Are Elected Officials Actually Listening to Citizens?

Local Government Reading through the Evans and Degutis article on how legislation is authored, considered, and brought to the floor for a vote, is fundamentally correct and it's the way the U.S. Constitution intended for Congress to function. Sadly, the U.S. Congress is deeply divided and very little legislation of any substance or of any help to American citizens has come out of the Congress in the past few years.

This paper is about local government, and due to the lack of productivity at the national level -- a new poll, released June 20 by Gallup Poll shows "a historically low 7% of U.S. residents trust Congress" (UPI, 2014) -- local government becomes even more important to the lives and well beings of citizens in towns and cities across the country. A good question to ask of a local public official is, "Do I trust this person?" (Evans, et al., 2003). (and I don't trust the local government here in California).

Describe the processes, procedures and functions of your local government. In my California unincorporated community, where about 6,500 people live, the local government is a community services district (CSD), which is independent of county government but abides by county ordinances and regulations. The board of directors is made up of five members elected to four-year "overlapping" terms. Elections are held in "even years" with three board members' terms expire in 2016 and two board members' terms expiring in 2014.

Elections are held the first Tuesday of November, in conjunction with county and federal elections. The board hires a Manager to represent the board and be the public spokesperson for board decisions and actions. The Manager is paid about $160,000 annually, with a generous allowance for automobile and housing expenses. Is the work of this community services district transparent? The answer is, there is a lot that has been decided by this board that the public only finds out after the fact.

For example, over the past seven or eight years this community has been facing a severe water shortage. This year that shortage is being called a "severe drought," and the board is very late in coming to terms with the shortage. In the meantime, the board has spent upwards of $6 million on studies relating to desalination technologies -- and very few of those studies were explained out in front.

Moreover, a community member that I am close to was in the building for a meeting with the CSD manager, when he passed by a room with an open door and four of the five board members were having a private meeting of some sort. That is a violation of California law; any meeting of a majority of board members has to be announced and the public invited.

Would I present a public health issue to this CSD? I would and I could prepare a health-related proposal, but first I would carefully review the county's policies, and I would meet with appropriate individuals (including the county supervisor for this district, who is very open and available) to get strategies and ideas before presenting a public health proposal.

In response to that question, it should be noted that the county health department is a very effective component of the county; they, and they have a liaison that would be the correct individual that would be most appropriate to contact once a basic outline of the proposal had been thoughtfully prepared. Ultimately, if I am proposing a major policy change regarding the county health department, it would go before the County Board of Supervisors (five elected representatives.