THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, June 11, 1996 TAG: 9606110305
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL SIZEMORE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 80 lines
It's open season on government and politicians these days. But to all those critics hurling brickbats at Richmond or Washington, Bud Santivasci would like to sound a contrary note:
Give it a rest, guys.
Like the rest of us, government officials have a job to do. And sometimes - maybe even a lot of the time - they do it exceedingly well.
Santivasci's viewpoint, born of personal experience, flies in the face of conventional wisdom.
When pollsters for Knight-Ridder Newspapers asked people recently whether they consider the government a friend or foe, only 37 percent had even a slightly positive reaction. The majority were either negative or neutral.
Yet when people are polled about their own representatives, they are almost unfailingly positive. And when election time rolls around, incumbents are re-elected in overwhelming numbers.
This seeming contradiction may be due in some part to constituent service. Legislators' staffs spend untold hours running interference for citizens who encounter obstacles dealing with government agencies.
Citizens like Santivasci.
The 48-year-old Virginia Beach resident worked as a self-employed commercial fisherman until he was sidelined last year by pancreatic tumors. The condition required radical surgery. First, in April 1995, most of his pancreas and all of his spleen were removed. Then, in September, his stomach was taken out.
The surgery left him essentially homebound. Eating was a major challenge. He had to take his food in six to eight tiny meals a day. His weight dropped from 215 to 140.
By December, it was clear his recovery would be slow and complicated. So he applied for Social Security disability benefits.
He was turned down. He appealed, and was turned down again.
Frustrated, he sat down at his computer in April and looked for a government official to contact. He couldn't find an electronic mail address for Gov. George F. Allen, so he tried Lt. Gov. Don Beyer.
The next day, Beyer's office e-mailed him back. Since Social Security is a federal program, his case was being referred to Joann Pulliam, senior caseworker in U.S. Sen. Charles S. Robb's Richmond office.
The day after that, Pulliam called.
``I was shocked,'' Santivasci said. ``She had already checked into it, gotten hold of Social Security and had gotten somebody's attention and they were going to pull the file back and look at it.''
Apparently, Santivasci said, officials had been considering his two surgical procedures in isolation rather than as evidence of a long-running, disabling condition.
Last week, less than two months after his e-mail to Beyer, Santivasci got his first check.
Social Security officials had told him a second appeal would drag on for at least six to eight months. ``And now, two months later,'' he said, ``I've got a check - because somebody in the government took an interest.''
For Santivasci, the experience has been a welcome antidote for the prevailing cynicism about government.
``I can't speak for all politicians,'' he said. ``I haven't dealt with very many. But the ones I've dealt with have seemed concerned and willing to do something. I'm tickled pink.''
Beyer and Robb are both Democrats. But to Santivasci, who isn't politically active, parties don't matter much. In fact, an earlier encounter with the office of 2nd District Rep. Owen Pickett, also a Democrat, left him unimpressed.
And Pulliam, the Robb caseworker, readily concedes that not all the constituents she tries to help are as fortunate as Santivasci. Some endure a long, frustrating wait only to find they don't qualify for the benefits they are seeking.
``It's the saddest thing in the world,'' she said. ``Oftentimes, we see them take terrible physical and then financial hits because of being unable to work. What the rest of us take for granted just slips away for them.''
But when conditions are right, she and her co-workers take pride in cutting through the red tape and getting results - fast.
``We have a pretty strict boss,'' Pulliam said. ``He wants it in here and out of here very quickly.'' ILLUSTRATION: JIM WALKER
The Virginian-Pilot
Bud Santivasci by CNB