Imagine Mesa: Fudging The Numbers To Get Data

Once upon a time, Mesa Mayor John Giles admitted publicly in his first State-Of-The-City speech in his first year in office that he needed help with ideas. He also admitted there was a problem with public participation in government here in Mesa. Back in January 2017 he promised a new strategy in his Next Mesa campaign: a digital community engagement that was announced eight months later in August with a 12-week closing deadline to gather the data ending on Oct 31 2017.
The numbers were published as you can see.

Let's try to put this focus and see what's going on, asking first why is there a breakdown in communications between people who live here in Mesa and the leaders they elect to serve the public interests in every one of the six Mesa City Council districts, in the Office of The Mayor, and employees inside City Hall whose salaries and generous benefit packages are all paid by taxpayers?
Are people holding them accountable?
Are the lines of communication open?
How can those questions be put aside in a representative democracy when there's a recognized disconnect in the direct network from citizens of Mesa to those who get elected?
Never mind those questions for now if you can, but recognize there is a problem and that it can't necessarily get solved by outsourcing the solutions to "a start-up group" that hopes that its unique twist on social networking will help bring people back together????
FACT: In a city with a population of over 475,000 there were about 10,000 users -
That's a participation rate or sampling of about 2% and includes only those who made the choice to register as a user and signed-on.
Neighborlands was able, whether you knew it or not or consented to it, that every single one of the 67,000+ 'unique devices' you used were tracked. The group now owns your data .
If you want to crunch the published numbers, about only 1 in 6 (17%) who used a device to access the  Neighborlands survey bothered to continue as a user.  
In tandem and at the same time with the hired consultants, a committee was nominated by the mayor and went to work holding meetings during the twelve weeks.
Thank You For Participating in Imagine Mesa!

Thank you for contributing to Imagine Mesa to make Mesa an even better place to live, work and play!

Since we launched ImagineMesa.com in June 2017, more than 65,000 people have visited the site, and 10,000 people have shared, commented or supported an idea.

Now it’s time to take the next step.    

What’s next? 

The Imagine Mesa Advisory Committee will evaluate ideas and make recommendations to the City Council. Those recommendations and updates will be posted here on mesaaz.gov. 

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. . . this is the re-directed link for Imagine Mesa on the City of Mesa's landing page:  > https://neighborland.com/imaginemesa
Here's what Shareable had to say about this new social network group back in April 2012:
"Neighborland, a New Orleans-based start up focused on citizen participation and city planning, hopes that its unique twist on social networking will help bring people back together. By signing up for an Neighborland account, people can share ideas and insights for their city, support ideas suggested by their neighbors, and connect with people who share similar interests. . . Once an idea has gathered some steam, the Neighborland community identifies achievable goals and fuels a discussion about how to accomplish them. "We are providing residents, neighborhood organizations, economic development groups, and municipalities with a powerfully simple platform to connect and make good things happen," writes the team.
Neighborland also has huge potential for opening lines of communication between city planners and the people who actually live in the neighborhoods they're working on. Instead leaving each party to wonder what the other is thinking, Neighborland provides an easy to use online platform that encourages citizen participation and an open exchange of ideas.
"We want to bring more people into the development process, help them understand it, and work with community and municipal leaders to make better places," said co-founders Dan Parham, Tee Parham, and Candy Chang. "Our job is to connect residents with the resources they need to make their ideas happen