VETERANS AFFAIRS COMMISSION

City and County of San Francisco
Mailing Address: S.F. Veterans Affairs Commission
City Hall, 1 Goodlett Place, Room 051
San Francisco, CA 94102

February 14, 2017 SFVAC Meeting Minutes

 

The meeting was called to order at 6:00pm.

Roll Call:

In Attendance: Bill Barnickel, Victor Oliveri, Angela Jenkins, Dwane Kennedy, Raymond Wong, Kim Flaherty, David Chasteen, Mike Maffei, Kelsey L. Campbell, Stephen Noetzel, Kevin Miller, Ann Weeby, Dottie L. Guy, Deborah Dacumos, and Jeff Marshall

Absent: Scott Joiner (excused)

The Commission strength is currently at 16 (fifteen) sitting commissioners with 1 (one) Mayoral seat open.

Agenda: Motion to approve agenda by Kennedy, Barnickel seconds. Passes with all commissioners present.

Minutes: Motion to approve made by Noetzel, second by Kennedy. It is passed with amendments: the addition of the voting results and a typographical error.

Public Comment:

Nicolas Lopez of University of San Francisco ROTC returns as our intern.

Ron Mendoza with the Fil-Am Legacy Society will be holding a race on April 8^th for the commemoration of the Baatan Death March.

Matt Brower of the SF VAMC is a Veteran and a Business Manager for Mental Health. VA needs to coordinate better with mental health and is coming to us for coordination.

David Walton; retired Air Force officer and is interested in the commission. 

Agenda item 1 in New Business was moved up to accommodate for time.

Emily Cohen and Nicole McCray-Dickerson spoke about the initiatives to end Veteran Homelessness. They presented on Homes for Heroes. They distributed flyers about HUD-VASH and a link (add link) to resources for getting services. There is a flexible housing fund through Hand Up to help mitigate barriers to housing. VP Kennedy requested that we get numbers on homelessness in 6 months. Currently, we have 203 Veterans seeking housing that are chronically homelessness (this number is over the last 2 years). This doesn’t include the numbers taken at the Point in Time survey taken in January 2017. There are 87 Veterans looking for housing with HUD-VASH vouchers. Patrick Thompson is the Housing Coordinator for the VA in San Francisco. He can be reached at 415.489.3302 or Patrick.thompson@va.gov.

Officer’s Report

President: Nothing to report.

Vice President: None

Secretary: All documents were sent on time.

Bataan Death March: Ron Mendoza and Bill Barnickel spoke about the Anniversary of the Baatan Death March. He spoke about the run that was mentioned in public comment and this is a nationwide event.

The 2017 Commission photo was taken. After, David Chasteen, Kelsey Cambell, and Victor Oliveri introduced themselves as new Commissioners. They were voted in by the Board of Supervisors on February 14, 2017.

Discussion about the goals and plans for the VAC in 2017:

Wong: would like to see a continuation on Veterans education and would like to continue following up on Veterans related legislation.

Barnickel: would like to continue having more job fairs and continue working on issues about elder abuse.

Chasteen: would like to work on homelessness and justice reform.

Kennedy: serve as VP and continue the flow we had, advocating our work to the BOS and Mayor, a paid Secretary (ha!), staying on target with the housing numbers, the Veterans Day Parade.

Maffei: improve attendance of Memorial Day event and Veterans Day Parade.

Campbell: Interested in learning more about the gender issues in the Veterans community and the gap in the military and Veterans justice systems.

Olivieri: would like to strengthen outreach and improve relations with the War Memorial Trust.

Dacumos: would like to continue recognition of POW’s and Fil-Am Veterans and Veteran homelessness.

Jenkins: Happy to be back

Noetzel: would like to get more involved with issues with the County Veteran Service Office leader

Miller: would like to advocate more for elderly Veterans that are more prone to homelessness and opioid use reduction.

Guy: would like to help where she can.

Weeby: quick wins with social media (outreach), and workforce development

Marshall: would love to help with social media and bringing in more speakers, and would like to help bridge the gap with civilians and those who served.

No Veterans Related Legislation

Announcements

After Honors Report and moment of silence, the meeting was adjourned at 7:03.