Do Our Local Officials Respond to Email?
One of the more common comments that we see on this and other community blogs is the frustration of constituents who say they can’t get their elected representatives to respond to their email messages. In recent months, I’ve emailed inquires to a school board rep, a city council person, a RPS principal and the school’s “community liaison,” and I haven’t received a response from a single one of them. Are any of you having this problem? If so, why do you think that is? Maybe they prefer telephone communication, but they’re email addresses are posted as contact info on the RichmondGov.com site. Shouldn’t they be acknowledging their constituents’ attempts to contact them? I’ll keep trying by other means, but I think the public should weigh in on the importance of a responsive public sector.
I wrote a letter to my (now former) council person / CC president, and zero response. I think the real reason is that they don’t care what you think, and they aren’t interested in doing their jobs more effectively or listening to their constituents, unless you have huge campaign donations to offer in return. I think city council is fundamentally broken. I actually moved out of the city because of the disengagement of the elected representatives, and the wastefulness of city government.
I wrote an email a couple months ago in an effort to get some assistance with some damage a pothole had caused my car. I sent it to Marty Jewell, his assistant, Bruce Tyler (where the incident happened), his assistant and Kathy Graziano. I heard back from absolutely NO ONE. Not any of them. I get immediate responses from my state representatives but apparently our city folks are too busy (doing…?) to even acknowledge an email. Irritating and down right disappointing to say the least…
Personally, I’ve had great experiences communicating online with City government departments. I know they’ve already got their hands full, but helping people who speak up and request services does seem to be a priority in Richmond. The issue here is mostly elected officials (and maybe politicized institutions like schools?) because they’ve already decided who they’re beholden to and who they aren’t. Are re-election and power struggles the only motivation to serve the constituents?
My wife and I have had very little success in getting a response from our School Board Member (Adriea Graham-Scott) but good response from our council member (Kathy Graziano).
Well, I’m guessing that they at least read this blog because I just got response to my email (referred to above, sent Feb. 15th) today. I hardly think that is a coincidence. Guess I should be thankful that I at least got some kind of response (over 3 months later at a time when the assistance is no longer relevant), but really, I think I’m just a little more annoyed.
Kathy Graziano probably replies to Richard’s emails because he runs Hills & Heights, where her assistant David Hathcock spends a lot of time posting comments as “Sundagger.”
I’m not excusing their lack of responsiveness, but remember that most of the council persons have day jobs.
If a person’s day job is preventing their getting back to a constituent in a timely manner, either personally or via a staff member, then that person needs not to be in elected office. It’s that simple.
Charles Samuels never has time for his constituents. He sets appointments and then cancels. He returns phone calls but cant remember what they are about. I think he is overbooked and needs to just stick to the day job.
Council members each have a FT staff person whose responsibility it is to respond or forward inquiries. We’re lucky in NS that Hilbert hosts a monthly public forum to discuss issues and his assistant is incredibly responsive.