Story County Veterans Affairs seeks part-time veterans service officer amid heavy claims workload

Story County Veterans Affairs Director Zach Skelton asked county supervisors on Feb. 2 for approval to add a part-time veterans service officer (VSO), saying the office is stretched thin handling claims and that a new hire would preserve institutional knowledge and allow continued outreach.

"We're requesting a part time employee position for a VSO," Skelton said, describing the position as a half-time role intended to be trained to handle pension and benefit claims alongside existing staff. Skelton told supervisors that some claim files require extensive work — "I estimate it would be at least 3 hours for an average" claim — and that the office handles roughly 15–18 veterans visits per week, or about three to four appointments daily.

Skelton said claims are the office's main output and bring federal dollars into the county; he reported a 79% success ratio for claims handled by the office. He also noted staff case counts from the prior year, saying, "There's been a 125 that I did in the last year, and then Aaron did 48 claims as well." The director warned that when a current 20-hour contributor (named in the transcript as Erin Reewords) retires, the office risks losing those hours unless a trained replacement is in place.

The meeting moved next to a line-by-line budget review. Skelton and auditors said the only certain revenue line for the Veterans Affairs office at present is a $10,000 state administrative payment. "We get $10,000 to operate our office," Skelton said; auditors clarified that the state payment is accounted for through the fiscal year and that the payment is restricted to administration, not direct veteran payouts. The audit staff said they submit required documentation to the Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs to receive the next year's check.

On expenses, Skelton walked supervisors through the packet: vehicle fuel and maintenance were estimated at $0 because vehicles are provided through County Admin; office supplies were listed at $1,500; uniforms and equipment at $300; marketing was reestimated at $3,000 for next year after a $4,000 experiment with signage; postage $200; employee mileage $500. Communication services were reduced to $950 based on a department-wide switch to Teams phone but staff agreed to verify licensing and per-line increases noted in an email from Colin before finalizing that line.

Other line-item changes included education and training at $3,000; equipment rent/maintenance $500; rent payments adjusted to $9,400 (staff said the office had spent about 60% of that line so far this year); utilities $1,000; transportation $3,500 for the VA-leased van; funeral services reallocated to $62.50 per unit to evenly cover three funerals; and care of graves at $5,000 unchanged.

Skelton compared Story County's performance to peers and said the office is "not in the top 10%" of counties for bringing in federal dollars, adding that he learned at a statewide supervisors conference that legislators were discussing incentive changes tied to federal dollars an office brings in, though no bill had been signed. Supervisors said they would not schedule new positions until they had reviewed other departmental requests and the county's overall budget capacity.

No formal motion to create the position was made during the session; supervisors asked staff to verify some communication licensing costs and to return with any revised numbers. The auditors and director indicated the primary next steps are to confirm the communication line-item and to include the position request in broader budget deliberations rather than make an immediate decision.