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

Wed Dec 19 00:06:08 UTC 2012

This is rather unfortunate to read.  Terri, I'm guessing you weren't
given a position not because you aren't qualified; but because you
wanted to do things to help blind people.  Harsh? Yes, but we will
never know if that is true.  In the meantime I sincerely hope that
things turn around.  Since I'm new to reading the list serve as far as
this topic goes who  tried writing to the people in charge to
respectively voice a concern? If so; was there an appropriate
response.

On 12/18/12, Terry Eagle <terrydeagle at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 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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