Do you think an elected public official should respond to constituents’ email?
Bill Wilson of Far North Dallas does. So much so that he writes The Watchdog to complain that his City Council member, Sandy Greyson, does not answer his sporadic notes to her.
That strikes a nerve with The Watchdog because, as Wilson says, when he writes to his council member and she doesn’t acknowledge it, “For all I know it drops into a black hole.”
Dallas City Councilwoman Sandy Greyson
“It makes me feel unimportant,” he says. “It makes me feel like I don’t have a voice in City Hall. And that makes me furious.”
Wilson describes himself as a Greyson supporter. He estimates that in the past three years he has sent her fewer than a dozen brief emails. He showed several to The Watchdog. His previous council member, Ron Natinsky, always wrote back, he recalls.
In a telephone conversation with The Watchdog, Greyson, who represents District 12, said: “I would like to give you a different perspective, Dave. He is one of 89,000 people I have in my district. He sent me emails about large issues like plastic bags or oil and gas drilling. We get hundreds of emails like that. I read them all and take them into account when I vote.”
But she doesn’t answer them all.
“Not everybody expects a reply,” she said. “When people say, ‘I specifically ask that you respond to me,’ I do respond to those.”
In the age of social media, email, like other forms of e-communication, is part of a dialogue, a two-way conversation. The Watchdog believes that officials should answer their email, or at least acknowledge that a message has arrived. If nothing else, it builds relationships with voters. And it makes sense. Politicians are in the relationship business.
Greyson says her small office staff is already stretched. Whether a public official answers her email should not be a determining factor in whether she does a good job, Greyson said.
“This doesn’t make the sum total of how good or bad a public servant is,” she said. What matters are “the hundreds of people I’ve helped over the years and the dozens of people who I have helped this year.”
After Wilson’s complaint, The Watchdog tested Greyson and other Dallas council members on their responsiveness to an email.
First, I wrote to Greyson, now in her 11th year on council, to introduce myself as a Dallas Morning Newscolumnist who hopes “to write some about the Dallas City Council. It’s an exciting time for the city. Do you answer emails? Please write back.”
After a full business day came and went with no answer, I wrote a second message that asked if she received the first one. Apparently, an assistant added to the subject line “*****He needs a response******” and forwarded the message to Greyson’s Yahoo email account.
Greyson emailed back and asked me to call her. That’s when I interviewed her. Later she released a written statement: “I get hundreds of emails every month. I read all of them but I’m not able to reply to all of them. I sincerely apologize to anyone I have disappointed or offended by not answering your email.”
Then I sent a similar email to the other 14 council members including the mayor. I did hear within a day from Philip Kingston, Jennifer Staubach Gates, Lee Kleinman, Jerry Allen, Dwaine Caraway, Adam Medrano, Scott Griggs, Rick Callahan and Sheffie Kadane.
After four business days I had not heard from Mayor Mike Rawlings, Tennell Atkins, Carolyn Davis, Monica Alonzo and Vonciel Jones Hill.
I asked those who responded whether they answered all emails.
Griggs: “We receive office calls, cellphone calls, emails, texts, Facebook posts, tweets, traditional mail, courier deliveries, etc. My staff and I work hard to respond to all inquiries.”
Kingston: “I’m sure we don’t answer every constituent email because some don’t call for a response, but when there’s some form of request, we respond. We get an awful lot of email, but it’s not currently too many to handle.”
Kadane, through an aide: “We respond to all emails, either to acknowledge or answer questions.”
Gates: “Yes, I attempt to answer all emails from my constituents. Occasionally, I will have my assistant get back with them if it is something she can help them with directly. I do not respond to all the mass or form emails I receive.”
Kleinman, through an aide: “We have a 1-day response policy in our office and intend to at least acknowledge receipt of the request even though we may not have an answer yet.”
Allen: “Can’t say I do 100 percent, but do get most of them. Hard to get re-elected if you ignored the folks that put you in office.”
Final note: When Greyson was asked if she considered using an auto-reply acknowledgment when a constituent email arrived, she answered, “I would never do that. Send an auto reply? People hate auto replies.”
Wilson said he wouldn’t mind: “At least when you get an auto-reply you know that it went to the right address and that somebody might read it.”
Staff writer Marina Trahan Martinez contributed to this report.
Follow Dave Lieber on Twitter at @Dave Lieber.
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