[nfbmi-talk] this is but one lie

Christine Boone christine_boone at comcast.net
Wed Mar 2 16:31:13 UTC 2011


All of these answers were not answers at all.   He never explained the refusal to permit qualified blind people to serve as temporary operators, nor did he answer any of the other questions posed to him.  

Having spent several years sitting in the position currentrly held by pat cannon, I can assure you that he should have been able to answer every one of those questions on the spot.  There was nothing there that should have required him to go back to the office and research his answers.  The only time a competent agency director should defer answering a question that is asked in a public meeting, is when that question involves an individual case.  In that case, the director is obligated to look into the matter and get back with the individual in private.  In addition, sometimes a question might come out of the blue.  Fort example: someone might present a problem of which the director is completely unaware.  This usually involves something that is happening in a regional or district office that is located far away from the Central office.  That would be a situation when the responsible director would look into the matter and send a response to the organization's president for posting to the list.  I normally took no more than 2 weeks to research any issues that were brought to me in a public meeting, and get back to the questioner with a response.  

I have never before seen an agency director who is as evasive as pat cannon.  These are indeed troubling times.  

Christine


On Mar 2, 2011, at 7:37 AM, joe harcz Comcast wrote:

> Cannon outright lied here as MCB has never held full public hearings related to its state plan in accordance with the Rehab Act since 1998 which is, by the way the last State Plan on MCB's web site. Now, the Rehab Act requires annual supplements to its state plan and folks have seen here on this very list issues with even getting that information let alone public hearings. Moreover, at a minimum the Rehab Act requires public hearings whenever there are substantial changes. At a minimum  Michigan is required to have public hearings every three years relative to its required comprehensive needs assessment. It is called Tri-ennial for a reason! Indeed those have been "blended into" those conducted for MRS by MSU. But, blind folks have not been notified of them and of the town halls used in about 2006. Or of the one conducted right now, except that Larry a known blind person got a print letter which was a violation of both title I and the ADA. And notifying one blind person in inaccessible form is not compliant. 
> 
> Moreover, Leemon Jones at public meeting said that no public hearings are required until the Rehab Act itself is amended. That is just plain wrong, and goes to the either plain ignorance of the law, like they display over duration of services, needs testing, and maintenance, or is a willful violation of it. Personally, I think it is a bit of both, but it doesn't matter for these are clearcut and pernicious violations of the Rehab Act ofor more than a decade.
> 
> And, to take six months to even answer this question, especially after the RSA monitoring report finally became final shows that MCB, under Cannon just can't follow any sort of deadlines or "black letter" and clear cut law.
> 
> Joe
> Quote I'm referencing:
> Question 13
> 
> Why does the MCB not fully comply with the Rehabilitation Act by holding hearings on the required Plan updates?
> 
> Pat's Response
> 
> We do hold hearings on the State Plan as called for under RSA guidelines.
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