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Tuesday, December 29, 2020
MCL - Mid-Winter Department Meeting
Sunday, December 27, 2020
MCL - The Real Department Commandants Christmas Message
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Bx Community Board - Weekly Notifications, December 24, 2020
DSNY - When is My Trash Being Picked Up: https://www1.nyc.gov/
- NYC DPR Mulch Fest
- NYS DEC Christmas Eve Storm
- Information on Relocation of Fire Hydrants
- BRAC January 2021 Class Schedule
- NYS DOT Travel Advisories
- DSNY Tree Recycling Schedule
- City Island HED 564 Updates
- DSNY Holiday Trash Schedule
- DDC SEX20047 Water_Sewer Project Schedule
Tuesday, December 22, 2020
MCL - Department Commandants Christmas Message | PLM Audit
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Bx Community Board - Weekly Notifications, Friday December 18, 2020
Snow Laborers are Needed: Per diem work https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/
- TN BID - COVID19 Testing Saturday December 19, 2020 East Tremont and Randall Avenues
- Free Legal Services (civil) for low income residents
- NYC Department of the Aging - Scam Message COVID
- DSNY Ongoing Snow Operations
- City Island HED564 Updates
- MTA Fair and Toll Hearing
- NYS DOT Travel Advisories
- DSNY Trash/Recycling to Resume
Attachments
Thursday, December 17, 2020
American Legion - News Clips 12.17.20
Due to current weather conditions (19 inches of snow) the Troy
office will be closed today. I will be working from home if you need
assistance feel free to email me.
" Pro Deo et Patria "
James W. Casey
Adjutant
American Legion
Department of New York
James W. Casey
Adjutant
American Legion
Department of New York
Good morning, Legionnaires and veterans’ advocates, it’s Thursday, December 17, 2020, which is
National Maple Syrup Day, Pan American Aviation Day, and Wright Brothers Day.
Today in history:
- 1903: Near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first successful flight in history of a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft. Orville piloted the gasoline-powered, propeller-driven biplane, which stayed aloft for 12 seconds and covered 120 feet on its inaugural flight.
-
On
December 17, 1963, one of the first major pieces of environmental
legislation in the United States becomes law. The Clean Air Act empowers
federal and state agencies to research
and regulate air pollution, marking a major expansion of government
efforts to fight back against the damage being done to the climate.
-
1944:
During World War II, U.S. Major General Henry C. Pratt issues Public
Proclamation No. 21, declaring that, effective January 2, 1945, Japanese
American “evacuees” from the
West Coast could return to their homes.
- On December 17, 1777, the French foreign minister, Charles Gravier, count of Vergennes, officially acknowledges the United States as an independent nation. News of the Continental Army’s overwhelming victory against the British General John Burgoyne at Saratoga gave Benjamin Franklin new leverage in his efforts to rally French support for the American rebels. Although the victory occurred in October, news did not reach France until December 4th.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- Stars & Stripes: Veterans organizations urge Trump to fire VA chief Wilkie
- Military Times: Congress finalizes sweeping veterans policy bill with new protections for women, students
- Federal Times: VA workers feel ‘shut out’ of COVID planning
- Military Times: $1 million initiative aims to address racial inequities to improve lives of military families
- Associated Press: Arlington funeral held for Medal of Honor recipient who died from COVID-19
If you wish to be removed from this email list, kindly email
wproffet@legion.org with “Remove” in the subject line. If you have received this from someone who forwarded it and would like to be added, email
wproffet@legion.org.
Stars & Stripes:
Veterans organizations urge Trump to fire VA chief Wilkie
By STEVE BEYNON | STARS AND STRIPES | Published: December 16, 2020
WASHINGTON
-- Several major veterans organizations on Wednesday called on
President Donald Trump to fire Department of Veterans
Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie after a federal watchdog report found
he and his senior staff mishandled a congressional aide’s claim that she
was sexually assaulted at a VA hospital.
“Our
organizations have concluded that as a result of the secretary’s
personal actions in this matter, he no longer has the trust
or confidence of America’s veterans and should be removed,” according
to a letter from the veterans groups sent to Trump. “This is a
tremendous breach of trust among veterans and Secretary Wilkie must be
held accountable. His actions not only threaten to deter
veterans from seeking care at VA, but also undermine the efforts of VA
staff who have been working to bring an end to sexual harassment
throughout the department.”
The letter was signed by The American Legion, AMVETS, Disabled American Veterans, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Veterans of
Foreign Wars and Vietnam Veterans of America.
An
investigation by the VA inspector general found Wilkie and senior VA
officials ignored problems of sexual harassment at the
Washington DC VA Medical Center and “engaged in confrontational
messaging” as they tried to discredit the staffer’s credibility by
falsely characterizing her complaint as “unsubstantiated.” The staffer,
Andrea Goldstein, is an officer in the Navy Reserve and
is an adviser on female veterans’ issues for the House Committee on
Veterans’ Affairs.
“While
this troubling report illustrates that several senior VA staff members
played a role in the mishandling of this case,
the findings make clear that the secretary himself established a
defensive posture and made decisions to personally disparage the veteran
and circumvent the subsequent [inspector general] investigation,” the
letter reads.
The
letter seeking Wilkie’s termination follows many veteran organizations
in the last several days calling for Wilkie to resign.
The White House declined Wednesday to comment on the letter.
Christina Noel, the VA press secretary, said Wilkie will "continue to lead the department."
“The
tone set by Secretary Wilkie was at minimum unprofessional and at worst
provided the basis for senior officials to put out
information to national reporters to question the credibility and
background of the veteran who filed the sexual assault complaint,”
Inspector General Michael Missal concluded in the report.
Wilkie responded to the report by saying it was politically motivated and all the allegations were false.
In September 2019, Goldstein said she was assaulted in the cafeteria of the VA hospital in Washington, D.C. A male contractor
for the VA slammed his body against hers and made sexually suggestive comments, she said.
No
charges were filed, partly because security cameras did not capture the
attack, according to a January report from VA’s inspector
general. However, the report did not dismiss Goldstein’s claim and it
spurred a public confrontation between VA officials and House
Democrats.
The
letter follows a growing chorus of veteran organizations and more than
20 Democratic lawmakers calling for Wilkie to be removed
from office, about a month before he is scheduled to leave the job.
President-elect Joe Biden will be sworn in Jan. 20 and he has tapped Denis McDonough to succeed Wilkie.
“Secretary
Wilkie has not only been derelict in his duty to combat sexual
harassment, but he has been complicit in the continuation
of a VA culture that tolerates this epidemic,” Speaker of the House
Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Saturday in a statement. “He has lost the
trust and confidence to serve, and he must immediately resign.”
Military Times:
Congress finalizes sweeping veterans policy bill with new protections for women, students
Leo Shane III | 14 hours ago
House
lawmakers on Wednesday finalized a massive, sweeping veterans policy
measure which includes new protections for student
veterans, new aid for veterans hurt by the ongoing pandemic and long
sought-after improvements to VA services aimed at women veterans.
The
337-page bill — cobbled together in recent months from dozens of
smaller reform measures — easily passed the chamber by a
voice vote on Wednesday afternoon. It was advanced by the Senate one
week ago without any objections, and now heads to the White House for
President Donald Trump’s final signature.
Lawmakers said the legislation was sorely needed in light of the pressures caused by the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.
“I
have seen veterans in my district lining up for food, heard from
homeless and housing insecure veterans who couldn’t access
desperately-needed resources, and met with veterans who struggled to
start new careers despite services that should’ve been there for them,”
said bill sponsor Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif. and chairman of the House
Veterans’ Affairs Committee’s panel on economic
opportunity.
“That’s unacceptable, and we must do more to help get them back on their feet across the country.”
The
bill — named for former Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman
Johnny Isakson and retiring House Veterans’ Affairs Committee
ranking member Phil Roe, R-Tenn. — is also the culmination of several
years of lobbying by veterans advocates on a host of issues.
Some
provisions are aimed simply at creating better oversight of hot-button
issues in the Department of Veterans Affairs. New
studies are mandated on toxic exposure issues, support services for
homeless women veterans, veterans job licensing programs and department
health care shortcomings.
But
others require near-term changes to VA operations and policies, and
could have a far-reaching impact on veterans in the months
to come.
Deborah Sampson Act
One of the most notable sections of the bill is the Deborah Sampson Act, legislation pending for four years in Congress which
would enact a series of reforms aimed at improving services for women veterans across the department.
It
includes $20 million for retrofitting health care facilities “to make
it safer and easier for women veterans to get care.”
Many advocates say VA hospitals lack basic facilities for women such as
private examination areas, maternity rooms and female-specific
equipment.
“Although
positive strides have been made in recent years, there continue to be
large gaps in care for women veterans in our
VA healthcare system,” said Jeremy Butler, CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan
Veterans of America. “The passage of [this bill] takes a significant
leap in providing the equal level of care and resources that the women
who chose to serve this country rightly deserve.”
It
would mandate an Office of Women’s Health within the Veterans Health
Administration headed by a senior VA official to oversee
all women’s health programs. Department leaders would also be required
to establish care standards at all medical centers to ensure that
facilities are inspected and improvements are made to benefit female
patients.
The bill mandates that every VA facility have at least one women’s health primary care provider and authorize a new $1 million
annual program for a women veterans health care residency program.
And the measure would expand military sexual trauma counseling at VA to former members of the National Guard and reserves, who
are eligible now only if they are currently serving.
Department leaders would also be required to create “an anti-harassment and anti-sexual assault policy” and designate officials
to take responsibility for any related complaints.
The
provision comes as VA leadership was chastised by the department
inspector general for working to discredit a House staffer
who reported a sexual assault at the Washington, D.C. VA Medical Center
in September 2019. At least 21 members of Congress (all Democrats) have
called for VA Secretary Robert Wilkie to resign in reaction to the
report.
Education reforms
A
large section of the bill deals with the effects of the ongoing
coronavirus pandemic on student veterans. The measure extends
emergency authorities for VA to ensure that changes in class schedules
and locations related to the coronavirus outbreak do not reduce payouts
for any veterans currently receiving GI Bill benefits.
It
would also ensure that students will not lose benefits or eligibility
if their schools close or suspend classes due to coronavirus
concerns. Students who withdraw from a school for pandemic-related
reasons can also retain their remaining months of GI Bill eligibility.
And the measure waives time limits for Montgomery GI Bill and Veteran Readiness and Employment benefits, to ensure they do not
lapse while pandemic restrictions remain in place.
Other education issues covered in the bill extend beyond the immediate education concerns.
The measure would limit deceptive advertising practices aimed at student veterans and penalize schools found violating those
rules. It would create an eligibility review for schools facing financial penalties or potential closures.
And students whose schools are closed or lose eligibility could see their GI Bill benefits fully restored under the measure,
in an effort to keep education officials’ mistakes from punishing student veterans.
“This
landmark legislation will significantly weed out predatory colleges
that seek to take advantage of veterans,” said Carrie
Wofford, president of Veterans Education Success. She praised lawmakers
for “stepping up to protect veterans and their hard-earned GI Bill from
waste, fraud, and abuse.”
The measure would also completely phase out the Montgomery GI Bill program by 2030. That benefit has largely been overtaken by
the more generous post-9/11 GI Bill.
Other provisions
Lawmakers included several provisions related to job retraining programs. One would triple the available funding for the VET
TEC Program, aimed at helping transitioning servicemembers gain technology skills, from $15 million annually to $45 million.
Another
initiative would create new VA grants for organizations that specialize
in providing transition services for troops or
spouses. Those services include resume assistance, interview training,
job recruitment work and other related services. That program will be
coordinated with the Department of Labor.
Labor
officials will also work with VA and Defense Department leaders on a
comprehensive new study examining the military’s Transition
Assistance Program, to find potential challenges and improvements.
The measure provides new financial assistance programs for homeless veterans, including new payouts to individuals dealing with
housing support related to pandemic complications.
And it would create a new VA Advisory Committee on Tribal and Indian Affairs to advise department leaders on matters relating
Native American veterans.
For
surviving spouses receiving dependency indemnity compensation benefits,
the new bill will lower the age that those individuals
can remarry without incurring penalties from 57 to 55.
Trump is expected to sign the bill into law before the end of the month.
Federal Times:
VA workers feel ‘shut out’ of COVID planning
Jessie Bur | 13 hours ago
Employees
across various Department of Veterans Affairs facilities are being kept
out of the loop as their leaders make plans
to address COVID-19 needs and staffing challenges, American Federation
of Government Employees officials said on a Dec. 16 press call.
“The
leadership keeps the union out of all decisions, no pre-decisional
[consultation] at all. We don’t know how many masks we
have; we do not know the amount of COVID [positive] employees running
around,” said Regina Smith, president of AFGE Local 424 at the Baltimore
VAMC.
That lack of planning involvement has become especially relevant as VA medical centers begin to roll out COVID vaccinations for
their employees.
According
to Barbara Galle, president of AFGE Local 3669 at VAMC Minneapolis, her
facility required employees to reserve a time
slot and show up at a separate part of the facility at their designated
time. This could cause some nurses to miss their appointments, because
they can’t leave their patients when their time slot comes up, forcing
them to be placed further down the wait list
for a vaccine.
“What
we would like to see is that they go to the floors and the areas to
give the vaccines, the reason being then you’re not
taking away from patient care, you’re not expecting staff to leave a
patient so that they don’t miss their opportunity to get a vaccination
and you have staff around to monitor for the 15 minutes required after
the vaccination. But once again AFGE is not allowed
to provide any input into this,” said Galle, describing the union as
being “shut out” of essential decisions.
A
VA spokesperson said that the agency has “put in place rigorous safety
measures at all of its facilities, including employee
and veteran COVID-19 screening, physical distancing and appropriate
personal protective equipment such as face coverings,” and “employees
exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms are immediately isolated to prevent
potential spread to others,” though union officials said
that they have seen less than adequate cleaning and employees required
to continue working while awaiting COVID test results.
Galle, Smith and others said that employees at their facilities have struggled or in some cases failed to obtain the necessary
personal protective equipment, like N95 masks and face shields, and the union is not kept apace of PPE stockpiles.
Union officials said that the pandemic has also exacerbated staffing shortages at many facilities, with frontline staff required
to put in overtime to cover the necessary shifts.
“We’ve
heard from VA central office that they’ve hired these 10,000 employees.
In Minneapolis, the positions that are posted
and the positions that they’ve hired for are management positions.
There are no new frontline staff added,” said Galle. “The only new
frontline staff they’ve added are temps.”
Geddes
Scott, President AFGE 1988 at St. Albans Community Living Center in New
York, said that he has not been able to get access
to records of who is on duty at his facility.
“We know we’re working short; we know we don’t have all of the bodies in the building, but the agency is refusing to tell us
how short we are,” said Scott.
“But
in the middle of the pandemic, the agency was able to go and contract
out for over 100 nurses, over 50 environmental management
service employees.”
Those
contracted employees, according to the union officials, are making
higher salaries than the career VA employees and entitled
to greater COVID hazard pay.
Hazard
pay has itself been a challenge across the VA, as central leadership
left it up to the individual facilities to determine
how it would award such pay. This led to some facilities categorizing
it as a performance award, which is up to managers to file.
According to Scott, employees that had no direct patient care work ended up getting upwards of $3,000 in awards, whereas nurses
working on the front lines got $250.
Those
limited workforces are in turn having an impact on patient care, as
leadership at some hospitals have altered acuity levels
— the number of patients assigned to a single nurse based on their
severity of needs — to make up the difference.
Galle
said that, for example, a patient that had just come out of heart
surgery would usually have a one-to-one acuity level
for around six hours, meaning that they needed the undivided attention
of a nurse post-operation. That patient may now have their nurse looking
after themselves and another patient due to short staffing.
“The worst part is that the agency won’t even listen to our input. We represent the frontline staff, the people who are on the
ground, who have been doing the job and know what they’re doing,” said Galle.
Employees
in non-medical departments of the agency are also feeling the crush, as
Jim Rihel, president of AFGE 940 for the Veterans
Benefits Association Philadelphia Regional Office, said that his office
has reduced the amount of credit that each benefit claims case means
for an employee and increased the amount of credit an employee needs to
meet acceptable performance. The result is
employees having to get through significantly more cases per day to
meet expectations, even when they are not assigned that minimum number
of cases in a day.
“AFGE’s
comments lack credibility considering that during the pandemic, VA
employees have provided life-saving COVID-19 care
more than 105,000 patients and tested nearly 1.1 million patients and
employees for the virus, all while limiting the department’s current
employee infection rate to less than one percent — much lower than other
health care systems,” the VA spokesperson said.
“Additionally, as part of VA’s COVID response, VHA has hired 65,696 employees from March 29 to Nov. 17.”
Military Times:
$1 million initiative aims to address racial inequities to improve lives of military families
Karen Jowers | 9 hours ago
As
a four-star general weeks away from retirement, Larry Spencer pulled
into one of two general officer parking spaces in front
of the gym at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C. As he stepped
out of the car in his workout clothes, a man jumped out of his car
nearby and ran to him. “He chewed me up one side and down the other
because I would dare park in a general officer’s spot,”
Spencer said.
“That
wasn’t the first time this had happened. So at the end of his little
soliloquy, I looked him in the eye …. and said to
him, ‘What makes you think I’m not a general officer?’ " said Spencer,
who was the former vice chief of staff of the Air Force before he
retired in 2015.
“The
ironic thing was, that gentleman was African American. We all have been
conditioned with these biases that we need to understand
and we need to embrace. Here was an African American who could not see
someone who looked like him as a general officer.”
Spencer
spoke during the virtual launch of Blue Star Families’ Racial Equity
Initiative Wednesday, aimed at improving the service
experience of military families of color. He’s a member of the
organization’s Racial Equity Committee, which includes high-ranking
military leaders from all branches, wounded warriors, caregivers, and
military spouses. Spencer said he’s been curious about
the silence of military families about their experiences, whether it’s
racial inequality or other issues that affect the community at large.
And he’s encouraged that Blue Star Families “has stepped forward to take
on that challenge.”
The
$1 million initiative will include initial steps such as research, a
leadership training program to create a pipeline for
the next generation of diverse leaders who want to work with private
organizations supporting military families. The leadership teams of
military service organizations and veteran service organizations are
disproportionately populated by white people, not
reflecting the diverse military family population, according to Blue
Star Families.
The committee has met regularly since summer, convened by Blue Star Families CEO Kathy Roth-Douquet, following the murder of
George Floyd, to start delving into the experiences of military families of color.
A
review of current research on military families of color indicates that
before COVID, 7 out of 10 Black and Hispanic/Latinx
military families experienced stress due to their current financial
situation. In addition, 50 percent of Black and 40 percent of
Hispanic/Latinx military families reported that unemployment and
underemployment is a top three contributor to financial stress.
These findings were extracted from the 2019 Blue Star Families Military
Family Lifestyle Survey.
Studies
conducted during the pandemic by Blue Star Families and The Institute
for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) at Syracuse
University indicated that Black active-duty families reported more
difficulty staying informed, and were less able to find information for
resources.
What
drives Roth-Douquet’s work with this initiative is “to make sure that
military families of color don’t feel isolated,” and
feel included in their community, said retired Army Lt. Gen. Gwen
Bingham, former Army staff principal for installation management, and
co-chair of the committee. With frequent moves, and 70 percent of
soldiers living outside the gate, it’s important for all
military families to feel connected and included. If that foundation is
not there, people miss out on important information about resources
available to help them.
“We need to make people of color feel included,” Bingham said, in an interview with Military Times.
“We as a nation and a world have to grapple with the fact that racism exists…. We need to do better by our people of color to
make them feel they’re welcome, included, and have a connection with the community.”
Bingham said she believes the Blue Star initiative “has the capability of becoming a model program.
“This will help the racial divide, and bring awareness to the talent inside the military families of color.”
The
perspectives and guidance of the Racial Equity Committee have shaped
the initial steps of the initiative. Work will include
conducting focus groups in 2021, looking at previous research and
launching new surveys and research, to help form recommendations to
improve the experiences of military families of color.
One
of the first steps is creating a leadership pipeline of training to
bring more people of color into military service organizations
and veteran service organizations. The leadership teams of the
organizations that serve military families are disproportionately white,
said Ingrid Herrera-Yee, co-chair of the committee, a military spouse,
and suicide prevention expert.
“The
more we see of ourselves in leadership, the more comfort there is, and
the more you feel like you belong,” Herrera-Yee said.
This effort will help ensure the support system reflects the diversity of military families.
That pipeline, dubbed the “DEPLOY MC” — Diversify and Expand the Pipeline of Leaders for Your Military Community — entails a
fellowship program.
Blue
Star Families is looking for military spouses, veterans and adult
children of veterans who may be interested in these fellowships,
said Roth-Douquet. Right now there are seven fellowships funded for
various areas around the country. DEPLOY Fellowship interest forms are
accepted through Dec. 31; the application period is from Jan. 2 to Jan.
31; and the full-time fellowship terms run from
April 1, 2021 through March 31, 2022.
Fellows will serve for one year in chapter-based or national roles for the Blue Star Families organization. These are full-time
paid fellowships where they’ll receive training in military service organization or veteran service organization leadership.
Once they graduate from the fellowship program, there’s the potential for employment with Blue Star Families or other service
organizations.
The Associated Press | 12 hours ago
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama Medal of Honor recipient Bennie G. Adkins, who died from COVID-19 earlier this year, was remembered
at his funeral Wednesday both for his battlefield heroics and the work he did to help others after Vietnam.
Adkins’
flag-draped coffin sat at the front of an Arlington National Cemetery
chapel decorated with Christmastime poinsettias
as Lt. Col. Michael Shellman, an Army chaplain, described the retired
Army command sergeant major as a decorated veteran and “a man
well-loved.”
Special
Forces Gen. John W. Brennan Jr. recalled meeting Adkins at the ceremony
in 2014 where Adkins was presented with the nation’s
highest military honor for heroism during the Vietnam War. Adkins ran
through exploding mortar rounds to drag several troops to safety,
according to his medal citation, and then exposed himself to sniper fire
to carry wounded comrades to medical care.
Adkins was “obviously courageous,” Brennan said, and he didn’t stop serving others after retiring from the Army.
Once
home, Adkins earned college degrees and taught night classes for adults
seeking their high school equivalency degrees. Three
years ago he established The Bennie Adkins Foundation, which has
provided about 50 educational scholarships to Special Forces soldiers.
“What he did after his career in the military is absolutely amazing,” Brennan said.
Adkins
died in April at the age of 86 after developing the illness caused by
the new coronavirus. His funeral was delayed because
of the pandemic, and the service from Arlington National Cemetery was
shown by livestream.
Gov. Kay Ivey ordered the lowering of flags to mark Adkins’ funeral. He was being buried beside his late wife, who died last
year.
