Suwannee County Veterans' Preference Form: Older and Narrower Than Chapter 295

Section 295.07 gives preference in county hiring and retention; see the Florida entry. Suwannee County's employment application (posted on its Employment page, with applications taken at 224 Pine Ave SW, 2nd Floor, Live Oak, (386) 364-3400, or [email protected]) asks "Veterans (peacetime or wartime)" to attach a DD-214 and includes a "Suwannee County Veterans' Preference Form", revised 08/2013, that the county veterans service officer signs off with the points awarded. What the form covers. Five categories: (1) a veteran with a compensable service-connected disability; (2) the spouse of a totally and permanently disabled veteran who cannot work, or of one missing, captured or detained; (3) a wartime veteran with one day of active duty in a wartime period, not training; (4) the unremarried widow or widower of a veteran who died of a service-connected disability; and (5) a veteran of a campaign or expedition with a campaign badge or the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal. Categories 1 and 2 are preferred first, 3 to 5 second. Where it falls behind the statute. - It omits three classes section 295.07(1) now lists: the parent, legal guardian or unremarried surviving spouse of a member who died in the line of duty under combat-related conditions (paragraph (e)); any veteran as section 1.01(14) defines one, wartime or not (paragraph (f)); and a current member of a reserve component or the Florida National Guard (paragraph (g)). Its own cover sheet invites peacetime veterans to claim, so a veteran in any of these classes should claim on the cover sheet and cite the paragraph. - It requires "Honorable Discharge" for every category. Only the disabled veteran class of section 295.07(1)(a) asks for an honorable discharge; the wartime and other veteran classes rest on section 1.01(14), which takes a discharge or release "under honorable conditions", so a veteran with a general discharge under honorable conditions should still claim. - Its wartime table starts the Korean War on 6-21-1950 and ends Vietnam on 5-5-1975, where section 1.01(14) says June 27, 1950 and May 7, 1975, and it prints World War I as ending "7-1-1021". Complaints. The form tells an applicant who believes preference was not given to complain to the County Veterans Service Officer or the Florida Department of Veterans' Affairs, (727) 319-7462, within 21 days of a hiring notice, or within three months of applying when no notice comes.