The truth about veterans services in Amador County

Jason Mulford from Victory Village speaks at the Ione Veterans Memorial March April 26, 2014.

In today's Amador Ledger-Dispatch, Pioneer resident LTC Henry H. Arnold, III (retired) published a letter to the editor titled, "Veterans resources in Amador" criticizing the Amador County Board of Supervisors for threatening to "put approximately 20 Veterans and their families out on the street" by not providing sufficient support for Veteran support organization Victory Village. This threat is not true. Victory Village and the County HAVE gotten into some heated arguments, but at no time were any vets in danger.

Over the past few months, I have spoken to Veterans ServicesOfficer Terry Sanders, Nichole Mulford from Victory Village, and Districts 3 and 4 Supervisors Theodore Novelli and Louis Boitano respectively. Here's the scoop....

Victory Village opened in March 2012 to provide housing, education, life skills and physical wellness to military families. The role of the Veterans Services Officer is to work closely with accredited veterans organizations to fulfill more administrative-type needs such as claim filings, benefit counseling, and case management. The two groups complement each other, but do not overlap.

Victory Village got in a brouhaha with the County a few months ago because they were filing benefit claims that are required by law to be completed by an accredited officer, such as VSO Terry Sanders. When these claims are filed through the proper channels, veterans are assured their cases are handled properly, and the County receives subvention funds to offset the revenue loss from providing exemptions from paying some of the property taxes. Additionally, Victory Village opened a business without securing building permits or use permits, which are required of ANY organization - for-profit or non-profit. They even wanted to provide alcohol and drug rehabilitation, which would require additional permits and licensing. The County made them come up to code.

On Dec. 10, Victory Village requested the Board of Supervisors to approve its application for an Emergency Solutions Grant with HUD and HCD. The BOS asked them to come back with a formal application so they would have some actual documentation to use to make an informed decision whether or not to approve the application. The Mulfords did as requested, and on Dec. 16, the BOS approved the request.  

As of this blog, all of the Board's concerns have been addressed and are now in the process of being rectified. Victory Village IS open for business. Veterans and their families will NOT be thrown out on the streets.

Unfortunately, District 3 Supervisor Theodore Novelli - a Marine veteran who served in Vietnam and is currently an active member in good standing with the American Legion - is taking a lot of heat from TSPN TV Programming and Marketing Manager Mike Spence who wishes to disrupt Novelli's campaign as he seeks re-election this June.

I have never met Spence, but I have known Novelli since he first ran for office in 2006. I may have not agreed with every decision he has made, in fact, I have been angry with him on certain issues, but overall, he is a good man with a heart of gold and it breaks my heart that anyone would talk smack about him. His other challenger - Lynn Morgan (the outgoing Upcountry Community Council president who led the fight to save the Pioneer IGA store) - is NOT engaging in mudslinging just to win an election. She is taking the high road and I think that's a good strategy, especially in D3. Let us not forget 2006 when Novelli was originally faced against mudslinging competitor Erik Christesen. Novelli won, despite the negative campaigning.

What is truly sad in all this is that veterans - who have served our country honorably - are caught in a political battle over services designed to benefit them, not the people fighting over the D3 chair.

Update April 29, 2014: Jason Mulford from Victory Village supplied the following edits:

We promoted the usage of the US Department of Veteran Affairs online self-serve Veterans claims filing system; Ebenefits.gov.  We encouraged and had a computer that Veterans could use to file their own claims through Ebenefits.gov.  After meetings with various Government officials (local, state and federal) and reading a VA OIG report on Ebenefits.gov we now encourage all Veterans to file claims through Terry Sanders first, and then create an Ebenefits.gov account to monitor the claim with Terry being their accredited agent.  I found that it was in the best interest of every Veteran to use the CVSO while applying for benefits from the VA.  In addition we now require as part of our intake that all Veterans visit Terry Sanders office for assistance.

We did obtain a County Building “Demo” permit, but there was some confusion whether a Use Permit was required.  We argued that under SB 2 we didn’t require one, in addition the County allowed “Halfway Ranch, Inc. (HWR)” to operate a transitional housing facility at the same location for nearly 4 years without a Use Permit. Amador County Behavioral Health even contracted with HWR.  Victory Village is a Transitional Housing Facility (CA H&S Code 50582) and is certified as a Sober Living Environment, for Veterans and their families. We are not a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center; we send Veterans that need such services directly to the Mather VA Hospital and then pick them back up for transitional housing and supportive services at Victory Village. 

The application was complete and the BoS did not approve our ESG grant application’s Local Certification;  2 votes in favor (Oneto & Novelli), 1 vote against (Boitano) and 2 absents (Plasse/Forster).  Final of 2-3 votes in favor to not approve Victory Villages application, this cost our local community $68,000 to help local homeless Veterans.

The BoS did discuss that we were operating illegally and referred to County Counsel whether or not to allow us to operate.