We were talking the other day to Jill Lagan, our amazing CEO of the Boulder City Chamber of Commerce, and she mentioned that she had recently received some calls regarding an issue she has heard about both from residents, business owners and that was getting a lot of attention also on Social Media. She shared that much to her amazement that she was able to find a way to solve the problem by reaching out to our elected Representative, Susie Lee’s office.
That got us talking and thinking about the fact that many of us see issues we would like to have solved, but don’t know where exactly we should go to fix them. So lacking that the matter gets vented on Facebook or other platforms. Now, don’t get us wrong, sometimes social media is exactly where an urgent public concern needs to go – a missing person, pet or other public safety issue is great to put out via as many methods as possible. But for the mundane matters that don’t actually belong to the City of Boulder City, where do you go?
Well, here is Jill Lagan to the rescue! Please check out the assembled information she has below and now when you do have an issue that you don’t know what to do with, follow this path, and of course, if you have questions you can always reach out to our friendly Chamber and they and their staff will always do what they can to solve problems or get communications routed effectively. We hope you’ll find this helpful!
Throughout the year, elected officials reach out to the Chamber to check in on the business community. Recently, Gerri Schroder, a representative of Congresswoman Susie Lee, visited with me and shared great information worth mentioning.
There are many examples of issues that we note during our daily activities that we note as concerns or issues that we wish “they” would fix, address, or resolve. But we may not take the time to tell the “they” and therefore, there is no resolution. It may be because we don’t know how to contact whoever “they” are. So Gerri shared an excellent resource so that we can connect to the right avenue to have federal concerns, issues, or comments addressed by the Congresswoman or her staff.
A quick website search on www.susielee.house.gov, I was able to find in the header at the top a drop down menu titled Contact. There I selected Schedule a Meeting, and then the orange button Schedule a Meeting. I entered the information requested that was appropriate for just sending comments or noted my concerns in the Purpose of Meeting box hit submit. I was then contacted by Gerri as she was the staff member assigned to the area of interest I wanted to discuss.
Thankfully, the local property concern I have is now being addressed and has been recognized at the DC level. I know that will see results, not just me wishing the problem would go away and being angry every time I drove by.
Gerri shared examples of topics to address here such as veteran’s affairs, social security questions, IRS concerns, federal property issues, and comments regarding federal entities such as the Post Office, Bureau of Reclamation, or National Park Service. It is always best to address concerns with the local contact of the agency of interest, however, we may not always know how to connect with them. So using our elected officials to help us find that contact and then address the concern is always an excellent option.
Constituent Services is a key department with all elected officials and is your tool to make sure your voice is heard not only in DC, but within our State, County, and local offices as well. If we don’t communicate with them, they won’t know there is an issue to address. They are wanting to hear from us and are asking for us to connect to them on all levels. I know in the past I had not felt my concerns were worth their time and didn’t want to add to their workload. However, I have heard consistently from all Elected Officials that they do want to hear from us individually and as a collective so that they will know what is happening in our community, as well as what is concerning us on a personal level.
I’d suggest also taking a moment to share your comments when you believe something is going well, was noticed as a good effort, or you simply just want to say thank you. Take the time to connect with those we elected to serve us. I know they want to hear from us and it is a much better way to get things accomplished and make life better verses just complaining without resolution.
