Travis County Commissioners Court

June 19, 2012 - Item 2
Agenda

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Number 2, consider and take appropriate action on a proclamation to officially welcome home all Iraq war veterans and invite all Travis County and neighboring county residents to the welcome home Iraq veterans parade ceremony and job and resource fair on July 7, 2012.
Commissioner Huber.

>> Judge, I'm proud to be able to bring this resolution to court today.
I think it's awesome that we -- and important that we recognize our war veterans and I will read the proclamation and then invite these gentlemen who have been the driving force behind this to share a little with us.

>> Okay.

>> Whereas the war in Iraq lasted nine years and claimed the lives of 418 Texans.
And whereas December 2011 marks the time when the United States completed its troop pullout of Iraq.
And whereas the use
Department of Labor has reported that the unemployment rate for veterans who served on active duty in the U.S.
Armed forces at any time since September 2001 was 12.1% in 2011.
And whereas Travis County joins a growing list of communities of St. Louis, Houston, Richmond, Virginia, Richmond, Virginia, Tucson, Arizona, and Austin, Texas, in honoring all of those dedicated individuals who exhibited bravery and sacrifice to support and defend our country, our freedom and our way of life.
Now therefore be it proclaimed that the Travis County Commissioners court does hereby officially welcome home all Iraqi war veterans on July 7, 2012, and invites all Travis County citizens and residents of neighboring counties to join the court in honoring the members of our military and our veterans by attending the parade, ceremony and job and resource fair on said day.
And I move approval.

>> Second.

>> Seconded by Commissioner Huber -- Eckhardt.

>> And if you folks would introduce yourself and perhaps tell us a little about what prompted you to bring this forward.

>> Good morning, judge and Commissioners.
My name is David Thomas.
I'm a Vietnam veteran.
This all started right after St. Louis held their parade and one of our friends, Thomas Deluna brought it to us and we said, well, if St. Louis can do this, why can't Austin.
So that -- that began the process.
There were five of us, I'll mention their names, Thomas, myself, Donna Tebrezi, Tom Kinney were the initial members of the committee.
We -- we've worked with the city and, of course, the city has -- is now sponsoring -- co-sponsoring the parade and resource and jobs fair with us.
We're going to be walking up Congress Avenue starting at 9:00 on the 7th.
We'll have a short ceremony at the capitol and then proceed to the capitol extension to have our resource and jobs fair.
It's most important and the parade is to thank everybody, thank the veterans for their service, welcome them home and then help them.
It's an ongoing thing.
This won't be the end of the help that the city has put on nor that any of us are involved in, but it is very important.
Jobs, as you mentioned, Commissioner, is -- they are in bad shape, but housing and education and just the transition to civilian life after so long.
And finally I -- as a Vietnam veteran, we didn't get welcomed home and that's part of my incentive is that it's -- it's time and it's -- it's close enough to the -- to the event when the Iraq war ended to thank these guys and gals and help them as much as we can.

>> Hello, judge and Commissioners.
My name is Guermo, I am a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, several years on active duty.
Just touching up on what my colleague David said, a lot of times veterans get back and they are very disoriented and not able to adjust properly to society and they don't know what services and nonprofit organizations exist to assist them in this transition.
Very difficult transition, mind you, and what we're attempting to do is bring all these resources in one place at least for at least one day where they can familiarize themselves with these services and have the opportunity to maybe enroll and benefit from these services.
It's a small thing to do, but I think it's a very profound thing for the city of Austin and Travis County to be involved in and I'm looking forward to it and I think it's going to be a fantastic time and a great thing for the city and the county and the citizens of it.

>> Thank you.

>> Good morning, judge, Commissioners.
Robert Maseus, I'm an Afghanistan war veteran.
I served in the army proudly for many years.
I can say --

>> You started at a very young age, didn't you?

>> Yes, sir.
I actually just look young.

>> [laughter] but what I can say as a returning veteran that the -- the reintegrating back into society, there is a lot of help that's needed.
There's right now currently 1.6 million veterans returning out of the military service circulating back into the civilian world.
And 45% of them claim disabilities, which currently overwhelm the department of veterans affairs resources.
However, there is a lot of communities and resources out there here in Austin that a lot of veterans are not aware of and part of my job is to coordinate the employment, the job fair side of things.
And we've -- we've -- are getting quite a bit of, you know, support in that, but just to reconnect, help them find employment after so many years serving and I'm really excited about it.
I think it's a good thing for us to do.
I think it's a small way to show our appreciation to service men and women and to just reconnect them with resources from grateful -- a grateful society.
So thank you.

>> Thank you.

>> Thank you.

>> Good morning, judge, Commissioners.
My name is Marco Antonio and I am an Iraq war veteran currently attending ACC and hope to go to u.t.
Pretty soon.
I would like to thank Commissioner Huber for sponsoring this proclamation.
This is the type of ceremony that our veterans really need, regardless of what war they served in.
The transition from civilian life to military life can be pretty difficult sometimes and while you are in the military, especially on active duty, you receive health, education, housing and a pretty good salary to live off of and when you get thrown into the civilian world it can be -- it's an adjustment and sometimes we don't land exactly on our feet.
And on the other hand, veterans have some skills that civilians don't necessarily learn all the time.
And veterans are really, really good for certain jobs and they know about team work and they know how to delegate and they know how to manage and they know how to be a follower, how to listen.
And this is exactly the type of thing and I hope that we continue doing these job fairs and resource fairs for veterans to let them know about what's available for them because there's a lot out there.
And sometimes, sometimes it takes a few times to hear it, but there's a lot of opportunities out there, and I just want to thank you very much.
Thank you.

>> Thank you.

>> Thank you very much.

>> Let me just -- I was just going to reiterate the time the parades starts is what time?

>> 9:00.

>> At 9:00 on the 7th.

>> At the south congress, once you pass the bridge.
We're going to start lining up approximately around 7:00 a.m.

>> Okay.
And then the job fair runs from when to when?

>> From approximately noon until complete.
There's going to be a short ceremony at the south steps of the capitol where we're going to have some local elected officials and whoever wants to speak.
We're going to have some honorees and a short ceremony just -- we've got to keep in mind the July heat.

>> For sure.
And how are you getting word out to the veterans to know about this job fair?

>> We have a media agreement with fox 7, they are doing a public service announcements for us.
We have contacts within the Texas veterans commission and various state agencies where we're able to send our flyers out and they are able to post them in public areas that would be acceptable to veterans or nonveterans alike so they can view it and volunteer or pass it along to somebody who does -- who does know that needs the help.

>> Okay.

>> We also --

>> Go ahead.

>> I was just going to say that we -- we were on the trailer park show, if anybody is familiar with that, this last week.
We've been invited back.
James Ritter is a veteran himself and he's doing all he can.

>> People won't know him by James Ritter.
They won't know him by that name.

>> Pokey.

>> Everyone.
Everyone James Ritter, who is that, but pokey, yes.

>> And pokey is great.
He's supporting us and going to have us back on prior to -- prior to the event.

>> And I'm betting we can get channel 17 to post a notice of the job fair.

>> As well as the veteran services web page.
For those who are listening and I'm certain we will also have fliers out at the event, but 854-9340 is the number for veteran services at Travis County.
Great resource for finding out what's available to you as a veteran to transition back into civilian life.

>> If I may, we have a website and it's www.welcome home Iraq veterans.org.

>> Thank you so much, David.

>> Also we look forward to working with pope.
I know he has a lot of institutional knowledge with running the veterans day parade so I think I got tasked with him basically setting up the parade and I would like to get in touch with him more so I can help on that.

>> Thank you.
Ollie lists some fabulous things on the website that people can avail themselves of.
One that I didn't know about was a pilot program for drop-in child care service which makes it so much easier to go for a job interview or start a new job if you have the security of knowing your kids have a place to be.

>> So you believe you have a full complement of employers and resource representatives?

>> I believe so, judge.
We are going through the Texas veterans commission and they recently had another resource -- excuse me, job fair down in Corpus Christi and we're incorporating a lot of their vendors.
I will defer to my colleague.
He should have more information on that, but we are working in coordination with them to get their vendors to come up and provide resources.
Just on a quick note, judge, this was my medic in Afghanistan so I can vouch for his age.

>> [laughter]

>> By the way, the reference to youth was complimentary.
I'm envious.
Your hair will be gray one day, just wait.

>> Someday it will be.
Right now we have H.E.B.
Has shown a lot of support.
We're working with Texas workforce solutions and as Michael has said already they are disseminating fliers for that.
And as he already mentioned, we are integrating some of those vendors already mentioned.

>> Are you continuing your medical career?

>> No, ma'am, I am -- I'm switching careers.

>> Do you know whether the city and county health and human services departments and human resources departments plan to participate?
At the job and resource fair?

>> Which -- judge, just workforce solutions.

>> I think we ought to put an item on the agenda and ask our departments to participate.
City and county together employ probably close to 15,000 people.
We always have a lot of --

>> That would be fantastic, judge.

>> But it's by matching the applicants to posted positions, but we ought to be able to help with that.

>> Absolutely.
Thank you, judge.

>> We appreciate you all and the good work you are doing.
Also appreciate your service to the country and our community.

>> [applause] Mr. Reeferseed.

>> I just want to thank Ms. Huber for this wonderfully needed event.
And the fact I think the only thought I want to throw out --

>> You all want to get this proclamation?
Hold on a second.

>> And you get to hear me.
The fact is we have many, many criminally directed military misadventures are still going on.
They are not over.
That doesn't take away from the honor that we show these heroes.
I mean, these are still happening.
We still have troops and like I said, Iran and -- Iraq and Libya and Sudan and Mexico and Colombia.
Over 130 other nations right now.
So we need to honor these people and try to get them home.
Welcome home.

>> Mr. Priest.

>> Thank you, judge, Commissioners, Morris priest speaking on my own behalf.
I did want to also thank you, judge, for mentioning getting others involved as the city is involved and the county getting involved and also wanted to thank the veterans and also to let you know I'm going to leave the court, yourself and the other Commissioners a copy of this information from the V.A.
They have changed their phone numbers at the Montopolis clinic and this is all their numbers to the various departments and many people are having issues with some of the veterans issues, but there are people in the veterans administration and there are people at the V.A.
And other people who are looking at what we're having done here and also want to go wanting to participate and not only Texas workforce and veterans administration, maybe you could include some of these other organizations and I'll give you their names that want to participate and get involved in this great activity and our appreciation of our dedicated service men and women.
Thank you.

>> Thanks for the information.

>> All in favor?
That passes by unanimous vote.

>> Thank you.
Thank you for your service.

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