Phone calls to Calabasas residents from a company claiming to be conducting an election poll on behalf of the city has raised red flags among city officials.

The city of Calabasas has not attempted to survey any residents on their voting preferences or authorized any other party to conduct any surveys on its behalf, according to Michael Hafken, public information officer with the city.

“Numerous phone calls have been made to the city by concerned residents,” Hafken said.

Local resident Susan Ellis said she was contacted by the polling firm, which claimed to be working for the city.

“I received a phone call from 'Competitive Edge Research' asking to speak to [me]. ... The caller said he was doing a survey for the city of Calabasas and my identity would be kept confidential,” Ellis said.  

The caller then asked Ellis a series of questions, included what she thought were the city's most pressing issues and whether she was happy with the direction in which Calabasas was going, she said. However, it was the question of which candidate she was voting for that raised Ellis’ concerns.

“I was taken aback by the last question . . . I would not tell him who I was voting for,” Ellis said. “I asked again who was he doing the survey for, and he repeated the city of Calabasas.”

Hafken said that city election officials are looking into the matter.

“We will do whatever is possible to find out who is behind this and make sure it stops,” he said. “If residents want to participate in an election poll, that is up to them, but the fact is it’s not being done by the city . . . it would be under false pretenses.”

Patch has attempted to contact Competitive Edge Research, but has yet to receive a response in the matter. We will update the story as it develops.