State Senator Michael Frerichs Office Week Fourteen

Now that session has resumed our office is back in full swing. Our office was in great shape these past few weeks as we had caught up on a lot of work which had been collecting dust on our desk for weeks. With session commencing this week, our office inbox has fallen victim to numerous form emails with concern to several bills. An increase in snail mail and faxes has also taken place. Due to this, I will surely be busy writing responses to all of these constituent inquiries.

A few of the bills which the constituents have inquired about will need to see action in the legislature before we can write a proper response. Therefore, I have been working on a few constituent emails on a variety of issues which we can work out a response (medical marijuana, state funding for various agencies, FOIA etc.) Too, I have been working on newspaper clippings etc. to pass the time before I can write a proper response to these letters.

So, I guess I was wrong. It is Wednesday and the office is moving at the pace of a snail. With many of the constituent correspondence issues awaiting substantial action before a written response can be drafted there is little to do in the office. Today, I continued to work on newspaper clippings, comprise excel spreadsheets for later mail merges etc. However, it was exciting to find out upon delivery of the mail that we had received our long awaited stamps. The office has had to wait to mail weeks worth of correspondence due to a shortage of stamps. Yes, that is correct. Due to the delay in the State of Illinois paying its bills our office has been unable to mail any correspondence unless extremely urgent for the past few weeks.

Tuesday I continued to work on the series of emails which I could write a response. At 2pm, I sat in on a phone call regarding SB2505 which is sponsored by the Senator concerning Green Energy Special Service Areas. There is litte opposition to the passage of this bill, however, the call was needed to attempt to clarify amendatory language which may need be added before passage in the House.

Thereafter, I composed a spreadsheet of constiuents which had written our office with regard to FOIA related legislation and gun related legislation. These spreadsheets will be utilized to do a mail merge after a letter has been composed to be printed and sent out to these respective constituents.

Too, these past few days I have dealt with a few constituents over the phone who have been seeking our assistance/or have seeked assistance from our office in years past. Unfortunately, our office has done all in its power to advocate on their behalf and these individuals do not appreciate the final response they receive from our office. These responses have turned in to a series of angry phone calls (often innappropriate and littered with cussing) and phone calls will now have to be monitored and forwarded to voicemail. Laurie, our Chief of Staff tends to forward the cases of such individuals to me which often leads to a stressful day.

On another side note, Mike will be interviewed by individuals of the ABC Show Extreme Home Makeover in a few weeks. It appears the TV show (yet to sign a contract) is looking to produce another episode here while revamping apartments of Senior Citizens in the Rantoul, IL area.

Thursday I continued on the quiet voyage in the district office. This morning I began to take the staples out of numerous applications for the General Assembly Scholarship in order to prep for the shredder. Sadly, I spent many hours in front of the copier to produce these copies while several sets were never used since 2 of our judges dropped out for a variety of reasons. Thereafter, I shredded all of these application.

With this a task of the past, I proceeded to file away all the applications which were submitted this year for the General Assembly Scholarship. Too, further keep myself occupied I worked to clip newspaper clippings for our Saw You in the News Mailings.

Afterwards, I worked on a whatever emails were ready for a drafted response. Our office continues to be in great shape. Perhaps, if there is little else to do tomorrow I will work for a few hours in the campaign office.

Since the office was quite slow with little to do, Laurie had me leave early Friday. Friday morning/early afternoon I worked to clear emails in the inbox, clip newspapers, and respond to a few constituent letters before leaving the office.