What’s it like to visit your elected official’s office? A photo tour
Ask anyone who has worked in government on what the best way is to engage with an elected official and the answer will likely be “meet in person.” Turns out human contact is even more valuable in this day and age of digital-everything. But for many of us our jobs and lifestyles make it hard to go so we thought we’d visit some officials and report back so you can see what you’re missing out on.
Well, we got far more than we expected — in a very good way.
An office just like yours and mine
For some reason I thought that elected officials have fancy offices in public buildings. While that may be true at the capitol representatives that have district offices tend to be in fairly ordinary buildings.
For example, the offices of California State Assembly member Kevin Mullin and State Senator Jerry Hill are right next to each other — just a few blocks from my own office in San Mateo and where I once took my son to a birthday party (Small Fry Dance Club, if you must know).
Coincidentally, Congresswoman Jackie Speier’s office is in another generic office building just a few blocks away so we stopped by there as well.
The Congresswoman represents 700,000 people yet her reception desk is so simple it reminds me of my dentist’s office.
Kind people making tough decisions
Turned out that Assembly member Mullin was at the state capital that day and is every Monday-Thursday. But his district director, Mario Rendon, sat down impromptu to answer our questions and boy were we lucky he did.
In his twenty year career Mario had worked with Congresswoman Jackie Speier and State Senator Jerry Hill before Assembly member Kevin Mullin, so he was a wealth of knowledge.
Mario shared insights into the tough decisions the office has to make on issues like affordable housing where most agree it’s a good thing but those who oppose it are incredibly vocal. When we left his office my colleague, Michelle, remarked that meeting Mario helped her feel far more connected to government than ever before… this coming from a habitual voter.
This pattern of meeting kind people working hard to serve their communities continued with every office we visited. Next door, at State Senator Jerry Hill’s office, we met a Field representative Alex Kobayashi. He too had worked with several state senators and assembly members so had a broad perspective on issues Bay Area residents care about. And, like other staffers, Alex went deep into the complexities of these issues beyond the narrow understanding we held.
Next, at Congresswoman Jackie Speier’s office we met her district director, Brian Perkins, while she was in Washington DC.
Like Mario, Brian too had more than twenty years of experience in government. But this time we were even more lucky as Brian has a background that is highly relevant to what we’re building at CivikOwl. Turns out he’s an alumni of Stanford’s business school like I am and he too had a fascination with the news industry like I do (though his fascination is grounded in actual experience; mine originates from being a paperboy twenty-five years ago).
Brian sat down with my co-founder, Ajoy, and I for a good half hour and answered many questions on how constituents can best engage with the Congresswoman’s office. What surprised us was his comments on the death threats that the Congresswoman and staff receives; a scary consideration that I am grateful for not having to worry about in my line of work.
Maybe it’s because I’ve worked in the tech industry for so long but it was refreshing to meet people who were happy to chat without seeming harried or wanting something out of me.
Closer to home
Lastly, I met with the mayor of my town, Burlingame. Mayor Ricardo Ortiz may be living the quintessential American Dream. He grew up in Colombia and come to the US at age 19. He married his college sweetheart, has three children, and has held several roles serving his community while simultaneously building a career in the local banking sector. Ricardo was so warm and hilarious that I can’t remember having ever enjoyed a meeting more in my twenty years of working.
Ricardo is a civil servant in the best sense of the word. When I first asked to meet him he suggested we meet on the weekend. I didn’t understand why until later when I realized that he juggled his day job at a bank with his mayoral duties on nights and weekends.
After our meeting I left thinking I’d like to serve my community as well someday. When I mentioned this to Ricardo later he immediately suggested I research joining a planning commission.
The best part of these visits is I’m better connected to my representatives now and can recognize them when I see them around town. I appreciate the roles they play and look forward to building a friendship over time.
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