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To one point six billion dollars plus
after two o'clock today, My early voting

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continues with your balloting, but until
then. Over the years, I've done

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some work with the Claremont County Veterans'
Service Commission and also with Butler County,

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and each time I did it,
I noticed there were many Hamley County veterans

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that were going to Claremont County,
in Butler County and Warren County in order

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to get services, which generally included
transportation. How do you get through the

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morass the myriad of difficulties with the
VA referral for a doctor's appointment, etc.

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And each of the organization has told
me separately something's wrong in Hamlety County

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with a Veteran Service Commission, and
so not much came of it. I

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put it in the back, so
well down the road, we'll see what

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happens. And it's a great thing
that Craig McKee of Channel nine has done

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an ITEAM type investigation of the Hamley
County Veterans Service Commission and specifically the executive

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director, guy by the name of
It appears that all the public moneys through

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real estate. I think it's point
five mills that are paid into this organization

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and if the money's not used,
it just goes to the general fund and

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get stuck in with a bunch of
other stuff. And so, Craig McKee

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of Channel nine, We're nine stands
for news. You're joining us now,

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and Craig McKee, welcome to the
Bill Cunningham Show. And can you tell

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the American people in general what caused
your ITEAM investigation of the Veteran Service Commission

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here in Hamilton County. Well,
Bill, it's a pleasure to be on

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with you today to talk a little
bit more about this. Ultimately, you

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know, we need to be giving
our veterans a hand up. And that's

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where this all starts. A number
of complaints veteran who said that he went

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there many years ago, tried to
get assistance and was pretty much blown off

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because he didn't have an appointment.
That turned me then to of course,

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the world of social media and the
internet, and I started I just put

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a fishhook out there basically to say, hey, any other veterans had any

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issues with any VSO in the Southwest
Ohio area. And immediately some of the

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initial responses were don't go to Hamilton
County. Go to Butler County, go

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to Claremont County, go to Warren
County. You're not going to get help

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in Hamilton County. I never have
had to use I'm an Air Force veteran.

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I've never had to use the services
through the Hamilton County Veterans Service Commission

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or the VSO. Even I've gone
through the Cincinnati VA Medical Center and gone

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through that process, but I've never
had to use this office. But it

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was clear that there was some concerns
for veterans, so I immediately began reaching

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out. And when I reached out, the initial call to the office to

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speak to the executive director, William
Betcher, I basically received a return phone

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call from the administrative assistant there,
who told me that he told her that

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he didn't have time to sit down
and referred me to their website. And

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if you look at their website,
their website actually had outdated information on it

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on when their next meetings were going
to take place, so the website didn't

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have a lot of information. There
are places to click, you know,

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to try to apply for financial assistance
and things like that, but that was

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not the best answer I was looking
for, clearly, because I wanted to

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do a sit down conversation and talk
about the services they offer veterans, and

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they wouldn't do it. And to
go back a little bit, as I

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understand it, correct me if I'm
wrong that point five mills in real estate

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taxes are paid by all property owners. And many many decades ago, the

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lawmakers in Columbus and all eighty eight
counties created the Veteran Service Commission with Veteran

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services organizations and the money goes into
the pot point. It's not very much,

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but it adds up in Hamleton County
to tens of millions of dollars.

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And I think the executive director,
William Betcher, is paid north of one

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hundred thousand dollars to administer this.
And I've heard for years something's wrong in

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Hambleton Counties. So let's get into
the numbers you have in your story.

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Give me the numbers of veterans serve
compared to the other counties that surround Hamilton.

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All right, So Hamilton County serves
right now, according to their data

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from twenty twenty to forty one,
one hundred ninety nine veterans. It's more

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than double what Butler County serves at
twenty thousand, three hundred and forty four

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and Warren County follows up at twelve
one hundred and eighty one. Now mister

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Bencher receives one hundred and twenty three
thousand, eight hundred ninety one dollars for

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his salary. And they could have
requested we referenced the point five mills.

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They are allowed to request up to
seven million dollars in change, so seven

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point zero eighty four and change they
could have requested. Now they did request

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one point three almost one point four
million to then only spend nine hundred and

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thirty thousand dollars. In comparison,
when you look at say Butler County,

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a Butler County, you know,
comes in second with a number of veterans

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that they're serving. And while they
too sent money back to the general fund

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of two point five million dollars,
they were allocated four point four million dollars

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in change. Obviously, you know, property values differ from county to k

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and different counties spend different percentages.
But Hamilton County said to the bottom of

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how much they spend of what they're
allotted by the point five mills at eighteen

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percent of the funding and they spent, which was kind of astonishing. And

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again every county is different. You
know, Hamilton County does have a metro

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bus service and other rural areas won't
have those types of services. But you

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know, when you look at Butler
and Claremont County, they have transportation systems

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set up where they can get veterans
from door to door, they can pick

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them up at their home, take
them to critical medical appointments, and get

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them back home. Whereas Hamilton County
relies on the metro bus system and they

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spent five hundred and thirty eight dollars
on their own reporting for those services in

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twenty twenty two, Whereas you have
Butler and Warren County. Warren County spent

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over a million dollars on transportation and
Butler County spent over a quarter of a

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million for transportation for veterans according to
their reports. So the forty one thousand

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veterans in Hamilton County, by the
taxpayers, should have available to them up

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is seven million dollars a year out
of the Veteran Service Commission slash Veteran Services

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Organization, and they Hamilton County in
twenty twenty two spent nine hundred thousand,

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which is a pittance compared to the
other counties. Now, as far as

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your services, can you tell the
American people, Craig McKee of Channel nine,

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what are specifically the services that we
taxpayers want to provide the veterans?

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What kind of services give me two
or three or four things we should be

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providing. If we had a competent
Veteran Services Commission in Hamilton County, what

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are the services? Well, the
interesting thing here, Bill is that the

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law says that they have to provide
services for processing paperwork, applying for benefits,

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transportation and other things. But there's
no guidance. Each VSO or VSSE

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and every single county can operate how
they choose, So there's not a set

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template by the state that says you
need to provide XYZ. When it comes

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to transportation, they leave it up
to the Veterans Service Commission to decide and

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then ultimately with the Executive Director to
decide what is best for veterans. Now,

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since this story ran on Monday,
I can tell you that I have

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had my inbox flooded with veterans and
my voicemail flooded with veterans who had years

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and years and years of frustration tied
to the VSC in Hamilton County. And

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the problem is that they got so
frustrated that they actually went to then Butler

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or Warren or Claremont County. And
I've had VFW commanders reach out to me

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on email saying that they send their
veterans to other locations because they know the

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problem. The issue is there are
no official complaints on file when you do

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a public records request, there isn't
a laundry list of public at least according

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to the records that they've kept.
There are no official complaints about the process

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because veterans get frustrated with the process
and then they go elsewhere instead of filing

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an official complaint. That's the quagmire
right now for so many looking at this

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that there's an entity in their county. The Hamilton County commissioners are looking at

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this now. Hamilton County Commissioners approve
the budget in the sense that the commission

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the VSC submits their budget of what
they plan to request, they submit it

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to Hamilton County, and Hamilton County
basically rubber stamps it, so to speak.

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Hamilton County Commissioners have no fingers in
the game plan of what VSC is

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executing in their county. So right
now Hamilton County Commissioners are trying to figure

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out how can we help veterans more
with the services, and they've asked that

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the executive director himself, William Bill
Betcher, comes in or representative of the

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VSC to the commission meeting today.
And I've been told just a little while

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ago that they do not plan to
attend this one PM meeting the Hamilton County

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Commissioner. When I did some work
with Claremont County Veteran Services Organization, what

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they did was if if there was
a veteran having mental health problems immediately there's

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forty forty or fifty veterans every day
that kill themselves, that they would have

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an emergency meeting with other veterans.
Some other veteran may be down on his

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luck and need money to pay the
rent for two months, and so he

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would make an application in Claremont County
that veteran, and there's a board and

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Clairemont County would say, is this
legit? We have to know this guy.

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Someone might have a car payment due
that he can't make, and the

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group would get together and say,
you know what, we got to help

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Tony Bender. He's served in Vietnam, he's down, he is seventy eight

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years old, and let's make a
car payment. But we got to work

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with this guy to make sure he's
up on his own. Clairemont County and

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Butler County and Warren County, I've
worked with them, do fabulous work with

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veterans and helping They do events out
there where they have a bake sale,

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they raise the election. It's a
very active organization. And every time I

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would say what about Cincinnati Hamilton County, and they just their eyes would roll.

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And it comes down the executive director, William Betcher, is getting paid

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one hundred and twenty three thousand dollars
a year to serve the needs of veterans.

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And either the guy doesn't care or
he borders on in confidence because he's

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not getting the job done. And
the fact that at one o'clock today,

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in about forty five minutes, your
sources tell you that haven't been requested to

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appear before the Commission, that Betcher
and his band is not going to show

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up. That is correct, That
is correct, And you know, I

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do want to be you know clear
here that what they're doing is not technically

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illegal their operation correct. It's an
optics issue. If other counties have you

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know, lower they don't have seven
million dollars to spend. However, they

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are running all of these other programs
to help veterans and have more staff members

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in their office to process claims.
You know, it's an optics issue.

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And all we want to know.
All I want to know on behalf of

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the taxpayers and veterans in Hamilton County
is what are they doing and why do

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they think what they have set up
is the best game plan to help veterans

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and to give veterans a hand up
that they deserve. That's the essence of

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it. And maybe William Betcher's the
best thing since slice bread. Who knows,

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But everyone you talk to around the
Try States say, boy, don't

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go to Hamlet And County if you're
a veteran because and you have something in

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your story about a veteran showed up
at the office I think and spoke to

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a woman there and the veteran tried
to help getting through the VA morass and

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benefits kind of describe what happened with
that with that veteran. Yeah, as

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Ernest Coleman went there again. He
didn't have an appointment. He showed up

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out of the blue, unclear of
even how to navigate the process. So,

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like so many veterans when we get
out of the service, especially,

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it's a little bit better now,
but when I got out of the service

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in two thousand, it was pretty
much there's the door, see you later.

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So the guidance the veterans today receive
is better than it used to be,

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But for so many veterans, you
know, trying to navigate the process

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on how you get benefits and how
do you apply and what boxes do I

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need to check on this form?
And how do I submit the form?

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Well, I mean he went to
the office he the according to him,

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the receptionist was very rude, did
not provide any information, hammered him about

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not having an appointment and just coming
in. And then when he asked for

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a supervisor, as he explained,
and another older gentleman came in from the

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back, and he says, pretty
much gave him the same run around,

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and then he was like, that's
that's it. I'm going elsewhere. And

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he actually went up to Dayton to
get some information instead, And you know,

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he's not alone. There are so
many veterans that go through this process.

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In fact, Congressman Winstrip who I've
spoken with on many veterans issues,

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he even had his own, you
know issues when filing claims and going through

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his process, and he's a representative. So this goes across the board that

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that you know, it's not a
simple task. And while the government is

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has tried to streamline this process for
veterans and it is better today than it

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used to be, it's still a
process. And if you are unsure how

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to navigate that process, we need
people in offices. And it's nothing against

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the Veteran Service officers who are doing
the work doing the work in Hamilton County.

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The men and women in the offices
there are that are filing the claims,

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that are doing what they're supposed to
do. And so many of these

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vsos across the Southwest region and even
across the state, they are doing great

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things to process claims because I see
the numbers of claims that they have all

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processed. But that said, clearly, Hamilton County appears from the outside,

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you know, when you compare them
to other operations, they just aren't doing

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necessarily what they could be doing,
there's so much more money left on the

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table that they could be using.
And just to let your viewers not because

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I know you have a broad range
of viewers that listen online as well.

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We actually mind the data for five
years. That's where the third over thirty

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one million dollars comes from. The
it's unspent over the five year mark.

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Hamilton County VSC did not request They
left thirty one million dollars on the table,

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so to speak, did not request
that for any services tied to veterans.

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And again many counties do return money. But we have put in this

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story online at WCPO dot com slash
home front. In this story is a

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graph for every single county in the
state of Ohio. You can go click

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on your county and it'll tell you
how many veterans are there, how much

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money they spent, how much money
they didn't spend, and how much went

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back to general funds and other data
as well. So I encourage your viewers

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that are in other counties to definitely
go check out and see what their own

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county is doing, and if they
have any concerns, certainly reach out to

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me. And lastly, Craig McKee, I would say that when the money

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is not spent or not requested,
it goes into the general fund, which

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is hundreds of millions of dollars,
and a set of we taxpayers who put

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zero point five mills, which is
a very small amount each into the end

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of the pot to help veterans,
that simply has sucked into the whole system.

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And there needs to be a refe
of the Veteran Service Commission. And

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lastly, I would say that at
this point it appears from your story Hamany

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County commissioners requested somebody coming at one
o'clock. But they're a separate organization.

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They're not part of the Haminy County
Commission. In other words, they're just

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by themselves out there, and like
Alisha raised an each three house, they're

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not in charge. They can hey, they can request it, maybe the

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county prosecutor. There's nothing criminal here
we're talking about, I don't think correct.

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And so it's like one of these
government entities is floating around exactly.

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And I've reached out to the Ohio
Department of Veteran Services as well with additional

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public records requests. Somebody at the
tipster on the inside has told me that

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these vsos are not even audited.
There's no kind of checks and balance.

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I've obviously reached out to the state
to verify that information and to see if

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there are audits taking place, give
me copies of them, let me know

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what you are keeping an eye on. And there's certification questions as well that

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have popped up, and whether or
not certifications that are required, whether or

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not they're in place. So we
are continuing to ask the questions and push

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for answers to make sure that our
veterans again are getting the hand up that

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they deserve in our community. Too
many vets slip through the cracks, and

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we can't let that happen. Well
after the election, there's so much going

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on, which youry now on Tuesday, and of course Mike Dwine, I

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got him coming on, I got
Frankle Rose coming on. He's a veteran.

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After the election, state government's got
to put some teeth, some audit.

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Something's got I'm sure Mike DeWine will
do it, Frankle Rose will do

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it. Bill Sites will do it
somehow. Because of your investigation, this

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needs to rise up to a higher
level where since it's public money being spent,

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we have to have audits. We
have to know what's going on.

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At this point, they're on their
own doing their best. But after the

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election, let's work together with political
contacts or whatever, change the law so

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that veterans the forty one thousand in
Hamlin A County are treated as they should

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be. Craig McKee, great work, and thank you for coming on the

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Bill Cunningham Show. And let's touch
base a week or two after the election.

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That sounds great, Bill, Thanks
for having me. All right,

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God bless you. Let's continue with
more zero point five mills. I don't

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know what that is. It's about. Each taxpayer is paying about one hundred

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and ten dollars a year in Hamilton
County for veteran services, and we have

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a department here that's not functioning properly
by any fair estimate, and we can't

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you can't get answers. There is
separate entity, so state government's got to

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get involved. They created the entity, now they need to improve it.

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So let's work on it together after
the election when things calm down, if

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they ever calmed down. Bill Cunningham
News Radio seven hundred WULW Genesis Diamond's biggest

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and last seat