Letter: Resident reacts to lack of e-mail response

Dear Editor:

In early November, I e-mailed county commissioners Tony Berget, John Konzen, and Marianne Roose regarding a matter of concern. I didn't expect the matter to be resolved immediately, but I did expect that they would acknowledge my e-mails.

After a month of waiting for a response, all that I received was silence. Undaunted by their slow response, I re-sent the e-mails two more times. Two more times I received silence.

Concerned that there was something wrong with the county’s e-mail system, I decided to crash the county commissioners' Dec. 9 meeting and hand-deliver my letter. The three commissioners informed me that they had indeed received my e-mail. More revealing, however, was that none of them offered an excuse for not responding.

For those readers who believe that this is a trivial issue, let’s look at it from a broader perspective. There are standards that a government should meet in order to be called “functional.” The county is failing to meet some of those standards. Part of an elected official’s job involves listening to, and communicating with, his/her constituents.

Could the commissioners have been too busy to respond? Responsiveness is not rocket science. It takes 15 seconds to compose and send a 10-word e-mail, and that action is preferable than giving your constituents the cold shoulder.

And, please, do us a favor and check your egos at the door. Remember that you are all small fish in a

very small pond.

Phillip Bigelow

Libby