[nfbmi-talk] Fw: Response to Your Emails Regarding the EOC Minutes

Wed Apr 23 00:19:21 UTC 2014

----- Original Message ----- 
From: joe harcz Comcast 
To: Haynes, Carla (LARA) 
Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2014 8:18 PM
Subject: Re: Response to Your Emails Regarding the EOC Minutes

First of all I asked for them in a timely and accessable manner in accordence with both the provisions of the Michigan OMA, and also with the revelent sections of the ADA and 504 which are federal civil rights laws and those were not forthcoming.
Additionally this isn't totally responsive as to future compliance.

Other than that thanks so much for the belated public minutes of a required body that are months past due for all to inspect.

  ----- 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: Tuesday, April 22, 2014 4:42 PM
  Subject: Response to Your Emails Regarding the EOC Minutes

  April 22, 2014

  Mr. Paul Joseph Harcz, Jr.

  Email:  joeharcz at comcast.net

  1365 E. Mt. Morris Rd.

  Mt. Morris, MI 48458

  Re:  Your Emails Dated April 18, 2014 in Response to EOC Minutes

  Dear Mr. Harcz, Jr.:

  I am in receipt of your emails to me dated April 18, 2014, regarding the minutes of the Elected Operators Committee (EOC).  Your original email to Mr. Rodgers is included below.

  Please be advised that the EOC is a committee independent of the Bureau of Services for Blind Persons (BSBP).  The BSBP has no control over the activities of the EOC.  You may wish to contact them directly to obtain information regarding their minutes.  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.  We have recently posted minutes made available to us which you may wish to view on our website.

  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