September 13, 2022 - The Shelby County Commissioners received an update from Sherry Riley,Veterans Service Officer (VSO), on the current status of her position and the duties it includes during their September 7, 2022, meeting.
Riley explained she services veterans from both Shelby and San Augustine Counties, and due to issues with utilities in the historic courthouse where her office has been housed, she has been unable to continue providing services from there.
"When Covid began, I continued to work out of the office through about April I believe," said Riley. "At that point our numbers were getting pretty high and I deal with veterans whose health issues make them an exceptional group of the population, and we want to do everything that we can to protect their health."
During April 2020, Riley established a home office and began working from home. She said she continued to see veterans face-to-face when it was absolutely necessary to obtain signatures, medical documents or evidence to file toward their claims, and any other personal documents. She said interviews were primarily conducted over the telephone while also utilizing masks and distance following Covid protocols, and it went very well.
"On into 2021 continuing to work from a home office, see veterans here in town wherever we could meet, and then I went back to the historic courthouse," said Riley. "Well, you remember in 2021 we had a very hard freeze, a couple of them actually wreaked havoc on our county, [and] did a number on the wells at the courthouse and the plumbing."
Once Riley was moved back into the courthouse she said she then discovered there was no heat in the building, no water, and no air. After that was determined, she moved her office back to her home.
"That's where I have been working since then, is from my home office," said Riley
Riley said that recently the commissioners and county judge in conjunction with Lane Dunn, County Agent, arranged for the Veterans Service Officer to have an office space in the building that houses the county extension office. She said she would be working out of that location; however, she wouldn't be there every day.
"That's just not how the Veterans Service Office operates," said Riley. "I discovered a lot of positive things as a result of 2020. Number one, the absolute best place in the world to conduct an interview with a veteran is in the comfort of their own home, on their front porch sitting there in a rocking chair. They can tell their story in the comfort of their own environment."
She explained she can file better claims for them then, because she has better information. Riley said her plan is to be in her new office by appointment only to get signatures, medical documents, file claims, and when necessary to meet with a veteran she will be there to meet with them.
Riley said there has been some curiosity of what she does in working from her home and she assured the commissioners she is working. She provided the commissioners with a geographic distribution of expenditures which is produced annually by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
From the data Riley provided, the report for 2021 indicated Shelby County had 1,411 veterans receiving benefits and San Augustine County had 710 veterans receiving benefits, totaling 2121 veterans actively receiving benefits. Riley said, in 2020 the total VA expenditures for Shelby County was $12,753,000 and in 2021 that amount was $13,269,000.
"That's an increase of over $500,000 and I work from home," said Riley. "I think the numbers speak for themselves, I'm doing my job. Veterans can't receive these benefits if they don't know that they're available, I provide information, and if claims are not filed on their behalf."
Riley continued, "So, to set everyone's mind at ease, as far as how I'm conducting business and if I'm conducting business, I can assure you I am. I take my job very seriously, I am very passionate about veterans that I serve."
Riley compared the number of veterans in Shelby County and San Augustine County that she serves to the number of veterans in Panola County and she said she serves 657 more veterans actively receiving benefits than in that county. She said her projected salary for 2023 is $31,179 annually while Panola County's VSO salary is $46,138 annually.
"That's a $15,000 difference and I think the court needs to be aware of that and I think the court needs to be aware of how important my job is to this county, whether it's me serving as the Veterans Service Officer, or someone else in the future," said Riley. "This is a very important position in this county to serve and take care of our veterans."
The docent position at the Historic 1885 Courthouse has been the responsibility of Riley since 2016 and she described how that has made her responsible for all of the inner workings of the courthouse, including hosting weddings, responding to alarm calls at all hours of night, any issues that may occur on the weekends. All of which she said receives no additional compensation.
"There's no additional pay for that, for weddings I do get comp time. When I do a weekend wedding, that involved Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I do take that as comp time, those hours as comp time," said Riles. "So at this point we're not able to use the historic courthouse, so the docent is not really an issue; however, when the historic courthouse is able to be used again for tours and weddings, and business, I can't continue to be the docent of the historic courthouse if I'm not compensated for it," said Riley.
County Judge Judge Allison Harbison shared she received a letter from the wife of a veteran who recently was trying to get benefit and she had difficulty in dealing with the VA.
"I got a really nice letter thanking the court for allowing Ms. Riley to be the VA officer, because without her she probably would have not got the survivor's benefit," said Judge Harbison.
Tom Bellmyer, Commissioner Precinct 4, thanked Riley for the effort she puts forth for the veterans.
"I understand the responsibility that is is and I know that you take it very seriously, and I appreciate the effort that you've put forward," said Bellmyer. "I am hopeful that the office at the Agrilife Extension office will work out for you."
Judge Harbison stated for the court there will be a handicap parking spot added at the front of the Agrilife Extension building to ease entry for the veterans that need that.
The county has discussed and now is budgeting in the proposed budget for a County Elections Administrator position to oversee elections in Shelby County.
"Jennifer [Fountain], Debora [Riley], and I had a meeting yesterday and kind of hashed out some of the transitions and everything, if we were to go this route on who's going to house at this point and everything, eventually we'll need to find an office for this person and for this department."
Judge Harbison said there are some formal actions that need to be taken, such as ordering the position so that the documentation can then be sent on to the Secretary of State. Then there would be a transition from both the County Clerk and the Tax Assessor/Collector to establish the office of the County Elections Administrator.
According to Judge Harbison, if the commissioners are to approve the order then a meeting of the commission would have to be scheduled and which would be made up of the County Judge, County Clerk, Tax Assessor/Collector, Democrat Chair and Republican Chair. Nominations will then be put forward from the committee on who to appoint to the position and then a formal appointment would be made.
A motion carried to approve establishing the position of County Elections Administrator to be effective October 1.
Agenda items approved during the meeting include:
1. Pay weekly expenses.
2. Adopt the Order Creating the position of County Elections Administrator.
3. Adopt County Holidays for 2023.
4. Adjourn at 10:04am
Agenda items tabled until the next meeting include:
1. Discuss the FY 2021-2022 Proposed Budget.
2. Discuss the FY 2021-2022 Proposed Tax Rate.
3. Adopt the FY 2021-2022 Proposed Budget.
4. Adopt the FY 2021-2022 Proposed Tax Rate.
