positions softened

somewhat when they learned that his committee, made up of residents and

not city officials, is looking out for their interests, he said.

QUESTION

Do you think Huntington Beach has an infrastructure problem? Call our

Readers Hotline at 965-7175, fax us at 965-7174 or send e-mail to

[email protected]. Please spell your name and tell us your hometown and

phone number for verification purposes only.