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Assembly staff outline two options to route constituent emails by district
Summary
Staff presented two implementation options — a Formstack submission form routed by district or geographic distribution groups — to reduce mass-email overload and better direct constituent messages; members discussed tradeoffs between accessibility and manageability and asked staff for visual examples before a decision.
Clerk staff briefed the committee on March 12 about technical options to improve constituent email routing and reduce the volume of undifferentiated mass emails to assembly members.
Jamie, speaking for the clerk's office, described two approaches: a Formstack-based public submission form that would prompt constituents to select an agenda item and their district, then route messages to the appropriate district members; or a set of distribution groups organized by geography (for example, "Assembly Midtown" or "Assembly West") that would deliver messages to the two members representing that area.
"The submission form would be to specific email address based on the user selections," Jamie said, explaining the Formstack design would allow staff to edit subject lines and export messages into packet AIMs. She also noted either option primarily requires staff time to create forms or inboxes and that the forthcoming website redesign could offer additional functionality.
Members broadly supported keeping mass-email capability while improving routing for district-specific constituent issues. Several members suggested interim steps: staff triage vague messages, ask senders to confirm district information, or use canned responses (for example, 311 referral numbers) for routine service requests.
No formal policy decision or budget change was made. Staff agreed to prepare visual examples of both options for members to review before any implementation.
