Local veterans protest Columbia Vet Center management
Marie Moyer
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Local veterans met at Broadway Bluffs Drive on Wednesday to bring awareness to claims of poor management and employee treatment at the Columbia Vet Center.
In a joint statement from veterans protesting the center, they claim the current Vet Center director has built a “toxic work environment,” causing several staff members to resign and two to take leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act.
“Both regular counselors are on FMLA leave because of ongoing mistreatment, leaving nearly all 150 veterans without access to one-on-one counseling with the people whom they know, trust, and with whom they have built good relationships,” the statement said. “We urgently need intervention and leadership that restores trust, respect, and proper care for those who served.”
Criticisms toward management include counselors being given too much administrative work that affects their ability to treat clients, as well as claims of micromanagement and a sense of lack of support in employees, including frequent write-ups.
“You’re getting more and more pressure from your higher-ups to spend your hours doing unnecessary paperwork, collecting unnecessary data, providing lists of what you’re doing and all these things that literally just take time away from the actual mission,” Army veteran Carl Shepard said.
Shepard added he’s noticed these issues since he started interacting with the center around 2018, with the situation coming to a head when the two counselors went on leave around a month ago.
David Hopson, a veteran of the Vietnam War and the father of one of the counselors who went on leave, says multiple formal complaints have been filed to higher-ups with no changes made. Other protesters claimed they reached out to the center’s District Director and were told they haven’t observed any problems and receptionists refusing to transfer callers.
“Nothing has been done, it’s been brushed under the table, nothing’s been done about it, and the environment is still toxic,” Hopson said.
Hopson said his son, a combat veteran and counselor at the center, was on FMLA leave for his mother’s funeral when the center’s director allegedly called and threatened to write him up for missing work. After his leave, Hopson said at least 11 veterans submitted letters praising his son’s counseling, saying his work had made a life-saving difference.
“I want them to make a change in leadership, starting with the supervisor and owner and going up the line if they can, because it’s not working,” Hopson said.
One veteran who stayed anonymous in fear of retribution added with the current counselors on leave, the Vet Center has brought in new staff who do not have a good connection with clients.
“They can bring in a new counselor, but that’s not sufficient to having the counselor that we had,” the veteran said. “When they’re here and they want to be here, we want to work with the people that we know, trust and respect.”
ABC 17 News has reached out to the center’s Director, Valerie Sisson and Deputy District Director, Leticia Dreiling for a statement but has not heard back. ABC 17 News also contacted the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which has not yet released a statement.