A friend recently relayed a story of a relative who is having a hard time with one of our county municipalities. It's a land issue related to an easement. The story easily gets into the bigger picture of property rights, but in this case the municipality is holding up a permit until the easement issue is settled and the size of the easement is more than there has been in the past. I don't know the whole story and all the details so I'm not attempting to take sides, but to me the greater issue at hand is customer service.
All too often our government at all levels becomes us against them and I don't like that. Both elected officials and paid government employees need to remember that our system of government is of, by and for the people. We are the government. There is no us and them it's all us. The problem seems to enter in many times in the giving of information. One of the most frustrating things for anyone is being told something you don't understand. It's incumbent upon all of us in government to work as hard as we can to explain situations to those who have not been involved in the day to day business that may have lead up to the question at hand.
In the particular case of my friend it sounds to me like a timeline of events and the supporting documents would ease the situation. There should never be an instance in which someone is told something is the law without such documentation. No government employee should ever act on behalf of the government in a manner to gain something for the government not duly owed to the government by law.
A.J.
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