[nfbmi-talk] from july 13 bsbp meeting

[joe harcz Comcast]

Since when can the speaker void a mandated facility?
11                        MR. EAGLE:   My name is Mark Eagle.   I wanted to

 

12        highlight a concern that I've noticed a trend since the last

 

13        18 months that's going on in the BEP.    There has been four

 

14        different temporary locations that have been mis properly

 

15        labeled.   People have said that there's no blind qualified

 

16        people to take over the Port Huron, the Secretary of State,

 

17        the Anderson Building and the Capitol when there was people in

 

18        the Lansing area that have been qualified and have been

 

19        temporary operators in high profile locations like this Mason

 

20        Building, the Supreme Court, the Victor Building.     So this

 

21        concern is constantly going on where people are saying that

 

22        there's not an administration when there is multiple potential

 

23        operators that I can name off, but I'm not going to name

 

24        names.   And this brings me to the idea that managing is -- I'm

 

25        trying to think of the word.    Sorry.   I'll go onto my next



 

 

 

 

 

1        idea.  But that's my major concern right now.

 

2                        MR. RODGERS:   In response to the comment about

 

3        the four facilities that Mark's aware of that there may be

 

4        temporary operators, two of those facilities we have no

 

5        control over, that's the Capitol Building and the Anderson

 

6        Building.   The Anderson Building facility was closed by an act

 

7        of the Speaker of the House of Representatives.     So Pat Cannon

 

8        had no choice.   He couldn't keep that stand open.    We were

 

9        simply booted out.   That's a fact of life that we have to live

 

10        with, and that was December 2011.

 

11                        And we have been working with the Legislature

 

12        to get that facility back open.    The Capitol Building was a

 

13        similar situation where we had an emergency situation, and we

 

14        had to negotiate with the Legislature in order to get the

 

15        Capitol Building stand running for the summer.     And this was

 

16        not a matter of choice necessarily by us, but one of

 

17        practicality.   And if we wanted to have somebody at the

 

18        Capitol Building, we had to go along with some of the wishes

 

19        of the Legislature.   As to the Port Huron facility, and I

 

20        can't remember what the third one -- what the fourth one was.

 

21        Constance, would you address those other two, as to why we

 

22        have temporary operators there.

 

23                        MR. ZANGER:   We also had a situation at the

 

24        Secretary of State where we had to, on very short notice,

 

25        remove an operator.    We do have a temporary blind operator in



 

 

 

 

 

1        that facility.   The Port Huron vending route we also -- the

 

2        operator resigned on very short notice.    The facility was

 

3        terribly degraded.   It was very dirty, the equipment was in

 

4        disrepair, and there was no inventory.

 

5                        MR. RODGERS:   And as I recall, Constance, in

 

6        order to get somebody in Port Huron we had agreed to a limited

 

7        contract, correct?

 

8                        MS. ZANGER:   We did indeed.

 

9                        MR. RODGERS:   We had to negotiate a contract.

 

10        The Commission should be aware of that.    And we couldn't just

 

11        say to somebody, we want you to do this, but we're going to

 

12        do, you know, like a 30 day lease or a 10 day lease or we're

 

13        liable to yank you out as soon as we get somebody.     I mean no

 

14        business is going to want to go in there and help us out under

 

15        those kind of unreasonable terms.    So we did have to negotiate

 

16        a contract, and that contract is still running, Constance, is

 

17        that correct?

 

18                        MS. ZANGER:   That's correct.   And that entity

 

19        came into that facility, repaired all the machines, brought

 

20        them back into service, cleaned them, and stocked them at

 

21        their own expense.   There was no expense to the Bureau of

 

22        Services for Blind Persons for that.

 

23                        MR. SIBLEY:   If I could follow up with a