News

October 15, 2007

Disputed Zogby study could spawn another look

Immigration-focused Hazleton survey criticized for using out-of-date info.

JEREMY GRAD jgrad@timesleader.com

HAZLETON – The politically charged Zogby study continues to fuel discord in the city where it was conducted.

The study, conducted by Zogby International, was based largely on census data from 2000 and projections that were issued in two-year intervals, street interviews and six focus groups. Public officials criticized the study after it was released Wednesday because it was based on outdated data.

Michael Calogero is the chief operating officer for Zogby International and conducted the focus groups.

Calogero defended the study by saying that he thought the topics unveiled “very much reflected the issues we identified in the focus groups.”

“People care deeply about this community,” Calogero said. “What clearly was evident from the people we did talk to identified common issues on all sides – whether they be Hispanic, Latino or long-term residents. This is a community that can find solutions to its problems.”

The six focus groups were broken up into three categories and each focus group contained 15 to 18 people. Two focus groups were made up exclusively of Latinos. The other four focus groups were made up of non-Latino residents and “opinion leaders.” Immigration was the number one issue in every focus group.

Future study

John Zogby, president of the polling firm that conducted the study, has offered to personally conduct an additional study in conjunction with the mayor’s office for free to get a more current and scientifically accurate picture of the city.

“We’re very serious about that, and making the mayor a part of that is central to the issue,” Calogero said.

He said, however, that no specifics have been discussed yet.

Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta has conditionally agreed to cooperate in the study and to help craft the questions that will be posed. He said he has concerns about the methodology used in the initial study and those concerns would need to be addressed before the mayor’s office would agree to take part in the additional study.

“We may do it,” Barletta said. “There were others done in the recent past and it’s certainly within our budget.”

Calogero said he will be the point person on the study if it goes forward. Responding to the criticism of the initial study, he said it was “built on a foundation of sand because when it is published it is already two years late.”

He asserted that the study did, “reflect an accurate measure of what they were able to measure.”

Moving forward

John Madden is the chairman of the community assessment committee of the Greater Hazleton Area Civic Partnership – the non-profit organization that paid $50,000 to commission the study.

Although the Civic Partnership distanced itself as an organization from political statements made in the study, Madden said the study still has value to the group.

The Civic Partnership is made up in part of the Luzerne Foundation, the Hazleton Area Latino Association, CAN DO, the Greater Hazleton Chamber of Commerce, the Hazleton Area School District, Luzerne County Community College, Penn State Hazleton, United Way and the Greater Hazleton Health Alliance. The partnership was founded in response to a Zogby study performed in 1998.

“We’re hoping to float out what’s useful in it,” Madden said of the study. “We’re working to do collaborative planning with our organization. We’re going to focus on the key issues and work to resolve them.”

Madden said the Civic Partnership began meeting in the spring of 2005 to discuss problems facing health care, education and later immigration. From those meetings the idea of a scientific study was born. The study was commissioned in March 2006.

“There are no definite plans,” Madden said as a result of the study. He continued that the partnership plans to work together with the organizations that make it up to create and execute more effective and far-reaching solutions to the area’s problems.

Marketing campaign

The Zogby study suggested that a marketing campaign be conducted to let people in the city and outside of the city know that Hazleton is a diverse and inclusive community.

“We want to be a place where people feel welcome and tell people that,” Madden said.

Speaking for only himself, Madden said, “I think there needs to be an educational process of understanding.”

He stopped short of endorsing the Zogby study’s recommendation.

“We’ll have to see what ideas they have that actually turn out to be useful,” Madden said of the Zogby study. “They have some ideas of fixing the city up and making some historic areas. It’s hard to tell what value it will have, and what will determine the value is what will come out of it down the road.”

The partnership is discussing partnering with the Luzerne County Diversity Taskforce to address some of the more sensitive issues addressed in the study – including immigration and possible racial profiling.

Latino perspective

Anna Arias is a member of that diversity task force, the Governor’s Commission on Latino Affairs and the Hazleton Area Latino Association. All of those are volunteer positions and Arias receives no pay for her work.

Unlike the Civic Partnership, Arias did not try to distance herself from the Zogby study – in fact she embraced it.

“I believe that he was right on the money,” Arias said of Zogby and his report. “He did a good job. People are not happy with it. I am happy with it. I know this is a man of integrity, and he wrote what he found.”

She said members of Hazleton’s Latino community know “the report is the truth because we live it every day. Dr. Zogby had a moral responsibility to tell the truth of what he found.”

Arias said she felt it would be “immoral of me” to stand by while members of the Latino community are being discriminated against. She said she believes that a cooperative effort between the Civic Partnership and the diversity task force could yield great dividends. “I believe that will be very positive,” Arias said. “We have a lot of work to do to mend fences and build bridges for the good of the community. We have to work together.”

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