PITTSBURG — A phone survey making its way around the city has some residents in a stir about its focus: a casino.

According to residents who have sat through the nearly 20-minute survey, it starts with questions about the city, the police department and city councilmembers.

Linda Haycox usually doesn’t answer the phone, but when she was called at home on Wednesday and asked to participate in a survey about Pittsburg, she was interested.

“It was a lengthy survey. They asked if I was for or against a casino coming in and there’s going to be restaurants, shops and retail and bring in a lot of city money,” Haycox said. “They didn’t mention a location. I was just kind of flabbergasted… I was adamant about this not happening.”

Neighborhood discussions on the NextDoor and Facebook social media platforms have centered around the hypothetical questions of a casino. Some were concerned about a question that asked whether the public should have input.

“That’s what this survey was getting to, ‘Should the City Council be allowed to vote on this, decide this, without any input from the community?” resident Tim Barrett said. “What?! Why would the City Council want to entertain an idea of something that is so different without any input?”

The survey has also caught city and elected officials off guard as well. Mayor Merl Craft said that she doesn’t know who is behind the survey, but the city has neither talked about a casino nor seen an application for one.

The company behind the survey, Boston-based Bernett Group, did not return calls for comment or further information.

City Manager Joe Sbranti said that the city’s policy is to put all decisions on casinos before the voters.

“There’s no pending applications for anything like that and no pending changes to the policies,” Sbranti said. “We are as much in the dark about this as others.”

The policy stems from a contentious battle in 1997 over a proposed 60,000-square-foot San Marco Casino and Convention Center with a 58-table card room. The project would have been placed within a 2,398-unit development that extended from Bailey Road west almost to Willow Pass Road south of Highway 4. The debate pitted the Chamber of Commerce and Police Department against concerned residents and anti-gambling groups.

“At that time, the council decided they didn’t want to be making decisions on casinos, so they put in a policy that if a casino was ever built, it would go before the voters,” Sbranti said.

Ultimately, the casino project was rejected by 61 percent of voters.

Long-time residents of Pittsburg have been feeling déjà vu during the survey after hearing the same names return 20 years later.

“It was about the Seeno family, what I know about them,” Haycox said. “They own everything and they’re building homes out here like crazy. They mentioned something about Seeno; I knew he was in trouble as far as his fraudulent activities. They did mention that.”

The Seeno family, which features prominently and infamously in the history of Bay Area real estate, was at the heart of the San Marco Casino and Convention Center in 1997. The family has also been at the heart of multiple conflict of interest violations involving a mayor and a city councilmember in its home base of Pittsburg.

The Seeno family already owns a casino in Reno, Nev., called the Peppermill Casino, but has also run afoul of the state gaming commission there.

Two Seeno company projects are still in the works in the Silver Saddle neighborhood, south of Buchanan Road between Kirker Pass Road and Somersville Road. The neighborhood extends beyond the city limits to include and an annexation is still pending that will pave the way to extend James Donlon Boulevard another 1.71 miles west to Kirker Pass Road, connecting the approved, but unbuilt Sky Ranch II subdivision with the tentatively approved Montreux subdivision to the west side of Kirker Pass Road.

For all that, Haycox wouldn’t necessarily be opposed to a casino, as long as it wasn’t run by the Seeno family. Barrett was open to hearing proposals for a well-run casino and convention center.

“I wouldn’t be against it, just to be against it,” Barret said. “This is what is being said, but what is going to be the truth. How do they maintain the vibrancy and keep it relevant and not have any bad element to it?”