Following our post Tuesday from a Marine Corps veteran who felt he got rude treatment from clerk with the Cameron County Veterans Service Office, we received a call from Asst. Director Laura Lee San Miguel who wanted to clear up what she called was a misunderstanding.
If you recall, the veteran approached a VSO clerk (Christina Cano) and asked her if she could tell him the best way to make an appointment with the Harlingen VA clinic only to have her tell him that she was on her lunch hour and was "off the clock."The veteran had been put on hold by the Harlingen clinic for the better part of half an hour and was passing by the veterans office and thought he' ask if that was a usual occurrence.
It was about five to 10 minutes before 1 p.m. and he also had an appointment at the Social Security office across town. But he was left standing in the drizzle by Cano who walked in the office's back door and closed it.
We said that Cano could have simply told the veteran he had to "go to Harlingen" and that would have guided him to seek his health care. But she hadn't.
Ms. San Miguel said that because of the shortage of staffing (three full-time employees including the director), the personnel could not be rotated to keep the office open during lunch time. The other employees there are work-study students who are in training. What if the director had to leave the office?, she asked. That would be an inconvenience on the other two employees.
That unfortunately, is the case in many county offices where business stops for lunch.
We told Ms. San Miguel that the lunch hour was the only opportunity working people have to do county business. They go to work at 8 a.m. and leave work at 5 p..m. Lunch hour is the only time they have to conduct business.
She said she understood and that the office would explore the possibility of either rotating employees for lunch so that the public could do business during that time, or seek more funding for more personnel. We suggested that some common courtesy and perhaps a bit more sensitivity toward their clients might also be on order.
We left her office without any firm commitment other than that the office would look into the matter and try to come up with an answer to the problem. We have known Laura Lee for many years (she has a 25-year service pin from the county) and know her to be conscientious in her position.
She promised to keep us abreast of any changes to improve services to local veterans. We'll keep you posted.
12 comments:
Total gobbledygook, Montoya! That Cano needs to be fired!
Semper whine, bro.
BS they all say the same thing when they get caught. Change is needed and soon since this is a medical necessity.
Entitled government employees been rude to the public?
Impossible to believe that..
Is she a veteran or any of them? They ALL need to GO. They are creating a coverup. In other words they are saying we don't need changes. BS you do lady you all need to get fired. Total disgraceful...
It is VERY easy to take care of this issue. One can go to lunch at 12 p.m. and the other at 1 p.m. Done. This is the typical customer service attitude of the RGV.
They can stagger their lunch HOUR to provide services for those that can only make it during their lunch break. Who gets an hour? Geez!
they dont do shit for vets here in bville, bro. best thing is to call harlingen. they call you up for appts and they done me good. in brownsville es puro well we'll see what happens or call 800 line or some pedo like that. you do know if you sick you can go to Valley Baptists here in bville and they have a contract with va to take you in.
It would have taken her the same amount of time to say “go to Harlingen” as “we’re closed”.
Rudeness is a way of the county employees to the tax payers .. someone should educate them and let them know they are there to SERVICE the tax payers ...after all they are being paid by us ... that person should be reprimanded... smh
Rudeness is a way of the county employees to the tax payers .. someone should educate them and let them know they are there to SERVICE the tax payers ...after all they are being paid by us ... that person should be reprimanded... smh
It is not the job of Cameron County employee’s to make routine appointments for the VA hospital in Harlingen.
They don’t answer their phones up there,
and it’s hard to get through their voice mail system.
This is our congressman Vela’s fault.
While he’s busy on photo op trips visiting the troops in Iraq,
no one’s taking care of us old vets here in B’ville.
Go after his dumb ass Montoya
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