With $500K Appeal Looming, Local Veterans Concerned By Bexar County Commisioners’ Termination of Benefits Officer; Officer Alleges Political Retribution

Local Verterans Benefits Officer Terminated

“U.S. Army veteran Steven Price just had hip replacement surgery for the second time. Price has been fighting for his service disability status to be upgraded from 70 percent to 100 percent for decades, starting in 1988 when the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) diagnosed his hip and low back issues as congenital bone disease....The difference between winning and losing his appeal is about $500,000 in retroactive pay, he said.”

But his case manager, Bexar County Veterans Service Officer Queta Rodriguez, was fired Nov. 9 and her position was eliminated in a decision she calls political retaliation for running against County Commissioner Paul Elizondo earlier this year. Bexar County Commissioners voted 3-1, with Elizondo abstaining, to approve the selection of a new veterans service office director and cut Rodriguez's position.

”The Commissioners' decision has left the veterans service office without a full-time accredited claims officer – and likely for a while.” Price and other veteran’s are upset that political retribution may be hurting their chances to get the benefits they so terrible need. 

Read the entire article at the Rivard Report.