MINUTES for 2019-11-26 FINAL - Laserfiche WebLink

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Veterans Advisory Committee Minutes November 26,2019 Page 10 Chair Doolittle: We're pretty much mid-way through the term of this committee and it's just something I thought we would want to talk about and at least set in motion what is it we should be doing. So, when we get into the final year of the seating of this committee, we can actually draft something that we can send to the Mayor, recommendation from our discussions. I would hate to wait until the last year to start talking about this. These meetings they go by so fast, the year goes so fast and were not going to meet again until February by the time we actually get around to drawing these issues up, we're going to be towards the end of next year. Gaspar: Can I recommend something? We going tell the Mayor or the Council people we can say that all veterans will have so much discounts when you go to the gasoline station. They'll say show me your veterans' card and I can give you a discount. Like in Honolulu certain restaurant, certain day, they give you discount. Can we do that here in the Big Island? My driver's license shows I am a veteran. Chair Doolittle: I'm reluctant to say that we were in a place to advocate for the County to advocate to private businesses to give Veterans a discount. I think that's kind of outside our Wery: The County can't do that, because if they do that for me who's a veteran, what are they going to do for George who's not a veteran and the County is supposed to represent all of us. That's just how I see it. Lewis: Right. Not that you can't get the same outcome,but that path may not be the best. Chair Doolittle: What I was thinking was that what were advocating for, for veterans is we affected how you get your ID cards. That happened because we put that information out. But it's like our monuments or public service announcements, when we're talking about the suicide problem, or homeless veterans or what the County can do to make some kind of an initiative that helps solve some of these problems or at least identifies these problems and looks toward, maybe there's grants or state funds that the County can apply for that can affect some of these problems. But when I'm thinking about a report to the Mayor and the County, it's actual things we can advocate for. We can't get involved with private businesses, that's between veterans' groups and businesses. Wery: When Home Depot opened up, they offered 10% discount to veterans with your ID card. That forced HPM to offer the same. If Home Depot would not have done that HPM wouldn't have done that, that's competition. Chair Doolittle: Right, that's not something we're going to stick our fingers in. Hanato: You're going off the subject a little bit. I think every meeting we should send a report to the Mayor so that he knows what's going on, on a regular basis instead of sending a notice at the end of the year.