Attorney says county has addressed issues with veterans service

Taylor County has come a long way in the past year in addressing the concerns contributed to issues related to the former veterans service office staff and county management.

That was the message from attorney Jacob Curtis of Attolles Law who has been working on behalf of the county’s insurance carriers to identify and address issues with the Veterans Service Office that led to three people resigning from the offi ce in under a year’s time.

Last January a report was made public of Curtis’ findings leading up to the resignation of former county veterans service officer Shellie Shaw. Curtis is currently investigating, at the county insurance company’s request, circumstances around the resignation of the office’s benefi t specialist last spring and specifically about how records were handled.

“Typically that is a privileged memo,” Curtis said, noting it is unlikely that a report would be made public of his findings.

In his report on the circumstances leading up to Shaw leaving the position, Curtis said he had identified some recommendations on ways to improve county operations and to try to address concerns going forward. He said he works with counties across the state and was pleased with the progress the county has made in following their recommendations.

He said he had made four recommendations to the county. “I think, in varying degrees, you have addressed all four,” he said.

His first recommendation had been for the board members and department heads to do leadership training. The county board held a special meeting for board training as a result of this recommendation.

Another recommendation was to streamline committees. He said this is something he talks about statewide. He gave the example of serving on a county board where they made a drastic reduction in committees. He said Taylor County does not have to do it that way, but over time could look to merge and eliminate some committees.

“I don’t think you should ever put a timeline on something like that,” he said.

A third recommendation was for the county to transition to an administrator form of government or at the minimum empower the county’s administrative coordinator (currently human resources director Nicole Hager). He praised the job Hager is doing and said it is important for her to be the point of contact for the county’s staff and department heads so that county board members can focus on big issues.

“I think you are making your way toward doing that,” he said.

His fourth recommendation was for the county to work on an ethics code.

“Of all the recommendations, that was the strongest one to report,” he said.

He said when the county has an actual ethics code in place it allows administration to do their job.

“In some form you have addressed all of those recommendations,” Curtis said.

“How do we bridge the gap and become team members and work together?” asked Catherine Lemke, chairman of Veterans Service Committee.

Curtis said it is important to know that the veterans service officer position is defined by state law. “That person has to carry out statutory duties and we all need to be supporting her,” Curtis said.

He said in the past there had been development of factions which led to tensions. He said there is always a balance with the oversight committees, because while they need to be aware of what the CVSO needs to run the office and serve veterans, they also have responsibility for budgets and finances.

Curtis emphasized the need to have open lines of communication between the veterans service officer and the committee.

Taylor County Veterans Service Officer Sheila Wundrow said she felt that she had good communication with the committee.

“I have a good committee,” she said. “I don’t feel I have any issues with my committee.”

Committee member Larry Peterson noted that with the issues in the past, was there anything that needed to be addressed moving forward. “I have concern about what happened in the past, I don’t care to see it happen in the future,” he said.

Curtis said there were mistakes made on both sides in that situation and that it comes back to balance and communication.

“You don’t have to be friends. You don’t have to be drinking buddies, but at the end of the day you need to know what they are going through,” Curtis said of the interaction between the committee members and the office staff.

DAV Driver needed

The Disabled American Veterans (DAV) and Veterans Administration partner with Taylor County to have a van available to veterans for appointments using local volunteer drivers.

With the loss of some volunteer drivers in recent years, the office has had to turn away people needing rides. Wundrow said that it currently goes out about four times a month because the county is down to only two volunteer drivers. She said it would probably go out every day if there were drivers available.

Wundrow said she is hoping that a change in requirements will make it easier to get volunteer drivers. She said that people are no longer required to have to get flu or COVID vaccinations to be drivers, but just need to sign off on a medical or religious waiver in order to drive.

“We have been turning veterans away because we don’t have drivers,” Wundrow said, encouraging anyone interested to contact the veterans service office to learn more about this volunteer opportunity.

In other business, commission members:

Set the time for future regular veterans service committee meetings for every other month on the fourth Wednesday at 4 p.m. The county is working to develop a master schedule of regular meetings to make it easier for board members and public to track meeting they might want to attend.

Have more frequent, regular meetings was a request from the veterans community. “It is a lot easier to have regularly scheduled meetings,” said board member Lorie Floyd.

Board member Larry Peterson asked about the time of the meeting, noting that 4 p.m. is during chore time at farms and suggested either moving it to 7 p.m. at night or 9 a.m. in the morning, however a consensus was to go with the 4 p.m. time for the meetings.

Received a report from the county veterans service officer about recent activities. She attended the state association’s meeting in Kenosha and reported on what she learned. She reported that she received her Personal Identity Verifi cation (PIV) card, which is a federal encrypted identification card that will allow her improved access to veterans records. This will be a major help in filing claims for area veterans through the office.

Received an update on the Veterans Resources Center. The formal dedication of the center will take place on November 3 at 1 p.m. It is located on the first floor of the courthouse across the hall from the VSO office and includes a number of resources including space for people to do tele-health appointments utilizing the courthouse’s high speed internet. Veterans may check out a laptop from the VSO office and the office staff will assist them. In the past month, three veterans have used the space for telehealth appointments.

Received an update on expanded service options. Wundrow said she has done home visits for veterans unable to come to the courthouse to assist with claims. She also said they are beginning the walk-in hours in Westboro which will be on the second Tuesday of the month from 11 a.m. to noon at the Westboro VFW hall. In Gilman walk-in hours are the third Thursday of every month from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. at the Senior Center.