Veterans Affairs Board Recommending Full-Time Representative

Veterans Affairs Commissioner Joe Durian talks with the Mahaska County Supervisors.

Veterans Affairs Commissioner Joe Durian talks with the Mahaska County Supervisors.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The recommendation from the Mahaska County Veterans Affairs is to turn the part-time position of the county coordinator into a full-time position.

In August, members of the board for Mahaska County Veterans Affairs came to the Mahaska County Board of Supervisors to discuss making the coordinator position a full-time position.

Veterans Affairs Board Commissioner Joe Durian told the Supervisors in August, that he and the Veterans Affairs commission sees the benefit of making the position full-time. Those benefits for the county would include more funding to individual veterans through increased federal funding of benefits, and less cost for the county tax-payer funded service. “Figures show that we are missing the boat,” said Durian. “We’re not treating our veterans fairly by not having the office open 40 hours a week.”

Karie Foster has served the Veterans Affairs office since 2005, and says that she will be looking for other employment opportunities unless the position is made full-time.

Durian said he and the Veterans Affairs Board believes the position should be paid $45,000 a year plus benefits.

The concern raised by Durian and the Veterans Affairs Board is that replacing and training a new coordinator is expensive, and can take considerable time for the new coordinator to receive the necessary certifications in order to assist the veterans.

On Monday, the Veterans Affairs Board approached the Supervisors with an amended budget that would allow Foster to be employed full time.

The total budget for Veterans Affairs has historically not been fully utilized, and the office has returned nearly half of it’s allocated budget back to the county. The amendment would shift funding internally towards the salary of Foster.

“I think if you go over what we’ve proposed and what we’ve shown you, I think we can manage the money for this year,” said Durian.

Budgets are set for the next fiscal year in January, with the fiscal year beginning in July. Durian and the Veterans Affairs Board propose to outline a new budget in January to facilitate the full-time position.

Supervisor Mike Vander Molen said he would like to see that proposed budget for the next fiscal year in order to determine how money will be allocated then. “Obviously what we decide now will have an impact going forward.”

“I’m having a hard time justifying a full time position,” said Mahaska County Supervisor Willie Van Weelden.

“And why is that Willie?” Asked Durian. “You would think the veterans deserve representation.” Durian explained that with so many suicides taking place among the veterans now, they need the help.

“I guess you can lay the blame on that further up the line though,” said Van Weelden. “I wouldn’t have a problem with 6 hours a day.”

Currently, the office is staffed 4 hours a day by Foster. “Make it a full time, I’m dragging my feet a little bit,” says Van Weelden.

Vander Molen asked if the commission was taking benefits from veterans in order to pay for the increase in labor. “You’re trading salary for benefits it looks like.”

Durian reminded Vander Molen that the Veterans Affairs office has rebated approximately half of it yearly budget back to the county, because it went unspent.

Vander Molen wanted to know why the discussion was happening now about a full time position versus at budget time in January.

“Maybe we weren’t pushing hard enough and didn’t think about it in January,” said Durian.

According to Durian, the county has to spend less of its money yearly when a veterans coordinator, like Foster, can help veterans obtain federal dollars.

Mark Doland, Mahaska County Supervisor, said that the Veterans Commission provided some data that shows how much work the office has done during the past 10 years, and that, according to Doland, the office has gone from helping vets receive 1 million dollars 10 years ago to nearly 5 million dollars coming into the county and to its veterans.

Doland said that, by his observation, with the increase in dollars coming into the county and to its veterans, the increase in hours is justified, but the health benefits the county would have to help cover is what causes some concern for Doland.

During the discussion, a $10,000 grant from the State Lottery Commission is available to help cover the cost of health insurance, or additional hours of operation. Vander Molen wondered why that grant wasn’t being used this year to help keep the office open more, like had been done in years past.

Durian explained that the grant is not guaranteed every year, and that training a new part-time employee is costly and causes disruption for veterans who come to depend upon the office. “This job has evolved and evolved,” said Durian. “It’s beginning to be overwhelming, the paperwork the government requires.”

Vander Molen said that over the past 2 fiscal years the largest increase in wages has come from the veterans affairs office. He questioned as to why the $10,000 grant isn’t being utilized. Vander Molen said it’s hard to move to 40 hours a week when there is an opportunity for the office to be open more right now from utilizing the grant money.

“I don’t see why we have so much friction to approve the recommendations of this board,” said Doland. Doland said that the Supervisors receive recommendations from other boards, like Conservation, and “we approve them. We made one of their secretaries full time last year. I think Karie does a wonderful job and she will be difficult to replace.”

“I don’t understand why it’s so hard to approve their recommendations,” Doland said. “Are they any less qualified to make decisions like this than other boards, or what? Doland asked of the other two supervisors.

Currently, Foster makes $17.28 per hour, and if the increase to full time salary were approved to $45,000 per year, the effective hourly rate would be $21.63 per hour.

“Here we’re going from 20 to 40 hours a week and we’re sneaking a pay increase in here too,” said Vander Molen. “This office has had the biggest pay increase of any office the last 2 years.”

Foster said that Veterans Affairs is the least paid department head in the whole county.

Vander Molen said that he would approve the 40 hours on this current budget as long as the current salary of $17.28 remained in effect. The full-time position would also come with benefits.

“I don’t think that’s unreasonable,” said Van Weelden.

In the end the Supervisors approved the hour increase for Veterans Affairs with the current pay-scale in force.

 

Posted by on Oct 7 2015. Filed under Local News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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