Veterans Affairs Commission - Regular Meeting

Welcome to At this affairs commission meeting. We got this meeting underway. It's now 12:00. We before we start, I'd like to have people silence their cell phones. Turn that off so we are not interrupted.

Thank you.

Alright. Courtney, are we ready? Okay. I call this meeting February 12 at 12:00. And, Todd, will you lead us a pledge of allegiance?

Absolutely.

Clerk, will you please take a roll call?

District one, commissioner Smith. Here. District one, Commissioner Fisher? Here. District two, Commissioner Reynolds? Here. District two, Commissioner Mullens Becker? Here. District three, Commissioner Colburn?

Here.

District three, Commissioner McAdams? District four, commissioner Welch.

Here.

District four, commissioner Thompson.

Here.

District five, commissioner Norton. Here. And district five, commissioner Milham. Present. Perfect. Thank you.

Thank you. Again, welcome to the meeting, and please ask that silence your cell phones. First, adoption of the agenda and approve the consent calendar. At this time, the commission will make any necessary additions, deletions, or corrections to the agenda, determine matters to be added or removed from the consent calendar with one motion, adopt the agenda, and approve the consent calendar. Anybody have any changes they would like to make?

So clerk, can you please open it for public comment?

We are now taking public comment on the adoption of the agenda and approval of the consent calendar. Individuals will have three minutes to address the commission. Public comment will be taken first from those participating in the commission room and then from those participating through Zoom. For those participating by Zoom, please make sure you unmute yourself when called upon and please raise the hand button. Please voluntarily state your name for the record. Any public comment in the room? No? Any public comment online? No public comment online.

Thank you.

There's no further discussion from the commission members on this item. Making a motion to adopt the agenda and approve the consent calendar. Call for a motion? I make a motion. Okay. I

make a

motion that

we adopt in

the agenda and approval of the consent calendar as is.

I'll second it.

I second it. So who said I'm sorry. Somebody second it? Take a vote, please.

District 1, how do you vote? District 2, how do you

vote? Aye.

District 3, how do you vote? Aye. District 4, how do you vote? Aye. And District 5, how do you vote? Aye. Motion passes. Thank you.

I'm reading, a 100 things up here. Moving on to agenda items. First agenda item will be two six dash zero two seven five. The education and employment committee will present their recommended goals for the commission. That's you, Donna. And I thought I was bad.

Good morning, commissioners. So Commissioner Fisher and I spent some time chatting about the Education and Employment Committee and what that really means to us as a commission. We jotted down a lot of things, and we had a lot of great ideas that we wanted to bring forward. We also took some time to talk to Seth as your chair to get some ideas from him. And then we also took some time to talk to John and Courtney to get an even bigger scope of what's going on.

And unfortunately can you pull that up? I lost it again. I had talking points, you guys. I really did, and I forgot to bring them. And I actually sent them oh, hold on. You know, sometimes okay. Here we go. Alright. I think I got it. So I'm gonna read from you exactly what it states within our bylaws.

And these were passed by the Eldorado County Board of Supervisors on 01/28/2020. And it's resolution thirteen-twenty. And it states, the commission shall establish standing committees. And number c is the Education and Employment Committee. It's established to conduct the review of county policy, procedures, and programs affecting veterans of the county and to assure compliance with state and federal mandates in the implementation of county policies, procedures, and programs.

The education and employment committee will meet at the call of the committee chairperson. The committee vice chair will continue an informal record of the proceedings of committee. The Education and Employment Committee will report on its activities to the commission meetings. Okay. So gentlemen, I would really, really like you to tell me exactly what that just said. It wasn't very clear, was it? Okay. So here's what we came up with. We met and we discussed many options for promoting it and to further the education and employment within veterans in our own county. In researching these options, we concentrated on how we could provide this information to veterans, as well as report to the Commission on the Education and Employment Opportunities that are available.

And here's some things that we came up with to utilize our VAC Facebook page and our Instagram platform, and areas where we could promote links to upcoming seminars on finance, education, and employment, such as CalVet, CalTAP, and others like that. And also provide a link on our platforms to a listing of veteran owned businesses within our own county. Also provide a link for businesses to post employment opportunities to veterans within our county. We're going to focus on providing information for sole proprietor business education, such as opportunities to learn how if you're a brand new business, you obviously have to keep books. So maybe we can get seminars that will provide them a tutorial on how to use QuickBooks.

Or as a sole proprietor, do I need an accountant? Do I need to go to a lawyer to set up this? I mean, those types of things. So in other words, when I think of education, don't think of and neither does Commissioner Fischer about going to college. I'm thinking about the veteran that chooses not to go to college, the veteran that wants to open his own business.

He has a particular desire to provide a service within our county. But he needs some help. He doesn't know exactly how to go about doing all those things. So I think that's another facet of education that we've never done before. So I'm hoping to utilize the Facebook and our Instagram as a platform.

And there's so many other boy, tell you what, I really hate this. Lost it all again. There's so many other avenues that we have out there. And I was going to tell you all of them, except I lost it all. I'm sorry.

This is really embarrassing. I would think I would know how to do this better. And I'll give you some of the examples that Bob found for us, just to give you some ideas. There's a NorCal Veterans Business Outreach that offers Boots to Business training. We could we could post links on that, and they do that on a quite frequent basis.

They have that there. We also have our own veteran services, and they're quite up to date. As a matter of fact, had a long conversation this morning, and we have some excellent help there. She's actually going through the program right now, the college program through assistance. So she's learning all these different loopholes and these other so there's another connection for us as far as the education is concerned.

SBA loans, veterans advantage loans. And there's an interesting thing that we found out, and I actually did contact the treasurer tax collector's office. We can get a listing of all of the veteran owned businesses within our county. But they're only sole proprietors because that's the only thing that the county tracks because veterans are their business license fee is exempt because they're a sole provider or sole proprietor, and they are a veteran. So therefore, they don't have to pay any business license fee.

So that's the only listing we have. And I did get that listing, and it's it's pretty lengthy. And there's a lot of good information out there. It gives us opportunities that if we wanted to reach out to them I know you had a program where you were trying to identify this business owners within our county that were veterans. I don't know that we have the boots on the ground enough to do that, to go out there and shake hands for each one of these individual proprietors because there are about a 175 of them.

And I'm not so sure that's as effective as we really need to be to do this. So I guess a capsule to put it in a capsule, what we're trying to say is that we want to be able to utilize other options to provide the commission and the veterans in our county ways in which they can connect outside of the county to get the help and the resources they need, whether it be education or whether it be employment. Think about us listening on our our, our platforms. I mean, here's here's, ABC, a veteran owned business, and they're looking for a driver. Why can't we provide them the opportunity to put that job opportunity out on our website or on our Facebook?

So that's the kind of thing we want to do. We want to kind of maneuver it a little differently than what has been done in the past. I don't know that every month we're gonna come back to you and have you all these miraculous statistics to provide you with. But at least on a quarterly basis, we can bring you up to speed what we're doing. If there's new things that are coming out, we'd be happy to bring that forward to let you know. So I'm hoping that you will embrace what we're trying to do here and our interpretation of what we think education and employment should be for the veterans in our community and still comply with our bylaws.

And I think that's great because, yeah, I definitely need help with with the Facebook and the Instagram side of it. I post, but and I post what Tim gives us and things like that. If there's other things going on within the county also that are veteran related, please forward that stuff to me.

Yeah. And I think it's a valuable tool for us. We do not have our own web page per se, and I don't know that we really can have our own web page. Can we? I don't think so. I didn't think so. So Yeah. Oh, this is a tool in which we can use. Right. And I really encourage all of you to actually subscribe to that page and then boost it to all your friends because that just means we've got more people looking at our pages.

We have 25 new followers.

Sorry. So, I'm gonna ask Bob if he has anything he wants to add to it. So we're gonna do this together. Okay. Okay, you guys?

I didn't mean I didn't mean to overstep. Oh, no. No. That's have 25 new followers on Instagram.

Yeah. And and it's So, I mean, it's a tool.

It is a tool, and that's that's pretty much what it is. And we can we can keep monitoring all these other things, such as Calptap and all of that, which I get emails from them all the time

Mhmm.

About upcoming seminars and things like that. That's that's free. You can listen in on all of it. So anyway

Just in summation, we really didn't have anything to work from with what we were given, prior. And so we're it's just a beginning. It's just a starting. And I I listened to all of the commissioners. I I listened to to your statement, sir. I listened to your statement, sir, and take we will take all of those into account about the schools. That doesn't mean we're not physically gonna go out and check North Lake you know, South Lake Tahoe Junior College. It doesn't mean we're not gonna go to Folsom Lake to make sure that the, the veterans are getting what they need and what's they're right in coming to them. This is just a beginning. This is just and what at this point where we're at, we're trying to get out as much information.

We're trying to be able to make available as much information to the veterans for education, for employment, and that's that's just it in a nutshell. And just one last point, I asked John Brown, specifically in his, veteran officers summation summary that he gives monthly to add a bullet point on how many, folks that we're helping with education, how many folks that we're we're helping with the program. Just and

just

publish that Calling in. Yeah. That Asking questions. That's Get that get that information out there. Try to give as much information out as we can. And it's a good start, and that's where we're at. And we appreciate your guys' support, and and thank you.

I'm definitely willing on the on the on the Facebook and Instagram. Yeah. Yeah. I'm definitely in on that.

Yeah. Yeah.

Just the beginning.

Yeah. So are there any other comments from any of you that you might have or some suggestions how we could expand from what we just brought forward to you?

So, Courtney, based on our Monday's meeting, we could probably just because this is kinda opens up a nexus to what we discussed. So should we wait till open comment, or can we tie this in now with for feedback for Don and and Robert with because this because the committee, we're gonna you guys are you're taking it to where it was and streamlining the language so it could be more productive. Correct?

Correct.

And people can understand it easier.

Well, you mean as far as revising the bylaws? Well, no.

No. I'm not revising. Yeah.

Let's let's not go down that fast.

No. No. No. No. No. That's not Yeah.

Let's not go down that. Reinterpreting anything.

No. No. No. We're yeah. We're just yeah. Yeah.

I I don't wanna spend six months of going

through it.

Yeah. Accounting is safe.

No. No. No. That's no.

No. Yeah.

Well, We're

just of all people, we're not doing that. Yeah.

No. You're right. We just want to grow it. Totally. We just want to make it a a bigger picture and be more informative Correct. Other than just focusing on employment or identifying how many businesses there are within this county that are veteran owned. And I'll mind you, whatever I gave you as far as, like, about a 175 or whatever it is, again, those are only sole proprietors. There are LLCs out there in our county that they are veteran owned, and they do

upwards of 250.

So Yeah. And DBAs as well.

Yes. Exactly. Exactly. So that's where we thought, well, hey. If one of these guys needs a new driver, why couldn't they just post on or at least send us

Yeah.

You know, the job applications.

The job application.

On the job. So that was kinda what we were thinking. Is

there any way to talk to these like, Colorado Traps? To me, it's one of the biggest places. They got buses, small buses, big buses, to actually talk to whoever's in charge and say, look. I've got these veterans here that are having troubles with transportation, but they can get a job over here.

You mean with Eldorado Transit?

Yeah. Can he work out something for the guy until he can get on his feet, get a few paychecks?

We're we're not saying that that's not an issue, and we're not saying that's not a a problem for the veterans. We're just trying to make information available at this point.

Yeah.

And it's it's and onto your point, and I and I'm gonna address this because I really respected it, and I really appreciate what you were saying in regards to veterans in their schools utilizing their military training to get college units. It's close to my because I was a veteran in college trying to survive and trying to put myself through college. It's tough. It's it's brutal. And so my point being is we, at this point, have taken everyone's input to heart.

And at this point, we're just trying to get out as much information. I'm not there are groups. There are organizations that specifically do provide those services. We are not that. We're we're more information based, and we're we're trying to assist our veterans with as much inform you know, information is power. We're trying to get out as much information as possible at this point. I'm not saying things aren't gonna change, things aren't gonna morph. I'm just telling you, sir, where we're at right now.

Yeah. I I But

just speak to your question regarding Eldorado Transit. That's an that's an elder that's an Eldorado County division. So they would be going through the procedures and everything as far as job applications and that, and they would get points for being a veteran.

Mhmm.

So they they have a whole protocol for that as far as that particular agency would be concerned. But if it was someone else that has nothing to do with government, yes, then then those are the people we wanna be able to provide them with a platform to put their their we need a job. We need a guy to do welding. We need a guy to do whatever. So that's kind of the basis for what we're doing.

I just think the PR work, that alone would make everybody happy.

That's what we're trying to

do, and that's what we're

trying to do. Exactly what we're trying

to Yeah.

And you have to start someplace. You have to start you know? And we're doing that, and and it's it's a good start. I feel personally and that's why I'm here. Okay? I'm retired like you folks. I I, you know, could have my feet kicked up, you know, what have you. No. I I went and paid my time working at veteran services and learning the system and learning what El Dorado County can and cannot do for veterans. I know I know very intimately.

Being on the commission now for going on five years, I know what the count what the commission can and cannot do for veterans intimately intimately and helping plan and run the stand down and what have you. I do have experience. My point being is there was nothing we had to work with at last month, before last month. Now we do. And so that's that's going forward, we have a good base to be able to move forward from.

I feel that actually well, I think it's kinda loud. What you guys should focus on for me, and it's like what you and I talked about, you guys should be a conduit of information first and foremost.

Correct.

Start I would like to see the committee start to form, you know, gather up like we talked about CalTAP, CalVet, all that information, and be able to present that as because we don't have the manpower to be boots on the ground to go walk to 250. So for me, I I think I would like to see the goal of you guys coming back and saying, hey. This is we have put together this Facebook page or or these links. I know that we have to deal with the county on that. But like we talked about, I think more information, like you said, information is invaluable.

But if we get that information out there and then if a vet does see that, hey. Eldorado County's hiring and I had a class a license in the army, that way I can go. Correct. So I said that I think first and foremost, like you said, to work with, we need to have a structure of information that we can start putting out there. Yes. That's from my my perspective.

And and our intention is to to work very closely with the VSO because they they they've got the wealth of knowledge over there as well. So that helps us to formulate just what we're gonna do moving forward. You know? Interfacing with the veterans. Exactly. Know what needs. Yeah.

They know what's needed, and they they are utilizing it themselves with what's needed, and and it's important. It's important we listen to them and work with them. And that's another reason why I'm here is to be able to help the veteran veteran services, and and that we should all be working together, and we are, I'm just saying, to help them. And so that's what we're doing. Mhmm.

And that's one thing I'd like to reach out on the outreach as far as that's I mean, now I know I post pictures and different things like this of ships and things like this. It keeps the interest with the guys. Mean they do like a lot of that but we do need to be able to put that stuff up and I have to know how to lock it where they can go out there and see it all the time because as it as it goes by in the month, it rolls down and rolls down, and then finally it drops off. So we have to figure out They can

reach out for the posts and things, I would think. So we'll work through that.

Yeah.

We'll And

the other thing I would I we had hoped to talk about or to to put into this this our next steps is to also be able to have a contact within each one of the the local veterans organizations so that when there is a job opportunity that comes up, we can push it out to you guys, to those that belong to these veterans. Or and maybe there's somebody within the veterans. Maybe they're looking for a part time guy, and one of your guys might be really interested in having that job. You never know. But at least it keeps you informed as well as to what opportunities are out there for veterans. And it also gives you an opportunity that perhaps maybe it might help with your own membership. So there you

go. Mhmm. Win win. Yeah.

Okay. If there's nothing for further on this, thank you very much for listening to us, and we look forward to moving

forward. I'm excited.

Yeah. Alright. Thank Thank

you. Thank you.

Alright. Will you please open it up to public comment?

We are now taking public comment on agenda item two six dash zero two seven five for the education and employment committee. Individuals will have three minutes to address the commission. Public comment will be taken first from those participating in the commission room and then from those participating through Zoom. For those participating by Zoom, please make sure you unmute yourself when called upon and please raise the hand button. Please voluntarily state your name for the record. Any public comment in the room? No. Any public comment online? No public comment.

Thank you. $20 Oh, you you raised it. We raised it. Yeah. We raised it. January 1, $20.

Tom's buying lunch. Yeah.

Well, there's no hey, Courtney. There's no vote on that, is there?

No. We don't need a

vote on that. Moving on then to agenda item two six zero three two four. Commission to review and approve changes to the Transency occupancy tax for the fiscal year 2526 on the annual grant allocations. I think the what do you need to present it, or can we just talk about what we talked about in the TOT?

Well, should be

some the lowdown.

So in March, next month, we are going to the board for their approval of our 2526 annual TOT grants, and the the amounts that you've already agreed to, for this fiscal year. One of them that we were, we had granted was the only kindness. And they've just recently notified us that they are going to be disbanding their facility and their services and that, and they're getting the money back. We had originally designated $15,000 to them. So what we are proposing from the TOT committee is that we disperse those funds, that $15,000 to two other annual grantees that we already have on our books.

We had request from Military Family Support Group that they would like an increase from their 8,000 that we designated because they're finding that they need some further funds to really truly help them serve veterans and their families. So we're suggesting and or I should say we're recommending to you that you approve us to increase the amount for military family support group from 8,000 to 15,000 and to increase the Eldorado Food Bank from 10,000 to 18,000. That would make up the 15,000 that we had designated for Only Kindness. And that would be, again, for just this year, fiscal year 'fifteen-'twenty six. Eldorado Food Bank has been we got a report from them, and they have been servicing veterans through delivery of foods and things like that.

So we feel that that's a really good place for us to focus some extra dollars towards. And again, we all know what military family support group does. So we feel that that's a very good way to expend that additional funds. Any questions on that?

No, that sounds good.

Okay.

Thank you. Can you

What about the change? What about the other change to the other $8,000 She talked about that. Okay. I missed it. Sorry. Clerk, will

you please open it to public comment?

We are now taking public comment on agenda item two six dash zero three two four for the commission to review and approve changes to the TOT fiscal year 2526 annual grant allocations. Individuals will have three minutes to address the commission. Public comment will be taken first from those participating in the commission room and then from those participating through Zoom. For those participating by Zoom, please make sure you unmute yourself when called upon, and please raise the hand button. Please voluntarily state your name for the record.

Hi. David Zelensky. I am very supportive of increasing the amount of, military family support group. They're an excellent ally for me. I wish they were even getting a higher proportion of it. You'll hear in my report, I went through 20,000 in six months. And so they they kept they walked the same beat and and we're running as many people as we can through them. I'm I've been there when food's been delivered, you know, by the the food bank. So I know it's a legitimate thing, but I just wish there was more. We have, as we speak, I'll I'll repeat again, but they'll thousands of dollars of rent requests that have just come in.

And so, anyway, if it's possible to give more to military family support group, I I would encourage that. Thank you.

Thanks, Dave.

Thanks, Dave. Any

additional public comment in the room? Any public comment online? No additional public comment.

Is there any further discussion from the commission members on this agenda item? Nothing here. Nothing here? I call for a motion, and then I'll make the motion that we increase military family support groups fiscal year twenty five twenty six funding from 8,000 to 15,000, a 7,000 increase, and also for the Eldorado Food Bank for their increase of 8,000 to $18,000 for the fiscal year 2526.

I'll second it.

You want me to do roll call?

I'm sorry. Yes. Roll call, please.

District one, how do you vote? Aye. District two, how do you vote? Aye. District 3, how do you vote? Aye. District 4, how do you vote? Aye. And district five, how do you vote?

Aye.

Motion passes. Thank you.

Alright. Moving on. We have our ex official report.

Hello. Amy Higdon, program manager, health and

human

services, working covering for John in his absence away at a conference. So this is the February 2026 ex official report. Veteran services information, John Brown, veteran services officer, and Tisha Holly, veteran services representative, are currently attending the California Association of County Veteran Services Officers Winter Training Conference. They will return next Tuesday, February 17. They hope to bring back valuable information and training for the rest of the veteran service office staff.

Veteran services updates. As BSO Brown mentioned previously, we have been working to secure funding to, construct an office to provide a private space for one of the veteran services representatives to meet with veterans, and the board of supervisors approved the donation acceptance January 27. And so we have the funding, and we are planning, to move forward with construction starting early March. Legislation, VSO Brown is pleased to announce that the senate bill six ninety four has passed, and I read that it was signed by the governor yesterday, so that was exciting news for everybody. And he would like to thank everyone who contacted the representatives to express how important the bill was to them and the veterans community in the in California.

And then January 2026, VSO contact summary, 119 walk in clients, 88 scheduled appointments, 303 phone calls, nine college fee waivers completed last month. There was a total of 203 college fee waivers completed in 2025. There are no changes for services being provided up in Tahoe, and that's the end of the report.

Thank you. Moving on. Committee reports. Start with the TOT.

As I mentioned earlier, when Don was talking, we can now easily go from Facebook to Instagram. It can be passed across. So we know we don't need the information on the password, things like that for the Instagram side. We just go from Facebook straight across to Instagram. The only reason I was telling you the other way was it allowed us to go from Instagram

to TOT?

Oh, god. I already covered most of it.

Thanks. Thanks. You're welcome. I just wanna stay up

thinking I was thinking outreach.

You are ready to go for outreach.

I'm ready to go for outreach.

Alright. So TOT, we did we heard from Donna's presentation earlier. Thank you. Rules? Nothing here. Housing? Nothing to report. Legislative?

Nothing here.

Transportation?

Tim Whalen should be online. Tim? He's got

Is he online? On transportation.

He's not currently online.

Courtney, is there do they show up on our screen up here if there's a person waiting? Do they show on these?

Here. Up here in some place.

Okay. I'm just curious. I don't I don't have anything on my my screen.

Yeah. There's no one looking to talk or anyone waiting because they can just enter in the room.

Contained in here.

Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Budget?

Budget? Nothing on no report for budget.

Education and employment, we already got a very nice presentation from them. Outreach. Anything about Facebook, Roger? Just curious. I've heard most of it. Okay. Thank you.

So that completes my

Your report. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Would you please open it to public comment?

We are now taking public comment on the committee reports. Individuals will have three minutes to address the commission. Public comment will be taken first from those participating in the commission room and then from those participating through Zoom. For those participating by Zoom, please make sure you unmute yourself when called upon, and please raise the hand button. Please voluntarily state your name for the record.

David Zelensky.

David Zelensky. On the transportation, Eldorado Veterans Resource Center, we're still coordinating things. I I did haul someone down to May 3 the other day. So that's still being worked out. We did get, a contact, from a I think I think it's a veteran named Paul Burke. And I'm sorry. I'm trying to pull up the name of the program. That's for 70% or more service connected veterans who are Medi Cal, I think, associated, and transportation's one of the programs. It's like in or in especially with an I. Anyone innovation, maybe?

You know that program? Thank you. Okay. Great. And so there might be a way that we can solve some more of our transportation problems. It's it's a real struggle. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Dave.

Any additional public comment? No. Any public comment online? No public comment online.

Thank you. Moving on to commission reports, Veterans Memorial Building, house counsel.

House counsel meant last Thursday or I'm sorry. They yes. Last Thursday. They're looking to they brought up the bar. They'd like to have the bar moved and rebuilt.

They have $60,000 for the renovation of the building, and they want to spend all $60,000 to move a bar. Although now the motion was made to bring it to a committee, so they're gonna see if they can chop down some of the cost because they wanted mahogany bar top. Wanted to make it similar to the if you've gone over to the American Legion building and see their bar, they wanted to make it similar to that. Of course, there were some conflicts. They said that, well, we could just go in there and hammer it down, and we could probably do it for about 2,000, 3,000, and rebuild the whole bar.

But they're working on it. They also had brought up a mill tax. I didn't understand that totally. One of the other counties does a mill tax for raising funds for the Veterans Building. And so they attach it to the property tax, and they call it a mill tax.

So they and it's point zero zero one two five. So they take that times your property tax, and then that's just a little tax that they and they're looking at bringing that up to the supervisors and to us. There was no occupancy signs since the flood was had happened. There's been no occupancy signs. We placed back up, so they're not sure of the occupancy of each of the rooms or what the maximum occupancy of the building is.

Also, they're still having problems with the refrigerator, so there is a new refrigerator coming. The county is paying for that. And that pretty much sums up the house council meeting. Thank you.

American Legion, officer Zelensky.

Thank you. Boy, it it was like hell week just yesterday. Well, actually, the worst thing that happened, I was going to go to the Marine Corps League meeting at the Veterans Memorial Building at 06:00. I'm looking forward to a dinner, and my phone blew up. Homeless veteran, is in the Raley's parking lot. He's on probation. We've been working with him for a long time. He came out of state prison and doing really well. Just saw his probation officer yesterday. Everything's going great.

His plan was to move to Lake County to live with his I'm gonna cry. To live with his daughter and his granddaughter. His daughter was trained to be an IHSS worker. This fellow's feet have been removed, by the VA as, he's got special shoes so he could actually navigate from the car to the motel room or whatever. But, anyway, his daughter and his granddaughter died in a head on accident.

And so, got one of my marine buddies to come with me. Turned out that marine had also lost his only son to a head on accident too. And so we all got our hugs in, and we spent some of your money. Well, actually, at this point, you've spent all your money. I'll talk about that in a second. Spent some money. I bought him five nights at the motel. I figured no sense having him in the truck for this time. While I was there, spent some time with him. While I was there, his phone was blowing up.

His family was a lot of homeless veterans, they have no contact, but his phone was blowing up with very good and appropriate phone calls coming in from his family. So, anyway, his probation officer I contacted, and he after hours, probation officer contacted him, and I'm sure they they connected today. So that was the big one. And that's why we need money because things like this can happen. The, while I was over at while I was over at the county, I was going to well, it was a big day yesterday.

So I I got the use of the conference room. I was interviewing a marine and his family. They're gonna be evicted right at the March doing their Victory Village applications. I segue towards Victory Village when I can because usually they can decide within a few days and get people housed. So they'll have their own room and their own bathroom and stuff and at least not on the street.

I think we're gonna pull that one off. And, so I was there, but on the way in, Eldorado Veterans Resource Center has that little office. Now we say hi when they're there. So I poked my head in, and one of my graduates from Veterans Treatment Court was there. And, there are several thousand dollars behind in their PG and E bill, but he's got a payment plan, but he couldn't even make the payment.

And there's seven kids, and we don't want the power turned off right now. So, you know, all everything else that's going on, I I make sure I go to Walmart and pay off all the current payments so the light's still going. Then my phone blows up and, we've there's a homeless veteran we've been trying to corral, and he he lives at two and a half his camp is a two and a half hour walk each way, and he has a cane. And so gave a piece of paper. He'll get him to sign a piece of paper and gave it to the counties, trying to get proof of his military service.

It might be a little bit of a challenge. I'm not sure when he went AWOL from the army half a century ago, if it was in boot camp or after two years. The evidence isn't clear yet. But, anyway, we're doing an intake with him and get him to cooperate with the homeless people up up at the they use the library for their interview that day. So there are just a few of the things that are going on.

Some stuff like Tahoe things, just reimburse the American Legion up in Tahoe. Tom Milham might think he's the commander, but I think he's the service officer at Post 795. And so he he got a family square well, a son a a veteran and his son. The school district keeps contacting me, they're always worried about the son. He's almost 22 years old, but he still hasn't graduated from high school.

He's got some real issues. And so they're very concerned he hasn't been in school, so we've got them housed and stabilized for a few days. South Lake Tahoe Housing has contacted me about a veteran behind an ISRAND, and so I think I'm gonna ask military family support group to help out now that I know they're getting a raise because I'm starting to suck some fumes here. There's at least when others well, there's always other stuff like, oh, I know. My phone else was blowing up because Barton Memorial was contacting me as well as to coalition.

A marine was living in his car severe alcoholism. Thank God I noticed he got arrested. Wonderful. No one can get him into Veterans Treatment Court. Hallelujah. But he's no longer in custody because his alcoholism is so bad that they had to put him in a five day detox, and I don't know if they're gonna press charges. I wish they would so we can get this guy in the program because he doesn't wanna cooperate otherwise. But I wanna judge sitting on his head so that we'll get cooperation. Meanwhile, I spent the 20,000 that you gave the American Legion in less than seven months, and they've already got a passing grade from Kathy Haven at the foundation. So Good job, David. Alright.

I guess that's enough. Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Seth, can I add another

Yes, sir?

I wanna hear what you gotta say.

This is American Legion part two. Actually, I thought David wanted to disown me because I hadn't heard from him for about three weeks, but I got a call

from got

a call from the other day saying that we needed to help a veteran out who we had helped out once before. He said, I need you to take care of his housing for three nights, which I did last Monday, which was good for Monday night, Tuesday night, and Wednesday night. The good thing why I haven't heard from him is because the weather's been so beautiful in Tahoe that nobody needed any help. But now it looks like we got a storm coming in this next week, so we're probably gonna have to be working on that. Another veteran that we did help out last month, everything seemed to be going good with him.

All of a sudden, I get a call from his girlfriend saying that he was in jail for spousal abuse, and he doesn't need to be in jail. He just needs new medication. And so I did what I could to find out, you know, where he was and what's going on. And when I finally gets a callback from the jail, they said, oh, he's not in jail anymore. We released him last Thursday. So, basically, everything is going as well as can be in South Lake Tahoe, and I'm glad to help out whenever I can. And if I don't have any or if I have any questions, I call David. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Oh, here we go.

Yeah. That's right. Yeah.

Not a rebuttal. Happy happy happy ending.

Yeah. On redirect.

And and that that veteran is no longer on her homeless every other Tuesday, we have a collaborative that processes homeless veterans. He's now off the list, and he's been housed. So I think Volunteers of America closed the deal on him.

Good. Thank you.

Good to hear. See, I didn't

know about

that. Till

just now. There you go. Yeah. Well That

was a rebuttal, Tom.

Yeah. You learn an awful lot on redirect.

A redirect.

I'm

sorry. Redirect. Yeah. Your cross examination. Military family support group. Is Tim in Tim in the house?

He's not, but you skipped over Veterans Alliance, and I do have Jack Babbitt on the line.

Oh, I'm sorry. Veterans Alliance.

There was a meeting There he

is. Jack.

Oh, he's on there.

You can talk. Oh.

And, Jack, you there?

Are you there? Hello?

There he is.

There he is.

Okay. There he is.

Yeah. Four items real quick, from the meeting we had yesterday, the ceremony ceremonial ideas, Tuesday. I'm sorry. Ceremonial ideas we've been going through as we usually do. If you guys have anything you wanna see your during the ceremony or have any bright ideas of a guest speaker or anything, please let us know. I guess all of you should know the criteria has been signed. Is that correct? The new criteria for the the memorial?

The mind the the policy critique criteria?

Yes, sir.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yes. That has been signed.

Okay. Good. I just wanted to double check. And, also, the VSO has a new application for bricks, and we're gonna start using that. What we what we would like to have happen is not go to the pool place with the application, but go through the VSO as the criteria requires.

And we'll get

a flowchart on how that's gonna go smoother soon. Third item, improvements. We're, as usual, working on improvements for the memorial, one being within the honor circle that's kinda come into disrepair a little bit. The lips are go coming up and causing a trip hazard. And all we wanna put original design was to have a atlas the of the of the world there so you can say, here, this is Vietnam.

This is Omaha Beach, things like that. We're still look looking how much that's gonna cost, and, of course, we have to find money for it. The last thing is, we have two time capsules at that memorial. And this being the February, it'll be a good time to put in something somewhere up there in those time capsules. How long? You know, a hundred years, fifty years? I don't know. But, we're looking for ideas. What would you like to see in those time capsules? That's all I have. Any questions?

None for me. Anybody else? Alright. Thank you, Jack.

Yes, sir.

Okay. Moving on. Now down to military family support group, Colorado County Resources.

Tim's not on.

Okay. Any regional veterans events coming up? Okay. That concludes our committee and communication reports. Alright. Moving on. Go to the order.

Oh, we're gonna do public comment first.

Oh, public comment.

We are now taking public comment on the communication reports. Individuals will have three minutes to address the commission. Public comment will be taken first from those participating in the commission room and then from those participating through Zoom. For those participating by Zoom, please make sure you unmute yourself when called upon and please raise the hand button. Please voluntarily state your name for the record. Any public comment in the room? No. Any public comment online? No public comment.

No. Moving on. Go to the order. Commissioner announcements.

You wanna add that? Or we just

Probably open forum, I would think.

Yeah. I think so.

Yeah. Yeah.

Any commissioner announcements up and down? Okay. Moving on. Open forum is an opportunity for members of the public to address the Veterans Affairs Commission on subject matter that's not on their meeting agenda and within their jurisdiction. Public comment during the open forum are limited to three minutes per person. With that, we open it up to open forum, and this poor gentleman's been waiting for a while. Come on up.

I have to read my instructions.

Pardon?

I have

to read my instructions.

Oh, I'm sorry. She gotta read the instructions.

So we are now taking public comment on open forum. Individuals will have three minutes to address the commission. Public comment will be taken first from those participating in the commission room and then from those participating through Zoom. For those participating by Zoom, please make sure you unmute unmute yourself when called upon, and please raise the hand button. Please voluntarily state your name for the record.

Thank you.

Good afternoon. My name is Brian Hill. You'll have to bear with me. I'm quite nervous. I'm not used to public speaking here, but I'm a Desert Storm veteran. Live in El Dorado County. And about two years ago, I went to the VSO office here, and it changed my life for the better. They their assistance was amazing there. And one of the things that they did for me is they strongly encouraged me to go to equine assisted therapy over at Heart's Landing Ranch. I don't know if you all have

heard of that Mhmm.

At rock Granite Granite Bay. It really taught me how to accept help, which I've just turned turned my eye for thirty three years. And since then, I had follow-up sessions with my spouse as well. Moving forward, I was able to actually ask for assistance through the VA, which I've had amazing experiences with over this past year. I've just finished up EMDR, insomnia classes, and it's just completely turned my life around.

In the meantime, in January, I was voted onto the board of directors for the Hearth Signing Ranch, because I've been such an ambassador for them. I just, wanna pay it forward to other veterans in our community. They serve about a third of their clients come out of our county, and I wanna help with that outreach any way I can to anyone that needs help when it through PTSD, sexual military trauma. Just wanted in a couple of things. The founder and CEO, Donna apologizes she could not come here today to talk, but she wanted to extend wanted to invite the commission out to the ranch, and she proposed a few dates.

So if there's another date that would work better for you all to come out and have an open house, you can see what the ranch is all about. And, also, there are two sessions coming up for both, combat trauma and also military sexual trauma starting up next month. I wanted to let you know about that. If you want the dates, I'd be happy to provide those to you. I know there is some grant money out there with the VSO right now, and I'd really love to see that used with our veterans. And I'm trying to figure out how can we make that happen. I know that they lost their counselor, in the last several months, Caleb. He's he moved on, and, they don't have that there at that facility. So trying to find out how we can get the veterans that help they need because the the fem just mentioning

it. So

three minutes is up. Oh, yeah. Twenty five. Okay. Anyway, we can make those connections. I I could leave some brochures for y'all if you'd like them on the information on the ranch. If you would like to discuss offline or now, dates for inviting the commission out for an open house, I'd be open to that too.

Please, actually, yeah, if you could leave us some brochures. And do you have those dates handy?

I do. Yes. Can you can you

can I can I do that? Can I ask him for the dates? I'm looking at you, Courtney.

So the dates, she proposed, that she suggested were possibly February 26 or March 5 at either 10AM or noon. Or if you wanna suggest a different date or time, that would work better for

your group. That would What's the March date?

March 5. And then the sessions that are starting, are February 24 as a check-in ingredient meet greet for the clients, and on March 3 is the first, of an eight week session for the next group of veterans. And then also, real quick, 70% of the people that come through can come through on full scholarships just like that money that's sitting there at the VSO now. So they don't have to pay a penny out of pocket. And Okay. Just wanted to put that out there. So

Do you have a do you have a contact number? Is that on the brochure if we wanna come out there to to call? Absolutely. Great. If you would leave that with the clerk, that'd be perfect.

Will do. Where where can I leave it?

Yep. Right here. That young lady right there. Appreciate your time.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you. Appreciate you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Roger, can you put that on the social media too?

Yeah. Please have a brochure. Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. Any additional public comment in the room?

I can Yeah. I can And

then, Timeline, you can talk.

And, sure, are you gonna leave your contact information as well?

Yeah. Great.

Thank you.

I'm waiting for business cards.

Yes. Can we also get his contact information, please? HHSA?

Oh, what was that, Timeline? Can can you also please

get his contact information and send it to me so that I can pass it along, to behavioral health, Yep.

I can do that. Thank you.

Thank you. The I know behavioral health is looking for, specifically for veterans support opportunities. So I actually wanted to just give a little brief update, for those that may not know. On January 27, our board of supervisors did, vote for us to proceed with closure of the current navigation center, which is a 60 bed facility. It's estimated to close in March 2027.

And, the new center that we'll be opening is not slated to open until mid twenty twenty eight. And since the navigation center has opened, February 27 or excuse me, 02/07/2023. We've, housed 24 veterans, and we currently house one veteran. So what we're doing is, the Eldorado Opportunity Knox Continuum of Care is forming work groups to identify partners within the community that may be able to help with, transitioning people out of the existing navigation center and then also filling any gaps that may be left when the the old maps or the current map center closes and the new map center opens because it will be a reduced size. So as these work groups are developed, I'll be forwarding information looking for any community partners that support, specific populations that may be interested in participating, in our work groups to help fill any gaps.

So I just wanted to put that plug out there now.

Thank you.

Additional public comment? No additional public comment.

Okay. With that, our next meeting will be located at, 3883 Ponderosa Road. It's the Eldorado County child support services building. Meeting will be March 12 at 12:00. I called the meeting adjourned.

Oh. At 12:57.

At what time?

At 12:57.

Thank you.