[nfbmi-talk] Yet Another from "I Only Heard"

[Terry Eagle]

Thank you guys for that clarification of my misunderstanding of that which
BS4BP means and stands.  I understood that it was a bureau to serve the
training and employment needs of blind persons, and now, WOW, I learn at a
time of the year that is suppose to be joyful that the Executive Orders were
actually designed as BS4BP--Bureaucratic Services for Bureaucrat Persons?
Can that really be true?  Are you guys that have only heard sure?

WOW, it is no wonder I did not stand a chance to become director of the new
same old bureau.

In my interview I spoke about my experience of serving persons with
disabilities; focusing on the individual, the assessment and written plan
centered around the abilities, interests, dreams, and rehabilitation needs,
to achieve those abilities  in meaningful employment through appropriate
training, appropriate job placement, and follow-up support.  I spoke about
my ten years of experience of training blind and other persons with
disabilities in the art and service of quality food service to the guests we
were there to serve, giving added value beyond that which was expected by
those we served--that which I call the WOW element and ingredient that
spices up excellence in guest service, but I digress here, and I spoke of
how I inspired and supportively nudged blind individuals toward and into BEP
training and successful businesses, and several into better paying private
sector employment.  

I spoke about the need for more supportive person-centered service
positions, like job placement specialist; trained in blindness and confident
in the abilities and dreams of blind persons.  I spoke of fewer management
positions, like regional management and central office, in exchange for
client-centered positions, like a qualified, competent B E P trainer and job
placement and follow-up supportive employment in the regions.  The recently
released B E P state audit spells out and supports my belief of more support
for clients and blind persons placed in employment.  I also spoke to the
harm to blind vendors' sales and incomes that have resulted from newly
established LARA procedures for equipment repairs at B E P facilities,
procedures that add steps and paperwork and value time to getting essential
income producing needed repairs, and admittedly a result of lack of
accountability by program management, discovered and reported by state
auditors.  Why? Why, I ask must blind vendors suffer and lose business and
income because of the incompetence of program management?  And at last
Saturday's E O C meeting it is proclaimed by management and E O C alike,
that there is no money missing or fraud.  Who the heck are they trying to
convince or fool with such a big lie?  I guess through their proclaimation
they either soothe their guilty conscience, or by telling the big lie
repeatedly, they are the persons convinced there is no money missing.  But
the truth and reality is that there is a fraud upon blind vendors and
taxpayers, by the lost sales and incomes to blind vendors through
incompetent anagement accountability, but also the repeated use of
vocational rehabilitation funds for the training and employment for the
blind, being fraudlently used for the placement of sighted persons in
employment with facilities, equipment and supplies, product inventory and
working capital, with the use of federal rehabilitation Funds.  Who are they
kidding?  Do they really think we the blind have STUPID imprinted on our
forehead for all to see?

Then there is the rehabilitation side lie and fraud upon the blind and
taxpayers.  Counselor and management types brag about an experienced B E P
vendor making $17,000 per year, less than minimum wage, $5.94 per hour based
on a required minimum 55 hour work week, no paid holidays or medical,
long-term disability or worker's compensation,  or unemployment insurance
coverage and benefits, and far less than the $7.40 Michigan mimum wage that
is paid to any employee, not to mention the required Workers' compensation
and unemployment insurance coverage for that employee.

And then there is the lie and fraud upon the blind and taxpayer when a BS4BP
counselor placed a printed sheet of paper in front of a blind vendor,
seeking that blind vendors signature, declaring the blind vendor was earning
$17 per hour, so the blind vendor's rehabilitation case employment outcome
had been successfully achieved, and the case could be closed as a successful
employment placement.  At best the blind vendor is earning $7.00 per hour,
40 cents per hour less than the Michigan mimimum wage.  Convince me it was
just a sighted person's clerical mistake, rather than a counselor seeking an
easy closure, by believing the blind vendor was stupid enough to
unquestionly sign the print document.  Either the B E P superior training
received by the blind vendor, or that person's keenBS4BP  instinct kicked-in
and overrode the insistence of the counselor to just sign the paper.  Decide
for yourself which is more the likely scenario.  I've made my choice.  I am
certain there are more overlooked clerical errors by sighted clerical and
counselor staff then I wish to even consider.       

During my interview I also spoke of my philosophy of client-centered
leadership and management style, which was espoused and was actively pursued
and demonstrated by always asking a simple question, used by the E O C back
when Larry Posont was E O C Chair and I Vice-Chair, when decisions and
policy faced the Committee and management.  That question always present and
center on the table and in our deliberations was, "How does this proposed
action, policy or procedure benefit blind vendors and the future best
interest of the Business Enterprise Program?".  Were we all in agreement on
what to do and how to get to that goal and result?  No way.  But that
question as our focus and guide brought us together to the answer that
achieved our unified desired action and result to that question each time.


I can only assume now that I, as an applicant and interviewee for the bureau
director position, was seen as a token blind puppet person, just as Patrick
Cannon viewed my son, Mark Eagle, when he hand selected mark for position
appointment as an  M C B Commissioner, as one  who could be molded and
directed as needed by the administration to achieve the political agenda
with the lives and futures of blind persons,  by those in positions of
power, whom know absolutely nothing about blindness, and frankly don't want
to know, including those who pretend to be blind, when it is conveniently
advantageous for their personal agenda and gain.  Someone with vision tell
me, were Mark and I born with "USE ME" on our foreheads?  I guess that
question should be asked of my sister, cheri Eagle, too, based on the
treatment Constance Zanger, James Hull, and Rob Essenberg have given her
lately.

In the writing above the pronoun I is used often, and its  use is not about
me per se.  It is more about a philosophy I believe in and live, as the
greater number of words express and give deeper meaning.  My experiences of
which I write are about my personal values and vision, desire, an action for
the independence and prosperous future of each and every blind person and
other persons with disabilities, with the recognition and greatest
fulfillment of the unique abilities, talents, interests, and dreams of each
individual. 

With all that said, I see a true lack of leadership in the proper direction.
It surely appears the focus, direction, and resources are going toward a
further bloated management structure and systems, that in my opinion, only
insulate and protect decision-makers from real-world realities, and instead
of accountability based on person-centered results, like meaningful training
for competitive employment and economic advancement of blind persons, which
can be easily measured, I predict, will see performance measured by such
things as the number of B E P purchase orders being processed with accuracy
to obtain repairs and favored vendor equipment, withoutregard to its
accessibility to and utility and sales and profit generation to blind
vendors' increased personal and average vendor income, which are simple
measurements of accountable person-centered goals and outcomes.  Where are
the management meaningful goals for increased vendor sales and incomes.
They simply do not and have not existed for a number of years.  

In fact, just last Saturday in a scripted and dialogue-controlled E O C
meeting, it was hailed that the brightest blind BEP training class in a long
time just graduated,, according to James Hull, and he should absolutely
know, as he trained the trainees via telephone,  and after completion of
eight weeks of on-the-job experience, Rob Essenberg, the acting E O C Chair,
(an appropriate leadership title), announced and predicts fierce competition
among the six potential licensees, for the four available sum-mimimum
facilities, with ANNUAL SALES of $33,000, $56,000, $88,000, and $102,000
respectively, and mandated income of $8,000, $14,000, $17,400, and $22,000
respectively, before deducting ten percent for set-aside fees, with a
minimum 55 hour work week, which translates to an hourly wage ranging from
$2.88 to $7.69, if the figures in the bid solicitation are accurate and
believable.  If the graduating class is as bright as James Hull hails them
to be, and he should absolutely know, as he trained them via telephone, they
should be bright enough to do what the trainees of the previous class did;
pass on such great sure failure opportunities.    And yet, Constance Zanger,
James Hull, James Chaney, and Rob Essenberg hail these as great income
producing opportunities, while each of them, along with Ed Rodgers, are
willing to close and foreclose an income producing employment opportunity
for a willing blind person at the Anderson Building Cafeteria, based on the
same exact circumstances as that exist at those four available  B E P
facilities, according to Constance Zanger.  Yet it is claimed by the same
that they are not playing politics with the lives and future of blind
persons.  

Just as the airlines use the phrase, "In the unlikely event"; had I actually
gotten the position, I had decided my understanding of BS4BP would have been
expressed in word and leadership action as B for Better S for suitable
superior services for Blind Persons Potential, and you know what we as the
blind really got--BS4Bp!


-----Original Message-----
From: nfbmi-talk [mailto:nfbmi-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of joe
harcz Comcast
Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2012 9:10 AM
To: NFB of Michigan Internet Mailing List
Subject: Re: [nfbmi-talk] Yet Another from "I Only Heard"

You got that right.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark Eagle" <markaeagle at yahoo.com>
To: "Joe Sontag" <suncat0 at gmail.com>; "NFB of Michigan Internet Mailing 
List" <nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2012 8:53 AM
Subject: Re: [nfbmi-talk] Yet Another from "I Only Heard"


Wow, you would think that the increase in staff should correlate into better

services for the blind. Instead, clients phone calls /emails aren't even 
returned from the director down to the VR counselors. If the director wanted

to show true leadership, he wouldn't hire more leaders or central office 
staff, but he should hire more VR counselors and promotional agents. We 
don't have a servics for the blind. We have services for bureaucrats.

--- On Tue, 12/18/12, Joe Sontag <suncat0 at gmail.com> wrote:


From: Joe Sontag <suncat0 at gmail.com>
Subject: [nfbmi-talk] Yet Another from "I Only Heard"
To: "NFBMI List" <nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org>
Date: Tuesday, December 18, 2012, 1:54 AM


I heard that Assistant Director Mike Pemble is to obtain the services of a 
secretary/administrative assistant, who is to begin work for BSBP on 
December 23, 2012. Funny thing is that the person isn't expected in the 
Lansing office until an unnamed day early next year. So BSBP has no money 
for Newsline or a proper Holiday Open House event at the Training Center, 
but it can pay for a new hire's vacation?

Please straighten me out if I'm wrong about any of this, please!

By the way, December 23 is this Sunday.

Joe Sontag
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