Approved Minutes — original pdf

Approved Minutes

COMMISSION ON VETERAN AFFAIRS MEETING MINUTES SPECIAL CALLED MEETING COMMISSION ON VETERANS AFFAIRS MINUTES The Commission on Veteran Affairs convened in a Special Called Meeting on July 6, 2020 via WebEx Remote meeting. Chair Doris Williams called the Board Meeting to order at 10:27AM. Board Members in Attendance: Doris Williams - Chair July 6, 2020 Manuel Jimenez - Vice Chair Alfred Bingham Jose Corrasco Staff in Attendance: Tina Lee 1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Elizabeth Rosenberg- Collura (Left @10:30) Thomas Just Adrenne Luna Pete Salazar  Chair Williams asked the Commission members to review the minutes from the special called meeting on January 15, 2020. Chair Williams made the suggestion to spell out TAP as “Transition Assistance Program” on the forth bullet. Chair Williams made a motion to approve the meeting minutes after the correction and Commissioner Pete Salazar seconded the motion. Motion passed with no objection. 2. BUSINESS  Sam Haytham with Kiro Action updated the Commission on their progress with the solution with overcoming Veteran homelessness in Austin. Sam Haytham has secured meetings with veteran non-profit organizations, State, Mayor, Council, and City manager with their full support to make the mission come into fruition. Current prototype is at Mueller and Sam is seeking for the Veterans Commission to come up with the language to help the Mayor, City Manager and public to explain the reasoning and purpose of deploying the project.  The Veterans Park has started the initial work on creating the park before COVID and currently there are no current updates on the updated timeline. Prior to COVID, the timeline of finishing the park which was originally slated for completion for June and will request Parks and Recreation to provide an update at the next meeting.  Commissioner Just and Vice Chair Jimenez has no current updates on the Veterans Court Referral Policy and will get together to come up with the language for the proposed draft to be released to the City Council on the guidance that prosecutors should COMMISSION ON VETERAN AFFAIRS MEETING MINUTES lean more towards referring veterans towards veterans court. Current criteria is stringent and many veterans are not being referred and would like to see a program where veterans will be able to go to a specific court. Vice Chair Jimenez would like to get in touch with Community court and to re-engage with the process of the referral process and the Commission’s input.  The Commission has decided to discuss the Transition Assistance Program and get more of an emphasis of getting veterans employed after transitioning from the Military with potential employers. The commission recommends to create an Austin specific briefing where the City Mayor provides a welcome and this presentation is provided to all the Transition Assistance programs for Military bases. Pete made a motion to create a workgroup for the program and Manuel seconded the motion; the motion passed with no objections.  Commissioner Salazar drafted the language for the resolution for Kiro Action group for the City’s support of the land, utility hook up, and the pilot program for creating a solution to ending veteran homelessness in Austin. Commissioner Salazar made a motion to approve the draft resolution and Commissioner Carrasco seconded the motion. The motion to approve the resolution for submission to the Council was approved with no objections.  The election of officers were held at this meeting and Chair Williams was re-elected to Chair and Vice Chair Jimenez was re-elected to Vice-Chair. Doris Williams made a motion for the selection of officers and Pete Salazar seconded the motion. The motion passed with no objections.  Under new business 3A, Chair Williams informed the commissioners of submitting agenda items prior to the meeting with associated sponsors and the background before the meeting moving forward.  Chair Williams would like the Commission to provide goals for the next annual report. ADJOURN: Chair Doris Williams adjourned the meeting at 11:32 AM without objection