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SLO County Clerk Recorder resigns after a rocky five years

June 4, 2021

SLO County Clerk Recorder Tommy Gong

By KAREN VELIE

San Luis Obispo County Clerk Recorder Tommy Gong is resigning his elected position after securing a job in another county.

Gong’s last day has not yet been announced. The SLO County Board of Supervisors is then tasked with appointing a new clerk recorder to serve until Jan. 2023. At that time, the winner of the 2022 election will take the seat.

Then the assistant clerk recorder, Gong won his first election in Nov. 2014. During his tenure, Gong faced multiple challenges regarding his job and his family.

During the 2018 election, Gong’s office miscategorized one of the three seats that were up for grabs on the Los Osos CSD Board.

In 2019, a San Luis Obispo judge sentenced Sherry Gong, Tommy Gong’s wife, to about six months in jail for embezzling more than $32,000 from the booster club of the Atascadero High School band.

Then in the 2020 election, thousands of voters in San Luis Obispo received two vote-by-mail ballots, while other voters in rural SLO County found themselves removed from the voter rolls.

During a heated SLO County Board Of Supervisors meeting on May 4, in which supervisors debated election rules, more than 130 people called in to voice their opinions. One caller accused Gong of being a member of the Chinese Communist Party, prompting an article in the LA Times about anti-Asian sentiment and Trump supporters on the Central Coast.


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All politics set aside, I wish he and his family well. I don’t walk in his shoes and not being a public figure, I can only guess that this may give his family a reset and better days. Just good will, there is no point in borrowing trouble.


11

Julie Rodewald was head and shoulders better than Bonnie and Clyde. TC was a waste of time. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.


-6

Contra Costa County isn’t San Francisco, it’s in the northeast bay above Berkeley Peninsula across the Golden Gate Bridge from the sh*thole by the bay…

Tommy Gong did have a couple of rough patches, especially the SHAFU with the LOCSD election, which was entirely his fault. But it’s only a CSD after all.


0

May the jokes travel with him.


-14

However, this clown was able to secure a better job in another county where his expert level of incompetence and his wife’s creative financial skills will be put back to work again. Good ridden you worthless individual.


16

It’s the government way, fail at your job, even do something criminal sometimes, and just quietly move on to another location, or retire with full pension plus while your quality of work is hidden behind “it’s a personnel issue”.


14

I wish Mr. Gong better times going forward. He did a decent job during his tenure, and he secured our votes. I’m sure that this is a very tough job during these divided times. I just hope that the incoming Clerk Recorder is as good, if not better, than Julie Rodewald…who was the best! Her dedication and efficient running of the office was unsurpassed. One thing greatly missed from Julie Rodewald’s tenure was the ability to request that our private information (phone, address, etc.) would not be given out to political annoyers who incessantly called and filled our mailboxes during elections (imagine what Good could be done with the money saved from this senseless practice). Apparently, Mr. Gong’s office didn’t want to be bothered by this voter information privacy. I called before each election only to be told they couldn’t honor this request that Ms. Rodewald’s office graciously provided. May our next Clerk Recorder be more attentive to the County’s needs!


5

I say good riddance and then I freight over who will replace him…


-11

“freight”? This may be the end of Tommy Gong in SLO County but it is also the end of the Republican Party in SLO County. It’s not my Dad’s Republican Party and not mine either. Tommy Gong’s wife, whatever, feel free to use that in the next election for Clerk Recorder. It may well be a valid point. But for KPRL listeners to chase him from his elected office through public harassment is not ok in my book.


-5

I supported Tommy in the initial election…however, the election night returns since he took office were the worst ever. No updates for hours, etc. Not sure we can blame him for all of that but the buck does stop with him.


27

OK, let’s reduce the position’s salary


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