Veterans Affairs Commission (VAC) Approved Minutes

Tuesday February 13, 2018 @ 1800 
Location: Room 416; San Francisco City Hall

President Kennedy, Presiding

 

Call to Order: Meeting was called to order by Vice President Kennedy at 1800, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

 

Roll Call: 
Present: Barnickel, Campbell, Chasteen, Dacumos, Flaherty, Kennedy, Noetzel, Olivieri, Wong, Wyatt (1). 
Excused: Maffei, Miller, Marshall, Joiner, Weeby (5).

 

Review of Meeting Agenda

Motion to approve agenda by Kennedy. 2^ND by Barnickel & Wyatt. Unanimously passed.

 

Review of Draft Minutes of SFVAC meeting of January 9, 2017.

Noetzel makes motion to amend the 2^nd page of the minutes reflecting the result of the 2018 election. The minutes should reflect the tally of votes, the list of who voted and how they voted. 2^nd by Chasteen. Unanimously passes.

 

Call for Public Comment

No public comment.

 

Officers’ Reports: 


President

President Kennedy recognizes Commissioner Wong and Commissioner Barnickel for perfect attendance (2017).

 

Vice President

VP Chasteen allocated the VP report to commissioner Campbell who reported to the VAC on housing and HUD abuse: Some landlords are exploiting veterans who receive HUD benefits. Recently, the Judy Wu (and husband) case resulted in a payment to the city of $2mil for enforcement cost (Wu had illegally converted 12 properties into multi-unit housing resulting in a slew of illegal and unsafe living conditions for veterans). The sum will go towards resettling the affected veterans.

 

Secretary’s Report :

Minutes and agenda posted. Please submit ethics questionnaire to Secretary Wyatt.

 

Old Business: Review of annual report from 2017. Special thanks to Commissioner Campbell. VP Chasteen makes motion to commit the report to record. Campbell seconds. Commissoner Noetzel wished to read some corrections into the record after the deadline: on page: “item C on page 2” has a typo of “3 new commissioners,” it should read 4. Motion to approve by Kennedy. 2^nd Chasteen (all Commissioners approve save Notezel).

 

New Business:

Commissioner Goals and Objectives:

Wong: Review of VFW legislative goals/ jobs & homelessness, Barnickel: continue with job fair/ elderly abuse program, Wyatt: District Supervisor 1 project (homeless/ housing), Kennedy: supporting the Commissioners through leadership, Chasteen: desire to present policy changes to BOS and Mayor, Oliveri: flags for War Memorial Veterans Building/ joint commission meeting (w/ Aging)/ desire for there to be a forum in the War Memorial Building for Mayoral candidates, Campbell: contunie to give updates on Washington and court rulings that affect veterans, Notezl: VAC to advocate for relocation of WWI memorial (obscure location) to somewhere at the Veteran’s Building/ relocation of Country Veteran’s Service Office to improve numbers since they  are down since they moved to Van Ness) Intro to Human Services Department. Dacumus: elder abuse/ aging issues/ VA nursing. Flaherty: WW1 Memorial relocation/ veterans in economic hardship/ grant writing and female veteran issues.

 

2018 photo taken by observer.

 

Announcements

BOS Communication:

None

 

 

Veterans Related Legislation: 


None.

 

Honors Report and Moment of Silence

Commissioner Barnickel read the honors report and asked for a moment of silence.

 

Adjournment: Meeting was adjourned at 1827.

 


Minutes prepared by Secretary Tristan Wyatt