SANTOS GIVES COMMENCEMENT INSTEAD OF FIGHTING FOR HOSPITAL
Mayor Tony Santos has taken some heat as of late over perceptions he is not providing sufficient leadership during the current hospital saga. Santos has been missing from numerous rallies and town hall meeting on the subject leading San Leandrans to wonder where their mayor is.

He appeared briefly at Monday night’s hospital district hearing at the San Leandro Library resplendent in a green shirt and red tie before ducking out early without making a public appeal on the fate of San Leandro Hospital. Instead, the mayor gave a commencement address at a nearby middle school while Councilman Michael Gregory read a prepared statement on his behalf. While the accomplishments of a group of stellar students graduating to high school are of utmost importance, were they really more important than saving the hospital?

Santos, in his statement, did offer a modification to the health care district’s proposal calling for a potpourri of downsized services to be located at the hospital and utilizing the vacant fourth floor for the counties desired rehabilitation wing. He also announced support, as a last resort, for a district-wide hospital tax referendum. Neither seem to have gained the imagination of officials in attendance, the those in attendance loved it.

The suggestion to allow voters to decide the efficacy of a hospital tax is a bit strange since Councilman Jim Prola and the mayor, himself, questioned last month, the ability to raise enough support for any tax in the current economic climate.

Ironically, the mayor who seems to instill indifference or outright anger in some citizens and rarely gets rousing approval failed to basked in the revelry of an approving crowd who loudly cheered his proposal.