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AGENCY TESTIMONY
Response to specific scorecard recommendations
0:32:35
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106 sec
Commissioner Hendon provides specific responses to the scorecard recommendations and offers recommendations to the City Council for supporting veteran initiatives. He addresses various areas including service delivery, digital government, and measurement analytics.
- Agrees to publish short and long-term plans that align with existing reporting mechanisms
- Emphasizes that the new VetConnect NYC platform will address many digital government and analytics recommendations
- Recommends including Local Law 37 veteran identifier questions on Council constituent intake forms
James Hendon
0:32:35
In the spirit of giving and receiving feedback, three DVS recommendations to the city council follow.
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One, please include the local law 37 veteran identifier questions on constituent intake forms in your offices.
0:32:47
Those questions, paraphrasing, are, have you or any member of your household ever served in the US armed forces, and do you consent to being contacted by the NYC Department of Veterans Two, please require all nonprofits funded by the council to deliver veteran programming to interact with DVS.
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Engaging us allows DVS to amplify the nonprofit's veteran specific events, services, and offerings.
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And three, the spotlight brought by the support and this hearing to veterans issues is always welcome.
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Many pieces of legislation have been introduced by the council members to address veterans issues.
0:33:20
I'd like to briefly turn today's spotlight on to two such pieces of legislation.
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A is intro number six eighty five.
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This would, among other things, legally create a veteran leadership advisory program to educate veteran owned businesses, enter veteran owned business enterprises about city procurement opportunities and support such business enterprises during the procurement process.
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DVS does this now through our veteran business leadership association, much like local law 40 of 2024, which codified our agency's digital services platform VetConnect.
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Intro six eighty five would codify the veteran business leadership association into law.
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The intro number six eighty six would amend the membership of the street vendor advisory board to include the commissioner of veteran services or their designee, and it would increase the number of speaker appointed members to seven to include a representative of the veteran community.
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These two pieces of legislation address specific issues that veterans raise with DVS repeatedly.
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I welcome the opportunity to work with the council on these bills with a shared goal of positive and meaningfully impacting the veterans community in our city.