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Director of Veterans Services responding to #197016 re: the Valor Act II and the creation of veterans' services districts.
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To the Honorable Board:
This communication responds to Item #197016, observations by Alderman Rossetti about legislation known as VALOR Act II and the formation of districts by municipal veterans’ services departments.
VALOR ACT II
On April 4, 2014, Governor Patrick signed VALOR Act II, a bill that adds to the Commonwealth’s protections for veterans. The most significant feature of this legislation is a requirement that all municipal directors of veterans services receive standardized training and pass a state certification test by the end of 2015. Municipalities that do not have certified veterans’ services directors by the end of next year will no longer receive the full 75% state reimbursement for the veterans’ benefits those cities and towns pay out.
This legislation will have no negative financial impact on the City of Somerville. For many years, the Massachusetts Veterans Services Officers Association has partnered with the Massachusetts Department of Veterans Services to present regular training seminars to municipal directors of veterans’ services. As Somerville’s Director of Veterans’ Services, I have attended these seminars four times in the past two years. The Commonwealth has always reimbursed municipalities not only for the full cost of the training, but also for travel and hotel expenses associated with attendance. Sending a veterans’ services director to such training seminars therefore costs the municipality nothing.
VALOR Act II merely mandates attendance at this training. The Massachusetts Department of Veterans Services has not yet announced the number of training seminars each director of veterans’ services will have to attend annually. This number could be as high as four, since the Massachusetts Veterans Services Officers Association and the Massachusetts Department of Veterans Services have traditionally offered such training quarterly. To prepare for this possibility, the Somerville Department of Veterans’ Services has increased the In-State Conferences line in its FY2015 budget from $350 to $1,000. Even if the full $1,000 is spent, however, the money will be fully reimbursed to the City by the Commonwealth after the training has occurred. VALOR Act II will therefore cause the City of Somerville to expend no additional money on the training and certification of its director of veterans’ services.
ADVISABILITY OF FORMING A VETERANS SERVICES DISTRICT
The financial assistance program for veterans and their families known as “Chapter 115” has always been administered primarily by the municipalities of the Commonwealth. Created shortly after the Civil War and named for the chapter of the Massachusetts General Laws that established it, Chapter 115 assistance is administered by the director of veterans’ services in each city or town. This program is jointly funded by the Commonwealth and the municipality in which the veteran resides, with the municipality initially paying the benefit to the veteran, and the Commonwealth later reimbursing the municipality for 75% of the cost.
Massachusetts law permits cities and towns to form “veterans’ services districts” encompassing two or more cities or towns for the administration of Chapter 115 programs. Twenty-six such districts have been formed to date, but the overwhelming majority of the state’s 351 cities and towns continue to maintain independent veterans’ services offices.
The Massachusetts Veterans Services Officers Association has long opposed the formation of these districts. Chapter 115 is just one of many forms of aid provided by municipal veterans’ services offices, and the MVSOA feels that a municipal director of veterans’ services can provide assistance more efficiently and more personally to the residents of a single community. As Somerville's Director of Veterans’ Services, I agree with this position. So far this year, the Somerville Department of Veterans Services has provided financial assistance to 75 Somerville veterans and their families. We’ve prepared and filed 16 service-connected disability claims, and have provided advice to hundreds of other Somerville veterans on a wide range of issues. Keeping track of so many individuals and their circumstances proves challenging at times. Adding the veterans of even one other city to our pool of constituents would greatly reduce the efficiency of our operations, and would limit the kind of personalized attention each veteran gets.
In rural areas consisting of small towns, forming a district makes good fiscal sense. The Central Hampshire District, for example, consists of eight towns with a combined population of less than Somerville’s. Some of these towns have populations only in the hundreds (e.g., Goshen, population 957; Cummington, 972). None of these communities have enough veterans to justify the expense of a fulltime director of veterans’ services. One director can easily serve the veterans of all the district’s towns.
In Somerville, such a plan will not work. Massachusetts law permits municipalities to form veterans’ services districts only with adjoining communities. Mass. Gen. L. ch. 115, § 10. When one of the communities is a city, it may form a district only with an adjoining town. Id. Surrounded on three sides by other cities, Somerville would therefore have to form a district with Arlington - a town with a sufficient number of veterans to already have a fulltime director of veterans’ services and fulltime clerk of its own. Combining Somerville and Arlington into a veterans’ services district will not allow any fiscal savings through reduction of staff, because the staff of each of these offices is already is already operating at full capacity. If anything, Somerville should have at least one more clerk, since the Massachusetts Department of Veterans’ Services recommends one fulltime director of veterans’ services and two fulltime clerks for a city of Somerville’s population. Guide for Establishing Veterans’ Services Districts, p. 11. And because Massachusetts law requires a satellite office to exist in each community of the district, 108 C.M.R. § 12.01(3), neither Somerville nor Arlington would be able to save any money by closing its office.
Establishing a veterans’ services district with Arlington would also cause the City of Somerville to lose some of its authority over the provision of veterans’ services. Massachusetts law requires a district board, rather than the government of any one municipality, to appoint staff, determine compensation, and remove ineffective personnel from a veterans’ services district. Mass. Gen. L. ch. 115, § 11. By law, this board must be comprised of the mayors of all municipalities in the district and the president of each board of aldermen or selectmen. The mayor of Arlington would therefore have as much say in the hiring and firing of Somerville’s veterans’ services staff as the mayor of Somerville would have.
In short, forming a veterans’ services district will not benefit Somerville in any way. It will not reduce personnel or administrative costs. It will not reduce the cost of office space. It will hurt the efficiency of the Department of Veterans’ Services, and will limit the control of Somerville’s mayor and board of aldermen over the provision of veterans’ services. As Director of the Somerville Department of Veterans’ Services, I join the Massachusetts Veterans’ Services Officers Association in recommending that no such district be considered at this time.
Respectfully submitted,
Jay Weaver
Director of Veterans’ Services