REMARKS
Recommendations for improving VAB operations and budget
2:15:11
ยท
47 sec
Council Member Holden discusses potential improvements for the Veterans Advisory Board's operations and budget, emphasizing the need for a functional budget and dedicated staff support from the Department of Veterans Services (DVS).
- Holden suggests determining an appropriate budget for the VAB, potentially ranging from $500 to $5,000
- He recommends having dedicated DVS staff to facilitate and work with the board
- The council member acknowledges that these improvements would require increasing DVS's overall budget
- Holden stresses the importance of making conditions better for board members to ensure a functional board
Robert Holden
2:15:11
But I'll I'll I'll hear recommendations from you and from the VAB about what would be a functioning, you know, a functioning budget that they could have.
2:15:22
And it could be, you know, $5,000.
2:15:25
It could be it could be 500.
2:15:27
I don't I don't know.
2:15:28
I don't know what that would number would be.
2:15:30
But I agree that we should have staff on DVS to just facilitate and work with the board because they're they're stretched now.
2:15:39
That would that would it all goes back to increasing the budget of DVS, which if we did that, we'd at least have a fighting chance to have a very, very functional board.
2:15:50
But you can't have that when you make it tough on the board members.
2:15:55
Yeah.
2:15:57
And they show up and they don't even get a glass of water for
Joe Bello
2:15:58
a bottle.
2:15:58
One of the things, just to point out real quickly, one of the things that, before I left the board that had started to be discussed because remember, we we going into the pandemic, everybody went on Zoom.