TOLEDO, OH (WTOL) - More than 50 community members came together tonight to ask "Where's Bob?"
They held a town hall meeting hoping to bring their concerns to Congressman Bob Latta's attention, but he was unable to attend.
The Toledo-Sylvania interfaith friends held a public town hall at the Muslim Community Center.
Inside you could hear several constituents of Representative Latta speak out in frustration on his absence and the status of our country.
"I am so happy to see that there is a town hall meeting with Bob Latta," said Phung Vo, a Sylvania Township resident. "I have all the questions I need to ask him..."
Several stood up voicing their concerns that they don't know their congressman and feel he doesn't understand the issues they are facing.
"There is too much that is going on that is too important to Toledo, Sylvania, and Ottawa Hills that he seems to be ignoring," explained event organizer Magda Pecsenye. "We just wanted to find out what he thinks about it and how he can take our opinions into account."
Community members spoke on a long list of topics including healthcare, immigration, environmental issues, education and much more. All voiced concern that neither Representative Bob Latta nor his staff showed up.
"We can't get Bob Latta to show up to anything," said Paul Wohlfarth who is fighting the Nexus Pipeline. "He's never showed up once to any of our events."
Deborah Meyer, a District 5 resident, spoke out during the meeting seeking answers on the future of healthcare for the sake of her mother.
"If the cold-hearted people that are in DC don't even have enough decency and respect to show up for their constituents, who we happen to pay their salaries, to listen to us about these issues because it greatly concerns me as to what is going to happen to my mom," Meyer said.
In attendance was James Neu Jr.
He ran against Representative Latta and was defeated, but says he is running again for the Congressional Fifth District and taking notes on issues from constituents.
"That's what I am taking away from this, we're not seeing results from our elected officials," said Neu. "It's time to clean house."
We reached out to Representative Latta's office. They confirmed he was invited but was unable to attend.
Organizers say they plan to send the notes they took at Tuesday's town hall and present those to Represenative Latta in hopes of change in the future.
