More Illegal Construction of Sham Amphitheater on VA property

Fellow Veterans and Friends of Veterans--It’s Veterans Day and we should be hearing good news. But instead of honoring our fellow Veterans, the Los Angeles VA bureaucrats are saluting Veterans Park Conservancy (VPC), which is not a Veterans organization but a wealthy and powerful homeowner group and allowing them to trespass and continue to illegally build a sham amphitheater on sacred Veterans land in spite of a Federal Judgment ruling that the VA entered into an unlawful real estate deal with VPC to build a public park.

Donna Beiter, executive director of the Los Angeles VA is a co-defendant in the ACLU lawsuit that resulted in the adjudication of nine real estate deals on Federal VA property with non-Veteran entities and VPC is one of the illegal nine. Earlier this year, VPC violated the Federal Judgment and illegally broke ground with this sham project that is being built to accommodate the public instead of housing for disabled homeless Veterans On July 15 the project was shut down and remained shut down until now. While VA employees are off today, VPC sent in its construction crew to illegally work on this disgraceful project as tens of thousands of Veterans remain homeless and hungry instead of sheltered and cared for on land deeded in their behalf. This past Saturday at the VA, I spoke with Erik Gutierrez, the bureaucrat-in-chief since his mentor Ralph Tillman was forced to resign after the GAO report that exposed widespread mismanagement and misappropriation of Federal funds.

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Within 100 feet of the the closed-down amphitheater construction site, I specifically asked Mr. Gutierrez when the VA was going to demand that VPC remove the unfinished construction and he replied “I don’t know.” I then asked under what authority was VPC given break ground in the first place, and he replied again “I don’t know.” Mr. Gutierrez uncategorically denied any knowledge of the VPC amphitheater, none whatsoever! Nevertheless and by his own admission posted on an Internet Wesbsite titled “Linked-In”, Mr. Gutierrez specifically defines his responsibility at the Los Angeles VA:

“As the Health System Specialist/Administrative Officer for the Office of Communications and External Affairs, I am a senior adviser to the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System Director on various politically sensitive and high profile issues and projects. I develop and foster key relationships with community leaders and groups, veteran service organizations, and elected offices to support the organization’s objectives and mission. In addition, I provide administrative and business operations support to the department which consists of Public Affairs, Outreach, Asset Management …”

Mr. Gutierrez answers to Donna Beiter as her “senior advisor … on various politically sensitive and high profile issues and projects.” Make no mistake, Mr. Gutierrez is extremely connected to everything that goes on at the VA, yet he stood within 100 feet of the VPC project and lied to me .... and then a couple days later VPC is back on the land – illegally. Nobody can do anything on VA property without permission, never mind to break ground and begin construction of an illegal project. Somebody gave VPC permission and Mr. Gutierrez had to know if they had permission ... and he would know even if they didn't have permission. As a representative of Asset Management, he knows everything about everything, except when it comes to his wealthy friends at VPC, because he serves at their behest, not for Veterans. It took Vietnam Veterans of America, Region 9, three months to get permission to have a Veterans Summer Celebration and Picnic on VA property -- which was held nearby the sham amphitheater -- and it was for only four hours on a Saturday afternoon. What's going on right now at the Los Angeles VA is permanent construction, and it is ILLEGAL! For the record, Congressman Henry Waxman and Senator Dianne Feinstein are major supporters of VPC, as are other big-time politicians, including newly elected LA County Supervisor Shiela Keuhl, as was her predecessor Zev Yaroslavsky. This is demand call for VA Secretary McDonald to come to Los Angeles and immediately remove Donna Beiter, Erik Gutierrez, Jeff Blake and the rest of the corrupt employees at the Los Angeles VA who answer to the wants of the wealth and power of neighboring homeowners instead of the needs of our disabled and homeless Veterans. It's also a call to the ACLU lawyers and Plaintiffs Vietnam Veterans of America to file for a court injunction to stop this illegal construction and to permanently ban VPC from these sacred grounds, in addition to requesting that the Court impose serious sanctions against VA Defendants McDonald and Beiter, and the Department of Justice and its U.S Attorneys that represent and defend Ms.Beiter and the Secretary. Likewise, Congressman Waxman, Senator Feinstein must take immediate action and demand full investigations against all culprits involved. Whoa! Such an investigation will have to include the Congressman and Senator as they have willingly aided and abetted on behalf of VPC and this illegal activity at the expense of war-injured and impoverished homeless Veterans. Until there's a complete house cleaning at the Los Angeles VA, Veterans Day will remain as big a hoax as this amphitheater. Speak up and demand change!!! Join us for our 350th consecutive Sunday Rally against this very kind of crime and corruption! Sunday -- November 16 -- 1:00 - 4:00 PM God Bless America and the Veterans Revolution!