Part 2 of Riegert’s efforts for a cat license ordinance

Vox Pop

Part One in the October 13 issue described my efforts to contact my City Council Representative to request a cat license ordinance and closed with me waiting for a return call from City Hall about the status of my emails. There’s been no return call, but my City Council Representative has told me the emails weren’t received, as suspected. Part One also mentioned the difficulties in trying to contact my Representative.

If you’re a city resident, I suggest you pretend you have an important reason to contact your Representative. Also, pretend you don’t know which ward you live in or who is your Representative. Then visit online the City of Medford Wi website to learn how to contact your Representative. The following may then seem more meaningful.

Here are the steps I took, which explain the difficulties and why the emails weren’t received.

Visited City of Medford, Wi website to identify my Representative and get contact info...learned nothing... called City Hall to learn who my Rep is and got phone number...called it and left voicemail...received voicemail directing me to call City Hall for email address... called City Hall again and tried to copy email address address as dictated...read it back to make certain it was “correct”...sent emails without reply or notification of non-delivery, (which I’ve received in some other such cases)...called City Hall again to learn email status... no reply...my Representative notifies me emails weren’t received...reviewed this newspaper to learn if it contained such contact info...found none...visit City website again, trying to learn what went wrong... tapped “City of Medford” menu option...eventually tapped “City Boards and Committees” on drop-down menu (which seemed the best option, even tho I didn’t think the Council was a Board or Committee) (luckily, that menu functioned, but only once on my outdated iPad...must use library desktop from now on)...found an email address beside the name of my Rep (under “Common Council”, not “City Council”) that contained one character, an “a”, that was absent from the address I used...that “a” immediately preceded the “@”, which makes dictation copying error almost certain.

Is it really this difficult to contact a Council Representative? If it’s not, the City had a couple opportunities to notify me. All that time wasted! It’s not children who should be “seen and not heard”. It’s email addresses! Seems all this could’ve been avoided if the City website simply contained a ward map with Representatives designated for each, and their email addresses. Or are we who want to contact our Representative so few that no one has thought it necessary to implement any improvement?

In a related issue, I’ve learned online that 15 of 100 people over 65 don’t use email. If Council Representatives limit constituent contact to email, then it seems another method for this group to contact their Representative should be implemented.

— Michael Riegert, Medford