[nfbmi-talk] Fw: Response to Email Regarding EOC Minutes

Fri Apr 18 18:52:39 UTC 2014

----- Original Message ----- 
From: joe harcz Comcast 
To: Haynes, Carla (LARA) 
Sent: Friday, April 18, 2014 2:50 PM
Subject: Re: Response to Email Regarding EOC Minutes

Under the OMA all meeting minutes must be made available within eight working days.

Thus you and others have been violating the OMA in known fashion along with requirements under 504 and the ADA to make all meetings of a VR entity fully acccessable and at the meeting, not months and even years later.

Look it up.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Haynes, Carla (LARA) 
  To: joe harcz Comcast 
  Cc: Rodgers, Edward (LARA) ; Luzenski, Sue (LARA) ; Pemble, Mike (LARA) ; Belknap, Katie (LARA) ; Zanger, Connie (LARA) ; Hull, James (LARA) 
  Sent: Friday, April 18, 2014 9:07 AM
  Subject: Response to Email Regarding EOC Minutes

  April 18, 2014

  Mr. Paul Joseph Harcz, Jr.

  Email:  joeharcz at comcast.net

  1365 E. Mt. Morris Rd.

  Mt. Morris, MI 48458

  Re:  Email Dated April 7, 2014 Regarding EOC Minutes

  Dear Mr. Harcz, Jr.:

  I am in receipt of your email to Director Rodgers dated April 7, 2014 (included below).

  Please be advised that we have not treated your request as a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.  However, please be advised that your statements concerning the Elected Operators Committee (EOC) are not factually correct.  The Bureau of Services for Blind Persons (BSBP) has no control over the activities of the EOC.  Until they have approved their own minutes, BSBP does not have a final copy.  Once we receive from the EOC the approved minutes, we will post them on the BSBP website and they will be available to the public.

  Sincerely,

  Carla Miller Haynes

  Bureau of Services for Blind Persons

  cc:       Edward F. Rodgers II

              Sue Luzenski

              Mike Pemble

              Katie Belknap

              Constance Zanger

              James Hull

  From: joe harcz Comcast [mailto:joeharcz at comcast.net] 

  Sent: Monday, April 07, 2014 3:44 PM

  To: Rodgers, Edward (LARA)

  Cc: Marlene Malloy MCRS Dir.; BRIAN SABOURIN; Christyne.Cavataio at ed.gov; James Chaney EOC; Luzenski, Sue (LARA)

  Subject: eoc minutes not very timely

  April 7 2014 to Rodgers EOC Minutes

  Paul Joseph Harcz, Jr.

  1365 E. Mt. Morris Rd.

  Mt. Morris, MI 48458

  810-516-5262

  joeharcz at comcast.net

  Not a FOIA Request

  To:

  Edward Rodgers, Director

  Mich. Bureau Services to Blind Persons

  Dear. Mr. Rodgers,

  Getting information from your agency, even required information is certainly not timely.

  For example on BSBP's web site the latest minutes (required under the Mich. OMA and Public Act 260) at:

  http://www.michigan.gov/lara/0,4601,7-154-61256_28313_33126-221941--,00.html

  are from June 8, 2013.

  The Michigan Open Meetings Act requires that all meeting minutes are produced or made available upon request within 8 working days.

  Thus I request that you follow the OMA and corrollary laws and remit all the minutes since June of last year  to me via e-mail forthwith and once again urge you to make them available upon BSBP's web site in a timely manner as other agencies in state government do as a matter of routine.

  It certainly isn't transparent, these in-actions, and is hardly the hallmark of a well run agency accountable to the people of this state and to people who happen to be blind.

  Regardless, it is a pattern and practice of you and the agency violating the OMA, and indeed Section 504 and other aspects of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and PA 260 which funds and enables BSBP to begin with.

  Sincerely,

  Paul Joseph Harcz, Jr.

  Cc: MCRS

  Cc: RSA

  Cc: EOC

  Cc: several

  April 7 2014 to Rodgers EOC Minutes

  Paul Joseph Harcz, Jr.

  1365 E. Mt. Morris Rd.

  Mt. Morris, MI 48458

  810-516-5262

  joeharcz at comcast.net

  Not a FOIA Request

  To:

  Edward Rodgers, Director

  Mich. Bureau Services to Blind Persons

  Dear. Mr. Rodgers,

  Getting information from your agency, even required information is certainly not timely.

  For example on BSBP's web site the latest minutes (required under the Mich. OMA and Public Act 260) at:

  http://www.michigan.gov/lara/0,4601,7-154-61256_28313_33126-221941--,00.html

  are from June 8, 2013.

  The Michigan Open Meetings Act requires that all meeting minutes are produced or made available upon request within 8 working days.

  Thus I request that you follow the OMA and corrollary laws and remit all the minutes since June of last year  to me via e-mail forthwith and once again urge you to make them available upon BSBP's web site in a timely manner as other agencies in state government do as a matter of routine.

  It certainly isn't transparent, these in-actions, and is hardly the hallmark of a well run agency accountable to the people of this state and to people who happen to be blind.

  Regardless, it is a pattern and practice of you and the agency violating the OMA, and indeed Section 504 and other aspects of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and PA 260 which funds and enables BSBP to begin with.

  Sincerely,

  Paul Joseph Harcz, Jr.

  Cc: MCRS

  Cc: RSA

  Cc: EOC

  Cc: several

  Carla Miller Haynes

  LARA Bureau of Services for Blind Persons (BSBP)

  201 N. Washington Square, 2nd Floor

  P.O. Box 30652

  Lansing, MI  48909

  Telephone:  517-373-2063 or Toll-Free 1-800-292-4200

  Fax:  517-335-5140

  www.michigan.gov/bsbp