[nfbmi-talk] request information and request full ada/504 compliance

[joe harcz Comcast]

August 13 2013 Rogers Request for Information and Total Access to BSBP Programs and Services

 

Paul Joseph Harcz, Jr.

1365 E. Mt. Morris Rd.

Mt. Morris, MI 48458

810-516-5262

joeharcz at comcast.net

 

Re: ADA and Section 504 Access which is a Civil Right

 

To:

 

Ed Rodgers, Director

Michigan Bureau of Services for Persons who are blind

) Formerly the Michigan Commission for the Blind)

(Via E-mail)

 

Dear Mr. Rodgers,

 

I, a person who is blind and an advocate for same am writing you today to inform you of some basic federal civil rights responsibilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and Section 504 of the very Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended that creates your organization to begin with and funds it too by the way, and to lawfully request information in accessible form and without surcharge in accordance with several laws.

 

The Americans with Disabilities Act, Title II goes to all state and local entities including yours regardless as to receipt of federal funds and Section 504 goes to federal fund recipients. I would think that you would be intimate with these laws as they are seminal civil rights laws and you are indeed a lawyer, former administrator of the Michigan Administrative Hearing System, and now somehow the Director of the Michigan BSBP in spite of these things 

 

Regardless you’ve signed along with your cohort assurances with RSA that you’ve and the agency has followed these obligations in state plans.

 

Now, frankly I wish for you to put up or shut up in these regards.

 

 

 

One of the things that we blind folks have is the right to accessible information in all of the affairs of BSBBP. I wish for your self evaluation as to how information requested in Braille, audio, large print, and electronic media are accommodated in accordance with the ADA, Title II, subpart e, communications) and the “auxiliary aids and services” provisions of Section 504 for myself and all perspective consumers by the way.  In other words give me the means and methods and protocols for producing all information to any customer; any member of the taxpaying public; and any other person who is blind.  In alternate formats, based upon “primary consideration”, in a timely manner in accordance with aforementioned federal civil rights laws. pro forma, let alone upon request

 

 

(By the way as an aside I’d like to see, your accessible treatise on just what “primary consideration” is if you only know the legal term.)

 

And I would like to know the name, phone number and e-mail address of the “ADA coordinator” of your department as required by law and equity.

 

 

Moreover, as one who must now give due process to blind customers, and that includes BEP, and VR “clients” and as a former administrator of MAHS with your boss in the DSA, Michael Zimmer also the head of the MAHS how do you afford provide all documents in a timely and accessible manner to blind people who make claims within this system? This is a legal proceeding in and of   itself and is not immune to the United States Supreme Court ruling in Tennessee v. Lane, which ruled   that indeed all state and local courts and indeed MAHS must abide by the ADA, including physical, but also  As an aside  as information access to all adjudicated  processes. I can “see” in dozens’ of MAHS rulings in the past, totally documented where Administrative Law Judges denied and ignored lawful requests for timely and accessible information. And in fact it is documented in the public record where this information was routinely denied to Michigan Commission for the Blind Board members in part or full, including exhibits, and yet this corrupted system and continued violations of any common sense notion of due process and equal protection under law continues.

 

By the way, a not irrelevant aside here: these things are documented in the public record and the notations in the last state plan have been contested by yours truly in regards as to the total, and transparent and inherent conflicts of inters in your last state plan wherein you and the state o f Michigan abrogate in the State Plan all remedies and defer them to the very DSA, (Michael Zimmer who again is the MAHS Chief, and whom makes “final agency determinations”.

 

How horrid is this? How fundamentally evil is this as an assault to those of us with disabilities to the fundamentals of “due process” protections in the VR process?

Remember ignorance of these seminal and federal civil rights laws is no excuse for non-compliance especially for an officer of the court such as you and remember federal law, especially federal civil rights laws such as the aforementioned trump state mandates, dictates and so-called “executive orders”..

 Or state law for that matter (re: spending clause” and Article V of the 14th Amendment upon which laws are premised in whole and part).

In addition I am again citing aforementioned laws requesting each and every item you or your agents have sent to the “so-called commission” members in accessible format and in a timely manner (re: Tyler v. Manhattan, and ADA, Title II, subpart e, communications, as well, as again Section 504).)

 

In addition I’m requesting again in accessible form and in accordance with these civil rights laws all correspondences with the Rehabilitation Services Administration relative to BSBP’s state plan and those sent to the Michigan Rehabilitation Services Council, or its principles, and/or anything sent to the Michigan SILC. Moreover, I’m requesting anything within the past nine months you’ve sent to the Michigan Attorney General’s office in regards to any BSBP matter, again in accessible format and without surcharge or obfuscation.

 

 

The above requests are again made pursuant to your known obligations under the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act. If you don’t understand these things then I suggest you, again as an officer of the court, member of the Michigan Bar, and public official look these federal laws up. I’d also look at the “assurances” you and Mr. Zimmer have sent to the RSA in these regards and that both you and RSA examine them for the transparent violations of the” false Statements Act” that they are on their face as they are clearly reporting to “the feds” and federal investigatory agents something that simply, is in demonstrable fashion not the truth in plain language.

 

Moreover, I am informing you that BSBP is now and has been out of compliance with the ADA in regards to physical access/program access for the blind in numerous buildings it engages with and in. To wit: it has several meetings and offices in buildings that in documented fashion does not comply with American with Disabilities Act Guidelines (sections, 3.40.1, 4, 5, 6) relative to raised character and Braille signage on every permanent room including room numbers. (Again ignorance of the law is no excuse sir and these are long standing obligations).

 

In addition I’m requesting information in accessible format relative to the following:

 

All salaries and compensation for the following BSBP personnel:

 

-You, Mr. Rodger-Gwen McNeal

-Elizabeth White

-Lisa Kisial

-Bob Robertson

-Mike Pemble

-Rob Essenberg

 

Again invoking the ADA and 504 I simply request this information in a timely manner as either/or Word documents or plain text attachments sent to my e-mail address listed above. For, in simple terms my computer “talks”., but it doesn’t read print documents.

 

By the way I’ve not yet received a response to my previous requests for information. A failure to respond to a request for information is in and of itself a violation of the ADA, Section 504, and if notified or as you again are an acknowledged lawyer who should know and a “state actor” could make you prone to a Section 1983 action for knowing violations of my personal civil rights and those of my class.

 

In order to avoid such a thing as a 1983 action against you in your official capacity I would think you would remit the requested information in a timely and accessible manner forthwith, and that you would not engage in any retaliatory actions, obfuscations, or other adverse actions and simply do the correct and lawful thing.

 

 

I, thus thank you for your prompt and accessible response to this inquiry, again without obfuscations.

 

Sincerely,

 

Paul Joseph Harcz, Jr.

 

 

(P.S. Send this request to each and every commissioner please)

 

Cc: file

Cc: cb, esq.

Cc: mpas

Cc: rsa

Cc: ocr, ed.

Cc: usdoj

Cc: mi silc

Cc: nfb mi

Cc: mi adapt

Cc: M. Farmer, FOIA

Cc: C. Haynes, FOIA

Cc: S. Arwood, LARA

Cc: M. Zimmer, DSA,MAHS

Cc: several attorneys at law in the field of disabilities rights