WHO WOULD KNOW?
There will be further examples of the experiences with
public servants posted here in the future.
This post will describe an exchange with a public servant went.
If you need to obtain information on a situation, you will
just need to pick a phone number close to the department you need. It won’t matter; you need to just call
someone.
The following is an example of needing information on
storing fuel in large quantities. A call
was placed to the DNR. Someone did
answer, but was referred to a different department. After calling the second office, and getting
another number to call, frustration was setting in. I was referred to eleven, yes 11, other
contacts, and ended up back at the DNR, at the first number I called. The DNR guy was a little embarrassed.
Over the past ten years of this sort of thing, one
conclusion of public service is quite clear, if a thing is going to cause some
work to land on my desk, I want nothing to do with it.
If you are a private citizen and not “connected”, you don’t
have a chance. “Connected” means that
you know someone that has power and influence over the person you are trying to
deal with. If you are not connected, you
will be handled. Someone will listen to
you who will know nothing about what you are trying to explain to them. They will interrupt and ask you a question about
something they do know about, that will have nothing to do with the situation
that you are trying to explain, and could be found on any website. As you go on to continue to explain the situation,
you will experience a “PAUSE” from this person after you are finished.
The “PAUSE”. This is
used in several ways.
First: The person you
are talking to has no idea on what to do.
Where to send you, or has never heard anything like what you are describing. There is nothing wrong with being in this position;
no one knows everything about anything.
But, what you will probably hear next will be, “I will have someone call
you.”
You will never hear anything back, and if you call back; the
phone call never happened, don’t recall talking to you, it must have been
someone else, you have called the wrong department, I have talked to my boss,
and he does not know anything about it, he is in a meeting, he is away from his
desk, I am out of the office, and won’t be back until a month from next Tuesday.
More than likely they have caller ID and will never answer
that number again. In order to talk to this office again, you
will need another phone line with a different number. When you call and they answer this time, and
you tell them who you are, and that you had talked to them before and you are
following up because no one called you back.
Then you will get another “PAUSE” this one will be longer, they will not
be able to react, being caught off guard.
Where it goes from here is infinite, there are as many
routes as there are laterals on a spider web, but be certain of one thing. YOU ARE GOING TO GET NOTHING.
