It’s possible that good government exists—and it’s found in Spreckels.

Rey Mashayekhi here, thinking about government—that ever-contentious, ever-divisive bedrock of civic life. Irrespective of your politics, I think we can all agree that government can veer from the sublime to the ridiculous. 

Good government is capable of enriching people’s lives with services designed and intended for the benefit of the public; it educates our children, keeps our communities clean and safe, and makes sure the elderly and vulnerable get the medical attention they need. 

Yet bad government—even if its intentions are good—is capable of being disruptive and damaging to that same public, wrought with inefficiencies and even corruption. I’m not just talking about a painful trip to the DMV; those who remember Hurricane Katrina can recall how FEMA rapidly became a national punchline, shorthand for the federal government’s disgraceful ineptitude in ensuring the safety of New Orleans’ most underserved (and predominantly Black) communities.

I think about FEMA, in particular, because at the moment they maintain a pretty sizable presence in our own backyard. This week, I made a trip to Monterey County’s local assistance center in Spreckels, where officials have turned the town’s VFW hall into a bustling hub of government services for those impacted by this month’s damaging storms and floods. (You can read about it in this week’s issue, out Thursday.)

Staffers from FEMA and the Small Business Administration are on-site in numbers, directing people to federal disaster assistance resources like low-interest loans for homeowners and business owners. There is also a sizable presence of state government officials from agencies like California’s Employment Development Department and the Department of Social Services, which are helping workers recover wages lost due to the storm and directing people to the food, shelter and health care they may need. And running the whole show are local Monterey County officials, who have worked to provide buses to and from hard-hit communities like Pajaro and San Ardo and provided translators versed in the indigenous Mexican languages of Mixteco and Triqui. (One also can’t overlook the work of non-government nonprofits like United Way and Catholic Charities, which have disbursed aid at the Spreckels center.)

In its first four days after opening on Saturday, the center registered nearly 1,500 Monterey County families for some form of assistance. When I visited on Monday morning, the line stretched out the door and around the block, filled with families—many with young children—and overwhelmingly Latino. The staffers on hand told me that many of those seeking aid were farmworkers from the county’s most economically underserved agricultural communities.

In times of crisis, these are the communities often most in need of help—and it’s the role of good government, the thinking goes, to ensure that they receive that aid and are not left to fend for themselves. Our local, state and federal governments don’t always live up to that promise, but it’s hard to witness the work going on in Spreckels this week and not think that officials have done a commendable job on behalf of their citizenry.

The local assistance center in Spreckels is due to close at the end of day tomorrow, Jan. 26—but county officials say plans are already underway to open a second location on Saturday, Jan. 28, at an as-yet-unannounced location. Hopefully, that will ensure that the people of Monterey County can find the help that they need during this ongoing recovery.