Vets board delays coronation of Scocos

The state Board of Veterans Affairs decided today that it was not urgent to change its rules and effectively make John Scocos Secretary of Veterans Affairs for Life.

Gary Fisher attended the board's teleconference meeting and reports:

Seeing any real or perceived support for sweeping rule changes vanish into the ether during a telephone conference Monday, the Veterans Affairs Board agreed to consider further comments before voting in December on the proposed changes to board rules.

Most controversial is the proposal giving the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs secretary unprecedented power by requiring a unanimous vote of seven board members to remove the secretary from office for mismanagement or misconduct.

Now it requires four votes of the board to appoint the secretary and five votes for removal.

Board members Peter Moran and Marv Freedman cautioned for more input before any action is taken.

"We should take no action binding on future boards," said Moran.

Department lawyer John Rosinski opined, and board Chair Ken Wendt agreed, that the process legally allowed a vote on the changes at the teleconference, and (Wendt)
saw "no reason to postpone a vote."

Freedman said he wasn't raising the legality of today's notice but "the appropriateness of (voting)now instead of at December meeting." Reiterating his request for a delay, Freedman told Wendt "it's the principle I just mentioned. The board teleconferences only on matters that are time sensitive."

Board member Kathy Marschman said she was "willing to delay the proposal on the number of votes to remove the secretary after discussing it with "other folks."

Marschman, who initially proposed the rules changes out of thin air, said the "proposals are board matters and I'm curious why it has generated an attack on Secretary Scocos. "I hope the board works through this and recognizes that it's board business, not about him."

Marschman said it is "troubling that a newspaper the quality of the Journal Sentinel" how it portrayed board members" and weblogs comments directed at the secretary that people will "wonder what's going on." [Can't speak for the JS, but that's exactly what comments on this blog were intended to do. -- Xoff.]

Board members Don Heiliger and Walt Stenavich also agreed to revisit the proposed changes before the Dec. 9 board meeting in Union Grove.

"I'd like to see (the existing) document with Marv's (and Moran's) comments added side by side," said Heiliger.

County Veterans Services Officrs President Rick Gates, Dane County CVSO officer Michael Jackson and Marathon County CVSO officer Scott Berger attended today's meeting to urge the board to delay its action.

"It is bad public policy to make the secretary for life," said Berger. I see no reason."

In opposing a unanimous vote to remove the secretary for cause, Jackson said he's also adamantly against the board paying legal fees for a secretary accused of wrongdoing.

State Sen. Dan Kapanke, R-La Crosse, staffer and junior vice commander of the Wisconsin Military Order of the Purple Heart, John O'Brien, who opposes former State Sen. Rod Moen's confirmation to the board, was an observer at the meeting. Moen has been nominated by the governor to replace Marschman, whose term expired May 1, but she has refused to step down and the Republican-run State Senate has not confirmed Moen yet.

Wisconsin Veterans Museum director Richard Zeitlin said said he'd been with the agency since John Moses was secretary several years ago.

"The Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs' mission is to help veterans and their families, said Zeitlin.

"There's not much mentioned about achievements today," he said. "Through the achievements of this legislature (and governor) the WDVA has received solid gains."

The G.I. Bill (tuition breaks for vets returning from the Middle East) is a progressive step forward . . . I haven't heard anyone say how these proposed rule changes would benefit the veterans of Wisconsin."

Bill Kloster, the deputy secretary of Veterans Affairs, said he'd get the current proposal in the mail Tuesday, which is 10 days before the December meeting, and then forward electronic copies of today's comments from Freedman, Moran and other board members to the board in a few days.

Don't expect to receive an electronic copy if you request one, however, because Rosinski states, "hard copies of the requested documents will be sent to you as soon as they are finalized. Electronic copies of documents are not provided because of the capability of altering those documents after they are provided to the recipient."