Expanding Veterans' Services

In 2009 the Grand Jury determined that our Amador County Veterans' Service Office (VSO) had a need to provide Veterans with expanded services such as vocational rehabilitation and work study.  At that time, our Supervisors  "agreed" and officially acknowledged this need in writing.  For whatever reasons, these services have never been provided, and our VSO is still not an approved site for work study or vocational rehabilitation.

On 8/13/13, our Board of Supervisors attempted to resolve a great deal of community divisiveness and confusion between our existing County Veterans' Service Office and the newly established services offered by Mr. Jason Mulford as the Executive Director of "Victory Village" Amador. The Board acknowledged that "one size does not fit all," and that they did not want to preclude any other organization from providing different types of services, hoping that all organizations could work together. Unfortunately, Veterans' Service Officer, Terry Sanders also made it clear that he would not work with Victory Village until they stopped assisting Veterans in filing claims for benefits.

Supervisor Novelli made a motion that was unanimously carried, solely to support Amador County Veterans' Services and Veterans' Service Officer Mr. Terry Sanders, and encourage all Amador County Veterans to work with Mr. Sanders when assistance is needed in filing claims or other related issues.  This motion may have gone too far, considering that the VSO does not offer much help in the area of  "other related issues," and that the County cannot prohibit Victory Village or any other organizations from providing assistance with claims. Hopefully, this Motion will never take the form of a written Resolution that could be too easily misinterpreted as seeking to limit County veterans to one organization only to the unfair exclusion of any other qualified organization.  If it is truly about Veterans, I would think they already realize that the County supports its own service offices, and that they should obviously check in with the County Veterans' Services Office to avail themselves of the VSO's assistance.  However, with the increasing need to help all Veterans, but especially recently returning Veterans, with vocational training, housing, legal and medical assistance, in addition to educational opportunities, I would not discourage the use of Jason Mulford's Victory Village or any other locally available resource that is dedicated to helping Veterans.  What if other organizations like the Wounded Warriors Project, Operation Mend, Swords to Plowshares, or the Call to Duty Endowment were similarly to offer their services locally to Amador County Veterans?  Would we want them to feel like they are being treated as second rate?  In my opinion, it is unnecessary to take an official action that in any way would discourage a critically needed, independently funded, non­profit, 100% volunteer based local service dedicated to Veterans that does not require County funding.

Furthermore, such an exclusion contradicts the Board's long­standing "hands­off" policy of not weighing in with regard to discriminating against one business over another.  As Supervisor Novelli keeps the gate wide open for a Dollar Store to take over Buckhorn and negatively affect all other local businesses, he did not seem to have any problem making the Motion to restrict important Veterans' services from being provided through Victory Village.  I do question the necessity of such a judgmental action, especially a motion by the Board that works directly against an individual citizen, veteran, and local community non­profit organization that is fully certified to operate in the County, like any other business.

The unemployment rate for Veterans nationally is over 10%, and every day, 22 Veterans take their own lives and countless others are in need of help. Veterans and their families deserve as many services as can be provided from all available sources of assistance, including those offered by Victory Village. Some Veterans may have their needs met fully by the existing VSO. However, others may require the additional help for housing, vocational training and other resources not being provided by the our county VSO.

I may be running the risk of alienating certain constituents by questioning Supervisor Novelli and the Board's motion to support only the County VSO, but voters have a right to question whether or not a candidate will speak out when something is not ok.  They need to judge for themselves whether that candidate will be able to separate issues concerning politics from the real impact that a Board decision may have on individuals within our community. 

According to a recent letter from Eric J. Almquist, President of Oroville Economic & Community Development Corporation, that provides services similar to Victory Village:

 "If the opposition from Supervisor Novelli is that he is worried about the influx of Veterans to Amador County due to increased services, he is misinformed.  There are many issues that go into location placement including the Veterans preference, jobs, family, previous residence, etc. If the Veteran is a criminal, there are restrictions from the criminal justice system.  If the Veteran is suffering from substance abuse, the recovery program controls the Veterans activities.  These clients are strictly supervised.  So the negative impact on a community from a Veterans service organization is quite small.  Even if influx were a negative factor, it should be weighted against the benefit of services to the existing Veterans in the community.  The recovery program brings with it new jobs and revenues.  Supervisor Novelli is mistaken in that a recovery program brings with it negative influences.  In our Oroville program, we have yet to have a complaint from a neighbor on one of our houses.  Since opposition to increased services because of an influx of Veterans is such a weak argument, it is difficult to even dignify it with a reply."

Eric J. Almquist

President

Oroville Economic & Community Development Corporation

 (530) 532­640