[nfbmi-talk] imp silc nov 2 draft minutes
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Tue Nov 13 20:43:33 UTC 2012
SILC Meeting
11-02-12
9:00 a.m. EST
Radisson Hotel, Lansing, Michigan
CART Provider: Annette Blough, CSR, RPR, CCP, CRR
ROUGH DRAFT
(This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation [CART] is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.)
11-02-12. SILC Meeting
>> Ron: Good morning. We are going to try to get started. We have a quorum, correct? Good morning.
Sheila?
>> Sheila: I want to try the meeting link again, if you want, if that is up for today. If not, never mind.
>> As we get started I'll send you the e-mail in just a minute or two.
>> Sheila: Okay, that is fine.
>> Ron: Can we have roll call, Tracy?
>> Sheila Ashcraft.
>> Present. Thank you.
>> Carol Bergquist.
>> Present.
>> Ron Bower.
>> Here, Kellie Boyd has been excused, Ken.
>> Present.
>> Merrill Friedman is excused, Miranda Grunwell, here, Patty Hanley, we expect her shortly, Constance Kiggins.
>> Here. Steven Locke excused and Jackie Thomas.
>> Here.
>> Tracy: You have a quorum.
>> Ron: We will go with introductions.
>> Valarie: Good morning, everyone and welcome. I'm Valarie Barnum Yarger and staff to the Council.
>> Good morning. My name is Miranda Grunwell and I'm a Council member.
>> Mrs. Phillips and an ex-officio.
>> Department of Education and new ex-officio.
>> Jackie Thomas and I'm a Council member.
>> Good morning. I'm Connie Kiggins and I'm a Council member.
>> I'm Sally Harrison with MISHTA and I'm an ex-officio member as well.
>> Carol Bergquist, Council member and I represent Native American Vocation Projects.
>> I'm Lou Adams, new ex-officio of Michigan Rehabilitation Services within DHS.
>> Good morning. I'm Jaye Porter, the director of my rehabilitation services, outgoing ex-officio.
>> Ken Browde, Council member.
>> Rodney: Rodney Craig and staff to the SILC office.
>> Sheila Ashcraft, Council member.
>> Tracy Brown, staff member.
>> Beth White, Bureau of Services for Blind Persons.
>> Debbie Huntley, Michigan Rehabilitation Services.
>> Sara, Disability Network of Michigan.
>> Leamon Jones, VSBP.
>> Ron: There are a few items that needed to be added to your packet. They were in front of you on the table hopefully or you picked them up on the way in. Anyone that didn't get the additional information? The next thing is approval of the draft agenda of November 2, 2012. We have one thing to add. The recognition. Are there any other changes? Where would you like it put, Val
>> Valarie: Whatever makes you happy, sir.
>> Ron: We can do that just prior to the public hearing, yes. Welcome, Ed.
>> I apologize, Mr. Chairman, it's a Friday so naturally in my third week on my new job I had an emergency at 8:00 this morning so sorry about the tardiness.
>> Ron: We all have the emergencies, I had snow on the way here and that was almost an emergency.
>> Ed: Darn close.
>> Valarie: Would you like us to go around and do a fast introduction again so you know everybody that is in the room?
>> Ed: Is this Carol?
>> Valarie: This is Valarie.
>> Ed: I'm Ed Rogers and new director of the Bureau of Services for Blind Persons, pursuant to the Governor's Executive Order 2012-10, I apologize for being late at my first meeting, and it’s not a good way to start. But I had an emergency at our training center at 8:15 this morning that I had to deal with so and rushed over from the office, so I hope you will forgive me and we will get off to a better foot as the meeting goes on, thank you.
>> I'm Ron Bower, Executive Committee member.
>> Valarie: This is Valarie Yarger, staff to the Council.
>> Miranda Grunwell, Council member.
>> Denise, ex-officio.
>> Colette Bauman, ex-officio, trustee and Department of Education Outreach.
>> Jackie Thomas, SILC Council member.
>> Connie Kiggins, Council member.
>> I'm Sally Harrison from MISHTA.
>> Carol Bergquist, Council member, welcome to the SILC.
>> I'm Lou Adams, deputy director of Michigan Rehab Services.
>> And this is Jaye Porter, I saw you when you came in, good morning. >From MRS as you know
>> Ken Browde, still a Council member and better late than never and glad you are here.
>> Ed: Thank you, sir.
>> Rodney Craig, I'm staff to the SILC Council. You can go ahead, Sheila.
>> Sheila Ashcraft, Council member.
>> Tracy Brown, SILC staff.
>> Beth White, Bureau of Services for Blind Persons.
>> Debbie Huntly, Michigan Rehabilitation Services.
>> Sara Grivetti representing Disability Network of Michigan, which is the voice for the Centers of Independent Living.
>> Leamon Jones, Bureau of Services of Blind Persons.
>> Ron: This is Ron Bower again, voice of the SILC.
>> Valarie: We are going downhill early in this meeting today.
>> Ron: If there are no other recommended changes for the agenda do I have a motion to approve the agenda?
>> Jackie: It's so moved.
>> Connie: I second.
>> Ron moved by Jackie and seconded by Connie.
Next item is the approval of September 4 draft of the quarterly business meeting minutes. Do we have any changes to the minutes?
>> Valarie: Yes, Mr. Chair. On the table everyone received an update from DCH there was an update distributed from DCH that needs to replace what is in your existing packet.
>> Ken: Mr. Chairman, are we looking for a motion to adopt the changes or is that an amendment to accepting.
>> Ron: The minutes are being amended to include a copy that was given to you, D.C. H copy updated report from DCH.
>> Ken: We don't need a motion for this.
>> Ron: We need a motion to accept the minutes.
>> Ken, so moved with the changes as provided by Ms. Barnum Yarger.
>> Ron, do we have support?
>> Connie: I'll support.
>> Moved by Ken and supported by Connie. Minutes are accepted. At this point we are in public comment. Before we begin public comment section of the agenda I'd like to take a moment to which I did introduce Council to the public, the public was here initially. Members of the public who wish to speak will be called on by the chairperson who will be allowed three minutes as an individual and five minutes if you are a designated representative of a group. The public must address the Council and not utilize this time engaging in dialog with members of the Council. During breaks we will have the opportunity to meet and engage in such dialog and members of the public are requested to refrain from repetitious comment during this portion of the agenda. Any public comment? With none, we will move on.
Consent agenda, you have the consent agenda, the Executive Committee pink September, October minutes that are attached and staff operations on the consent agenda, any changes to the consent agenda?
>> Valarie: This memo should be incorporated with the consent agenda.
>> Ron: From the Executive Committee committee, we want to include in the consent agenda; we did do the executive director evaluation. No changes to the consent agenda and recommend a motion to accept the agenda as amended. Motion to accept
>> Ken: So moved.
>> Ron: Support?
>> Miranda: I'll support.
>> Ron, all in favor?
>> Aye.
>> Ron: Motion passed.
Moving on to the fiscal report, you've had the opportunity to review the fiscal report. We also have some additional information that was provided this morning in your packet. Any questions regarding the fiscal report?
>> Ed: Mr. Chairman, I would note that several of the documents I reviewed before this meeting or this morning are still using the acronym from the Michigan Commission for the Blind which was abolished by Executive Order 2012-10. I would respectfully ask in the future that the new name for the Bureau be used in documentation. It's fine now and I don't expect anybody to change anything, but in the budget materials I looked at they referred to us as MCB. In the future it should be our new acronym.
>> Ron: So noted. And that has been discussed and the changes are going to be made in the future.
>> Ed: Thank you, appreciate it.
>> Ron: So do we have a motion to accept the fiscal report as presented? Questions?
>> Jackie: Move, move to accept as presented.
>> Support.
>> Support.
>> Motion by Jackie support by Carol. All in favor?
>> Aye.
>> Ron: Opposed? Motion carries.
Moving right along, it's 9:30.
>> Valarie: Everything but the public hearing.
>> Ron: It's a quiet group this morning. State Plan.
>> Valarie: In Kellie's absence I'm going to talk to the technical corrections on the State Plan. One, I'm first going to extend our -- I will say apologies but I don't think that is the correct word for the lateness in which they came out to you. Realize it's been a moving target. I can assure you that as we go forward with our next State Plan, it will be public much more than 30 days in advance.
Most of the corrections you see in your documents that you have in front of you and that we are going to be taking public hearing on today are technical corrections, name changes, department changes from MRS moving from LARA to DCH changes that are required due to the amendment to the SILC Executive Order, naming the ex-officios and enforcing term limits on ex-officios where they had not been before. Another change that occurred is due to the fact that you have the Council used to have a collaborative grant that was administered by MRS that covered funding from MCB, now the Bureau, as well as MRS, we now have two standalone documents and operational grants, one with LARA from BSBP and one through DCH with MRS -- DHS, I'm sorry.
>> Ed: It's not our fault, Jaye and I didn't do the changes.
>> Valarie: No, it's mine, there are too many acronyms. My apologies and I will get better. I promise, that is one of the changes that is in there. It's no longer a consolidated grant. The only pragmatic change you are note and the changes are in red in the material that you have, is previously with MCB, all the money was used directly for older blind IL services, under BSBP, the request has been made to do a number of projects, one of the projects that is currently identified in the amendments to the State Plan gives BSBP an opportunity to review their data tracking system, look at ways of enhancing that program so that it more directly relates to the tracking of the data for IL to help us with our combine state report at the end and to allow the Bureau to provide a more accurate, favorable report on the good work that they are doing. So that is the one pragmatic change that is included in the document and I guess with that, Ed, I'm passing the mic to you if you want to expound on it at all.
>> Ed: One of the things I discovered my first week on the job after meeting with Jaye and Val and some other folks was that our present data collection system really doesn't interact with RSA, with independent living, with MRS and that we really need to bring our data tracking system and our information from that system into at least the 20th century if not the 21st. So part of that money will be used to start that program. I have just taken on a DEPI by the name of Mike Pemble, a veteran and he will be on board and in charge of the budget process as well as our data collection system, our HR function, and he is a genius at getting grants and finding money in Washington. I don't know how he does it, but hopefully we will be able to pretty much fund most of this through a grant program. But we need to start. So that is why that is in the plan. There is also some monies I recall, Val, for a second pilot program. Do you want me to describe that briefly?
>> Valarie: Yes, we did discuss it. I did not include it in the amendments due to the fact that I ran out of time to get the information on a comparable project that is being done by western Michigan University, so I left it out. I'm sorry.
>> Ed: That is okay, we will deal with it later. Thank you.
>> Valarie: Jaye, would you or Debbie like to talk to the MRS portion? Give it to Debbie?
>> Lou: What was the question?
>> Valarie: Did you want to speak to any of the adjustments in the State Plan as it impacts MRS?
>> Lou: I don't have it, Debbie did you have something you wanted to mention?
>> Debbie: Yes. Really, the only impact to us is changing our designated state agency to DHS, so really that was all that was done for us.
>> Valarie: So that is a fast overview of the technical corrections. The process as we move forward today is from 11:00 to 1:00 we will have our public hearing. It is a co-chaired or tri-chaired hearing. With a representative from tell Council, MRS as well as the Bureau. At this point I'm anticipating, I'm aware of two to four individuals that will be coming. We have two hours that the Council will be in recess to hold for the public hearing. It's our hope that we will also use this time for just general conversation so we all get to know each other better. Seeing how we are tied to the two-hour time period, SILC is also compiling written comments that can come in through the end of next week. At that point in time they will all be summarized, put into a document that will go to all three agencies, MRS, BSBP and SILC. Once all of that is reviewed, the next step will be to getting ament from a representative from all three agencies, which would be, I'm guessing, Ed, Jaye and probably Merrill as the SILC chair that we are going forward with the SPIL amendments as presented. At that point they will be submitted to RSA who has given provisional approval pending the public hearing. And I hope it's done before the end of the month. That is my own personal hope. Any questions, suggestions, ideas?
>> Ken: Last night you were expressing some concern with the language in the document with RSA's prior submission. Do you have any additional thoughts on that you could share?
>> Valarie: Under public comment it was given to me as a public comment statement. Do you want it now or wait until after it goes to public comment?
>> Ken: You're the big chair, it's your call
>> Valarie: That is Ron. Public comment
>> Ken: Fair enough.
>> Ron: Rodney is going to do the State Plan update for us
>> Rodney: Kellie asked me last night and she is not able to be with us today to go ahead and report out on the Committee of the Whole meeting from last evening. It was a good meeting. What we covered basically in that meeting was the SPIL monitoring report, which was part of all the packages and is available on the SILC website if anybody needed to take a look at that. We reviewed the current status of the SPIL goals and objectives as to where we are and their thing of year one of the plan and our current status in year two of the plan. We also had some in-depth discussions to show a greater emphasis on outcomes achieved and ideas we can take to display that in a more obvious and positive light. We also had a great deal of discussion as a committee around the explanation of the CIL outcome model and how that is utilized. There is also further explanation and planning for the February Council meeting, which involves writing and ideas from the state, the SILS state Independent Living Services partners and their participation in the SPIL. And we also talked about further data usage for served and unserved areas and then briefly talked about upcoming information for the public hearing that is this afternoon or late this morning. And that was primarily the Committee of the Whole report from last evening.
>> Ron: Thank you, Rodney. Next we are going to move into old business and Valarie is going to update us on Council appointments.
>> Valarie: First, we are really glad to have all of your exo's at the table. I had a lot of questions regarding people that had been serving as exos previously especially that had linkages to programs of which IL is involved in and the Council. One of them would be Wendi as she sits back there with the ADRC program. It was discussed by the Executive Committee and what we have chosen to do or they have chosen to do with your acceptance is in addition to our exo information, we would like to use that as a round Robin time so that the Council does not lose touch with the ADRC's, the top programs that is so involved in transition and the information that you were receiving from our partners, the Executive Committee has directed staff to continue inviting those individuals to the meetings and providing a forum for them to give direct input into what is going on and feel that it would help augment what we are going to receive from our new exos as well. If there are any concerns with that, please let me know so that I can take that back to the Executive Committee.
As we look going forward, our Council runs through December 31st for our voting members. The way the Executive Order was amended, the appointments had given us four voting members because the intent was to reduce the Council size down to 11 voting members. At this point in time, we are going up to back to our 15 voting members. I have been told by December 31st the four additional new members will be named. They will be effective on January 1st. In addition we have five voting Council members that -- whose terms end this December 31st, two individuals cannot be reappointed. One individual is our CIL representative; the CILs have had their vote. They have requested that the governor reappoint Kellie as their designated CIL director for the next three years. I have been told by our appointments representative that that will be moved forward. We are also looking at the fact that Ron Bower and Patty Hanley have termed out. They will be replaced with two new individuals. We have Merrill and Merrill Friedman and Miranda who are eligible for reappointment at this point. I have not -- I don't know if that is going to happen, or not. So we are going into January with at least eight new appointees. Two of which can be reappointments. It's going to be a whole new year. And I have been assured that this will happen prior to the January 1st date. Can I answer questions? Anything people want me to say as a message back to the Governor's office? Wendi is shaking her head, yes, what would Wendi like to say?
>> We had some of the conversations with the Governor's office and it didn't make much difference, we had turnover of five of the commissioners too at the busiest time of the year and say please wait two months but they have a schedule too
>> Valarie: I know. Can I do my recognition now?
>> Ron: Sure.
>> Valarie: Jaye, looking down does not get you out of this. This is a token of my appreciation as well as the Council's for your patience, your time, your support not only to SILC but to the IL network and your dedication to all of the individuals with disabilities in this state. You are appreciated. We really appreciated the fact that, especially me, we can have some very hard, tough conversations. We can agree to disagree. You have never held a grudge. And there are times that would not have been unjustified for you to do so. And just because we are doing this now, you are still here until March and I'm not going away and you are still DSU through that time period so thank you for all you have done. You know you will be missed but we are not letting you go away easily. Would you like to say anything?
>> Jaye: I will during my DSU report. I'm caught off guard
>> Valarie: I don't get to do that very often.
[Applause]
>> Valarie: And with that I will go, did you look at these, this is for you, Ron. You are one of my Council members that has been here, been unappointed, been reappointed. In the 15 years that I have been with SILC I think you have been here for 12 of them. I hope you come back again. I hope you apply for reappointment. We appreciate everything you have done, your dedication, your voice of individuals with disability, your professionalism, your quiet suggestions, not always made in public but sometimes sent afterward have been invaluable for the staff and in the direction of the Council, so thank you very much for all you have done. And that doesn't mean you get to quit before December 31st either.
>> Ron: No, I'm done today
>> Valarie: Not acceptable. Thank you.
>> Valarie: It's not nice to be haunted by a Valarie.
>> Ron: Okay, have you finished?
>> Valarie: Yes, I'll be quiet.
>> Ron: You're on to new business.
>> Valarie: I tried. At our last meeting, you graciously went through a number of our operational policies. And instituted some new policies and reaffirmed existing policies. As I have been working in the community to recruit additional Council members for our openings, I have had a couple of individuals that do require accommodations to participate who have asked for our accommodations policy.
What I realized is we have an accommodations practice, but we do not have an approved policy. I was really comfortable with it just being a practice, but I can understand some of the individuals that are saying I don't want to commit to something unless I'm assured that I'm going to have the supports that I need to participate. So based upon those conversations, I have placed in front of you an accommodations policy. This basically puts into practice or puts into policy the practice that we have been following. I would ask for your consideration of that and your adoption of that as an operational policy for the Council and/or amendments.
>> Connie: I make a motion
>> Valarie: You have a motion from Connie.
>> Connie: To accept it.
>> Valarie: Okay.
Is there a second? It should be under new business. If you need a second for discussion
>> Ken: Second to move for discussion
>> Valarie: Thank you.
>> Ron: Discussion? I'll give you a minute to look at it, if you haven't. The discussion so far has been hum. We, Ken?
>> Ken: Yes, I do. On one hand I really appreciate the brevity of the draft policy. I'm wondering, and I'm specifically deferring to rod and Valarie on this, is this inclusive enough or should we attach this or link it somehow to provisions articulated in the ADA? I mean, does this go far enough to satisfy a new member's needs that are not necessarily as receptive to the idea that you're going to do it anyway and should have no fears? I'm wondering if this should be defined a bit more critically or attached to prior policy. Does that make sense?
>> Valarie: Whatever is the pleasure of the Council. Yes, I can understand what you're saying, we will do what you want, but this is in writing, our existing practice. If you want to expand it, provide the direction that you would like us to go and we will so do it
>> Ken: I'm not saying I have an answer, I'm putting out a question and I defer to everybody else here, I'm the newbie on the block and questioning is this going to cover the contingencies or should it be tied to existing legislature? I think it's kind of okay.
I'm looking for some help here.
>> Ed: Should we add a sentence that says we will fully comply with the ADA?
>> It already says that
>> Sara: Amended ADA.
>> Valarie: SILC complies with the Americans with disability act you would like the word fully?
>> Ken: Yes.
>> As amended in 2009
>> Valarie: Disability acts of 1990 as amended in 1999 by, if that is the will of the group, we would be happy to.
>> Sara: One thing we challenge ourselves in the disability community to do is exceed expectations of legislation, legislation is a minimum standard and I would encourage any organization that works with people of disabilities to go above and beyond the minimum standards.
>> Ron: And I think so because by doing that it's just not in writing the way it has been suggested. So is that change
>> Ken: That addresses my concern. Absolutely.
>> You don't need 1999, just amended will cover the amendments.
>> Ed: And it will cover any new amendments next year
>> Valarie: Thank you.
>> Valarie: I assume Ken is making the motion
>> Ken: So moved.
>> Ron: Second by Carol, all in favor.
>> Aye.
>> Ron: Opposed?
>> Valarie: And now you need to vote on the policy as you just passed the amendment.
>> Ron: Now, we need a motion to accept the policy as a whole.
>> Connie, I'll make it.
>> Ron motion by Connie and second by Carol. Discussion? All in favor?
>> Aye.
>> Ron: Motion carries. Back to Valarie.
>> Valarie: The next action item that we are asking you to move forward is November is the normal annual elections of officers for the Council. The slate is prepared by the Executive Committee in accordance with our bylaws and then moved forward. As the Executive Committee started talking about elections and we were lacking at our existing membership and the turnover of the membership, they decided to come to you today and ask for you to go outside of the organization's bylaws because of the situation that we are in with our number of appointees that will be continuing on and that you extend the existing terms of the executive, elected Executive Committee and that we look at convening the membership to the Executive Committee election in February of next year if the Council appointments are made. And we need action one way or another. And I should say that if this is not extended with our existing officers, we will need to convene an election today in accordance with our bylaws soliciting nominations from the floor to develop an Executive Committee for next year. Unless the situation has changed in the last 30 days, the Executive Committee, when they try putting together their slate of officers, was unable to come up with five individuals that were willing to commit to serving for a two-year -- a two-year position until appointments were made.
>> Jackie: So, this is Jackie, so you're asking the Council to officially postpone from the appointment office to probably January, which means the Executive Committee will move ahead with it?
>> Valarie: That is so much better and shorter and easier than I did. Yes. Thank you.
>> Jackie: Would you need a motion to do that?
>> Valarie: We need Council action to do that. We are going outside of our existing bylaws.
>> Jackie: I move we postpone elections until January pending appointments by the appointment office
>> Valarie: How about until February when we have our next Council meeting.
>> Jackie: Okay, how are you going to do business in January?
>> Valarie: We are going to -- we will have an Executive Committee that will be operating at least two members short, it may be operating three members short. We are going to assume there are no problems.
>> Ken: Not being too good at math, but three members short, how does that affect quorum?
>> Valarie: Our existing bylaws read that the quorum is 51% of our current membership. So it will not impact quorum. Realize that current Executive Committee is six, five of which are voting members. So you would need to have three individuals on the Executive Committee to have a vote. We know we are losing two. We may lose three. If we lose three, then we are at three to three.
>> Ken: I'll be in support of Jackie's motion.
>> Jackie: As amended to February
>> Valarie: It has to be February
>> Ken: We are taking this out to February 7 or 8
>> Valarie: Fry February 8th, the afternoon of the 8th if we are going to be exact.
>> Carol: I was looking at the list of people just to clarify, okay, and that the six members are listed on the page of election of officer’s page. And Patty and Ron are, their terms are over, right, so that leaves four
>> Valarie: Right.
>> Caroll: And is Merrill looking to be reappointed?
>> Valarie: Looking to be reappointed because she is reappointed by the governor and she would like to serve on the Executive Committee.
>> Patty and Ron are out and Merrill would still be in the mix
>> Valarie: Yes.
>> And then Steve and Sheila and Kellie, right
>> Valarie: And Kellie -- Kellie has been duly elected by the CILs.
>> Carol: Waiting for the Governor's signature
>> Valarie: Yes.
>> Caroll if something comes up that is important we could call the full Council together by phone and handle it if it's something that you think is bigger than you want to do with the revised, reduced officers or Executive Committee.
>> Valarie: We could pull the full Council together and do it by phone as long as we gave enough notice so that any community member or any other interested party could join the phone conversation because we can only make decisions in an open meeting.
>> Carol: I was thinking about January and there is a lot of flux and Jackie's concern and there is a lot of change.
>> Valarie: I'm just hoping nothing comes up in January.
>> Ron: We had a motion by Jackie and support by Ken. All in favor?
>> Aye.
>> Ron: Opposed? Opposed? Motion carries.
You are up.
>> Valarie: The next fun pass that we have is our bylaws and there are a couple of things I need to add to this. The changes that you see are highlighted in red as additions. The strikeouts have been left in the document. This document was provided to everyone 20 days prior to -- all of our voting members, 20 days prior to the, election as required by our existing bylaws. Realize the revision of these bylaws is I believe the last act that we as a Council need to take to complete the corrective action plan required by RSA that MRS is operating under. So I'm sure that MRS would be more than happy to get us out of their hair with this. Though they have not said that, but I cannot imagine they wouldn't be happy to have this over and done with.
One of the technicalities that was brought to my attention after the fact was by Ken. And it was the changing of LARA to DHS that I had missed somewhere. And, Ken, can you tell me exactly where it was? I'm sorry.
>> Tracy: Article 7, letter G I think, 6 or 7.
>> Ken: The 6, it was going through to LARA to ABC, XYZ.
>> Valarie: But anyway Ken, because they are not on the document in red, would you point those out to us again.
>> Article 6, number G
>> Ken: Article 6, G the departments of energy labor and growth which didn't exist any more
>> Valarie: It should be the department of LARA.
>> Health of human services is DHS now and we have BSBSBP is cool and that is right. There is a strike out on J was correct and, Lord, there was another area and I cannot remember where it is. But I seem to recall another reference to DLEG. And DLEG has been deleted.
>> Jaye: I do have a couple of things
>> Valarie: That is fine, go for it.
>> Jaye: I was confused because there are sections where you mentioned the Bureau of services for persons who are blind and I think on the first page.
>> Ed: It says Bureau of services of blind people and it should be Bureau of services force blind persons.
>> Jaye: And it says commission and I thought the commission was eliminated.
>> Ed: It was.
>> Jaye: Somewhere else it says the same thing.
>> Valarie: And struck out commission for the blind but said Bureau of services for blind people means the commission created under, so you are right.
>> Jaye: There was another reference too I found. On article 50 it says for blind persons in red.
>> Lou: Number 3.
>> Valarie: I see. Okay, thank you.
>> Ed: Thank you, Jaye.
>>Ken: And we changed 6 G.
>> Valarie: Yes, sir. Are you guys missing anything else that you would like added to these?
>> Jaye: One last one. I think article 6, item G
>> Valarie: Departments of LARA and DHS.
>> Jaye: DHS is health and human services
>> Valarie: I corrected that already. You don't need to be sorry, trust me.
>> Our whole definition.
>> Ed: If we look at page one under definitions it says Bureau of services of blind people. We corrected that. But then it references us back to the family independent agency. And while I have trouble keeping track under the five or six governors I worked for in terms of what our name is, family independent agency I think went by the way side a couple Governor's ago or something.
>> Valarie: Yes, it did. I think, my thought, and there is plenty of people in this room that know better than me because I'm not a lawyer, that was left there because when it was created it was transferred to family independent agency and I referenced that Executive Order and on the next page I referenced what was transferred to the department of labor and economic growth under Executive Order and I should have added the next.
>> Ed: The next tier of Executive Order
>> Valarie: Transferred through.
>> Ed: 2012-10 to the department of licensing and regulatory affairs.
>> Valarie: Transferring to licensing and regulatory affairs before that.
>> Ed: Effective October 1
>> Valarie: You stayed in the same department. You went to the department -- whatever year labor and economic growth changed to LARA should be the next date that was referenced and then you remained as the Bureau in LARA.
>> Ed: If you are referencing EO you should reference the last one also, which makes changes again because it dissolves the commission and creates the new Bureau and puts it under LARA under that order and we could be under DHS for example so if you have a complete history you feed to put in that Executive Order, how you do it, I don't care.
>> Valarie: I care.
>> Ed: It has to reference the Executive Order or it's not complete
>> Valarie: I agree, the other Executive Order that was out was the name change from labor and economic growth to LARA needs to be installed.
>> Ed: Yes.
>> Valarie: And I don't know that.
>> Leamon: Actually it was not an Executive Order and we had a new governor and they changed the department when we went from labor and economic growth to LARA and that is how we remained there, so it was just a name change in the department and that is how we are in LARA.
>> Valarie: So are you telling me that I don't -- we don't need to do anything with that?
>> Leamon: I'm not saying that, I said we went from economic growth to LARA and that was when the new governor came and that is how we ended up with that department. But it was not anything like that.
>> Valarie: How do you want that referenced in the bylaws or do you want it referenced?
>> Jackie: I don't know if I'm missing something, but is it necessary to have all of these listed and all of these changes other than saying this is after a number of changes with administrations this is where we are now? Because it gets really confusing and it looks crazy. I mean, I don't know, is there a reason we need a trail like that in here.
>> Valarie: What is the pleasure of the Council?
>> Ken: And Ed will go after me and I'm not an attorney, Ken, I'm not an attorney and do not play one on TV but the resent change as of October 1 I think that showing the continuity of the progression of the changes needs to be addressed in this set of bylaws and after this is adopted, the next time the bylaws are revisited then it can be compared to, assuming there are not new change, I think that is where Ed was going and it's his turn.
>> Ed: If you want to compete it have it read as follows, you took the strike CAP out for Commission for the Blind. I would say Bureau of services for blind persons means the commission created under, that is fine, and then I would put a comma after the MCL site and say through Executive Order 2012-10 within the department of LARA, period, and that will shorten it up and that is your goal.
>> Valarie: Through Executive Order 2012-10 because that’s what created my Bureau, and then I would say within the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, period. Don't get -- if you don't want the whole string, that is the way to eliminate it all, because before Executive Order 2012-10 there was though Bureau of Services for Blind Persons.
>> Ken: You get rid of everything else.
>> Ed: You referenced PA-260, which is still in existence and you can get rid of everything else and that will shorten it up for you if that is the way you want to go. My recommendation even though I don't get to vote is you do it one way or the other, make it complete like Ken said or you shorten it up to just the EO that created us. The EO contains the history too so you really don't need all the history if you don't want it.
>> Lou: I think you can use the same consistent approach with MRS which would just being identifying the Executive Order I think.
>> Ed: And the fact you are in a new department.
>> Lou: That is in there, yes.
>> Jaye: Does the PA-260 create the commission that has been abolished?
>> Ed: Yes.
>> Jaye: Is that still in effect?
>> Ed: It's in effect as far as it goes. It's like when you amend or abolish or repeal a section of an act, the rest of the act is still in place. If you take like three parts of the act away and not the rest of the act, the act is still in effect.
>> Valarie: After we look at the PA-260 then there is the MCL 393.352 does that need to stay in or does that need to come out?
>> Ed: My recall without having law books in front of me and I'm an old lawyer who doesn't try to remember the law because when you do that is getting me in trouble and that is the MCL site that is PA-260 because once we pass a public law in the state it becomes part of the Michigan compiled laws
>> Valarie: That is what I thought.
>> Ed: So, yeah, I think and I'm pretty sure that is what the citation is for PA-260.
>> Valarie: I did too but I didn't know if that should remain in there. Yes, it's a citation for PA-260 that I know.
>> Ed: I would leave it in then.
>> Valarie: Thank you.
>> Wendi: Can I ask a question not related to what you are talking about or do you want to go through some more of that first?
>> Valarie: You are on the Council.
>> Wendi: I'm going to move forward then. On composition you have struck out the director of the officers to the aging or his or her department of community health. We don't represent the department of community health, we are legislative autonomous and the way it's written there is no slot for me and I have a lot to do and if you want to change that, great, if not, I have a meeting to go to.
>> Valarie: The change that is here for the Department of Community Health is the Governor's appointed representative, the exo to the Council. The Executive Committee feels that because of the ADA involvement and affiliation that it's very important that we maintain linkages with OSA and you as the representative of the ADA project which is why you have been included on the agenda as a partner. The bylaws refer to what is legally, federally mandated. I understand if you are happy to stay.
>> Wendi: No governor appointment for us?
>> Valarie: Exactly.
>> Wendi: Thank you for explaining that
>> Valarie: Not a problem.
>> Ron: Ken
>> Ken: And Mr. Chairperson I'm assuming we can discuss other aspects of this document at this time, is the entire by law open for discussion?
>> Valarie: Yes
>> Ken: Then I have a historical question and it involves article 4 H. Which reads no member of the Council appointed by the governor under section 2.C may serve more than two consecutive full terms. I'm asking for a historical perspective on rationale for term limits and perhaps we need to address term limits conceptually.
>> Valarie: The rationale for term limits is the act stating no Council member for appointed exo may serve for more than two full, consecutive terms. Now, if the governor appoints someone and it is more than six months into the first term, that person resigns, so a new appointee is made. The person can finish the term of the individual that was appointed and then serve for two additional, three-year terms. So in reality someone could serve
>> Ken: 8.5 years
>> Valarie: Yes, but you can discuss it all you want. The act states this and this is one of the few times that even though I'm practicing not saying no, no, you cannot do that, Ken
>> Ken: Okay.
That clears that up.
>> Ron: Any other discussion on the bylaws?
>> Valarie: I've got one. I received a note regarding -- it's Section 7, Executive Officers, Number 7, under B, composition, and then Number 7, the CIL director elected representative. The question was: Does the director of the CIL vote? When the CIL director elected representative was added by action of the Council to amend our bylaws and we were asked to put it in writing the next time they were done, to have a -- the CIL elected representative as a nonvoting member of the Council to assure there is a linkage of IL information to tell Executive Committee and to make sure that the CIL directors are aware of action that the Executive Committee is taking. It was originally put in at the request of the CIL network. There was a lot of discussion at the time regarding is this a voting position or not. Because it's taking the Executive Committee up to six members and because there would already be the possibility of two or three individuals being CIL representatives, the feeling of the Council at that point in time was that it not be a voting member on the Executive Committee. So the way the bylaws read now, and the way we have been operating based upon Council action, does not give the CIL elected representative a vote. I think the question is: Should it be adjusted? And I don't know who asked the question so someone else may want to speak to it.
>> Ron: Jaye?
>> Jaye: I'm not following protocol but I have a question on the same item. The last sentence CIL elected director shall serve as the State Plan committee chairperson. Is that new?
>> Valarie: New written in here. It was -- it happened at the same time the Council took action at that at the same time they put the elected representative on the Executive Committee and that was detailed and identified as their primary responsibility. Again, it can change.
>> Jaye: I was just wondering what the rationale was.
>> Valarie: It's also part of the SPIL. Rodney is right. The rationale was that the State Plan greatly impacts the CILs. And one of the concerns that we have heard over the years is that they didn't necessarily have representation into plan development as well as the monitoring of the process. During our meetings between the SILC chair and myself and D&M's chair and their staff it was felt that this would be a means that would guaranty the network the voice that they were looking for. And that was the rationale. It's something that we do not have to put in writing in the bylaws, so then it would be open to be changed in our next State Plan if that was the wish of the group.
>> Lou: This is Lou and Rodney, you made a comment about the SPIL and I didn't catch the meaning of that
>> Rodney: In the evaluation portion of the SPIL which I believe is the section 8 portion of the SPIL, when we spelled out how the SPIL was to be monitored, the CIL chair, the executive Council CIL elected chair would chair the Committee of the Whole meeting. That is a portion of the SPIL is what -- to Jaye's question is that a history or that is where that history comes from
>> Valarie: Rodney, it speaks to the CIL executive elected representative will chair the Committee of the Whole. It doesn't say they will chair the State Plan document. Two different things.
>> Rodney: That is correct.
>> Valarie: So my question as a DSU, and this time I'm looking at Jaye and Lou and Ed, is this something that you would like not put in the bylaws so that it's discussed as we go through our next State Plan development? Because that impacts you.
>> Lou: I'm just not sure, I guess, I guess the concern is that one thing about having the CIL representative, having a voice, the chair is a big voice. The chair that is involved in the State Plan can have a lot of control and I just wondered what the rationale was and if that was intended, how it was intended.
>> Jackie: Do you want to respond to that first?
>> Valarie: At the time it was put in, yes, it was intended because the CILs felt they did not have a large enough voice in the development process. That being said, it's something that can be recreated in the State Plan if we wish, but if, as our DSUs, BSBP and MRS is uncomfortable with it, it should not be part of our bylaws. So I'm shoving that one back on Jaye and Ed.
>> Ed: I'm the new kid on the block, so take what I say with a grain of salt. I'm a little uncomfortable of it being there this year until I get the lay of the land quite frankly. I don't know how that is going to impact on my agency. Certainly, Lou feels it impacts on him and maybe on me too. I don't get to vote and it's a brand-new clause. I'm not sure exactly what it means to be honest with you and I'm supposed to be a word mechanic as a lawyer so I ask you hold off for a year.
>> Ken: The whole thing?
>> Ed: No, just on the
>> Valarie: CIL elected director shall serve as the committee chairperson is what you want to hold off on.
>> Ed: The whole 7, the whole number 7.
>> Valarie: I need the mic. We cannot hold off on all of number 7. The Council took action it was at the meeting after these were originally approved last time, so it's been two years ago, three years ago, which created the position of the CIL elected representative on the Executive Committee. That happened -- that is a right that the Council has to put that person on our Executive Committee. I firmly believe that denoting the person as the State Plan committee chair is something that the Council can say we are putting that person's name forward but that position is and should have input from MRS and MCB. So if you would like to delete the last line, the last line can easily be deleted. The lines above it cannot.
>> Ed: It's okay to take out the CIL executive director shall serve as the State Plan committee chairperson?
>> Valarie: Yes, that would be the only change. That is the only new addition to what had been an approved action. The other is in red because it had not actually been in the document but it was action that was taken by the Council.
>> Ed: If you recall, Val, I'm color blind so it all looks the same to me, if it's red and black I wouldn't know. But the CIL executive director shall serve as the State Plan committee chairperson, if you take that out I'm more comfortable and I'll defer to my brother and sister over here, MRS, I would assume they would be more comfortable too.
>> Valarie: And I guess it comes back to the Council needs to say, yes, it can go or, no, it cannot go.
>> Jackie: Well, I guess I just need some clarification before we even get there. Under the article on membership, article 4, composition E, number 1, and it may be, maybe it's me, one director from a CIL nominated by a majority of a directors of centers for independent living within the state. That is the composition of the Council, correct? Is that a voting member?
>> Valarie: It's a voting member to the Council that is the verbiage from the act and it cannot be changed.
>> Jackie: That is a Council member
>> Valarie: That is a Council member.
>> Jackie: When we go back to article 7.
>> Valarie: That is an Executive Committee member.
>> Jackie: That is one clarification. And beyond that to right now just delete that last sentence, the CIL elected director shall serve as the State Plan committee chairperson before we -- as we look at this whole thing that we are going to vote on, I don't know how we do it following Robert's rules, do we need a motion to take it out or vote on it with it out? It sounds like people are more comfortable with it.
>> Lou: I just want to clarify that. I'm an ex-officio representing MRS as Jaye is and Jaye has done. I don't really have a say of what is in your bylaws or not in your bylaws, that is obviously up to you, the Council, to make those voting members of the Council to make those. I was just curious as to that. It didn't seem to me or I have not seen where other committee chairs were identified in the bylaws. It's one thing perhaps for the members of the executives of the Council to appoint somebody annually or for this year or for that year but to have it in the bylaws as a standing decision when at least to my quick eyes it seems to be the only committee that has that. I'm not understanding.
>> Valarie: You're right. And it would be inappropriate looking back; it would be an inappropriate action because the chair of the State Plan Development Committee has to be someone that all three entities agree on. It cannot -- it's not a SILC person per se.
>> Jaye: I raised the question and I'm responsible. And I raised it just to understand the rationale because it's no question in my mind that the CILs should have a major voice in the development of the State Plan. They are most impacted. So they should have a major voice. But my question was: Why do we reserve it all the time, every time, just for the CIL representative and other members of the Council don't have the opportunity to serve in that capacity? That was the question.
>> Valarie: I have no idea.
>> Ron: Just something to add to it, anyone that has been involved in developing the State Plan like Jaye has been a very difficult process every time we get into it, the CILs, we had a lot of voices. We need one voice and that is how we got to where we were at.
>> Valarie: But is it more appropriate it be put in, each State Plan, who it should be? I don't know.
>> Jaye: You have one voice of the CILs and the representative at the table.
>> Valarie: Correct.
>> Jaye: My question was in terms of chairing the State Plan committee I wanted to understand why it always had to be with a CIL representative and other Council members were excluded?
>> Ron: I think we said we are going to strike that last sentence.
>> Ed: Somebody has to make a motion
>> Ken: So moved to strike the last sentence that reads the CIL elected director shall serve as the State Plan committee chairperson.
>> Ron: Support.
>> Connie: Second.
>> Motion by Ken and support by Connie. All in favor?
>> Aye.
>> Ron: Opposed?
>> Ken: There is room for discussion.
>> Valarie: All you moved is striking the one line out.
>> Ron: That one line.
>> Ken: Ed and I have another question going back to a previous issue. But we are going to hold it off because we are the new kids on the block so, again, as Ed said take his comments with a grain of salt and between the two of us we have two grains. I want to go back to the issue on article 7.7 with striking the last sentence. And I'm looking for the wisdom of the people who have been here a lot longer than us. From a functional perspective, for the efficiency of the development of the SPIL, does the deletion of this sentence create problems that do not currently exist or does this in essence continue the process as it is? Because it looks like it's pretty darn good or are we missing something on this side of the table?
>> Jaye: We are having a side bar conversation over here and the way we read it when you take it out, this guarantees, this writing in here, that that will be reserved for that one position.
>> Valarie: That is right.
>> Jaye: When you take it out, you still have the authority of who you want and as circumstances change you might want to change your approach to this and it gives you that leeway.
>> Ron: I agree that is where the Council was initially.
>> Valarie: Could we ask Sara to talk to this as Kellie is not here today? Do you mind?
>> Sara: It will save me from passing notes to Miranda. This is Sara Grivetti. For me the most important thing of the CIL network, there is a mechanism for CILs to be engaged as a partner in the process. For me it's not about whether there is a CIL designated person that is the chair. I respect the need to have flexibility on that issue. I don't anticipate changing that is going to change the outcome of our partnership.
>> Ed: Well said.
>> Valarie: Thank you.
>> My only concern is if you remove that language that you're going to have -- you might not have to but you might want to consider identifying how the chairperson is going to be selected.
>> Valarie: This is Valarie. And I can -- I'm going to talk from past practice. The development of the State Plan is a responsibility shared by BSBP, MRS and SILC. Previously the selection of who is going to chair it has been made among those three entities. Jaye is right; it should not be a Council decision alone. It shouldn't be. And my guess is it's something that we're going to talk about at our November DSU meeting. It's on the agenda from my point of view.
>> Ken: Let's put a pin in this and move on so we can go to the next one.
>> Ron: Thank you.
>> Valarie: You have the next one.
>> Ken: Yeah, we want to revisit -- Ed and I were having a side bar ourselves and we want to revisit 4H of the term limits. And now, here is my newbie question when you refer to the act, are you referring to 705 or 702 or 260? We have a lot of acts here
>> Valarie: The rehab act that establishes the SILC to meet Federally mandated requirements for operation of the SILC that allows the flowing of part B, Title 7, Part B and Title 7, Chapter 2, money to come into the state
>> Ken: So that makes it 7.05.
>> Valarie: I don't know. I cannot tell you.
>> Ken: I'm going to turn it over to Ed.
>> Ed: Is it in an reg or act that there is a term limit?
>> Valarie: Yes.
>> Ed: Our site bar question was somebody gets appointed by this governor for two terms. We then get a new governor. The new governor says I want to appoint the same person.
>> Valarie: Not allowed under the amendment that just happened to the creation of SILC, they would have to amend our Executive Order to be able to do that.
>> Ed: That is what we were talking about is where does this derive from? Does it derive from the rehab act or 260, Executive Order, et cetera, we were not sure.
>> Valarie: It derives from the act and I have to tell you this is -- this is one of the sticking points with RSA that had to be adjusted.
>> Rodney: It's the scenario we are in it.
>> Valarie: Demanded. Wanted is too nice of a word.
>> Ken: I guess we are done.
>> Valarie: I mean, unless Jaye, if you -- okay.
>> Ron: Any more discussion? We are -- everyone is happy.
I need a motion to accept the bylaws as amended.
>> Jackie: It so move.
>> Connie second
>> Ron: Moved by Jacqueline and second by Connie. All in favor?
>> Aye.
>> Ron: Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you.
>> Valarie: Does anybody else have any new business they want to put on the table?
>> Ron: Let's take a ten-minute break.
[Whereupon, recess taken at 10:55]
[Whereupon, back on the record at 11:09]
>> Ed: I did want people to get to know and to meet a second new member of our team, and that is Mr. Mike Pemble. Mike has been reassigned by LARA to my Bureau and I'm happy for that. And there is a story behind that that we don't need to talk about today. But a lot of you will be dealing directly with Mike because he is taking over for us as a deputy. The role of budget, grants, personnel, HR, et cetera, and he will be serving in that capacity and many times when I'm not available you will be referred to Mike, so I wanted you get to know Mike. He comes to us with experience in the private sector as well as State Government. He has run offices and bureaus, his most recent assignment, which starts on Monday, was to running the Bureau of Health Systems which regulated nursing homes, hospitals and free standing clinics et cetera and is familiar with Federal regulations and can find his way around the jungle of Washington and I wanted everybody to know who he is and say hello. Mike, do you want to say anything?
>> Mike: I think Ed covered it well. I will add I have known Ed for over 20 years and we started out working together for the insurance commissioner many moons ago and went different directions and I'm looking forward to working with him and learning the program and getting to know all of you. I'm not a political appointee and I started 25 years ago as the lowest level analyst as you can start and worked my way up from there if that makes a difference to you to know where my and I hope to help out the Bureau of services for blind persons with that experience, so thank you all for letting me come in and say hi.
>> Ed: I would say if you send me e-mails, you should also copy Mike Pemble and it's just Pemble at Michigan.gov and Sue who is my administrative assistance so I would ask for you to do that is when you send me e-mails send it to those two folks and sends it in black and white and do not send me pretty e-mails that are different colors because I'm color blind and visually impaired and picking out ties sometimes makes it a real chore. Thank you, Val.
>> Ron: At this time the Council meeting is going to go into recess for the public hearing. And, Lou, you are up. Thank you.
>> Lou: Deputy Director of Rehabilitation Services and one of the designated state unit representatives, also here are Ed Rogers and Leamon Jones. I've been asked to read the opening statements and the instructions related to the public meeting and I will do so, I will.
This public meeting is conducted by the Michigan Statewide Independent Living Council ("SILC") to receive comments on the proposed Fiscal Year 2013 State Plan for Independent Living. The proposed State Plan implements provisions of Executive Order 2012-10 including the transfer of the Designated State Unit of Michigan Rehabilitation Services to the Department of Human Services (DHS). This State Plan will be submitted for final approval to the United States Department of Education, Rehabilitation Services Administration after public comment has been received. This meeting is being called to order at 11:00 on November 2nd at the Radisson Hotel in Lansing, Michigan. The Notice of Public Meeting is posted on the Michigan Statewide Independent Living Council website, which is www.misilc.org. Notification has been -- was submitted to every Michigan Center for Independent Living and Southeast Michigan Council of Governments and SILS partners.
I'm Lou Adams and I'm facilitating the meeting and we are here to receive your comments on the proposed amendments to the State Plan for Independent Living.
The major changes in the State Plan are: Number one, the transfer of Michigan Rehabilitation Services to the Department of Human Services.
Number two, name change from Michigan Commission of the Blind to Bureau for Services to Blind Persons.
Three, name change of Michigan Rehabilitation Council to Michigan Council for Rehabilitation Services.
Number four, addition to a pilot project between the Bureau of Services to Blind Persons and the Statewide Independent Living Council.
And, five, clarification of terms and appointments of ex-officio members.
The State Plan has been developed based on current information and circumstances and is subject to the updated as these circumstances change.
Now for the meeting protocol. If you wish to speak, please make sure that you take a number. We will call on speakers in numerical order. If you represent an organization, please identify that organization, so that this information can be transcribed into the meeting report. If you have additional comments to submit in writing or other format, you may leave them with the meeting secretary or submit them to SPIL Comments, care of Tracy Brown, Michigan Statewide Independent Living Council, 417 Seymour Street, Suite 10, Lansing.
Comments must be received no later than 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 6, 2012.
To encourage orderly administration of the meetings and minimize the possibility of any disruptions, the meeting shall be conducted in accordance with the following protocols:
Number one, the sole purpose of the meeting is to accept comments from the public regarding the proposed SPIL amendments.
Two, the meeting shall be facilitated by myself, Lou Adams, the SPIL partner.
Three, the facilitator shall preside over all aspects of the meeting.
Four, the facilitator shall have final authority to implement and interpret these meeting protocols so as to maximize public comment opportunities while maintaining order and decorum.
Five, members of the public who desire to make public comment will be given a number and recognized by the facilitator in numerical order; each member of the public making a comment shall be provided a single five minute time period to make their public comment. Members of the public or groups or organizations wishing to submit written or recorded comments at the meeting may do so by providing the written or recorded comments to the meeting secretary at the meeting.
Six, all meeting participants shall avoid engaging in any form of disruptive conduct. All participant behavior shall be appropriate and respectful. The facilitator may require any participant to immediately cease any disruptive behaviors, and may direct the removal of any noncompliant person.
Seven, the facilitator shall designate a meeting secretary who shall ensure that a summary of all public comments and material submitted at the meeting is compiled, along with record of the date, time and identification of staff from BSBP, SILC and MRS who attend the meeting. The facilitator shall have authority to approve the summary. Eight, the facilitator shall cause the meeting summary to be published on the following website, www.mislc.org. Nine, and the facilitator shall have authority to implement additional meeting protocols in order to ensure reasonable and necessary accommodations or meet other legal requirements.
At this time we will call on the first speaker to make public comments, that person is Sinclair T. Franklin.
>> Mr. Franklin: My name is Sinclair Franklin and I apologize because I just ran into SILC just a few days ago. I'm looking for some resources because I have a deaf daughter and a deaf niece and earlier this year we started looking at resources to move to the next level of independent living. In March this year we worked on a project with a group called Michigan citizens for the deaf and national home project and we kind of moved some deaf people into independent living and helped them secure homes. Since I've been down here in Lansing, I have not seen a lot of resources that we are able to use in Detroit and Wayne County until I ran across, looking on the Internet your particular program. So I'm very anxious to know more about what SILC does and how I will be making the move with other deaf kids because I have two daughters and both live in Lansing and one is a student at LCC, a deaf one, and my other daughter has her last year at Michigan State, so I am looking forward to getting some information, I'm hoping that we can look at some resources that I was able to identify, to move that group forward in Detroit. And I believe we have the same resources here. And I'm new the Lansing and I don't know where the resources are at. Thank you.
>> Lou: Thank you. I understand our second public comment is a written public comment and I think Valarie Yarger has that information.
>> Valarie: This past week SILC received two very short communications from individuals in the state. One with a visual impairment, one the parent of a child with a disability. Both individuals were dismayed at the language that is contained in our current SPIL. They do not feel the objectives are person first, that the act outcomes and activities are centered around the individual. They have asked for consideration as we move forward in reassessing the way we develop and the language utilized in preparing our documents.
>> Thank you. Before we move on I want to return to our first speaker. Mr. Franklin, I did not identify your organizations is that your solutions?
>> Mr. Franklin, yes.
>> Lou: The next person who has signed up to make public comment is Sara Grivetti executive director of Disability Network of Michigan.
>> Sara: Thank you, Lou, good morning.
Since the inception of Centers for Independent Living in the 1970s, we have promoted the Independent Living philosophy which emphasizes the valuation of people with disabilities based on their strengths and their talents. And not defined by their limitations. Again, we are trying to de-emphasize a disability and not define a person by their disability. This includes person first language. Mike and Ed, I don't mean to get off on the wrong start with you and you don't have control over this but I really feel that the Bureau title, Bureau of services for blind persons is against person first language. And on behalf of the Michigan centers for Independent Living I'd like to go on record in sharing that our group dislikes that name. And while we know that you may not have direct influence over that title, it may not have had input on what the title of the Bureau was called, I asked that all of you in you possession of influence may be able to make that change in the time of in the future so we are not using a powering language for people and not defining them by their disability. Thank you.
>> Lou: Thank you.
>> Ed: Can I address her comment.
>> The purpose of the meeting is to receive public comment and I think very soon we will go into a short recess and I would suggest that may be a good time to do so. Thank you.
We are ready to receive comment from the next individual that I don't have one on my list but is there another individual that has public comment at this time?
>> Valarie: They have not walked into the room yet. I have not seen them.
>> With there being none, we are going to take a recess at this time. If there are other people who wish to speak, we will come back from the recess or at any point that there appears, and that be the case we will come back from recess and renew the public meeting. And we are in recess.
>> Valarie: And lunch will be served in here at 12:00.
[Whereupon, recess taken at 11:25 a.m.]
>> Ron: Lunch is being served, we will eat in here?
>> Valarie: Yes, we will eat in here.
>> Lou: We will remain in recess and see if there are any public comments and we will recess at any time including lunch if there are any other individuals who identify and would like to make public comment on the hearing and we will come out of recess certainly after lunch and see where we are at.
[Whereupon, recess taken at 11:51 a.m.]
[Whereupon, proceedings resume at 1:00 p.m.]
>> Lou: Okay, we are returning from recess for the public meeting today in regards to comments related to the Michigan independent, statewide Independent Living Council proposed 2013 proposed plan for Independent Living. If you wish to speak, please make sure that you take a number and we will call on speakers in numerical order and if you represent an organization please identify that organization so that the information can be transcribed into the meeting report. We are ready to receive any comments from the public. Are there any comments?
>> Valarie: The other person they told me they are coming is not here yet and I assume they are not coming.
>> Lou: We will close the public meeting seeing and hearing no comments on this issue and if there are in I concerns, anyone would like to express, please send them an e-mail to Rodney Craig and that e-mail address is Rodney at misilc.org and I hereby declare the meeting closed.
>> Ron: Thank you. With that we are going to reconvene the Council meeting. And we are going to go to round robin because there are some folks that need to leave and we're going to start with Sally.
>> Sally: Thank you for letting me a part of your programs and I'm here to give you an update on what is happening at MSHDA and I don't know if this is the forum where you ask questions as well. I don't really know what everyone is interested in. But the programs that I oversee at MSHDA which are probably some of the most relevant for the MSILC is that I Spear head or MSHDA is on the campaign to end homelessness and I'm the chair of the group. It's a multi-interdepartmental program or like group that meets. We also have the head of a Michigan united ways, league for human services, corporation for supportive housing and Veterans affairs who sit at the table and we meet monthly and have been doing that for the last 6-7 months. What our goal is to end homelessness throughout the state by coming up, with programs and efficiencies in our delivery systems so we can help people before they actually lose their housing. And for the first time in since we started in 2006, we actually saw a reduction in homelessness last year of 6%. So for those folks who are involved in that and interested, in 2011 there were 94,000 people that found themselves homeless, of the number a little over half of those are single moms with children, so the average adjust of someone who is homeless is around 8 years old. So it's a lot to do with poverty, extreme poverty, and lack of employment and supports from their own families. We also at MSHDA have resources targeted to the worthy effort and so our vouchers and the division I work within, we prioritize those to people who are homeless and when we have turn over from the state which is close to a little over 24,000 right now, those become available first to people who are homeless throughout the state of Michigan and then we go to our general waiting list. And we have housed probably in the last three years over 7,000 households by doing that and gotten them back on their feet.
We also at MHSDA have programs for supportive housing and work with disability right groups and nonprofit organizations across the state to create what we call supportive housing documents and work with the Veterans administration and have properties now in apartment complexes for people who come back from the military, homeless Veterans. We also work with a lot of non-profits in all of our communities to create anything from single family rental hopes up to, the largest development is 150 units, one bedroom, two bedroom apartments and working with those service agencies and people who find themselves to be chronically homeless on the streets and have disabilities and substance addictions or a combination of that to get them back into housing. And so that is -- we are moving forward on that. The one thing that is kind of new too is that in the last couple of years, HUD under the regulations has required and is requiring communities to start to coordinate and collaborate their resources more closely together. And so while the regulations were in draft for a couple years MHSDA started the implement take across the state. Now we have 60 what we call housing assessment and resource agencies across the state of Michigan. They are kind of links to the continuing care planning bodies, but every county is covered so some of the roll counties in the UP and up north may have two or three counties that share what we call an HARA and their job is to do all the intakes for people who are in need of housing, who might be at risk of being homeless because of lack of income or disability and to make referrals to appropriate agencies for them or to actually because we insist that they have resources at their disposal, to help people immediately, such as the check for a month's rent, utility, arranges to pay for some of those, that kind of thing and we are working closely with DHS on that endeavor because you have something that is simpler and we are trying to merge ours together a little bit closer so we are aligning our resources and to have a greater impact and to quite frankly be a lot more effective and efficient in serving the people of the state. So I don't know if you have anything in particular but those are the programs I'm closely aligned with. Somebody earlier had asked about home ownership and I'm more than happy to find or obtain information for you guys on any of the programs that MHSDA administers.
>> Ron: Thank you. Mike, are you ready?
>> Ed is first.
>> Ed: I'm listed above but I'll go ahead. In the three weeks that our Bureau has been operating in the three weeks that I've been the director, we have done several things to institute studies of various issues that I found on my desk the first day at work, the first morning at work. We are in the process of doing a total inventory of equipment in our EEP program, which is our veteran business enterprise program. We have established some criteria for posting and filling positions. We have also established some criteria for approving expenditures, one of the issues that I faced was lack of data and lack of accurate data and I think I spoke earlier today about our wish to improve our data system so that we not only can interact with RSA but we can interact with MRS and with you folks and all other constituent groups. I have met with the American Council for the blind folks, which is one of our consumer industry groups. And some of the people in that group represent some of your constituents here at SILC. I have met with the national federation for the blind Michigan chapter and the same thing, med with leaders and general membership and the work we do as partners there is cross over between us and between MRS and between what you are doing. And we look forward to continuing that partnership. We look forward to enhancing it and enlarging it and creating a network amongst us. I have help from Val and shared some information with me. One of the things that she is going to train me in is I can learn all the acronyms and I thought the law had acronyms until I was appointed to this job and to this Council. So if once in a while I misstep, it's because I'm the new kid on the block. So that is about all. Thank you.
>> Mike: I'm with LARA, as a department. LARA is essentially a regulatory business service focused department, includes a whole host of relatively diverse Bureaus. We are sometimes called the department of miscellaneous but not publically. We do unemployment, construction codes, commercial services, let me see if I can do this without looking down, healthcare, professional regulation, healthcare systems regulation and liquor control, public service commission, work comp. I'm sure I forgot someone in there. We do do medical marijuana licensing within the Bureau of healthcare services. How odd that that is the one thing in our entire department that anyone is interested right now. There are two entities within LARA that have the closest bridge to SILC, one clearly the Bureau of services for blind persons which and Ron thank you very much Ed and the other the Michigan administrative hearing do the vehicle rehab hearings that are referred to us by Ed or MRS and DHS to Jaye and Lou from the MRS team we miss you. And one word of caution for all of you, two months ago I didn't know what SILC was. I had to call Val and ask a question, which led to work. Which --
>> Valarie: And we appreciate it.
>> Mike: Thrilled to be here though. Thank you.
>> Ron: Thank you. Okay.
Wendi.
>> Valarie: We skipped Don because we had partners what had to leave and you are not forgotten Jaye.
>> Wendi: I'm Wendi Middleton from the state office on aging and we are a legislative agency attached to the community of health and we have a director named carry Cedarburg and I have an ex-officio here for three years, does that make sense
>> Valarie: About.
>> Wendi: I think I'm going to update you today on our ADRC effort because that I think is of most interest and for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about our office in cooperation with a lot of people are in the process of getting resource collaboratives and centers in other states but in our state they are a virtual partnership of nine required partners, agencies on agencies and CILs the conveners and other partners to combine resources and provide no wrong door access to long-term supports and services for persons who live in Michigan. We have a Federal grant and we said we would have statewide coverage by the end of 2014 and at this point we cover all but 21 counties, so we are really happy about that. And there is a whole application process. We did not prescribe what they need to look like, what area they need to cover, just who the partners would be and what you would be required to do to be an ADRC. So as geographic -- as people decide on the geographic area and who the partners will be, they put together an application and send it us and we review it and they emerge ADRC and they work to achieve fully functioning status which is determined by the feds. So we are happy to be as far along as we are because about six months ago we had many future discovered so progress is good and in order to accomplish this we had to deal with the aftermath of the single points of entry, which everybody worked so hard to get established which were then defunded so there was a grieving process and some people are still grieving over the loss of that and we had to establish relationships with the disability community and with the CILs in particular and that has gone very, very well. And it has been bumpy but as you get to know people and learn things about them it becomes easier and happy to be working with Sara and all of that and the other folks we have dealt with. So hopefully actually maybe by March or so we might have statewide coverage ahead of schedule so that will be great. If you want to know more about the ADRCs I would be happy to get you the information.
>> Ron: Thank you, Wendi. Sara, do you want to go next?
>> Sara: Good afternoon. Mike, Sara, network of Michigan representing the centers for Independent Living in Michigan and a partner with SILC, MRS, BSBP. Put a little bit of context for you. I think, first of all, I want to gratuitously acknowledge Debbie and her department for helping the CILs through our grant revision process, the budgeting process and helping us understand, communicate these changes as they have gone through this transition. When CILs have changed they tend to by nature as advocates tend to get pretty excited and Debbie has helped tremendously and Suzie in communicating and helping us have the right information so that we could really move forward and stay focused on what is important. So thank you, Debbie. We still have work to do. There are some inconsistencies in the contract with the rehabilitation act and so we are going to work through those in the coming months. It was a six-month contract so we are assured that we would get a chance to get some things corrected.
I also wanted to state that last week we had a chance to give testimony to the Senate DHS appropriations committee and Senator Caswell and Jansen asked for data on the outcomes that centers for the Independent Living and the impact in the communities and I want to thank Rodney and the SILC office for helping us on a short notice pull the data together. It's great to have a legislator that is really doing their job and saying what is the impact, what is the outcome, are we using money in a smart way. The database we have allows us to answer those questions. I'm excited and I heard you talk about it and Leamon and Beth, trying to get Independent Living data for BSBP data will be exciting.
A quick update on public policy initiatives, we shared with you back in May, the three priority areas of employment, transportation and long-term services and supports. And the two issues on employment were try to get resources so that MRS could avoid order of selection and freedom to work amendments and we are excited to make progress in both areas. We are not out of the woods entirely with order of selection, but we have at least use advocacy when they help in that regards. Freedom to work legislation will help people on Medicaid be able to continue work without losing their benefits and would change the poverty level from 100% to 250%. It passed the Senate and goes in front of the house next week. And we are really hoping to help them better understand when changing the legislation will remove a pretty significant barrier for people that want to go to work. And we are looking at probably around 3500 people that would be eligible for this change if the amendment occurred.
Fiscal year ended so we are getting ready to pull the data together and analyze it and put together an annual report. Of course, you have to see in your SPIL monitoring report outcomes to third quarter. I'm excited to look at outcomes through fourth quarter and Rodney and I will be working closely on that. And I think one final thing, as long as it's okay with our new ex-officio members I have in my packet your e-mail addresses if you would not mind if I added you to the CIL mailing so you can be kept in the loop by e-mail, so if you want communication or if there is action we need to know about, just to keep you in the loop on what is going on in the world of centers for Independent Living. And unless you have questions that is all I had.
>> Ron: Thank you, Sara. Carol?
>> Carol: As most of you know I'm the project director of vocation rehabilitation project and the head of an Indian reservation 15 miles west of Escanaba in if upper peninsula and I've been the director of the program since it was funded in 1995 and with a short background, the vocation rehabilitation program is for tribes and funded under section 121 of the rehabilitation act and that is because the native American people living on reservations are the most underserved of all people in the disability arena so the Federal Government set aside a portion of money that would be used to fund programs on reservations. Currently there are 83 such programs and there are about 543 reservations. So still under funded in terms of numbers of people across the country, but it has not been growing very much because of funding so we will stay at 80-83. We still are the only one funded in Michigan. So other people have applied over the years but because of the complexity of the application and competitiveness of the application and other tribes have not yet been funded. So we are a small program. We follow the same guidelines as Michigan Rehabilitation Services in terms of eligibility and operation. Although it's a little bit more simple because we have three FTE, two Councilors, myself as a half-time director and I fill up my other time with other things and half time rehabilitation assistant and we serve 105 people every year. Our population is small and we have about 500 people living on or near our reservations and we have about 250ish working age adults so you can see in terms of disability we serve a high percentage of the population.
We have been effective over the years. We usually have relatively high unemployment outcome. When I first went there which is 1989 it was like going to a third-world country. I was not -- did not expect to see the poverty in Michigan that I saw there. Basically everybody was unemployed or maybe one or two tribal people working under a Federal grant and assistant to the dentist or something but basically probably 98% unemployment. Our current unemployment rate is 40%. So we still have a lot of work to do but that is down considerably. The biggest issue in terms of young people of ages 18-30 and they run at 47% unemployment rate.
In terms of having job the big help to us was not the vocation rehabilitation program but also the advent of gaming and there are different feelings about gaming as a property was purchased across the street yesterday but it has made a huge difference socially and economically. We now have more jobs than people. And last summer, which is our peak unemployment time we employed 1036 people. That is pretty huge in the northern part of Menominee County. We are working for over 80% nominated people who work and live in our area. So it's really changed as you can imagine going from this rural reservation where nobody ever visited to being the largest employer in the county has been a huge in terms of the tribe as well.
So it really has been fun to work there for the last 20 years. I was telling Lou I hope to be there for another 20 but we will see.
We also get into a lot of the initiatives and work cooperatively with Michigan Rehabilitation Services and have the whole duration. And we are feeling good because next week we have been asked as an employer and we were nominated by Michigan Rehabilitation Services in particular a gaming operation to participate in the government summit on unemployment that is here in Lansing. And this is a group of employers that have been invited, so it isn't just we have a rehab program on a reservation, it's that our gaming operation has really aggressively looked into what can we do to serve people with disabilities either current employees or people finding jobs so not just the they tiff American program but working with MRS and starting with some funds and MARO and we have been successful with an in-house program that we are honored for doing and we are proud of that. That is our UP office of Michigan Rehabilitation Services.
I love coming to Lansing for a lot of reasons but one thing is I got all these good ideas and I take them home and go, okay, how can we do something like this in our part of the world. My staff kind of hates it because I come back and I say guess what we can do now. Reentry and a lot of things and recently applied for a supportive housing grant and we have a problem with we have a lot of substance abuse issues and a problem for people coming back from treatment and they are clean and sober and coming back into the same environment they left and the only person that changed is them. And recidivism is high. We had a halfway house that was not used for years and we applied a grant from HUD and got ready to renovate it into nine apartments and we applied for a grant to help us develop a program of housing so we can particularly concentrate on people who are returning from treatment or people returning from prison or jail that need some types of support in their housing, we hope eventually people can be independent on their own but I think to have a clean sober environment is going to be the prudent thing. Anyway, we also have been working a lot with our college students and encouraging people to go to school with nobody ever having been to college in Hannahville to we have about 35 people which sounds small but they have a lot of associates degrees from a local community college and we have people that have gone on to a few Bachelor's degrees and one or two master's degrees at this time so we are concentrating on our college connection at this time so if we have ideas on how to keep them in school, I talked about it last time, I would be happy for ideas.
Next week I will not be at the Michigan rehabilitation conference, new name, because it's our national conference and 83 programs that I mentioned we get together twice a year and they travel from across the country and it's our training opportunity because most of our programs are home grown and so many people don't have election of having people that have been trained in vocation rehabilitation to work as Counselors or as the director with the programs. And so we try to do a lot with kind of in-house training and we have tracks of information and we can follow through and learn from other and what works best in vocation rehabilitation and within the cultural context where we live and work. So I would invite those of you who have not been there to come and visit. We don't usually have the luxury as a Council to travel to the UP any more, but it's a fun place to come particularly in the summer. We have fun up there in the winter too as Jackie can attest. If there are any questions, I would be happy to answer those. Thank you.
>> Ron: Thanks, Carol. Jaye.
>> Jaye: Thank you, let me first of all say that since I am no longer officially the ex-officio, we had an agreement that I will give the last report, this is my last meeting I'm attending so I'm going to give the last report for the Bureau and happily hand off the microphone to Lou. I do have some final comments I want to make to the Council. But in an effort to maintain our value of maximizing transparency, you know I have more information than you probably want, right? First of all I want to say the transition to the new department is proceeding smoothly. We were very impressed when we had two chief deputy directors from LARA and DHS come to the central office meeting along with our immediate supervisor, the deputy director that we report to, Brian Rooney and I'm talking about Mike Zimmer and Duayne Burger and they came to one of our central office meetings and they are the farewell and the welcome messages that were well received by our staff and really sent a very positive message. And then the chief deputy director from DHS, Wayne Berger gave a conference call and people were very impressed with and feel very much welcome. We miss LARA but I'm sorry to say to Mike everybody feels very welcomed in DHS and they feel like it's probably going to be a good fit for us we are impressed because we have chief deputy directors as well as Brian Rooney that attended our champion awards event that Michigan counsel for rehabilitation services and the legislative building and we had good turnout. I was a good event, we had employers as usual as well as customers and partners and staff and to me it's one of the best events that I attend each year.
We are operating on a budget reduction plan. We talked about that before. And where we have had to reduce the funding, the amount of money that we have in our budget to use for the K service budget we've had to reduce staff, as you know, we had a small reduction in force that occurred the end of last year where we had to unfortunately layoff 26 staff. We also though committed ourselves and our budget reduction plan to also further reduce our staff this year by 30 additional positions to not be filled by attrition and we lost employees who were employees of the unemployment agency that are helping us with placement for our customers. So we've had a big staff impact. We also committed to reduce our operations which are the nuts and bolts, the travel, the leasing, the equipment, that kind of thing.
So most of the reduction in force staff occurred in our central office and MC TI and we discontinued our fee for service program and our business network unit. We discontinued it because it's not a legally required component of our program and we needed to redirect the staff from that program to our district offices to help provide the placement assistance that the UIA staff will provide.
Then we got real good news from DHS that they would help us with this situation and they are working on getting a work project in the amount of $2.8 million in place which we will use to draw down the match and we are told it should be used this month. That money, we made a commitment to first of all put it in our -- restore our K service budget so we will not have to implement order of selection this year. So that is the wonderful news.
Order of selection has to be implemented if we have inadequate funds or staff to serve all eligible customers. The staffing part, we are also working on with the $2.8 million we hope we will be able to reduce some of the positions that we won't be able to fill. Because of attrition and our first priority is to reduce everywhere except direct service ranks, that is the last resort. We recognize there is a challenge because we still have to balance, maintaining program accountability with that direct customer service delivery so we can't say we will take all the cuts here and not here, if it will put us in jeopardy. I think you all know from what you heard and from the Senate appropriations hearing that we have to be mindful of accountability. We cannot cut and be so lean that that gets any worse. So we are working on developing some strategies for how we are going to manage with less staff and less resources and we have convened what we are calling, I'm calling fast action teams but somebody took offense to the acronym and then they came up with rapid action team and they didn't like that one. So then they came up with this hybrid of FRAT, Fast Rapid Action Team. Whatever. I just told our staff that we really didn't have a luxury of taking a long time to make some decision about redesign and we need to move fast. So we have some teams that are working on how to redesign our operations for enhanced efficiencies and the teams are focused on redesigning MC TI, looking at implementing a financial needs test for certain services. Economics needs test that we talked about over the years. How to implement the motivational interviewing and enhanced employment options approach to how we do our work statewide and I want to talk about that a little bit more. How we can do some bulk purchasing of certain things like hearing aids that we purchase a lot of so we can get more bang for our buck and reinstituting fee schedules for services. How we can realign our central office staff since we lost so many in central office, how do we need to realign them to get the critical work done and how do we sort through what work that was kind of nice to do but maybe we cannot -- we no longer can do it and we need to focus on the critical elements of our work. And as I mentioned the business network unit, we discontinued our fee for service so we have a team looking at how to redesign that. And the idea, again, is to redeploy the staff that we have in our business network unit out to the districts to help with placement where there is a void.
We also have a team that is looking at leasing and consolidation to see how we can better manage that part of our program and reduce costs and reduce -- the term I'm hearing lately is our footprint across the state.
We have one more team, last but not least that Lou headed up that is looking at purchase services staff and how we work with them and how we manage them because we have all sorts of concerns out there about staff that are not civil service staff or working with us and how can we make sure we are doing that appropriately as well as efficiently. All these teams are comprised of a cross section, all the different classifications, I think they are a good example of employee engagement as they are coming together and putting forth recommendations on how we go forward. And those are wrapping up right about now. With draft final reports forthcoming.
And I think they will help us get through. We figured out how to maintain our value of excellence with less staff and less resources.
Our State Plan for fiscal year 2013 has been approved, which is wonderful. You never take that for granted. And our performance for fiscal year 2013 was excellent in my opinion. We exceeded our goals for assisting individuals into competitive employment. We actually achieved 7,646 rehabilitation successful rehabilitation outcomes which is 110% of our goal. Our format was less than the goals and we think that is because of the success of the motivational interviewing and enhanced employment options that we are implementing across the state. What we are finding is folks are doing a better job of self-sorting for themselves, you know, whether they really want to participate in the program, whether they really want to go to work, and they are opting out earlier as opposed to we provide services and they said I really was not interested in a job. So we think it's going to help us improve our efficiencies, but we have not done a formal evaluation, it's earlier indications for us.
And I guess the last thing I want to say, next to last, is, yes, indeed we did have a Senate appropriations hearing, I'm glad you brought it up. And, yes,
>> Sara: I didn't bring up you.
>> Jaye: And yes, indeed it was an interesting experience. I was summing it up by saying there is continual concern about program accountability for MRS, we have our work cut out for us and take it seriously and were we very pleased we had several partners, MARO, Michigan commission on rehabilitation services and Disability Network of Michigan, we have customers of the CROs, we have CROs themselves that came forth and spoken our behalf in the hearing which I think is a good testimony of how well we work together as a disability community.
And my final comment is this: That it has been I think beyond words that I can think of, it's been a sheer pleasure to work with you over the years that I have been on the Council. I think we have experienced many challenges together, but what I will remember is that we persevered and got the work done that needed to be done. I have learned and grown from it. I have gotten to know all of you who have been here individually and I will miss you dearly and I think you all know that I will be moving on real soon and my counsel or my words, parting words to both those that have been around for a while and those that are new is get into the work of the Council. You cannot afford to just come to the meetings. The disability community needs you to really participate, get into the work, both in the meetings and after the meetings, between the meetings, because we need to rely on your expertise. We are better at what we want to accomplish by everybody being committed. And it's been my pleasure and I thank you. I don't think I can accept this but we will talk. I really appreciate it.
>> Valarie: I tell you what, I'll take it back and mail it to you after you leave if you want me to.
>> Jaye: I do indeed wish you the best as you carry on and just keep in mind that focus, that we are here working for the person with the disability on their behalf and you will be okay.
Thank you.
[Applause]
>> Ron: Did Lou want to make some comments? Collette?
>> Collette: Thank you. I am from the Michigan Department of Education, low incidents outreach. And low incidents outreach, what we do is we service students, families and professionals in the field of visual impairment and those who are deaf and hard of hearing. Our primary goal is to provide services, materials and technical assistance to anyone in the area of Michigan that has a need for our services. We have lots of services, which I'm really not going to get into today. Next time I would bring one of our fliers so you could really understand the many services that we do have.
A couple of things that I do want to mention though is we have a very close relationship with BSBP. And we have been working with them for many, many years. And transition, of course, is one of the main things that we work on. We meet quarterly. And discuss what is going on in the state and what do we all need to do together to make a difference for our students. Currently we have a plan to do regional workshops where a team from BSBP and LIO will be going to different places and addressing transition coordinators and teachers of visually impaired to explain our services because believe it or not there are so many people in the state that really don't know what all we can do for them, which is a lot.
We have a summer program planned at Camp Tosmakeeta which is a camp that was given to the school for the blind. And while I mention that, we were known as the Michigan school for the blind before I closed 15 years ago. It started in 1859 and so there is a long history there. Other positives that we have is that we are the inheritors of scholarships and we are actually able to provide money for indigent students in the state, they have a bridge card or free or reduced lunch and we provided $180,000 of free Braille books to students in Michigan. It's a two-fold win for the students in Michigan because with the financial situation that many of the school districts are in, we found out that they were actually not buying some Braille books for kids and they were just going for auditory. Well I don't know about you but if you closed your eyes and tried to do math or a graph in science it's pretty hard to do. So our primary goal is to make Braille books that are in signs and math and we have a master that we can then make a cheaper one for another student that needs it and then we also have one to loan out. So we are really pleased about that. We actually produce 2180 volumes of Braille this year. Again, what I'm talking about the science or math books some can be 50 volumes and cost $20,000-$30,000 so we are taking big ticket money here that really has helped save a lot of school districts and provide kids access to general education.
We also provide $14,000 in scholarships for students to attend educational programs. And that has been a wonderful thing too.
We conduct an annual census from the American printing house for the blind. And this year we had 2046 students that were considered legally blind in the state. We share this information with BSBP. And that helps them to really focus in on the areas where they know the greatest need for their services are. So that is just one more collaboration that we have. Thank you for having me here.
>> Ron: Thank you, Colette. Denise.
>> I'm going to apologize first for how brief my comments are going to be, but Jaye said it all and DHS is only had rehab services for one month and one day at this point. So we are really just at the beginning of our collaboration and partnership together. From what I understand the transaction went very smoothly. And talking to Debbie and Lou and Jaye they told me about a couple bumps but it sounds like it went really well.
DHS's main programs are protective services and assistance and I think that our two departments and the CILs will work well together because our goals are self-sufficiency and getting people to be independent.
One of the programs that I know we are looking at is the jet program. It will incorporate more for disabled individuals and take more consideration into that, so that is one more thing that we are looking into right now and I just want to say that I'm really looking forward to working with this group because I think what I bring back is really going to help DHS work with our new customers and understand their needs, so I thank you for allowing us to be here and look forward to working with you.
>> Ron: Thank you. I think that covers all of us.
>> Valarie: Sheila and hers is written in the packet
>> Rodney, she had to sign off five minutes ago.
>> Ron: Sheila signed off. Well, that moves us to other. Agenda, theme, suggestions for future meetings.
>> Ken: Thank you, I'd like to make a comment under the topic of other. And I believe it was three years ago that MRS, under leadership of Jaye and Lou took a very bold, very brave step and what we call the Allen Anderson project and the Michigan rehab conference had a little bit to do with it when we brought him as a speaker and MRS picked up the mantle on that. The preliminary data, before I get to that, it was not inexpensive and not without some fear and tribulations. It worked; the primary data showed it worked. The message I would just like to take to everybody here to take home is that the MRS leadership does have bold vision, can make things work for the field of disability. And I hope that future projects that are proposed by MRS and by everybody is due consideration from the people so we can have increased success with increased placement for everybody within the field of disability. And I just want to say nice job.
>> Ron: Thank you again. Leamon and then Wendi.
>> Leamon: Thank you. As you know that we are the Bureau of services for blind persons and now we are one-month-old. Just to highlight some points that the agency has achieved and accomplished over the past period of time let's start out with awards, this is something we have every year but recognizing those persons that achieved their goals throughout the year and/or our partners with the community partners as well as employers and just in October we had this event and it was very successful. We had a number of individuals that received awards. And especially those that worked with us and assisted in finding jobs for individuals. That is one of the main goals and objective is to have people become as independent as possible and economically independent is very valuable. Other aspect of the program that we have and some things that we were able to achieve this year is we had received the grant an FCC grant to work with persons who are deaf and blind. This grant is a three -- no, a two-year grant with possibility of a third year. And this is to provide technology equipment for persons that are deaf and blind. They do not have to be consumers of the agency as we identify throughout the state that we can work with them to provide them with updated technology and communication technology. I think this is a very valuable grant that will enhance lives of these individuals and also probably bring even more individuals to our program for further vocational services. So this again as I said is a two-year grant. $267,000 a year. And we won't go in the details but I thought it was a very worthwhile grant that can assist many persons who are deaf and blind which is a combination of things.
As Colette made mention of, we collaborate very closely with them with our programs in providing a number of services. In our transition activity with the intermediate school district, we work very closely together there and providing Independent Living training as well as technology assessment and evaluation as well as training. This is before the instructors and/or the students, which is a really very valuable cooperation. That really helps to enhance our transition a programs, rehab transition programs throughout the state, in particularly the major Metropolitan areas where we provide additional services and working with the school districts for persons who are blind and visually impaired to enhance the opportunities for them and particularly in the areas of Independent Living as well as transition from high school to secondary ed or to employment. And our programs are continuing in that area. This is a very helpful, valuable program there.
We also, too, have one of our programs, I think that is valued, and I want to make mention of it, and it's interesting, and it's our media adjustment program and it's at a center in Kalamazoo but it moves around throughout the state. What it does is it provides an introduction to persons who are newly blinded, fields of blindness and begin to see how they can live and maintain themselves within their home environment and gives them an idea of hope rather than being hopeless and even P often times these individuals can move on to go to the center and go to further training. This program really gives them an idea of what it is, what an individual can do to become successful and independent.
We also then provide a variety of training for our staff and what we have done is assess the staff and some of the areas that we want to provide training for in the future. Just recently we completed training for employment and we have the opportunity for those individuals to become gainfully employed and looking at some other types of training programs that will really kind of be on the cutting edge and that is social media and how we can use that or how we can use that and enter employment outcomes. Just to kind of indicate a few themes that the agency as BSBP is considering at this particular time. We also continue to collaborate with many of our community partners and to enhance employment outcomes. We are working with CMH, Michigan works and other agencies and developing some cooperative relationships to increase employment outcomes and to work with job developers, increasing the expectations of our job developments are and continue to do and provide the additional services for the agency.
So these are briefly some of the things that are outside. We also and with the agency, in the past year, we look at the combination of our vocational program as well as independent living program, the goals that were set we were able to achieve our goals in the Independent Living as we -- as was made mention of improving the data and what happened thus far this year and we have been able to capture more of the actual information regarding the outcomes of the services that were provided for those persons so we can see some increases, major increase in the Independent Living program as well as in our vocational program, to be able to achieve over 95% of those, the target that was set for providing gainful employed individuals.
So the Agency is continuing to move forward with the staff. We have some people who were affected by the some of the downsizing I guess it was. But with the staff that we -- that we lost and we received some as well, we will have to go through some training in order to bring some of those individuals up to par, but we are looking forward to new ideas and working with the staff and working with our community partners in order to achieve the outcomes and we have a State Plan approved and that was very helpful so we can look forward to another year and continue to work with our community partners. Thank you.
>> Ron: Thank you, Leamon. Wendi.
>> Wendi: I'm sorry I forget this during my comments, one thing I wanted to do today is to thank Rodney and Val in the help for the ADRC work. Rodney has been invaluable in the data and IT area and reporting. We could not do any of this without him. And Val serves on the leadership team and I meant to do that first and forgot so thank you for the opportunity to say thank you.
>> Valarie: You are certainly welcome.
>> Ron: Lou.
>> Lou: Just occurred to me one of the things that Jaye failed to mention, I cannot imagine why, was that when we had -- when the Michigan Council for rehabilitation services had their annual awards, there was a Beacon award delivered and that Beacon award as I understand it is not necessarily an annual award, it's an award that demonstrates leadership and vision in the field of rehabilitation and Jaye was the recipient of that this year.
[Applause]
>> Ron: Anyone else? Going once. Twice. Just a reminder, in your packet, if you picked up the packet outside or was mailed to you, there is a survey from Tracy. Take a moment and fill it out. It's regarding how you want to receive your Council meeting materials. And that gives you some choices if you would please fill that out and return it to her.
Are we finding it? That is it.
>> Put our name on it? It doesn't have a name on it.
>> Valarie: Sorry what?
>> Do you want a name on it?
>> Valarie: Well, yeah, then she will know what to do.
>> Ron: Now is our second opportunity for public comment. Is there anyone who wants to make public comment? Hearing none, anything before we stand adjourned? Nothing? I just want to say thank you again. It's been fun dealing with this not only with SILC but the commission on disability concerns for years. So I started my career involved with Michigan rehabilitation back in 1973 with General Motors when the rehabilitation act was passed because they were obviously a government contractor, so I set up a return to work program. So I had worked with just about all the departments. I've known Leamon a long time. We hired several people through our program and it's been a long, enjoyable, 40 years of it. But I'm not going to go away. I'll still be in touch with some of you. So it's been enjoyable. Meeting adjourned.
[Applause]
[Whereupon, meeting concluded at 2:05 p.m.]
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