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If an Assemblymember Goes Home for Two Months, Will Anyone Notice?
By Publius | June 7, 2007
Monica Rodriguez’s article in the DB today credits us with breaking the story about 80 year-old Assemblywoman Nell Soto’s two month absence from work due to health problems. Rodriguez says:
Staff in Soto’s office did not make any announcement about her illness or condition until they began receiving questions from the media.
So let me be sure that I understand this. Assemblywoman Soto is told by her doctor to stay home. For two months. And her and her staff don’t tell the public about it until they are virtually forced to because this blog breaks the story?
If the rest of us had to stay at home for two months for health reasons, we’d kinda hafta let our boss know about it. The article says that the House Speaker has excused her from voting (I’d like to know when, exactly, in the last two months he or anyone else in Sacramento was informed). That’s nice, but I think she and her staff know that as an elected official, she is ultimately supposed to report to the people she represents.
The bottom line is that the vast majority of people Soto represents had no idea she was sick and at home the last two months, and Soto and her staff did absolutely nothing to tell them. Maybe this doesn’t bother anyone else out there, but it sure bugs the hell out of me.
The rest of the article essentially excuses her absence, presenting her staff’s case that thing are proceeding normally—as if it doesn’t matter she’s been at home. I’m not buying it.
Rodriguez says:
Soto’s staff has been keeping up with her constituents’ needs.
Hm. Yes, I would assume that her staff has been taking care of her responsibilities since she left. It is nice that some people in the article indicate her staff has been doing a good job of it. But, you know what? Her staff wasn’t elected to do that job.
I appreciate Soto’s comments about doing more work from home than she usually does when she’s at work, but let’s be real here. There are certain parts of an Assemblymember’s job that can’t be done if they aren’t in Sacramento. Like, say, voting.
On the one hand, she is doing more work from home in Pomona than she ever did at the office. On the other hand, she couldn’t make the drive for two months to her office in Ontario.
The article also mentions that legislation she created before becoming ill is moving forward with the help of her colleagues. Ok, that’s nice too. Again, the problem is that in the last two months she hasn’t been at work, and it appears that she and her office didn’t do a damn thing to tell the public about it until this blog started questioning what was going on.
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Topics: Pomona |
June 7th, 2007 at 8:42 am
The people of Pomona didn’t elect her staff and staff can’t vote on any of the legislation that comes forward…so how exactly is she serving her constituents?
June 7th, 2007 at 10:58 am
Did the reporter confirm or just assume Ms. Soto’s home “in Pomona”? I have heard reports that she’s actually staying in Los Angeles.
June 7th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
Maybe our representatives are so useless it doesn’t matter if they show up. That’s a sad state of affairs.
June 7th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
You are all so judgmental. Why is it none of you noticed she was MIA? If you are that concerned, maybe you should pay attention just a little more.
OK cookie bears?
June 8th, 2007 at 9:59 am
Anyone want to lay odds on which Soto staffer is masquerading as “uh huh”?
Perhaps no one noticed Soto wasn’t there because no one notices when she IS there.
June 8th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
I contacted Ms. Soto’s office over a month ago regarding my concern over threats of violence at Diamond Ranch High School not being reported to the public and to date I have not received a response from Ms. Soto or anyone on her staff, so I questioned whether things are working as normal. I was contacted by Diamond Ranch’s assembly person.If it is normal not to response to you concerns from your district we have a promblem.
There is a sad pattern in Pomona leadership, we have people who are aging and simply can not due the job due to normal health reason associated with the aging process. Ms. Soto is not alone, our Pomona Unified School Board average age is well over 70 years old, excluding Mr. Andrew Wong from Diamond Bar.
It is damaging for our city to elect such leaders, despite their well intentions they can no longer perform the jobs they were elected to perform. The result are in lack of representation in Sacramenta and a failed school district buried in fraud and exceptionally low student performance.
The citizens of Pomona need to wake up or the problems we have here will only get worse.
June 8th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
[…] If an Assemblymember Goes Home for Two Months, Will Anyone Notice? […]
June 9th, 2007 at 1:19 am
As far as the fact that Ms. Soto home is in Pomona..It is, another fact from Local Brah! Also she is a native daughter of Pomona and went to school at Pomona High with my Aunt and Father. She’s a great lady and a great representative for our city and I’m not a staff member just a Local Brah!
June 11th, 2007 at 7:40 am
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June 13th, 2007 at 9:15 am
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June 14th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
Wow, it took DB 2 months to find out she was missing. Typical of the former great local paper, if it ain’t Rancho is ain’t S—
You guys sure stand up for the Progress Bulletin, it’s real name when it was a real local paper. Do you have some awesome journalists you know that work for it? Can we say Conflict of Interest or closet Republicans? On the inside looking out Da Local Brah
June 18th, 2007 at 8:42 am
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