6 ways to get an elected official to respond to your needs.
Have you ever worked with someone who refused to do what the boss said to do? They might have gotten off with a couple of warnings at first, but if someone continues along that type of path, it usually leads out the door.
Which makes me wonder why some of our elected officials are able to get away with ignoring what we say to them. Do they forget that they work for us and that we are in control of whether or not they keep their jobs come election time? Some of them let the power go to their heads and think that they’re no longer answerable to hard-working taxpayers like us.
This can be especially true when we let them know about a problem that needs to be dealt with. It might be a noisy neighbor or a big pothole or a dangerous intersection. Whatever it is, we expect and deserve a timely response because they are in office to serve us, not the other way around.
I got really interested when I saw this article, How Can I Get My Local Government to Pay Attention to Me, which discusses very practical ways to get your local elected officials to listen to what you have to say.
Here are six tips to follow when trying to get government officials to listen to you:
- Don’t rant and rave. All that will do is irritate them and make them put you at the back of the line. Be professional, logical and even-keeled and you’ll have a much better chance of accomplishing your goal.
- Deal with the appropriate level. Depending on the issue you would like addressed, it could be a city, county or state matter.
- Communicate with the right person. Unless you live in Mayberry, the mayor is probably not the best person to contact about your problem. Try to determine who is and connect with them.
- Get a face-to-face. If your emails and phone calls aren’t accomplishing anything, try to arrange for a face-to-face meeting with the right official.
- Organize your neighbors. If you have a problem with something in your neighborhood, others probably do, too. The more people you have onboard, the greater chance an official will make time for you.
- Create a paper trail. Document all of your communications with government officials and keep copies of theirs. It will come in handy when demonstrating to a higher-up that the official you’ve been trying to contact hasn’t been responsive.
Have you ever had an experience in which a government official ignored you when you were trying to communicate something important? How did you handle it? What tips would you recommend for getting a response? I’d love to hear some of your ideas about this.
Related Posts
-
America needs to prepare for a potential coordinated attack on the electrical grid.
-
Government pushes drone technology before real privacy practices can be put into place.
-
3-year-olds are still safe from government’s reach…for now.
-
Playing the race card is nothing more than a way to avoid responsibility.
I absolutely HATE IT when titled persons start off their correspondence to you (or back to you, as the case may be) with “As you know,” or some like phrase! I couldn’t POSSIBLY CARE what they know, and it’s presumptuous for them to assume I know anything that they care about and with to bother me. The point is that I wrote THEM to FIX something, NOT for them to communicate back to me the problem or why it is that the problem isn’t fixed. FIX THE PROBLEM, then they wouldn’t ever hear from me again! (I wish we had more people who were actually ready, willing, and able to actually FIX things instead of talk about ’em!) DO… then shut-up! You work for We the People; We the People are your BOSS, not your person with whom to commiserate!
Thank you for these suggestions and many of the well intended comments. Fundamental to the ineffectiveness of them all, however, is the reality that the system is corrupt. Effective responses can only be achieved if the corruption is revealed and undeniably witnessed especially by the corrup parties. In the United States of Abnesia we need to recall what worked in the past to flush corruption out. Remember how sit ins worked to flush out faulty mechanisms of command and control? It is more difficult now because the authorities have “law enforcement” that has paralyzed the opulation’s ability to lock down the system. The Occupy movement did not fail. It just did not occupy the right space. Crowds needed to get into Wall Street offices and fil them with enough humans to make it impossible to conduct normal operations until demands were heard. That is when you deliver professionally developed and written solutions. That is how the Civil Rights Movement got attention and made chNge happen. Be ready, however, for arrests, jailings, police beatings. Does anyone have that kind of courage anymore?
How do I go about finding out how many permits to drill a well after having one go dry these last few years in Tehama County ? and how many were for the deep irrigation wells there? countless people have and will continue to have their wells go dry recently yet the county continues to try and
tell us that those deep wells are not what is affecting the water tables in this area (3000 gals per minute for example on those deep wells ) and thousands of acres of new orchards being planted. I always thought there was percolation everywhere but they are not willing to put a moratorium on those enterprises until this drought is over which looks to be a long time coming,,,it takes 3 drought free years at least before the water tables correct themselves. There has been an incredible number of the wells that people have for their homes and small farms go dry and the county does nothing to protect us; I know that the water level on my own small farm wells has dropped by at least 75 feet in the very recent past. What is the easiest?quickest way to find the names of the property owners who have lost and had had to replace a well?
I find writing to the person or persons is very effective for me. There is much power in words if you use them correctly. Of course if push comes to shove I don’t hesitate to arrange a one on one. If you use the right words and stay absolutly honest about the situation I have found that after reading they will ponder the letter and you know what ? The next day or two you will get a call back because you can also get attitude from a letter! Good, Bad, or otherwise and you deal with that unrelentlessly.
Don’t forget to write short to-the-point letters/emails
to the editor. You may have to write more than once. Be persistent. The squeaky wheel gets the oil. ….Rose
Our shitty has an edifice complex. The builders and developers are ru(i)ning the town. I sent the mayor a note telling her that the north side was where the “good people” lived and the south was where the “trash” lived, because in the south, they are building houses in back yards so small that they have to use the first floor as a garage, and they are building condos on small lots. She came out and looked at the situation and listened to my complaints, but I have yet to see any results. All I want to do is to move out, but my wife is more married to the house than she is to me. (We’ve been living here for over forty years.)
All I wanted to do early last summer was to use our co-op town’s community building 1 night per week for 4 weeks to give FREE seminars on PREPAREDNESS! Wasn’t going to cost the town anything – I was going to set up, clean up, etc. I just wanted the building for 1 free night a week to help the people in our very little town learn how to prepare for emergencies (teach the basics of having a 72-Hour Kit, a stockpile of food, water, first aid items, etc.) and they didn’t want me to do it! How stupid is that? They just weren’t interested. I went to the housing Manager, the person who runs the Housing aspect of our community. I didn’t go to the Mayor because he has no control over the buildings. I’m SO frustrated! I don’t know what level to take it to next or how else to get this woman’s attention on something so important.
Does anyone have a suggestion?
You can put an add in your local news paper, have the meetings at your house or in a park.
May add, the address for joining up: is Public Service Commission.com (PSC.com)and get your docket #
I represent Legal Shield, a nationwide company. We help with all kinds of legal issues.
I fully agree with you, I am right now protesting paying for a Non-Standard Meter (which FPL exchanged it for the old Meter.) I am being penalized having a Non-Standard Meter insteadt the Smart Meter they are exchanging everywhere now. I have to pay $ 95.00 for an enrollment Fee and than have to pay $13.00 per mo thereafter. I am using the same electricity that my neighbors are using. There is a class action Suit going on right now, people need to get involved.
Dealings with the vast majority of local government employees has led me to the conclusion that our formerly-Great Country has allowed the top levels of government to become bloated and non-responsive to the extent that virtually NO GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE at that level is ever held accountable for failing to perform the tasks they are assigned.
By the same token, the lesser governmental agencies have taken to the trend, and people working there have seen the example set by the Federal Government, and have adopted the policy that the ONLY requirement to collect a periodic paycheck from the taxpayers is simple attendance.
When a citizen, (one of those from whom those paycheck funds are extracted), approaches these employees to point out an issue or a problem, they have developed a response that is designed to minimize their responsibility in turn. The very best example is local law enforcement, and the most recent newsworthy example is the response of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s detectives, who arrived at the apartment of Elliot Rodger, only to declare him “not a candidate for a 5150 committment.” Then, when Mr. Rodger kills six others and then himself, they make a public claim that they were “not aware” of the online videos that would have led them to a different conclusion. It is a bold-faced lie to make such a silly claim, but the news media lets them off the hook. What a shame!
thank you for providing this service.
my exsperance with the local government on things i cannot talk about, has been very stressful, sometimes i get angry and want to blow the wisthel. i do that i’m a dead man. our govrnment is corrupted and only cares about money and power. this isnot the America i knew growing up. protesting the vietnam war and the going there. the corruption in war is awful. slodiers and officers where raping young vietamanise young girls as young as 12. i caught my commanding offiver raping a 13 year old and i bashed his head in. he was going to court marshal me and i held a 45 to his head and said go ahead . never happened.
Punisher…..I would love to thank you for bashing your CO’s head in, but even more for having the moral courage to stand up for those innocent girls.
When you have a problem and it is small enough for the local government to handle then the above measures will assist you in achieving them. A lot of times the local representatives have their own agendas that they want to see taken care of first. By creating a buzz about your special need(s) and keeping it to the front of your local governments attention then you will see that it will be worked on.
If your local government decides to blow you and your needs off you will have to resort to the old fashion way of getting this done by putting it to public opinion or by making one or more government officials take a special interest in your cause. You may have to get a broader base of interested people in your cause; such as getting your friends, neighbors, church, organizations or groups involved. By maintaining the interest in your cause or concern and keeping it alive in in the ears of those that will make the decision your cause or concerns will be address. Remember it is the squeaky wheel that gets greased. If you make it so that your cause or concern is worked on; then you will leave the government official alone, that official will do what it takes to get you and your cause out of their face.
When you do have a problem and you need help from your local government it is best to identify the problem followed by an excellent solution to your problem. The better, the lease inexpensive, the quickest solution that will make your representative look responsible, compliable to the needs of his constituents then your problem will be worked on. Remember the movie “Ghost Busters” when Bill Murray said to the mayor, “Lenny, just think, you would’ve saved the lives of millions of Voters.” With that the mayor turned with a sly smile on his face because he knows that he will be reelected. That is what your government officials want – to look good before the voters.
my local post office was refusing to ship knives i had sold. a friend told me the only thing that scared the post office was a senator. i went and told the post office folks that a senate aid said i needed a name and date that i was refused service. instant results. they didn’t know who would have told me that. i was welcome anytime. problems solved and funny to watch.
Please tell us what you think of this? How to get to the right people in these areas? We are in Sacramento, CA
Sheila
916 230 6733
Kent Hartland
January 22
I posted an idea I had a year ago to pipe water from the annual flooding of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers to inland dry low lands, perhaps sand bottom lime stone basins in Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri. These catch basins could reduce the enormous disruption and damage caused by Spring floods as well as create irrigation resources. Indeed, by engineering the basins correctly, perhaps these basins could act as filter to percolate the flood waters though sand layers and, through bore holes, intot he aquifers, recharging those essential resources.
Now I’ve had another idea.
California is struggling under a severe drought, undoubtedly a taste of things to come. As the climate changes, jet stream changes, rain patterns are altered and mountain snows decrease the southwest will become more desperate for drinking, irrigation and hydroelectric power.
Why not pipe sea water from the south coast of California to Death Valley, which is 282 feet below sea level? Let gravity do the work. During the Pleistocene (I think) period, the Valley was an inland sea 600 feet deep (the Valley is surrounded by mountains. It is the bowl effect that precludes cooling breezes and the mountains that set up a convection loop effect of super heated air that caused the area to become a desert.
But with an endless supply of sea water being drained into it (with valve gates for when it was full) the lake would never dry up. Indeed it could help mitigate global sea level rise and serve as a test for similar projects around the world to distribute the vast water resource to places that need it and perhaps have never had it.
A lake that never ran dry… think you could turn that into a hydroelectric resource as well?
So, for the cost of 200 miles of pipeline or inland waterway, we might have a major economic and ecological solution to one of the biggest problems beginning to confront the world – the drying up of the American West.
Like · Comment · Share
Shelia, Although your ideas show that you are indeed thinking on your feet, you need to realize that these ideals have already been thought of. For example Mono lake as well as other lakes throughout California are at their lowest in over 100 years; it was discussed that these lakes be refilled with snow and rain run off as well as water from the Colorado and American rivers.
Unfortunately there are some major problems as well as logistics involve that make it extremely difficult to move on these plans. For example, water must travel through several counties which have their own laws that must be recognized, approved for transit and use, and compatibility to move onto the next county. In short, if I give you $100.00 to pass along to the next person; who is to say that the next person will receive that $100.00 from you? You may have a great need for the money or not. You may decide that your need is greater somewhere else or you may wish to hang onto it for a rainy day. This is politics.
So the idea must be place before the people and approved. Then the various county, city, town, villages will then have their say on this issue. They will see what they can do to either assist, alter, or do nothing to comply with the voters request.
The solution to the water problem is to get a viable idea and study the issue. Investigate the pausibleity of success then get the people to back the idea and make it happen. But first start with the simple things that can be done such as conservation. This has to include all sectors across the board, Federal Government, State Government , County, City Governments then the private sector any and all companies and utilities companies and finally the citizens. Lets not forget the various water district’s that have to get involved.
It is easy to see that there is a need, it is difficult to get everyone to cooperate without having them put their two cents in – or what I call the twist of the screw. Everyone must put their own twist to the screw before handing it off to another to put his own twist to the screw.
Item 4 is not possible. Items 5 & 6 are the best approaches. And AFTER you organize your neighbors, call your local TV station and tell the reporters what a difficult time you are having when trying to get your employees (local officials) to listen to you. And if you can bring in something that pulls heartstrings from the public, all the better.
Advice from a former lobbyist: If your objective is to meet with the elected official him or herself, then often, you are right, it may not be possible. But that is not always the key to finding a solution! If you heed item number 3, speaking with the correct person, you will find that staff, if treated with respect, are very willing to meet and are very interested in doing what they can to help. Finding the right staff person is often the key to solving any issue. To use the example of the comment above yours, if Sheila were to go to a her local Congressman, who may or may not have any experience with water issues, she would not likely have much immediate success. However, if she were to discuss her idea with the water conservation district manager in the area (all of the West has water conservation, irrigation, or user districts), staff there would better be able to discuss the viability of her idea. More importantly, they would know the steps needed to make the plan move forward. Do not interpret an elected official suggesting you meet with staff as a brush-off. Often they are sending you to the people that will make the difference. If you are not getting response from that staff, that is when you go to the elected. I hope that helps!
I just called the news media and let them put it on the air. Someone responsible usually see’s it quickly.
It pays to be brief; so, if you have several issues to raise with your Rep, it is best to address each one in a separate communique. Stay on the point in each case; sometimes we get sidetracked…proofread the text before you send it (amazing how many typos, or grammatical errors you may find…they can change the meaning you wish to impart.)
Each correspondence that you send to your ‘Elected Representatives’ is calculated to mean that there are 100 Others, like you, with similar concerns, in their district. So Write Away !
In one of your reports, to do with survival, I believe, you spoke of survival clothing. Your comment seemed to indicate that jeans, dungarees, denim is NOT a good idea. Why? I should think a good pair of carpenters dungarees which are loose fitting and have deep pockets would be fine. I agree that the “stylish” tight fitting jeans would be about a last choice.
pdmac