Clark County Veterans Advisory Board

0:00 (upbeat music) (gavel bangs) - All rise. Pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Larry, would you give us an invocation? - Yes. - I'm just gonna take a few minutes to read this, really a poem that was given to me by a Sergeant First Class Conway in Vietnam 60 years ago.

0:59 And I carried it in my wallet ever since. He gave it to me and he said, "Read this every once in a while," and it's called "Take Time to Live." "Take time to work, it is the price of success. "Take time to think, it is the source of power. "Take time to play, it is the secret of youth. "Take time to read, it is the foundation of wisdom. "Take time to be friendly, it is the road to happiness. "Take time to dream, it is hitching your wagon to a star. "Take time to love and be loved, "it is the privilege of the gods. "Take time to look around, "it is a short a day to be selfish. "Take time to laugh, it is the music of the soul. "God bless." (indistinct chattering)

1:57 - Yeah, oh, my platoon sergeant, yep, yep. He was killed after I left. - Okay, Abby, would you give us the roll call? - Yes, 40 at eight, Representative Bob Brennan. - He's SIQ, doctor's orders. - Okay, excused, alternate Mark Lacy. Don't hear Mark, American Legion 14, Representative Gene Kuchar. - We'll raise everyone. - American Legion 44, Jim Bowen. - Yeah. - Darren Wertz. American Legion 168, Representative Bob Nichols. - Here. - American Legion 176, Representative Michael Gibson. - Here. - Jonathan Frederick.

2:56 - He's excused. - Excused. American Legion 6, John Lovejoy. - Here, present. - Vanis Pratt. - Excused. - Thank you. DAV Chapter 4, Bruce Moss. - Present, online. - And Roy Day. - Here. - Thank you. Korean War Vets 321, Patrick Locke. - He's excused. - Excused, and Earl Edwards. Marine Corps League 826, Steve Sledgers. - Here. - Thank you. VFW 4278, Thomas Brant. - Show's not there. - Looks like Thomas Brant's here online. And Deb Proctor. - Here. - Great. VFW 7824, Greg Gilbertson.

3:55 - Here. - And Stuart Bauer. - Not here, excused. - Excused. Vietnam Vets 512, Greg Whitson. I think Greg is online. And Nick Herber.

4:22 - Members at large, Brian McGillis. - Here. - Thank you, Buckmar. - Here. - Larry Smith. - Here. - Lloyd Bowman. - Here. - Michael Langsdorf. - Here. - And Tanya Wark. All right, back to you, Bob.

4:50 - We need a motion to approve the minutes. - So moved. - As written. - Second. - As written. - Those in favor? - Aye. - Those opposed? Motion carried. Committee reports appeals. Jean, it's not here. I don't have any. Who's online for the center? - I am, Judy. - There were no appeals that were not resolved. - Okay, thank you. - Also, Sonya's here. - Right. Great policies and procedures. - I have nothing, sir. - Okay. And Bruce, of course, is not here except online. You have nothing on nominations, right, Bruce? - Oh, I do not, Mr. Chair, not at this time, thank you. - Okay.

5:49 In the budget workshop, Mike, have you got anything? All right. - I don't think they have anything. We finished. - Okay, work session, Abby. - Thank you, Bob. All right, so thank you to all of the Veterans Advisory Board members who attended the work session on June 3rd. There was a great conversation with the county council about the assistance center's budget request. Given the general support expressed by the council, the budget office will work with the Department of Community Services to submit the budget request of $222,433 on behalf of the VAB. And it will follow the timeline on the screen, which Emily is going to speak to.

6:47 (people chattering) - Always so klepsy with these things, sorry. Hi, everybody, good to see you all again. Thank you again for the work session. That did go very, very well. As Abby was talking about, everything is going to roll into our county-wide annual budget process now, which this is the timeline of how everything comes together. Again, we'll be working with DCS to submit the budget request on behalf of the Veterans Assistance Board, and that will ask for the additional funding needed for the new positions. Once that rolls into the budget process, there's quite a few months of work that's done to collect everything and to process that

7:46 and publicize that to the county. The budget office does receive all of those requests from all of our county department and offices in August, and it takes us about a month to really validate everything and produce the first round of reports, which your request will be in there. That's published the first part of October. From that point, there's conversations that the county manager has with all the departments and offices based on their submissions, and she from there develops her recommendations to the council, which are published the first part of November. And then it goes into work sessions to present those pieces of information, those recommendations collectively for the entire budget. And then the council does have its public hearing to adopt the budget. It's the very tail end of November, the first week of December this year. The public hearing is on December 1st,

8:45 and that will be an opportunity to, definitely if the VAP would like to come back and participate in that public hearing and provide support to those requests, that's a great opportunity for a public hearing setting. We can make sure Abby keeps you guys up to date as those work sessions are scheduled. You're, of course, welcome to come and listen to those. And just, you know, listen in. Those aren't really participation with the public, but are there any questions? I feel like it's pretty much laid out, but I live that every year, so. - The public hearing, when is that again? One December? - Yes. - Okay. - They're quiet, but I can fix that. Emily, thank you for being here. I'm not sure we would have ever navigated the work session

9:45 and our presentation without you. There's no doubt in my narrow military mind that we could have at least received some of the positive comments that we did without your help. We know veteran services. We don't know budgeting. We don't know county budgeting, you know, so there's a little gap there. Yesterday's work session was interesting, and I sent a document out to a lot of you all, and hopefully you'll be able to go onto the Abby produced, what, anyway, the link, and listen to it. I will, as a comment though, Emily, I will tell you, that is difficult to understand. A lot of the conversations between those folks

10:40 are difficult for us to understand. I asked Emily, I mean, I asked Abby to get a transcript for you all. I think if you read it, it'd be a lot easier to digest than trying to hear it. I've been through it three times and find it very difficult to understand. So in no particular order, what should we be concerned about? Emily, we heard, I thought I heard yesterday that the council made one declarative, and that was to roll the three subordinate levies outside the general fund. What are the implications of that for us? - Well, the implications are that it will be separate levies, so it will make the conversation less competitive for general fund dollars,

11:39 'cause we don't have to have that be a subordinate levy and actually reduce the general fund, but I don't think there's any implications as far as that decision. It's really a mechanism of how those levies will be put out forth to the community. I think more of the conversation coming up is through the budget process, and as the council talked about yesterday, there'll be some conversations about whether those now not going to be subordinate levies will be at the minimum rate, or they'll propose and adopt an increased rate. - Okay, that leads to then a specificity question. Talk to us about this reserve fund, the minimum reserve fund. - It sounds like, from, it sounded like being a novice

12:31 that the reserve fund, we almost have to compete for funding with the reserve fund. We're talking, I think, $300,000, right? Is that right? - Yes, if I remember, we looked at the six-year forecast recently with the work session that you guys did. It is estimated to be about a $300,000 recommended reserve, and that is really about being able to sustain payments for services at the first part of every year as these property tax revenues don't come in January 1st. They usually come in in April and October. I don't necessarily think it's a competition for those dollars. I think it's a conversation on how we would address that reserve, and I do think the council's aware

13:30 of the need to have that, and there were some proposals made yesterday about how they might want to address that. That, again, will be the council's decision on if they want to provide more funding for that or not. I would recommend we look at the six-year forecast again. It doesn't have to be today, but we can look at it. Excuse me, what? - The six-year forecast for the fund. I think Abby can pull that up first. - I have it, and I'm happy to pull it up now, if that would be helpful. - Please. - So while she's doing that, Emily, thanks for all your support. Buck spent a lot of time, came over to my house, and I know Abby helped him out with the PowerPoint, so it was a team effort, so I just had to spell check Buck a little bit here and there. I'm just kidding. - I am from Arkansas. (laughing) - So the question I have before we go over this, that timeline, it seems to me like the first of August

14:30 is really when, I think it said the development, budget development stage, so that timeline is gonna be, it's pretty consistent every year. - Yes, yeah. - From between August and early December. - Yes. - Okay, thank you. - All right, so I think Abby, if we can, is this the second tab that shows that 222, okay. If you look down at the bottom, where we look at where that proposed minimum fund balance is, I can't really see it, it's lying. - If possible. - It's a little bit easier. - It's okay for us Air Force guys.

15:21 - Is that better? - Yes. - Yes, I'm just trying to figure out. I always do this with these forecasts, like what year are we in, so is that bracketed year, is that 2027, okay. Yeah, so as you guys probably remember, with the six year forecast and the increase to the new minimum rate, the fund basically balances with existing services. By proposing the additional staffing increase for the Veterans Assistance Center, there is a need for additional REVU on top of that to sustain that, and that's a council decision that will happen through the budget process. What we do need to talk about is the risk to the fund. Right now, if the fund is spent down, so if we in 2026 spend that fund down to a very minimal amount, there's nothing in the fund

16:18 January 1st to make payments for invoices that would come in, and I know I'm not the expert on this, DCS manages those payments, but from my understanding, that's what we need to figure out, how to either massage or have the council, if they choose to, approve some additional funding to create that buffer so that each year, as the funds are spent down, there's adequate reserves to pay those first of the year bills until the April property tax revenue starts rolling in. Does that make sense? - Now, we know that the last several months of the year are the busiest at this center, so running the money down, that way, because they get more veterans in, they need more help, it's always been that way, so how are they gonna continue to fund

17:17 those last few months if they have to save money for January, February, March? - Well, the concept would be, in my kind of big picture perspective, is that whatever's approved for the 2027 budget through this process, where we're working together, DCS is submitting a request for the additional funding that you guys are requesting, once that budget's established for 2027, those are the guardrails that the Veterans Assistance Center and the other two contractors would have to remain within to be able to balance that budget year. If there's additional funding needed for some emergent or crisis reason beyond what's already been agreed to, that's a conversation about, like an emergency conversation for additional funding, and it may not be available. If the fund is spent and completely allocated, there's not really a process just to infuse more money

18:16 into that without having a budget process to ask for that. Does that make sense? So I think if the center's spending, if that's what you were talking about, like it's the busiest time of year is towards the end of the year, that should be all part of that yearly allocation. Maybe we'll spend less at the beginning and more at the end, but at the end, that bucket of a million or whatever the contract amount is, that's the parameters, those are the guide rails for those services for that year. And that's pretty similar to every other service and allocation we have in the county, that the budget serves as a strategy document and an approved, agreed upon kind of financial roadmap. And we all have to kind of stay within those guidelines and live within those parameters once that budget's adopted. - I understand that, thank you.

19:14 But as we all know, even our own budgets at home and everywhere else, what you plan on doesn't necessarily happen. They may have a rushed middle of the year, they get a lot of veterans in that need help and they have to help 'em, and then they're out of money. So that's, there's a thing with, you can plan a budget, but like they say, everything's fine until you get hit in the nose. - So from my perspective, and that's this kind of bigger structure, there may be other conversations with the Veterans Assistance Center and how they can manage their overarching expenses if something emergent comes up, but the way we're looking at it right now with what the VAB's presenting and asking the council for, we're planning on fully allocating the revenue that is slated to come in for that year. There's no other process

20:10 unless it was like a separate general fund request, like it wouldn't come through this normal process because it's already happened. But we could talk more about nuances and things like that if there was some critical emergency during the year. The county does do a false supplemental process and the deadlines are fairly the same, so having things come up in October, November, December, make it difficult for us to react to based on the way the process works, but I think that's something that we'd have to discuss at the time, and there would be no guarantees that there'd be additional funding from this source unless it could go through the process. You're welcome. - Can I just jump in here, please? So when I do the budget,

21:09 I typically try to account for the rush that we get in October, November, and December. And if that rush uses up all of the money, then unfortunately, we haven't been in a position in the past where we were able to ask for supplemental funds because there were none. So if the levy is increased to the legal minimum limit of one and one-eighth cents, I think it will permit us to have some more flexibility. And I recognize that the county wants to have a reserve, and I recognize the need for that. I'm hopeful that that reserve can be put into place incrementally, not all at once, so that we can figure out a way to work through those first few months of the year, especially in 2027.

22:05 So thank you, Emily, for all the help and all you do. We appreciate you very much. - You're very welcome. You're appreciated as well. And we can talk more about, I think, what our strategy will be. We need to wait and see what the council's going to approve because they may consider some of these things that make these a conversation or not, but I definitely think we can have some more conversations on how that minimum fund balance can either be implemented right away or phased in. - Thank you. I think so, too. - While yesterday during the work session, Counselor Young kept bringing up, several times, freeing up money from the general fund. Quote, unquote, remember? What is he talking about? - I'm not exactly sure I could speak on behalf of his ideas about that,

23:03 but I think he's asking for some consideration if there's flexibility within the general fund to possibly help establish a minimum fund reserve rather than changing the levy rate. But I do know there'll be a follow-up work session. So yesterday was specifically on the House Bill 2442, and if the council wanted to make those levies stay subordinate or take them out of the general fund, there was a firm movement and direction to move them out of the fund. That will be followed up with a formal staff report in a future council meeting. But that decision is basically in place. Now the council wants to consider all of the potential needs including the additional staffing for the Veterans Assistance Center and the minimum fund balance needs for 1019 in a separate and subsequent work session, which I don't know when that will be scheduled for,

24:02 but I think maybe probably early August, and we can keep you posted. That would be something I would encourage you to listen into, and we'll have further conversations about that. - Okay. Thank you. - You're welcome. - I guess failing another question, this is more declarative, but at the end of the session, as usually happens in some meeting, the conversation kind of dribbles down a little bit. And one of the little dribble downs that we caught was the Councilor Marshall indicating that she wants to know more about mental health services that could be available through the VA. Did you hear her? - I did, yes. - Did you hear her?

25:02 Yep. Well, we got pretty concerned about that because trying to, if she's thinking about subsidizing, and I think it's important for us to talk to you and others that get involved, but this crowd doesn't know much about budgeting, but we know about VA's. And to think that, she might have been implying, but we weren't gonna accuse her of that, but we were going to be very nervous about that kind of a comment because our recommendation, our ask, was for mental health assistance professional in the center. - Right. - Because that's where we have mental health problems. I listed two on one of my briefing charts, and if she's thinking that we can get VA help for a mental health issue that occurs on the spot at the center, you know, she's dreaming.

26:00 We wanna head that off at the pass, Emily. - I think that's fair. Again, I wouldn't speak for Chair Marshall, but I'm assuming it's more of an inquiry to understand the scope of services that are available and how what's being requested probably differs from what already exists. I think it's just trying to understand, you know, the scope of services available. - If everybody would understand that the VA, first, you have to be eligible for VA healthcare. Number two, you have to have a primary care, at the VA, and number three, the primary care has to recommend you for mental health services, and then you go to mental health, and then you've gotta find a provider. - If I can jump in here, I think that it would be really beneficial and valuable

26:58 for the Veterans Assistance Center and Veterans Advisory Board to respond directly to Counselor Marshall's questions in this regard, as the ones making the request and as the subject matter experts on this topic. I'd be happy to help you all facilitate a response. So after this meeting, now that the recording is posted, I'll go back and consolidate, summarize those questions in writing, and I'll send that to the Assistance Center and the Board and help figure out a timeline to get those responses and facilitate getting those too, Counselor Marshall. - I appreciate that, Abby, and I think that's the right answer, and of course, if that's what the Chair would like, is a formal response about mental health services that are available, either short term or long term, but as I said, it was kind of a conversation that was dribbling off at the end of a long meeting, so I don't want to, I don't want us at the VAB

27:58 to suggest to the Chair that she doesn't know what she's talking about in the mental health business, just to be blunt, you know. So maybe, Abby's suggestion, maybe the Chair would like to make a formal request that we could respond to, blah, blah, blah, you know, you're-- - I think Abby's idea is an excellent one. I think it's just an inquiry for some general information, and I think what Abby said, you know, you guys are familiar with the details, and we could, you could prep something to share with the Chair, and that's just for her to take in, I think, as her overall approach, and maybe the Council's approaches, they gear to head into some decision making through the budget process, so yeah, I wouldn't take it as a negative thing at all. I think it's more just inquiring. - That's very good, and we'll ask Abby to help facilitate that, but again,

28:55 with you all that are going to be involved in this budget process for some time, we need to realize that our ask was because Judy and her gang will get a mental health incident on the spot down there, and to think we had to turn to a VA or something, that wasn't the point of Judy's ask. - Right, and maybe just my humble suggestion was maybe drawing a comparison in your response and saying, you know, here's what the scope of services are, but the challenges in accessing these and how these don't really apply to what you're trying to accomplish through the Veterans Assistance Center, sorry, I can't read today, and what the Veterans Assistance Center position will do that those things don't do, just comparing and contrasting, I think, would be helpful. - Good, super, because we've got a piece of paper here that shows Clark County residents

29:54 are challenged for mental health services, and when you're talking about vets who are, according to the national statistics, is 1.5 times more likely to commit suicide as a result of mental health. You know, we can't be fiddling around waiting on the VA. - Right, that's understandable. - Anyway. - Yeah. - I also see Roy Day's hand raised online. - Thank you, I just wanted to clarify something. The statements about the availability of mental health services through the VA is not entirely correct. There, it is a lot more available. I'm not saying that the ask for mental health services at the Veterans Advisory, excuse me, at the Veterans Assistance Center. I'm not trying to take anything away from that, but you don't have to be raided.

30:53 You don't have to be signed up. There's a lot of stuff that is available without any prerequisites. So I just want to put that out there. So it's not, it's more nuanced than just no. - Yeah. - Okay. - It's just not helpful. - Yeah. Thank you, Roy. - What else do we need to know? We were told there might be another work session as early as the 17th, is that true? - So there are work sessions every week usually. There is a work session coming up next week that's pertaining to the 2027 budget process. It's more about our internal finance team talking with the council about potential recommendations for the general fund structural deficit.

31:52 So it's not specifically about what you guys are having conversations about. The next work session that I think that would be a good thing to watch out for is the follow-up to yesterday's work session, and it's not scheduled yet. I'm thinking it will be in probably early August, but that's yet to be determined. - Count to the work session? - Yes, yeah. - If and when that does come up, it would be great if a greater number of the board would show up at that work session to support us, to support Judy and the center, rather than yesterday, it was just Buck and myself. - Well, Mr. Chair, I think part of that is we were all built up to come to the work session, or working group session on June 3rd,

32:51 but the follow-up wasn't quite, we didn't have the momentum. - I understand that. - And I just got back from a rafting trip yesterday, right when that was going on, so, or I'd have been there, but I think if we could just-- - Did you get a lot of sun? - I did, you see that? I wore a dry suit, totally covered. - It would just help us to present ourselves to the council if we could get more people showing up. That's my entire point. - I understand, I'm just saying we didn't have this meeting prior to where March, April, and May, we were all gearing up for this June 3rd working group session. In fact, it was supposed to be in May, right? And it got rescheduled, so, yeah. So that would help if we had more momentum. - It would be nicer if we had a lot more notice to have it. - Well, that's the other half of it, exactly.

33:50 - Yeah, so it's just a matter, I'm just suggesting that more of the board show up, if they can, to these work sessions. - And when that happens, I would ask the board members who show up to stand up to have that impression from the council 'cause they can see who they are. In fact, if we had the time, and we don't have the time with the council, is let the board members introduce themselves so they become more familiar of who we are, who we represent, and what we're all about. - One of the best things for us to show that we are, at least veterans, and are interested in it, is to wear a cap. - Get a little advertisement here, yeah. All right, anybody have anything additional for Emily? You have any final notes, suggestions on how this little august group can try to stay ahead of the curve?

34:50 We don't wanna find ourselves at the end of this realizing we're not gonna get the asks. - Well, the ultimate decision on the asks will come through the budget process, right? And we won't know that final determination until December 1st, that goes for everything that's going through that process, including this. But I would suggest just keep an ear out, and Abby can keep you informed for when that work session gets actually scheduled. We'll do our best to give you notice. It's been a very busy year, and things are coming fast and heavy, so we'll give as much notice as we can, and also, those materials are usually posted the week before, so you'd have a couple days before the work session to take a look at those. It is not a setting that's like a public meeting where there's comment, but you can show up and show your support by being in the audience, and then also, the material will be presented you can listen into, and we can always follow up after that.

35:50 - And I just wanna add my appreciation of you and your involvement. - Thank you. - And concern about what we're all about. That's so important. I sense that when you talk, and you enthusiasm of who we are. - You're very welcome. I appreciate all of you, and truly appreciate your service, and if there's anything I can do, I'm just down the hall. You're welcome any time. Michael, Buck, you guys have been to visit me, so we're here to help you guys navigate any of this that we can, and we'll be seeing each other again very soon, okay? - Outstanding, and I hope we all realize we're only here existing to help those that need help, and there are a lot of them in this county. - We're veterans helping veterans. - Thank you, Emily. - Thanks a lot. - Abby, can you make sure we're notified ahead of time for these meetings

36:49 so we can prepare for 'em or attend? - Absolutely, I'll be sure to send an email to the board as soon as I have information on when that's scheduled. - Thank you. - Okay, moving on. Contractor reports, Abby? - All right, this is the April 2026 Contractor and Fund Report. For the Clark County Veterans Assistance Center, there were 648 visits to the center for essentials and food, with 877 sack breakfasts and lunches, and 83 food boxes provided, for a total of 5,413 pounds of food provided. There were 519 and a half volunteer hours, totaling $20,935 in value. There were 37 veterans served through the vet fund in April,

37:44 with services totaling $26,595.72. You might notice when you look on your report on the Demographics page, there is a slight change from previous reports. It now has a column which marks which veterans in that report were served through the vet fund versus through the assistance center's other grants. So, you can see a bit more information there. Of these veterans, 34 were male, zero female, three widows, and zero others served through the vet fund. So, you'll see there were a few others on that report served through their grants. There were 13 denials, zero of which were subject to appeal. At the free clinic, there were two veterans served in April. Services totaled $922 in value, and they billed $594.72 to the fund.

38:42 And for the Veterans Assistance Fund, April is a month where a lot of the property taxes come in, so the revenue was $350,292.63. There were $99,897 in expenditures. At the end of April, the fund balance stood at $634,542.97, which was a $250,394 increase from the previous month. Any questions on this? - I have one, Abby. - Yeah, go ahead, Bob. - It's for Judy. On, yeah, I lost my place. On the 23rd of April, you did a mortgage rent for $5,000 to one individual? - That was probably for two months.

39:41 - And even probably for two months. Isn't that a lot of money? - Of course it is. But nowadays, rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $2,500. So a mortgage two months for $5,000 is probably still pretty reasonable. Rental rates are outrageous through the roof. - Okay, just a question, because that kind of stands out to anybody who reads this report. - Of course. - Thank you, Judy. - You're welcome. - Abby? - That is all I have for contractor and fund reports. - Okay, next. Veterans Assistance Center, Judy. And before you get into that,

40:35 my post has a table at the gala, but they don't have any open tickets. Do you have any? What do you mean no open tickets? - Their table is all taken. - Ah, okay. So you have extra people that wanna come to the gala, is that what you're saying? - Well, you asked me about me, and I can't come to the gala without a ticket. - Okay, well, I can certainly help you go onto our website and get a ticket. That's my problem. - All right, thank you. - I can do that. - All right. - Okay, so meantime, let's talk about the gala. It's June 20th at Alanae. Door's open at 5.30. It's a MASH parade,

41:34 which is based on the old TV show MASH. Some of you who are young won't know what that is, but us older folks know. And we will have some games and lots of fun drinks, a DJ, an MC. We will have some of the MASH characters there, and it's for a really good cause. We're raising money so that if the fund runs out next year and the center has to supplement the budget, we'll have some fundraiser money to be able to do that. So hopefully that won't happen, but if it does, and we also, every day, as you can see from the new column that we put on your list, it shows which clients are helped with the fund and which clients are helped with the grants.

42:33 So you can see that we do use our grants. When the fund is not able to help someone, we do try to use grants for that assistance. So the fundraisers help with those monies, and we'd love to see all of you there. I know that some of you have bought a table and some of you have bought tickets, and we appreciate that, and we're looking forward to seeing every single one of you. So Bob, if you need help, I'll send you an email with instructions about how to do that. How's that? - That's okay, I can come visit you. - Yes you can, and I'd love to have you do that. - Hey Judy, this is Greg. This is Greg. So I talked with Sonja yesterday, and we are gonna buy a table as well. Our post is, I was gonna bring the check by tomorrow, 'cause we have to do a vote tonight, but I already know where it's gonna pass. - All right.

43:30 - And we have veterans that we, we don't have all eight seats filled yet, close to half. But I understand that the Veterans Assistance Center has veterans that they will put in those seats that are open, is that correct? - I'm very sure. - And I would come too, but it's always on the same weekend as our state convention. So maybe next year. - Maybe next year. - Bob can sit in my seat at the VFW table. - Yes, okay. - Judy, just as a, Larry Smith, as a strategy, I go to a lot of events, fundraising events, and you've probably been through it before. It's really politically savvy to reach out to some of our elected individuals and invite 'em as guests. And that's starting with the very top,

44:27 the third congressional district, if she's in town, Perez. And then you've got seven councils, city councils, and Clark County, representation from them, to include Clark County Council, and invite 'em. - Right, and I'm sure that Kim Hamlich is our fundraising chair, and I'm sure that she has reached out to every single one of them. - Okay, and I will offer my services, 'cause I know most of 'em, that tells you how long I've been here. Be more than happy to talk to 'em and solicit their support about attending. - Very nice. Well, I know she told me that our mayor is coming and some of the representatives. So I believe there will be a lot of representation for the city and the county there. I will check with Kim further. Haven't spoken to her today yet,

45:25 but we will find out how many are coming. And if she needs help with those, I'll sic her on you, Larry. - Okay, yeah, I can hardly wait. - Thank you so much. We appreciate you. - Oh, yay. (laughs) - So the other thing that I wanted to talk about is our upcoming stand down on September 25th. We have submitted our request for the stand down grant. We probably won't know about that for another month, maybe another six weeks, but we are in the process of accepting vendor applications. And if you are out there listening and you wanna be a vendor at our stand down, please give a call to the center and let us know so we can send you an application. I believe that we have sent out about 150 requests to vendors that might wanna be there. So don't wait till the last minute

46:24 because we do fill up fast at the stand down. But I'm hoping to see all of you there. So it's a great event for our veterans. It's something they look forward to every year, and it gives us an opportunity to help our homeless veterans get geared up for winter weather until we can get them off the street and in housing. So thank you all. - I was at the last stand down, and that was the one that had more vendors than I'd ever seen at the several stand downs I've been to. So it was great. - Yes, I believe we had 65 vendors last year. So we had them inside and outside, and we will continue to do that. So we want to add as many services for them as we can, and we wanna make it as big a day as possible for our vets. So thank you all.

47:23 I appreciate everything that this board does. I appreciate all your help with the budget and with attending the meetings and attending the fundraisers and each and every one of you is special, and I want you to know that. So thank you very much to each and every one of you. And that's all I have. - Thank you, Judy. - You're welcome. - Okay, old business. New business. I have an item under new business. So last week, Bruce reached out to me asking if I could help the board update the board's strategic plan. The last time this document was updated was 2015. So I am happy to help update that. There's a lot of data in there, demographics, et cetera,

48:18 that I'll definitely be able to pull updated information for. What I could use your feedback on is the overall goals of the board moving forward and the type of information that you really want highlighted in this strategic plan. So in the follow-up email for this meeting, I will include a copy of the most recent strategic plan from 2015 for you all to review. And then feel free to send me any feedback that you have over email. Otherwise, we can discuss it at the next meeting in August, or if the board is interested in forming another specific committee to talk about this, we can do that and set up some separate meetings before August. So just let me know how you all want to proceed, and I'm happy to help in any way that I can. - Okay, Abby, thank you.

49:14 Now, remember, no meeting next month, no meeting. That gives us all a chance to go to our conventions, except for you guys. - But we're going in June. - Yeah, you gotta be different, right? - Are we going to your house for a barbecue next month, Bob? - No, no, I don't have a barbecue anymore. - Yeah, I'm gonna make a motion. - What a muckraker. - Any more new business? - I don't find them new business or not. You know, I'll just make one comment, whether it's new or not. You and I have, Bob and I have talked about it, but it's just an FYI for everybody on the board. Most of you that have known me for some time know that my wife and I do not live here full year, and so we'll be departing the fix, as we say in flying business. We'll be departing the fix on about the 18th and headed over to Montana, but I'll be available. Bob and I have already coordinated a little bit. I'll be available electronically,

50:12 and we continue to keep a ball moving forward. The VAB has, in my tenure here, has improved immensely. You know, we need to be engaged in veteran issues in this county. We don't need to come in here every meeting and look at, you know, charts about something that are meaningless, but I've been so proud to work with a lot of you this year on the budget business that we've become engaged in. We're actually a useful tool in the toolkit of the county now where we weren't a few, just a few years ago, so thanks a lot, guys. End of speech. - Can you give us your address in Montana? (laughing) - It's on the lake. - I'll think about it. - Barbecue in Montana. - It's under advisement. (laughing) Yeah. - Any more new business? If not, I'll open it up to open forum

51:12 and I would like to ask Mike. Mike, you got anything to say? - Good afternoon, Michael Torres. I'm part manager with Clare Cone Community Services and thank you for putting me on the spot. The only thing I'd say is just thank you and appreciation to the VAB. I know it's a lot of work to get ready for that work session and I know that was probably kind of stressful and we are local government, we are government, we are local government. There is no way that we can get around processes and public disclosure and accountability and we all try to be good stewards of public funds and the structures that go with it and what that also requires is your patience and you have been very patient. You've been very willing to work with us as county staff

52:12 as we try to support you and support the council both and so thank you. Yeah, that's really all I would say right now. - Thank you, Mike. Any more open forum? - Roy has his hand up. - Say what? - Roy. - Can I jump in for a second, Bob? - Yes. - So I believe that one of our service officers, our VSOs is there in your audience today and I just wanted to say that the two VSOs that we have here, well actually two and a half, are amazing. They do so much work, they help so many veterans, they get so many benefits for our veterans. Oh, I see her, Diane, hello. Anyway, I just wanted to give a shout out to our VSOs.

53:10 We love them, they work so hard and they really, really do a great job for our veterans. We have a survey that we give to our veterans and every veteran who fills out a survey about our VSOs says how great they are and their approval rate is up around 93, 94% and that is almost unheard of. So thank you, we want you to know how much you're appreciated. - Judy, is your backlog getting better with the addition of having, oh, okay. - Yes, yesterday morning, we were under 500. - Hey, good. - They're working as hard as they can. - Bob, there's another hand raised online, Kim Doty. - Go ahead. Speak.

54:09 - Yeah, hi, hopefully y'all can hear me. So I work over at the VA and I'd like to try to advocate if possible due to mental health, so I appreciate all y'all speaking up about wanting mental health on site. I'm wondering about funding for veterans who need mental health treatment but they don't have any supports to watch their pets and that really holds people back on going to get help, whether or not they're actively suicidal or they're deep in addiction. They kind of just refuse to go 'cause they don't wanna abandon their pets and they've got nothing, those are the only things they have so is there any way there could be a grant or written into the budget or something that would just be able to support these veterans while they're getting the treatment that they need?

55:08 - Judy, you still there? - I am, I'm thinking about that. - Okay. - Right now we don't have any policy in the vet fund and I see some logistic problems with that. We've had a couple of instances where we've had veterans that have gone to mental health and they've left their pet with someone that they trusted and it turned out to not be such a trustworthy person so I think there would have to be some plan in place and I don't know how we would make that work. It's certainly something that we could speak with Kim about. We just would need to know that we were not putting ourself in a position of liability by placing that veteran's animal with someone and making it, I wanna make it possible

56:07 for every veteran to obtain mental health help and I get the fact that they don't wanna leave their pets but at the same time, I don't feel like we could put the center in a place of liability by placing that animal ourselves. We'd have to work with another organization like maybe the Humane Society or one of the dog training facilities that perhaps have the wherewithal to be able to have the dogs. So it's certainly something that we can talk about and if any of you have any ideas or suggestions, shoot me an email and we can certainly talk about it.

56:52 - Thank you and I completely agree. Some people just aren't trustworthy. I have been looking into shelters and I have been looking into boarding places that will house cats and dogs. So I understand sometimes the vet center is great with doing another fee for under $500 which is great and helpful and I'm hoping that can, if we find a reputable place certified within budget and trustworthy, not just some random brand that they have but somewhere that's trustworthy. If the veteran picks it out, works with us, we just need the funding so that we can get them help. - So that other category that you're talking about is only other rental assistance. That's only another category for something that is going to get them evicted if they don't have that assistance. So that would not be a category that we could use for that but we can certainly come back to the VAB

57:49 and ask them to help us establish a category once we get all of the protocol in place. So if you wanna continue working, looking around for someone who's reliable, then let me know Kim and we can work together on that. - Understood, thank you. - Okay, any other open forum? - Yeah, just one if I could. Judy, hey this is Buck, under the heading of open forum, I'd like to make a contract with you a little bit. I was concerned yesterday about when Sue Marshall, the chair, made comments about looking around for other potential veteran mental health services that could be helpful in filling your ask for a mental health professional. I'd like you and I, if we can, and I'll reach out to others

58:47 as it becomes available, I'd like you and I to make a pact to kind of brainstorm through how we would answer her. I don't want, if that becomes, if her request comes to us, I'd like to be ready for it. - Absolutely, I'm here at your disposal. You have my cell number, so I'll be happy to sit down with you and work out the details of how we feel about that because I feel the same way you do. There's many, many, many instances here on site, on property, where a mental health professional would not only be great for the veteran, but also for the safety of the employees or the volunteers. So our ask was because of those things, and I definitely will sit with you and we'll hammer out something to send to Chair Marshall. - Okey-dokey, thanks Judy. - Of course.

59:46 - Okay, any more? - Public service announcement. I serve on the Historic Trust, and I just wanted to, 'cause people have asked me about this. Obviously, we all know it's the 250th anniversary. There's a lot of activities and events going on, and for the city of Vancouver, none of them have been cut. What we have done, if you went to Memorial Day at the barracks, you'll see an increase of police. A lot of them will be in uniform, and we're very sensitive about that, and I'm saying we, Vancouver, but the other cities as well. But we don't want to cut any of those events back. It's 250th anniversary. We want to make sure we have the events. If it's a concert, there'll be some announcements about the history of 250 years of our existence, but I just want to give you insurance,

1:00:44 because I have picked up some concerns of people do not want to attend some of the events, 'cause they're afraid of the security, especially some of the things that have been going on. That's a natural reaction, and that's a shame, especially when this is the 250th. But there is police protection, both in uniform, and out of uniform, planes closed. At all the events, concerts that the city has, out at Columbia Tech, downtown, and so forth, 'cause obviously when you have a lot of crowds come together, and especially when you have events that may have a beer garden, you sort of worry a little bit that things could easily get out of control, and it's unfortunate for me to say that, but that's the reality we live in right now. But I just want to provide some insurance. The part of that is getting people out there to come to these events, especially if they have

1:01:43 a military orientation. And it's important that we support those events, and certainly reach out to the youth and bring them. If you have grandkids and kids, bring them to those events. How are they ever gonna learn to appreciate this country, and the sacrifices made? And there's nothing like a visual performance on a stage on your own community that champions folks who take care of us. So I just want to share that, 'cause it takes all of us to work at that and make that happen. But I think the city has really reached out and has looked carefully at the security arrangements for all the events, and none of them have been cut back. - Thank you, Larry. - I just got a couple things, Bob. So the public service announcement, and I appreciate Larry's message there, 'cause we need to get that word out. And really, as a veterans organization, beyond the Veterans Advisory Board, but as an organization,

1:02:43 we should get together and find out how we can help with recruiting and getting the message out. 'Cause we're having that problem with the VFW. We're working through some of those things. So I think that's a good message, Larry, thank you. We are gonna have the Army birthday at our VFW, Veterans and Foreign Wars Post. On this coming Saturday night at five is the dinner, seven o'clock, six o'clock is when the festivity will start. It's celebrating America's 250th, even though it is on the Army's birthday, so it's gonna be kind of a joint kind of celebration. So just public service announcement about that. I think Canvas Post is gonna have a claims clinic coming up at the end of June as well, for those who wanna learn how the claims process goes. And if Deborah wants to talk about it, I'll give you a second, hold on. Hold on, Deborah, I'm not done.

1:03:41 And speaking about the Veterans Assistance Center, a year ago or so, when Abby would read those numbers about food boxes and lunches and coming in for services for the CSO or the VSOs, it was just a slide to me. I didn't really understand it until I started volunteering there about five or six months ago, every other Friday or so. I know Lloyd gets it, he's been there, but I just say that to really understand, you have to spend some time there. How do the food boxes get put together? How many does a single veteran get compared to a family veteran get? The lunches and the breakfasts are provided. How do they make their appointments with the CSOs and the VSOs? There's a process behind it all. And just getting a 10-minute tour, going to the grand opening, sure, that's awesome, that's great, but to actually spend time

1:04:40 and spend hours in there, you get a much better sense of how it all works. I'm not just talking to this room here, but I just want everybody to go back to your organizations and explain to 'em, they need volunteers to understand how the Veterans Assistance Center assists or helps the veterans in our community. So that's just kind of a plug, and I know Debra's ready to go to talk about her claims, so go ahead, just a plug, thank you. - I am not doing claims. - I know you're not, but you are. - But we are very gracious to have Portland VBA come into coffee from nine o'clock until one o'clock to help any veteran who comes in to do claims. Anybody, so if you know of anybody, please post at your place wherever you go, and have 'em come to Canvas Community Center

1:05:37 on 26th June from nine o'clock, and we'll have coffee and donuts, and bring their paperwork, bring whatever they have, and we'll have four of 'em, four of 'em from the Portland VBA. - So that might help on the 500. - Yeah, Greg, you might, if you're inviting the public to come to that dinner, you might tell us where it is. - To the Veterans Foreign Wars Dinner at the Post. - Yeah. - It's on 400 North Andreesen. - Thank you. - It might be full now though, Bob. (laughing) I'll save you a special seat next to me. - Okay, any more? If not, I'll entertain a motion for adjournment. - So moved. - Second. - Second.

1:06:36 - It's been moved and seconded. All in favor? - Aye. - Aye. - Meeting adjourned, thank you.