How Our Local Policitians Rate
In April of this year, we began writing letters to our local representatives, in the hopes that we could obtain outside advocacy for the problems we're experiencing with the DSHS. The results we got were/are surprising to us, and we've arrived at the conclusion that some areas of government are inoperative.
We rated these politicians on a scale of 1 to 10.
Here's how the 3 local representatives for our district rate:
- Rep. Shay Schual Berke - Dem. - Although Ms. Berke was the first one of the three to write back, she failed to follow through with her promise to look into our problem.
Overall Rating: 2
- Rep. Karen Keiser - Dem. - Ms. Keiser is absolutely the worst of the three. She never wrote us back at all, even when we sent reminder notes and kept her updated about our e-mail address. Eight months is a long time to wait for an elected official to respond to a constituent's plea for help.
Overall Rating: 1 - Sen. Julia Patterson - Dem. - Ms. Patterson was slower to respond than Ms. Berke. She is also a member of the Senate Human Services Committee, to whom we've also written. She and her Committee colleagues have done nothing to police the actions of the DSHS, although they have recently passed a law that allows them to (See our Writ of Mandate Page for more details). Her attitude is that she's unwilling to get involved, and preoccupied about covering her legal bases when corresponding with us.
Overall Rating: 2
In conclusion, we'd like to say that laws are written to help people, but they have no power if they're never put into use by the very people who claim to uphold them.
