[Nfb-or] Commission for the Blind rally

[T. Joseph Carter]

I told Steve Law, the reporter for the Portland Tribune, that I 
wasn't the least bit concerned with whether or not Linda Mock would 
ultimately be replaced.  The auditors are unhappy.  The legislature 
is unhappy.  The governor is unhappy.  Ms. Mock has run the agency 
for 10 years now, and hasn't been able to clean up sloppy bookkeeping 
practices, and now her excuse is that she just doesn't have the 
budget to account for how she's spending her budget?  It doesn't fly.

That's why I'm not concerned whether or not she will be ousted in the 
end.  If she isn't, it's because the legislators want to use this 
"crisis" to close the Commission for the Blind.  (Saul Alinsky 101: 
Never let a crisis go to waste, and ends ALWAYS justify the means.  
The same group of people used similar tactics to close our School for 
the Blind.  They made a try at the Commission in 2009 as well, so you 
can bet they'll be back to try again!)

If we're to keep our separate agency after 16 years of fiscal folly, 
things need to be shaken up both on the Commission board itself, and 
in the agency's management.  The evidence of the former is that half 
of the Commissioners haven't figured out the latter yet.

The board meeting earlier this month was a disaster.  Can you 
actually believe that one of the Commissioners said that if the 
auditors knew the good work the Commission for the Blind was doing, 
they wouldn't be quibbling over a few bookkeeping errors?  They also 
said on one hand that they needed to take this audit very seriously 
and communicate that they were doing so, and then almost immediately 
said that they could and should disregard most of it because the 
agency is doing the best it can.  I kid you not, there is a tape of 
the meeting available if you can't believe it.

So my concern, as I communicated to Mr. Law, isn't whether Ms. Mock 
will eventually step down over this.  It's whether or not the 
Commission will continue its practice of promotion in-house by 
default.  There is not one single person in the Commission structure 
today capable of cleaning up the mess.  Ms. Mock continued the 
practices of Mr. Young when she was promoted to fill his position, 
and her in-house replacement is sure to do likewise.

It takes fresh blood at the helm.  I could think of people who would 
be good administrators here in Oregon, and a few more around the 
country.  Some of them are sighted, and others blind.  What a concept 
eh?  A blind person leading an agency that serves the blind.

Joseph


On Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 02:34:52PM -0700, Tami Kinney wrote:
>Great words! Will they be followed by action, one wonders?
>
>The next question is, naturally, will the vacancy we can hope to 
>expect be filled by a competent replacement? Will that replacement be 
>allowed to clean up that very messy house? Will it occur to anyone 
>involved in the process of replacing the administrator that if the 
>employees under this administrator haven't learned to fill out forms 
>by now, they're not likely to, in other words?
>
>And that, perhaps, if any given state employee can't learn to fill 
>out forms and perform other mundane and basic tasks, they are perhaps 
>not suited for promotion. Or even for keeping around! I'm all for 
>paying state employees what they're worth, really I am. It's just 
>that I tend to think that a state employee who lacks basic literacy 
>and office competency skills, ain't worth paying much. Or anything.
>
>Or am I just being silly there?
>
>Tami
>
>
>On 10/19/2011 05:28 AM, T. Joseph Carter wrote:
>>The governor famously said in his campaign for the job that anyone 
>>running an agency who couldn't get their fiscal house in order need 
>>not apply to keep their job.
>>
>>Joseph
>>
>>
>>On Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 08:19:18PM -0700, Mike Freeman wrote:
>>>Are you not setting yourself up by going public to force the 
>>>Governor to back Linda?
>>>
>>>Mike Freeman
>>>sent from my iPhone
>>>
>>>
>>>On Oct 18, 2011, at 18:02, Tami Kinney <tamara.8024 at comcast.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>>YESSSS!!!!!
>>>>
>>>>Oh, you betcha!
>>>>
>>>>TamiOn 10/18/2011 01:26 PM, T. Joseph Carter wrote:
>>>>>Passed along by request.
>>>>>
>>>>>Joseph
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>Hi Everyone,
>>>>>
>>>>>There will be a rally at the Oregon Commission for the Blind 
>>>>>on Monday, October 24th, from 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM.  The recent 
>>>>>secretary of state's audit and articles in the newspapers 
>>>>>show that the administrator, Linda Mock, and the director of 
>>>>>the Oregon vending program need to be replaced.  I'm very 
>>>>>concerned that if they are not replaced, we could lose our 
>>>>>commission board as it exist or even worse, our separate 
>>>>>agency.
>>>>>
>>>>>Please join me in sending a positive message to our governor, 
>>>>>the secretary of state's office and all Oregonians that the 
>>>>>past performance of OCB management is unacceptable.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>Thanks,
>>>>>
>>>>>Art Stevenson
>>>>>
>>>>>
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>>>>
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