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An open letter to our representatives
11/02/2009 12:33 AM by John M
To whomever gets elected tomorrow to serve as our new City Council representative, our 2 representatives in the House of Delegate, State Senator, School Board representative, et al: here are some suggestions…
- I would like to see elected officials that can communicate with the public. Open up a direct channel of communication with your constituents.
- Email is cheap and quick, take advantage of that.
- Start a blog, post something once a week describing what’s going on.
- Let us know about meetings before they happen.
- Let us know about things that you are going to vote on before they come up.
- Show up at public meetings *after* you’re elected. If we only see you on National Night Out, you’re not doing it right.
That’s my piece. Anybody else want to add something?
(&if you’re a candidate, please don’t chime in that you’ll do all of these things, just pay attention please)
Suggestion:
Negotiate a bi-weekly or monthly column in the Free Press, Urban Views, The Voice to keep people informed that do not have access to computers. Press releases work great.
Agreed! Thanks for the post John!
Have an office in the district, at your expense. Don’t force citizens to come to city hall.
No matter who wins city council today I want to thank all of the candidates. You’ve put in a lot of time and some of you have spent a lot of your own money in an effort to advance what you believe in. Though most of you will be disappointed tonight, you all will have learned a great deal yourselves as well as help educate people more about issues in the city. Good Luck.
Here is a suggestion for the newly elected: try to retain the reasons you said you wanted the office and remember the promises you made in the campaign. Try also to not take on airs and believe that since you were elected, you are now some superior being that suddenly floats above the rest of the citizens in this town. If you could also resist the corrosive effect of corruption it would be really nice as well – remember how many of your predecessors have gone right to jail from Council chambers….