After hearing emotional and sometimes tearful testimony, Miami-Dade commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to create a Military Affairs Board, one of only a dozen local boards around the nation that will assist military veterans.
The group will have 24 members who will help active and retired personnel from every branch find work, secure loans and access healthcare. The board will coordinate with the U.S. departments of defense and veterans affairs and help plan local events on Memorial, Veterans and Independence days. The board also will take over from the mayor?s office awarding the county?s highest honor, the Medal of Valor, to veterans or their survivors.
?Military service members become invisible. We can be lost in the shuffle,? said choked-up Army chaplain and Col. Rick Morrow, who served in Afghanistan and is now disabled. ?It brings the human cost of military service before you and the community.?
In other business Tuesday, commissioners gave preliminary approval to a measure that would ban the sale of candy-flavored tobacco products. The ordinance, sponsored by Commissioners Barbara Jordan and Jean Monestime, is intended to keep tobacco products flavored and packaged like candy away from children. It passed without discussion.
Commissioner Sally Heyman, an original sponsor, withdrew, saying she wanted the ordinance directed at stopping youth from chewing tobacco and didn?t want to hurt small businesses that would be banned from selling popular items like Swisher Sweets cigars to adults.
Regarding the Military Affairs Board, creating it was so popular that all 13 commissioners insisted they be listed as co-sponsors. Now each gets to appoint a member, as do the mayor, the head of the U.S. Southern Command, local offices of the four armed forces, the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, the Red Cross and the Marine Corps Reserve in Hialeah.
The board also will create a nonprofit entity to raise money to help offset its operating costs, which will be covered by the county?s general fund.
Commissioner Dennis Moss said returning veterans will need more and more support.
?I?m extremely concerned because as we begin to downsize and pull our troops back, you?re going to see more and more military men and women who are going to be hitting the streets in our community,? he said.
Army Staff Sgt. Robert Butler, who served two tours overseas, said he lost 15 friends and gained a lot of bad memories. He stressed the importance of the county?s initiative, saying about 7,000 veterans a year bring their problems home ? and take their own lives.
Also Tuesday, commissioners signed off on merging the county?s permitting, environmental and regulatory affairs department with the department of sustainability, planning, and economic enhancement. Those divisions will now be folded into a new Regulatory and Economic Resources Department.
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