Now I know how to take public feedback

Key Takeaways

As told by by Joette Woods, Liberty County, Mont. commissioner

Liberty County is very rural, we have about 2,200 residents on 1,300 miles of gravel roads, so a lot of times when people want to talk to a commissioner, it’s about their roads.

The most important road is the road of whoever is currently in the office complaining about theirs at the time.

People look at you as kind of the executive of your county, so they need somewhere to go to talk about what is bothering them. I would say two-thirds of the stuff that comes to our office honestly doesn’t pertain to the commission, they just want somebody to hear them out. We don’t always have the answer, but we can at least kind of direct them to someone who can help a little bit more.

Before running for the county commission, I served on the local level in a different way, volunteering for local blood drives, the local food bank, local church group. We have a small group that raises money and puts it back into the community. One of the commissioners was looking to retire and a few people suggested I’d be a good fit. But as someone who had worked informally in community work like that, I knew the approach someone like me would want an elected official to take.

If you can provide some kind of answer for them, you can build a relationship, and that shows that you’re human, you’re on their side and just want to help. You become a trusted source of information for them and by building on that relationship, you can help them understand the decisions the commissioners make.