Forum set in Fresno is abruptly canceled; UCSF organizers cite guests' scheduling conflicts

August 8, 2009

Skeptics are asking why organizers abruptly canceled a Friday morning Fresno health care forum with Rep. Jim Costa
among its panelists.
Officials at the University of California at San Francisco’s Fresno center — the host — insist last-minute scheduling conflicts compelled them to pull the plug. But doubters wonder if the planners or participants simply hoped to avoid protesters who had vowed to show up.
Costa’s office said he had nothing to do with canceling it.
Lawmakers have been skittish lately about events like this. In recent days, congressional town hall meetings called to discuss President Barack Obama’s
health-care overhaul have become boisterous and occasionally chaotic.
Footage of people shouting questions without waiting for answers and attacking lawmakers for backing a “socialist agenda” have proliferated on YouTube and cable television.
The protests have prompted Rep. Brian Baird,
D-Wash., to decry “Brown Shirt tactics” and caused some lawmakers to question the wisdom of holding public sessions.
Baird said he has received threatening phone calls. He canceled the rest of the town hall events he had scheduled during Congress’ August recess.
That’s why some aren’t buying the UCSF explanation.
“If there are conflicts, you would have to know about it a couple of days ago, not at 4:30 on the day before the event,” said Visalia resident Eric Hughes, who is with the Central Valley Tea Party, a conservative anti-tax group.
The Fresno forum was to have been held between 9 and 11 a.m. at the medical center’s Fresno Street quarters.
In a prepared statement sent late Thursday, Dr. Joan Voris, associate dean for the UCSF Fresno Medical Education Program, cited scheduling problems.
“Unfortunately, due to multiple scheduling conflicts from our panel members, we have been forced to cancel [the] informational meeting on health care reform,” Voris wrote. “This informational meeting will be rescheduled for a future date convenient for all of our invited guests.”
It’s unclear when a convenient time might come. The U.S. Capitol Police have advised all lawmakers to cancel their town hall meetings.
A few Democratic congressional offices report that they have received threats connected to the health-care debate, and in recent weeks, demonstrators in Maryland hung in effigy a Democratic congressman who backs an overhaul. In Texas, opponents erected a tombstone with the name of another.
“With what’s going on now, there’s no way to have a reasonable dialogue,” said Mike Jensen, press secretary for Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced.
Jensen said Cardoza has opted not to schedule traditional town hall meetings during the congressional August recess.
Cardoza will be in his congressional district during the recess and participating in regularly scheduled events. He said these could include future potential visits to the San Joaquin Valley from Obama administration
officials and members of the congressional leadership.
Activists from across the political spectrum planned to go to the Fresno health care forum.
On the Peace and Social Justice Calendar compiled by labor and progressive groups and posted on the Internet, liberals were recently advised that the “opposition is out in full force and we need to be there to deliver the message that [Costa’s] constituents need and want health care reform!”
An e-mail circulated among Republican activists said they “should try and get some folks there to observe and ask pointed questions.”
The Fresno health care reform session was not a congressional town hall. Rather, it was organized by the university and was to include Costa as well as other health care professionals, said Brandy Nikaido, a spokeswoman for UCSF-Fresno.
Nikaido said it was UCSF-Fresno’s program, and it was put together on short notice. At the last minute, she said, some panelists said they were unable to attend, so it was canceled.
On Friday, Costa’s staffers insisted the congressman wasn’t behind the cancellation.
“It was not our town hall,” Costa’s press secretary Bret Rumbeck said Friday. “We were just invited.”
McClatchy Newspapers contributed to this report. The reporters can be reached at mdoyle@mcclatchydc.com or (202) 383-0006 and jellis@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6320.

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