I gotta agree with BRD, a call or even better a letter to officials can help greatly.
After I got out of the Navy, my wife (also a Sailor) was getting stonewalled by her Admin people on some issues. And yeah, some could have labeled me as a Sea Lawyer

, but these things had been ongoing.
Long story short, I remembered that as a teen in Boy Scouts I served a Pancake Breakfast fundraiser to my Congressman, who was now the Secretary of Defense. Wrote him a letter reminding of it and our plight.

Shortly after, I was getting calls for appointments to resolve things. Not when they had time, but when was it good for me.

And definitely no negative issues to her and her duties, they knew we had a more direct line.
a) "Stuff" flows downhill.
b) Minions and peons are there to protect the upper levels. They get raises, bonuses and promotions by being the "stuff" filters.
Get the media or those in real control actually involved and and the pipe to the cesspool is no longer clogged.