Elected officials get all kinds of mail and all of it is public record.
Santa Cruz Mayor Hilary Bryant not only shared her strangest letter, but she keeps it with her for a laugh when things get tough.
Bryant, who took office in December and within two months was in the midst of one of the worst tragedies in city history – the killing of police officers Butch Baker and Elizabeth Butler on Feb.26 - got this right in the middle of the crisis on March 4.
The unsigned handwritten letter, with no return address said:
"Mayor Hillary Bryant
Do something with your hair
Looks terrible"
It's become a family joke between her husband David and two kids, Quintin, 9 and Maddie, 7. Also, being a public record, a copy was sent to all the other members of the city council and high ranking city staff.
"Now they all joke about having a bad hair day," she said.
Bryant keeps it in her iPhone to show people and to look at when she's feeling down. It shows her she never can know what to expect from the city's constituents.
"In the midst of all we were going through, I wasn't thinking about my hair," she said. She had spoken at memorial services and to the community for days without sleep.
The stamped saying on the stationary says more about how this mayor has handled a rocky beginning: "You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face."
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