Special Commission on Veterans Affairs Tuesday July 21st 2026
Call to Order and Roll Call
The meeting is called to order, roll call is taken to establish a quorum, and the agenda items are read into the record. The Chair introduces the staff and legal counsel present.
Discussion Regarding City's Incoming Veterans Affairs Staffer
The Commission discusses the creation of a new full-time Veterans Affairs staff position within the city's Department of Health and Human Services. Members discuss the job description, qualifications, and a target hire date of November 1st.
Discussion Regarding Veterans Day 2026
The Commission reviews plans for the upcoming Veterans Day event scheduled for November 5th at City Hall. The Chair requests recommendations for local Providence veterans to be recognized during the ceremony.
Discussion Regarding Planning of a Providence Sponsored Veterans Parade
The Commission debates the timing of a proposed city-sponsored veterans parade, ultimately deciding that November 2027 is more appropriate than May. Members discuss coordination with public safety officials, potential routes, and estimated costs.
Other Business and Announcements
The Commission discusses upcoming community events, including 'Coffee Out' gatherings and the WaterFire event scheduled for November 7th. Information is shared regarding online resources and community calendars for veterans.
Adjournment
The Chair summarizes the action items and next steps for the Commission. A motion to adjourn is made, seconded, and approved.
Speaker 0
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Let me know. Yeah.
Speaker 1
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Yeah. We're tell you that it's coming.
Speaker 0
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Do you wanna wait for her? Gonna
Speaker 1
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Wait five minutes.
Speaker 0
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You're going with it. I'll let him Okay.
Speaker 1
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Welcome everyone to the Special Commissioner of Veterans Affairs for Tuesday, 07/21/2026. Time, the present, is 05:08. Time clerk, please call the roll. Chair Pichardo? Present.
Speaker 2
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Vice Chair Yanucci? Is absent. Commissioner Alves? Present. Commissioner Yarn?
Speaker 2
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Present. Commissioner Cruz Del Valle is absent. Three present, two absent. We have quorum.
Speaker 1
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Thank you. And seeing that we have quorum, welcome, everyone. We wanted to make sure that today we cover the items that appear before us. Doctor. Clark, would you like to read them?
Speaker 2
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Sure. Item number one, discussion regarding the city's incoming Veterans Affairs staffer. Item number two, discussion regarding Veterans Day twenty twenty six. And item number three, discussion regarding the planning of a Providence sponsored Veterans Parade in May 2027.
Speaker 1
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Thank you very much. And then we'll also have some questions and answers on each item and discuss our next meeting, possibly our next meeting with other items that we may want to bring. We have present with us Isaac from our office and our great staff and team. Thank you for joining us in our legal services. So listener, right?
Speaker 1
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You're part of the solicitor. Yes, thank you. So just a conversation or discussion regarding the city's incoming Veterans Affairs Stafford. Just a quick update on our last conversation, which took place in April. We were in the middle of budget and projection, and we had a discussion regarding the potential of having a full time Veterans Affairs staffer added to the city province.
Speaker 1
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So that way at the municipal level we can have services and also coordinate with the state and also be also part of this commission and work with us, especially as we continue to service not only the veterans, but also families and the external support network.
Speaker 3
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We,
Speaker 1
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the veteran affairs staffer was recommended by myself and also the mayor agreed and we included it in the budget. So it is a full time person that's coming in. The role right now is going to be in the job description is under development. So with your experiences, we'd love to hear some suggestions from this Commission, but also at one point in the next meeting we will have the direct immediate supervisor who will be heading that department or that staffer and what that role and responsibility is going to be. With that said, just a brief from my perspective, and as we discussed before, the ideal is a person that is a veteran, hopefully a person that's bilingual or trilingual.
Speaker 1
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Know, veterans are very multi talented. Would you agree? And that's a person that really gets it and is willing to work hard, not only within within the city and has the connection to different organizations. Of course, the director will be fully available to help us out and bring full use of this building into the 444 Westminster Street, where this person is going to be housed. So it's going to be a new era, a new time for veteran services from the municipal level of the city of Providence, California City, and really appreciate your insights and would love to get your feedback as we continue to develop this position and this person is going to be working with us.
Speaker 1
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Any questions or any feedback? So I was thinking,
Speaker 4
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what's your view on a timeline for this? Are we like three months out, six months out, to be able to actually hire? What's your thoughts? We still got to obviously work on a job description. Going through the hiring process from a city standpoint is not a difficult one as far as posting it and everything else.
Speaker 4
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So I think most of the work right now is going to be in the job description. And I mean, assuming we can put something together, I mean, the other half of it's not a difficult process.
Speaker 1
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Yeah. The way I envision is that I would love to have the process as fast as possible, know, especially coming up to November, where we have the celebration of the event for veterans, and that will be a net added bonus to to have a staff member and a person that we can present, but also work with our team in the City Council in the City Of Providence and also the Commission. The idea is that is that we get that job description. So as soon as possible or anything that. Any templates or any feedback that you have, I'm going to be working with the director of HHS, Emily Freeman.
Speaker 1
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She's the one that's going be seeing that and help with that process along with with the HR team to ensure that we have qualified and responsible veteran applicants and and people in general. You can't just say just veteran, but the idea of it will be a person that that is a veteran for this police position or a family member. You know that someone has some experience with servicing veterans and I think that will be key in the next couple of weeks. If you do have some recommendations, please feel free to email it to me and then we could make the recommendations to the director.
Speaker 4
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So considering the physician will fall under HHS, I believe they're on a 3rd Floor. So at some point soon, we can start looking, well, you know, I can start looking for space, available space prior to us getting a space done.
Speaker 1
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Yeah. But I think it's also important to recognize the fact that the the mayors in the administration, Emily, to sit down at the table and continue to describe and also create that vision of what this position is going to be responsible for and to whom and what sort of resources are going to be available. You know, I've had the opportunity to, over the years, to be among not only here in Rhode Island, but also outside different organizations that will have different resources at hand to us. So we'd love to have someone that really also has that work already built and overwhelm us with resources to our veterans and also their families. Yeah, so timeline would love to have this, you know, by November 1, just to have somebody on board.
Speaker 1
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I can't imagine it's going
Speaker 4
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to take too long. That's all I got. Yeah.
Speaker 1
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Directed or no? All right. I'm surprised you got them. You won't die. Know
Speaker 3
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you wait. That's it. Yes. So
Speaker 1
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as far as the time line, so feel free to send me some of those recommendations. And also, we will be engaging. We already reached out to Emily and the director to have those discussions and where we're going to be providing you. And planning some of the things that were coming in the next couple of months. And speaking of that, we spoke about in, I believe, last meeting or prior to that, that we were going to have a veterans event.
Speaker 1
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This will be our third one, right? Fourth? I believe it's the fourth, yeah. And it was set for November 5. And the calendar we had agreed that that would be the Veterans event at City Hall.
Speaker 1
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And the idea, again, is to coordinate it better than last year. We'll be looking to get greater participation and getting the word out once we also create notification or flyer or disseminated to to our Commission members and also usually our delegation, central delegation is present and a keynote speaker or someone that we recognize. What I'd like to entertain is also for the next meeting, you make recommendations that have a couple of veterans that we can highlight that are Providence residents, I would certainly appreciate it. There's many veterans who serve in different departments throughout the city, but also there are veterans out there that work in our city, but also live in our city. And if you know of any one that merits these type of recognition or at recognize the fact that they're among us, please feel free to send those names and recommendations to me and our office.
Speaker 1
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Any other discussion or question on that? So we're good for November 5, as we agreed. November 5 is It's the Thursday. Thursday, same time that we did last time last year. So let's put it on our calendar.
Speaker 1
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The item number three, discussion regarding the planning of a province sponsored veteran parade in May 2027. So this item, I put it on the agenda to discuss. Previously, we had discussed the goal of this commission, one of the goals of this commission was to eventually have a parade here in the city province. People can't remember the last time we had a parade and we had agreed that it was going to be this year, but we also performed until the following that it was also trying to see if we do it in November. What I'm recommending is that have a discussion, is to have a veteran parade during the month of May.
Speaker 1
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In the month of May, the director can speak a little bit about all the recognition that takes place during the month of May as the Military Armed Forces Month, and it also finishes with the, correct me if I'm wrong, it also finishes with Veterans Memorial Weekend. And so I'm looking to see how we can plan or have a parade during the month of May. There's plenty of parades and the memorial weekend, but also during veterans weekend. And so wanted to see if there was some thoughts around that, any suggestions?
Speaker 4
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So when I saw this one, I ended up looking on my phone. So for the month of May, established items that is, I mean, we got Mother's Day, second Sunday of May, that people are gonna be at home with families and stuff. Memorial Day is the last Monday of May, and there's also Armed Forces Day, which is active duty service members, which is the third Saturday of May. So things to kind of potentially
Speaker 3
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May or June?
Speaker 1
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May. In May. Yeah.
Speaker 3
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Might be doing. So pay. But May, we always say, we could do more of this. So what my recommendation that when we talked about this, we have to decouple it too. If it's May, it's Memorial Day.
Speaker 3
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Right. If it's Yeah. If there's May. If it's Veterans, it's November in that regard for veterans. Because the the you gotta be comfortable with them.
Speaker 3
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So if you say Veterans, you wanna be with Memorial Day, we know that Memorial Day is for our fall. Right. So my recommendation would be to if it was to be in May, it has to be aligned with Memorial Day because it seems something everybody else's well, it's an and it says the right time. Yeah. The one you're referring to, that was in May, but it folks lean towards flag daddy.
Speaker 3
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June 14. June 14. Yeah. In that regard, along those lines. So if if it
Speaker 4
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is if it's in terms of
Speaker 3
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to summarize here, if it's in terms of looking for Ray, and that is the wish of this committee, then it needs to be if it's in May, it must be a line closer to Memorial Day. But again, if it's going for veterans, if we're talking about veterans, then it's easier for us to do that in the November time frame.
Speaker 1
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And on forces day, that Right. This whole discussion in a sense, and that being Well, that aligns with active duty. Right. Active duty? Right.
Speaker 1
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It doesn't align align with those. I don't believe
Speaker 4
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that's why we gotta understand.
Speaker 3
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Yeah. Yeah. So that's why it sends the wrong it sends the wrong message in that regard, but the dude has three different three distinct cohorts. Right.
Speaker 1
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So that's so then if. With those points in mind. Having Memorial Day. Closer to Memorial Day or on Memorial Day question. Think that answers to you and having your expertise here and knowing how many other cities and towns have the rates In Memorial, you guys have can you elaborate on that?
Speaker 1
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With water fire.
Speaker 3
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Yeah. So that's in November. In November. That's what I was saying. We could do all these things, but you gotta put it in the right content.
Speaker 3
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Right. Right. So around May, Memorial Day, we do our event on Memorial Day proper at 01:00 because we're very mindful of all the other municipalities doing their events in the morning time frame. That gives us plenty of time. I give everyone plenty of time to go celebrate in your municipality.