Officials of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the developer contracted to build housing on the VA’s West Los Angeles campus failed to disclose findings from a survey showing that a large majority of veterans expressed interest in having a hotel as part of a town center on the property.
Executives of the development partnership, the West Los Angeles Veterans Collective, have excluded a hotel from their plans and denied in interviews and public meetings that the survey found any veteran interest in a hotel.
“That concept did not come up in any of the outreach we have done to date in our six years on the job,” Brian D’Andrea, senior vice president of Century Housing, told The Times in a September interview. “It did not come up in the survey results that we heard from veterans on.”
But a tabulation of the survey’s responses obtained by The Times shows that 75% of the veterans surveyed expressed strong or moderate interest in a “hotel or hospitality services for veterans and their families.” A hotel rated above several other amenities that are included in the plan, such as a library or museum.
After receiving questions from The Times about the survey, which was completed in May, the VA posted it online Tuesday afternoon. The agency did not directly address questions about the hotel, but said in a statement, “This invaluable feedback will be used to inform future planning decisions.”
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One response to “The VA failed to disclose findings of a survey that shows keen veteran interest in a hotel”
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For the life of me, I cannot understand why the VA keeps making dumb decisions. VA Secretary Denis R. McDonough seems like a nice enough guy, but he also seems clueless about how the VA bureaucracy has captured him (remember all the top executives paid themselves that bonus before they got caught? Or the Oracle Cerner electronic health records system that started at $10 Billion and is now estimated to be $50 Billion and counting!)
Is it stupidity? Incompetence? Invisible grease being paid behind the scenes? Whatever it is, you can count on McDonough to put a positive spin on it. Improper executive bonuses? Just blame some nameless, faceless junior attorney somewhere . Yeah Denis, sure! That must be the REAL problem! It could never be your incompetent management… could it? He never fires anybody and he never digs in to once and for all eliminate problems and bad attitudes. One thing is for sure: It’s time for him to go. He won’t be missed.