Morano asks about LGBTQ liaison veteran interactions and numbers

Thank you, Commissioner.

Happy birthday.

Thank you.

And you should know that Ms.

Orlando, who is seated at the table beside you, she also happened to be at the Vietnam Veteran event on Friday with Councilmember Wong, and she was and is just a terrific...

Spokesperson for your agency and is really rep really represents you well

I have a number of questions say word to the public and to my colleagues that are good enough to participate in today's hearing I have the

unique distinction of being on eight City-Council committees so I have had the opportunity to watch every variety of chair

holding hearings.

And there are two things that I think both the public and the council members find somewhat challenging and frustrating, to be honest,

which is the chair will spend 20, 30, 40 minutes asking questions of whoever's testifying before them.

And all these other council members who all have

these schedules, they don't get to ask any questions.

And in many cases, the chair just doesn't want the person to ask their question.

I mean, I'm speculating, but the bottom line is it's frustrating.

The other thing that's frustrating is, is you get two, three minutes to ask a question.

The administration will try to give a comprehensive, lengthy answer, and your time's up.

No time for an appropriate follow-up question.

So I'll just say to my colleagues that are good enough to be here and participate in today's hearing, I'm going to ask a couple of questions, then turn it over to you guys.

Ask questions.

You've got five minutes.

But if you need more than five minutes, take more than five minutes.

If there's an appropriate follow-up question, ask it.

Ask it.

We're not going to kick anybody out and grab the hook after five minutes.

But trust me, I have plenty of questions on my own.

Let me begin, Commissioner, with your testimony regarding the LGBTQ plus liaisons.

How many veterans, you indicated that there's already two LGBTQ plus liaisons.

How many veterans have interacted with each liaison over the last 12 months?

Thank you for the question.

DBS, we necessarily don't ask the gender identity question.

DBS, when a veteran comes in, we ask for the type of services that they need as

DBS, we want to make sure that it does create a welcoming space for every individual to feel comfortable at DBS.

Oftentimes, the individual, him or herself, decides to disclose the type of service that they need or the type of gender identity that

that they would like to identify as.

However, at DBS, we don't actually ask that question directly.

However, with the gender liaison that we do have in place and is in 2024,

that specific liaison has provided support to individuals by helping them connect with partners that can go further on providing the services that they need.

But most recently, we added a second LGBTQ plus liaison, and the goal is to work closely with the LGBTQ plus committee and the LGBTQIA plus

mayor's office to see.

How can we do better at DVS to provide support to the LGBTQ plus IA community?

And I'll let Nicole further elaborate on that.

Our current LGBTQ plus liaison, Donna, she has also attended different community events in the past as well.

So in addition to just being one-on-one on the client side of it, she's also participating in the community in different events that pop up, specifically relating to LGBTQ plus issues as well.

And we can follow up with the listing.