Save the V.A. for Veterans!

From: vankuran@xxxxxxx.com
To: linn.wyatt@xxxxx.org
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 09:34:34 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Sepulveda VA – Veterans’ Non-Support of Proposal

Ms. Wyatt:

Re: ZA-2008-2304(ZV)(SPR)

Attached please find a pdf file copy of a letter that you will receive via certified mail either today or tomorrow (Tues., 24-Feb or Wed., 25-Feb). (American Legion Letter.)

I believe the letter is self-explanatory; it is one of non-support for the proposed ND/ACOF and VA plans at Sepulveda VA and is written both at the direction and on behalf of the nearly 5,000 American Legion Veterans in the San Fernando and Antelope Valleys that are directly served by Sepulveda VA.

Please understand that the 5,000 American Legion Veterans in the area have very serious doubts and concerns regarding this proposed use of Sepulveda VA facilities and property. We believe there remains too many pivotal details that still remain extremely vague as part of the package.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

I remain, sincerely,

Lawrence Van Kuran, Adjutant
The American Legion
20th District, Dept. of CA

The FTDNC wrote to the Office of Zoning Administrator opposing the Community of Friends request for variance. (FTDNC Letter.) The letter says in part:

By a unanimous Board vote, The Foothill Trails District Neighborhood Council (FTDNC), resolves to
join with the North Hills West Neighborhood Council (NHWNC) and urge you to deny the subject
request.

The City of Los Angeles has many Veterans living in it, from World War II to our current wars. The Country and the City owe these Veterans and future ones a debt of gratitude, but more importantly, their health care which we promise them. We cannot withdraw badly needed services and facilities due to budget restraints or any other reason.

This complex has provided much needed quality medical care to Veterans here and hundreds of miles away.

We are reminded frequently in the news, about Veterans from across the Country coming home with severe physical and mental disabilities and no place to go for adequate care. This is nothing new, our Vets from earlier wars have had the same afflictions.

The two buildings in question are clean and could easily be refurbished and staffed to provide medical services or temporary housing to our Veterans while they are being treated. The Planning Department has the ability to change uses of a property when the evidence indicates that the change will be consistent with and/or beneficial to the neighborhood. In this case, the change will not be consistent with and/or beneficial to the neighborhood or the veterans.

Therefore, we again urge you to deny this Variance request as it sets a precedent for further degradation of a National obligation.

February 14, 2009

To: The Office of Zoning Administrator and all concerned parties

SEPULVEDA VA –THE SMOKING GUN!

Proof The VA , New Directions and A Community of Friends Deceive the Veterans, the Public and

The LA. City Zoning Administrator

The attached Dept. of Veterans Affairs (DVA), Department of Asset Management, memo regarding the Sepulveda VA has just surfaced.  (Buildings 4-5 Memo Dated Sept. 2, 2005.)  It explains in detail both the revenue received, and projected revenue, from film and television production at the Sepulveda VA Ambulatory Care Center (SACC) in North Hills, CA. The 2005 filming revenue is estimated at $1 million and is projected to increase annually to $7 million in 2010. The interesting part of all this is that no one knows where any of this money goes or how it is used. Apparently the money goes into the Asset Management Fund and the VA is not required to account for revenue generated by Asset Management or use it for the benefit of the veterans.

The memo writer, Theresa Castillo, Public Affairs Specialist Asset Management, Filming and Land Use, VA Westwood, expresses concern that they may be losing the film revenue from medical Buildings 4 and 5 at the Sepulveda VA due to a contract with New Directions (ND).

The Department of Veterans Affairs has entered into a 75 year Enhanced Use Lease with New Directions and their partners, A Community of Friends (ACOF), to convert the two buildings into a 149 unit Low Income Sober Living apartment complex to serve 147 qualifying persons in need. Estimated cost in 2004 was $40 million and could be double that today. The Leases also give 90% of the film and television revenue to New Directions and ACOF. New Directions operates an inpatient alcohol and drug abuse program at the VA Westwood. ACOF is a  low income housing developer specializing in large scale sober living complexes. 

On June 9, 2008, Applicants New Directions and A Community of Friends (ACOF) filed an Application with the City of Los Angeles for a Zoning Variance, Case No. ZA-2008-2304(ZV)(SPR). The Variance is necessary because the property is zoned PF1 which does not allow apartments. If approved, the conversion of buildings, 4 and 5, will go forward. A public hearing on the case is scheduled for 9:00 AM Friday, February 20, 2009 at the Braude Center, 6262 Van Nuys Blvd., Van Nuys, CA.

The application for the Variance states “Modify two existing and unoccupied medical buildings, 4 and 5, on 7.5 acres into 100% affordable efficiency units for 147 qualifying persons in need plus two manager’ units.” Next line reads “2 unusedmedical buildings….” Throughout the Applicants’ back up documents and in all their public presentations, ACOF and ND continuously describe these two buildings as “vacant and unused for 15 years.” Well, not exactly folks! We now have indisputable proof that the applicants made false statements on their Variance application and have done so in their public presentations.

Opponents of the project believe the memo is the smoking gun that proves New Directions and ACOF have deliberately misled the Dept. of City Planning, Zoning Administrator, the public and the veterans as to the status of the two buildings with claims that”the project and the Variance are justified because buildings 4 and 5 have been vacant and unused for 15 years.”  In fact, the buildings have been and are currently leased to various major production companies including Touchstone, Inc., a subsidiary of Disney Studios, producers of the TV series “Gray’s Anatomy” which is filmed at the Sepulveda VA. The veterans also believe it proves the VA cares only about the money and not about veterans

New Directions and ACOF also publicly represent that the apartment complex will be for veterans only which is also a misrepresentation of the facts. (See Exhibit G of the Leases – Tenant Selection List and Requirements for Occupancy also attached.)

Opponents have called upon the Zoning Administrator to deny the Variance. They want the two buildings, which are clean and in good condition, refurbished and staffed for treatment of veterans or housing for veterans In need of assisted living quarters during or after treatment. They also know that if the Variance is approved, it will set a dangerous precedent and open up the entire 160 acre property to more development of all kinds when our veterans urgently need medical facilities. Housing for homeless veterans is also important but they can be housed anywhere. Our veterans must receive and are entitled to receive their medical care at VA facilities. VA property should remain solely for use by and for the vets in perpetuity.

It must also be noted that the Sepulveda VA property is surrounded by single family residences, four (4) schools and several churches. There are no apartments In the area. There are many concerns and issues that have not and cannot be mitigated to protect the community, but the overriding concern is the needs of our current aging veteran population and those who are and will be returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Opponents of the project include the Veterans, the community, the North Hills West Neighborhood Council (NHWNC), Granada Hills South Neighborhood Council (GHSNC), Foothill Trails Neighborhood Council Land Use Committee (FTDNC) combined representing over 70,000 stakeholders, other neighborhood councils and Homeowner Associations throughout the San Fernando Valley. The Sepulveda VA currently serves over 150,000 vets as far north as Santa Maria, Northeast to Lancaster-Palmdale and the entire San Fernando Valley. There are over 40,000 new wounded and disabled vets, over 300,000 suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Tens of thousands will be returning home to the San Fernando Valley and are entitled to care and treatment locally. The Westwood facility is not equipped to handle the current veteran population and veterans in need of treatment or surgery are too often confronted with a waiting list and that is unacceptable to everyone.

Building 4 (a psychiatric unit) and 5 (a spinal cord unit), were last actively used as medical buildings in 1997-98. According to knowledgeable disabled veterans and other local vets, both buildings are “clean, floors polished, windows clean and ready to be put back into service as functioning hospital beds or for rehab services for our veterans returning from the wars. They do not want them rezoned as low cost apartments a private sector developer can partition up into 400 sq. ft. units and rent them out with no guarantee that they would even be for veterans only.  The veterans and the public want these buildings used to provide medical services for our veterans and they want to know why the revenue received from film and television production is not used for that purpose.  They want to know where and how the film production revenue is used and why is there no public accountability for the funds and activities. According to the Veterans Administration Handbook (VHA) any revenue must be put back to benefit veterans only. Dollar for dollar the monies must be accounted for.

The veterans believe  “the VA is attempting to discontinue available hospital services and capacity when needed most. Now they’ve entered into a 75 year Enhanced Use Lease with New Directions and ACOF which allows the DVA, through the Office of Asset Management, to give or sell the buildings and the 7.5 acres on which they stand to the Lessees at any time during the Lease.”

Opponents say “our tax dollars fund The Dept. of Veterans Affairs so there is no need for Enhanced Use Leases or other outside funding. Buildings 4 and 5 must be used for medical treatment and the Sepulveda VA must be reinstated as a full service in and out patient medical facility. That is what the conscience of this community, the veterans and the public at large demands. “

Background: Since approximately 1996, the Sepulveda VA. 16111 Plummer St., North Hills, CA, once a thriving full service hospital facility for veterans only, has engaged in a systematic reduction of medical buildings and services at that site. The over 150,000 Veterans who currently rely on the Sepulveda facility for medical care are now forced to travel to West Los Angeles for serious medical problems and/or surgery. There, they are often confronted with a waiting list. That is unacceptable to everyone.

It is no secret that the VA wants to divest itself of this 160 acre property which was donated to the U.S. Government in 1953 for veterans’ use. In order to accomplish this, the VA and the Dept. of Veterans Affairs have devised a unique program, the Enhanced Use Lease, which allows the VA to lease out parts of the facility to the private sector for a minimum of 75 years. These Leases may be altered or amended in any way and for any reason, at any time during the 75 year period. The Lessees have title to all property and improvements, they may mortgage the property for any amount and they also have the option to purchase it or, at the option of the Director, it may be gifted to them. These leases represent a gross misuse of VA assets and facilities.

When Congressman Brad Sherman opposed the New Directions/ACOF Leases, they went over his head to Congressman Bob Filner, Chair of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, who approved the leases which were then signed on December 21, 2007 by Robert J. Henke, Asst. secretary for Management, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Peggy Burgess

Attachments: Dept. of Veterans Affairs – Interoffice Memo (file:bldg4-5 pdf)

VA Tenant Selection List

VA Occupancy Requirements

Battle looms over

Sepulveda VA facility

By Rick Orlov, Staff Writer

Updated: 02/01/2009 12:33:54 AM PST

The dispute over the future of the Sepulveda

Veterans Affairs facility goes to the public this

month, with a hearing over whether to allow

construction of affordable housing on a portion

of the site.

Neighbors are concerned about increasing

development, and question whether the project

would be in the best interest of veterans.

“What we’re concerned about is if they

do this on this land, it could open up all 149

acres to development,” said Peggy Burgess

of the North Hills West Neighborhood Council

land use committee.

“We’ve been fighting this since 2006.

We think they ought to keep it for the veterans.

They want to take two medical buildings and

build this housing and there’s no guarantee

a veteran will be able to move in.”

Los Angeles nonprofit group A Community of

Friends is proposing to build 147 units of

affordable housing on a 7.5-acre parcel on the

property.

The housing will be targeted for the homeless,

with regulations such as requiring random drug

testing of tenants to make sure they stay clean.

Dora Leong Gallo, chief executive officer of A

Community of Friends, said they were

approached by the original developers, New

Directions, to work on the project for which they

have a 75-year ground lease.

“We wanted to do something on a more

long-term basis than you usually see in these

projects for the homeless,” Gallo said.

“We are building units for which they will

have their own leases and to make sure the

units always remain affordable.”

The two buildings on the site that are being

replaced have not been in use for 15 years and

are in pretty bad shape, Gallo said.

Plans call for a groundbreaking within 15

months and the new buildings opening in three

or four years.

Gallo said her group has been meeting with the

North Hills Neighborhood Council to try to resolve

differences without success.

“We have been working hard to explain

what we are doing to ease their concerns,”

Gallo said.

City Councilman Greig Smith, who has been

working with Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman

Oaks, on the project for more than two years,

said he believes most objections have been dealt

with.

Click here for the notice of Public Hearing before the Zoning Administrator regarding the request by A Community of Friends and New Directions for a Variance to convert two urgently needed medical buildings, and 7.5 acres, at the Sepulveda VA into 149 Unit Low Income Apartment Complex that is not for Veterans only. .

The hearing will be on FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20TH AT 9 AM at the Marvin Braude Center, 6262 Van Nuys Blvd. Van Nuys 91401. Tell your neighbors and email all your friends.

If you care about our veterans and our troops who will be returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and who urgently need the Sepulveda VA to be restored to a full service hospital facility to provide medical and psychiatric care for our wounded warrior, you wlll attend this hearing. You will join with the North Hills West Neighborhood Council and raise your voices loud and clear in opposition to this Variance request. If this Variance is approved, our Veterans will lose two urgently needed medical buildings at the Sepulveda VA.

Please let us know by return email if you will be attending the hearing as we need to get an estimate of the number of citizens and veterans who will be in attendance.

Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or need further information.

Please reply to Peggy Burgess at peggy8960@aol.com – 818-894-7425

North Hills West Neighborhood Council Land Use Committee

Nichan Kulukian, Loyd Ray and Peggy Burgess

To All Concerned:

Re: Sepulveda VA
FYI earlier this month Dr. Phil devoted an entire show “Beyond the Front Lines,” to the issue of physically and emotionally wounded veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who are not receiving even minimal (let alone adequate) medical and psychiatric care. Shows – Beyond the Front Lines
Military men and women are true American heroes who spill blood fighting for our freedoms. But are we doing all we can a …http://drphil.com/shows/show/1193/

One of the guests was Congressman Bob Filner, Chairman House Committee on Veterans Affairs whose committee oversees the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Dr. Phil tried to pin the Congressman Bob Filner down as to the reasons. Phil asked “What’s going on here? Is this an isolated anecdotal situation, or is this widespread?”

Filner replied “Unfortunately, it’s widespread, the VA was not prepared for the aftermath of the war. We’ve had incidents of PTSD team leaders telling their people “stop diagnosing PTSD… We can’t afford it. It costs too much. Diagnose something else. That’s a crime and that’s been committed by our own VA. It’s worse than that, we’ve had misdiagnosis of PTSD as personality disorder because personality disorder is preexisting. Therefore, ‘we don’t have to take care of you!’” He described cases in which a veteran having suicidal thoughts as going to the hospital and learned he would have to wait 5 or 6 weeks to be seen. “They go home and commit suicide.”

Filner went on “It’s hard to get accurate information from the VA because the administrators LIE to the committee!” In the last 2 years, we have increased their budget, especially in mental health almost 40% which is unprecedented. So we give them the resources. The question is how do they use them? If they want to cover up, they can cover up. We’ve had shredding of documents reported for claims. We’ve had backdating of things. We’ve had covering up suicide statistics, and we say ‘fire those people’ but we don’t have the authority to fire them, only the executive branch does.”

Filner told Dr. Phil “what you’re doing here is absolutely vital. The American people assume we are taking care of our kids because it’s their government. We are not!”

(You can read and print off entire transcript on the Dr. Phil website. www.drphil.com, click on archives and enter “Beyond the Front” and look in January 2009.)

These “lying” VA Administrators are the same people who signed two 75 year leases for 7.5 acres with A Community of Friends and New Directions to convert two urgently needed medical buildings into a 149 unit, low income, sober living apartment complex on the grounds of the Sepulveda VA Campus. Those apartments will not be for veterans only! (They cannot be under Federal Law and would preclude obtaining federal funds.) And they are not designated for physically disabled veterans. In fact, nowhere in the Leases, the Application for a Zoning Variance, or in any other legal document is the term “disabled” veterans” used. The only term used in any legal document is “Homeless” veterans and that is also a misrepresentation since tenants need not even be homeless, they can “be at risk of becoming homeless.” Tenants will also not be clean and sober since at least some, if not all, will be on Methadone. And, those Leases can be amended or reassigned at any time for other non-veteran related uses..

If the L.A. City Zoning Administrator approves the Variance request, A Community of Friends and New Directions will have 7.5 acres of Sepulveda VA Property. Does anyone really believe they will stop with only two apartment buildings. They can put a dozen or more apartment complexes on 7.5 acres and who will stop them once the precedent has been set?

These are the people you, the North Hills West Neighborhood Council (NHWNC), the Community, the Veterans and the City Of Los Angeles are being asked to trust. The same VA Administrators who, according to Congressman Filner, lie to the U.S. Congress. Is there anyone who honestly believes they will be truthful with you, the Veterans or anyone else!
You be the judge!

(Statistics quoted on “Beyond the Front Lines.” More than 170,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan, sacrificing life and limb to keep America safe. Nearly 40,000 have been wounded; an estimated 300,000 are living with Post Traumatic Stress disorder (PTSD) and in 2005, there were at least 6,256 suicides among those serving in the Armed forces. Many Vets say when they return home, they feel mistreated and neglected and are forced to fight a medical system bureaucracy that doesn’t hear them.)

Moreover, the major portion of U.S. forces in Afghanstan are deployed in the southern provinces of Khandhar and Helmand, the largest drug-producing (opium poppies) areas in the world. Just like Viet Nam, we can expect tens of thousands of heroin and morphine addicted veterans to return from those areas. Instead of giving them proper medical and psychiatric help to kick their addiction so they can once again be productive, .functioning members of society, the VA will give them Methadone, a highly addictive substitute for heroin and morphine. And one that gives the user the same effects, and exhibits many of the same symptoms as heroin and morphine.

Our Veterans need hospital and full service medical facilities, not low income sober living apartments. It’s time for everyone to join with our Veterans. Tell the City of L.A. and the Zoning Administrator not to approve this Variance request (ZA-2008-2304-2V-SPP) and demand that the Sepulveda VA be returned to the Veterans and once again become the full service hospital and medical facility we need to serve the needs of our wounded warriers! Help us keep the Sepulveda VA for Veterans only!

Here’s an email from Pauline Tallent who will present the paper in opposition to the Sepulveda VA project at Valley Vote Monday night. I just talked to her. Great Lady! She’s also been working on this for Several years and will be a great ally for us. Her entire family is USMC. She’s also on the boards of the Economic Alliance and the Board of Realtors and she intends their backing of the NHWNC as well.

She met the director of the VA for this area briefly at the USMCCCA luncheon on Friday and attempted to discuss the issue with him. She told me one of the things he said, and I”m paraphrasing, was that “so what if we have to pull in people off the street who are not vets to fill the quota!” Anyway, she’s furious! and will send me later today the email she sent to George Truesdale (Northridge West NC re that encounter!

I think Dora Gallo (CEO Community of Friends) is in for a big surprise tomorrow night. Nichan, Estelle Goldman, Liz Moran and I will for sure are going. Loyd’s out of town.

Peggy

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———- Forwarded message ———-
From: “Pauline Tallent”
To:
Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 10:58:12 -0800
Subject: Sepulveda VA
I just arrived at the office and received your two messages. I should have given you my cell phone, below. I didn’t want to call you today, as this may be your only day to relax. George has been kind enough to relay your various communications to me. Yesterday I was tied up with the USMCCCA quarterly luncheon and later the Installation Dinner for our new Southland Regional Association of Realtors, President.

Incase George has not relayed to you my “hot” email relating my encounter with the Veterans Administrator for this area, it is on my computer at home, and I will send it to you, later today. Perhaps I should have toned down my email, it wasn’t very business-like. I was so excited to be able to talk personally to someone in authority in this area, whom I was sure would have the Veterans welfare at heart. However, I was taken aback and devastated by the anger in his voice, and the fact that he would not let me say anything he was just on a tirade. He was definitely on the defensive (you know, the old saying, that the best defense is an offense).

Pauline Tallent, Broker/Owner
Tallent & Associates, Realtors
20205 Saticoy St., Winnetka, CA 91306
818-998-3833 (office) 818-667-0798 (cell)