Senate Standing Committee on Military and Veterans Affairs

The Senate Committee on Military and Veterans affairs will come to order. For all individuals wishing to provide public comment, the participant toll free number and access code is posted on our committee website, and I will announce it now. Today's participant number is 877-226-8163 and the access code is 694-8930. We're holding our Committee hearing here in the O building here in Sacramento. I ask all members of the committee to be present in room 2200 so we can establish our quorum and begin our meeting. For today's bill hearing, we have adoption of a committee rules and one bill, today's agenda. To begin the hearing, let's establish a quorum. Madam Secretary, calle the role.

[Roll Call] We have a quorum.

Thank you, Madam Secretary. Next, we will adopt the committee rules. This is our first meeting, so we'll adopt the committee rules without objection. The committee rules will be adopted, and we will go ahead and call the role. Then we can just move on.

Doesn't hurt. Let's do.

Yeah. Let's go ahead and call the roll for the adoption of the committee rules.

[Roll Call]

So let me mark that down. Okay, well, thank you. The rules are adopted. Next. Let's see. Thank you. We'll take up the consent calendar. We have Senate Bill 783. We have a motion by Senator Grove. Madam Secretary.

Consent calendar. [Roll Call] That passes up.

That'll pass the bill. Okay, so now we will go on, fill it out. So now, ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to thank you all for being here. Really appreciate your attendance. And we will move on to today's oversight hearing of the county Veterans Service Officers. Today we will hear all the panels of witnesses on the agenda prior to taking any public comment. Once we have heard all the witnesses, we will have the public comment period.

For those who wish to comment on the topic of today's agenda, we do have a few representatives participating remotely today. For those remote participants, please mute your phones or computers. Please select unmute before you begin speaking. Our IT personnel will put you back on mute when you are done. Once recognized to speak, please state your name and then you are ready to address the committees, and I would like to give you some opening comments, if I may.

The county veteran service officers that we're going to hear today are some of the most competent and effective claims filers in the State of California. They perform an important job, listening to our veterans tell their stories, translating those stories into a list of their injuries traumas sustained while in service to the Department of Defense in the country we all love, to receive treatment by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

It is a shame that these two federal agencies put their burden on the veterans to access the benefits rightly owed to them through their service and to this nation. Filing a claim is time consuming, mentally defeating in some cases, and so difficult that veterans walk away from the process. To assist veterans in filing claims and access benefits and services, the California Department of Veterans Affairs trains and partially funds county Veterans Service Officers. These are veterans helping veterans boots on the ground, as it's called.

I am delighted to hear from some of our county veteran service officers today, and the phone lines will be open later for comments. To learn more about specifics of their work and to learn how we can support our county veteran service officers to increase the quality of life for our veterans and their families in the State of California. We will be listening. It is important that we listen closely.

We will begin the hearings with an overview of county veteran service officers and the California Department of Veterans Affairs. Next, we will hear the work experience from several county Veterans Service Officers, and we will end the hearing with veterans and their family members who will come together, who will give us some stories, the outcomes of the county veteran service officers, and some of their successes. And we're looking forward to that. I would like to now turn it over to our Vice Chair for her comments.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As the first female veteran to ever serve in this building, it's my honor to sit on this committee with majority veterans. I believe almost our entire Committee is close to 100% majority veterans. I think we have one that is not correct. But the rest of us are.

Having put our hand in the air and swear to defend this country against all enemies, foreign and domestic, I think makes us very unique in the fact that we understand, while I did not serve in combat, we do understand that veterans are a unique percentage of our population that's willing to put their life on the line to protect this country. And I applaud all of you guys that are here today and all of my colleagues on the dais that are United States military veterans.

And I look forward to the comments that we hear today. I know that I represent the top three food producing counties in the world, Kern, Tulari and Fresno, and the county veteran service officers that we have in those districts are outstanding. But I do have to tell you, my favorite outside of my district county veteran services officer is Mr. West, who is here today to testify on this panel, and I look forward to hearing his testimony. So thank you.

Thank you, Madam Vice Chair Grove, we will go ahead and hear from our panel, so I'd like to invite the first panel up to the table, please. Let's bring you up. And today we will be hearing from Rhonda Murphy, Santa Barbara County Veterans Service officer and President of the California Association of Veterans Service Officers, and Keith Boylan, deputy secretary of Veteran services for the California Department of Veterans Affairs.

And with them we have Scott Holwell, King County Veterans Service officer and Legislative Chair of the California Association of Veterans Service Officers. So thank you for being here with us today. And who would like to begin?

Honorable chair and Committee Members, my. Name is Rhonda Murphy and I am the California Association Veteran Service Officers President, and the Santa Barbara County Veteran Service Officer. On behalf of the CACVSO, I want to thank you for inviting us to speak to you today. I also want to thank you for your service, all of you veterans.

California is home to the largest veteran population in the United States. Its 1.6 million veterans, plus family members and survivors, have earned entitlements and benefits through the veteran's honorable military service. To connect with these benefits through the United States Department of Veteran affairs is a complex, lengthy, and often confusing process. To ease the burden of this process, our veterans the role of the county Veterans Service officer was first established in 1924, when Stanislaus County began assisting veterans from the Spanish American War and World War I.

Other counties soon followed suit. On June 6, 1939 then Governor Culvert Olsen signed AB 1270 into law, which authorized Board of Supervisors to establish an officer to be termed county veteran services officer. Today, 56 of California's 58 counties have an established veteran service office spearheaded by a veteran services officer who must, by qualification and military veterans code, be a veteran themselves. In total, nearly 300 county employees have dedicated their careers to veterans of California.

A veteran service officer or representative must be knowledgeable in all VA claim related matters. These include in depth knowledge of CFR title 38, medical conditions, presumptive and secondary rules, claim protocols, research and analysis of evidential records, and more. They must be able to establish rapport with diverse client base. Many of these clients suffer from mental health conditions and advocates must understand and be able to establish a rapport and trust base to support and provide assistance to veterans needs.

Further, a veteran services officer must be knowledgeable in all local and state benefit programs that provide assistance to veterans, particularly at risk and homeless veterans. Through advocacy and strong referral network, the positive impact for this at risk veteran population is immeasurable. The California Association of County Veteran Service Officers is the largest professional state Association for veteran service officers in the country.

Its main focus is to provide training and continuing education for its nearly 300 members, all of whom have dedicated their lives to advocate for veterans and their families. Through training conferences, in person and virtual, relevant and expert guest speakers and presenters share the latest information about claims processing and rulings, medical and legal conditions, and changes in VA law and regulation.

In no small part, the strong collaborative relationship between CACVSO, its members, and the California Department of Veteran Affairs, CalVet, has helped further improve the benefits, resources, and programs available to California's veterans. Through a one of a kind college fee waiver program, all children of service connected disabled veterans can attend college at minimal cost. Homeless veterans and incarcerated veterans are able to holistically connect with benefits and entitlements to help them resocialize and self support a lifestyle.

The 56 county veteran service offices are funded locally, each through their county. To ease the financial burden of maintaining the county Veteran services office, CalVet provides Prorata Data funding to each county veteran service office based on the amount of work they accomplish. While any funding was always well received by the counties, the recent increase of civil funding from 5.6 to $11.0 million has made a lasting impact on the veteran service offices and on the veterans community.

Increasing funding has allowed many offices to employ additional staff, both administrative and veteran services representatives. This has improved the ability to serve more veterans, provide more support and advocacy, and connect more veterans to their entitlements. The CACVSO and the Veteran Services community in California is deeply grateful for this increased funding. As recently as last year, the Federal Government passed the PACT Act, which is a comprehensive bill that has broadened exposure spectrum, particularly of Gulf War veterans who were exposed to burn pits and other environmental toxins.

The bill also opened up new areas of exposure and presumptives to Vietnam veterans. This was signed by the President August 22 and implemented by the US Department of Veteran affairs on January of 2023. This bill opens benefits to veterans, survivors, and independents that were not normally entitled to benefits. The county veteran Services offices in the State of California has seen an increase in their already busy offices.

Another challenge throughout our state are predatory claims agents that promise veterans, survivors and their dependents that they can get their claims to go through the process faster and promise them the highest rating possible, with the caveat that they will take a percentage of their retroactive accounts. Also, some of them will charge a fee to file a claim in the beginning and provide no additional assistance if the VA needs additional information.

This is highly concerning to our offices as we supply these services for free and are trained in all aspects of the claims process. We would like to see that these agents get some sort of penalty for misrepresenting their qualifications. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go ahead and give it over to the Vice Chair, and as I've got to attend another committee meeting, and I will return. Vice Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Next on the list will be Keith Boylan, deputy secretary of veterans services for the California Department of Veterans Affairs.

Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Vice Chair, and the members of the committee for the opportunity to be here today to talk about the wonderful partnership that we've developed with the county Veterans Service offices and how the attached at the hip approach that we do. And as Senator Archuleta said, they are certainly our boots on the ground throughout the state. There's a variety of ways we partner with the counties, but I think it's really important to look back.

I came on at CalVet in 2013, and at that point, the state was right around 14% of the veterans were attached to their compensation and or pension claims. And as of this year, we're right at about 29%, which is well above the national average. So that's something that the county veteran service offices in Cal Vet are very proud of. That is a lot of people that have been connected to health care and compensation for their service connected injuries, which is incredibly significant. With that, and Rhonda spoke about it a bit, a little bit about our partnership in terms of how that works and how they carry a power of attorney for Cal Vet and file claims on our behalf and represent the county, the veterans within their counties.

But I want to take a minute to just thank the members of this committee and the Legislature overall for the support of the counties and that increase in funding that Rhonda referred to, the 11 million for the subvention funds, that was a significant investment in veterans back in 2013, that number was at 2.6 million. So, fortunately, that has grown pretty considerably.

So I want to talk a little bit about that partnership and what some of the outcomes have been just in the one year that that's been in place. The county budgets, as I said, the subvention budget went from 5.6 to 11 million. So just about an increase, about 100%. Within the counties, though, which was really exciting to hear, was that the county budgets themselves as well went up with that increase.

Not only were the counties able to bring more folks on through the money and support that they got from the state, but the county budgets went from right around 36 million overall for all the counties combined to just over 49. So it's a little over 27% increase, which I think is really significant. So it showed that the state's investment, I think, really pushed the counties to look closer at their county veteran service officers and lend some support as well.

So that was really exciting to see, and it resulted in an increase in claims, as you can imagine. More folks are able to take appointments, more folks are able to get out into the community. So within, from the year prior, they filed just under 81,000 claims that year, and this year they were over 90,000. So that is a significant, just about a 10% increase there.

And with that, they were able to contact in fiscal year 2021 about 740,000 veterans combined through all the county veteran service offices. And this year they were at over 900,000. So significant increase, which I think will continue to grow. A lot of counties are still bringing folks on. As Rhonda mentioned, they go through a vet rep academy.

We've also seen a big increase in our Vet Rep Academy enrollments because the new claims, represented as they come online, are required by state law to be accredited with CalVet. So they have to go through an accreditation process to serve veterans as a claim representative. So we've seen an increase in that as well.

There's a variety of different partnerships we have with the counties, but one thing we've really pushed over these last years, oftentimes when you were in a community and community based system of care, there would be veteran events and various nonprofits and various folks trying to help veterans. Whether it was the pillar of service, whether it was health or housing or whatever it may be, oftentimes the county veteran service officer wouldn't be there.

In Toronto's point, the county veteran service officers and obviously the traditional veteran service organizations are the only ones that are legally able to serve veterans. And Rhonda alluded to it with her concerns over some of the folks that are popping up and serving veterans. You could call it predatory practices.

In many cases, that is a significant concern. But the counties have really become a more central point with our CalTAP program, with our Mental Health Service act money that we receive at the department, we've really been able to support the counties, and they've done some really incredible things with that money. With the Prop 63 money that we get, we have about $1.7 million every year that we distribute to the counties through a competitive grant process.

And oftentimes the way that looks is they partner with nonprofit in their area and do a variety of things with that money, anywhere from discharge upgrade services to mental health services on college campuses, rape crisis centers in the past, equine therapy. Really, a lot of counties get really creative with that money and do a lot of really incredible things.

So that's just another way to increase the county veteran service officers visibility within their county, but also remind the rest of the community based system of care, wherever they are, that the county veteran service officer should always be a first stop for veterans because they connect veterans to the two most important things, which are health care and financial assistance for service related compensation and disability payments.

We've really seen an increase in their visibility within their counties and the role they play within their larger community based system of care, which is really encouraging. And we're really proud of that partnership and the strides they've taken in becoming more a larger part of that. And as I said, much of that is they are able to due to that increase in funding and support from the state. So very appreciative of that.

Another program that we started to really push veterans towards the County Veterans Service offices is the California driver's license program. That's the opportunity for veterans to get veteran designated on their driver's license. Every once in a while we get questions because veterans would like to go to the DMV first. But the DMV was happy with our approach because our approach requires the veteran to go to the county veteran service office.

So it's kind of an indirect outreach process because by them not going straight to DMV and going by Rhonda's shop first, then Rhonda gets to triage them and say, ok, you want that on your driver's license? What else can I do for you? And you actually have that veteran in front of you, and they have a reason to come in the door and you have an opportunity for them to sit down and really triage their situation and see what else you could possibly do for them.

Since we started that program, 258,000 veterans in the state have received their driver's license through that program. And out of those folks, 108,000 have filed claims while at that county veteran service office, resulting in a little over 255,000,000 in annualized payments to those veterans, to those 108,000 veterans that have done that. So that's really incredible stuff. And the CACVSO should certainly be applauded for that work. And then additional 150,000,000 in retro payments that's back paid for whatever reason.

Most of the time, it's usually the period of time from when they file their claim to when they start receiving their benefits. So with that, there's a variety of other things, and our partnership continues to grow and evolve as the veteran service structure throughout the state evolves. So that's really encouraging.

But the biggest part of the whole design is that the county veteran service officers really now have the support and they have the support of their community, the support of the state, and have really become a central figure within their community. And we couldn't be happier with them as our boots on the ground partner, as Senator Archuleta said. And I just, again, thank you for the opportunity to come here today and happy to answer any questions you may have.

Next up, Scott Howwell. Scott.

Mr. Chairman, Vice Chairman, members of the committee, Scott Hallwell, Kings County Veteran Service officer, 30 year Navy veteran, and appreciate the service of those who are here on the committee today and for your service as well. I'm a past President of the California Association of County Veteran Service officers and also the current Legislative Chair, have been for a number of years. I have no prepared statement today. I am here in support of my President and also in support of the relationship that we have with CalVet.

What we do legislatively is we do have a legislative committee and we employ as a contractor, Reeb Government Relations, RGR, to lobby for our interests here at the Capitol. And in doing so, we're hoping to support on a regular basis any legislation that either assists veterans, their families, or gold star families, blue star families, folks like that. And so those are the types of things that we're interested in supporting. We do that through a process of a legislative committee within our sssociation, within our organization.

We also are members of the California State Commander's Council, and I am the Legislative Chair for that organization as well. And so by doing that, by being a member of that, we pull together the veterans voices throughout the state. I'm not really here to talk about the governor's or not the governor's council, I'm sorry, the commander's council, but just wanted to highlight the fact that we are involved with them and trying to align ourselves with the other veteran service organizations within the state in our efforts to help veterans to have a better quality of life, help their survivors, and also to help their families as well. And so I stand ready now to answer any questions you might have. Thank you for your time.

Kick it off, members. And I'd like to thank you, the three of you. We're all out of the same, I guess, God and country. We're together in that. And I'm really amazed at what Keith had mentioned. I'd like to get that for the record, and we'll take a copy of that. But as I was fighting to increase the numbers, as you know, I did, I met with General Wong when we started this to go ahead and ask for more money.

And our first allocation of funding was $5 million. Then I asked not only to have it one time, but the ongoing. But I think what you have just mentioned, how that has brought money into the State of California, into the communities across the state, and how vital the county veteran service officers are not only to serve and represent our veterans, help them along, but actually it's a win win for the State of California. And I thank you for that. So I just can't say enough.

And all of you who served in all branches of service, and I will tell you that the latest branch beside the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast guard is, of course, the Space Force. And I had the opportunity just last week to go to Vandenberg Space Force base and meet with some of those individuals. So they're just as equally as proud of all of us who try to help them. And that'll be the new batch of veterans down the road. So with that, again, thank you, Madam Chair. Vice Chair, rather, your comments, if any.

Thank you. I don't have comments. I want to thank you guys for your testimony, but I do have a couple of questions. When you mentioned how nonprofits come together in a group or a community to try to help veterans, is that similar to like, a veteran stand down, where nonprofit organizations come together in a park or someplace so that veterans can receive the services that they need? And you mentioned another thing that said that legally only the California Veteran service officer was the one that was required or legally supposed to be there. What do you mean by that?

Sure. I'll take your second part first. So years ago, it was after civil war, there was laws put in place. After civil war, there was many folks that weren't able to, that were illiterate during the civil war and weren't able to file their own paperwork. So at that time, it was a simple form they had to fill out and basically just sign their name on it. But at that time, there were folks that took advantage of that.

So there was a law passed that dated back to there, and it still holds in place that the max you can charge a veteran for the service in filing an initial claim is $5. Things have changed since in terms of once it gets to an appeal and before the court and so forth. And that changed when there was the big backlog and the VA was trying to get more assistance pushing things through.

There are different viewpoints on how that's gone and so forth, and it's opened up a can of worms within our state and many states with folks that what they do is they bring the veteran in and they generally offer some other type of service that isn't directly claims assistance, how they categorize it, and they end up charging the veteran for that service of the claim. It's very difficult in our situation. I get calls every couple of weeks.

I'll get a call from a different county complaining about somebody, and I refer those to the Attorney General's Office and they follow up depending on the severity. Sometimes it's a local jurisdiction thing, but it is problematic. So you have folks out there trying really predatory practices, like I said, pension poaching is a perfect example of that.

A lot of among our senior veterans, folks will go into nursing facilities and so forth and really get in there with the idea of connecting them to their service connected pension and at the same time receiving a power of attorney from these folks, digging deeper into their other financial assets and so forth. Actually, one of our Prop 63 grants for Contra Costa County, that CVSO is not there anymore, but the grant that we gave him was to combat that within his county.

His Prop 63 grant, he used to go into senior living facilities to educate them on this concept of pension poaching. These folks come in there and you need to be careful, and this is their approach and this is how they do it. So it's moved along. You have to be a lawyer or a recognized agent with the Office of General Counsel within the VA to be approved for certification and representing veterans claims before the Department of Veterans Affairs, you have to be congressionally recognized.

So I don't know if any of you know, off the top of your head, it's on the back of a claims form. All the list of names they've added a few lately, but it's right around 30 different associations or so I'd say nationally, are able to legally represent veterans in every state, every state has that authority as well. And that's the CVSO's work under the state's authority.

And Ms. Murphy, you mentioned about predatory lending. It was just, or predatory taking advantage of our veterans, especially our seniors. That breaks my heart. There's a special place in hell for those people that take advantage of our veterans. So you mentioned the predatory piece, and you mentioned about how you can connect them and explain to them that you guys are the proper authority to be able to come and provide these benefits. Is there a marketing campaign or how are they reaching our veterans?

How are these predatory people reaching our veterans before you do? I mean, you have the name, the title Veterans service office. You do outreach. I know in Kern County and Tularia and Fresno, we're doing outreach all the time. You have nonprofits that you work with, Deb, and know all the things that we do to reach out to our veterans, reaching out to our World War II, the few that are there, Vietnam, the whole bit, and current conflict veterans are veterans for Iraq and Afghanistan wars. But how are they reaching people and how are they still taking advantage of our veterans? Like, what's their marketing scheme?

So basically, they go into, like you said, the nursing home. It's mostly pensions. We see it mostly on pensions, but there are a few out there that do service connected claims. But what they do is they go into the nursing home and they promise these veterans that they can get their claim done faster than I can, and everybody wants their money faster. And then they try to rearrange their assets to make them qualify for those benefits.

Because non service connected pension is an income driven benefit for veterans who serve during a wartime that are indigent and need care of another person. So that's how they get in there. And they manipulate the funds and get these additional funds so that help them get these additional funds so that the veteran is taken care of. It doesn't take any less time for them to get their benefits to them.

It's the same amount of time as all our offices, but we usually get them after the fact because they have to respond to the letter. And now these people have no idea where this financial planner went or whoever was helping them before went. They just totally lost contact with them.

I'm bothered by that. So I apologize. I know it's an informational hearing, but I'm bothered by what you said. Not at you, but about what you said. So I guess my question is, how can we help you stop that? Is there a piece of legislation that needs to be enacted that what works on the ground I don't know what works on the ground.

I don't do what you do, but what works on the ground, because I'm sure my colleague, colleagues and I can talk about introducing something that would be beneficial. I know the retirement communities are going to have a heart attack, but can we say if these people come in and meet with these veterans, they have to notify your office first? I mean, what works on the ground for you?

Madam co chair, if I may? I think several things could work. And one of the things that I think that Rhonda spoke about in the beginning in her opening statement was the increasing of penalties really holding people accountable who do these things, because I think don't want to get into a conversation about other criminals and other things. But if people are held accountable for the things that they do, it sends a message to others who are out there trying to do the same thing.

And that's kind of how they end up changing themselves. They rebrand themselves, they morph a little bit. They change a statement, they find a loophole, and then they want to move on and make money because I guess that's a thing that they want to do. I think your idea has plenty of merit.

I think another thing that could be done is that if folks are going to have access to them, then families perhaps need to be contacted, and then maybe the homes give a call to CalVet. There's a list to check. I would have to think it through instead of just kind of coming up.

I get it. I know you off guard. I do apologize, and that's okay. But I don't like what I heard is what I'm trying to get across. And I have a lot of World War II veterans in my district. Right. And Vietnam veterans. I don't think you could take advantage of Mr. Mish. I think he would probably take advantage of you. He's very, very quick witted, but I'm bothered by that a lot.

And so I just wanted to know what their marketing scheme was and if you guys would follow up with my office and let me know. And I'm not trying to put my.

If I could add just a bit.

Sure.

Because I think your first part of your question to me, I can answer that, and it answers a little bit of this as well. Their approach varies, whether they're flyering community colleges, whether they're running around at veterans events and passing out flyers directly to veterans. Whatever the case may be online, it comes from all different directions.

Okay.

The point that you were asking about in terms of this community based system of care and where the CVSOs fit into that, whether that's a standout, it's not a particular event. What we've really been successful in putting together is infrastructure within each community, meaning everyone who's doing anything related to veterans in that community knows each other and understands that the county veteran service centers are the hub of that, and there's a variety of spokes in that.

And we have Cal Vet staff in each region of the state that make sure those folks are all connected. And the stronger that community based system of care becomes, the stronger we're getting at combating this exact type of issue, because the benefit, as upsetting as it is, and as difficult it is every time we have to deal with it, the plus side of that is that the communities are getting tighter and tighter and tighter.

For instance, in your area, Deb knows all of those communities providers around her. The county veteran service officer knows Deb in that community based system of care. So whatever entry point these folks come in, someone who's part of that community based system of care picks up on that and sends that message. So there's certainly risk, and there's a period of time in there that the veterans are at risk.

But fortunately, as that community based system of care grows and becomes a stronger system, and everybody's relationships and communication becomes stronger, and even processes and procedures and budgets and all of those sorts of things have been really more aligned horizontally and vertically from the state down to the community through the county, makes our defense against that kind of thing stronger.

We do have our California transition assistance program that has opportunities that we go out and actually, like I said, the county in Contra Costa did their Mental Health Service act grant to do that in their county. But our state program, we have curriculum that addresses this, that addresses challenges around predatory practice, around GI Bill, a variety. We have a whole part of our curriculum that's predatory practices about benefit ABCD, because unfortunately, that's not the only benefit, It seems to be when there's a pot of money around, folks come looking for ways to get that money. So our curriculum in CalTAP, in our CalTAP programs, the county veteran service officers and the community based system of care take part in those educational opportunities as well. So a variety of different ways we're doing it. I think the federal law is in place.

However, on the state level, generally, it depends what line they cross, as I said, whether the Attorney General's Office jumps in or if it's a local jurisdiction thing.

Thank you.

Depending on the details.

Thank you. Thank you for that. And I don't want to say that I'm tying veterans. I was trying to figure out where you were going with the group, like a group of nonprofits coming together. The last question I had is that the Prop 63, the $1.7 million, and it's given to each county. How is that distributed? I know you said through a grant program, but how is that often?

No offense, but the Central Valley, Kings county, but the Central Valley seems to be overlooked in a lot of areas, and we have a lot of veterans. So how is that distributed? Or is it distributed or granted based on veteran population per capita? Is there some kind of criteria? Does it all go to San Francisco and Los Angeles?

It does not, and we're very careful. My assistant deputy secretary is here, and he can really get into the details of this, but this is something we give a lot of thought. It's 16 counties right now are currently granted. So it is a competitive process, but within that scoring, we take all of those things into consideration. Because you're right, you can't have the larger counties. I mean, they can be more collaborative. They have a larger support network. They have more funding to do things.

So we actually go out to some of the smaller counties, and every time Rhonda mentioned that our county veteran service officers, we have three, we're required by law to have three annual trainings with them. Part of that is the CEU credits for their accreditation, but part during that, we always, probably every other conference, we talk about the Mental Health Service act money and talk about the grants for next year and the process.

And we usually pick focus areas of what kind of the priorities of the Department and the State and the Administration. When we're granting that out, we usually pick a few topic areas that are kind of prioritized. But even within the smaller counties, if they're not in one of those topic areas, we take that into consideration. We take into consideration their population generally, because scalability is going to be huge. I mean, counties are not going to be able to compete on that level.

And we provide funds appropriate for whatever it is they're trying to do. But we're very cognizant of that challenge with our subvention fund formula. The way that's distributed is certainly that's factored in as well, because like you said, there's a big difference between Amador and Angeles county.

Absolutely.

We are very aware of that.

Well, thank you, sir. Thank you. And my apologies to the chair. My mama bear came out when I heard that you guys are taking advantage not you guys, that there are predatory individuals out there taking advantage, advantage of, especially my elderly veterans and veterans that struggle with PTSD or everything, that just are wanting their benefits, that don't think they're coming fast enough, and that's wrong. I would hope that we could address that in this body.

And I thank you for that. We'll come further. Senator Menjivar, you.

Sorry.

Menjivar, sir. No questions.

Oh, okay. Thank you. Well, let me go ahead and follow up a little bit on that. And I will tell you, because I've been around you for so many years, as I was the La County Commissioner of Military and Veterans Affairs, I worked with the County Veterans Service Officers for years, and I know the work you do. But as Senator Grove has pointed out, the people who are taking advantage of our veterans. Good point.

The people who claim to be veteran service officers, people who claim to help these veterans who need so much, and now what I'm hearing is they're even charging and obtaining funding from them. So these are crazy things over the years. And I equate our veteran service officers very much with our social workers because they sit with the veterans and they try to get them to get it out, put it on the table, and then finally it starts.

And then once it starts, it goes and goes, and then comes the path to the VA, the path to the benefits, the path to mental health and so on, and to service connected injuries if they're there. And I think the work you do is outstanding. But my comment to you is, how do we increase your numbers? That's the thing. Because to any organization to recruit and retain. To recruit and retain, how can you possibly do it when they're being competitive?

So what is your system here to recruit and retain, which is one and the other is how do you promote yourselves to the next level? The facts that you just gave us are phenomenal, and I think we've got to get that out there. It's got to be known. So then we can get additional funding down the road. So if you can comment on and some of those things I just mentioned.

So, continue the current funding to ensure the consistent veteran services across the state. If we can get more funding, we can hire more people for our offices to be able to help veterans, period. Not all of the funding that this eventual funding gets trickled down to our veteran service office depending on what level the veterans service office is in, in their Department. So those are some things that maybe need to look at. Also, if our office is not a mandatory office, our office is an office that is deemed by the military and veterans code, but it's not a mandatory office for a county to have. It's a suggested office for a county to have. There's 56 of the 58 counties have a veteran service offices.

And what kind of additional funding would you be looking for? Being realistic this next go round? We just finished this batch. In the years to come.

I'll tackle that question, Mr. Chair. When it comes to funding, as Rhonda alluded and when she said that all that funding doesn't trickle down, that's not a function of calvet with regard to what happens to that funding once it hits a county. Because I think, as you well know and the other Members may or may not know, is that we're county employees. We work for the county, we don't work for the VA, we don't work for Calvet. And so the county, although the funding as it comes down in many counties, is supposed to support the operations of the county Veteran service office, there are often times that that doesn't happen in some counties. Some counties you have a county veteran service office and they're all organized differently. In some counties, you've got a county veteran service office where the veteran service officer is a Department head and manages their own budget and has a say with the CAO and has a say with their Board of Supervisors. You have other counties where the county veteran service officer is buried four layers deep in the Human Services Agency, and all they do is look up and see the next veteran every day and serve the veteran, which is not a bad thing. But to say that the county veteran service officers are kind of organized differently, and it's not something that California Association of County Veteran service officers or I don't even believe Calvet has control over there as influence, but certainly not control. And so sometimes when the money comes down, the county veteran service office or officer does not even see that money as it comes down, even though the money is supposed to be coming to them to hire new people, go and do outreach, reach out to veterans that are homeless, reach out to veterans that are suffering from mental health issues, LGBTQ veterans, veterans from every war area. I could go on and on. I wouldn't sit here and try to tell you which counties that is that are doing that. I don't feel like that. That's our purpose here today. But I think it's important to understand that increased funding may not trickle down and end up in a county veteran service office being able to hire more people. Unfortunately, I think that some assistance with county boards of supervisors, although I understand that if I was a county government, I certainly wouldn't want somebody else telling me how to run my county. But I think some highlighting and some importance being placed on the jobs that county veteran officers, veteran service officers do within a county and the amount of money that they bring back into their accounting. When I get the annual report, which I think all of you have gotten a copy of, I usually turn to the page that talks about how much money in comp and pen dollars, which comp and pen dollars are direct cash payments that come into a veteran's bank account every single month on an annual basis and how much increased money comes into the county. And in a small county like King's, there are very few other claims that are being filed other than the claims that get filed in a county veteran service office.

The purpose of the meeting today is information of which we're getting now, and I'm going to hold hands with you. All of us, is to stand up and fight for our veterans, as we all do. But now we're looking at a pathway to get to these county Board of Supervisors and to let them know that we now see what exactly is going on on the ground, and we've got to get those numbers and show them that if they join us to get that money to start hiring more veteran service officers, look at what the outcome is going to be. The other thing that I'm concerned about is the veterans that are in the street, that are not being brought in, veterans who don't realize that granted, they have a job and they've worked for the post office or the school district, whatever, but have a service connected disability that can be proven and they don't come forward. So we have to get a lot of PR going here, and that's what I'm seeing. So we're talking about our veterans and service officers, and for the record, Senator Marie Alvarado-Gil just joined us, and these are our veteran service officers. And I equate them to social workers who are speaking with our veterans every single day, trying to get them to get into the VA system where millions upon millions of dollars go back into the communities because of their input and involvement with our veterans. We're also talking about people that are taking advantage of the system, who are not veterans, who are not authorized to work with our veterans, going into these senior homes or hospitals and getting them to sign over information that they're taking advantage of our veterans. So if you have any questions or comments, please, I'd like to give you that opportunity.

Thank you. Just like to apologize for my tardiness. I was hopping around committees. I want to thank you for being here. As a freshman Legislator, I asked specifically to sit on this Committee to bring the voice of family Members. My brother has been in the Navy since I remember, since he left high school. And oftentimes the impact of his deployment, the impact of him serving our country. I see that in my niece, I see that in our extended family as well. So for me, it's important to advocate on behalf of veterans everywhere and the impact that it has on our families as a whole. I also wanted to just encourage you in the spirit of transparency. I know we were talking about certain counties that do or don't. I'm a firm believer that if we want to solve a problem, we need to see it. We need to be able to understand it so that we can begin to solve it. So I understand not putting kind of counties on blast and getting them kind of all worked up, but let's see how we can help to mend those relationships and ensure that wherever in California our veterans reside, whether they're going back home or they're establishing another home or a community, that the services that are meant for them, the services that we have coveted to serve them, are available. So I just want to give that comment. Thank you.

Good. Thank you. Thank you, panelists. We're going to go ahead and go on to our second panel, and once again, thank you, and let's stay in touch.

Thank you. Thank you for your time.

And our second panel, I'd like to welcome and introduce everyone to James Zenner, county Veteran service officer, Los Angeles County, Rochelle Arnold, county Veteran service officer, Sacramento county, and David West, county veteran service officer in Nevada county. Okay. Thank you for being here today. And as you heard, what we're trying to do is get information. Obviously, one county different from the other, the amount of veterans in one county different from another. And we just heard the money is trinkling down different from one county to the other. But we're also concerned about some of the things that are there. We heard about the veterans trying to get their designation on their driver's license, which I've heard a lot of negative because it's got to go here, got to go there, back and forth. But now I just heard what a great way to bring in the veterans to sit them down and get them into the system. So that frustration, obviously, granted, might be there, but the benefits overall has been fantastic. So let's open it up to you. Who would like to begin?

I think it's working. Okay. Good morning, chair and Committee Members. My name is Jim Zenner. I'm the Director of LA County Department of Military Veteran Affairs. I'm an army veteran, spent some time on the streets when I got back from Iraq, and spent several years getting help from the VA myself for mental health and health conditions. And I'm sitting in front of you as a Director today. So it's proof that a lot of us veterans need a little help, rebound, and do quite well. Los Angeles County is home to 252,239 veterans according to 2020 census, with over 51% of our veterans being over the age of 65. 32% of veterans served during Vietnam era, 16.1% served during the Gulf War up into 2001, and then 19.8 post 911. The La County veteran population is 40% White, 24.3% Latinx, 16.9 African American, 8.7 Asian, and 0.9% Native American. Women make up close to 10% of the veteran population. Elizabeth Dole foundation estimates that there are currently over 120,000 caregivers in LA County alone. LA County Department of Military Veteran affairs operates Bob Hope Patriotic hall, located off 18th in Figueroa. Beautiful building built in 1925, recently retrofitted and reopened in 2013. Bob Hope Patriotic Call is centrally located in the county, has 10 floors and serves as a one stop resource Center for veterans, their dependents military, and has multiple service providers as tenants to meet the mission, including the historical American Legion post eight. Bob Hope Patriotic Call is open for walk-ins and appointments currently to see NVA veteran claim assistants who are California Department of Veteran Affairs accredited five days a week. We extend our hours on Wednesdays to 08:00 for our working parents to be able to access our services. We also accept appointments as well. LA County MVA has 45 budgeted positions, 35 currently staffed, 22 of which are veterans, 19 are accredited with CDVA, two are pending accreditation, three including myself. Ethnically, we have eight employees who are white, five who are African American, 20 who are Latinx, two who are Asian and then gender breakdown, we have 21 men and 14 women on our team. The 19 accredited veteran claim assistants are located across 14 different locations across La County and Bob Hope Patriotic Call. LA County Department of Mental Health created veteran peer access network that launched in fiscal year 2021, deploying close to 80 veteran or veteran military family Member peers across La County, which MVA co-locates with at some sites with the intent of increasing integration of those services. VPN peers work to provide ongoing peer support while linking veterans Reserve component and their families to VA healthcare, medical, housing, basic needs, employment and legal services. In collaboration with MVA veteran claim assistance fiscal year 2021 led to over 1000 referrals from VPAN to MVA for benefits. Should have been more that's on me. The integration of those two programs has been a challenge, but we continue to work closely with the Department of Mental Health to further integrate our services and to get more referrals from our DMH peer support. La County board priorities for MVA are homelessness, suicide and expanding services for aging veterans closely aligned with the priorities that CalVet rolled out at their latest convention. All these priorities present outreach and coordination challenges. Solutions for the outreach and coordination challenges include, on the homelessness side, desiloing through better intercounty coordination and deployment of resources specifically to support cities. What we're currently looking at doing is bringing all the departments the board has authored a motion for my Department to bring in all the different county departments that work with veterans experiencing homelessness, look at what we have as resources and begin putting a plan together to put those resources together and reach out to all of our 88 cities to offer veteran resource centers because we realize that some of our cities, our veterans, aren't willing to go halfway across LA County, which can take up to two and a half hours for our homeless vets who don't have the resources to have their own homes, let alone get around the county. And that's not even including those with severe mental illness who cannot tolerate being on a bus or taking public transportation. Suicide. LA County has been hard at work at veteran Suicide since about 2019 was the first board motion that was authored to look into piloting what's called the Veteran Suicide Review team, which is a suicide fatality review team composed of over 14 county departments. Our partners at CalVet, our VA partners across Visit 22, which includes Loma Linda, Long Beach and West La VA, and the FBI social media Task Force forensic Task Force to work together to identify trends for all suicide decedents that are identified through our collaboration with our medical examiner, coroner and the VA so that we can better direct our resources to intercept veteran suicide. One example in another county, I believe it was in New York, they found through their suicide fatality review that veterans were giving their animals away to local animal care and control centers. And so what that allowed that county to do when they found out that was the case is allocate resources to those animal control care centers so that they could intercept veterans who and provide support for those that are working at the animal care control. Because if you've ever had a veteran die by suicide that was on your watch or in your community or anybody non veteran, it's very impactful and leaves a lifelong impact. I'm sorry, my phone timed out. And then on the aging veteran side, we worked directly with La County Department of Aging to create a collaboration with county VSOs, county departments of Aging and VA medical centers, both Long Beach and Greater LA, to explore a task force specific to implementing a program called Veteran Directed Care. Our Vietnam vets. Because of our Vietnam vets, I came home to yellow ribbons on my tree in front of my house. It's time that we take care of our Vietnam veterans. And so this veteran directed care is an upgrade in the current caregiver program. Both GLA and Long beach VAs both support looking into funding to have the county departments of aging administer a program where social workers, once they get a referral from the VA treatment team, will go out, assess a situation, and make flexible funds available to those aging veterans so that they're able to stay in their home and not go into nursing care, not go in and out of hospitals, but age where they want to age in their homes. Both VA medical centers are enthusiastic about that. County VSOs are critical to coordinating these types of solutions on behalf of their boards. Because of our close relationships with VA healthcare, VA benefits and National Cemeteries Administration CalVet, along with our lived experience of serving and transitioning in the military. If better funded and through the support of the Board of Supervisors, county VSOs could lead innovations that lead to better efficiencies within our counties that have a direct impact on overcoming outreach and coordination challenges. I want to thank this Committee for the time today. It's been an honor and allowing me to share about LA County veteran community and for your leadership in California supporting our men and women who wear the uniform.

Thanks, Jim. And who might be up next? Rochelle?

Hi, Senator Archuleta, vice Committee chair and Committee Members. My name is Rochelle Arnold. I'm the Sacramento County Veteran Service Officer. I retired from the Air Force in 2018, daughter of a Vietnam veteran, as well as now a mom of a young airman who's about to go to Korea this year. So I've been the veteran service officer in Sacramento for about five years, since a month after I retired, and it's definitely a passion of mine to serve veterans. I retired as a first sergeant in the Air Force, so I'm very used to caring for the morale and welfare of my active duty and now transitioned over to caring for a veteran. So Sacramento has approximately 80,574 veterans. That does not include the surviving spouses nor children of those veterans in our county. We are one of those counties that is under the Department of Human Assistance. So I do not control my own budget. The money gets funded back into the General Fund and gets divvied out how it may. I don't control my own budget, so a little different than Jim's county, and I report to the Director of the Department of Human Assistance. So I don't have a necessarily direct line to my Board of Supervisors without going through my Department head first. Current makeup of my office, I'm the CBSO. I have one lead veteran claims rep who does not hold supervisory status. I have four accredited veteran claims representatives, one senior office assistant, three office assistants, and then I can get county temps as needed. And I'm working to get VA work studies as part of our office as well. That brings me to our main issue, which is the ratio of current accredited veteran claims representatives to veterans in my county is one claims rep to every 20,000 veterans in the county, which is an insane workload for my vet reps. We used to be a walk in office only, and that got to be too much. My vet reps had no time in the day to do the case management functions. When you file a claim, there's all the back end. You have to submit the documents, you have to follow those, you have to follow up with those veterans. So we're now on an appointment only basis. So they have about five to six appointments scheduled, appointments a day, which does limit the amount of outreach that we're able to get out of the office to go do. So some of the outreach opportunities that we're currently missing is looking at our homeless and at risk veterans. We have volunteers of America, nation's finest loaves and fishes, and then even our open lobby county welfare bureaus, one of which I'm colocated with. I don't have any staff to send to those places, right. So a lot of times I end up going to do the outreach, which means I take on that veteran client load as well as manage the office. We have student veteran opportunities to do outreach. There's 11 community colleges plus the CSU Sacramento campus. A lot of those have veteran resource centers which they want us to come out on a regular basis, put somebody at that location to help those veterans when they walk in the door if they need to file claims. And I just don't have the staff to be able to manage all of that. Aging veterans and surviving spouses of veterans. There's 183 assisted living and nursing facilities, nursing home facilities in Sacramento county, and we've barely scratched the surface of touching any of those. A lot of those do have a veteran program in those homes. We've been out to a couple prior to Covid, and it's a great way to reach those elderly and aging veterans and actually sit with them. We're able to take laptops out, sit with them, file their claims, get all their paperwork and be right there with them holding their hand through that process. And then, of course in Sacramento, we have Mather VA hospital, McClellan VA outpatient clinic, and then two vet centers in Sacramento and Citrus Heights. I used to be regularly going out to those vet centers and have eight appointments a day with veterans experiencing mental health and MST issues. And I just don't have the staff to be able to man all of these outreach opportunities anymore. We do what we can. I'm going out to the women's Veterans clinic out at Mather once a month now, we're getting out, back out into the community, the standouts coming up in May, so we're starting to get back out after Covid. But it's very limited basis on what I can support with the number of veterans coming in our office every day. So challenges for us are insufficient number of accredited veteran claims reps to meet the demand for services. Our office right now we only have one office in the county with no satellite locations and our office is located in the Del Paso Heights Natomas area. I was like, my brain went blank. Natomas area. So it is not centrally located in the county anymore. And if you take that into account that like Elk Grove has over 12,000 veterans, they don't want to drive all the way to Natomas to seek services with our office and then obviously the limited outreach capabilities. So I ended up getting my master's in public Administration and part of my focus for my capstone was writing a paper about the location, staffing and outreach for my office. So I did put recommendations in there. I have some talking points which I did put recommendations and needs for my particular office, which a lot of that is hiring more staff, more accredited claims reps. We need about 10, right? To get the ratio to a manageable level of one claims rep to about 8000, which is, if you look at our state average for CVSOs, that's about what that is. And then hiring a supervisor to help manage daily operations, budget training, all of those things that I'm currently doing right now. And then look at the location of our office, where are we going to put it to maximize reaching most of our veterans? And where can we put satellite locations in order to maximize contact with our veterans? And I just want to tell a really quick story about why outreaches is so important. Last year I attended, I believe it was the employment development division was holding in conjunction with the public library, an employment event for veterans. So I went to that event. There was a gentleman who came up to the table, was very hesitant to talk to us, so I kind of knew what he was talking about. So I went around the table and I kind of whispered to him, I said, were you experiencing military sexual trauma? And his eyes got very big, never connected to any benefits, was ashamed of what was on his DD 214. Couraged him to come to the office. He's now 100% disabled for his PTSD that he experienced as a result of his MST. Took me 3 hours to write his stressor statement because he never talked about it. So I had to pull that out of him and actually wrote it for him in the office and submitted all of his stuff. And now he's getting the benefits and he's enrolled in his health care that he deserves. So that's why all of us are important to reach these veterans on the ground. So thank you for your time.

Thank you. What a presentation. Go ahead, please, David.

Thank you. Chair. Vice Chair, ladies and gentlemen of the Committee, my name is David West. I am the Nevada County Veteran Services Officer. I am a marine semper five. Real quick. There's like everybody else, about 10 to 12% of our population is veterans. When you consider in the surviving spouses their dependence. Right. It reaches more into that 15% to 18%. My office is staffed with two and a half myself, plus two VSRs and a part-time temporary office assistant. So we got three and a half employees to reach 8500 veterans. I am well supported in Nevada county. Just want to. Not that they're not. The reason why I say that is because I fall under Health and Human Services Agency. Right. In order for me to survive, in order to do things, we have to collaborate. That's the way Nevada county how we operate, we consider ourselves a high performing organization. So I work with the program managers from APS, Child Welfare Services eligibility. We try to work together to solve common problems in the county. We are a recipient of the Prop 63 grant and we have used that. When we announced in July of '21 that we were focusing on reducing veterans homelessness to zero in Nevada county at that time, we had reduced our amount of homeless veterans from 47 to 29, which meant we had now entered the last mile. Right. Since that time in July, we have housed 47 veterans. We are down to seven on our list right now, with two of those signing contracts to move in in the next two weeks and only two of those people being identified as chronically homeless. Right. And in this time frame, we have reduced our time of homelessness for these people from 317 days to 117 days. In other words, we're housing veterans faster than the VA can decide claims for hearing loss and tinnitus in Nevada county. Also in July, we announced that we are going to come out with military Appreciation Week. This is part of our efforts, the post Covid recovery. We reached out to businesses locally and said, hey, during the week of Veterans Day, we want to highlight everything that happens. We got a really close relationship with Beal, so we went out to local businesses and we got 85 businesses to sign up. And they offer those discounts year round. So they're on our website. We do these things. And part of this military appreciation week is we want to highlight veteran suicide. So injunction with Military Appreciation Week, we're participation Operation Green Light, where we light our county buildings, our veterans services office, and our veterans memorial building green to highlight the need for resources in small rural counties or large counties in the state. Right. And that's how we're being successful. With our collaboration, we were able to get our numbers down. We meet biweekly with 10 agencies, including our own, where we focus on the veteran. In our business, we're taught to learn to focus on service connected disabilities. Right. But by the time they're homeless, we need to focus on the person. Maybe they have trauma that started before they joined, maybe they had trauma afterwards. If they need drug and alcohol counseling, what do they need? We're working together, pulling our resources, and our recidivism rate is near zero. While we're housing, a big barrier to what we try to do during COVID we used to have a transportation service where local veterans would volunteer their time being up in Northern California. Right. It's just an hour and a half north of where we are. But it might as well be Baghdad. There's not a lot of local resources. Right. So we drive with our local volunteers, we drive our veterans, our Low income, our elderly veterans to their medical appointments, whether in Auburn or Mather or McClellan. Right. Covid that kind of shut that down. So I'm trying to find a way to get a driver on. It's good for the mental health, the suicide prevention. Right. If they don't make it to their appointments, it's not good for them. They get extra added stress. And additionally, when we're working with our elderly and our Low income, a big barrier right now is food security. So a lot of veterans Low income are elderly, they're not able to tap into the CalFresh benefits because their compensation, their pension is held against them as an income. So not only are they getting compensated for something terrible, maybe, right. Let's use something terrible. But now it's being held against them. They're food hungry and they can't get food. So we try to overcome that. We build programs. One of our programs is we entered a memorandum of understanding with guitars for vets. Veterans can come into my office and learn to play the guitar. And after 10 lessons they're getting a free guitar so they could practice at home. Team river runner. Right. We got an organization we're able to refer them to to get them in a kayak to learn how to whitewater rapid down there. We're up in Northern California, right? Not every veteran wants to talk about their feelings and not every veteran wants to go fighting. Right. Not everyone wants to go to the gym. Some of us want to learn to play guitar, go on a hike, do something. I'm a former homeless veteran. I'm a former veteran that used to self medicate. Before I did this job, I used to sit on my couch with a shotgun wondering what I was going to do in life. I try to build pre programs to reach me because I am who we try to reach and nobody reached me when I was at those points in my life, right. So being in Nevada County, I try to be the hub of what we do, everything. And it's harder for them. Larger counties. As a small county, everybody comes to me. I am the veteran services officer. They need on me. They rely on me. And we try to build programs to reach them. And in do have I have support from the top down. CEO Alison Lehman will tell you her worst day as a county employee was when they had the town hall after we had a switch in VSOs in about 2008 time frame, right. Some of the toppest levels of my county. I have support. Yes, we need more funding. I would like to hire another VSR. Right. The challenge is eastern Nevada county, Truckee. It's really hard to get to. We do put Tracy Hart up there every other week on. Right. To go meet them. And we try to be the hub for the other counties. It's a little county, but it's the trifecta for three counties. We try to get all of them up there. Tara Ireland, she's one of my VSRs. She comes from the state-eligibility background. I have her in charge of my elderly veterans outreach population. Right. So when she's going to the elderly homes, if they're not eligible for VA federal programs, she's sitting there and signing them up for state benefits. We don't make outside referrals. Part of the specialty is being a veteran. Right. So if we have somebody that can do the job, we're going to do the job. I do worry that my employees are going to burn out. Each have their outreach opportunities. We try to be where they're at. Right. Something is going to miss. I'm missing something. Right. Either in the office. I'm not doing outreach. If I'm doing outreach, I'm not getting them in the office. But we've really tried to diversify our services online. Senator Archuleta, people have a hard time getting their DMV stuff. They can go submit their paperwork and we will get them what they need online and continue to counsel them. College fee waivers. A lot of people have a hard time getting to our office. Students can now apply online, submit their stuff. Right. We're trying to take out the gaps in services to make it easier to fill in our processes. Yeah. Thank you.

Great. Thank you all. And I can't say enough, I've said it earlier, and I'm going to continue saying it, that you are angels to us veterans who served. And thank you for not forgetting my brothers and sisters who served during that Vietnam era. And they are aging. They need more help. But at the same time, they've closed the doors, as you know, because they think they don't need help, but they don't deserve it. So I thank you for going to them. So let me just ask about your home care, and I'll go back to Jim about home care and give me some idea because now, as we mentioned, the aging, are we doing that? Are we working with the VA? Where are we looking at? I get those questions all the time.

Yeah. So the veteran directed care, it's allocated to roll out in greater Los Angeles, VA, in 2023. In Long Beach, VA, it's 2024. I don't have the dates on the rest of the medical centers across the state, but that program is specific to allowing a lot of flexible funds to be directly allocated to their caregivers and the veterans directly to meet their needs, to keep them housed. So to my understanding, if they need respite care, that's something that those flexible funds can go towards. If they need railings put in their bathroom, that's something those funds can go towards. If they need food delivery, that's something those funds could go towards. Really, who put that program on my radar was our Director of adult aging and disability. And she said that the level of care that the VA can provide through that program is astronomically higher than the level of care that they get going through our Department currently. And so I worked with her to start making the connections to the medical directors and talking.

Thank you. Our Vice Chair mentioned the fact that there's got to be more ways to help our veterans. But you mentioned CalFresh. We have a Bill that takes our young privates and E 1 2 3 and 4 that are serving that they're not penalized for having that income. And because they joined it together. Right. And then they become ineligible because they get housing. Well, we're going to look into that, too. That those are receiving VA benefits can open up that door to Calfresh. That's something we can probably look into as well. But I'm going to go ahead and go back to my Vice Chair. Any questions or comments?

Just a comment. Thank you all for your testimony. As I said earlier, I'd be calling your Senator in Sacramento, especially your new one. I think she has a heart and a passion to help address your issue. I'm not speaking for her, but I think she does. And then, of course, Mr. West. I don't want to say getting your start in Kern, county, but I'm really glad that you were able to be a constituent of mine before you moved to Nevada county and pursued your dreams. That makes me feel good that you did that, and I applaud you for being here today. And then if you guys haven't heard of City Serve, kind of reach out to City Serve. City for Serve is a nonprofit organization that's expanded tremendously over the last five years. It's a brand new nonprofit, but it has had great favor with a lot of national corporations that you can partner with to provide food assistance, to provide pillows, blank, anything that Costco has and anything that world vision and world hunger have, you can get your hands on to provide services to your veterans, especially because you're doing that heartfelt outreach. So if you can't get it from the government, get it from a nonprofit, and they're located all over the nation, and you just have to find a location that's a hub in your community. They have one in Sacramento. I don't know about Napa, they have them in Los Angeles. But basically it's just, you sign very, and I'm not promoting a nonprofit over another. I'm just saying this is a resource you may not know about. It's a app, and you have to sign a small contract that says you will not sell, barter, or trade any of the product that you get from them that is free. And then if you run into a veteran that gets into an apartment that was homeless before, and you need a bed and blankets and pots and pans and utilities and cleaning supplies, that's the biggest thing that I think the veterans, because they think that's so expensive, we give them beds and pillows and blankets and furniture and couches, and it's all brand new, but they go like crazy over the box of cleaning supplies they got. And that's kind of interesting to me, but I would suggest you do that. Like I said, there's no cost to you, but you do have to sign that limited contract saying you won't sell, barter or trade the product that they give to you. And it's about saving lives. And so City Server would be a great opportunity for you guys to.

Thank you, Senator Menjivar.

Thank you so much, Mr. Chair, new Member here. I'm so excited to be part of this Committee and so I appreciate you coming out here and sharing your testimony. Witnesses, I have two questions for you. The first one is, I'm the chair of sub budget sub three health and human services, and we heard about this new program where I heard about this new program and didn't know existed the veteran medical foster homes that share with funding be able to help a lot of our homeless veterans. And I wanted to question one, hear from you all, any preparation for that program to come about. And then my second question is, as a female veteran, you can imagine the stories we hear from our other female veterans, and there's still that barrier. I wouldn't say it's a physical barrier, but just this mentality of not feeling comfortable in going into the CVSOs or the American legions or what have you. I'm just wondering from my personal knowledge, work around that. What are we seeing? What are the next steps to get more of my sisters connected to these kind of services?

But as I hear more information come from the VA and the state around that, I plug in the necessary county departments to make sure that we're capitalizing and we're showing up to the table as a good partner and supporting them in those efforts. On the women veteran side. And I'll just go real quick. Obviously, I'm not a woman veteran, but I've worked with a lot of women veteran staff members.

And in 2018, the VA had a. Well, the US Senate passed, or the US government passed a Bill called the Peer Act of 2018, which allocated a pilot where 50 different VA sites had to employ female veteran peer support to make sure that women peer support are available everywhere women get care. I've really ingrained that in my philosophy over at Department of Mental Health. With ..., we made sure that we hired at least 40% of our women, 40% of our staff as women.

That was our goal. We hit about 37.5 on that goal. And then in my current role as county BSO, we're actively trying to recruit more women, especially women that look like the neighborhood where they come from, making sure that we're not hiring. Just all the same race, we're all the same gender. We're very mindful of the communities that we serve and looking to target higher folks that represent the communities and not different communities. So that's really kind of been our approach in LA County is being very mindful in the recruitment process.

Being a female veteran myself, I can tell you my experience of walking into Mather sometimes is uncomfortable. I'll be waiting for an appointment and get asked, oh, are you here with your veteran? I'm like, no, I am the veteran. I actually served as well, so I feel you're. I empathize with my fellow sisters. We don't necessarily wear the ball caps and the sweatshirts and all that, so we don't identify ourselves as veterans.

A lot of times my boss was funny and she said, well, I can tell you're a veteran when you open your mouth. And I was like, I don't know if I take that as a good thing or a bad thing, but for us, I have myself, my lead, and two female claims reps in my office. Mather just had the women veterans event out at their campus, and I went out there and participated in that.

They had the first LGBTQ event there as well, and I went out and attended that. So I think for us, it's just getting the word out about what we do offer that we're here to serve every veteran, not just the, I guess, stereotypical male combat veteran. And I have my pictures on my wall. So when a veteran walks into my office, they know, like, oh, I did serve as well, so I can relate to whatever veteran that comes into my office.

And I think as more women veterans are more vocal about their service, things are changing. And I know Calvette, they have a whole women and minority veterans division that focuses specifically on holding women veterans events and minority veteran events in the state, throughout the state. So there's a few events coming up, I think, in June and July for those. So it's just getting the word out that we served two or we served really not too.

We were always there and just making sure that we let other female veterans know that it's okay to come forward with your stories, that the VA is going to take care of you just as well as your male counterparts.

Yeah. So last year, I tried to have a woman's town hall in Nevada county, and I failed with great enthusiasm. Three women showed up. We had a comedy show afterwards, and just our peers showed up. And the thing was that I used all the traditional approaches that I would have for the male population, and that failure was also a success in that I learned a lot in that women veterans aren't going to go places that are catered to women veterans.

We have to do a better job of finding you where you're at. Your moms, your businesswomen, you got a lot going on. So this is where that assistance with outreach. We're trying to find different ways to find you ladies, where you're at, because as a male, it's really hard for me. It was hard enough to get one of you to go on a date with me, let alone ask you if I can help you with your benefits without looking like a creep sometimes. Right.

So we have a different challenge. Right. So we got to try and find a way to meet you and talk to you and get you comfortable. Right. And that's finding you in a situation in a place where you're at. Right. So that's where we need to go. We need to break the mold and how we're traditionally doing outreach and find new ways to find you where you're at.

Chair. Just to close.

And that's exactly what I was looking to hear, because the Chair mentioned, as a social worker, I think about you meet the client where they're at. And when I go to the women's clinic, I see the sign women peer. But in my head, at least for me, I don't have time. I can't go in. Yes, you can have all these programs at the VA and so forth, but what are we doing out in the community?

And that's exactly what I want to see more know a lot of female veterans are nurses or physicians. And what are we doing? I want to see more of the outreach in the places where female veterans are in doing programming where they are there. Yeah. Thank you so much.

Good. And next. Avocado. Alvarado-Gil. Avocado. Alvarado. Must be lunchtime. That's not the first time that's happened.

Right, well, you know, I'm running a Rolodex in my head. Like, who can I introduce David West to of my friends? Right. All right, so I'll bring it back. I want to thank you all for being here. I just want to say that I probably speak on behalf of everyone on this Committee, that our office doors, we have district offices throughout California, will always be open to veterans, and we will always be willing to drop whatever we're doing to ensure that the veteran that walks through our doors receives the services, the connections help with applications that they need.

And I hope that would resonate across both the Senate and the Assembly, because we do have the benefit of having district offices. So if you're finding that as an obstacle or you're getting that feedback from veterans, that it's an obstacle reaching information by coming into state offices, please let us know, because we could do a better job at that, of letting our colleagues know.

So, that is one, I think the other thing that came up for me in Mr. West, I serve the community of Truckee and the basin, and one thing that really troubles me is the level of extreme weather patterns that we've been seeing and knowing that we still have people that are unhoused. And here in California, I want us to hit that goal of zero veterans being unhoused, whether we have sunny beaches or we've got mountains of snow.

I know as a Legislator, we can prioritize that and not have this one big bucket of unhoused people, but really peel back the layers of onion and know that we have the resources for veterans and do that extra work. So please let me know when you have something going on in Truckee. I would love to have my team help support with that outreach as well.

So my question for all of you is, what can we do better as Californians to help eliminate the stigma around seeking help? I know that our veterans carry a lot of burdens not only from serving, but also just coming back home. I'm afraid that there is that level of stigma of asking for a handout versus a hand up. What can we do to help eliminate that stigma?

So I think for me, when a veteran comes into a veteran service office, it should say that it's there to help veterans. My office being co-located with a welfare bureau does not necessarily say that statement. Right. They have to drive through the welfare parking lot. Where there's homeless, there's drugs, there's all these things going on. It's not in a great neighborhood.

Yes, there's a sign up that says County Veteran Service Office, but sometimes they go in the wrong door and then they're in with the general public crowd, the homeless person trying to get benefits, and then they're dissuaded from even coming to my side of the building. So I think first and foremost, it needs to be a welcoming place for them to come in and get services, not maybe its own. They have a lovely building in LA. I actually went there in what, 2019?

I think early 2019. It was beautiful building. Don't expect that in Sacramento, but it would definitely be a help if we weren't necessarily co located with a welfare bureau. And it looked like a welcoming center for veterans to go in and get services that they've earned, rather than thinking that, oh, I'm going into a welfare building.

Thank you.

Well, thank you. As I mentioned earlier, I served as the LA County Commissioner of Military and Veteran Affairs, and I had the privilege to hire Colonel Smith when I was there and then later General Wong. So we're very proud of that building. We're talking about patriotic hall, and millions of dollars went into that building to bring veterans in and the community in. And it was a joint venture with the County of Los Angeles. So yes, indeed, there's a lot of wraparound services there.

But it seems to be successful because of the location where it's at. And under Jim's leadership, it's thriving. There's no doubt. But we've got to spread that to everyone because we've got counties up and down the state. And I will tell you with this in my closing is the Governor of California is behind us 150%. I've met with the Governor several times about our veterans, and he's always thumbs up about veterans. And I'm on his military council. So the support is there.

The pro tem is in San Diego surrounded by military personnel and families, and she's got family members that have served. The support is there. From your testimony, we're going to put this in writing. We're going to go ahead and be able to deliver it to the counties and to the rest of the Senate. So hopefully 23/24 and so on, we'll see some activity that will be favorable to all of you, and we're going to go in that direction. So we'll try and continue the funding.

We'll go ahead and try and make sure that our women veterans are acknowledged for their service. And we reach out across the board to everybody. And I'd like to get back to you if I can, because I think that picking up the phone, talking with some of the people we did this with, when I was, those 24 years that I was there, we had EDD. So now you go into an unemployment office and it has a separate window for veterans.

If we can do that for EDD, I think we can do it for your location as well. And everything we can do will just funnel it together. And I think we need to come together. So the Association, when you have your meetings, please invite all of us. I think we'd like to hear more together. So with that, I'm going to continue on to close and have a third panel. I think that we've got. Thank you for the information you've given us.

So our third panel and final panel consists of veterans and family Members who live in California as the most populated state in the nation and home to almost 10% of our nation's veterans. It is important that we understand that the task to come up with one representative group is almost impossible, but to have a diverse group coming together to serve our veterans population is important.

So please keep in mind that these veterans and family members are telling their own unique stories, and I encourage you to connect with the veterans in your community and hear their stories, as well as the perspective of veterans in their own world within the cities and the counties. So do we have anyone here today that is with us on that third panel? And you're welcome to come and sit up front. You're a VIP just like the rest of them. Come on up here and please identify yourself. I think we've got Joshua Rodriguez serving the Marine Corps, is that correct? And we've got Ted Williams who is a family member. Is that correct? So, please, let's go ahead and identify yourself and the floor is yours.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you, Members of the Committee. My name is Don Harper. I'm from Sacramento and I'm here to support all the good work that the VSOs have done in California. I'm also a combat service connected disabled veteran from Vietnam, served in the Marine Corps and I received my benefits 25 years ago here in Sacramento to get my claim adjudicated. Before that I was approached by a predator, a phony veteran service provider before doing my claim.

He knew my background in the service and knew I served in combat, did a lot of things in Vietnam. So he approached me to try to, he said, I can do your claim for you real quick and get you some money real soon. Well, I found out I went to a veteran service officer in Sacramento and gave my story to the claims worker. And so we identified that person.

So I avoided my claim and I got a power of attorney with the Sacramento Veteran service officer by the name of Jeff Peeler. So I got my claim in Sacramento and I appreciated that. I'm also chair of the Legislation Commission for the American Legion in California. I'm also here as a legion that we support the CVSOs in California. We do have our own service officers on our different groups and they really service the members of the organization.

So they cover about 10% of the veterans in California. The heavy lifting is done by the other 90% of the veterans in California, done by the CVSOs. So we do partner with the CVSOs, but they do the heavy lifting with most. That's the go to place where veterans get their help in California. I want to put that out there. They do a lot of good work.

A story I want to mention is that about 20 years ago in Sacramento, they were going to close down the county VSO funding. They're going to defund the program. At that time, myself, part of the veterans affiliated council, we went to the Sacramento County Board, raised some hell, made some noise, had a rally, testified we had to fire our butts off. They finally got funding back in place for the county VSO. So the county for a long time has considered veterans stepchildren for a long time.

So I want to say a shout out to Rochelle. She's done a terrific job servicing the veterans in Sacramento. She's had some challenges and she did it very well. So Rochelle, thank you. Rochelle, thank you for your work at the VSO. We also had, about 10 years ago, we had a supervisor made another recommendation to get rid of the county VSO office. So it's always a struggle to keep the VSO office. In the past, we were vigilant then, and we're vigilant now. We need to be.

So my last comment would be, I have two recommendations. Please improve the funding for the VSOs based on workload, future workload which you talked about, and please increase the funding, if you can, for the county VSOs. That subvention money is not enough money to have them keep staff and hiring more staff. So more funding at the county level, more funding at the state level. With that, I just want to say thank you for having the sharing today. Thank you for me some time to give my talk. Thank you.

Thank you, Don Harper, and thank you for your service. And welcome home. Now, I understand we have Ted Williams and Don Harper on the phone. I'm sorry, Joshua Rodriguez on the phone. Is the phone line open?

Yes.

There you go. For Joshua Rodriguez.

How you doing, sir?

How you doing? Go ahead.

My name is Joshua Rodriguez from Stockton, California. I'm a Marine Corps combat veteran. I really do appreciate all the VSOs and panel members who have talked before me, but unfortunately, I come to tell a different story of VSO, especially in fellow King County. When I got out of the Marine Corps in 2007, I had to basically come in the office to fight tooth and nail. For several times, I was denied benefits. I was turned away, like, oh, we're kind of busy today. But I didn't give up.

I was able to get into the VA initially with no service connection, but getting in. I worked my way in to get service connection. I was approached by predatory VSOs, offering different situations. Luckily, I met a gentleman from the American Legion who was able to get me in. While I wasn't a veteran treatment center, he was just volunteering. But he got me in. He said, give me information. He was in LA.

He was, I guess the state President for the American Legion claims he helped me get in. Fast forward about 10 years later, I got diagnosed with cancer through the VA. And by the advice of my Doctor, I was told to go in and say that you want to show proof of cancer and that'd be it, because now we can treat you, because there's a new act coming out. We can try to get that done.

But unfortunately, I was met with a compensation of pension appointment, even though I had been total and permanent for 11 years prior at 100%. And during this evaluation, it was quick. It wasn't any thorough like it should be. Nothing was asked about my service. And so when I received a letter saying they were going to downgrade my percentage, I reached out to my local VSO as well as my power of training, which was American Legion at the time, and everyone was teleworking now due to Covid.

So for a year and a half that I was fighting cancer, going through chemotherapy, I was downgraded at the process, but still reaching out to VSO, not getting calls back, reaching out to American Legion, both Bay Area State and national, got no response back. Once again, I was approached by another predatory claims rep who even went so far as to say that he knew me from my unit, bought up my own unit. At this point, I had gone through a terrible point in my life.

The fact that I fought so hard to get my claim, then being told I'm permanent for more than 10 years, and being told that because I now have cancer, they're going to lower my percentage because my PTSD is gone. If anything, they made it worse. And having the fact to reach out to local VSO and get no response back or no help and even reach out to my power attorney who I thought was going to help and protect me and fight for me, I couldn't.

So it was left up myself as I'm going through chemotherapy, going through nausea and body decay, that I had to go back to the VA myself and call and see what forms I need to send in. And that's not what's really happened, because I had my family trying to take care of me and I'm trying to get my claims back because this is what it's for.

I did all this, but I had a child in college at the time who was told that because this percentage is lower now, you don't qualify for Chapter 35 or the fact that I'm being told, oh, yeah, contact me. I work at the VSO, and I do, and it's nothing. Oh, it's Covid. We're teleworking right now. We can't really assist you. But I remember being down range and I had no excuse not to defend my country, so it was kind of a slap in the face.

Fortunately, I've met wonderful people in the past that they've gone to outside VSOs in different areas, which I'm trying to get back in to get my percentage back, but I'm not here to badmouth anybody or say no one's not doing their job, because I know we're all doing.

our job, but I just want to use my experience to show that there are those ones or two cases that are kind of pushed to the side for me to be told that, yeah, your PTSD is better. After me talking to a civilian Doctor for less than 15 minutes, she deemed that even when I was going through cancer treatments. And now with the Pact Act, I'm being told, yeah, you're connected for these, but it's 0%.

And if you have any other options, you can go higher. Well, it's difficult, but we need someone to walk these veterans through it as they come back, because like the gentleman said in the beginning, we all love this wonderful country. Fortunately, we do, because California has the highest percentage of veterans. The Central Valley does have the highest percent of veterans for the state. And if we want to do any good, we need to take care of one another and make sure that everybody gets their voice heard. Thank you guys for letting me speak.

Thanks, Joshua, and thank you for your service. And as we heard, we need more veteran service officers. They're inundated with cases. They're inundated with people. I know that in my district, I talked to the service officer who is at the library in my hometown, and every time he opens his door, he's got 25 people standing there waiting to meet with him. And it's not right. We need more, and that's what we're shooting for. And I appreciate your comments and testimony. And once again, welcome home. Thank you for your service. And next on the line, Ted Williams, I believe. Ted, are you there? Operator?

Mr. Chair, I do not see Ted on the line.

Say again?

I do not see Ted Williams on the line.

Okay, well, all right. Well, thank you. Then we'll go on. So thank you, everyone that would like to invite the public wanting to participate in public comments by phone, call in now. Please dial this toll free number, 877-226-8163 when prompted, please use the access code 694-8930 we would like to hear from you. The good, the bad, the ugly. We're ready for it. While they connect, we will move on to anyone here in the room that would like to provide public comment.

And I would thank you as witnesses providing your comment via the teleconference, but thank you. Moderator so let's keep that line open so we can get some calls from anyone in the public. Anyone here would like to make a comment about what you've heard today or address anyone on the Committee. Okay. Moderator do we have anyone else on the line?

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. You may press one and then zero for public comment. And that is one and then zero for public comment. And we will go to line 45. Your line is open.

Hello? Go ahead.

Line 45. Your line is open.

State your name and branch of service. If you're a veteran.

With no response, we'll move on. And we have no further comments in queue.

Okay. Well, having heard from the panels, and, of course, Joshua Rodriguez, we thank you. If there are no additional questions, Committee Members or comments.

Thank you, chair, for putting this together and allowing us to engage with our veterans. I appreciate that.

Thank you. And before we go, I'd just like to say on behalf of the Committee and the State of California, this country would like to thank you all for your service. And we certainly will acknowledge you every day, not just Veterans Day, not just Memorial Day, but every day because we thank you for your service. We've got to keep fighting for our veterans.

We have to continue telling our country that we can never bring them home without, we heard the yellow ribbons, but we need to bring them home so they know that they're loved and they're honored and we're ready to take care of them. And, yes, we've got to find the resources to do it. And it seems like we never can stop veterans from coming forward or men and women joining the military. It happens. And then when they get home, they should be recognized.

And I think that we've got to do what we can. And please, veteran service officers, we know we love you. Continue good service. Those in leadership, please reach out, recruit when you can, and we'll keep looking for the funding. So with that, ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to thank you all for being here and participating in public testimony and those that called on the phone, thank you so much.

And I'd like to tell you that if you have any suggestions, any comments, please submit them in writing to the Senate military and Veterans Affairs Committee or visit our website. Your comments and suggestions are important to all of us. We'd like to thank you once again for those who came today to the hearing. You flew out from Los Angeles, drove in from across the state. We thank you and we appreciate your participation and service.

So with that, I'd like to tell you once again that we are here to serve and represent all of you. Thank you for your patience, as it was a long hearing and this will conclude our hearing. Thank you. Thank you for being so patient. Thank you.