Veterans Affairs Commission - Regular Meeting

Turned it off. I got one minute on my calendar here. Turn my mind. I have one minute to go here. Okay.

So does this project? No, it doesn't project. It doesn't project out. All right, it's 12:00. Let's call the meeting to order at 12:00. Roger, you lead us in the pledge of allegiance?

Will do. All rise, please.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God and into Israel with liberty and justice for all. You may be seated.

I like to have everybody kind of silence their cell phones before we get the meeting underway because it's just the way it works. Do a roll call. Clerk will call the roll, please.

District one, Commissioner Smith.

Here.

District one, Commissioner Fisher. District two, Commissioner Reynolds?

Present.

District two, Commissioner Mullen Becker? District 3, Commissioner Culver?

Here.

We don't currently have anyone for District 3. District 4, Commissioner Walsh. District 4, commissioner Thompson. District 5, commissioner Norton. Here. And let me see. I think Tom is on. Yeah. And then District 5 commissioner Milham is on Zoom.

Okay. All right. Thank you, everybody, for attending our first meeting here in 2026 of the Veterans Affairs Commission. 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 the consent calendar. Anybody have any changes, any additions, deletions?

Any public comment?

Yeah. So I will read instructions. And just as a reminder for the mics, if it's red, it's on. If it's not lit up, it's off. So 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 and called upon and please raise the hand button. Please voluntarily state your name for the record. Any public comment on Zoom? No public comment.

And if there's no further discussion or commission, make a motion to adopt the agenda and approve the consent calendar.

I make a motion to adopt, for the adoption of the agenda and approval of the consent calendar. Second.

Please take a roll call vote.

District one, 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? And District 5, how do you vote?

Aye.

Motion passes. Thank you.

Alright. Moving on to our agenda items. We only have one item on the agenda. 26Dash0059, Education and Employment Committee will present their recommended goals to the commission. Perfect. Yeah. I understand that, yes, she had some personal issues, and she wasn't gonna be able to attend. So shall we move this agenda item to the February meeting? I'll make

a motion, district one, to move to February to address the agenda item. Two six dash 0057.

Five nine.

Five nine.

Excuse me. Five nine. My apology.

I'll second that.

K. Roll call.

Roll call? But we don't need to do a roll call. It's a well, it's a on a motion.

Yeah. Give me one moment. Okay. 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? And District 5, how do you

vote? Aye.

Okay. Motion passes to move, agenda item two six dash zero zero five nine to the February agenda. Alright.

The ex official report.

Alright. First things first. Happy New Year to everyone. The BSO office is now accepting applications for bricks and stones to be placed at the Veterans Monument. At this time, you can print them off our website, or you're able to come into the office and pick up one in person.

I hope to provide additional locations where the applications can be picked up in the future. Deputy director Lynette Stott and I sat down with Ted Gaines and his, chief of staff, Max Matt Cox. They asked some general questions about Eldorado County's veteran community. He wanted to know about how many veterans are in the county and how many veteran owned businesses there are. They seem interested in helping out our veterans.

We'll see where that goes. VSR Tisha Holly and I will be attending the California Association of County Veteran Service Officers winter training conference from February in Wheatland. Veteran services updates. We are still working on getting a new office built in our current footprint that will be used for the VSR staff to meet privately with veterans and or their dependents. We're waiting for the board of supervisors to hear and approve a donation my office that will allow us to fund the project.

It is scheduled to go in front of the BOS either the end of this month or the beginning of next month. It is all looking good, and we can't wait for it to be built. Back to S B 694. Let your representatives know how you feel. I've been cc'd on a couple emails that was sent to the veterans representative.

I've not asked anyone to cc me on their emails, but please feel free to. I will keep all emails I receive so I have a record of all support that has been sent to the legislation. This week, the opposition to s b six ninety four is paying for travel per diem and an extra $2,500 just for fun to have veterans speak on how terrible and ineffective the services they received from offices like mine. They're stating that they had to go to a for profit, aka ClaimShark company, to receive adequate services. The opposition has changed their accusations from all VSOs to just how ineffective the CBSO system is.

I would like to see as many of you and your veteran slash nonfederate friends travel to the capital on January 20 to make sure your voice is heard on this very important matter. We all need to push and gain the momentum needed to get this signed into legislation. We need to be seen and heard in large numbers. If we don't show, our legislators will not believe that this bill is important to veterans and their families. I will part I will provide more information as I get it, but please plan on being at the capital and bringing as many veterans with you as possible.

December 2025, the SO summary, we had a 164 walk in clients. We had 95 scheduled appointments, 283 phone calls. New clients for 2025, we had 1,514 new clients sign up for benefits. South Lake Tahoe updates, there are no changes to the services provided in South Lake Tahoe. That completes my report.

Hey. Real quick on the capital meeting on the twentieth. Is there a certain room? Or is there some sort of where should people be on the January 20?

I will have to get back

to you on that. Thank you, sir.

Jonathan, there how are they going to do do you know how they're going do the parking on that down there?

I have no idea. Think it's just going to be park where you

can't look at it.

Typical Sacramento parking. Yes. Right. Let's move on to committee reports.

COT committee. No report.

Rules? No, sir. Housing, Ken's not here. Legislative? Negative. Yes, Legislative transportation. Mr. Whelan and Mr. Thompson is not here.

I do have Tim online. Do you want me to see if he has any

Oh, certainly. Certainly. I'm sorry. I don't see it on my machine.

Oh, only I can see it on here.

He's raised his hand in the corner.

Tim?

Hello, friends. Happy New Year.

Hey, Tim. Hey, Tim. Wherever you may be.

I'm giving you the peace sign and anyway, transportation, as as always, we receive maybe three to four calls a week for rides to and from appointments. We try and manage that with the very few volunteers that answer up with much appreciation to those who do answer the call. There are times where it's not available, so we have to decline the ride last minute, but we're still trying to keep that going. Still getting a lot of mobility donations including wheelchairs, electric wheelchairs, and scooters. And so that might be for a different section of this meeting, but kind of includes transportation.

So and we have bus passes galore. So that's an act a very proactive program with the Eldorado Veteran Resources office volunteers. And that's the report.

Thank you. David has something to say.

Doesn't he wait till the end?

No. That about transportation, David? Yes. Okay. Go ahead.

You're up. Other way. Red is on, David. Red is on.

Red means you're ready to go.

I thought red was bad. They changed it. I stopped for red. Hi, Tim. David Zelensky here.

Tim, we got an email saying that there's gonna be more information required from the drivers, including their driving record, and they have to go online and pay $2 or whatever for providing that. A number of potential drivers that I was trying to cultivate felt that was discouraging that it was sort of digging into their privacy a bit. I've been told that my own, auto insurance, I have that liability coverage as a volunteer. Is there anything just for the board to consider, I assume that was an insurance requirement, but I don't know. I just you know, Tim, that was discouraging for some people who were considering it. Thanks, Tim.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. That's been kind of a an issue giving the masses. The individual volunteers that we have haven't really had a problem processing through some of that stuff.

But I think what we're trying to do is sever the relationship. All we wanted to be, EDVR that is, is basically the the communication point so that it would be an individual citizen just doing a good deed. And now we are the communication vessel to make that connection. However, you know, lawyers being lawyers, they'll they'll find any way to attach that so that does become complicated. And people tend to frown on getting involved like that.

So we'll try and keep that addressed as we go. That's all I have to say about that there.

Thank you, Tim. Moving on. Budget?

The 2324 budget has been dispersed as far as I know. I I don't know of any other further changes to it. I know military family support group. Pardon? Am I wrong? Oh, I'm sorry. 2425?

What are what funds are you referencing?

Well, beg your pardon?

TOT?

Yes. Oh,

okay. Now this is this is where I'm on budget.

Right.

Okay. Alright. Gotcha. I'm sorry.

The budget the budget portion of the TOT funds has been distributed for the 2324 and partially for the 2425 as far as I I know. So that concludes the budget report.

Thank you. Education unemployment, we discussed that earlier. We have moved that to the agenda in February. Outreach.

I was able to reach thanks to David. I was able to reach Bill. Bill, when he left, turned over, believe it or not, to the VSO at the time at the time. I know. And and I believe he left about 2018. Sounds about right.

Wow.

He turned it over to the VSO. He turned it over to HHS a multimedia person, and he is going back through his he has a new computer, so I re he backs up all of his system. So he's going back to 2015, 16, 17, and 18 to look through his backups to see if he can locate the password. It was passed on. However, since there's been significant changes in all the departments, it's got lost along the way someplace with HHS and VSOs.

So so I know there's been at least four changes since John prior to John taking over. So that's where we stand right now. If I can't resolve this, I'm gonna try to get ahold of Facebook. If not, we're stuck with Facebook. And I'll probably pull well, I'll leave the Instagram up and work with Bo, if it's alright with John, on trying to learn Instagram. So that's where it stands right now.

Can we just can we just delete the account and create a new account? Go back to square one?

I don't wanna do that because of the followers. I mean, I don't know what kind of repercussions we would have from that. You know? A lot of people follow us, and a lot of people, pick stuff off. I'd I'd hate to say, hey. We're dropping you. Please, we're dropping you as of this date. We're gonna reset it up. Please rejoin us. I mean, it's a possibility. It's a long shot, but it's a possibility.

It would Probably be easier than trying to because Facebook is gonna tell you to figure figure it out yourself. I think it'd just be easier if you just posted on that for, like, a month, you know, due to technical difficulties. We're going to delete this account. Our new account is going to be, you know

The same as the old one.

Well, you can't because then you can't have the same name. You'll have to change the name slightly. You can make it

That would have to go through the county county again. So that have to go through

county? Probably have to approve the domain or the the name. Yeah. Probably. Ask Courtney. Courtney, what do you think about that?

Courtney's like, I don't wanna be involved.

Well, is there is there do you know if that's something that we'd have to refer to county council? We wanted to start a whole new Facebook using the county. Is there some

I'm I'm I'm not sure. No.

Yeah. Anybody? Facebook. I think that

it's up to you guys

to do it.

I think as I I would think as long as we follow the protocol of what we're doing and how we're doing it, I don't think they would care what the name is. We're not we're not creating a new a new account. We're just changing the name of the account.

Roger, let's the two of us make an appointment where we sit together, where you have your laptop, and maybe we can figure it out together.

Okay. Because

I have full access to Facebook. We don't need an old password. Yeah.

No. Perfect.

I think if you and I are in the same room and your laptop is there, we might be able to figure it out.

Okay.

Okay. Cool. After this meeting, we can find a

time. That's

all good?

That sounds good. I mean, I tried to I tried to do it with Beau Yeah. And Courtney, and going through my passing through my Facebook page to Veterans Affairs Commission when Beau signed on. I mean, it went, but it linked to my page.

Yep. Yep. So let's

just get the two of us together in a row

and see what we can figure Okay.

We can do that. Thank you. That completes the outreach.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I will I will try to reach out to Bill again. He may have the password.

He's well, we can talk.

Yeah. We will open up committee reports to public comment, please.

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, Raul? Oh, looks like we have a public comment from Tim. Tim, you can talk.

Okay. Sorry about that. And I'm sorry. I don't mean to talk out of turn, but I have to attend a staff meeting. So I just wanted to talk about the the stand down this year. So we'll be resuming or starting up the conversation and meetings for the stand down probably September. So I apologize. I have to leave. So you guys have a great day, and I'll talk to you soon.

Thank you, Tim. Any other comments here, madam clerk? Alright.

No additional public comment. Communication reports.

Veterans House Council.

The meeting will take place tonight. We already discussed, December. The meeting's taking place tonight at 06:00 at, Veterans Building.

Thank you. American Legion service officer.

Thank you. It's been so suckingly hard lately. But, anyway, wanna give a shout out to VFW post one zero one six five. They've been helping out a lot with a couple cases. Walking on the trail, John, I get my phone calls. You see me there. And so one was, we need you to come down to El Dorado Hills right now and pay 1,300 for rent. And, you know, my account's been very busy. And so I did the work, but 10165, ended up just like we do up with, commander Milham. They end up backing me up on that.

So that that's one. We've got another job. This veteran service connected. Their child has some form of brain cancer at UC San Francisco, And the wife's lost her job, I think, because she has to be there at UC San Francisco. It is a long process.

The vehicle ain't working very good. And so Craig Lorenzi, service officer for one zero one six five, Only Kindness. I think I think we're gonna get done with them. I've reached out to Tim at, Military Family Support Group, EDVR. And, I I think with EDVR, we'll just get away with maybe doing the usual groceries things.

I hope so. But, anyways, transportation's been his big presenting issue. So a lot's been going on there. John's office referred a, a person with a criminal matter on his plate. That poor fellow and this is again on the trail, John. I'm talking and walking. You know, his ears were probably bleeding by the end. Well, I think we spent an hour talking. Among the things, high THC marijuana and how I had to tell mother about her son's final days from the psychosis. Another one was watching a veteran on the ground, homeless, alcoholic.

The abdomen's swelling up as the organs fail. We did get him into hospice, but I tried to give them some scare tactics to change a few things. So not everything costs money, but, let's see what else I can tell you. I'm sorry. Oh, Lake Tahoe.

I as a condition of a grant, the public defender has certain amount of public outreach they have to do. So I'm the public outreach, and we had a meeting at the public defender's office. And they have a wonderful, veteran, David Webb, who's the social worker for the public defender's office. But just like here, it's hard to get that coverage up in Lake Tahoe, and it might require another grant. They're they're they're short. The the public defender's office is short. It's gonna get a little bit worse before it gets better up in Lake Tahoe. So we have to keep keep our eyes on that. Yeah. Lake Tahoe has always always got challenges.

But commander Milam and I and, Dan Brown, formerly of the commission, we're together on another criminal up in Tahoe, and he seems to have been released. And he's turns out he's probably got, with with the unemployability, a 100% service connected. So we're hoping we don't have to put any more money into him. But at least we're collaborating, working on him, and communicating. I gave Gary's wife, Linda, ways of contacting adult protective services and the public guardian.

There's a veteran out there exposed to winter. He's scrubby schizophrenic at this point. He just ain't able to respond anymore, and he used to be much better. He used to be much better. So I'm hoping we can get him conserved so we can save his life this winter. It's it's hard to get someone conserved. Mhmm. We talked about that at the public defender's office. My mantra is all they wanna do is step for civil rights right out of their nostrils, you know, so I can save their life. You know? So, anyway, that gives you a bit of flavor of it. Thank you.

Thank you,

David. Oh, I'm sorry.

Oh, I say, hey. Real quick, David. I talked to the homeless outreach team

Yes.

Sheriff's office or the hot team. Yes. They're gonna change their questionnaire about we discussed about are you are you a veteran? Oh. And so they're gonna ask if you've ever been in the military.

Thank you, Seth.

So that that's on that side, and I'm still working with the jail on changing the questionnaire for them because it's a similar questionnaire. Are you a veteran? Or have you ever, forgot what the exact wording was, but it it was kind of that, like, we discussed that they may not consider themselves a veteran if they weren't in combat or they weren't deployed.

And and Tim Thompson and colonel Ed back in those days did work on developing the language that we're trying to get. Yeah. Something's falling apart because, like, my last list had, like, four veterans.

Mhmm.

And there's 287 or something at the moment. Oh, here's another thing on the public defender Lake Tahoe. So, because of storage capacity, not because 40% of the crime is in Lake Tahoe, but often around 40% of the inmates, maybe a 100 out of two eighty or whatever, are up in Tahoe because that's where the beds are. Plus, you need some administrative segregation. You can't have this gang member next to that gang member or whatever's going on.

And so anyway, so, again, the coverage needs to be higher instead of lower for Lake Tahoe because of the out of proportion, presence of the criminals in in the South Lake Tahoe Jail. So I brought that up at the meeting. And, yeah. Sorry, Seth. It's, like, four was, like, my last list. It's it's it's out of 300. No. It it used to be fifteen, twenty, maybe below the 8%, but but substantial. And so something's going on.

Dave, is that 40% of the total crime in the counties in South No. Or is that No. Accumulated?

That no. What happens is we transport them to Tahoe. I think some of this will change when the jail is built out. They're they're working on adding some more capacity to our Placerville Jail. And so there may be less need for transport to Tahoe. But because of where the beds are, and it partly ties because you need that administrative segregation, so it gives you another keep this this guy away from this person because they beat each other up, you know, whatever it is. That's so it does provide that, but it's just the beds are out of proportion to where the crime is. Okay. Yeah. Hopefully, I got that right.

Thank you.

Okay. Today's the police department personally told me that, she can't do a thing to him. In other words, if he's arrested, you know, for doing something, yes. But they just can't walk up, and the old the old saying is come up back with me. They cannot do that. Because they sleep there's a place called Taylor Creek with a little trucky river. And every once in a while, you'll see the cops all over the park. That's where they sleep. That was The gentleman he's talking about, I was from here to here, Roger trouble, trying to say something. Say hello, and he just look at you.

There there's nobody home. Please understand. There I mean, to me, I'd love to get him in a van and take him to Reno. It's a six story. I think hospital there. The six story is at where they take care of things like that. I know that hospital. A company that promotes the concrete, so I know what the sixth story is. And there's there's there's MPs on every floor now. It's that bad. A while back, somebody went nuts down there that he, gets his care. The cop actually had to shoot him. Oh. Wow. That's what's they're they're telling me where everything's going on out there.

Gary, I'm not so sure he is VA health care connected. It's hard because it's it was, like, pre COVID when I last had a decent conversation with him. So maybe the public guardian can get something done. People don't have to be in custody or arrested for that interaction to occur. Maybe they can get a referral going to the public guardian. I'm sorry. I I meant APS can do the interaction, and maybe they can get some going. I've tried before directly with the public guardian. I don't get it, and he's not the person he used to be. So we've seen the change. So

All we can do is try.

Yeah. We've we we'll keep on trying. Anything else?

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Oh, we have Tom who wants to Oh. Make

I always have to follow David. I know. It's just, you know, putting me in the light of things. First of all, I gotta say, I wasn't able to hear what Gary was saying. Gary, is your microphone on? Or and I know you don't talk real loud.

It was too far away.

Oh, that's it. More better. First of all, I I I did wanna make make a mention of the fact, for those of you who didn't know it or don't know it, David actually got a vacation in December, and he went to was it England, David?

London. Yes. Yes,

for about ten days or so.

It was family, but that's okay. That's okay. But it was

it was away from here. So I think that's the first vacation he's taken since I've known him for about three years now. So congratulations on that, David. On behalf of South Lake Tahoe, we've been able to assist four veterans. One of them was was housing. The other three were basically just gas for their truck or car and food. And we were able to take them over to Safeway and and get some things for there. One guy, came in. It happened. It was on a Thursday night, which is our social night at the post.

And people we we get food from Christmas cheer, and, usually, we have a lot of food left over. And so the guy said, can I talk to you? And I went out in the hall with him, and I said, what's up? He says, I haven't eaten in three days. Can I get some food? And I said, sure. Come on in. So we gave him some food. I was able to sustain him. The next day, I took him over to Safeway and got him some more food.

So he was very happy. He was waiting for a job. He came here from I think it was Colorado, if I recall, waiting for a job at Heavenly, and Heavenly hadn't opened yet because we didn't get snow until Christmas. So I haven't heard from him, so no news is good news. And, basically, the other other three people that we've helped out, and David has helped me with reimbursement, we were able to get them taken care of. And so far, everybody that we've helped seems to be doing okay. So South Lake Tahoe is back on, on the green side.

Sadly for you, Tom. I have your phone number memorized.

Gee. Thanks. Don't don't tell anybody.

Oh, the way

That's my report.

Thank you.

About I was there to typically What Tom was just talking about. I was there to inherit heard it. There's a lot of sad stuff going out there. It really is. Okay.

Military Family Support Group. Tim, you used till there? He said he had to leave.

Tim is gone, but is there anything for the Veterans Alliance?

Oh, sorry, I missed that line. Veterans Alliance, the only thing we have Jack called me this morning to talk to me real quick. Their meeting in January has been moved until February. They're going to repost that out there. Also, it sounds like they've been in contact with the VSO about application process for the bricks. They are working on it. They're trying to streamline it a little bit to make it easier instead of having everything clustered down there at the engraver. Drawing a blank in the name of the place. Pool the pool place. Pool place. Pool place. So that's all they had, just that they had moved their meeting to February. So they it's to be determined what date and time yet. David? David, yes, sir.

Why do you sit so far back, David? You might have just sit, like, right

up steps in. I guess so.

Yeah. Yeah. I only had seven miles today. Anyway

looking in the window.

I I also wanna point out there is the John Heidel fund at Eldorado Veterans Alliance. Yes. And I've been yeah. I've been working with Gary Campbell on that. So I think he's gonna help us help more of you know, so we have it in place. So probably been the next I don't know how fast it's gonna work, but, something will be in place to help us out.

Okay. David, since you brought that up, Gary Campbell reached out to me. You know that we have a thousand or thousand something under the patriot patriot's tribute that Chris Coppermeis started back in the day that is Oh. In the alliance, and Gary wanted to know if we wanted to move that into the high dollar fund so we could distribute it. So if some money issues come up that you think are viable, let me know because we wanna try to get those funds disseminated to someone that could really benefit from them.

Well, to be honest with you, Todd, I think Gary has got it the the wheels in motion for $2,000 to be disseminated.

Okay. Good.

But, yeah, remind Gary about that Okay. Additional source. That that sounds great. Great. Thanks to you and Chris. Thank you. Thank you.

Now we'll do military family support group. And he's Tim's gone?

Tim's gone.

He's gone. Okay. Moving on. Regional events. Anybody? Anybody? Okay. Clerk will open public comment on committee re commissions reports.

May I say something? Two things. One, if you're a veteran

We're not we're we're getting there.

Uh-huh.

We're we're finishing the commission, communication reports. Understood. We'll get to you.

Thank you.

We are now taking public comment on 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.

Thank you. Moving on to the good of the order, does anybody have any deals that veterans could benefit from or something some way that would a veteran would be able to oh, we got you gotta wait your turn there, Gary.

Sorry, Gary. Patience.

I'm trying to help you out, Gary.

Wait your turn. Go to

the order. Nope. Nope. Turn there

you go.

Yeah. Red is Thanks.

For once. Thanks. I just wanted to report back. I've been continuously continuing to volunteer with Eldorado County Food Bank. They're the folks who received a grant from us, and Kim gave the presentation. I met with Kim, right before Christmas, asked her again, like I reported before to the commission, that I want to go out on the veterans food run. I want a head count if I can get it and ask the question, have you served? And I wanna gave be able to see how many folks that we're helping actually hard number four and report back to the commission. I've spoke with her. She promised to put me on the next one, and I will report back I get the numbers.

Cool. Okay. Did they did they ask

I think I can't remember. She said at the time, and I until I go out and see it, I can't tell definitively. But if my memory you know? It's was they they weren't really, recording that information.

Yeah.

I'm gonna start trying to implement it more and try to get a sense of how many we're helping in their their situation, and are they getting benefits and, follow-up with brochures and that type of that's my train of thought, and that's where where where I think. So we can do kind of an outreach and then also to see where our money's being spent as from the commission. Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you.

Now my turn. Okay.

Gary, do you have anything you'd like to add?

I got two things. One, if you shop at Raley's or the stores, the second Tuesday of each month, if you're a veteran

Your wife's correcting you. First? First Tuesday.

Okay. The first Tuesday of the month. Excuse me. That if you sign up that you're a veteran and it goes into the computer and everything else, that you'll get 10% off your bill. I don't know if anybody knew that. And, also, I was contacted by our local TV station. I talked to John over there about it, and they want me to come down and explain the who we are. They don't even know we exist.

As the Veterans Affairs Commission?

That's correct. Very good. In fact, I'll be honest with you. I've been doing almost, what, three years. I and I've been in the county fifty one years, and I've never even knew you guys existed. So there's not many people out there. But, anyway, just wanna make sure you know about those two things.

When will that be? Are you with Foothill Television?

Yeah. It's our local station is channel twelve.

Yeah. It's

anybody up there in Nevada and everywhere else

Oh, okay.

Will all be in there. Their their office is just in actually, it's in Zephyr Cove. Oh. But they want it's it's about a four minute thing. I'll tell you what's going on, what they have. And Courtney has gave me a lot of brochures, and I'll make sure that the proper people have it. And you'd be amazed how many vets out there that don't even know who he is. My wife has a doctor about her ankle, retired major colonel or something. And I was talking to him, and he looked at me like, what are you talking about? So I just wanna let you know. Thank you. My pleasure.

Courtney, did you wanna say something?

Oh, no. I knew about the release Oh, okay. Discount. I think I told John about it a while ago. Oh. I thought it was cool.

It is cool. Did you say way way, dude? God. But I love a Pete. Anything else for the good of the order? Thank you. This time, we're gonna have our open forum. The clerk will read public comment instructions. Please.

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 yourself when called upon and please raise the hand button. Please voluntarily state your name for the record.

I'm Lynette Engelhardt Stott, and I'm a deputy director for, HHSI. I'm here in my role as, working with senior services for the county, and I wanted to let all of you know, if you don't already know about it, we have an adult day services program that is available. We have a site in Placerville, and we serve adults who have Alzheimer's, dementia, dementia related diseases, or other conditions that would require them to need supervision during the day. And so as you can imagine, the program's wonderful for the adults in the program, also wonderful for their caregivers who it allows them to continue working during the day or time of respite. We're in the process of getting certification to be a Veterans Affairs vendor, so that we could then also get Veterans Affairs funding to help, the participate.

That's somewhat of a lengthy process. We're in the queue. We're hoping to have that in place by the next fiscal year. But currently, we do have funding sources available. This is a fee for service program. The county does use general funds to support the program as well, but people who come to the program do pay a daily rate. But we do have funding available if members, receive or are on Medicaid, CalAIM, there's assistance there as well. But I wanted to let you guys know it's a wonderful program, and we have spots available. And so we know that the need is out there in our county, but it's one of those things too, just getting the word out so that people know about it. We have lovely brochures.

I have some that I'm giving to John today so that they'll be over at the Veterans Affairs Services office. And then also, we have them at the senior center here in Placerville. So get the word out, David. Get the word out as you meet people.

Matt, real quick. Is this associated with the senior center down in El Dorado Hills?

So there was a site in El Dorado Hills. The board of supervisors last year consolidated the two programs. And we do have Eldorado Hills members coming from Eldorado Hills to our site in Placerville. We have one site by the senior center in Placerville. There is transit. We do have members from Eldorado Hills taking Eldorado transit across. And so there are, you know, there is transportation and we can give those referrals as well. It's primarily, you know, it's a West Slope. Yep. Okay. Thank you.

Does that include Camber Park?

Sure. I mean, yeah, if you can get to Placerville and you're in El Dorado County, we'd love to, you know, we'd love to serve you. Yep. I

know that that he ate the same dirt I did. He has he's a 100% disabled. He's just been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, but he lives in South Shore like I do. What can he what can you tell me that I can tell him? We can This is important to me personally.

Yep. So we do have senior services. I can give you the contact information for you. I don't have it right in front of me. But there's we have information and assistance where we could try and provide some referrals. But this program, the one site that we have in Eldorado County right now for adult day services is located in Placerville. But our senior services staff would be very helpful in resources that might be available.

So I can get a number to give to his wife.

Yep. Yep.

Okay. Okay. Alright.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

David. Yes, David.

I was waiting for Jim Wassner to go up, but maybe he isn't. So I wanna acknowledge the presence of the veteran of the year, Jim Wassner, and also serve event of the year thing today. So the last person I spoke to on the phone was Jennifer Newman, who was veteran of the year. And she's taken on an extra shift at Eldorado Veterans Resource Center. So I wanna thanks all to all the veterans of the year. Thank you.

Thank you. Alright.

Any other public comment?

Any other public comment?

Jim Wassner, VFW Post one zero one six five. We're the commissioners. I have provided you a copy of an email explaining the issue along with attachments that was first brought before you in August 2023. For those of you who may be unaware of the issue, I feel it was an oversight that removed the requirement for Veterans Affairs Commissioners and alternates to be picked from a list of nominees provided by the recognized veterans organizations of the county. It was in the original and second version of the ordinance, but it was left out when the ordinance was turned into a resolution in January 2020.

But the definition of a recognized veteran organization remains. They didn't take that out. I have been told that in the past, local veterans groups had not provided a vetted list of possible candidates for board members to use in a timely manner. If the requirement was left out on purpose for this reason, it was not necessary. The ordinance stated all of whom may be selected, not shall be selected.

If the local veterans groups do not participate in the process, then the issue is moot and they can't complain about who is representing them. I have been a commissioner on the county's commission on aging for the past ten years. Some appointments to commissions may seem to be a reward for services rendered or just a perk offered to a friend. I do not know if that indeed takes place, but I do know that through the years I have questioned why a couple of my fellow commissioners were even on the commission. As commissioners, we are required by the state to pass a class on ethics every two years.

Ethics state that we must avoid even the appearance of impropriety. Going back to a system where candidates are vetted by local veterans groups will address this possibility and help to ensure that our local veterans continue to be represented by the best this county has to offer. You have ample time to formulate a request that the board change the resolution back to their intent of the original ordinance at your annual report to the board in September. Thank you for your time. Do you have any questions?

Thank you. Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Any additional public comment? Any public comment online? You're going up, Mac.

Good morning, board. Mac Adams. I'm the commander of the one zero one six five VFW. I'm the second commander at the Legion one nineteen. I'm the chairperson for military family support veterans resources.

And I guess I might even be becoming a commissioner at some point here. But the ordinance is what stands and I don't know how that little part dropped off, but I think it should be reinstated because the ordinance is what established the commissioners. And with that, I mean, I'll put my resume in and if they're 25¢.

I'd give up 25 something like a buck.

But I'd, you know, I'll put my resume in and I'd I want that to be the way that we do business here. That's what's transparent. That's what's above board, and that's what was that's how it was established. So if we don't do that, if we don't hold it to the standard, that's the problem we've been having in this county all along. Okay?

They had a policy for the monument up there and they didn't hold to it. So if we're gonna make a policy, we need to stick to it. And as veterans, we're overlooked on many more than one occasion, but this is one time we need to stick to the standard. And most often what I've seen is then the standard gets lowered, not for better. As veterans, we need to do that.

We need to stand tall and we need to make that let it be known what veterans here for. We raised our hand one time, we are the 1%. Only 1% ever served the country. It isn't the Hells Angels, it's us. So we need to do what's right, we've been trained, Okay? We raised our hand. We are the ones that said we would give up into our lives. Our way of life is worth dying for. Okay? It's only 250 years old.

Come on. There's out there three hundred three thousand year civilizations, and some of them hate us, our way of life, our religion. We have freedom of religion, And the inalienable right for life would be in pursuit of happiness as long as your pursuit don't interfere with my pursuit. I hope you understand what I'm saying is being held to accountable for what the policy said. We stick to that. We get the job done. Thank you for your time.

Thank Thank you, Matt.

Questions?

No questions. No from me.

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

And with that, the next meeting will be February 12 at twelve p. M. In this said same room. I adjourn the meeting at 12:51.

Thank you very much.

Do I get up? I get up. Yeah.