AGENCY TESTIMONY
Recommendations for improving VAB effectiveness
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This chapter outlines several recommendations to enhance the effectiveness of the Veterans Advisory Board (VAB) in New York City.
- Implement a staggered term system for VAB members, with one-third of members transitioning on and off the board each year, aligned with the fiscal year.
- Address the lack of timely appointments to vacant seats and reappointments for current members to ensure all seats are consistently filled.
- Support the merger of the VAB with the VA's New York City Community Veterans Engagement Board (CVEB) to increase synergy and effectiveness.
James Hendon
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In light of this, we would like to voice some recommendations that we believe would increase the effectiveness of the VAB further.
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Right now, members of the VAB serve 3 year terms.
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Start and end dates for the members have no rhyme and reason.
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They are not uniform they are not uniformly staggered.
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In a perfect world, each year, 1 third of the VAB's members would transition on and off the board while 1 third transitioned off.
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So 1 third transition off, 1 third transitions on, or at the discretion of the mayor and city council speaker, existing members would be reappointed.
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Given 13 members, this equates to 4 members rolling on and off during year 1, 4 members rolling on and off during year 2, and 5 members rolling on and off during year 3.
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The start and end dates for members would match with the start and end dates for the fiscal year.
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New York City's fiscal year begins on July 1st.
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Streamlining this process would ease the administrative burden and further increase the efficacy of the VAB.
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Another problem that the VAB faces is a lack of timely appointments to vacant seats and a lack of timely appointments when needed for members retained in current seats.
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In my time as DVS commissioner and my time as a member of the Veterans Advisory Board for 2 years before that, dating back to 2018, I've never seen the board current on all of its appointments.
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I've also never seen all of the seats on the board actively filled.
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Even today as of this testimony, the family member slash caregiver seat appointed by the council speaker has not yet been filled.
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It's been vacant for years.
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Consistently filling vacant seats would allow the VAB to maximize the diversity of its viewpoints, leadership, and opinions.
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Finally, we support current efforts that would have the New York City Veterans Advisory Board double as the VA's New York City Community Veterans Engagement Board.