[nfbmi-talk] Fw: i'll write more on this later

[joe harcz Comcast]

Zelley is the same center for Independent Living Director who has discriminated against me by denying me access to board of Directors meetings, and denying me accessible minutes, evaluations, and so one. Yet, they get money for transition of blind youth from BSBP. Moreover, Zelley is the current chair of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission which has enforcement powers over public entities here in Michigan, but which violates the ADA itself!

The danger of Zelley who uses a wheelchair is that he aids and abets discrimination that is ongoing and the public goes to him thinking things are hunky dory. He is very similar to Pat Cannon being the state of Michigan ADA coordinator while he (Cannon) violated the ADA itself.

If folks want to know why access to information is so woeful here in Michigan and why we don't have required ADA compliant signage, etc. it is because of the likes of Zelley and Cannon who sell us out.

Now of course we have within BSBP another "low vision" sell out who in turn is also a documented serial violator of the ADA.

These people need to be sued, or the pattern will continue.

Joe Harcz
----- Original Message ----- 
From: joe harcz Comcast 
To: Elmer Cerano MPAS 
Cc: MARK MCWILLIAMS ; BRIAN SABOURIN 
Sent: Friday, November 08, 2013 7:01 AM
Subject: i'll write more on this later


I've worked on this for now more than seven years and at every turn Zelley who has and continues to violate my writes covers for Brown. I've got the archives of my work with Masseau, Dubuc, etc. on this issue and my testimony before the very MCRC in 2007 which Zelley chairs. Oh and he gave Inez Brown the community access award at the Flint ADA event in inaccessible Kearsely Park in 2012 two months after the DOJ settlement. What is wrong with people don't they know that barriers are to be removed and that serial violators of the ADA sitting in positions on the MCRC that can enforce Title II but actually aid and abet it are sell outs to the entire community, and that they are the most dangerous bigots of all?

Joe Harcz

 

Gary Ridley | gridley at mlive.com . Locals stand behind voting booths for precinct 45 during the Genesee County elections at the Flint Public Library on Tuesday,

August 6, 2013. Zack Wittman | MLive.com FLINT, MI -- Flint City Clerk Inez Brown said city elections were not impacted despite claims from federal authorities

that four city polling places were not in compliance with Americans with Disabilities Act standards. Inspectors from the United States Attorney's Office

were in Flint Tuesday, Nov. 5, to observe the election, according to Attorney's Office spokesman Gina Balaya. Balaya said the city entered a settlement

with the U.S. Attorney's Office in 2012 stemming from a lawsuit to make all polling sites in the city accessible to persons with disabilities, but said

the city has not yet lived up to all of the agreement's terms. "The principal problem, which has been ongoing, is that under the terms of the settlement

agreement, the city was supposed to relocate four polling sites because they could not be made accessible, and to date, the city has still not done so,"

Balaya wrote in an email sent to The Flint Journal. Brown said that the polling places in question are all churches and they are not legally required to

conform to ADA standards. However, Brown said the city, which is required to provide handicap-accessible polling places, is forced to rely on the churches

since the affected neighborhoods do not have other facilities that could serve as suitable polling locations -- a problem exacerbated by the closing of

city schools that once served as polling locations. The agreement identified five polling locations that the city needed to either make temporarily accessible

of relocate to an alternative accessible location. The polling places affected include Lincoln Park United Methodist, Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church,

Bethlehem Temple Church, Holbrook Ave. Church of God and Bunche Elementary School. Bunche was closed in 2012 and the polling location was removed. Brown

said the city is seeking grants that could finance improvements, such as wheelchair ramps, that would allow the polling locations to meet ADA standards.

Brown added that the city is also working The Disability Network of Flint to help address some of the problems. Mike Zelley, president and CEO of The Disability

Network, said that his organization has not received any complaints about voting accessibility in Tuesday's election but said the problems need to be addressed.

"This needs to get done and get done expeditiously," Zelley said. Brown said she expects the problems to be corrected prior to the city's next election.