Sunshine Review:Writing to elected officials
From Sunshine Review
Writing a letter to your elected officials is a way to express concern about what your government entity is disclosing on their website. This is one way to push government transparency as an issue in your community.
[edit] Content
Here are the basics for writing a letter to your elected official:
[edit] Attract
Start your letter by stating that you are one of the constituents and introducing yourself.
[edit] Convince
Use the rest of your letter to establish what action you are looking for the official to enact. This could be upgrading their website to meet the transparency checklist standards. Many have found it help to give the ranking on the school district / city / or county's Sunshine Review profile.
[edit] Inform
Use 2 or 3 key pieces of information to support your issue.
[edit] Call to action
Ask them what their plans are about this issue in the future. Make sure to ask for time lines.
[edit] Formatting tips
Be sure to spell check and have someone else read it for grammatical errors.
Other common tips:
- Put your full first and late name, address, phone and/or fax numbers and your e-mail address at the top of the letter.
- Always double check your facts.
- Avoid cliches.
- Establish creditability by stating you are an active member of the community or an expert in a related field.
- If you have a website, feel free to mention it.
- Be respectful
- Keep introductions to 2-3 sentences.
[edit] Example letter
NAME County Commissioners,
My name is Jane Doe and I am a constituent in your district. I am writing because I recently learned of a website called Sunshine Review, a website dedicated to transparency in government on all levels. What this website does is rate counties based on the transparency of their website. There is a ten-point checklist to determine the transparency of the county website based on whether or not information is posted about: budgets, meetings, elected officials, administrative officials, permits & zoning, audits, contracts, lobbying, public records, and taxes.
I was surprised to find that NAME only had all the information posted for X of the ten items. As a taxpayer, I would like to be informed on matters such as the county budget so I can know where my money is being spent. It would also be helpful to include (other item on the list).
I was wondering if you would be able to take a look at this site (www.sunshinereview.org) and make a commitment to updating your website to include all the information taxpayers may want or need to know in order to be as responsible and informed as possible. You can feel free to respond to me at this address. Thank you for your time and effort in service to XXX county. I look forward to hearing back from you about this matter.
Sincerely,
Your name
