Veterans Affairs Commission - Regular Meeting

And just a reminder, make sure you turn on your mic. Red is on and not red is off.

Yeah, red is on. All right. Madam Clerk, repeat to a roll call.

District 1, Commissioner Smith.

Here.

District 1, Commissioner Fischer. District 2, Commissioner Reynolds.

Here.

District 2, Commissioner Mullins-Becker. Here. District 3, Commissioner Culver.

Here.

District 3, Commissioner Aguilar. Is that? District 4, Commissioner Welch.

Here.

And District 4, Commissioner Thompson. District 5, Commissioner Norton.

Oh, Norton, yes.

And District 5, Commissioner Milham. Thank you.

Thank you. All right, welcome to the meetings. If everybody again would please silence your cell phone and we shall move on. 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 and with one motion, adopt the agenda and approve this consent calendar. Are there any changes anybody sees? Anybody, anybody? And Madam Clerk, if you'll open it up to 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? Any public comment online? No public comment.

All right, there's no further discussion from the commission members on this item. I make a motion that we adopt the agenda and approve the consent calendar as written.

I'll second that.

Madam Clerk, roll call vote.

District one, how do you vote? Aye. District two, how do you vote? Aye. District three, how do you vote?

Aye.

District four, how do you vote? Aye. And district five, how do you vote? Aye. Perfect, motion passes. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Moving on, the guests, I understand we have a guest speaker today. We have Eldorado Transit is to provide an overview of the organization, the services they provide to veterans in need of transportation.

Good afternoon, Chair Culver, Commissioners. I'm Eric Berggren, Planning and Marketing Manager for Eldorado Transit. Thank you for having me here today. I'm going to give an overview of all of the services Eldorado Transit provides and which are available to veterans and the general public in Eldorado County. For more information on any of our services, our office is located at 6565 Commerce Way in Diamond Springs, and our phone number is 530-642-5383. Our office staff is friendly and always willing to help folks who need a ride, especially those who have served our country. Starting with our local routes, we have bus routes connecting most of the western slope of the county from Pollock Pines down to Folsom. Our Placerville route serves the city with stops at Marshall Hospital, Placerville Senior Center, the Upper Room, just to name a few. The 50 Express route runs from the Placerville Station Transfer Center down to Iron Point in Folsom. with stops at Health and Human Services, Tribal Health, Placerville Library and others. Single ride fare for all locals is 150 and 75 cents for seniors and persons with disabilities. Dial-A-Ride is our curb to curb service for seniors over 60 and persons with disabilities. There is a quick application process and rides are reserved up to three days in advance. Rides are only $3 and the service area goes from Sacramento County line to Pollock Pines. Our SACMED is a shared non-emergency medical service for trips down to Sacramento and operates on Tuesdays and Thursdays. There is an application process and rides can be reserved up to 14 days in advance. Rides are $10 one way. A popular program that aligns well with veterans is our MyRide mileage reimbursement program. MyRide allows seniors over 60, persons with disabilities, and veterans to reimburse their friends and family for providing them transportation and their personal vehicles. These trips can be for any purpose, simple errands, medical appointments, grocery shopping, and so on. There are no fees to participate in this program. Drivers and passengers in the MyRide program fill out a simple application, which can be attained at our office in Diamond Springs or on our website. If anyone is looking to go to Tahoe, we have a service for that too. Our Sacramento to South Lake Tahoe connecting bus runs 365 days a year, including holidays. From the Amtrak Sacramento Valley Station all the way to State Line. The fare ranges from $24 to $34 for each one-way ride. From the Possible Station Transfer Center to State Line, the cost is only $20. Pretty good deal considering the price of gas.

Mm-hmm.

In addition to my presentation today, I brought along brochures and literature for all of our services, and all this information is available on our website at EldoradoTransit.com. And with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Question.

Those prices and numbers that you gave, would you make sure Courtney has a copy of that when people call in or talk to John? They know exactly what's going on? Absolutely. I sure appreciate that. Thank you.

On your MyRide process, the application, are there any limitations on the driver or insurance, anything like that?

Just that they're licensed and insured, and they fill out a W-9 because they do get reimbursed by a check from us.

Do you need a DMV printout for their license, or that's not your sphere?

Just a physical license, yeah. All right. It's a pretty good program. Yeah, it's a great program.

All right.

Any other questions? Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

Any public comments on our El Dorado County Transit person?

We are now taking public comment on our guest speaker, Eric Bergman from El Dorado Transit. 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.

All right, thank you. Moving on to the agenda items. The first agenda item we have is item number 26-13332. It's the Veterans Affairs Commission to select a commissioner to present the VAC annual board presentation to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, September 15th at 10.30 a.m. Ross, you did it last year, right?

I'm working.

Yeah, I am on vacation and out of the country.

I'm unavailable on Tuesdays. That's my standing day at Empire Ranch. I can assist with data processing and compilation. And on another note, Anytime that I've done the presentations, and it's new to me, but in the four years I was commissioner, we just simply submitted a report with data on the consent calendar for the Board of Supervisors to approve and move forward. But last year, apparently, was the first year that every commission did an in-person PowerPoint, correct? Okay. So that's all new to me, but it is what it is. So I've never done a PowerPoint. I think that it would be good for someone, A, who's obviously available, and two, who is comfortable with doing that kind of presentation to the board. So that's what I think. Any thoughts on that?

No, yeah, it's fairly simple and a fairly quick presentation. It's three minutes, I think, we have it down to on the PowerPoint. It's not very long.

I believe you're allotted 30 minutes, but they want to have the presentation, I think, to 10 to 15 minutes, so that way they can ask questions.

Yeah, we only had 12 slides, something like that. Yeah, yeah. So it starts at 10.30. You should be done by 10.35. Yeah, everything is done. It's just a matter of standing there and discussing the slides as they come up. So with that being said... We need somebody to do the presentation. John? Roger?

Gary? I'm working. I'm sorry. So, Tim Malin, real quick. So, to my knowledge, the bylaws, typically in PASS, it's the chairman who does it. But it does not have to be the chairman or the vice chair or anybody. It can be any commissioner, sitting or alternate, can do the presentation, correct? That's not changed. And I'll be there, too. Yeah. So, like I said, that was what my knowledge was in PASS practice. Yeah, I can hear you. Right. I think that there was some information out there in years past where it had to be somebody, but it's just any current active commissioner.

So we could use an alternate. Donna.

I'll add it to a thousand other things.

Thank you.

Thank you. Lifesaver.

Bravo. Definitely a lifesaver.

So how... Is 100% of the data compiled now that needs to be addressed and brought to the board?

Yeah.

Nothing else has to be changed or identified?

It's all done, yeah. It's done?

It's done in the PowerPoint presentation.

Is that the same one that we saw last month?

Yes. Yep, because that one has been submitted to the Board of Supervisors. So we don't want to blindside them with a brand new modified one. We don't need to vote on that, do we?

Is the PowerPoint presentation, just so I know moving forward, is the PowerPoint presentation template similar for all the different committees? Okay. It's not like one for us and one for, okay.

It comes from the clerk of the board with the pre-formatted template. Okay.

The information. Got it.

And you guys did vote on it last, June or July.

which live yeah and if there's a q a it's all done within that time frame correct yeah okay okay well with that um donna has stepped forward and do that i make a motion that donna present we're going to do public comment first yeah public comment no donna's going to say no if she thinks about it we don't we don't want donna to back out i can please open it for public comment

We are now taking public comment on agenda item 26-1332 for the presenter for the annual board presentation to the board of supervisors. 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?

So you really want to do it, Donna. Yeah.

Donna's excited about it. Well, no.

And just to let you know, Robert Timlin, Timlin is an excellent assistant. Trust me.

Donna wants the extra money.

Yeah.

Any other public comment in the room?

Put a little bonus in your paycheck.

Any public comment online? No additional public comment.

No additional comment.

Okay. In that case, I make a motion that Donna do the presentation to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, September 15th at 1030.

I make the second.

Roll call vote.

District 1, how do you vote? Aye. 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. Perfect. Motion passes. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Moving on to agenda item 261333, receive recommendations from the Veterans Affairs Commission Transit Occupancy Tax Committee and vote on the allocation of the 2627 funds. So the committee met prior to this and we went through and made some adjustments to the funding for the 2627 fiscal year coming up. Basically what we did is we removed $10,000 from Snowline Hospice and distributed it to several other organizations. Man, I don't think anybody has an updated attachment. So I'm gonna go through the allocations that we made for the 26-27 recommendations from, and then the difference is gonna be from the 25-26. So for Lake Tahoe Community College, we gave them 6,000 last year. We're gonna give them 8,000 this year. Snowline Hospice received 25,000 for the last fiscal year. We've reduced that to 15,000 for the 26-27. The El Dorado County Veterans Alliance is gonna remain at 10,000. Sierra Chaplaincy remains at 4,000. Military Family Support Group, EDVR, they were allocated 15,000 last year. This year for the 26-27, we have upped it to 19,000. The El Dorado County Food Bank received $18,000 last year. We've upped that to $22,000 this year. El Dorado Community Foundation received $59,803. We're going to remain that balance. Veteran Service Officer received $37,197 for last year. We're going to keep that same level for this year for a total of the TOT recommendation of $175,000. The commissioners have anything they would like to comment on, say anything on? Any questions? All right, with that, if you would open it up to public comment, Madam Clerk.

We are now taking public comment on agenda item 26-1333. And this is for the allocation of the annual TOT committee 2627 funds. 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?

I just want to express, oh, David Zielinski, I want to express my gratitude for giving some more money to EDVR. It's a great group of volunteers and they're very good allies. Thank you.

Thank you. David, I've got a question to ask you since we're off the subject, but I haven't seen Tyler in a long time.

Oh, our friend?

Is he in jail or is he?

I've not. We can't talk about that.

Yeah, that's a different.

That has to be off.

Yeah.

No names, no names. Okay. I'll see you afterwards. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you.

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

So for me to make a motion, I need the same motion as the committee here. Committee motion, correct? Okay. Okay, listen up. I make a motion that we fund the following organizations at the funding level for the 26-27 fiscal year. Lake Tahoe Community College, $8,000. Snowline Hospice, $15,000. El Dorado County Veterans Alliance, $10,000. Sierra Chaplaincy, $4,000. Military Family Support Group, EDVR, $19,000. El Dorado Food Bank, $22,000. El Dorado Community Foundation, $59,803. $59,803. Veterans of service officer assistance, $37,197 for a total of $175,000 of the TOT recommended allocation funding for the fiscal year 26-27. I apologize, Seth. I kind of opposed the number. I make the motion to approve item number 26-1333 for the $175,000. I'll second it.

I think Seth made the motion, so we were looking for a second. So can you hear the second?

Can you hear the second? Fine.

Okay.

Can second. Madam Clerk, roll call vote.

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

Aye.

District 3, how do you vote?

Aye.

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

Moving on to agenda item 261348, a vote to revise the VAC Transit Occupancy Tax Committee membership. With discussing on this, we have met with County Council and it was agreed on that only two districts can be represented on the TOT Occupancy Tax Committee for the membership. So it could include the primary members and the alternates. So anything above and beyond that becomes a bit of a quagmire. Any discussion? Looks left, looks right. Madam Clerk, public comment, please.

We are now taking public comment on agenda item 26-1348 for the TOT committee membership. 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?

I'm just curious, who are the members now? I mean, who are gonna be the members?

The current members are myself and Roger and then Donna and then Alonzo Aguilar.

You're gonna vote to formalize that?

Yes.

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

Thank you. So I make a motion that we revise the VAC Transient Occupancy Tax Committee membership to do two districts. For the current committee, it'll be myself representing District 3 and be Roger Reynolds representing District 2 and our alternates. That was my motion.

I'll second. Second. Well, go ahead. Tide seconded it.

Madam Clerk, a vote please.

District 1, how do you vote? Aye. 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.

Thank you. I have a quick question on that. Okay. Side note. So on this particular TOT being at two districts, is that a one-year, two-year term? How are we defining this in terms of? the term of each TOT cycle? Is it going to be, you know, the chair changes, the vice chair changes, is the TOT districts representing the commission, or is it going to change over the course of time, or is it just indefinite, or do we know?

I think if commissioners change, then it could change. Okay. You could bring it back, but it's not defined in your bylaws, the terms for your...

So they can stay as long as they feel, okay, cool. or not, right? There's no term at all either way.

That's correct. Okay. Anything else? Moving on to agenda item 261349, review and revise the ad hoc bylaw committee established on July 9th, 2026 to ensure membership complies with the Brown Act and that the maintenance of the bylaws is performed by the rules committee as defined in the current VAC bylaws. So opening that up, there was an issue with having, again, I think too many members on the bylaw, on the ad hoc committee for the bylaws. Comments on the board, on the sides, side notes? Nothing? Staff, you guys want to clarify this at all or?

Your bylaws specify that the bylaws are maintained by the rules committee and the rules committee is the chair and the vice chair. So however you choose to set that up, if you continue with an ad hoc committee, that ad hoc committee would be reporting to the rules committee because it's the rules committee, your chair and vice chair are the ones who per the bylaws maintain the bylaws.

Okay.

I think I understand that, Seth.

Yeah, well, yeah, I have the bylaws here, and it says that the rules committee is established to maintain the bylaws of the commission. The rules committee shall consist of the chairperson and vice chairperson. The rules committee establishes standing committees to conduct and review policy and programs affecting the veterans of the county, and then it goes on to the standing committees. So there's one paragraph on... Why does it go back to A? Under the commission.

That's weird.

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A. Do you guys have the bylaws in front of you? Yeah, see what I'm talking about? That one weird.

Oh, after F, it goes to A?

Well, it goes after social committee, it goes to A. Yeah, and then it says the rules committee will periodically establish special committees to conduct special reviews of the policy and programs. And on the last page, page seven, it says the special committee will meet at the call of the committee chairperson. The committee vice chair will keep informal record of the proceedings of the committee. The special committee will report activities at every commission meeting. So does that mean that since I am de facto on the rules committee, am I the committee chairperson as well for the rules committee? So Todd is, and then Todd would be the vice chair committee.

And that's due to the forming of the ad hoc for this, correct? Like it's, it's, it's, Kind of a secondary, right? Because of the way the bylaws are written for chair and vice chair, every time that changes, that goes along with it, correct?

Got it. That'll change.

Got it. Well, it's going to change during the term, after the term. But it's always going to be defined as chair, vice chair, no matter who that is, correct?

Per the bylaws. Per the bylaws. Okay, cool. That's fine.

Okay. You want to open a public comment, please?

We are now taking public comment on agenda item 26-1349 for the review and revise the ad hoc committee, bylaw committees. 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.

Is this an ad hoc committee? I have a question. Is this an ad hoc committee?

This is a discussion of the ad hoc committee. In regards to the bylaws. Right. Okay.

But according to the paperwork from the commissions.

Wait, wait, wait. What are you looking at?

I'm looking at the board chair, board commission handbook. Okay. And an ad hoc committee, the only question I had was, it says to ensure membership complies with the Brown Act. Right. Okay. And according to this, an ad hoc committee is, members must be for a limited time of purpose and temporary committees are solely, are comprised solely of less than a quorum. I understand that. Commissions are not subject to the Brown Act. Committee or commissions are not subject, ad hocs are not subject to the Brown Act. This says Brown Act. OK.

I think I can answer that question. They, the ad hoc committee is not necessarily required to follow the Brown Act per se, but our bylaws cover that and it states in there as you- I misinterpreted it, go ahead. Yeah, that the Rules Committee is the one that will set the special ad hoc committees and that they will, as chair and vice chair, will oversee that particular ad hoc, no matter what it is, whether it's the bylaws or whatever the case may be. However, in that separate paragraph that you just read, there's another statement in there that the vice chair will take informal notes of the meeting, correct? Okay, and that, whatever the outcome of that ad hoc, then is reported back to the commission by the Rules Committee. Am I correct?

Yes? Right. I have a question. Moving forward on anything related to ad hoc, are those meetings recorded? Not necessarily, no. Can they, if there's a public announcement, just for documentation purposes, can we record those?

I think you can, but I don't think it's usual, and I don't think it's necessary. The Brown Act.

Right, I got that.

Yeah.

Okay, posting or, okay.

It would require, it falls under the California recording law, so it would require consent of all people in the meeting, and it's not public to the public.

Okay, got it. Cool. So that second paragraph is kind of repetitious. Yes. And that's one of the things we wanted to talk about. But keep in mind that with this ad hoc, the two of you are the chair and the chairperson. And your alternates can attend. From the same district. From the same district. Got it. Correct. And that's good. That's for every. Got it. But you're responsible as a vice chair. for keeping informal notes. Okay. Minutes or whatever, right? Yes. Okay. So I just wanted to make that all clear. Was that unclear before? It was. And so therefore those people that were, you know, volunteered to participate, there's only one that can actually sit on it. And that's Seth. I cannot, and neither can Tom. Because you've already got two districts.

Unless the rules committee- chooses to form an ad hoc and appoints an ad hoc. So this board doesn't appoint the ad hoc for the rules committee. The rules committee, which would be Seth and Todd, you guys can choose to form an ad hoc committee and you can choose to have the ad hoc committee be the people that were previously appointed. And then that ad hoc committee reports to the rules committee who report.

To the commission. But that second paragraph negates that.

That's a lot of bureaucracy. I love this. Okay, we'll get it figured out. I get it.

This is all a matter of interpretation. Yeah. Okay. I get what you're saying, but that second paragraph says something different.

Yeah. Thank you, Tim. It talks about policy programs affecting veterans.

but that's what the ad hoc is. That ad hoc committee is about affecting the bylaws and veterans.

My interpretation of that second paragraph, that's not about the bylaws. That's just about a committee.

Tim, do you have anything to add on that?

I don't have it in front of me, so no.

Okay, fair enough. I got the gist of it.

Got it. Sure.

And if we follow that, we're good. Okay. Got it. Okay. Ooh, that was a lot.

That was a lot. My head hurts.

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

Okay. Thinking here. So the ad hoc... bylaw committee that we established on the 9th consisted of myself and Donna. And Tom. And Tom. So that would create a quorum. So we have to remove one member. And I don't think Tom is here to defend himself. So we will remove Tom. That's going to leave Donna and myself as the chair and Donna as the vice chair.

From your district.

From the district. From the district, yeah. Yep, yep, yep. So we're two different districts. We're district three and district two. So that's going to comply with the quorum issue that we have. Now, is there anything else? So as the committee, since I'm the chairman of the commission that also makes me chairman of the rules committee, which also makes me chairman of the, so I need to write a report to myself? Is that kind of the way we're looking at it? In essence, I mean, I understand that, okay, we're going to come back and make a presentation to the commission, but is that going to suffice for our bylaws ad hoc committee? He's looking to the lady in the dark back there.

That's correct. Okay.

I mean, you mean the bylaws committee? You mean the bylaws committee? Because Todd and I are already on the rules committee. Okay, gotcha.

Gotcha. So right now, your motion would be that you're revoking the motion, you're negating the motion that was made at the last meeting.

On July 9th.

The bylaws, the rules committee will determine the bylaws.

And can we do that today as well? Can we do it in one fell swoop? Yeah.

But the commission doesn't vote on that.

Okay. So it's basically just a proclamation. An executive order.

Okay.

Sorry. Oh, you meant to say that. I didn't mean to say that.

Okay. So on agenda item 261349, we've complied with public comment.

Madam Clerk?

We've complied with public comment on that, correct?

Correct.

Okay. So I make a motion that we remove the prior ad hoc committee bylaws that we established on July 9th. Yep, that's it, OK? Can I have a second please?

A second.

Roll call vote.

District one, how do you vote district 2? How do you vote district 3? How do you vote district 4? How do you vote and District 5? How do you vote motion passes?

Thank you. Thank you.

Wow.

That's a lot of data.

Well, so would that be under the good of the order, or would we just do it right now to establish the ad hoc committee bylaws? Good of the order, or just at this point in time? Just do it as a report out next month. Should I do it what?

After this meeting, and then sort out the report out by the group today next month. Oh, okay. So we can have a discussion after, and then put it together and submit it for the agenda, correct? Perfect. Got it. Cool. All right.

All right, moving on.

Good job, Seth.

Thank you.

Ex-officer report.

All right. I just want to correct something I reported last month. I stated that myself and one of the staff would be attending a car show on August 4th. I apologize. That's October 4th. It's scheduled for October 4th at the Red Hawk Casino parking garage. All right. Also, I want to remind everyone that on August 24th, 2026, myself and Senior Office Assistant Bonnie Stewart will be attending an outreach event at the Placerville Senior Center, located at 937 Spring Street. The CalVet semi-annual audit is completed. We have very few discrepancies that were corrected, and we received all workload units claimed. On August 28th, 2026 at 11 a.m., there will be a Purple Heart Ceremony at the Veterans Memorial Building. Everyone is invited and encouraged to attend. I've attached the invitation flyer to my report so everyone has the information. Please feel free to make any copies and give them to anyone you think would like to attend. Legislative update. You may have heard of the Take Care of American Veterans Act, or also known as TCABA. It's made up of 62 bills that address a wide range of veteran-related issues. I've talked about some of them in the past, like the Major Richard Starr Act. The TCAVA was introduced on June 10, 2026, and is an attempt to amend Title 10 and 38 of the United States Code, along with other federal laws to improve benefits and services for veterans and make Veterans Affairs Administration more streamlined. However, I spoke with the California Association of County Veterans Service Officers, Legislation Committee Chair, and he told me there are some concerns that the association has with the TC-ABA. One issue is with Section 108, future disability rating reductions. CALPAD has been talking about it. VA has been talking about lowering the rating percentage for sleep apnea for a while. it's been in talks. They haven't done it. Maybe they will, maybe they won't. Uh, however, the TCA VA act will enable them and assist them in doing that. Um, and also getting rid of tinnitus as a disability and looking at more of it as a symptom of hearing loss, which would allow them not to award 10%. Um, The act, yeah, the act would help them make those changes. Also, an additional concern is that the project savings from lowering disability ratings would be used to fund other parts of the bill, placing the burden of paying for expanded benefits on future service-connected veterans instead of finding a separate funding for it. Monthly contact report for July was 272 phone calls, 72 scheduled appointments, 94 walk-in visits, and 55 approved CalVet college fee waivers. South Lake Tahoe Services, the Veterans Service Office located in South Lake Tahoe, Sorry, offer services by appointment only on the second and third Tuesday of each month. There are three veteran service representatives that rotate the South Lake Tahoe responsibilities, which means a client may see different VSRs each time they go to the office. This shouldn't alarm them. All VSR staff receive the same training and are capable of assisting clients. That concludes my report.

Thank you.

That is the Purple Heart, yeah.

Yeah, that's cool.

Yeah, yeah. Awesome. It's going to be awesome. Yeah, that's great.

All right. Moving on to committee reports. TOT.

We pretty much covered everything. I think we did. Beat that. TOT. Beat that horse.

Rules committee. We've discussed that. We're going to create an ad hoc committee, which we will report on at next meeting.

Housing. No report.

Legislative.

Negative.

Transportation. We had an excellent presentation from El Dorado Transit, which we appreciated very much. Tim Thompson, I don't see him. I don't think he's online, is he?

No, Tim wasn't able to make it. He's not feeling well.

Budget. We covered TOT. All right.

Education and unemployment. He's coming. I know. I see you flipping your pages back there.

Good afternoon, Robert Fisher, District 1. CalTAP webinar series, August 13th, mapping articulated pathways and credit for prior learning. California Transitions Assistance Program would like to invite service members, veterans, and their families to attend our upcoming virtual, which provide information and resources about the MAP initiative. This helps maximize credit for prior learning. August 27th, CalVet College Tuition Fee Waiver, California Department of Veterans Affairs, California Transitions Assistance Program. Partnership with California Association of California Veterans Service Officers invites you to attend our virtual workshop, which will include information on the CalVet College Tuition Fee Waiver for dependents, the application process, eligibility requirements, available plans. Guest speakers will be available for questions about the presentation. That's all I have to report on regarding education at this time. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Outreach. I've run into some problem. I don't understand what it is regarding putting on some stuff on Facebook. As far as I know, you haven't changed anything, Lynette,

I can go in and check, but I haven't done a thing. Okay. You can give me a call if you want.

We can take a look. Okay. The reason is, is I don't know, John, I think you included it. I've tried and tried. I don't know what the problem is. Let me see if I can pull this. Yeah, I can pull it. There. This poster on a Purple Heart Award ceremony. We received this from... Josh Castro, and I've tried and tried and tried to get it onto Facebook and it will not go.

I'll give it a try later today and see if I can and I'll let you know.

Okay, because if you can get it on, please let me know.

Yeah, I'll try.

Because I've gotten several others from Tim and I've tried to get those on. And for some reason, they won't go. Although I can copy and paste from other locations and I have no problem. But I don't know for something particular about this one or if it's the way it was created or what created it. I'm not sure. So thank you, Lynette, for checking on that.

Don't thank me until I get it. Yeah.

Well, no, I'm just thanking you for the time. And Donna, if you haven't, well, I got to get with you on that because it's a simple process. Oh, and it is connected. I did get a message that, and I'm a little weak on Instagram. So if anybody knows Instagram, please help me out. Okay. I know. I'm sorry. I know Mo knows it, but. I heard my son. Yeah.

Yeah, if you've got your son, that's fine too. Pretty much any teenager.

Because it says something about you can only post 10 pictures or 10 photos on Instagram. And so I removed all the photos that were out there. I left the text, but it's beyond my capability.

So that's it for mine. Thank you. And Madam Clerk, if you'd open 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. Any public comment in the room? No. Any public comment online? No public comment.

Thank you, ma'am. Moving on to communication reports. Veterans Memorial Building, the House Council.

The meeting this month was not held. They had locked the quorum, so there was no meeting for the Veterans House Council.

American Legion Service Officer.

Well, I'll start with a little geography. So up at South Lake Tahoe, during Veterans Court, there were three new intakes for DUIs up in South Lake Tahoe. And the judges complained, there's so many new people. And I said, Your Honor, we have as many graduates, too. So we used to have 40 in Tahoe. in courts and you only have 20 now. And I said, okay, David, I'll stop complaining. So a little fun there. And also a new DUI just showed up. The problem with the Lake Tahoe cases is that most of these people are Reno VA connected. So we have to get Ginny Dillon, who's the Veteran Justice Outreach Specialist handling Tahoe, And she did work on one of the cases. And then there has to be releases of information and coordination with the METHA representative. Sherry Delisle is going to be leaving. And so I'm working now with Leah Reeves, who's their supervisor, and she'll be taking over. um so anyway lake tahoe is keeping them busy go lake tahoe all right um let's see uh ken uh one of the vfw 9241 members i've been in contact with him he's in a residential recovery program and one of my he he's been an officer and one of my concerns is that we hold on to the rental that he was trying to get into it'll it'll suit his animals and things so watching things up north. And then South County, Roger and Donna, a Caldor fire victim is living in the dirt since Caldor. The owner of the property has died. The family needs to sell the property and move on. So we're working with Victory Village to try and get him out as fast as possible. Not sure that's going to fly. I'll maybe find out today, but there are other programs we can get him into. So he's been very cooperative and we're trying to rock and roll with their homeless person in South County. Let's see. I want to give a shout out to the upper room. An inmate I got to visit a week or two ago got released. He's an OTH, but he is, he does serve two years. He is qualified for all kinds of housing programs. And we're getting a lot of cooperation with the probation officer and everything. Everyone's, And David Webb, the social worker for the public defender's office has also visited him. And so the upper room, I call them up and say, well, oh, nice. So this guy's walking from jail. Maybe you don't know the trail, but you go on the trail from jail and you end up at Hogwild and other restaurants and he's a chef. And so he gets a job on his way up to the upper room where I've Got him in a motel, boom, just like that. So we have to keep this guy going as well as we can. But one of the requirements is he has no money, none. He didn't have his identification, so I had the jail make a picture of his ID for being incarcerated. So it's a government-issued ID. And the motel is friendly with me, so they accepted it. And so he's at a motel right next to the upper room. So that's how he's getting his food. Unfortunately, he won't let go of the pit bull that was delivered to him. That's his best friend. And it's more important, the water and oxygen to him. So he's got his 100-pound pit bull that the motel's putting up with it. And... I said, how are you feeding it? The upper room gave him some food. You know, the restaurant wants him to be clean shaven when he shows up. So upper rooms can provide him, you know, the toiletries. And, you know, part of why I put him there is because on Wednesdays, the upper room has free phone day. So I made sure he was there through Wednesday night so that he could get his free phone. Well, he didn't get his free phone because apparently there's something he has to do to cancel some other phone he has, even though I don't know where it is. It's in Jupiter. And so next Wednesday, he's going to get the free phone. And so I extended him another week. We got to keep this guy going. But where he's going to sleep after that, I don't know. But we are working with the NAV Center. Probation has given the referral to the NAV Center. Hopefully, it will be a high priority. But in February, or whatever it is, everyone's going to be in the dirt. So we're going to be in trouble pretty soon. The NAV Center has been a great resource for us. And then a few things where everyone's working together. So I've got a Navy corpsman and I've got an alcoholic veteran who has a property. The neighbors are trying to manage it for him because the brain's not working that well for a poor alcoholic. But they've decided to manage the property for him. They're going to be renting rooms. So I've got my Navy corpsman and his family. Look like they'll be moving in, but we got to get it cleaned up. So another veteran that I've been working with is a manager for Christlike Services. They're going to get it cleaned up. They'll be donating some labor. I'll be paying for some hard costs to get things cleaned up because the alcohol can't take care of the property. The veteran's wife actually is going to be cleaning the carpets as one of her businesses. So that's a cooperation one. Well, let's see. All right, another cooperation one. I've got two messages I've saved on my phone forever. Seth, you were part of one of these in your service officer role for VFW. You and I helped get this gal of a bad domestic situation into Victory Village, getting her gas cards and things, getting her in a motel. And she's, thanks for the best things in sliced bread. So anyway, she suffered a brain injury. Her new significant other is a veteran. They were out of money. And then the second message I've saved is someone else that we helped in a similar situation. And they are now somewhat expert in helping people. So they contacted Nation's Finest and they're paying for two months rent for the gal to have the brain injury. And then the VA has set up a job for her so that they will transport her from where she lives at VA expense. And she's being paid by the hour as she's sitting there being transported. And then if she needs to take a break, because sometimes she's clear and sometimes it's kind of psychotic. And so if she needs to be taking a break, That's fine. They're going to work. She's VA healthcare. They know what's going on, but they don't. And so they're going to take good care of her. And so this was another case of everything coming together with all the people we're working with. They're all helping each other. All right. I could talk forever. You know that.

Yes, John. The OTH, he's working. He's come to our office.

He should be there today, the walk-in day. Okay.

Okay.

He also has a gentleman with him who says that he got out after boot camp because of his heart condition. They didn't want to keep him. I don't think there'll be enough service there for a VA housing program. Right. But if we get some verification, I do also have Tao Coalition, great allies, working on Square. See, hopefully they'll find them. And then we can treat them as being qualified for some charitable help. So we'll see what happens. Both of them should be showing up at your office today because that was their marching orders. But I'm not spending money on the unverified one until we get some verification. Anything else? That was good. You're always in shock.

Good job, David. As always, for sure.

And a side note. Moving on. Yeah, no, no. Elderwater County Veterans Alliance. I think Joe Thusen is online.

Let me see if I can find him.

He was going to be.

As I dad, are you Joe Thusen? I don't think he's online. So I don't think he's online.

Okay. All right. Military family support group.

That might be him.

Wait a minute.

Okay. You're unmuted.

Can you hear me now? There you are.

There he is.

Hey, Seth. Thank you, Commission, and John, the VSO, and all your staff. Appreciate your patience. I'm trying to get a little technical difficulties here. And I didn't know that iDad was my name online, so I'll fix that. So that's my kids messing with my phone. Yeah, they do things like that. You see God of Thunder or other things like that. So I apologize. But we have four children, and they love to play with dad's phone. So let's get to the Veterans Alliance meeting. We had our last meeting in July. I appreciate everybody that attended. I know Roger and the attendee from District 1. I'm sorry, I'm blanking right now on your name, sir. Robert Fisher attended that meeting along with staff from HHSA. Thank you for being there. There's a lot talked about. There's been some changes. I want to make sure that the commission's aware that our long-term president, Gary Campbell, has officially retired, and he's been placed into an emeritus status, much like we've done with historically Rich Buchanan and also John Pomeru, who have both served very long terms on our board. Gary served over 10 years, and so we appreciate all of his hard work that he's done for the past 10 years. He's been placed in emeritus status as well. And the new president of the Veterans Alliance is Joseph Thewson, is me. And so I'll be leading this organization going forward. I'm happy to be here. It's a very important aspect for me. If you don't know, the Monument founder, Richard Buchanan, served directly with my father, in Vietnam, right alongside each other, same unit, same dirt, same mud. And being a Marine myself and a veteran and the Commandant of the Marine Corps League, it's a very important monument. to me personally as well. And so I'm taking this with a very deep appreciation and gratitude for leading this organization. As we change the leadership, when you have one leader for 10 years, you have a new leader coming in, there's a lot to catch up. So I appreciate just some patience as I catch up on budgets and all the other things That goes along with that. And so I know at our last meeting, there's been some discussion of items. One of the ones that I find that would be the most important probably would be the adult committee that this commission has created. I would love to see Roger and Robert hold a public, maybe like workshop where everybody could attend and kind of give feedback. their opinions on things like capital improvements and aspects of the monument as we go forward. There will be, you know, whether it's maintenance needs or policy needs or procedure needs or in essence, things that were brought up a couple of meetings ago to the commission, why the ad hoc committee was created was where we're running out of room or we've run out of room on the wall, on the honor wall. And so we need those new, you know, some new additional granite slabs up there, which can cost 15 to $20,000. You know, where do we raise that money? How do we get there? Those kind of things. So there's a lot of important aspects as we go forward. And if you're not aware, this November 11th will be our 20th, the monument's 20th anniversary since it's been dedicated. So it was dedicated November 11th, 2006. November 11th, 2026 will be the 20th anniversary. We're looking forward to that. We've already started that process. We've contacted various organizations to assist us in that celebration. And we're going to be putting out more information as we come. to our next meeting, which is in October. It will be the second Tuesday of October. And that is also held at the Veterans Memorial Building in the lounge area. And it starts at 0800 in the morning. And so we encourage anybody that's listening, watching to attend those meetings and give us your input and participation in the monument as it's not just Veterans Monument, it's a Colorado County community monument. It's for everybody to celebrate and to honor. those who have served the cause of freedom. So with that report, I'll end it. If there's any questions, I'm happy to take any questions or comments.

No questions. Thank you, Joe. Thanks, sir.

Moving on, Military Family Support Group.

Military Family Support Group. We have Tim online. Is Tim there?

No, he's not online.

And then the last thing we have is regional veterans events. Any regional veterans events? I know we have the stand down is coming in September. I think they are looking for help. Let me just look here at my, here we go. The stand down is going to be Friday, September 11th. And Saturday, the 12th from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day, it's going to be the Veterans Memorial Building. They are looking for assistance. If people would like to come and help set up and do things, that would be gratefully appreciated. And I know that they talked about security, but I'm not 100% sure what they were, if they're looking for people to help or if they just needed a volunteer service type of organization. Skimming here real quick. Any questions, of course, you can reach out to DianeMirahead at diane.mirahead411 at gmail.com. Okay, good of the order.

Oh, I'm sorry.

And a public comment on any of the communication reports.

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? Any public comment online? No public comment.

Okay, moving on. Good of the order. Commissioner announcements?

Anybody? Anybody?

All right. Open forum.

We are now taking public comment for open forum. Individuals will have three minutes to address the commission. Public comment will be taken 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? Nope.

Oh, this is going to be a surprise.

Twice in one day.

What a surprise. A thing about military family support group, a shout out to one of the volunteers, Mary, who, you know, she's only supposed to be there a couple hours, but on her Wednesday, she often puts in six or seven or eight hours. And Mary and I were talking late in the afternoon. And so one of the historical functions of military family support group is the military family side used to be essentially a wives club so they could complain about their service member husband when they needed that and sometimes i'm in a bad spot because i'm representing both the veteran and the spouse and there may be some conflicts and so i directed the spouse to basically Mary, and she gave her an hour at least of quality time. Because I like both of them. And I somehow have to end up representing somebody as they're doing this. So anyway, so they serve a very important function. Also, try to keep the family together. So anyway, that was it. Thanks.

Thank you, David.

Any additional public comment?

Oh, yeah.

No additional public comment.

All right. With that being said, I will adjourn this meeting at 1.04. Our next meeting will be September 10th at 12 p.m. at 3368 Sandy Way, the large conference room in South Lake Tahoe.

Sold.