A legislator’s duties in Sacramento include introducing and voting on legislation and state budgets that impact the lives of millions. Though this gets the most attention, another major responsibility involves assisting constituents who need help dealing with the state’s massive, and at times, very inefficient bureaucracy. That responsibility falls to the District Office (DO).
I’m very proud that over the past 12 years my DO handled over 20,000 cases that have been submitted to us by constituents. These involve problems with multiple state agencies including the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), unemployment and disability claims at the Employment Development Department (EDD), firearms and background checks with the Department of Justice (DOJ), help with Medi-Cal and health insurance and issues/problems with hundreds of other state agencies and departments.
Problems with EDD during the pandemic stand out. Beginning in March of 2020, EDD collapsed under the weight of thousands of people being laid off, virtually simultaneously. Getting through to EDD by phone was impossible. Out of necessity, EDD claimants turned to District Offices all over California, which became virtual EDD extensions. During this period, my DO handled over 3,000 EDD cases – on top of all the other cases that come before us. We frequently processed over 30 EDD cases each day, up from only seven during all of 2019. Due to the unprecedented number of new cases, along with claimant identity issues, computer glitches and fraudsters gaming the system, it could take EDD weeks and even months to process — and pay — many of their stressed and desperate claimants. At times each of my DO staff had over 50 open EDD cases – we had to hire additional, temporary staff to handle the deluge.
But that’s why we’re here. My staff and I have always taken our responsibility to help constituents very seriously. Going forward, rest assured that this will not change when the new legislative session begins December 2nd.
Assemblymember Marie Waldron, R- Valley Center, represents the 75th Assembly District in the California Legislature, which includes the cities of Poway, Santee, portions of the City of San Diego, and most of rural eastern and northern San Diego County.
