Kelly Cooper, AZCD4, How to Fix VA Wait-Times?

"So, one of the things that I find in government work is that there's not a lot of encouragement to being successful. It's just “here you go,” and you have these arbitrary goals, and there's no real encouragement to meet or exceed those goals. And if you do meet or exceed those goals, there is no benefit to that. I think what I've seen in business a lot is people that manage a profit and loss statement. And so in the corporate world, sometimes you get a budget and that budget will include “meeting this expectation”. And if you spend all that money, then you get all that money the next year, and it feels a lot like — without concern or care for the actual people we’re serving — we're really just functioning on a budget and trying to meet those things.

"I think what we can do is get into more of a success-base or a merit-based system of rewards that says, “We have to see certain accomplishments within the VA system. We have to see certain measures that are proven out or you're not qualified to be in that job.” And I'm sure that that's how we brought it down the last time. And I'm fairly distant from that because I spent most of my time in business, but that's why we're putting together that Veterans Coalition of people that really want to help me to see and understand and push some of the best things forward that we can."