Even though nearly all enumerations have been completed at this point, a reader submitted a photo to us from the Whiting, Indiana Pierogi Festival (yum!) that implies partnership/outreach efforts are ongoing. MyTwoCensus.com seeks to determine why money is still being spent on partnership/road tour activities. Take a look at your tax dollars, still at work:
MyTwoCensus.com hopes to learn how much $ Dr. Groves raked in for this keynote address…
Stay tuned for Dr. Groves’ exit from the federal government followed by his immediate decision to join a Fortune 500 company as the director of Market Research…
Here’s a piece from the Bellvue News-Democrat:
$300,000 census promotion falls short in East St. Louis
Only 63 percent of residents mailed in their forms
BY SCOTT WUERZ – News-DemocratDespite the investment of more than $300,000 in promotional programs designed to encourage East St. Louis residents to return their census forms, the city had the worst participation rate of any large community in the metro-east.According to U.S. Census Bureau records, 63 percent of East St. Louis residents mailed in their forms. O’Fallon had the highest return rate of any large city in the metro-east with an 81 percent response rate.
Edwardsville saw 80 percent of residences return their census forms, Fairview Heights had a 79 percent response rate, Granite City had a 78 percent return, 77 percent of Belleville residences and 75 percent of Collinsville households returned their census forms.
Read more: http://www.bnd.com/2010/07/04/1317981/300000-census-promotion-falls.html#ixzz0shiDKdtV
A few weeks ago, Census Bureau Director Robert M. Groves said that the 2010 Census advertising campagin was finished. Later, he said that the Census Bureau was still working to advertise in Mississippi. Yesterday, I published an article from Mississippi that complained about the lack of advertising dollars from the Census Bureau spent in the state:
Much of the blame has to fall on the Census Bureau. In the past, the Bureau used the American Association of Advertising Agencies and national media groups to provide millions of dollars of donated advertising to motivate readers and viewers to fill out and return their forms. That was not done this year.
If anyone reading this blog has knowledge about 2010 Census operations in Mississippi, please be sure to let us know!
UPDATE: For those people who are arguing in the comments section, Groves, in his prepared remarks, which can be found at the following link on page 1, stated that the ad campaign has been completed:
http://www.mytwocensus.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/GrovesRemarksJune2010.pdf
At his most recent press conference (on June 2nd), Census Bureau Director Robert M. Groves stated that the Census Bureau had completed its 2010 Census advertising campaign. Yet, yesterday, it was reported that the advertising campaign is ongoing in Mississippi:
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – The U.S. Census Bureau will increase its advertising efforts in the poverty-stricken Mississippi Delta to encourage people to respond.
Census Bureau director Robert M. Groves said Tuesday the agency is committed to a complete and accurate count of area’s population.
The Census is conducted once every 10 years and helps determine how millions of federal dollars are spent. Officials use the updated population figures to reconfigure lines for districts in the U.S. House, the state House and Senate and for local offices such as county supervisors.
Graves met in Jackson last week with several groups concerned about an accurate count in the Delta, including Southern Echo and the Sunflower County Parents and Students Organization.
To Census Bureau officials reading this: Is the advertising campaign really complete?
“The U.S. government reported spending $22.7 million on such promotional products as part of a major awareness campaign, according to the Advertising Specialty Institute.”
Read the full story here at Promo Magazine.
Update: After speaking with the Census Bureau’s public information office, I want to clarify that this is not federal money but Chicago’s money that has allegedly been spent improperly.
I’m not sure how I missed this piece from the Huffington Post when it originally came out on 5/19, but I am now investigating the claims laid out here:
The cronyism, corruption and shady contracts continue to emanate from the Todd Stroger administration, as a new and yet all-too-familiar scandal involving US Census contracts is emerging Wednesday.
With a few hundred thousand dollars of federal grants left to publicize the census, Stroger’s spokesman Eugene Mullins told the Chicago Tribune that he and deputy chief of staff Carla Oglesby awarded contracts to eight publicity firms to spread the word. So far, so good.
But all of the firms — like Oglesby’s own PR firm, which is now under investigation — were awarded contracts of $24,995, five dollars less than the amount that would require County Board approval.
And, of course, as a little digging from FOX Chicago revealed, it gets worse. (Scroll down for video of the FOX investigation.)
Nearly all of the companies receiving contracts were incorporated just days before the contracts were issued.
One business was run by a convicted felon, and listed a vacant lot as its business address. One business appears to be a modeling agency. Two of the contractors submitted nearly identical invoices, and gave the same unlisted phone number.
The contracts were all paid up-front, before any services were rendered.
Story continues belowAnd, the Tribune writes, “leaders of the Cook County Complete Count Committee, appointed by Stroger to conduct census outreach, said they were unaware of the contracts.”
How did Mullins respond?
When asked about the contracts on camera by FOX, Mullins was silent. Anchor Jeff Goldblatt said on air that “he called me late tonight, a profanity-laced phone call” in which he “basically threatened to sue” for “defamation of character.”
Mullins gave an on-the-record quote to the Tribune: “Either we can spend the money the best we can or it goes back to Washington,” Mullins said.
Both Mullins and Oglesby, who signed off on all the census contracts, are themselves involved in other Stroger administration scandals.
After Stroger’s defeat in the February primary, the lame-ducked Cook County Board President gave Mullins a $10,300 raise — despite a pay freeze that had been on the books for months.
And Oglesby is only recently back at work after a five-day suspension for steering a similar $24,995 contract to her privately-owned public relations firm, CGC Communications.
According to Finance Committee chairman John Daley, “All of this is under review by the inspector general.”
Here’s the video from Fox:
Here’s the video of the 2010 Census sketch from last night’s Saturday Night Live starring Betty White and Tina Fey. The Census Bureau should drop NBC a thank you note for the free advertising. The classic Christopher Walken SNL sketch can be seen here.
Note: If you look closely, you will see that Tina Fey managed to obtain what appears to be a genuine 2010 Census enumerator bag for this performance. I wonder how she got it if it’s only for employees?
Last week, I planned to publish this piece, but the data from a New York area census office didn’t come in until yesterday…Check it out:
Here’s the hard evidence:
10-02 DISPOSITION OF 2010 GQAV MATERIALS (1)
10-10 DISPOSITION OF 2010 QAC MATERIALS
It seems like the Census didn’t know April 22nd was Earth Day. In honor of it the printers ran non stop from morning to midnight in 494 offices across the nation printing out all the address listing pages and assignment preparation for Non Response Followup.
Cost to print NRFU Address Listing Pages of every housing unit in the United States single sided and then ship it to the National Processing Center Fed Ex Priority Overnight
Cost to print out hundreds upon thousands of maps single sided only to not even be looked at
Cost to print all the training materials on high quality printer quality paper
Cost to print all the glossy recruiting brochures, partnership posters only for them to be unopened and thrown out by the palette like this everyday (see pictures below)
– Some food for thought. These boxes are filled with 500 brochures a piece and has been happening everyday for months and in all 494 offices everyday –
Cost to print all the Be Counted Questionnaires which were all taken back from the Be Counted and Questionnaire Assistance Centers to be thrown away even though New York City wanted to extend the program by 30 days and some to count the estimated 500,000 illegal immigrants.(see attached disposal list)
Cost to print all the GQV Questionnaires which we still have two palettes left. (see attached disposal list) And that is just one of the forms on the attached list to throw out…Here we go:
10-02 DISPOSITION OF 2010 GQAV MATERIALS (1)
10-10 DISPOSITION OF 2010 QAC MATERIALS
Photos of materials on their way to be destroyed/recycled:
Obviously, for me, the jury is still out on the above question. But on Monday, Ed O’Keefe of the Washington Post tackled this question:
At least 72 percent of American households returned their forms to the U.S. Census Bureau this year, matching returns for the 2000 headcount. Final numbers will be announced on Wednesday and Obama administration officials cheered the early numbers late last week as evidence of successful outreach efforts.
But a leading Republican Census critic phoned The Eye within minutes of Friday’s announcement and raised an interesting point:
“This census cost more than double what the census cost in 2000,” said Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah). He finds it curious that officials would be happy to only match 2000 figures despite a 2010 budget that was more than three times what was spent ten years ago.
“They spent $300 million on advertising that a lot of us were critical of and they’re getting poor results in the places we know we have problems,” he said, referring to a controversial Census Bureau Super Bowl ad panned by critics.
The agency’s 2010 budget was the same as 2000 on an inflation-adjusted basis, said Census Bureau spokesman Steven Jost.
“We spent just 5 percent more in equivalent dollars this year on a population that was 10 percent bigger,” he said in an e-mail. The 2000 Census was also the first conducted with a paid advertising campaign, so 2010′s headcount needed an equally robust ad strategy to stay even with previous numbers, he said.
In his e-mail Jost listed other reasons for only breaking even with 2000: The country has grown in size and diversity since 2000 and the last headcount was conducted at a time of economic prosperity when Americans had a better opinion of government.
“Most observers of the census during the last several years predicted these factors would make the job tougher in 2010 but so far the public has got us off to a great start,” Jost said, noting that the second part of Census operations kicks off soon when census takers start knocking on doors.
So who’s right? Chaffetz or Jost?
Leave your thoughts in the comments section below
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