[nfbmi-talk] why the state secrets?

[joe harcz Comcast]

One year later consumer groups and stakeholders don’t know the details of findings and recommendations. In fact, we weren’t even really included in the process which is a violation of various RSA requirements and DELEG is denying access to the monitoring reports and rebuttals, holding it like a Soviet-style state secret. 

 

Meanwhile one MCB Commissioner was pushed off the MCB Board by Cannon just prior to this visit/review onsite. Several Administrative Law Judge determinations and denials of due process violations to numerous to mention on the Business Enterprise Program have taken place. Two blind employees including Ms. Christine Boone were fired earlier this year. That’s right two qualified employees who are blind by a program purportedly promoting employment of people who are blind!!!

 

And it is widely reported that millions of federal funds are in jeopardy not only to MCB, but also to the Michigan Rehabilitation Services, the Statewide Independent Living Council, and assorted Centers for Independent Living and Community Rehabilitation Programs. 

 

People with disabilities have been suffering worse than most do to Michigan’s depression. Can we afford any other insults including those due to mismanagement and failures of transparency by designated state units including the Michigan Commission for the Blind and its director?

 

Joe Harcz

 

May 1, 2010



 



 

 

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:1uLmXSF8jQMJ:www.michigan.gov/documents/dleg/March_2009_LEGwork_272493_7.doc+patrick+cannon+salary+lansing+state+journal&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Michigan LEGwork Newsletter.

 

March 2009 Issue for the Department of Energy, Labor & Economic Growth.

 

 

 

MCB Hosts RSA Staff For Routine Review March 2-6

 

By Pat Cannon, MCB State Director

 

 Eight people from the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) in Washington, D.C., visited the Michigan Commission for the Blind for a routine on-site

monitoring review March 2-6.

 

 RSA is the federal entity responsible for monitoring state rehabilitation agency programs to provide technical assistance and assure that all of the regulations

regarding program implementation and service delivery are being followed. For example, RSA ensures that MCB is providing the kinds of services in our Vocational

Rehabilitation and Independent Living programs that are outlined in the Rehabilitation Act. Not unimportantly, RSA is also responsible for the flow of

federal dollars coming to MCB. Our visitors were looking closely at all of our statistical data as well, such as the populations that we serve, outcomes,

cost of services, specific kinds of programs such as transition, cash match agreements, and collaboration with community rehabilitation organizations.

 

 At one time, these routine reviews were done annually, but the reviews have become both less frequent and more comprehensive. This is the first time RSA

has monitored MCB since the agency’s reorganization in 2004.

 

 RSA staff met with the MCB executive team and managers, and we had a very full agenda. Members of the RSA team visited the MCB Training Center in Kalamazoo;

the Kalamazoo, Lansing, and Detroit field offices; the Michigan Career and Technical Institute in Plainwell (which is run by Michigan Rehabilitation Services,

but also serves some MCB clients); the Michigan Works! service centers in Kalamazoo and Lansing; the MCB transition programs with the Ingham, Eaton, and

Macomb intermediate school districts; and MCB community partners New Horizons of Auburn Hills, Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit, and Peckham of Lansing.

RSA team members also attended portions of our Mini Adjustment Seminar in Detroit on March 5 and met with Client Assistance Program staff at Michigan Protection

and Advocacy Service in Lansing.

 

 Several other agenda items are of note. On March 3, there was a joint management session with MCB and MRS. Also, Technical Assistance and Continuing Education,

or TACE, formerly known as Region 5 RCEP, was also a part of the exit review of the monitoring team to provide technical assistance.

 

 We welcomed this opportunity to showcase the work and accomplishments of the Michigan Commission for the Blind. In addition, we appreciated the opportunity

to receive guidance and support on anything that we can do to provide even better consumer services in the future.

 

 Photo caption:

 

 MCB State Director Pat Cannon, MCB Training Center Director Christine Boone, RSA Chief of Technical Assistance Sue Rankin-White, RSA Vocational Rehabilitation

Program Specialist Charles Sadler, and MCB Consumer Services Director Leamon Jones in Lansing March 2 discussing MCB client employment outcomes.