Dem lawmakers to speak in San Luis BY BLAKE HERZOG @BLAKEHERZOG
All three members of southern Yuma County’s delegation to the state Legislature are scheduled to appear tonight at a legislative forum in San Luis.
The 7 p.m. event at the San Luis Cultural Center, 1015 N. Main St., will feature Sen. Lisa Otondo of Yuma, state House Minority Leader Rep. Charlene Fernandez of Yuma, and Rep. Gerae Peten of Goodyear, all Democrats.
Yuma County Democratic Party Vice Chairman Bryan Rasmussen said the event has been planned in response to requests for the party and its representatives to take a higher profile in Somerton and San Luis.
“We’ve had requests to have more events down in San Luis and Somerton, so we invited the LD4 representatives for a town hall, and hopefully they’ll learn a lot from the community down there about what issues are most concerning to them,” Rasmussen said.
Families are encouraged to attend, as well as anyone else who is interested. Those planning to go are asked to RSVP through the Yuma County Democratic Party Facebook page, if possible. Refreshments will be provided.
Legislative District 4 includes the city of Yuma north of 32nd Street and west of Interstate 8, as well as Somerton, San Luis, Gadsden and surrounding unincorporated areas.
It then sweeps north through Gila Bend as the West Valley suburbs of Phoenix (where Peten is from), and east across the Barry M. Goldwater range to the Tohono O’odham tribal reservation and the western fringe of Tucson.
Rasmussen said there is no set agenda for the forum, expected to last one hour with an additional hour for attendees to talk to the legislators, but he said education is the issue that seems to have the highest priority for South County residents. “That’s something they care about very deeply. But it is as much a new learning experience for us, the new leadership of the Yuma County Dems, as anything else,” he said.
Fernandez said Monday that the town hall-format forum is not related to others she and other state legislators have held around the state this summer.
“They just wanted us to talk about this last session, and we’ve been doing that all over so I think we’ll be ready for any questions,” she said.
“I think we’ll just talk about what happened, and what we see coming up in January,” she said.