[nfbmi-talk] nfb mi new horizons resolution for the record

[joe harcz Comcast]

RESOLUTION 2011-08
NEW HORIZONS

 

            WHEREAS, Gwen McNeal has been on the Board of Trustees of New Horizons since 2010; and

 

            WHEREAS, the Michigan Commission for the Blind (MCB) through McNeal, continues to do business with New Horizons to this date including contracting for evaluations and engages New Horizons personnel on other cash match agreements, including one with Oakland County Schools; and

 

            WHEREAS, in the Rehabilitation Services Administration’s (RSA) 5-year Monitoring Report, RSA found that the Michigan Commission for the Blind, the Macomb Intermediate School District, and New Horizons Rehabilitation Services engaged in an illegal “cash match” agreement whereby New Horizons kicked in funds for federal match, and then received a no-bid contract (see Finding 6); and

 

            WHEREAS, MCB Regional Manager Gwen McNeal was the responsible agent for this and even gave an award to New Horizons in 2008; and

 

            WHEREAS, this, by any reasonable definition, constitutes a conflict of interest between this MCB Regional Administrator and a Community Rehabilitation Program; and

 

            WHEREAS, this clearly violates state ethics guidelines and may well be a violation of state and federal laws;

 

            NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED   by the National Federation of the Blind of Michigan in convention assembled this 6th day of November 2011 in the City of Kalamazoo, Michigan

 that the National Federation of the Blind of Michigan abhors this sort of apparent conflict of interests; and

 

            BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that forthwith NFB-MI informs, in writing, Rehabilitation Services Administration, the Office of the Inspector General in the United States Department of Education, and the Michigan Attorney General’s Public Integrity Office about this situation and requesting a thorough investigation into these and other practices.