Along with residents of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo, Santa Maria voters can now indulge in all the luxuries that accompany having a fully staffed congressional district office within city limits.
Congressman Salud Carbajal (CA-24) hosted an open house on July 31 to celebrate the grand opening of his newest district office in Santa Maria, where community members were able to discuss how the office’s resources could be of most help.
Carbajal said the office, located at 1619 South Thornburg Ave., and its staff are available every Monday through Thursday to help all residents of Santa Maria with casework, questions, and federal matters.
For example, Carbajal said that before the open house, his Santa Maria office hosted an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) that assisted taxpayers with issues in person.
This office is Carbajal’s third (in addition to offices in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo) to open within the district, and he said he hopes to open as many centralized locations as possible during his term.
“It’s important that we have accessibility within the entire district,” Carbajal said. “So we’re trying to spread the offices around for our constituents to ensure my advocacy is consistent with the needs of the entire district.”
This article appears in Aug 3-10, 2017.