BROOKLYN — Bay Ridge and Staten Island residents need help locating their missing congressman.
Tongue-in-cheek posters trying to locate Rep. Dan Donovan have been spotted on both sides of the Verrazano after the Republican lawmaker refused residents' pleas to host a town hall meeting on health care.
The first flyers appeared in Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Paper reported earlier this week. On Wednesday, a new one was spotted in West Brighton.
Haha! Found this in my hood @dandonovan_ny pic.twitter.com/FePkcf7pDo
— JJ Style 🌈 (@DepthDeception) February 28, 2017
Staff members for Donovan, who represents parts of Brooklyn and Staten Island, said they decided not to host a town hall after protesters reportedly disrupted a forum he appeared at the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce earlier this month.
"Sadly, we have witnessed the true goals of a small percentage of people who are getting their tactics from a distributed manual on how to shout, name-call, and disrupt," Donovan spokesman Patrick Ryan told DNAinfo New York.
"There’s an important distinction between sharing opinions and shouting down people who have different views. That’s not civil, not respectful, and not productive, and we are not going to participate in a circus."
Donovan, who backed President Donald Trump's run and supported his immigration ban, has faced protests on both sides of the Verrazano after the election. While the majority of Donovan's district voted for Trump, Bay Ridge and the North Shore of Staten Island backed Hillary Clinton.
The protests at both of his offices called on Donovan to vote against repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and to set up a town hall to discuss their concerns.
Despite the incident at the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce forum, organizers urged members to remain peaceful during their protests, the Staten Island Advance reported.
Residents on Staten Island took it upon themselves to host a town hall without Donovan last week after their pleas were rejected.
Donovan's staff said they haven't completely ruled out a town hall in either borough and have instead been working on setting up one-on-one meetings with constituents that they feel are more productive.
"It just is a different environment when you're sitting down one on one with someone or with a small group," Donovan spokeswoman Alexia Sikora said. "The focus is on conversation."
The congressman has vowed not to repeal ACA without a replacement plan, and he co-sponsored a bill last week to keep a signature measure of not denying people coverage with pre-existing conditions, Sikora said.
He also called on Congress to reimburse the city costs for protecting Trump and his family at a hearing on Tuesday, Sikora said.
The missing posters also slam Donovan for never holding a public forum and dodging debates in Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Paper reported.
While Donovan attended a debate in Bay Ridge during his first election cycle, he declined several others that year and one last year in the neighborhood.
