I applaud all your efforts to bringing the attention with all the media coverage and events to the possibility of closure of Barstow Veterans Home. As a former Mayor of Barstow I supported the Veterans Home and will continue to now and in the future. Since day 1 of the announcement I have been in contact with employees. I have been strategizing and would like to form a committee to lobby the California State Legislature as soon as possible since time is running short. We can make a difference by calling members of the state legislature and I too will be making calls to members I personally know. My goal is not to alienate the majority that make the decisions.
The community of Barstow with a “Heart” all care about the “Barstow Veterans Home” whether we are all a different political affiliations as so many of the Veteran’s, now is the time to unite.
The legislature consist of 2 bodies, Senate and Assembly
Senate- Democrats have 29 seats and Republican have 11 seats . Majority Vote is 21
https://www.senate.ca.gov/
Assembly- Democrats have 61 seats and Republican have 18 seats . Majority Vote is 41
https://www.assembly.ca.gov/assemblymembers
Please also contact the Veteran Committees of each body
https://avet.assembly.ca.gov/
https://svet.senate.ca.gov/
I believe if Assembly Obernolte would write an amendment to the bill to recommend the approval of the CalVet Master Plan 2020 to revise per Chapter 8 pages 266 and 267
“To better support the needs of the veteran community and to better over come campus challenges, the Barstow Home should be reconfigured to exclusively provide SNF and RCFE services, rather than emphasize DOM and ICF”
Below is the CalVet Master Plan for 2020, pay particular interest to Chapter 7, pages 188 and Chapter 7 pages 266 and 267
https://www.calvet.ca.gov/Documents/Master%20Plan%202020.pdf
I want to take the time to thank David Jensen and others that are working hard contacting the media and updating the community.
-Joe Gomez