So the biz journal is reporting that it’s poll on the creation of a Mayoral system for Hillsborough county received an overwhelming response in favor of the change. In case this sounds familiar it is, you heard it here first.
To be honest I don’t know if I trust the poll because nowhere that I could find were the stats on the poll itself. How many voted? How many times could the votes be counted? Is the poll secured against bots? Hell polls are tough enough to trust when you are told these things what does it say when the paper doesn’t want to share this info? (and how many people really read the Tampa Bay Business Journal anyway? Besides me and, now, you.)
Not that I doubt the voters sentiment. There are a couple of stories rattling around Sticks here, here, and here that give you a taste of the polished professionalism that the current crop of wieners manage. I have noticed that the Tampa City Council and Mayor tend to regard the commission as a bunch of twits, and the Commission wrings it’s hands that the City council doesn’t take County ordinances seriously (this is from a tv report tonight where Ronda Storms complained about the city’s lack of regulation of adult businesses within the city limits, sorry I couldn’t find a link). Maybe it is time for a strong voice that the entire county has a hand in electing? Lets take a quicky poll here since we now that Sticks is a source that the Times and likely the Trib cruise for material.
Bob
4 years ago
Orange County recently changed the title of its County Chairman to County Mayor, mainly for the purpose of conveying the importance of his position when he travels to other cities to promote Orlando as a convention destination. Now we have an Orlando Mayor and a County Mayor. I think it is a good thing, but Central Florida is a little different from Tampa. The position of County Mayor has more power, influence and resources than the City Mayor.
Joel
4 years ago
I say yay for may-or.
Carl Cronan
4 years ago
How many people really read the Tampa Bay Business Journal, you ask? More people NEED to, in my completely biased opinion! The online poll is a new feature intended to spark discussion of issues and isn’t necessarily scientific. Anyone wanting more nuts-and-bolts details is welcome to contact us.
tommy
4 years ago
Interesting, Carl. On Wednesday a friend did contact Arthur Porter, asking about the totals of the votes… He got no response.
Alexis Muellner
4 years ago
Actually, Tommy, the note sent to Arthur was forwarded to me. I’m editor. And I responded quickly saying that we had more than 200 responses to the first poll. Also, in the paper last week, I wrote a piece on page 4 introducing the poll and saying – to reiterate Carl’s comments – that it is hardly scientific so don’t expect it to be so. That said, we think it’s a place to develop some discussion which is always healthy, as far as we’re concerned. Since it is a new thing, we’re finding our way with it. This week, I decided that starting next week, we’ll publish how many votes we get for each question. It only makes sense – especially based on the discussion here. If we pick a dud of a question, we’ll know. If we get 500 responses, then cool. As for the dig about nobody reading the Tampa Bay Business Journal, well, that’s not true either. Ask the 400+ folks who showed up last night for our Business of the Year awards. Circulation is growing. And we now send nearly 7,500 e-mails a day that recap our daily news postings – of which one day this week we posted 21 items. That number was 5,500 or so last April. That’s a free service based on opt-ins. I’m thankful to say we have a loyal and energetic following who look to us to help level the playing field in the business community by looking into successes and failures with equal energy. Our reporters like developing good sources and listen to feedback. We’re strictly local (in 7 counties) but our chain of 41 American City Business Journals gives us the breadth of a regional and national news organization, and our Web site is deep with not only news, but useful tools small businesses rely on. We look forward to people’s suggestions (amuellner@bizjournalscom) for questions to the Business Pulse survey in the future, and Tommy, you may want to ask your friend about my e-mail responding to his note to Arthur. It certainly didn’t kick back to me.
tommy
4 years ago
I stand corrected. He DID get a response within 2 hours from you, Alexis.
Millions of apologies…
David Pinero
4 years ago
Mayor Dave all the way!
tiny
4 years ago
I don’t know about a Hills Mayor, we might just end up with a Chief Twit in charge of Wieners. Can you imagine Mayor Storms?
Q
4 years ago
Go Ronda. Go Ronda. Go Ronda.
editengine
4 years ago
Chill guys, I wasn’t making fun of your paper but pointing out that maybe a bit fewer people check it on a regular basis than the Times of the Trib. I wasn’t able to find an archive of the first poll or other info (are previous online issues available like with the sections of the Trib?) before writing my story. If I had any idea you would actually respond I would have just emailed you to get a response first. As for the poll itself posting the amount of responses is a good first start. Also individual IP addresses should be prevented from voting again with a set timeframe. With small volume polls this prevents one guy with time on his hands from voting 20 times and making the poll essentially worthless.
BTW Alexis and Carl thanks for posting on Sticks or as the Times likes to call it, “a Tampa blog site”
(hey Tommy I guess now we should say the your site is sourced by the Trib, the Times, and the Journal)
Alexis Muellner
4 years ago
Great, thanks. And yeah, please, we’re accessible.
We also really appreciate the useful feedback.
I believe some of the controls you mentioned are already in place (there may be ways around it that a online polling neophyte like me doesn’t know about yet, but on either of the machines I’ve voted on, I’m not able to vote twice).
But we’ll check with our admin folks next week and let you know in a later post.
Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog » does what she wants
4 years ago
[...] The episode is just another argument in support of a County Mayor. And to think, I was contemplating a run for King of Hillsborough County way back in October. [...]
Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog » you lazy, do-nothing, go-nowhere drag on the economy
3 years ago
[...] Back when it first began, we ripped the Tampa Bay Business Journal weekly survey for not disclosing all the numbers. TBBJ Editor Alexis Muellner puts the polls together and summarizes the results. He wrote in to say they were new at this, and he gave us the numbers. Since then, all has been well. Er, until now. [...]