MINUTES for 2019-08-27 FINAL - Laserfiche WebLink

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Veterans Advisory Committee Minutes August 27,2019 Page 14 Lewis: they just haven't had the formal certification. Did you want to comment on anything there, Ben? Fuata: Yeah, he is correct. Those guys are more than qualified. The certification is that you have to number one go through a background investigation check. That gives you authorization to look at the personal identifiable information as well as medical records. You also are representing them so your kind of bound legally to them. Are they bound to you? Only as good as the POA is, tomorrow if they want to change it, they can submit the Power of Attorney and change it to another service organization. Wery: Not that simple. Fuata: They're not committed to me. What I am is, once I get Power of Attorney, they allow me to get access to review their paperwork, not only me but all of my VA to include National. If they have issues and they go up I can call Galuchi and those guys to ask for information and to also provide backup in the event. In this case, my backup would be Johnathan if these guys were going on trial or went up for an appeal and they needed representation. By giving Power of Attorney to a service organization we then bring in our lawyers as an obligation to support that. With Mr. Montague and Alan, they couldn't do that because they're not certified, and they couldn't commit to the VFW because they're not certified. Basically, they would assist with these guys and gals with putting in the paperwork but then they would have to give them the paperwork back. Those guys then would take that paperwork send it through the mail, certified mail and push that through. What happened is because they did not declare a service organization, sometimes, I don't know for sure, their paperwork went to the bottom of the pile. If they were to choose DAV, which I think in most cases during that time they were using DAV through Soto or the other guy that they had, Ryan, used DAV and gave them Power of Attorney, so then DAV would then act on their behalf when it came to Regional in Oahu. What these guys were, was a through put operation to get the paperwork done. They were very effective. Emile is correct, they were very effective. Lewis: Ok, can we move to the last issue here? Doolittle: Yup. Handicap Veteran License Plate State Authorization Lewis: The handicap license plate. I know you wrote me a beautiful note on that. Would you like to summarize? Fuata: Well the bottom line right now, Hawai`i and Minnesota are the only two states, the only two states that don't offer handicap license plate. It may vary by state to state on the laws, but bottom line is I can only speak of the states that I knew which California and Texas are. But in Texas if you have a disability of more than 50%, they would then, you take that letter, go to DMV and DMV would award you a disabled veterans license plate. In the state of Texas, they don't put the national handicap sign (wheelchair)what they