photo credit: Shutterstock

A North Bay congressman convened some town halls this week to talk about Social Security and possible changes to the program by the Trump Administration.

KRCB News attended Wednesday’s town in Santa Rosa, where former Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley joined Congressman Mike Thompson at public sessions in Santa Rosa and Napa on June 18.

O’Malley talked about how Congress is trying to mitigate threats to Social Security, and said there’s more and more people in active beneficiary status, but fewer staff at the Social Security Administration to assist them.

“If you go into a field office now, especially after Elon Musk and Donald Trump pushed 7,000 people out of the agency in such a short period of time, you're going to see probably three people,” O’Malley said. 

Thompson said approximately 107,000 Sonoma County residents receive Social Security, and that every month $209 million dollars in Social Security checks come into the county. 

Mary Parsons, a Santa Rosa resident, referred to the Trump administration’s ideas to privatize the Social Security Administration. 

“ I am retired, I get Medicare and I get social security, and it's an important part of my life,” Parsons said. “The idea that they might privatize it is very scary to me.”

Eileen Mickaelian, another attendee from Santa Rosa, said she came out to the event because she wanted to be knowledgeable about what's going on in the current administration. 

“Because I'm in my eighties, I just can't imagine what would happen without it,” Michaelian said. “But more importantly, all the things that are going on…that's so disgusting.”