Rotary Club Hosted Dennis Cardoza

On August 25th 2009 representative Dennis Cardoza of the eighteenth Congressional District of California visited Los Banos. During Mr. Cardoza's visit he had the opportunity to speak before the Los Banos Rotary Club at their weekly lunchtime meeting which was held at Espana's Southwest Bar and Grill.

As might be expected, the appearance of a member of the United States Congress brought a number of additional people to the Rotary meeting that day. Along with a small entourage of congressional aides, a pair of reporters for the local newspapers, Chamber of Commerce President Geneva Brett, former Los Banos Mayor Michael Amabile, and even a reporter for "The Hill" (a publication devoted to goings on in Washington DC), the Rotary club also brought in extra tables and seating for several citizens of Los Banos and business leaders who apparently wanted to hear the congressman speak and partake of the opportunity to ask him questions.

The Rotarians did not call their luncheon a 'town hall meeting' but it did, at times, have that sort flavor.

After lunch, Congressman Cardoza rose and opened his comments by holding up a small sheaf of papers saying that his staff had prepared things for him to cover. He then set the papers down and said that he really did not need the outline when he was talking to 'his people'. Mr. Cardoza spoke for a fair bit of time touching upon some of the more hot-button issues of the current political season. The congressman spoke on topics ranging from the water crisis to health-care reform and more.

Mr. Cardoza shared one particular item that received a few chuckles from the assembled Rotarians and their guests - an anecdote he told about the Delta Smelt. The congressman told the story of one particular study of the fish that had been undertaken wherein the ichthyoids had been tagged so as to be able to track them. It seems that when all was said and done most of these tagged smelt apparently had found their final resting place not ground up in the pumps that keep the water flowing into our agricultural lands, but rather at the bottom of some bodies of water known for being excellent striper habitat. (Apparently stripers must have a taste for smelt...)

After Mr. Cardoza had finished speaking, Rotarians and members of the public were given the opportunity to ask him questions directly. Rotary members including Superintendent of Schools Dr. Tietjen and a local physician, Dr. Pete Peraiah asked questions about education and healthcare respectively. Other members of the public asked about various other topics and one person questioned the congressman about congress's own healthcare system.

The meeting lasted a bit under two hours including time for eating lunch and a bit of mingling before and after.

Congressman Dennis Cardoza

If everyone in Los Banos would just take 1 or 2 hours a month to do something to help their neighborhood or their community we could truly make Los Banos the gem of the valley.

The above is only my personal opinion and I strongly encourage readers to seek out more information from expert sources. Copyright 2009