Why do the County Comissioners hide thier email addresses?

Is it just me or is it impossible to find the Ellis County commissioners email addreses online? Any one have them so I can let them know my feelings?

It's not you. Alberta Klaus Is the county clerk and the information officer for the county. Call her up and ask for that information. While you are at it ask her why this info is not easily accessible.
These guys get about $18,000 a year salary. They should at least make themselves available by e-mail.

Oh, and please share any info you get here. Thanks.

Well, hopefully she won't screw it up like she did the election in Victoria last year!!

Even some full time salaried county officials don't have emails listed. You can either go to a Commission meeting or send a fax to the clerk with request it be presented to the Commission. But they'd likely take more notice of you if you go yourself.

Next meeting should be May 4th at 8:45 AM at the court house.

County Clerk Fax is (785) 628-9413

Ya, that seems to the problem!!! As public servants, I do believe they are required to have their contact info available to anyone. This is what my complaint is....Y are they hiding???

The commisioners may not have anything but home computers. I could see multiple reasons not to give those addresses out. Some public officials also do not have secretaries and may feel they have enough to do without answering every email. There's also the fact that any person they get an email from is a potential source of future virus or spam just because their address is on that persons computer. Personally I figure if what you want is important enough, you should contact them by phone, fax, or in person.

I think if they are going to represent the people the need to be accessible.
Personally I work on Monday's as do MOST people. They are not "accessible" if I have to take a day off work to ask a question.

Can you provide their phone numbers as they don't provide those either. We are paying them $18,000 a year for about 150 hours of office time.

I guess we need to get them a full time secretary, or at least a computer just for Commission business at the Court House if going through the County Clerk isn't access enough. I do not expect any public official to give out their home email.

They should be able to set up email accounts on the county's network that they can access from home with proper password security, etc. It can be separate from their home mail. I can email public works. Why not commissioners?

Justoo wrote:

They should be able to set up email accounts on the county's network that they can access from home with proper password security, etc. It can be separate from their home mail. I can email public works. Why not commissioners?

Public works is there every day. And think about it. Suppose Commissioners did look at emails from home. I can easily picture this scenario....

Ok, this ones bitchin..Delete... Another bitch...Delete...

My personal feeling is that if something really needs to be addressed it's worth doing in person. If you just have a comment, suggestion, or question, the County Clerk forwarding it to them should suffice.

I understand your points and agree they could have something set up at the Court House for email. I know you have personal feelings over the wind farm, but that's exactly why I can see why they don't want to be bothered outside of Commission chambers. I've heard ex City Coucil members here say they never got a break because no matter how they voted someone was always calling them at home or coming over to bitch. If you think they need to be present more at the Court House or have some evening meetings you can attend, then maybe it should be addressed.

E-mail would be handy for someone like me. I'm spending my time traveling and am not around much to show up at the courthouse on the days they meet. The notion of evening meetings would accomodate many people who work in the day hours. I hope it comes to fruition.

Could be that they might set up some kind of email or even have an occasional evening meeting if enough interest were shown. I really don't blame anyone not wanting to take their work home, especially as heated as some government issues are. I wouldn't want to be bothered at home either unless it's an emergency, and in an emergency the Commissioners are going to be contacted.

I think if approached in a respectful manner something could be arranged. Possibly even a private meeting if it's important enough. It'd be to their advantage to discuss issues of importance before some disgruntled citizen writes a letter to the HDN.

An elected government official is there to serve the public.

Open and honest government is what one of our recent candidates ran on. He said he was going to move the meetings to evenings. The subject has been brought up in commission chambers. One of them balked at the idea of taking time away from the family during prime time. It is only four nights a month.
We pay them $1500 a month. That's about $375 a meeting. A lot of families in this county exist on that kind of annual income.
The least they could do is act like they are paid to be elected public servants.

Many of us donate that many evening hours a month in an effort to better our community.

I wasn't aware of that Justoo. All I can say is push it further.

elliscountycomissioners@hotmail.com?

Just an idea...

I didn't know the subject of evening meetings had been brought up, but might be one night meeting a month wouldn't be considered too much. It'd beat none.

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elliscountycomissioners@hotmail.com?

Just an idea...

Wouldn't cost nothing to try it.

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but might be one night meeting a month wouldn't be considered too much. It'd beat none.

I'd rather have them all at night and televised. Trego county does that.

But one is more than none. A little openness is better than none.

I'd expect getting one could lead to all if it went over well. One thing is that many county department heads that have to attend those meetings work during the day, so it'd be more than just Commissioners giving up time at home. Many department heads also attend other meetings in the evenings already so getting one might be the best you could hope for.

They are looking at getting an administrator. If they do that then department heads will report to him/her. Makes it all easier. In the mean time department heads could flex out the 30 minutes they spend in the evenings. Prolly like to use that on Friday eve.