[nfbmi-talk] Those Darn Sneaky Blizzards

[joe harcz Comcast]

You have a lot of it right on elizabeth, but there is much much more than 
the college policy involved here. not that that is unimportant mind you. It 
is.

Frankly, I think that Lehman Jones alredy put his college policy in to RSA 
in December though I can't prove that and that they are just making a dog 
and pony show of consumer involvement here.

But, they aren't reporting the numbers on all kinds of standards and 
indicators including required consumer satisfaction surveys and, most 
importantly MCB has been real hinky with its financing including abusing the 
cash match requirements.

I know that our sister agency, by public comments in minutes will be out $10 
million next year and will go to order of selection.

And there report isn't finalized yet either.

In fact only Michigan's is not final on the RSA web site out of all the 
states monitorred in Fiscal Year 2010.

This is an old problem this failure and collapse of monitoring.

It goes back to when Bush fired Joanne Wilson. At that time he also cut the 
federal monitoring in half and eliminated all the regional offices. Also the 
annual on site auditing was not done every year as it used to be and now 
they are just getting down to thorough monitoring.

Also I've heard real good things about the new RSA Commissioner Lynnae 
Rutledge and she's done a lot with a broken system of monitoring, but she 
was only confirmed last December.

Now you are right on though in your analysis as far as it goes though. Just 
there's a lot more than this college policy that is hinky.

And I'll say it to my grave that Christine was not fired because of any 
marksmanship program, but rather because she knew too much about the 
internal mismanagement and groos malfeasance.

It also was why Mark Eagle was gone after so badly. For he was hit right 
before the RSA monitoring team hit the ground here back last March.

Anyway again your instincts are right on and I'll write more as things come 
foward. But, as an old reporter I must say whenever government officials 
work as hard as these clowns have to hide something then they have something 
to hide.

Peace and keep at 'em.

Joe
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Elizabeth" <lizmohnke at hotmail.com>
To: <nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2010 10:03 PM
Subject: [nfbmi-talk] Those Darn Sneaky Blizzards



Okay, so I think I might have figured out why the Michigan Commission for 
the Blind does not want to release the audit report that we have been 
requesting. At the last NFB board meeting, Christine Boone explained that 
once an audit is conducted, the agency is given some time to fix some of the 
discrepancies before the final report is released. I could be wrong about 
this, but I am wondering if the failure to release this report has anything 
to do with their failed attempts at adopting a new college policy because I 
honestly cannot think of anything else that the agency has been trying so 
hard to change. If there are some discrepancies are looking to fix, then 
what better way to fix them by adopting a new policy?

If I recall correctly, I have heard that the audit report was first 
mentioned by agency personnel sometime last fall. And if I recall correctly, 
I believe it was around this time when the college policy came before the 
Commission Board for adoption. If the agency is given a period of time to 
fix any discrepancies on the report, and if the college policy was soon to 
come before the Commission Board, then I would imagine that they would want 
to push back the release of the audit report until after the Commission 
Board approved the new college policy. But the Commission Board did not 
approve the college policy, and the audit report was not released to the 
general public.

And now it would appear as though the same thing is happening again. The 
college policy was to go before the Commission Board around the same time 
the audit report was to be released to the public. But once again, the 
Commission Board failed to approve the college policy, and to my knowledge, 
they have yet to release the audit report to the general public. Is this 
merely a coincidence or is there something more to this connection?

At yesterday’s college policy meeting, I was a bit surprised and rather 
pissed that the Commission Board members in charge of heading up this issue 
basically blindsided all of the students and consumers who worked hard at 
providing written feedback on the college policy by the deadline they set 
for receiving these comments. Instead of working from all of these comments 
to create a policy that would work for all of those involved in this 
meeting, the Chair of the committee decided to write something up at the 
last minute the night before the meeting, and then basically slammed it down 
our throats because the Commission Board absolutely needs to adopt a new 
college policy at their next Board meeting. Again, is this sense of urgency 
to adopt a new college policy have anything to do with the release of the 
federal audit?

I understand the Commission provides rather detailed explanations that seem 
to explain things, but I am honestly getting to the point where I do not 
believe a word that they say. A friend of mine who lives in Minnesota told 
me that their state went through a federal audit this past spring, and yet 
they have already received their report and are currently in the process of 
conducting public hearings on the report. So even though Pat Cannon says 
there is a problem with the process for conducting these audits as he 
explained during the Commission Board meeting on Friday, I am sorry, but I 
just do not buy it. If they are already releasing reports for this year, 
then I would think that would mean that they have already finished all of 
the reports from the previous year.

As far as the college policy is concerned, I really do not have a clue what 
to do next. I still think the main reason why they are looking at changing 
the existing policy is so that they can implement a means test without 
really calling it a means test. And even though we were given an explanation 
of the differences between a means test and the new DELEG financial aid 
form, I am still not convinced that it is not a means test.

and I’m sorry, but I’m tired of basically having everything I say be 
confronted by some counter argument without even being considered. They talk 
about respecting others, and yet I still feel as though I am not being 
respected simply because I am not one of them. I am sorry, but I am tired of 
trying to work with an agency that does not appear as though it has any 
respect for me. And as much as I would love to represent this organization 
on this issue, I am not sure if I have the strength to do it anymore. I know 
that I am a good writer, but verbal arguments are simply not a strong suit 
especially when it feels as though they are just simply waiting there to 
argue against me without really taking the time to listen to me.


Elizabeth
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