An Open Letter To Three VSO's – Bill # S.1043 & Bill # S.1417

Respected Veteran Representatives,

The land-use situation at the BIGGEST AND BUSIEST VA health care facility in the nation, the "HOME" at VA, WLA, is out of control.  Further, the terms conditions, spirit and intent of the Grant Deed of 1888 that created that "HOME", to "permanently maintain" a health care community for returning Veterans, are under siege!  This is a plea to have YOUR respective organizations address this matter, immediately! 

The dangerous precedent that HAS ALREADY been set must be realized and, with YOUR HELP, the situation must be resolved, undone and reversed!

We The Veterans have put together this factual information for
your widest distribution to all Veteran lists, however, for obvious reasons described herein, it is the National offices of AMERICAN LEGION, DISABLED AMERICAN VETERANS (Mr. Ed Monroe accepted our paperwork at the National Las Vegas Convention) and VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS that are being asked to expedite action to resolve the huge and complex challenge described herein.

Saturday, August 16Th, Information from my AMVETS Post 2 meeting described that the VFW National officers had called to use the Wadsworth Theater at VA, WLA, a theater created specifically for Veteran use, and it was told that it could not use it.

We The Veterans, a Veteran watchdog/advocate group based in WLA, can prove that Richmark Entertainment Corporation, a non-Veteran for-profit entity has complete control of this building (plus the Grand Lawn and the only other remaining theater on the facility).  This corporation’s "thugs-in-suits" security even assulted a Veteran advocate who was gathering information about a private party.  That matter went to court and the DA, in his summary, stated that Veterans, love them as we do, are like children and have to be disciplined sometimes.

National VSO’s and the entire Veteran community need to know that this typifies the occupation of the gifted "Home" land, like the Russians in Georgia, by non-Veteran entities.

We can show that local VA bureaucrats at the "Home" have not been helpful in exposing this fact and that they act more like real estate agents than health care providers.  We can also show that the wealthy, powerful, politically well-connected and NIMBY-minded Brentwood Community (the president of the home owners is the president of Veterans Park Conservancy, VPC) has, with the help of some Veteran representatives who live in this  area and political staffers, held questioning VSO’s and Veteran advocate groups at distance from exposing the truth about "land-grab".

Richmark Entertainment Group, Inc, was guilty of serving alcohol and sponsoring lavish private parties adjacent to long standing Veteran rehabilitation programs and did not stop until We The Veterans called this to the attention of Senator Feinstein’s office.  We know that this Richmark sharing agreement, like most all others on the facility, ignores the congressional mandate for a master plan, a plan that would make Veterans the main stake holders, and that it perpetuates the negative impact that has taken over the facility.  While the first of three housing buildings for homeless Veteran programs are subject to over a year’s wait, exotic bird sanctuaries memorandums-of-understandings are being given freely.
The delays created by this form of "land-grab" beucracy has cost immeasurable hours and effort to treat an ailing Veteran community.  Older Veterans are flocking to seek the assistance of an institution that bares the name "Veterans", and, younger wounded warriors with record claims for PTSD, head trauma and gender specific issues demonstrate the real cost of war.

It was Senator Feinstein, at a press conference four months ago, held on the facility, who stated "imagine what can be done here [for Veterans]" when she was "embarrassed" to be told by We The Veterans that her name had been used to endorse a public park on the property. 

It is time to stop with the politics and time to make the "HOME" what it was intended to be.

URGENT! VPC, a so-called Veteran group, boasting lobbiests, a memorandum-of-understanding, a sharing agreement and, most damaging, a letter of endorsement on the California Department of American Legion stationery, is about to execute a sharing agreement for a 16 acre public park onto this land that was specifically gifted as a place for returning Veterans to heal by Grant Deed in 1888.

When We The Veterans managed to educate certain Veteran representatives within the American Legion, Department of California, it, at its latest Bakersfield Convention, passed a resolution, submitted by District 21, that would rescind any endorsements of this park idea and prevent any other such endorsements.

The bureaucrats at VA, WLA, continue to ignore the questions of Veteran advocates because we are not VSO’s.  We are Veterans who are passionate about service to Veteran patients and we take our advocacy seriously.  Now, however, we must rely upon YOU, the VSO’s, to press the issues as described here.

American Legion and Disabled American Veterans, DAV, as stated on their respective websites, admit to have been monitoring the following legislation for over a year:

‘A bill to require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to submit a report to Congress on proposed changes to the use of the West Los Angeles Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, California.’
Bill # S.1043

Original Sponsor:
Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)

Cosponsor Total: 1
(last sponsor added 03/29/2007)
  1 Democrats

 
About This Legislation:
3/29/2007–Introduced. Directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to report to Congress on the master plan of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) relating to the use of VA lands of the West Los Angeles Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, California, as originally required under the Veterans Programs Enhancement Act of 1998. Requires an alternative report, on the development of the master plan, if the master plan does not exist as of the date of enactment of this Act. Prohibits the Secretary from implementing any portion of the master plan until 120 days after its receipt by the congressional veterans’ and appropriations

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American Legion, Website:
Congressional Legislation 
 
West Los Angeles Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center Preservation Act of 2007
Bill # S.1417

Original Sponsor:
Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)

Cosponsor Total: 1
(last sponsor added 05/17/2007)
  1 Democrats
 
 
About This Legislation:
A bill to direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to submit a report to Congress providing a master plan for the use of the West Los Angeles Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, California, and for other purposes. 

National Commanders and leaders, please direct your respective legislative staff officers to use the muscle that Veterans have "on the Hill"!  Please call for a moratorium on all leases at VA, WLA, until the honorable Secretary Peake makes good on the existing legislation (described above).  Further, We The Veterans requests that you review and endorse the attached DECLARATION OF ENFORCEMENT.  We The Veterans created this no-nonsense document to perpetuate the terms, conditions, spirit and intent of the Grant Deed of 1888, a grand document that, unfortunately, has lost all respect by the VA.

If not you, whom?  If not now, when?

Sempre Fi,
F Juarez
Co-Director,
We The Veterans
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DAV, Denvel D. Adams National Service and Legislative Headquarters
807 Maine Ave SW
Washington, DC 20024
(202) 554-3501