Veterans’ and Military Affairs Advisory Board
New Mexico Veterans’ Memorial
March 20, 2014
Minutes
I. Meeting Called to Order by Chairman Roger Newall at 9:07 am
a. Present: Chairman Roger Newall, Vice Chairman Archie Garcia, Ken O’Keefe, Louis Tafoya, Steve Overman, Steve Asher, Brian Leen, Mandy Dykman(PM) & Diallo Dphrepaulezz(PM)
b. Absent: Pat Gaston, Elise wheeler
c. Absent Pending Members: Gary Zura, Caroline Blanc
d. Guest Present: Alan Martinez, NMDVS; Rey Seva, NMDVS; Justin Roman, NMVIC; Anthony Garcia, Sr. Affairs
II. Approval of Minutes from February 19, 2014
a. The February minutes were accepted.
III. Public Comments – No Public Participation
IV. Old Business
a. Albuquerque Employee Coins
i. Steve Overman: He was asked to take Roger’s list and find out who the individuals are to send coins to them. Will identify as Active, Inactive, and Retired – what command they were in. There is also a sheet that shows Days Off and Briefings Hrs. for each command for shift and teams with days off and hours. 107 have been undelivered. Have picked up a couple of new Firemen.
ii. Have been talking to the new Chiefs – when graduation ceremonies are done Roger will approach them the day prior and distribute coins.
b. Hiring Preference
i. NeoGov – National Advertised Application Process – has some difficulties. Numbers that are reflected are skewed because you can have the same person in a number of different categories. Still looking into this
ii. Only two categories that are reliable: number interviewed and number hired.
iii. Roger shared a discrepancy in relation to the handout; handout included numbers not identified: Of Vets Interviewed 20% of people were hired and of Non-Vets Interviewed should show 46% of people were Hired. These numbers are very significant.
iv. Outstanding is 12.62% of 206 Jobs were filled by veterans.
v. Cabinet Secretary Tim Hale and Roger will encourage this program out into the system. Roger will attend Commanders meeting at Clovis in April to promote this program.
vi. Key Statement- we want qualified Veterans out in the work field to reinforce the value of hiring veterans.
vii. A concern for Veterans leaving or retiring for Military is that they will not make a lateral shift into their work field and expecting the same pay grade.
viii. In relation to the same handout clarification was requested on numbers reported: 1255 is number of references (but not necessarily veterans) compiled. 12399 is the same as above. Number cannot be statistically equated to anything reasonable – it is already a composite number. A person could be part of the referred category, interview category and the hired category. HR has been approached about this but they’re unsure as to how to approach it.
Q&A:
Question: When did Mayor Berry launch this? Response: June 12, 2013
Question: Do you have a total number since then? Response: No – two different data bases
Question: What were you using before? Response: An Internal system.
vix. Roger reported he would continue to look into those numbers.
Quote: Statistics are only valuable if you understand what the numbers behind are and what point is being made.
c. Membership
i. Elise is possibly stepping down from the Board, was asked to send a letter to make it official.
Comment was made: Kristen Barden has been approached and was informed to contact Roger.
ii. Roger shared that Caroline informed him that she would not be able to make it and did not hear back from Gary. The four pending people are a concern.
d. Projects
i. City Transit Veterans Ride Program – The announcementt was scheduled 28th of March 2014 but has been changed to April 11th, 2014. The debate lies whether it should be effective the following Monday the 14th, 2014.
Question: What time? Response: 2:00 pm
Question: Location? Response: Mayor’s Office
1. Invitations will be made and distributed. Those present at the meeting were encouraged to attend Press Conference to demonstrate support since it was fostered by attendees.
Question: Can you go over how this will work?
2. The proposal allows anyone that has a plastic VA medical card the opportunity to use this in lieu of purchasing a Bus Pass to board the City Bus, Sun Van if individual qualify at no charge.
3. If individual has a card this allows him to go anywhere in the city.
4. Also good to those outside the city that have card.
5. Appointments have not been fulfilled due to lack of transportation – waste of a good resource.
6. In same category – these are people that have difficulty getting around the city.
7. This is not for the Veteran population at large mainly because there is no way to validate that they are veterans. With this approach the city is out of the verification process. The VA will take care of the cards.
Discussion ensued related to State issues in relation to having “Veteran” put on Driver License and how it is being verified.
Comment: This will encourage individuals to enroll at VA Hospital. Roger stated that this is a concern with VA stipulations for enrollment (income).
8. Once this is in place, it will be an adjustment with those involved (city, transportation dept., VA, people). Just waiting for response/results and possibly makes some future changes if necessary.
Question: Do you know if other cities have this in place? Response: No one in the state. Las Cruces and Santa Fe are in discussion. Chicago has Free Para Transit for qualified disabled, San Francisco has reduced Para Transit Fees, Gainesville has Free Para Transit, Duluth Para Transit. Albuquerque will be the first Across the Bus Program. We are dealing with the Veterans’ Hospital needs across the board not just a specific group; we are not limiting this service to disabled only.
9. Roger commended all those that initially broached this concern that needed to be addressed back in December. The positive outcome of this including the Hiring of Veterans has been that we have been able to do this with Policy Change and not Ordinance. Neither of these two major concerns had to go to Council for approval.
Question: What happens when Mayor Berry’s term ends? Response: We’re hoping that this will be so engrained it will be a permanency including the hiring process.
10. For Para-transit the VA Card will only be for the Veterans and possibility their care giver.
Discussion ensued related to topic.
11. Follow Up on Service Dogs: Roger stated that when drivers are informed that when individuals identify dogs boarding the bus as Service Dogs nothing can be done or questioned. Federal Regulations state that if the front of the bus is being utilized by individuals with disabilities or Senior Citizens (non participants) and an individual with a Service Dog is also seated in that area, the dog handler can be asked to relocate. However the dog handler can refuse to relocate and there will be no repercussion.
12. Somewhere along the line there has to be guidelines/standard; what is the covering? What does it say? What is the color? This is a real problem because many colors are being used for this representation and they all make mention of what type of service the color is for.
Comment: One of the Co-Founders Jim Stanick and Director of Operations Mark Valvo – mentioned that they have Federally Recognized Certification.
13. Many organizations that deal with dogs are Federally Recognized but may not all be Certified.
Question: Why doesn’t the VA become actively involved?
Discussion ensured related to subject.
V. Setting of Future Meetings – April 16, 2014 at 9:00 am at the NM Veterans’ Memorial
VI. Adjourn – 10:15 am.