[nfbmi-talk] abolishing mcb could mean lawsuit

[joe harcz Comcast]

Abolishing commission for blind people could mean lawsuit

 

March 2, 2012  |

Paul Egan

 

By

Paul Egan

 

Detroit Free Press Lansing Bureau

 

Lansing

Rick Snyder

Farmington Hills

University Of Michigan

list end

 

LANSING -- A dispute over an ordered shake-up in services for blind people could evolve into a legal test of Gov. Rick Snyder's executive authority, a prominent

blind attorney said Thursday.

 

Richard Bernstein of Farmington Hills, who has brought disability cases against the University of Michigan, Delta Air Lines and the Detroit Department of

Transportation, said he is researching a possible federal lawsuit against Snyder for his executive order last week abolishing the Michigan Commission for

the Blind.

 

"This was probably the most inconsiderate, mean-spirited, hostile thing that you could do to people whose lives are already made challenging," said Bernstein,

a Democrat who unsuccessfully sought the nomination for state attorney general in 2010.

 

More than a dozen blind people and supporters protested Thursday outside Snyder's Lansing office.

 

Snyder said last week that his reorganization will improve efficiencies and services to blind people. Mario Morrow, a spokesman for the Department of Licensing

and Regulatory Affairs, said Thursday that the administration is "researching and evaluating the concerns."

 

Advocates for blind people say Snyder's change violates federal rules; puts at risk nearly $15 million in federal rehabilitation and training funds, and

oversteps executive authority by abolishing a commission established by the Legislature in 1978 that gave blind Michigan residents a role in decisions

that affect them.

 

Snyder's plan moves services for blind people out of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs and splits them. The Department of Human Services takes over vocational

rehabilitation services, and the Department of Technology, Management and Budget becomes responsible for licensing blind vendors who operate in state buildings

and rest areas.

 

Source:

 

 

http://www.freep.com/article/20120302/NEWS15/203020338/Abolishing-commission-for-blind-people-could-mean-lawsuit