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Congressman Jerry McNerney (D., Pleasanton) has had to reschedule tomorrow’s telephone town hall to discuss Medicare due to a family matter, said Sarah Hersh, communications director for Congressman McNerney. The new date is July 6.
The town hall, from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., will discuss Medicare and other issues of importance to residents of the 11th Congressional District.
Residents from cities throughout the district will be contacted by phone and, if they choose to participate, will join an hour-long telephone town hall meeting during which they will be able to ask questions of McNerney.
District residents can also contact one of McNerney’s offices to sign up in advance for the telephone town hall. Call the Pleasanton office at 737-0727.
Rep. McNerney is obsessed with having these exclusionary Town Hall telephone meetings; or meetings like Chamber of Commerce luncheons where all the questions are pre-screened. He is evidently afraid to face his constituents in a real Town Hall where the questions are live and not controlled. It is clear that his staff screens who signs up for these telephone town halls and many registered Republicans mysteriously don’t get the connection call and later get a message “sorry we were unable to reach you at the start of the town hall”. Same situation with Rep. Miller’s town halls – it seems to be right out of Pelosi’s play book. What better reason is there to vote McNerney out of office?
Whata Crock, did you sign up to participate? I did.
The announcement seems very straight forward; if you want to participate in the phone town hall, just register. Frankly, I think this type of procedure allows more people to participate (eg. people who find it difficult to attend due to reduced mobility, family or work constraints, etc.). This procedure also allows people who aren’t at ease speaking in a forum to comfortably provide their comments. I’ve lived in other cities; no where else has the congressmen been so open to gathering input from their constituents. I appreciate having these opportunties- and the advance notice- and I hope these phone town halls are continued.