CM Morano questions OMB on veterans services savings and impact

Thank you, Director Solomon.

I have the honor.

of serving as the chair of the Veterans Committee.

The Department of Veterans Services represents only a tiny fraction of the city's overall budget at $6.6 million.

How did OMB determine where savings could be achieved without affecting services to veterans?

What specific metrics or performance indicators were used to make that determination?

So the first thing is that we really looked at, and you just heard this from Deputy Director Gustav, which is that

we made sure we insisted to agencies, don't submit anything that's going to be a service cut.

And if they did submit something that was a service cut, we would...

We would explore deeper as to how the agency felt it would be not a service cut burn efficiency or program effectiveness or whatever other category it fit into.

In this particular case, there was $60,000 that was the only proposal in the savings book

that dealt with a planned parade that was supposed to take place.

And that was the sole savings initiative that was accepted.

There is, I believe there was one time funded that was added last year at ADOPT.

That's a separate issue.

That wasn't an issue related to the chief savings officer.

or exercise.

So based on that, we had confirmed that it was an event.

It was not anything related to cuts to veteran services.

And in fact, we look forward to discussing with you moving forward, not only in ADOP, but overall, long term, how do we enhance services to our veterans?

It's the least we can do, and we look forward to the conversation.

As do I.

So that $60,000 you alluded to, the executive plan includes $60,000 in baseline savings for DVS.

So did DVS meet the same savings target imposed on other agencies, or was there a different standard applied because of the circumstances that you just alluded to with the parade?

Well, for example, so that was the sole piece.

There was another, there was, in terms of the vacancy alignment exercise, they really didn't have vacancies that, or funded vacancies to be able to take.

So they were exempt from that particular exercise.

They had maybe two, was that, was anyone?

It was a very small amount where it wouldn't have made sense for us to apply the vacancy alignment exercise.

So that was something where they were exempt.

So really, we felt as though there wasn't an action that was taken as part of the savings exercise that would have any real impact on the department.

So just to reiterate and be clear, can you guarantee

that no veteran seeking assistance with benefits, housing, mental health services, employment assistance, or discharge upgrades will experience longer wait times or reduced service as a result of these savings.

The Chief Savings Officer exercise does not impact any of that.

Thanks very much.