Saturday July 11th at 10pm Coffee Nutzz on Foothill Blvd was full to the brim. Were they having an awesome sale? Releasing a new coffee flavor? No they were hosting Assembly Member Cheryl Brown’s Coffee with the Constituents. That’s awesome right? Well it was great for Andy the owner of Coffee Nutzz to open his business for this event what wasn’t so awesome were the shady ground rules Assembly Member Brown laid out for the community.
Here is the video of the shutting down of the media by a staff member:
On July 2nd Congresswoman Norma Torres held a event where people could get to speak with the congresswoman and speak to the congresswoman about issues important to them. We attended this event and it was odd everyone was pushed off into a large room and were taken into the Congresswoman one at a time. As I stood there in the room of people I knew and didn’t know I spoke to two of Cheryl Browns Representatives and asked them if the coffee event on July 11th will be this way and they said no. Well that turned out to not be true………. When I spoke to Congress Woman Torres I explained that I didn’t agree that one on one events like this were always the best course of action. Having an open discussion gives everyone and opportunity to hear and learn from each question and hear the given answer. She agreed that would be a good way to address people but she was holding this type of an event for people that wanted to speak to her about personal issues that were sensitive in nature. We both left the conversation happy and exchanged ideas and wisdom I left the experience with a new found respect for Congress Woman Torres.
So I arrived at Coffee Nutzz and saw a mixture of well known Rialto residents as well as a collection of people I have never met before. Cheryl Brown was working the room saying hello to people in attendance and it looked like the open forum that was promised. So as Cheryl Brown began to address the crowd I began recording the Assembly Members opening remarks to later post here and I got shut down by Daniel Garcia on of the Assembly Members legislative aides. According to this aide there was no recording allowed, so wait how were all the sleeping mothers and people who work nights and weekends supposed to be able to hear the words of the Assembly Member if nobody could make a recording of them? Then what happened next was an additional slap in the face she said she would be pulling people into special side meetings, wait what????????
When I spoke to Assembly Woman Brown I explained that I didn’t agree that one on one events like this were always the best course of action. Having an open discussion gives everyone and opportunity to hear and learn from each question and hear the given answer. Mrs. Brown was very rigged in her position and would not even entertain the option that an open forum would benefit anyone else. Of course it didn’t help that I had issues with Mrs. Browns Local Staff and their lack of ability to help bring resolution to a range of given situations. I decided well into the conversation that my time and Mrs. Brown’s time was being wasted so I posed for a photo that a staff member took and exited stage left.
After to talking to others about the event they too were wondering why it wasn’t a more open forum type of event.
rialtonow 