Commissioners discuss help for local veterans

RITZVILLE – Adams County commissioners are mulling options for assisting local veterans, especially those who must deal with federal and state bureaucracies.

At a July 11 meeting, commissioners were briefed by state Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Services Administrator Steve Gill, whodiscussed ways the state might provide funding for a local veterans service officer.

For the last 12 years, Gill, a disabled veteran himself, has been working to develop a network of county and tribal service officers statewide.

He outlined the federal regulatory framework for accreditation, noting that a service officer must be a paid county or tribal employee and work at least 1,000 hours annually.

The state does not require those hours to be devoted solely to veterans, according to Gill.

After a person completes a course of training and examination, he or she helps disabled veterans file and track claims through the state’s software system. Claims might include payments for healthcare, education, vocational rehabilitation or other benefits.

So far, according to Gill, the state appropriation for this program has been available to six counties — Clallam, Island, Stevens, Walla Walla, Asotin and Skamania — out of 21 counties with service officers.

He anticipates additional growth as more counties become interested and willing to jumpstart the program with local funding.

Gill also noted that veteran disability payments bring about $3 billion a year into the state economy.

Service officer funding priorities are twofold: 1) rural counties, and 2) counties with a lower-than-average percentage of veterans receiving disability benefits.

On that score, Adams County is definitely in the running, he said.

Out of a total of 532,523 veterans statewide, 30% receive an average of $1,731 per month in benefits.

As of January 2023, Adams County had 554 veterans, 25% of whom were receiving benefits averaging $1,642 per month.

Larger urban counties, such as King County, are funding service officers from their own budgets, according to Gill. Such counties won’t receive state grants directed toward rural counties.

“But we’re also required to issue an equal number of grants to east and west sides of the state,” he said.

Local Army veteran Jeff Kissler attended the meeting.

“In rural counties, we have a lot of veterans who feel forgotten,” he said. “The local VFW is closing due to lack of participation and the American Legion will probably not survive another year. So going forward, we will have no veteran representation here.

“Some veterans in this community don’t want to deal with the bureaucracy and don’t know where to go or what to do. We have one veteran, for example, who has a head injury that prohibits him from traveling or driving a car. Others are having mental challenges and/or health issues.

“It’s pretty frustrating to see representatives in Olympia, including a few senators, who claim to care about veterans but are not pushing hard to make sure we have at least one person in each county to help.”

Kissler said that when he returned to the community after 23 years in the military, he was amazed to discover the county doesn’t have funding for a service officer.

“We’re 12 years into this process and still trying to expand the program,” Gill said. “It’s a long game, but we’re gaining momentum.”

Kissler said veterans, some of whom have been all over the world, want to contribute to their local communities.

“But they need assistance,” he said. “It also concerns me that fewer and fewer youth are considering the military, and a lot of vets are hiding out or distressed. Some are very skeptical of the government.

“For example, some who served in Operation Desert Storm told me they were injected with stuff and weren’t even told what it was.

“We definitely need someone local who can build connections,” Kissler said.

Commissioner Dan Blankenship noted ways the county is trying to address this issue.

“For years, Adams County has collected, as part of its property tax, a veterans affairs levy,” he said.

“We’re trying to build a big enough fund balance to cover the cost of a least a parttime veterans service officer. The fund currently has a balance of about $75,000.

“If we could get that balance up to $100,000, we might burn through it slowly enough to fund a parttime position while we attempt to secure additional state funding.”

Commission Chair-man Jay Wiese agreed.

“We’re already ahead financially. It’s just a matter of packaging the funds so we can get a person trained and ready to go,” Wiese said.