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

Tue Dec 18 23:59:59 UTC 2012

All I can say is this: "I told you all this would happen if we let that 
rummied EO and lunatic state plan go through."
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Terry Eagle" <terrydeagle at yahoo.com>
To: "'NFB of Michigan Internet Mailing List'" <nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2012 6:31 PM
Subject: Re: [nfbmi-talk] Yet Another from "I Only Heard"


> 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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