[Editor’s Note: Most recent correspondence between Veterans leader/activist and the chairman of the County Board of Supervisors over accommodating a Veterans group with building space.]
May 13, 2014
Supervisor Don Knabe, Chairman,
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
Dear Mr. Chairman,
I was recently copied on an email to you from Brig. Gen. Ruth A. Wong (USAF – Ret.), Director of the Los Angeles County Dept. of Military and Veterans Affairs, which oversees the Los Angeles County Veterans Advisory Commission (VAC). Her email praised and supported you on your May 8 email to me, dismissing my questioning your prolonged delay for not taking action on the VAC's March 14, 2014, letter that is attached. That letter was written on VAC letterhead with the general's name and title at the top.
In your May 8 email to me regarding the VAC letter, you stated “Nothing has changed as to when we may bring in the motion…look at Item 20 on next week’s agenda if you don’t think we support Veterans.”
'Item 20' is about “office space and work stations at Bob Hope Patriotic Hall located at 1816 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles (1), excluding office space currently occupied by the Depts. of Military and Veterans Affairs and Mental Health, are to be utilized by various veterans services organizations (Organizations) and are not currently needed for County use or operations during the time of proposed use …”
These “organizations” already had office space at Patriotic Hall. They were forced to move out during remodeling. They have simply been trying to reclaim their original space for quite some time and will only get space “excluding office space currently occupied” …. and “not currently needed for County use …”
Thus, the Board of Supervisors supports willy-nilly office space and work stations for Veteran organizations at Patriotic Hall as a priority over supporting a federal judgment against the Secretary of the VA and his Los Angeles VA Director who were adjudicated in U.S. Federal Court for engaging in nine real estate dealings that are “unauthorized by law and therefore void.” (attached)
Those illegal real estate dealings have deprived tens of thousands of war-injured and impoverished Veterans who are homeless from being safely housed and cared for on land exclusively deeded in their behalf 126 years ago. It was to be permanently maintained as a National Home for Disabled Veterans.
Instead, Los Angeles County is our nation's capital for homeless Veterans because UCLA has a baseball diamond, the affluent private Brentwood School has a state-of-the-art athletic complex, a wealthy homeowner has an agreement to build a public community park, etc.
This past Friday, U.S. Sen, Elizabeth Warren held a political fundraiser at the Wadsworth Theater on VA property, which is also illegal.
In a 9-0 vote, VAC Commissioners who were appointed by the Board of Supervisors, wrote a forthright letter asking for the Board's support of the federal judgment and opposition to the VA's appeal of said judgment. The Board under your chairmanship is “watching” the letter, while office space and work stations for Veterans organizations have become a top priority.
The fact that Gen. Wong wrote you supporting your delay of a letter presented under her authority while essentially dismissing me for initiating it, speaks volumes about government politics and Veteran priorities.
As director of the Old Veterans Guard, I've been working diligently for the past six years helping to expose the biggest land-fraud scandal in American history that has been compounded by some of the most heinous crimes against humanity committed on American soil, i.e., against tens of thousands of war-injured and destitute Veterans who are forced to live homeless and hungry in deplorable and inhumane conditions.
It's incredulous that the Board of Supervisors of Los Angeles County would vote to build a new $2 billion County Jail to better house incarcerated criminals and then sit on a letter seeking support of a judgment that can lead toward greatly reducing our homeless Veteran population.
Did I mention Los Angeles County is our nation's capital for homeless Veterans?
Sincerely,
Robert L. Rosebrock
Director, Old Veterans Guard
________________________________________
From: RRosebrock1@aol.com
To: DKnabe@lacbos.org
Sent: 5/8/2014
Subject: VAC Letter to Board of Supervisors
Mr. Chairman,
Please do not mistake the truth as a threat.
I don't see how you can stay sitting on this paramount Veteran issue and watching it moving forward.
Of what value is the VAC if the Board disregards a 9-0 vote? It's an insult to every Veteran on the Commission and every Veteran at large.
As a Veteran, you should've put the VAC letter at the top of your agenda as soon as you received it.
Two months later, and still nothing has changed. Nor does it look like it will change.
Very, very disappointing.
Robert Rosebrock
Mr. Knabe responds to Mr. Rosebrock on May 8:
Robert – Received your email and nothing has changed as to when we may bring in the motion…look at Item 20 on next week’s agenda if you don’t think we support Veterans. I will never let threats like this get in the way of my support of Veterans, and being a Veteran myself…up to you if you want to boycott as we will continue to move forward in support of our Veterans.'
Don
Don Knabe
Chairman of the Board
Supervisor, 4th District
Mr. Rosebrock replies on the same day:
Dear Mr. Chairman,
Regarding “we are watching the issue.” I have no idea what that means. We certainly do not consider this “issue” to be a spectator sport. We consider this urgent and of paramount importance.
When the Los Angeles County Veterans Advisory Commission voted 9-0 on this issue, it seemed that the Board would take that unanimous vote very seriously…
On Tuesday, the County Board of Supervisors agreed to spend nearly $2 billion of taxpayer money to tear down a 50-year old building to provide a modern state-of-the-art jail facility to house and care for thousands of incarcerated criminals, and the best the federal VA can do under Secretary Shinseki is to spend a paltry $20 million to rehab the rat-infested 70-year old Huilding 209 to house 65 disabled homeless Veterans.
This is deplorable as the largest VA in the nation is situated in our nation's capital for homeless Veterans that exceeds 20,000 of our Veteran brothers and sisters.
If the Board does not take a vote on the VAC's letter at the next meeting on Tuesday, we will consider the VAC as irrelevant. We will aggressively boycott it as a sham Commission and a disservice to our fellow Veterans.
Sincerely,
Robert L. Rosebrock
Director, Old Veterans Guard
God Bless America and the Veterans Revolution!
Item 20 on today’s Board of Supervisors agenda:
Recommendation: Find that office space and work stations at Bob Hope Patriotic Hall located at 1816 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles (1), excluding office space currently occupied by the Departments of Military and Veterans Affairs and Mental Health, are to be utilized by various veterans services organizations (Organizations) and are not currently needed for County use or operations during the time of proposed use; find that the programs and services provided by the Organizations serve a public purpose, and honor the services of veterans or provide health and human services to veterans, which benefit the County and its residents; approve and instruct the Chief Executive Officer to execute non-exclusive, gratis license agreements (Agreements) with the Organizations, effective upon Board approval, and thereafter shall be renewed subject to approval by the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, negotiate and execute Agreements with additional Organizations and amendments that may be needed to ensure full utilization of the space, and execute an Agreement with the United States Veterans Initiative, effective upon Board approval, to provide expanded outreach for services to veterans; and find that the issuance of the Agreements is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act.
Mr. Rosebrock may be contacted at RRosebrock@aol.com