After several rounds of protest and demands for transparency, the Board of Supervisors got a round of applause when they voted unanimously to re-relocate the Veterans Services Office to its beloved house on Observatory Avenue in Ukiah. The decision was announced after a four and a half hour long closed session at the regular February 28th meeting.
Veterans first learned that they were being displaced by Air Quality Management just a few days before Christmas. They were installed in offices at the county Public Health building on Dora Street, less than a block away from their old location. But they remained dissatisfied with the new office, and continued to complain that they felt disrespected by the lack of communication.
Veterans Services are under Social Services, which is run by Bekkie Emery, who is on medical leave until April. Supervisors learned of the unpopular decision after the move was underway, and attempted unsuccessfully to placate veterans by offering them a courtyard and more space and various beautification measures at the new office.
Kennedy Cooper is a disabled Iraq war vet who is working at the Veterans Services Office as part of a VA work study program. He took issue with an item in the CEO report for the February 27 meeting, which stated that, “While we are still working on updating signage and the interior space, our Veterans Services staff continue to provide Veterans and family members outstanding customer service.”
“It's a great little paragraph. It's nice,” he told the board. The report is great too. But the reason I'm here is because of the issue that I have with this.” The sound of a ringing phone echoed faintly through the microphone. “I'm dialing the phone number to the Ukiah Veterans office that you all provided,” he explained. “And you're gonna enjoy this.” He held the phone up to the microphone to share a loud blaring noise. “I’d love to know why a fax number is on the CEO report, put out to all the veterans,” he said, decrying “more false information.”
Laura Quatrochi complained about the lack of a cost analysis of the decision for the move. She shared information from the agenda packet for an item about addressing the county’s budget deficit. “The regular calendar for today's agenda includes 4C,” she said: “Recommended action to approve presentation of the budget deficit plan that includes, on page three, ‘Expense management, real estate consolidations. Item 5: Move Veterans Services from Observatory Avenue office to Public Health on South Dora, for improved access and employee safety.’ This false justification lacks any credibility. The Executive Office claims potential savings of over a hundred thousand per year in realignment, whatever that is, and/or general fund. Also listed” ‘Item 9: Relocate Air Quality Management District to building on Observatory, thereby reducing county facility footprint and earn rental income.’ The board has failed to explain and submit a cost analysis and much less justified the abrupt relocation of the VSO from Observatory to South Dora. We ask the board to rescind items five and nine from real estate consolidations as stated above. Our veterans have given enough. Don't punish them for the county's chronic mismanagement of revenues and expenses as identified by the county's outside auditor.”
Dee Palleson expressed sympathy for the board, but asked them to take responsibility for decisions. “I feel that it wasn't your decision, but you're getting blamed for it,” she said, after stating that she is the daughter, mother and mother-in-law of veterans; “and you were not given the tools that you need to fix this. So I think you need to band together and insist that the information be given to you now, so you can speak to your constituents intelligently. And you can actually take steps forward to either take responsibility and tell everyone that you can't fix this, or move together as a group and fix this.”
Jacob Brown, who is challenging Supervisor Maureen Mulheren in the Second District supervisor race, told the board that the county has a financial interest in providing a satisfactory customer service experience to veterans. “There are hundreds of veterans services organizations that are vying for you to have them,” he said. “And when you don't have veterans showing up and utilizing the services at the local county office, you're going to lose that $120,000 a year that they bring in revenue to the general fund…And you're going to regret it, I guarantee you, when you see the Veterans Services Office continue to decline in visits, because vets don't want to go to a clinical environment to receive their services.”
When the board broached the deficit budget item late in the afternoon, Mulheren took her colleagues’ temperature about the veterans office, saying, “I'm just wondering if there is support by a majority of the board to move the Veterans Services Office back to the house on Observatory and work with the Golden Gate Bridge initiative to find a new location for Air Quality.”
Supervisor Glenn McGourty agreed, and shared his characterization, noting that, “This has been rolled out so poorly. If you Google how to do something poorly, this will probably come up. Everything was incorrect. You start with something as big as this with your stakeholders to see how they feel. You notify the board, because this is a pretty important protected class, basically.”
Supervisors agreed unanimously to move the veterans back, though Supervisor John Haschak noted that moving the Cannabis Department from Ukiah to Willits and back had been costly and time consuming. Mulheren provided an assurance to the vets who had remained in the chambers all day. “I do believe that they have our commitment,” she pledged; that “At this point we are going to find a new location for Air Quality and move the Veterans Services Office back to Observatory.”
Mulheren said in a text message that she hopes to provide an update about the timeline of the moves at the next meeting on March 12.
