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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES for 2019-11-26 FINAL VETERANS ADVISORY COMMITTEE Tuesday,November 26,2019, 1:30 p.m. Office of the Prosecuting Attorney (Hilo) and Kona Mayor's Office (Via Videoconferencing) Present Members Emile Wery Michael Doolittle George Sheridan Debra Lewis Isaac Nahakuelua Antonio Gaspar Kona Mayor's Office (Via Videoconferencing) Members Minoru Hanato Guests (Hilo) Felipe Sales Ex-Officio (Kona) None Ex-Officio (Hilo) Maurice Messina, Deputy Director P&R Roddy Sueoka, Office of Veterans Services Counselor Also Present(Hilo) Brittany Iyo, Secretary J Yoshimoto, Deputy Corporation Counsel Absent None Call to Order Chair Michael Doolittle called the meeting to order at 1:35 pm. Quorum met with seven members present. STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC None ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES Emile Wery made a motion to accept the minutes for August 27, 2019 meeting. George Sheridan seconded the motion. Seven ayes, minutes have been accepted. OLD BUSINESS Veterans Advisory Committee Minutes November 26,2019 Page 2 Discussion Regarding Dept. of Veterans Affairs Chair Doolittle: (Introduced topic) We all heard that we have a new person assigned to the Federal office. No name has been posted yet, no identity, no date start. Felipe Sales: He is there. Chair Doolittle: Is he? Sales: He's there. He's been with the VA in Oahu for I think he said 15 years. So, he's very well established. He has family here., Chair Doolittle: Do we have a name? Sales: Uh, you know, one of those senior moments. But he's there, he came to the office today. Very knowledgeable, he appears to be very helpful. He's got at least about another six years. Chair Doolittle: He came to hang his boots up? Sales: Yeah, but six years is good though. Chair Doolittle: No, but this will be his last assignment. Sales: Yeah. Chair Doolittle: Do we have any other comments? Debra Lewis: All I know is Ben Fuata, our VSO is planning to meet with him to work out a schedule, so it'll be mutually beneficial. They did make it in November. They said they were going to be in November, and we were skeptical, but they made it. Although he's got a huge backlog. Discussion on Veterans Cemeteries and War Memorials Listing Chair Doolittle: (Introduction of topic) Marcia Brinkley provided trying to encourage community in different areas, different organizations to adopt certain monuments for maintenance and whatever other things they can do to have fundraisers for them. Was that the purpose? Isaac Nahakuelua: Yes, so I printed up a list, 16 pages worth, I can pass it around. Wery: I think what needs to be done or what should be done, they're all over. Some are being taken cared of, some by the community. I would suggest that this committee, we can't do the work, but we can encourage organizations to adopt a particular monument. That way they'll all be taken cared of and this entity here will be just coordinating, but most of the assistance stuff is just cleaning, all easy stuff. Veterans Advisory Committee Minutes November 26,2019 Page 3 Chair Doolittle: Well just compiling a list and the second part of that would be to have someone go out and do a physical inspection of each of those monuments and give some kind of a rating for how well it's being taken cared of Then go out and get the community to adopt certain monuments. Antonio Gaspar: I took this to the Post#3 American Legion in Hilo. They told me they wanted to take care of the Vietnam War Monument at the Wailoa State Park. Mostly what they are doing right now,put flags about 50 flags and put flowers on the monument every Veterans Day and Memorial Day. The one in Kona I went to check the other day, below Konawaena High School, I believe is being taken cared of Kona Union Church and it is really clean the area. Chair Doolittle: Well, there's a rather extensive list and I don't see, some of them have an identifier on them. Some already have organizations that are looking after certain monuments already, like Emile suggested. But it's identifying the ones that aren't being looked after and trying to find groups and organizations willing to do that. But a lot of these, doesn't like Parks & Rec own a lot of these? Deputy Director, Maurice Messina: A lot of them are on our property but I don't know about ownership of the monuments themselves. Lewis: That's a good point, who's property is it on?? Messina: Well, it depends, like the ones at Wailoa it's both State and County at the same time. I think there's portions surrounding the monument Parks & Rec takes care of that area. But I don't necessarily know what's been EO'd over to us. For instance, if you look at the Vietnam Memorial at Kalakaua Park, if there's graffiti in the area, we clean it. If there's fish die off in the pond, we take care of that but that's all that my guys do. Lewis: Do you think we can come up with like a spreadsheet, list of questions, here are the things you might want to know. Is there a lead volunteer group,who owns the land or monument? Wery: If it's State or County land, they take care of the grounds but that's it. Messina: I don't want you guys to miss out on an opportunity, where we can get schools involved(inaudible). Lewis: Right, it's like adopt a road. Messina: Yes, because I don't know that there's enough Veterans Groups around. Chair Doolittle: Well no,not just Veterans groups, community groups all the way around. Veterans Advisory Committee Minutes November 26,2019 Page 4 Lewis: Like he mentioned the church, if it's being maintained we ought to do an assessment to say how well maintained is it? Messina: Well the one's that are on our land, I'll get our guys to do an assessment. Lewis: well the ones that are on your land often times they are very visible so often times you'll have graffiti, or you'll have something because you'll have people going to them. But you have others that are pretty remote. But the idea is making sure we have who is assigned, the ones that are in disrepair, I don't know if we have any like that. But it probably depends whose land is it on. Chair Doolittle: Well this list is pretty well done. It shows who owned or maintained it. I'm sure if all of them have that. Lewis: Right, but you can do that in a spreadsheet and identify where the gaps are and prioritize any effort that needs to be done. Just make sure that 1)people are aware. We just need the best source and we can update it. The more visible we make it I think people will step forward. Chair Doolittle: And as Moe said it, if the County crew, all the ones that are on County property. I think one of our missions would be to try and get an information thing out like a public service announcement or something of that nature. Or find a way to advocate through the school systems or the like for people to want to adopt a monument. Lewis: But you make it available, easily available online. Nahakuelua: Boys Scouts of America would be good. Wery: Yeah, Boys Scouts of America would be good. ROTC is another example, Hilo High School ROTC, they may want to be... Messina: the best way to do this is, because you are the Mayor's Committee, you could ask the Mayor's Public Information Officer to send out a new release a call for volunteers or something like that. Go to this website here and these are the ones we need help with. Sales: It may sound laborious to have an idea where Veterans, well speaking Veterans can go out to these organizations, schools and say hey, this is what were asking of the community. To me, the whole idea to having the community involved is that they don't forget. To give them a reason for remembering. Chair Doolittle: Well that would be a good PR campaign, is that once you identify groups that are willing to step up, we send out a couple of Veterans to go out and give a talk. Lewis: We don't want to step on the toes of people who are already maintaining it. The idea is the gap. Veterans Advisory Committee Minutes November 26,2019 Page 5 Chair Doolittle: Right, it's the gap that were trying to fill. We're not trying to step on anyone's toes. Maybe even a little County recognition. A little sign that says this monument is maintained by so-and-so. Lewis: Right, like the Hakalau monument that I didn't even know was there. Chair Doolittle: do we have any motions that we want to make to move this forward? George Sheridan: do we need one? Lewis: Well we don't want to put it out until we're tracking them. When we put together something to track it then we can put it out in a PR to fill the gaps. Chair Doolittle: The monuments that are on public lands we can have Parks & Rec give us an assessment of them. The ones that aren't, we need to identify the ones that aren't and then we should find a way to either, ourselves go out individually, split up and visit them over the next three months and do an assessment of their condition. Lewis: I would encourage us to do it like a"where's Waldo." What is the fact that you may not know about the site? We can draw up a little fact sheet that accompanies it. If any group wants to do it, they can go do it. Chair Doolittle: We can also appeal to our various VFW members that live close to these to go out and take pictures of it and circulate it back to us. So, we don't have to actually go out there and look at each one. Lewis: We have to do the assessment and keep the information so that it's self- perpetuating, sustainable. We already have a lot of things on our book. I think that raising the awareness in a way that people can take action is a great thing. We need to say that's ok to do that kind of activity. When we're at a place to publicize it, it may be our next meeting that we approve what were saying, were tracking it and give the three months for people to comment on it. Making sure were tracking it because we only want to go out there once. Then we can make it actionable, when we make it actionable, what do we want to do. Sometimes we just want to make it known. Chair Doolittle: Just having a basic assessment of each of them and who's maintaining what today. The people that live in that area, if they have a place where they can report vandalism or need, there's a need or something else. Lewis: Does anyone have an idea of a website that would help with that? Messina: Well like Marcia says on the front, talking about where she developed this from. Where she got it from. I don't know if those websites actually have more information than what she compiled there. Veterans Advisory Committee Minutes November 26,2019 Page 6 Lewis: Or even a google doc to create. I think the problem with most of these is that it's not static information. It's continually evolving. We just need to be able to monitor it in an easy way. Sheridan: is there just a basic list? Just a list of the places? Chair Doolittle: Well it may not be a complete list. Wery: I have a complete list of all the monuments in the state but the only ones that apply to us are the ones on this island. But I have a complete list, statewide. Gaspar: Like the adopt-a-highway. We do that every two weeks; it asks us what the area looks like before and after cleaning. I think we should do that, report to who is in charge, like Parks & Recreation and maybe we need trash bags. Chair Doolittle: the first thing to do is get a resource list like Debra was saying and a current status and then we can go forward with an action plan for how were going to do this and start advocating for it. The first step to try and compile more accurate information with Emile's list compared to this list then start to get some kind of report back on it. The next step we take is some kind of action to further identify the list and then move that information forward. Lewis: We need to reconcile the two. He has a monument list, this monument list. Maybe we can do that. Anyone want to do that? Chair Doolittle: Well maybe we can get Marcia to do it, she started it. Lewis: Sure, she started it. Chair Doolittle: let's try to do this so that by February we have some kind of concrete plan going forward. Lewis: I make a motion that we work together offline for the next three months with the idea to compile a fairly comprehensive list from what we know, identify what we want to track and fill in the from the data that we have. I'm not sure we'll get to do much more than that before February. That would be my ultimate goal. Wery: I second whatever you motioned. Chair Doolittle: Would you clarify that a little better. Lewis: Basically, the product will be a more comprehensive list, we'll have to say where the source was, someone physically found it, I don't know. I'm just trying to think what's the data to track. The goal of it is to ensure that they are 1) maintained 2)we have a Veterans Advisory Committee Minutes November 26,2019 Page 7 greater awareness of what we have so that people can continue to see them and continue to keep it visible. Wery: It's something you can measure that was accomplished. Most of the stuff it's all, there's no measurement to express an accomplishment. Lewis: I look at the cemetery, Veterans Cemetery which have a number of monuments at the cemetery. Wery: The monuments at the cemetery are all taken cared of, like they're power washed the second week in May. Lewis: Right, but we don't always know what they are. Like I didn't know the ship that we honor at Memorial Day, there's a monument there to honor that ship. Wery: All we need to do as an example, Cemetery I& II we know that it's taken cared of by Korean War Veterans and VFW. It's just a matter of monitoring that they are doing that. Lewis: Well inventorying them and then we know that those all fall under that umbrella. Wery: Those two organizations are taking care of that particular spot and we know it. We don't have to worry about it, it's taken cared of. Lewis: But we have more raised awareness but not necessarily the details of that area. Wery: See that's the most important thing that it's done. As far as giving accolades to the people that do it, we don't need to. That's not why they do it. Messina: I'm sorry, I have to go to another meeting, but I just wanted to say thank you to you guys. But it was great, I still have the same phone number, same email address, I'll be at the Mayor's office so there's other ways that I can help you guys out. As far as I know, Harry and I are the only two Veterans in there so I'll do whatever I can. Lewis: Thank you, we wish you well and great success. Wery: The intent is, we have all these spots here in some point in time they all have someone taking care of them and we know it. It's just a matter of if they have a problem, and there's a source they can go to, we may not be able to solve the problem. But at least we can start the process. Most of that stuff that's all minor, cemeteries I& II, we have our own power washers. That's all that's necessary, the sponsor is identified, and they are being taken care of. Then it's just a matter of monitoring it and making sure it happens and if they can't there's a place they can call back and maybe someone else can pick up the slack. Veterans Advisory Committee Minutes November 26,2019 Page 8 Chair Doolittle: Well that seems to be the immediate task then to move this forward. Lewis: And the long term one is to raise awareness that we actually have these things and that people can (inaudible). Wery: The communities know they're there. Hakalau I just use it as an example because I happened to pass by there and thought what the heck is that. I read it, World War II. Chair Doolittle: That's basically what we're talking about though, identify what they are and who's presently looking after them and the ones that aren't trying to find a way to get them looked after. Lewis: That's the urgent. Wery: We have a list of where they're at and what they're there for. Chair Doolittle: And whether or not this list is as complete, maybe you should take this list and compare them. If there are any deficiencies just make them known. Lewis: I don't know if Marcie can do it. But it's a spreadsheet listing now and then determining is there overlap, underlap, what are the gaps. Then same way with responsibilities and the different wars, which one is that for? It would be nice to find someone of who's maintaining it. Parks & Rec is probably the first place to go and see which ones they maintain. Chair Doolittle: Any of us that have an opportunity to go by one that and look at one that we live close by and jot down a synopsis of what is there. Lewis: That's what I'm saying. If we know the 10 things were trying to collect, then we only have to go once. Chair Doolittle: Other than that, do we have a motion to move this forward? Wery: We have one and I seconded it. Chair Doolittle: Can you state the motion again? Lewis: Before our next meeting, the goal is, hopefully with Marcia's lead and Emile helping, to identify the list of monuments that we have in a way to track the status of each one. What condition it's in, who's responsible, what's the memorial to? An inventory, even if we did those first and maybe the next one, we can look at putting out a public release. Chair Doolittle: We have a motion on the floor, it's been seconded, all in favor? Seven ayes, no opposition. Motion carried. Veterans Advisory Committee Minutes November 26,2019 Page 9 Updates from Deputy Director, Parks & Recreation Maurice Messina Chair Doolittle: Moe had an update, but he's gone. Sheridan: Brittany had it in the email. Gaspar: Columbaria, they started work November 12. I went up to the cemetery and they were making five things there. I saw the construction company working there. I never go last week so I don't know how far they are. Minoru Hanato: They're working on the columbarium project, during funeral days they knock off for the time that were doing the funeral and then they go back after. As far as the flagpole mount of the Pu'u it's already done. All the material was donated by Lowes, Home Depot and HPM. The job was done by volunteers and mostly by Boys Scouts, Cub Scouts and Konawaena ROTC members including the CO, Major Naki. But it's done and we will use it on Veterans Day and Memorial Day and any special day. Chair Doolittle: Sounds like a lot of volunteers and a lot of progress. Hanato: It was really great. What I failed to do on Veterans Day was to recognize everybody that participated. I was kind of under the weather plus I was doing everything else. Chair Doolittle: Well thank you for your efforts. NEW BUSINESS Discussion on Committee's Recommendation to Mayor & Council Chair Doolittle: (Introduces topic) I brought this up, it's kind of addressing our charge as a committee that we find, I didn't see anything in the records, at any point did this committee make any recommendations to the Mayor and the Council on Veterans issues and I wanted to get some discussion and guidance from Counsel on what do we do in this process of all these things we discuss, how do we distill that down and put it in some kind of advocacy recommendation document and when would it be appropriate for us to do that. Deputy Corporation Counsel J Yoshimoto: My recommendation would be, the committee draft a report basically addressing the issues that the committee feels that the Mayor should know about and take action upon. What the background is, what the issues are and what type of suggestions or ideas the committee has. Similar to what you're doing with the memorials and monuments. The committee wants to make recommendations on specific actions that the Mayor's office can assist on. The format would be a report, timing would be whenever the committee is ready to move forward with that report. How it would work is, it would be submitted to the Mayor's office and then it'd be up to the Mayor to act upon it. 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. Veterans Advisory Committee Minutes November 26,2019 Page 11 Chair Doolittle: Well the Mayor can already read the minutes. Hanato: I think we should send him what's going on that's why our advisory committee supposed to let the Mayor know on a regular basis. So, when someone goes up to him and starts making noise, he has some answers. You understand what I'm saying? Chair Doolittle: Yes, I understand what you're saying, the minutes of our meeting are available for the Mayor to read. Whether or not he actually gets a copy of that I'm not sure. Whether or not Parks & Rec wants to include him in the distribution of the minutes we can do that. So, we don't have to include him in our meetings. Hanato: yeah, I think that should be pretty sufficient for do. Then kind of highlight the subjects that are really important for him to understand what's going on. Chair Doolittle: Our Counsel has some words to say about that. Yoshimoto: Michael, you can refresh my memory, you know when you went before the Council for the Code amendment. My recollection is that the Mayor and Council were very receptive, but they wanted to hear what this group had to say about issues that affected veterans, is that correct? Do you recall anything specific that they touched upon? Chair Doolittle: No, I don't really remember the Council asking any questions beyond our advocacy. Debra Lewis was with me when we attended those meetings. My initial letter was written on June 27th , 17 and I immediately took that over to the Council Chair, Valerie Poindexter at the same time and sat with her for about an hour and discussed how I thought we should modify this committee. It was instantly very well received by the Mayor and of course we had other issues in the County, we had the lava flow going on and we had some other things going on. I was very impressed that they made that happen from suggestion to passage in six months. We modified everything, statues and codes in six months. I don't recall anyone asking any questions during the hearings or anything about issues involving veterans. Sales: One that came up a while back, the Council talked about rescinding the property tax of service-connected veterans, they pay $100 or $200 a year for property tax, they wanted to rescind that. From what I saw in the newspaper, I didn't see any other veterans group giving input or wanted to speak on that. Chair Doolittle: I don't think any veterans' groups were even notified when that happened. Sales: I don't know how that gets monitored, so that the group can advocate for whatever they think they can change in terms of what can better the budget for the County. Wery: I spoke to Councilwoman Lee Loy about that. We tried to speak to the Mayor, but they wouldn't let us talk to him, so we spoke to her. Originally it was $200 a year. Veterans Advisory Committee Minutes November 26,2019 Page 12 Chair Doolittle: That was for 100% disabled veterans. Wery: ok, then that's when one of the Council people, I forget who, Chung or whoever, he wanted to eliminate it, there was a lot of controversy about that. It was decided to advocate for, when we spoke to her,we told her keep the $200, $200 is nothing but they were talking about a spouse of a deceased veteran being able to maintain that as long as she did not remarry. That was included in what they were talking about, then they dropped it down to $100 a year. I don't know, I know it was on the Mayor's desk, I don't know if he ever signed it, but that's what it was. For 100% disabled. Chair Doolittle: those are the kinds of issues we can advocate for. When I think about what we want to report and what the County might be interested in, is how can we make the lives of veterans a little easier and better. When you're talking about disabled veterans, even if they're 100% disabled, they're on a fixed income, $35,000 a year in today's world is pretty difficult, and in Hawai`i. Wery: The only time I'm aware that a report was sent from the advisory board meeting to the Mayor's office had to do with the Korean War Memorial when they wouldn't allow us to build it on County property. So, we went to the State, now it sits on State property. To the best of my knowledge that was the only time it was passed forward, the actual results of a meeting in the last 10 years. I don't know if anything else moved forward, but there was nothing else of importance that was put forward. Chair Doolittle: I would agree and suggest that we have Brittany, when she distributes the minutes of the meeting that she includes the Mayor in the mailing list. That's one way of keeping him apprised of what we talk about. Wery: Well, that's what should happen. Chair Doolittle: Yeah, well maybe we should do that. Nahakuelua: Yeah, that is a good way to let him know that we're alive and functioning. Chair Doolittle: Does someone want to put a motion on the table? Gaspar: Mr. Chair, I believe the Mayor is supposed to have this information automatically, from the very beginning. Chair Doolittle: That may be, but if he's not we can advocate for it. We could propose a motion that from this day forward all minutes of the advisory committee meeting be forward4ed to the Mayor. Sheridan: I'm for it. I'll second it. Veterans Advisory Committee Minutes November 26,2019 Page 13 Lewis: No, I'll make the motion, you'll second it. Chair Doolittle: We got a motion on the table to do that. All in favor? Seven ayes, motion passed. Wery: I have a question, how are we going to make sure that it happens? It's supposed to be happening today, yesterday. Chair Doolittle: We don't know that it's supposed to be happening. Wery: No, the results of this meeting are supposed to go, one copy is supposed to go to the Mayor's office. It's supposed to be that way. Whether it has or not, I don't know. Chair Doolittle: Well if it hasn't, it will from now on. Wery: That's my point, how are we going to know that it's happening? Chair Doolittle: Well I'll ask Brittany to make sure she includes the Mayor on her distribution list. Whether or not he reads it or not, that's his prerogative. But you know, in making the Mayor apprised of what we talk about, that's one way of doing it. Whether or not that gets passed onto the Council it's available online, it's posted online all the time. At least you know, you can lead that horse to water, but getting him to drink it is another thing. Liability Insurance for Events Wery: You had something that American Legion wanted to bring up about their insurance. Gaspar: According to Brittany, we cannot get assistance from the Director Roxcie Waltjen and Brittany suggested that American Legion will go to Council people jurisdiction in that area. Wery: Question, American Legion had a ceremony at the Vietnam Memorial on Veterans Day. They wanted to have a firing squad and then they were told that they had to have liability insurance to have the firing squad. Gaspar: Regardless if you do firing squad or not, still you have to pay the liability insurance. This past Veterans Day, State DLNR wanted $445 for the liability insurance for American Legion to do the celebration at the Wailoa State Park. But because the American Legion cannot afford the $445, they cancelled the program. Now, this coming May 25, 2020, they wanted to do Memorial Day celebration, they'll start applying and talking to the Council people to see if they'll pay the $445 for the liability insurance. Yoshimoto: Contingency funds? County funds for insurance? Veterans Advisory Committee Minutes November 26,2019 Page 14 Gaspar: Yes. Yoshimoto: Yes, that would work out if the Council members are willing to do that. Wery: Question, VFW Puna, who pays for the stuff that you guys do? Deb? Lewis: Oh, who pays for the parade? Chair Doolittle: Is there a liability policy? Lewis: For Memorial Day, we don't have to have liability insurance. Wery: No. Lewis: For Veterans Day, we have to have it. Wery: So, who pays for the expenses that are incorporated with whatever you guys do? Lewis: the funds I get I have some County funds, and because that's mandated, I try to cover my police because Police is $2200 and the insurance is $600, I try to get the County to do that piece of it because that's mandated if we hold any kind of parade. But someone has to pay for it. So, I get some funds, well the majority of it is privately funded through donations. Sales: Is it different if they have a 21-gun salute say like at a funeral do they have to get liability insurance for that? Lewis: I think that's the new change. Wery: In order to have a salute, blanks, always blanks, you have to get a permit, you have to go to the Police Department to get a permit to do it. If you're going to do it on State property, it's a different ball game. You still have to go through the Police Department to get the permit to do it. Lewis: Yes, that's still true. But I think today,just like for us, we had to list, for us to park at the State parking lot, we had to put them on our insurance. Wery: Yes, from day one, from the first parade you had to have insurance. Identifying the County and the State. Lewis: Well whatever it was before, now you have to list the specific offices. Chair Doolittle: I'm kind of dumbfounded as to why the insurance... Veterans Advisory Committee Minutes November 26,2019 Page 15 Hanato: Can I say something? I do the Military Honors, when we do firing outside of the cemetery, I notify the Police department, Fire Department, I even notify businesses in the area, so everyone knows what we are doing. Very recently we did one at Yano Hall for a fallen Veteran, I called Parks & Rec, Brittany and she called me the same evening letting me know that the Director is okay with that. But I let everyone know, including Police Department and Fire Department what we are doing, where we are doing it. Lewis: So, what you're saying is that you didn't trigger the requirement to have insurance to do it this time. Hanato: We've been doing it for 20 years and I didn't know we had to have insurance. Lewis: Well we're not certain but in our case, we were triggered by our request to have any kind of support or use, we're required to have the insurance. Wery: If you're on State property, you have to have a Special Use Permit. Chair Doolittle: Well I understand that, but I could send out an email and say hey were all going to get together and meet at the monument and 100 people show up and I don't need insurance. What is the difference requiring you to have $400 worth of liability insurance merely because you're going to...? Wery: If you're going to apply for a Special Use Permit you've got to go through DLNR for that, they require that. That's the State's policy. We did that for the dedication because we were going to put up tents, we weren't just going to meet there. Chair Doolittle: I kind of feel like this is conspiracy on the part of the insurance companies to give us all that we have got to fund their operations for some reason. Wery: No, it's always been a fact, here in Hilo. If you're going to DLNR and you're going to have a firing squad, you had to have insurance. If you're just going to go there and have a little ceremony, they don't care. But we got a Special Use Permit because we were going to put up tents and occupy the parking lot. But we didn't have to get insurance because we weren't going to have a firing squad. Gaspar: The State DLNR wants American Legion to have liability insurance regardless of whether or not were going to have firing squad or not. (inaudible) Wery: I think there's some confusion on that. Lewis: Can we (Counsel) get some clarity on that? Yoshimoto: With DLNR, yeah, we don't have any jurisdiction on that. You have to go to State. Veterans Advisory Committee Minutes November 26,2019 Page 16 Wery: I think there's some confusion there. I'll tell you this. With the guy that's running DLNR, you don't go up and tell him anything. You go up there and ask him. If you go and tell him, the answer is no. Yoshimoto: who is the guy? Wery: Dean. Yoshimoto: Wow, I just saw him this morning, Takebayashi? Wery; Yes, but you don't go up and tell him something. Chair: Oh, I know. We've had some really drawn out issues with our Housing up there on Kawili Street for our Veterans clinic site. DLNR was very difficult to get through. Lewis: Every time you have an activity, you have to cover the extent of the activity that you're doing. Wery: I think there's a misunderstanding between the two parties because we've never had any problems and I've worked with DLNR for the parade, I haven't had any problems. But like I said you do not go there and tell him; you go there and ask him. Lewis: I don't know what changed, but it did change policy, it changed for us. All I did was have to write a letter, get the gate opened, tell them all we were doing was parking in their parking lot. Now it's different, the gate will open for you but if you're going to use any area in our park you have to get insurance for that. Anyway, I think what we need is clarification from DLNR on that for the type of activities. Let's say that County can waive, it's hard enough to get someone with blanks to come with weapons and do it for you. There are enough hoops for them to jump through to have possession of that. It seems to me that if were going to have that we also need, I agree we need to notify everyone and get the permit, but to force them to have to pay the $500 to do that, it seems too much. But anyway, DLNR... Chair Doolittle: It almost eliminates the services from happening. Lewis: It does, for them. Wery: It's real simple, all you do is, you have a fundraiser, you pay the thing and it's done. It's that simple. Lewis: True, or you waive the requirement. Or you have the official governing document, whether it's State or County, they say they'll waive it for those ceremonies, those particular ceremonies. Veterans Advisory Committee Minutes November 26,2019 Page 17 Gaspar: Anyway, we get a quote prior for how much it costs to have the program at Wailoa State park either you fire the weapon or not, still they want you get the liability insurance that costs $445. American Legion can't afford that, so they cancelled the ceremony. Lewis: Who gave you that document? Gaspar: I print out from my post#3. Lewis: Yeah, but who sent the document to you. Gaspar: From the insurance company. Lewis: Yeah, but why did you get the requirement? What triggered the requirement? Gaspar: According to the American Legion Post#3 in Hilo according to the State DLNR you are required to have liability insurance. The insurance agent gave us a quote, $445 regardless if you fire the weapon or not. Lewis: I don't know if that's reasonable or not. It seems little excessive. Chair Doolittle: It does but you can't get liability insurance policy for anything less than that. Which is the state of the insurance industry more than anything else. Lewis: Emile's is the expeditious way; you pay it and move forward. But they can't pay it, but they have to find someone who will. Sales: It's disregarded, the Veteran presence. We become like any other organization, which I don't think we are. Chair Doolittle: I agree with that. If they want to continually to put that monitor out there, thank you or your service and we support the troops and yet were going to make you pay, a nickel and dime thing, then you're disregarding the whole monitor thing all the way through. I'm tired of it. In some ways, Veterans are a lot of ways but then their disrespected in many more ways. Nahakuelua: Is there a legislation issue, State legislation where Veterans groups can be recognized? Sheridan: I don't know if that's a legislation issue. I mean it's basically DLNR rules. Chair Doolittle: that could be an executive action on the part of the Governor. Sheridan: I know when I was working this liability thing was always an issue. Veterans Advisory Committee Minutes November 26,2019 Page 18 Wery: It's always been an issue. Liability has always been an issue because nobody wants to be held liable. It's an issue with everything. Sheridan: Who's going to get hurt from a blank? Chair Doolittle: Right, or who's going to get hurt when 100 people gather for a memorial? Lewis: Well, we won't solve it today, but I will say that I always want to know what triggered it. We had a lot more requirements this year for the parade. Sheridan: And we're looking at a list of things to send to the Mayor, this is one of them. Yoshimoto: I can ask the question. Lewis: That would be great, if you could at least ask the question, did something change? Were we just not adhering to something in the past? Was there a new person in the office that didn't understand? Sometimes it's the craziest result of why. Yoshimoto: I'll ask the question, it's just sometimes be aware that when you ask the question, you may not like the answer. Lewis: Well we're prepared that we have to get insurance now. I'm certainly when we get our thing, will say ok, well how much more will it cost if I add that activity on the day of. Yoshimoto: I'll follow up. Wery: You've always had to have insurance for the parade, and you had to have on the insurance the State and the County, both. Yoshimoto: Ok, I'm sorry, so what changed? Lewis: Their understanding of having to pay for liability insurance for a separate early morning ceremony that they start on the day of the parade. Yoshimoto: So, that's over and beyond what Emile is saying? Lewis: Yes, cause that's the parade. I`ve been doing now, five parades, but the idea is in all the five parades, I've never had to list the offices, even though you said, whatever I got from the insurance people covered it. But this year was not good enough. It had to go back three times and it took three weeks to get the paperwork fixed to meet the need. What happened is, American Legion asked if it was ok, I said ok. Then they found out that they had to have special insurance for it. Veterans Advisory Committee Minutes November 26,2019 Page 19 Yoshimoto: So, Antonio's one,just so I clearly understand, in the past he had no insurance requirement? Lewis: They got the permit and it didn't trigger the insurance requirement. Gaspar: We got the permit but needed to have liability insurance. Lewis: This time, but not last time. Gaspar: that's why I tried to talk to Debra to see if the parade insurance could cover. That's why they wanted to do early in the morning Lewis: But when they told me it was after the third time, I had to make the change and they were not very responsive. It was too close to the parade. You thought you could get the permit on their own, but they couldn't. Yoshimoto: It doesn't sound like anything changed. It just sounds like that's what they do. Lewis: Well they did not have any liability insurance before. They just got a permit to hold the ceremony. Last year they got a permit. Gaspar: last year we had to pay $325. Lewis: Oh well I'm mistaken. Never mind. Chair Doolittle: Then there was insurance required before, it just went up? Gaspar: Yes, last year we had to pay $325. (laughter) Wery: Like I said, when you have weapons on State property, you have to have liability insurance. Lewis: Erase that whole last section. Chair Doolittle: We're not going to make any more progress on this. Discussion on Dept. of Veterans Affairs— Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC): Structural Deficiencies Chair Doolittle: (introduces topic)I understand that in the move, maybe Roddy can help me out with this one, I understand that they moved part of the CBOC center, and then they couldn't move the second part because they had a structural deficiency or something. Veterans Advisory Committee Minutes November 26,2019 Page 20 Sueoka: they're almost finished moving it though. I think the behavioral health was still up there. So that was the only section that was up there. But that was because they didn't want to move part of the folks, they wanted to make sure that everyone moved at once. They didn't want to move two or three. But I heard it's ready. They're all moved up to the Mohouli place already, so that's all taken cared of. Chair Doolittle: Just a little update, we had a request from Veterans Administration for an RFI on our clinic site. We furnished them a complete all-encompassing report on our land site, traffic studies, zoning and the like. They're scheduling a site visit sometime in the next three months we believe for their procurement organization to come out and look at our proposal, site,parking and the like for a permanent clinic CBOC site. That just happened here a few days before our Jazz and Blues Festival. We're waiting for the VA to announce when they're coming. It is a promising development because we've had absolute silence from the VA for the last eight or nine years. It is a positive move forward to identify. Part of the problem in them moving from the hospital site to this site just reinforced in the VA that they need to move forward with a permanent owned facility. We identified and met their requirements it's a 22,000 square foot facility potential. Ours was originally designed at 10,007 feet but there's a second-floor option to give it that 22,000. But anyways, that's a positive development that just happened and after eight years of pushing this. It's nice to have some movement. Where we go in the future is still up in the air. Ongoing Veteran Homeless Problem & Housing Crisis Chair Doolittle: (introduces topic) Sheridan: Do we have any idea of how many Veterans are actually homeless? Chair Doolittle: No, and I don't know where we get that information. Roddy might be able to help us with that. Does the State have any idea? Sueoka: I didn't get anything in our last report. I don't know how we can. I can put something out to see. Chair Doolittle: Well I know about six or eight months ago; I got a notice from Senator Hirono's office and they were advocating they had documented that they homeless population was reduced by 5.8% over a three-year period. That was probably from 14, 15, 16 or 15, 16 and 17. Wery: Is that island? State? Chair Doolittle: No, this was overall. Wery: National? Veterans Advisory Committee Minutes November 26,2019 Page 21 Chair Doolittle: Yes. National and I don't know where they got that number from. But I just wrote them back a note, suggesting in that same period of time that 22,000 Veterans had committed suicide and how did that affect the reduction in the homeless population. Of course, I got no reply. No one wants to reply to something that challenges their premise. Then I read another one that said over a seven-year period that they number of homeless Veterans had been reduced by a rather large number but in seven years that like 100,000 suicides. I don't know if we actually have any kind of metric measurement of Veteran homeless in the State of Hawai`i or the County of Hawai`i and how might we find that. Yoshimoto: There's an article on Hope Services Hawai'i, I'm just looking real quickly it says here, Veteran homelessness decreases by 3% it looks like it was done in April 2019. I can look for numbers as we speak, because they do a homeless count every year right? Chair Doolittle: Well I was wondering who would do that kind of demographic information. Sheridan: Who does that? Chair Doolittle: Hope Services, that's that private Lewis: And they just got that huge endowment, grant. $2 million from Amazon. Sales: they go to the (inaudible). She goes around a lot. We do a homeless stand down and we do that Tropical Care thing every year and she targets homeless. We've been doing this now for five years consistently. Almost every year the number of homeless veterans doesn't number more than a handful. We get more plain old homeless people coming through and getting the stuff that we're putting out. Sheridan: I was curious how many actual Veterans. Sales: Yeah, because the Veterans, they stay out there. They don't com4e in and say I'm homeless. They're mostly there by choice and they do their interacting whenever they want to. They don't necessarily get themselves counted. Chair Doolittle: So, there's no way to actually find that information. I've heard that before, it's probably one of the hardest things in dealing with homeless veterans' issues is not only do you have a huge component in mental health that's involved with that but there's this desire not to be identified. Sales: Yeah, the ones that get counted are mostly the ones that have the mental health issues. The ones that don't have that mental health issues hit or miss to catch them. They're out there and they know what they're doing out there and they're ok being out there. Veterans Advisory Committee Minutes November 26,2019 Page 22 Sheridan: Is there any homeless in the outlying areas? They're mostly in the major areas, Kona, Hilo. Sales: There used to be a lot in Oceanview area, Glenwood, those areas. We see them come in, they'll come in to get benefits to get service connected. They'll go back and when they need something, they'll come back in. Sheridan: Yeah but are they homeless or just living out there? Sales: Living out there. Sometime when you talk about homeless, they make a differentiation between being homeless and houseless. Wery: You got a colony in lower Puna called Black Sands. Full of them in there. Sheridan: yeah but are they homeless or just living out there? Wery: They're squatting, going from house to house, friend to friend. You see um between the first and the fifth at Malama Market. Lewis: One thing I wanted to bring up if I may, I was over at the VFW on Kona side yesterday and what happened is, the Commander has someone from Veterans Court that he mentors and heard of the issue, apparently the person in Veterans Court they have some housing that had been designated for homeless and was living next door to someone who was pretty much on their own because they passed away and no one knew for about a month. But it was a Veteran and had only been a Veteran for about a year. But their accommodations, what he was telling me is that their accommodations moved umm in, at least on the west side. He had music, he had a moped that he got a loan on, took um off the street,put um in this place. VFW heard about it only because of the Veterans Treatment Court guy. They ended up trying to find the DD214 and today they're doing a service for him at West Hawaii. But what I wanted to bring up is there is an office in Hilo. I don't know if they manage both the east and west side,but they track those who pass who don't have any family members here. He didn't have any family members here on the island. That commander did a lot for that family to get closure. There're reasons why they break off from their family. The idea is what it reminded, when we had a service lately was the fact that there's a person that knows this list and who do they share this list with. If we don't know there's someone that's passed and needs to be buried, we don't necessarily get the word on that until late. What I'm wondering is the connection between the reason we have the cemeteries is to honor the remains of the Veteran and their life and it makes it very difficult when you don't know who doesn't have the family members. There's a woman I know that tracks that, that's her full-time job trying to find out about these Veterans. But who is that shared with? It makes it very difficult for anyone to respond in a timely manner. Veterans Advisory Committee Minutes November 26,2019 Page 23 Chair Doolittle: It seems like there's a lack of information on the repository of information. Where do we find this kind of information and how do we use this information to help us? It's like the housing. Lewis: It's a case by case. Like this Commander, he's doing this on a case by case basis. Chair Doolittle: Right, and there's no one to be preempted about this kind of stuff or proactive about trying to find that information beforehand. It's always after the fact. Lewis: Right, and at least expedite it. At least when they're made aware of it, we can do something with it. Sheridan: Some of these guys that's how they want to live. They're not really hurt. They have some money. Wery: Yeah, they made a decision to live a certain way. Then they have to suffer the consequences of their decisions. It's all about choices. Lewis: But it is a Catch 22, like some of the programs I'm familiar with in Washington State cause the program may be where you can't get housing unless your off drugs and you can't get off drugs unless you've got housing. There're opportunities there that I wanted to throw out there. Chair Doolittle: In the old hospital up there, up there, up the hill, they just opened a homeless shelter in the old Hilo Hospital. I understand that that's also going to be expanded. They opened up with 25 beds, but they have the ability to house another 50. Wery: they're going to remodel the rest of it. They just remodeled a portion. It was the old Hilo Hospital, then it because the Peace Corp. Lewis: Is that the one by Rainbow Falls? Wery: Yeah. That was the original Hilo Hospital and when they built the new hospital the Peace Corp went in there. Now it's going to be a homeless shelter, but they only remodeled one portion of it. Does Kona have a VA center like here in Hilo? Sales: Yup. Report on Cemeteries Sueoka: I don't have any update on the cemeteries. I didn't get any. ANNOUNCEMENTS Chair Doolittle: Does anyone have anything else to add, any announcements? Veterans Advisory Committee Minutes November 26,2019 Page 24 Lewis: I just want to thank everyone for making the parade amazingly successful this year. Everyone pitched in, Maricar was there, Roddy your team there, Emile with the different groups you're a part and supporting us financially. It was awesome. Thank you all for being there. We got a lot of good feedback. Hoola Farms has said that's been the best publicity they've had to inform people about their organization. I always look to the parade as educating each other on what everyone is doing to help our community. We couldn't have done it without this team, it was absolutely remarkable. As an advance, i8 want to announce this here, the Grand Marshall for next year, maybe you've had it before, it's the 70th commemoration of the start of the Korean War, so the Grand Marshall will be the Korean War Veterans. We'll go from there. If you'll accept that, talk to your crew. Wery: Yeah, I'll talk to them. I have a suggestion relative to Hawai`i At the time, I was talking to Mike about it, the World War II, because of the situation, the 100th battalion and the 442nd, they suffered a tremendous amount of casualties they didn't win the war in Europe, but they helped. When the Korean War broke out all the units in Japan were at half strength, they weren't trained, the equipment was all raggedy. In order to get a regimen to Korea, the regiments were at half strength so there was a crisis for troops. There was a color sitting in Schofield Barracks that had been the occupation fort in Korea that was called the 5th Regiment the colors were sitting in Schofield because it was dissolved in Korea and were being sent to be stored in the states. They never got sent out. When the war started, they activated all the National Guard by individual, all the reserves by individual and stuck them in the 5th they took clerks,jerks, bottle washers and put um in there. They formed that regimental combat team gave them about two weeks training and sent them to Korea. It was all Hawaici. Within a year it was no Hawaici. They had the highest casualty rate of any regiment in the Korean War and because of the 5th RCT per capita Hawai`i had the highest casualty rate in the Korean War. They bled; they should be the Grand Marshal. Lewis: Do we have anyone left from the 5th RCT? Wery: There's one or two left. Lewis: Could you talk it over to them and see if that's how you want to do it? I'm happy to do that. I'm ok with having them all because there aren't that many anyways and we'd have a bus for them as well. Wery: They need to be recognized. Chair Doolittle: Yeah, recognize them but bring in the rest of the Korean War Veterans as well. Lewis: Thank you, I don't want to take up anymore time. Veterans Advisory Committee Minutes November 26,2019 Page 25 Hanato: Can I say something? I want to thank Parks & Rec for Veterans Day to do the function we have up there. They also helped put up the tent for the band and all that stuff. Most importantly they let me open up and close. Outside of the County I'm the only one that does that, I guess they trust me with that. I'm usually the last person to come out of there unless they have the gate code. Chair Doolittle: Yeah, that's another thing, I got a call from Carolle Brule-Wi8lson about wanting to have her name removed from the sign. She just didn't want to get anymore calls in Las Vegas about the West Hawai`i Cemetery. Hanato: I just wanted to thank the County. NEXT MEETING The next meeting is scheduled for February 25 at 1:30 pm. Wery motioned to adjourn the meeting. Lewis seconded the motion. Chair Doolittle confirmed meeting adjourned at 3:10 p.m. Respectfully submitted, 3riouvvy rya- Secretary