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In recognition of this year’s upcoming Veterans Day, on Nov. 11, the National Association of County Veterans Service Officers gave a presentation to the San Benito County Board of Supervisors on Oct. 27 on the work being done on behalf of veterans, and the benefits to the county.
U.S. Army veteran Jack Murphy, director of Monterey County Military and Veterans Affairs, said there are currently more than 2,607 veterans in this county, and more are moving here all the time.
“Our main purpose is to support, advocate, and represent your veterans, your families, your survivors, your dependents,” Murphy said. “Our core services is the delivery of VA benefits, what we often call a service connection, trying to connect the veteran or the dependent or the survivor through this complex web of bureaucracy.”
Murphy said he wanted to clarify that there are a number of people and organizations that charge a fee to help veterans through the maze of bureaucratic hurdles to secure benefits.
“We don’t charge anything,” he said. “It’s a free service to all veterans, families, and dependents within California.”
He said San Benito is one of the few California counties that’s seeing an increase in its veteran population.
“We’ve got about 300 veterans since last year that have come to San Benito because it’s affordable, because it’s a great place to live, because there are a lot of opportunities here,” he said. Consequently, he noted, “the workload that our office is delivering is also increasing. We served 315 unique veterans and filed 1,163 claim actions on behalf of those veterans. We received 361 VA disability compensation awards.”
Murphy explained the awards can be retroactive payments—from the time the veteran began the approval process to the determination of benefits—amounting to thousands of dollars, along with recurring monthly payments, both of which are tax-free and for the life of the veteran, and in some instances the spouse or dependents can receive various amounts.
“If that veteran, dependent, survivor, whoever’s receiving VA compensation, if that individual is still alive and still receiving payment, that’s money that came into the county last year,” he said, adding that a lot of the services provided to veterans are intangibles, such as free healthcare benefits and disability claims through the VA. “There are educational benefits, different types of vocational rehab services.”
In new money, veterans have received $2.43 million in disability payments for fiscal year 2025-26, he said. Overall, $48.5 million of VA compensation benefits came to the county.
“That’s tax-free money,” he said. “That’s money that’s here in this county that’s being spent in your businesses and in your cities. If not for the VA, if not for the work we’re doing, that number of $48.5 million would be much smaller.”
Giving an example of how his organization helped one Vietnam veteran, he said the man was essentially homeless, which caused him to miss a number of VA exams to determine his percentage of disability to qualify for benefits. By the time the veteran, who he did not name, came to the office, he was living in a trailer, unsure if he would be able to stay there. He wanted to see if the organization could help him fix his hot water heater. Murphy said the man was only 10% approved for benefits, which amounted to a little over $100 a month at the time.
After visiting the office, Murphy said the veteran’s benefits increased to 50%, then went even higher.
“He was having a really hard time,” Murphy said. “We went back and looked at the record and noticed that, because he had missed his examinations because of his homelessness, our office argued to the Department of Veterans Affairs that it was no fault of his. And we were successful in getting his rating increased from 50% to 100%, which is about $4,000 a month tax-free for the rest of his life, and includes a massive amount of health care benefits. He also got $60,000 in retroactive pay tax-free.”
In addition to helping veterans, Murphy said his office helps surviving spouses and dependents.
“Our office processed 53 dependent tuition fee waivers for San Benito County residents, totaling $431,000 in tuition savings,” he said. “Another way of reading this is 53 kids got to go to college for free where they otherwise might not have, if not for our services and the VA benefits that are being provided.”
Murphy said the relationship with the county began in 2006. It’s now in the first year of a three-year contract with the county for $150,000. He said the cost of providing those services has historically been $185,000, for a net loss of $90,636.
“It’s been that way for a number of years,” he said, “and I want to continue helping San Benito County veterans. When talking return on investment, for every dollar that is spent by San Benito County for our services, we return to you $27.51. That is an incredible rate of return. And that’s due to just efficiencies that we’ve got through a smaller office and a long-term relationship.”
Murphy emphasized the importance of the local VA representative, Sherry Stevenson, in keeping costs down and benefits up.
“She is a true gem, and San Benito County is very lucky to have her doing the services here now for almost 10 years,” he said. “We’ve been doing all our services now out of the Veterans Memorial Building over there for 20 years.”
Murphy closed by “planting a seed” by asking the San Benito County Board of Supervisors to consider moving the VA office into a building occupied by county departments, such as social services, to increase efficiencies to save time to better serve veterans.
“Instead of handing them a card to come over here to Hollister, they can just walk them down the hall,” he suggested.
Supervisor Mindy Sotelo said the services Murphy spoke of were similar to the county’s senior programs and services and agreed that a new location would be beneficial to the veterans.
“I also support making sure that we get you either in a location that is a warmer handoff to social services or to wherever their benefits are,” she said. “I think that’s a future conversation that we could maybe have.”
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