 Welcome to Sheboygan County government working for you. My name is Adam Payne, County Administrator and co-host of this program with Chairman Roger Distruty. And as you know, every month we strive to bring a different department, department head, key staff person to the program to talk about important roles and responsibilities and services that are provided to people in Sheboygan County. And you may not be aware of this, but 8% of the population is made up by veterans and that 8%, many of which are eligible for state or federal assistance, veterans and their families, about $23 million a year comes to Sheboygan County to help these individuals. And today we're so pleased to have Charlene Cobb, our veteran service officer with us, who is a key individual to help veterans and their families and certainly contribute to making good things happen in Sheboygan County. Welcome Charlene. Thank you, glad to be here. It's good to have you with us. We've got Veterans Day coming up just around the corner here and a lot going to be going on in the community, but let's start with a little bit about yourself. Please share with our viewers how long you've been with the county and just a little bit about your background. I'd like to. I've been with Sheboygan County six years. I just had my sixth anniversary a week and a half ago. And it's been a wonderful time. I enjoy working with veterans here in Sheboygan County. I was thinking about this as coming down here and knowing you would be asking me about myself and working here in Sheboygan County. I have, I think two passions. One's my faith and I have a master of divinity and the national chaplain for the veterans of foreign wars. And the second one is veterans. And so it's an opportunity with being the national chaplain to kind of combine both my passions together. But I tell people frequently that I think I have the best job in the world to be the county veteran service officer. I also think I've worked harder in this job than in any other job I've held. And I spent 21 years in the Navy with a lot of hard jobs and work that we did there. But the still is to take care of our veterans, to really take care of our veterans and our families and all of the different things that come in and out of our office on a daily basis. It's a difficult job, but I love it more. I mean, it is such a wonderful, rewarding experience to take care of our veterans for the things that they have done for us. You exhibit that passion and I certainly know what a tremendous work ethic you have in the long hours and the evening and the weekends and we appreciate that. Please start with sharing a little bit about your roles and responsibilities as veteran services officer in what your department does. Well, I kind of look at the mission of the veteran service officers serving those that served, you know, that we need to take care of them now that they're home and take care of their families. And along with that, sometimes we're still taking care of ones that are still on active duty. We get questions about that, but there is just a huge gamut and a huge wide range from healthcare benefits, education, jobs, they're seeking for jobs, pension benefits for individuals that are getting older and struggling to make ends meet assistance. It just, it runs the gamut from one end of the spectrum to the other. And another thing that's kind of unique about being the veteran service officer is I end up being kind of the go-to person for anything dealing with veterans. So we'll get a phone call that says the flag on South Business Drive is all tattered. And, you know, that really, there's not a whole lot I can do about it other than to maybe give them a call and say, you really should replace your flag. It would be the right thing to do, but you know, we're not the flag police that we can make them do it. But they just think that, and as a veteran, I do care. It reminds me, I spent three years in Rota, Spain and we were not allowed to fly our flag over there and at the base. It was a Spanish base that we were on. The only time we could have our flag was on the 4th of July. They allowed us to fly it on Independence Day, our Independence Day. And when I came back to the United States the first time, that was something that really kind of keyed in and I noticed as I noticed flags flying because I hadn't seen it in three years. And it's good to see so many flags, including the acuity flag that's right next to UW-Shaboygan here, that certainly stands tall. Yes, it does and proud. It's a great impression on our community, yes. You mentioned you went through a checklist of a number of different programs and we have our Veterans Administration and then we have our Shaboygan County Veterans Services Department. Are there different programs and services that the county provides versus the Veterans Administration or are you really the conduit to help them work through the federal programs and what's all involved? And I think you've hit a key there. A lot of folks think that we are attached to the federal VA and I am very proud of the fact that I am a county employee. I work for the county board and you as our county administrator and we are kind of the conduit. We, I need to know a little bit about all these different programs and services that are available. And then when somebody walks in or gives us a call or sends an email to be able to say, oh, you're looking to get this program from the state of Wisconsin or you're looking to enroll in this program through the federal VA and then just point them in the right direction, help them with the applications. With the federal VA, I was doing appointments and applications this morning and I think the kind of the easy one that I did I still sent like four separate forms for like a simple thing. The more complicated it gets, the more paperwork we add in this paperless society we live in. Now they can contact the VA office directly if they choose, can they not? Or they can contact you and ask your assistance to help navigate that. What are the different ways they can get help and what do you recommend a veteran do if they're seeking help? If a veteran is seeking help, especially with the federal government, I would recommend going through a veteran's advocate which is what us as a county veteran service officers are. Along with us, we also are veteran service organizations like the American Legion, the VFW, disabled American vets, also have accredited service officers that can help to navigate through the system. When somebody is filing a claim and looking to deal with the federal government themselves, as long as everything goes through nice and smooth, there's probably not a big deal with them doing it on their own. But if they get any kind of a hiccup in there or a snag in there, they can find it almost impossible to figure out what went wrong and what to do to fix it. And then that's when that advocate becomes a valuable part of the whole process. And so, personally, I would much rather be at the front end hoping to keep from having any of those snags than have to come in in the middle of everything and try and figure out what was done, what wasn't done, what do we do now? Very good. And what kind of trends are you seeing? What types of programs are veterans or their family members seem to be most readily seeking? What I think is happening is they're kind of segmented. Our older veterans, Korean World War II veterans and their family members, we see them living in a society that they really had no way of preparing for as they were going through the workforce. So now as they need to be in an assisted living or a nursing home, it runs through all of their savings and any kind of reserves that they have and now what do we do? We still need to have dad in this assisted living facility but we're running out of money, we don't have the funds to do that. So the VA has programs to assist and help those needy veterans to provide a supplement to help them. And what it'll do is help to extend their monies keeping them in those facilities for a longer time. So we see that with our older veterans. Then some of our Vietnam vets, especially, we see some significant health issues, a lot of it related to their exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. And so we see them coming in looking for assistance because some of those medications can be pretty expensive. So they come in looking for those healthcare needs. And then we have our younger group of veterans, our current conflict, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. And they're just getting started. They're in their 20s, maybe their 30s. So they're looking for those educational benefits and getting a job, figuring out what they're gonna do with their life now that they're out of the military. So it's kind of compartmentalized a little bit. Earlier, and last question before I turn it over to Roger, you mentioned the mission. And I've always have been fond of our Veterans Department mission, to serve those who served. It's one of the few mission statements that are short and sweet and people I think can remember to serve those who served. But what's the challenge of actually doing that, to serve those that serve? What are some of the more challenging aspects of completing that mission? Well, one of the huge ones is just the volume of work. You mentioned earlier about the statistics of the number of veterans. And I personally think that's a little bit low and it doesn't take into consideration all of the family members to those veterans. So not only do we have the veterans coming in, but we'll have that surviving spouse. We'll have that child that's looking to go to school and wanting to know what resources from their dad being 100% disabled or mom being on active duty someplace. So the volume of work makes it difficult. I at times go home at night feeling guilty that maybe I should, it's eight o'clock at night, but I think, oh, I should maybe put in another hour because I still have a stack of files sitting on my desk. But then I open one up and the letters and stuff all start running together on the page. And I think, well, this isn't getting me anywhere. I should probably go home and get some sleep. So I think that's a challenge. And then we have, like I mentioned, the compartmental, all the different things that we deal with with the different groups of veterans. And every time you think you know what's going on and what forms you're gonna need and what department it's gonna go to, then the VA changes how they do business. And then we're back to square one going, okay, let me see, that was John I called last week. But I think that they switched offices. Very good, thank you, Charlene. Roger. Well, thank you, Charlene, for your service to our country and thank you for serving our veterans in Sheboygan County. And every year we have federal and state holidays like Memorial Day and Veterans Day. And sometimes I believe it's just a day off for some people, but we really should remember the significance of those holidays. And I would ask you to explain some of the differences in what hall we should celebrate them properly. Well, I do think it's important that we recognize those days. They were set aside for a reason. And I think we need to learn from history. We need to remember where we've been and the things we've done or I think we risk ending up getting to repeat it. Number one, but with our Veterans Day and Memorial Day and Pearl Harbor Day, our Forces Day, just to name a few of our military holidays or veterans holidays, it's important to remember what our servicemen and women have done for us in this country. You know, they fought for those freedoms that we hold so dear here in our lives. And I think we could lose them if we don't recognize and hang on to what we have there. And so I think it's important that we recognize the service of our men and women and just say thank you. And we have a whole generation of World War II veterans that are, the population is decreasing right along. And we think of the sacrifices they've made, but now we have Vietnam veterans are more in the time of their life that they're needing some help. Could you explain how that's changing and what their needs are? And they are. With the Vietnam vets, Agent Orange was a huge problem and it's interesting, we still use the components of Agent Orange in our gardens and on our stuff today. What made Agent Orange so lethal to our veterans is that they needed it and used it in such a high quantity that the manufacturers mass produced it and in mass producing it, they actually changed the chemical component of it and that's what they think made it lethal to people. But we're seeing the aftermath of that and a lot of times some of the illnesses, it just kind of, it changes the cell components and changes things internally that just kind of lay their dormant until 20, 30, 40 years later. And so we're now seeing individuals that are contracting illnesses that are related to their exposure to Agent Orange. And so just to be able to take care of them and we see a lot of them dying, if you read the newspaper, look at the Shabuigan Press. A couple of years ago, the majority of them were World War II, but as you mentioned, we're losing them rapidly and we are now seeing more of our Korean War and our Vietnam and a lot of it has to do with the, what they were exposed to and what they experienced while they served on active duty. And how many veterans do we have in Shabuigan County and how many variety of organizations do we have that support them? We have almost 9,000 veterans according to the federal stats and like I said, I think that's a little low. I don't think they necessarily have a good tracking for some of our National Guardsmen because as maybe people don't know this, the National Guard is actually a state asset until the federal government needs them and then like the federal government does in a lot of ways, they just come along and say, we're taking this unit and putting them on active duty and sending them to Afghanistan. But I'm not real sure that once they come back to Wisconsin that the federal government has a real clear cut way of identifying who those individuals are. So that's why I think those numbers are a little low. And for our veterans organization, we have about a dozen different veterans organizations here in Shabuigan County. And some of them like the American Legion and the veterans of foreign wars actually have more than one post. The American Legion and the VFW both have two here in the city of Shabuigan. Plus they have Plymouth and Usberg and... It's close to 24, 26 different posts, is there not? In total? Yep. And just a quick follow up on that because I recall you sharing this with me. Are we starting to see, we have more veterans and kind of a new crop of veterans, younger veterans because of some of what's happening in the world, yet aren't some of these posts starting to see less participation in membership? Just could you quickly comment on that? And we are, a lot of the posts have World War II veterans that as they are passing away, the younger veterans and some of it has to do with the fact that they're interested in working, they're going to school, they're raising families. They just don't have the time, but part of it is the organizations themselves. Different generation. Different generation and change is difficult. We all know that. It's hard to change. So what worked with the World War II veterans and the Vietnam vets is not working with the younger veterans. And so there's a reluctance on the part of the older ones to change, to keep up with the younger ones. So the younger veterans are actually forming their own organizations to do different things. And to maybe be involved in community projects and education, the student veterans of America is an organization that is popping up on campuses across the country. And their mission or their focus is to helping individuals that are coming there to school if they need tutoring or whatever they're doing to. And if some people are interested to get more information about some of these organizations, how can they get that information? There's information available online. They can call our office. But a lot of times it's just talking to your friends, family, neighbors that are members of those posts as to what they're going on. If you see articles in the newspaper of things that are happening, and just stop in. And just recently, I believe it was in August, the Sheboygan Memorial, Veterans Memorial monument had an event there. Would you explain about that and what the significance was? It was the 20th anniversary for those of you that drive past the County Memorial on a daily basis, it has been there 20 years. It was erected in 1994. So it was the 20th anniversary of that. And the committee wanted to recognize 20 years of honoring our veterans with that memorial. So they invited the Vietnam moving wall to come and put that memorial up along with a couple of others. And you're right, Chairman, it was the end of August that we had that event. And the weather sort of cooperated. I think there was one day it was a little rainy, but for the most part, it was beautiful weather out there during the time it was there. Wasn't real hot, but nice temperate weather for people to come out and enjoy. Not only our County Memorial, but also the Vietnam Memorial being here in Sheboygan for people to see and visit. And last night at our County Board Meeting, Alan Noll was there to explain the, have a plan to expand that wall. Can you tell us a little bit about that? One of the things that the committee has done over the years, as Alan mentioned last night at the County Board Meeting, the memorial itself sits on County property, but the County tax dollars are not spent to keep that memorial up. That's done through donations from either the veterans organizations or just family members and veterans here in the County or citizens that want to have a nice place to honor our County veterans. And so through the years, one of the things they've done to raise money for upkeep is individuals can have their name placed on the wall if they served as a veteran. And they're running out of room to do that. So they have worked with an architecture, an architect to actually put an additional granite wall behind the white one in the front of the memorial that says Sheboygan County Veterans Memorial. There's going to be an additional slab of marble behind that or that's what they would like to do. That they, what did he say last night? I think it was like 13, 23, 2300. More names would allow them to put on that marble. And so there again, they'll be looking to do fundraisers. If you see a broad fry for the County Memorial, that's what it's gonna be for. And one to go to. And one to go to, absolutely. Well, thank you again for your service to the County and our veterans. I started off by sharing and certainly you know it better than any that of all of our departments, the Veterans Services Department is definitely one of the smallest, if not the smallest, yet doing very, very important work. And as you said, the workload is not getting smaller. It's getting larger. And last night at the County Board meeting and certainly Chairman Distruty is well aware of it and Charlene's well aware of it. We have initiated as part of the 2015 budget adding a deputy veteran service officer to work with you and your small staff to better assist veterans. How do you see this really helping our veterans and what kind of overall impact do you think it'll make? Well, I think it'll have a huge impact on our veterans here in Sheboygan County. Hopefully it'll allow us to, in a more timely manner to help our veterans. As I said, I have stacks of files sitting on my desk. So I had appointments today. I have a full load of appointments tomorrow. But we still have probably a couple of dozen in a pile that we need to find hours in the day to be able to have them come in. So with an additional person, then that's two of us that can be talking to people at the same time in two different offices. So that right there increases the number of people we can handle on a daily basis. But also hoping that it will generate some additional revenue here in the county which is beneficial to the county as a whole. Because when that money comes in, it comes into the pockets of our veterans that they can use then to go out and buy things in your store, build houses, rent property, you name it, buy a car. And when we looked at La Crosse County, and La Crosse County is very similar to us in population, we have about 115,000. And I think there is close as any county in the state. Demographically to us, yes. Right, similar number of veterans, they have a deputy, we don't. And correct me if I'm wrong, but we're generating through assisting veterans maybe about $25 million of assistance, much needed earned assistance by veterans and their families. La Crosse County, it's almost double that. Yes it is. And is it your opinion that one key additional staff person is really one of the key drivers? I believe so, I do think that having that person to help file those, to put all together all that paperwork. As I mentioned earlier, I did a relatively simple one and had like four different forms that had to go with that paperwork into the VA. Somebody trying to do that on their own because they can't get in to see me and they don't wanna wait until they can get in to see me, they may miss one of those four pieces of paper and then the VA sends them a nice little denial letter and then some of them get frustrated and never try and others then have to go through that appeals process to say, well, no, wait a minute, I'm really deserving of this, I just forgot to send this piece of paper in. But with that assistance service officer to help that we put those packets together in a timely manner and get them sent in, then they get adjudicated correctly the first time and that's money in our pockets of our veterans. And personally, I'm real pleased to see the support for this, I know Chairman Distruty has been supportive, the finance committee, your liaison committee, the health and human services committee and all of us in county government know that we have very limited new revenue to work from. So to be able to apply some of this to invest in your department and better serve veterans and then have that kind of turnaround or payback to the community just sounds like a real win-win. So nice work on that. And I appreciate the support that I have received from everyone in the county, from the first meeting with you and our finance director, Terry Hansen, asking the tough questions as to, well, how are we gonna do this? And you need to identify this and put this all together to take to the committee so that they really understand what we're talking about. It's been some additional hours spent putting that all together for you, but there has been really great support with my liaison committee and with the finance committee. We don't take lightly adding new positions because we're always trying to hold the line or become more efficient, but in this case, a good... It's not really a new position. Wait, it's on the TO, but from your department standpoint, it's a new position. It hasn't been filled in a number of years. A long time, yeah, before my time. Well, we only have a minute left. Anything else that you wanted to share with our veterans or their family members or viewers today before we wrap up? Probably the most important thing. November 4th is a day to get out and vote. I am not telling anybody to vote one way or the other because I just care about, as a veteran, that we exercise one of the rights that many men and women have given their lives for over the years, that we have the right to elect our own officials that work for us and to hold them accountable. And so I encourage everyone on November 4th to get out and exercise that freedom that you have earned for you by those servicemen and women through the centuries. Well said. And November 11th, Veterans Day. Which is a week later. Which is a week later. So thank you for joining us today. I thought that was an excellent program, a lot of good information from Charlene if there's more you want to learn or you want to contact her or office to get some assistance, please don't hesitate to do so. Thank you so much for joining us. Next month we're going to have our Health and Human Services Director, Tom Agerbrecht here to talk about the very important roles and responsibilities of Health and Human Services and some new initiatives going on there as well with the 2015 budget, including mental health wellness programs and services. So we're so pleased with the job Tom and his team are doing. So again, thanks for joining us. We'll see you next month.