Veterans Director to Make Plea to County

California’s top official for veterans affairs on Friday said he will join local veterans next week as they plead with Ventura County supervisors to retain funding for the county’s Veterans Services Office.

Retired Marine Col. Jay R. Vargas, director for the California Department of Veterans Affairs, said he will make a special appeal to supervisors at a public budget hearing Monday.

To trim costs, county officials have proposed eliminating the $116,000 the county now spends a year on veterans services. They said local veterans and their families will have to seek assistance from state and federal veterans offices.

But advocates for the county’s estimated 78,000 veterans say the services offered by the county office are sorely needed.

Besides helping veterans and their families file claims for government benefits, the office provides counseling for veterans and arranges for their transportation to Veterans Administration health-care facilities.

Vargas, who was in Ventura on Friday for a general board meeting of the state Department of Veterans Affairs, said eliminating funding for the county office “is the most disgraceful thing the supervisors could do to veterans.”

Many local veteran leaders agree. They are rounding up opponents and hope to make a strong showing at the budget hearing.

“These boards respond to eyeball-to-eyeball contact with people much more than they respond to letters,” said LeRoy Andrews, 73, of Ventura, a World War II veteran.

“I plan to be there, and I hope a lot of other veterans show up too.”

Al Sanderlin, commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post No. 1679 in Ventura, said he has contacted other veterans groups in the county and urged their members to attend the meeting.

“I know the county is in a tight spot, but this is important to us,” he said.

In September, 1992, the agency reduced its operating hours at its Oxnard office and cut two full-time staff members to save money, said Charles Lowrance, the county’s veterans services officer. They also shut down satellite offices in Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and Ventura, he said.

Yet the office, which opened in 1937, still has four full-time workers to handle 5,000 open files.

James E. Isom, director of the county’s Public Social Services Agency, has recommended that the veterans office receive no funding because the county is not mandated to run it. By pulling county funding, the veterans office would also lose the state’s annual $54,000 contribution.

Isom’s recommendation came after the supervisors asked department managers to trim their budgets by 18%. Isom suggested the office could continue to function by incorporating as a nonprofit organization and seeking private donations or grants.

But some vets, like LeRoy Andrews, believe the office will close if the county withdraws its funding. Andrews said he has sought the office’s service many times.

“They have done a tremendous job for veterans,” he said.

Supervisor Maria VanderKolk is bracing for Monday. “The least pleasant thing is to have a bunch of old veterans come down to the boardroom and get your patriotic heart beating,” she said.

But she said their anger should not be directed at the board. Rather, they should look to state and federal programs for help.

Local veterans counter that the Veterans Administration employs only one part-time staff member for the entire county to help process claims.

Correspondent Phyllis W. Jordan contributed to this story.