[Nfb-or] Action Needed: OCB Proposed Plan

[don nepple]

thanks for the up date please keep sending me mor up dates when you you get them.

----------------------------------------
> Date: Mon, 21 Jun 2010 10:11:06 -0700
> From: carter.tjoseph at gmail.com
> To: nfb-or at nfbnet.org
> Subject: Re: [Nfb-or] Action Needed: OCB Proposed Plan
>
> Sorry, I should've posted an update.
>
> The plan as written is dead. Even if it were a great idea, I
> understand from Kevan Worley and Scott LaBarre that it would require
> changes in federal law before it could become practical. More than
> that, though, right now is not a great time to ask Oregon legislators
> to make changes to the applicable state laws.
>
> Said more plainly, if they decided to essentially gut the vending
> program and turn vendors' livelihoods into a bit of extra revenue for
> the state, only the vendors would be directly affected. And even if
> they rallied the entire blind population to seek retribution in the
> next election, we're not a large enough population to affect the
> outcome of the election. It's probably best not to draw their
> attention to the possibility just now!
>
> There is a working group looking to see what can be done to improve
> the program, but legislative changes are off the table for the time
> being.
>
> The problem is that many of the vendors feel they've been burned once
> too often, so there's not a whole lot of trust. The vendors as a
> whole are saying that they feel the Commission has been dismissive of
> their concerns, failed to involve them where they ought, and engages
> in practices even after they've lost grievances over them and signed
> binding arbitration agreements agreeing to certain changes.
>
> The Commission's response appears to be to dismiss their concerns, to
> shut them out of processes where law indicates their involvement, and
> maintaining those practices. The latest in this vein appears to be a
> proposed resolution for the board of commissioners that boils down to
> saying essentially that they consider the vendors' elected committee
> to be operating in bad faith, that they will not hear the allegations
> of the Commission's failure to comply with the law, and accusing the
> committee of attempting to destroy the Commission by attacking the
> reputations of Commission employees by telling people what actions
> those employees have taken.
>
> There's a bigger problem, though.
>
> The governor's "reset committee" has been tasked officially with
> eliminating government waste, paring back services, and otherwise
> trying to make surgical cuts to Oregon's public institutions with a
> chainsaw. One of their unofficial charges from the outset was to
> eliminate the Commission for the Blind, folding it into the DHS
> mega-agency. The justifications are to be fiscal mismanagement from
> the 2009 audit of the Commission, ongoing concerns that applicable
> laws are not being followed correctly, and some nebulous assumption
> that eliminating the Commission would save money. You know, like
> eliminating the School for the Blind did.
>
> Anyway, this is all basically a done deal, political back-room stuff.
> The committee's report was to include the recommendation that the
> Commission be closed from the day the committee was formed, and even
> if every single specific problem the committee could cite were
> corrected first thing Monday morning, it'd still be coming down the
> pipe. We may get the official word on Friday.
>
> So far, the Commission's attempts to defend its own existence and
> actions in public are frankly pretty weak. Perhaps the Commission's
> administration is working with legislators behind the scenes, but if
> that's the case, they don't seem to be talking to the same people the
> NFB of Oregon has been talking to.
>
> It's going to take more than the NFB to save the Commission though.
> It is going to take the entire population of blind people in this
> state, the full force of the NFB and the ACB, all of our supporters,
> and the board of commissioners of the Commission as well.
>
> Most of the people pushing for closure of the Commission are Dems in
> districts where a Democrat just is not going to lose, so it's going
> to be a bit of an uphill fight. Without the commissioners directing
> the administration to make changes and following up to see that it
> gets done, the odds are maybe 50/50 at best we can save it.
>
> Joseph
>
>
> On Sat, Jun 19, 2010 at 10:07:48AM -0700, Johnston wrote:
>>Hello all,
>>
>>What was the outcome of Linda Mock's proposal to alter the vending
>>program? Is anything similar planned for the future?
>>
>>Thanks.
>>
>>Jay
>>----- Original Message ----- From: "T. Joseph Carter"
>>
>>To: ; 
>>Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2010 11:37 PM
>>Subject: [Nfb-or] Action Needed: OCB Proposed Plan
>>
>>
>>>Art Stevenson asked me to post this:
>>>
>>>Tomorrow (Friday, April 2nd), Oregon Commission for the Blind
>>>director Linda Mock intends to present her plan to remove
>>>state-operated facilities from its Randolph-Shepperd vending
>>>program in this state. This would reduce the program from its
>>>current size to just four people.
>>>
>>>Any program Ms. Mock might propose in its place would operate
>>>without the legal protections afforded by the Randolph-Shepperd Act
>>>and its companion state legislation. These protections include the
>>>loss of
>>>priority access to vending sites, the requirement that the blind
>>>themselves are given full participation in the administration of
>>>the program, and a prescribed remedy for redress of grievances.
>>>
>>>As such, it seems this plan directly contradicts the stated mission
>>>of the Oregon Commission for the Blind, and Ms. Mock's mission as
>>>its director. Moreover, Ms. Mock appears to be working to
>>>fast-track the approval of this plan before its impact is realized.
>>>It affects not only those in the program today, but also the blind
>>>youth still reeling from the loss of our School for the Blind.
>>>
>>>Only we can prevent this detrimental plan from moving forward now.
>>>If you can be in the Portland area at the Commission for the Blind
>>>for the 4pm meeting at which Ms. Mock will present this plan,
>>>please attend. If you cannot attend, please call the Commission's
>>>Portland office at 971-673-1588 or toll free (within Oregon)
>>>888-202-5463. Tell them what you think of this plan, and ask them
>>>to pass the message on to Ms. Mock and to the Commissioners.
>>>
>>>If you call, PLEASE DO BE POLITE! The people who answer the phones
>>>are not responsible for this plan, and they do not deserve the
>>>brunt of anyone's anger.
>>>
>>>Thank you.
>>>
>>>
>>>_______________________________________________
>>>Nfb-or mailing list
>>>Nfb-or at nfbnet.org
>>>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-or_nfbnet.org
>>>
>>
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>Nfb-or mailing list
>>Nfb-or at nfbnet.org
>>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-or_nfbnet.org
>
> _______________________________________________
> Nfb-or mailing list
> Nfb-or at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-or_nfbnet.org 		 	   		  
_________________________________________________________________
The New Busy is not the too busy. Combine all your e-mail accounts with Hotmail.
http://www.windowslive.com/campaign/thenewbusy?tile=multiaccount&ocid=PID28326::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WM_HMP:042010_4