Supervisor questions removal from county committee
Vox Pop
As a now former member of the Veterans Service Committee and I believe the only veteran on the Taylor County Board I thought it might be helpful to clarify what we were trying to accomplish at the Veterans Service Office. Mr. Metz’s comments on the radio last week seemed to only create more confusion. He left the impression that there was talk of closing the Veterans Service Office and the veterans needs were not being met. That could not be further from the truth. There never was talk of closing the office and talking with fellow veterans they are very happy with all the assistance they are receiving from Shellie and Nikki. The Veterans Service Office is one of the few offices at the county level that does not regularly serve the general public. It is there to assist veterans and their families with veteran services, benefits and other veteran programs.
What we were trying to accomplish was protect veterans privacy and also protect the county from possible fines for HIPPA violations and possible law suits. The Veterans Service Office is located on the first floor of the court house between the elevator and the main stair case with the bulletin board for posting all county notices outside the door so there are many people that pass by on a daily basis. When the door to the office is open it is very easy to overhear conversations whether in person or be telephone from the hallway. Other offices that fall under HIPPA law such as Human Services and the Health Department have a reception area where clients can wait and still not hear personal conversations going on in the office. The Veterans Service Office is made up of an office of the Veterans Service Specialist that you would enter when you come through the door and a very small office off that in the back for the County Veterans Service Officer. Adding a reception area would be diffi cult with that layout so the simplest and most cost effective solution would be to close the door and have you knock before entering or call ahead. The veterans all seem to agree that is a start to the solution of the problem though others in the court house strongly disagree. Many other Veterans Service Offices in the state are not located in the court house and maybe it is time to start looking for a better location for ours with a better office set up.
I hope that the new Veterans Service Committee members will be able to keep veterans needs in the forefront and keep internal county politics out of the Veterans Service Office.
The day after February 16th Veterans Service Committee the powers that be at the county board (none of who were at the meeting) met and disagreed with the actions of the committee so they decided to reorganize the committee removing all current members and replacing them with hand picked successors without calling in any members to ask questions about their decisions or the approval of the full county board. We received a phone call and a letter stating we were no longer on the committee thanking us for our time but no reason given for our removal.
What concerns me is that a few people have absolute power to overrule committee decisions without question. What is the point of having committees made up of representatives of all the citizens of the county if the final decisions can be overruled without reason given by people elected by only a few districts? It could make some committee members make their decisions based on pleasing the people with the actual power so they retain their committee appointments rather than representing their constituents. I believe that it is time for the county to have a person that is elected by all the citizens of the county, not someone appointed or hired by a chosen few to be in charge making that person answerable to all the voters in the county not just a few districts. I feel my comments may diminish my effectiveness to represent my constituents in the Third District if I am fortunate enough to be reelected but I felt they needed to be said.
— Dave Roiger, District Three Representative, Taylor County Board of Supervisors
