Throughout Civic Engagement series, we have often discussed the best methods for communicating and building relationships with legislators. In this session, we spoke to current elected officials to learn directly from them. Not only did we gain great insight into the world of legislators but we were able to get to know some of our elected officials on a personal level. After all, politicians are people, too! We wanted to learn:
- What’s it like being an elected official?
- How do you build relationships with your constituents?
- What are ways the public can participate effectively in local government?
- How do city and county governments work together?
- What work are you doing in the realm of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion?
- How do you reach out to underrepresented communities?
We are so thankful that Lincoln County Commissioner Kaety Jacobson and Newport City Councilor Beatriz Botello were able to join us and speak candidly about their experience. Scroll to the bottom of the screen for the full recording of the live Zoom meeting. Watching the video will be the best way to learn from our guests, but read below for a few of the highlights from the discussion.
Kaety Jacobson, Lincoln County Commissioner
Beatriz Botello, Newport City Councilor
Introductions and Motivation to Become Public Servant:
Kaety:
- Third year as Lincoln County Commissioner.
- Previously spent 16 years working with scientists, non-profits, fishermen as an extension agent for Oregon Sea Grant .
- She decided to run for commissioner after the community gave her feedback that it was time to do "something bigger."
- She has several guinea pigs, including Polka Dot, Maggie, and Banana!
Beatriz:
- A trained nurse from Mexico, Beatriz immigrated to the United States 26 years ago.
- Currently works full time for Oregon State University Extension, teaching nutrition education to underserved communities.
- Has been on Newport City Council since 2019.
- Thought it was so fun to campaign, especially the team work and collective action! She did a lot of remote outreach with Zoom and was happy she didn’t spend any money on it!
- Very pleased that the community supported her and she’s very honored to serve as councilor.
- One of her favorite aspects of being a councilor is doing outreach.
- She enjoys volunteering in the community: stone soup, through her church, and in other areas.
- One of her favorite memories is traveling around her native Mexico with several of her Oregon health care colleagues.
How Does the Reality of the Work Differ from Your Expectations?
Kaety:
- From her years working with stakeholders up and down the coast, she knew she understood what the job of Commissioner entailed and felt she could do it.
- However, she notes that public perception of their work and what they actually do is quite different. What surprises her is how little people understand the county role and what Commissioners actually do. Kaety doesn’t see her job as overtly political-- really it's more administrative. She spends much of her time overseeing departments, personnel, and budgets. With roughly 500 employees, she has to find the balance between working with her internal and external groups.
- Something that unfortunately came to light is how many people hate elected officials without knowing them. She did not realize that before, but now sees it frequently. And she takes it personally, as she lives here and is part of the community, too.
- Although she loves her fellow Commissioners, Kaety explains how difficult it can be to operate on a commission of three. Any two members is a quorum. So she cannot talk to them in passing about county related business because it is considered a public meeting. It’s frustrating, because she wants to adhere to public meeting rules. If someone talks to her about a great idea, she can’t just call another Commissioner and tell them about it, even if she knows they will support it. In order for her to get that answer officially, they must wait to get on agenda. It slows things down significantly as it takes time to get around public meetings issues and that’s hard, especially when she knows there will be support. She also cannot simply forward emails--she needs to tell people to re-write their emails to the other commissioners. These rules take up a lot of time.
- On a positive note, when you do you have that success of securing funding or getting a project done, and you finally break through…it feels so much better than she even thought it would! For example, the Commission just secured funds for wildfire relief and recovery, and it feels great!
Beatriz:
- She had a sense of the aspects of public service by volunteering as a teenager in Mexico and working in public health in the US. Although she was learning English, she started following local ordinances. One day a position opened and she applied.
- The first time she sat on City Council, she was excited and notes it is a constant learning process. She enjoys processes, but noted that this was unlike other processes she had worked with and it took her a year to fully learn it.
- Overall, being on Newport City Council is great. She happily reports that everyone gets along. When they have challenging situations, they make decisions based on what they hear from the community and she enjoys the consensus building aspect.
- Everyone on the council has been a mentor. Kaety, who happens to be a neighbor, has also been helpful all along.
- She asks for support often from the community, and it’s important to be out there and ask for support.
Work on Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion:
Kaety:
- Although in someways the county has been working in that realm forever, including their Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) and community health programs, she notes they are a bit behind in getting it more formalized. The County Clerk's office is trying to get a translator to do weddings in Spanish.
- They are looking for room for improvement by taking a DEI lens and going department by department to make better customer services, provide translation, and so forth.
- Public health is very involved in vaccine outreach and doing a phenomenal job reaching underserved communities.
Beatriz:
- Newport just published their statement on DEI. It's a new part of the city and they just have to work on how to implement that. It’s very important and going to be a great project.
- There is a new police advisory group. It's a very diverse group, taking information back and forth between the police and the community. This is a very crucial step in local justice.
What makes for compelling public testimony?
Kaety:
- Build relationships FIRST: In general, before you even get to the testimony piece, it's important to build relationships! Don't wait till an issue boils over, try to get in touch before hand. She likes getting to know people more than she likes testimony.
- She is always looking out for reasonable people in different communities and industries to have honest and realistic discussions. It is nice to get to know these people, so she can call them up, have a sensible conversation, read proposals, understand constraints, and so forth.
- Sometimes compelling testimony is even shorter than 3 minutes! Make your point quickly! Even when people practice, they often go on too long and get cut off before they make their final point.
- It is useful for people to understand what is county vs state or federal jurisdiction. Be clear about what you are asking for, such as saying “I understand this is a state problem, but I'm asking for the county to advocate…”
- Be reasonable about what you ask for by understanding legal and financial constraints.
- If you are making comment on a proposal, read what is actually being proposed and give thoughtful feedback. Sometimes people assume what a proposal is about and miss the key points.
- If advocating on behalf of group, make sure the group has accurate information.
- Form letters are not helpful, especially if they contain inaccurate information!
- And please please don’t threaten your officials. It sounds laughable, but it happens a lot. There are often threats of lawsuit against individuals or county, and this does NOT go well for relationship building.
Beatriz:
- The three minutes goes really fast, so be as objective, specific and concise as possible. Try sticking to one or two points.
- Repeat the summary at the end to make sure we've heard you.
- Present the problem, but also offer solutions on how to fix situation. What do you expect and what do you want to see?
- She also likes when people are curious about how things work. This curiosity gives the council the opportunity to educate.
- Speak directly to the council, instead of just reading the script.
- Say if you are representing a group or just yourself. It’s important to us to know that. It can be confusing if this is not clarified.
- Please speak loudly and clearly!
- If you submit comment ahead of time and want it read aloud, let them know!
When contentious issues arise, how do you come to consensus?
Kaety:
- She has worked as a conflict mediator in the past but recognizes that it's different when you're on the inside. On the county commission, they require a majority, not a consensus.
- She tries to pinpoint the key problem, which can often get bogged down in layers of details. And at end of the day, she just has to make a decision, even when she does't feel good either way. She just knows she's not going to make everyone happy but she tries to do what is best for her constituents.
- She takes input from everyone, but puts more weight on the opinions of her local constituents.
Beatriz:
- The council has very helpful work sessions to discuss difficult issues. There is open dialogue and community members are invited to participate. They share data and what other communities have done. These times are very important because they can ask questions that they can’t during meetings.
- The biggest challenge is when populations are not on the table. Sometimes she has to make decisions based on racial justice and speak up for those who are not able. hose are decisions that are challenging to make. She sees decisions that will impact underserved communities, like seniors and migrant workers, so she needs to make decisions that way.
What is the best way to reach out to you without being a nuisance?
Kaety:
- We are overworked and it's nice when people recognize that; many people think we don't do anything! That being said, Kaety always encourages people to reach out and never feels burdened to be asked for information or contacts. She says County Commissioners are great resources and are happy to connect you to the right people and departments to talk to about issues.
- It is helpful if you can map your inquiry about a program to the right Commissioners as they are each in charge of different departments. Doing a little research into the appropriate Commissioner to reach out to and how they internally divide the workload will make the process smoother.
- She advises that if an issue is bubbling up, it's best to give advance notice to your representatives instead of waiting until the issue blows up or is hard to fix. Commissioners do not always know about problems arising so they rely on their constituents to tell them as early as possible.
Beatriz:
- She notes that with people submit emails that copy whole City Council, they all see it. If you just write one Councilor, they may still forward it to the rest of the Council if they see fit (and they will let you know if they do so).
- When people ask to meet because they really need to talk out an issue, she tries to meet them at City Hall, in a park or for coffee. After meeting, she creates a report of the meeting in a simple format to have transparency. Regarding policy decisions, councilors have to be open with information about who they have talked to.
Final note:
All levels of government are always looking for citizens to volunteer for various advisory boards and committees. It is a great way to serve your community and get involved in important issues.