UDJ Live

Reduced payments to struggling retirees were lambasted during Tuesday’s Mendocino County Board of Supervisors meeting.
During previous meetings, J.R. Rose, a senior advocate from the 1st district, spoke to the board during public expression on the topic.
“(Rose) is seeking the county’s assistance with advocating for remedies associated with Cost-of-Living-Adjustments (COLAs) for senior citizens which when applied, result in restrictions, and at times, denial of benefits for seniors receiving federal, state, and county entitlement programs,” stated a portion of the attached agenda summary. “An example is a 5 percent increase in a Social Security benefits can cause eligible recipients to exceed their benefit level, resulting in ineligibility for future health benefits.”
Rose returned to the podium Tuesday to advocate for the passage of the resolution opposing these denials.
“This came to my attention three or four years ago,” he said. “This has a lot to do with housing. It just seems to me that this isn’t right. I can’t see where people who get raises on their social security get denied just because they get a raise.”
Rose said he wanted to see an effort made to address senior issues from all levels of government.
“I realize the economy is going bad. It’s going to get worse,” he said. “I realize that there’s less money coming into Social Security. If we can bail out the airlines and the S & L and Wall Street…we can’t help our senior citizens. This to me is not what I fought for…Why can’t we step up and say ‘hey, there’s no reason for you to not take your pills because you can’t afford it?’”
Susan Era, director of the Area Agency on Ageing, said the idea was to go to from county-to-county to collect similar resolutions.
“We are very concerned about this,” she said.
Fifth District Supervisor David Colfax said if the movement for legislative action on the issue caught fire it could start a grassroots campaign.
“I would support this very strongly,” he said. “I would like to see a resolution with some real teeth.”
The board gave direction to the Mendocino County Health and Human Services Agency to help craft a resolution to be brought back for final approval at a later meeting.