City Council president appoints state-mandated veterans affairs director after a four-year vacancy

Philadelphia City Council President Kenyatta Johnson on Thursday announced that he has hired a veterans affairs director, filling a state-mandated position that had been vacant four years.

Gregory Wright, a North Philadelphia native and former Pennsylvania National Guard staff sergeant, started this week as the head of the Philadelphia Office of Veterans Affairs.

“Being a son of a veteran, I appreciate his hard work and his dedication to a cause that should definitely be supported,” Johnson, whose father served in the U.S. Army, told fellow Council members.

The Inquirer reported in January that Philadelphia had been without a veterans affairs director since 2021, leaving some veterans advocates feeling ignored.

The city was also in violation of a Pennsylvania law that requires every county to have a local director of veterans affairs.

The directors are charged primarily with helping former members of the armed services transition back to civilian life, including by assisting them in accessing local, state, and federal benefits and services.

Philadelphia had been the only one of the state’s 67 counties not to have a director, despite being home to more than 52,000 veterans — the second-largest veterans population, behind Allegheny County.

The reason for the longtime vacancy had been unclear. Even officials at the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs had said they were “befuddled” by the city’s failure to select someone.

“It sends the message that they don’t care. It’s sad,” Len Johnson, a U.S. Marine and commander of the American Legion post in Juniata Park, told The Inquirer in January.

» READ MORE: Philadelphia is the only county in Pa. without the mandated veterans affairs director. Vets want answers.

In Philadelphia, the City Council president is responsible for hiring the director.

But former Council President Darrell L. Clarke’s office didn’t anyone for the position before Clarke left office in December 2023, and Johnson, who took over as Council President the following month, did not hire anyone until this week.

Johnson said in a statement Thursday that he had “wanted to take the time to find the right person” for the position. He noted that even without a director, the veterans affairs office had continued to function, providing services last year to more than 13,000 veterans who had sought help with benefit claims, tax exemptions, and housing.

Wright, 31, who now lives in Fox Chase, served for 14 years in the Pennsylvania National Guard and was deployed to the Middle East during the COVID-19 pandemic. He was awarded the Army Achievement Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Overseas Service Ribbon, and the Armed Forces Reserve Medal.

Wright graduated from Girard College High School and earned a degree in criminal justice at Peirce College and an MBA at Eastern University.

“I’ve always been a man of service and someone who wants to continue to give,” Wright said Thursday.

Wright said he has already been helping veterans with benefits and job searches through a local nonprofit, so the city job is “something I think I was made for.”

“When this position became available, it seemed like a no-brainer,” he said.

Clarke, the former Council president, had made some improvements to the veterans affairs office about a decade ago, including by moving it to a space next to the City Hall courtyard to increase visibility.

But it remained a relatively low-profile office with a small budget. For the current fiscal year, $205,300 has been allocated. Montgomery County’s veterans office, by comparison, has twice the staff and a budget of $787,558, though the county has 20,000 fewer veterans than Philadelphia.

In 2017, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office seized a computer from the veterans office, which was then called the veterans advisory commission. The head of the office, Scott Brown, was quietly fired. No charges were filed.

Later that year, Carlo Aragoncillo, a U.S. Army veteran from South Philadelphia, replaced Brown as director. But Aragoncillo said the office seemed to be neglected by City Council.

“It was honestly just chaos. … I wasn’t getting support,” Aragoncillo recently told The Inquirer, citing a lack of funding, staff, and organization. He left in 2021.

Since then, the office had been managed by Wanda Pate, a former constituent-services specialist who was hired by Clarke in 2012. Johnson said she will remain with the office under Wright. It now has a staff of five.

Wright said Johnson assured him he will “have the backing of City Council” as he seeks to rejuvenate the office.

“I want to make sure everyone in the city — not just veterans, but family and friends of veterans — know how and where to get assistance for veterans," Wright said.

In addition to helping vets with benefits and other issues, Wright will be expected to work with the city’s nine-member veterans advisory commission to create an advocacy agenda on behalf of veterans.