MINUTES for 2021-11-30 FINAL - Laserfiche WebLink

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Veterans Advisory Committee Minutes November 30, 2021 Page 2 Welch: If you want, I will read the letter to you. If you haven't received it then I need to state it to the committee right now. Deputy Director Hiraishi: May I interject at this point? So sorry, Mr. Welch, this is Michelle from Parks and Rec, and we did receive the letter and the situation is that we just received it on the 26th of November so it didn't make it on time to get onto this agenda, but we will have it on next month's agenda. Welch: Yeah, no problem. I hand carried it in and I need to state this immediately. Chair Doolittle: Ok, go ahead. Welch: Ok, this is dated November 24, 2021, to Mayor Mitch Roth, County of Hawaii, 25 Aupuni Street, Hilo Hawaii 96720. Regards removal of DAV as a voting member of the Mayor's Veteran Advisory Committee. Aloha Mayor Roth, this letter serves as our official notice that the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Organization cannot be a Voting Member of the Hawaii Mayor's Veterans Advisory Committee and that we must remove ourselves from the Committee effective immediately. Under the National DAV Bylaws, Article 17.3 Other Associations, "Absent the written approval of the National Adjutant, no subordinate unit or affiliated entity may take or permit any action that suggests or indicates that the subordinate unit or affiliated entity endorses, is endorsed by or is associated with any non-DAV organization." We cannot find any documentation that a request was submitted to the DAV National Adjutant for approval to represent DAV on the Hawaii Mayor's Veterans Advisory Committee, nor can we find an approval from the DAV National Adjutant allowing any DAV Member to Represent the DAV on the Hawaii County Mayor's Veterans Advisory Committee. Without this approval we must resign the DAV from the Committee. It goes on further but with regards to the recent changes in section, Bill 60, Chapter 15, Article 7-6, section 15-62 of the County Code and I'm quoting the section where you have made changes to the membership and tenure and I quote, section b seven or more of the members of the committee must have served in the United States uniformed services. We have a problem with that because under the definition of uniformed services we found in 31 Unites States Code 3701 A7, Uniformed Services means the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, the commissioned corps of the Public Health Service, and the commissioned corps of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The definition of veteran is found in 38 USC 101 (2) the term "veteran" means a person who served in the active military, naval, or air service, and who was discharged or released therefrom under conditions other than dishonorable. Individuals who served under the commissioned corps of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the commissioned corps of the Public Health Service are not veterans unless they also served in the US Military. Please consider while the DAV must withdraw as a voting member, it does not eliminate our membership from sitting on the committee as At -large members or concerned veterans and have their voice and opinion heard, of course this is as long as they do not claim to represent DAV. Lastly, I plan to attend all future meetings as a disabled american veteran and as a resident of Mountain View here on the Big Island. So, I must state to the three