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Merton101 · Case 4 · Public consultation

More than 20,000 comments from one platform in an air-quality vote

Reported 17 Feb 2026 · entered the ledger 25 Sep 2026 · last checked 25 Sep 2026 · Side effect

Records show more than 20,000 public comments opposing a gas-appliance phase-out were generated by CiviClick; the board rejected the rule 7-5; the district could not establish whether the senders were real.

The institution South Coast Air Quality Management District institution · US
The mechanism Signal collapse externality scale 3 of 5, slow
Adaptation none nobody has reacted yet
The case as the ledger holds it
The assumption that broke
A comment costs a person effort, so volume measures opinion.
The first-order effect
A comment period read as overwhelming opposition; authenticity unresolved.
Who pays
residents whose real comments no longer count · group: Patients and clients
Scale and speed
3 of 5 · slow
Evidence 1 page read
  • Los Angeles Times ↗ 17 Feb 2026
    more than 20,000 public comments submitted in opposition to last year's proposal were generated by a Washington, D.C.-based company called CiviClick
The second reader every claim, checked against the page
ClaimVerdictNote
[number] more than 20,000 public comments submitted in opposition were generated by CiviClick supported Public records requests reviewed by The Times and corroborated by staff members at the South Coast Air Quality Management District confirm that more than 20,000 public comments submitted in opposition to last year’s proposal were generated by a Washington, D.C.-based company called CiviClick.
[number] the board rejected the proposal 7-5 supported The board rejected the proposal 7-5.
more than 20,000 public comments submitted in opposition were generated by CiviClick supported Page 1 states: "more than 20,000 public comments submitted in opposition to last year’s proposal were generated by a Washington, D.C.-based company called CiviClick".
the board rejected the proposal 7-5 partly supported Page 1 says the agency moved to "scrap the plan" and links to a vote to "relax rules that would phase out gas appliances," but it does not state a 7-5 vote margin.