Soon after his Senate confirmation last year, Bob McDonald, the 8th Secretary of the Dept. of Veterans Affairs (VA), announced: “I want everybody to be a whistleblower. I don’t think you need to fit the legal definition of a whistleblower. I want everybody, every day, to feel responsibility for improving the way we serve veterans. We should look at everything we do from the lens of the veteran. If something is not going right, we should change it.”
Mr. Secretary, the Old Veterans Guard is holding you to your word. We are blowing the whistle on your good friend Bobby Shriver whom you appointed as your liaison with the Los Angeles VA.
At the Jan. 28 press conference, you and your friend announced the secret settlement agreement that vacated a federal judgment for nine non-Veteran entities that illegally occupy vast amounts of VA land and facilities while tens of thousands of war-injured, homeless Veterans are ignored.
Mr. Secretary, this is a major wake-up call that “something is not going right” in your dealings here in Los Angeles. We challenge you to make comprehensive changes, starting with replacing your crony.
Veterans have grown weary of hearing non-Veteran Mr. Shriver’s counterfeit mantra that he has been “fighting for vets over the past 10 years.”
If that is true, why is Los Angeles still our nation’s capital for homeless Veterans?
Because Mr. Shriver talks big, does little.
Over the past 10 years he has not produced one new shelter at the Los Angeles VA. Not one bed. Nor has he produced one blanket for one homeless Veteran to sleep outside the Los Angeles VA.
In spite of his family’s enormous wealth and political connections, Mr. Shriver has spent 10 years talking about something that anyone else with that kind of affluence and influence would have accomplished in just a few months.
It is easy to be deceived by Mr. Shriver’s expectations because he is a Kennedy with a reputation based upon the preceding generation’s global achievements.
His uncle Jack Kennedy was the 35th President of the United States. His father Sargent Shriver built the successful worldwide Peace Corps. His mother Eunice Kennedy Shriver built the successful world-wide Special Olympics.
Bearing the mantle of superhuman expectations, the family creed is, “To whom much is given, much is expected.”
With Bobby Shriver, though, the mantra could not be farther from the truth. Has anyone ever been given so much and done so little for so many who need so much help, disabled, homeless Veterans?
If Mr. Shriver had inherited the Kennedy legacy, he would have brought an end to Veteran homelessness not just in Los Angeles but nationwide. He would have done it without his usual self-puffery and fanfare.
Since becoming a Santa Monica City Council member in 2004, Mr. Shriver has claimed that his mission is to provide homeless Veterans with beds and supportive care in three vacant buildings at the Los Angeles VA.
The three — 205, 208 and 209 — are rat-infested, dilapidated, dysfunctional.
On June 16, 2011, the Huffington Post featured a story headlined “Homelessness in Los Angeles Drops — but Rises 24 Percent Among Veterans.”
It confirmed the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority report that “Homelessness among veterans [in Los Angeles] has shot up 24 percent since 2009.”
While critics have pointed to several decaying buildings on the West L.A. campus as potential sites for expanded housing, the VA disputed that suggestion.
Dave Bayard, the VA’s regional director of public relations, declared: “These are not places where someone could live. They are not safe seismically. They are not safe environmentally. We’re not talking about an abandoned apartment building or something like that. We’re talking about a building that’s maybe 60 years old, infested with vermin, may have asbestos.”
Why is Mr. Shriver hellbent on housing Veterans in these grossly unsafe prison-like fortresses that have such a morbid history??
These three disgraced buildings are protected as “historic.” They are under the control of the Dept. of Interior. In other words, the VA does not control their use or modification without first getting approval from the Secretary DOI, which can take years.
Mr. Shriver is on record declaring his support of the National Historic Preservation Act that protects more than 40 buildings on the Los Angeles VA grounds. Subsequently, they fall under the aesthetic and protective control of the Interior Dept. This underscores his duplicitous actions.
Nothing in the Congressional Act of 1887 and legal Deed of 1888 allows for this kind of protection. Why does Mr. Shriver support the Interior Dept. over the Dept. of Veterans Affairs?
(To be continued)
Mr. Rosebrock may be contacted at rrosebrock1@aol.com