[nfbmi-talk] nfb speaks on bsbp state plan

Wed Jun 25 18:53:08 UTC 2014

Colleagues,

here are the MCRS draft minutes of its state plan special meeting. Note it was presented in eight working days as the law requires. Regardless this is our SRC and NFB of Michigan presented and documented violations of the Rehabilitation Act and abuse of persons who are blind in this state.

Joe Harcz,
Flint Area NFB Chapter President
            ACTION ITEM

            DRAFT

MICHIGAN COUNCIL FOR REHABILITATION SERVICES

3490 Belle Chase Way, Suite 110

Lansing, MI  48911

517.887.9370 or 877.335.9370

Special Meeting Minutes

Teleconference

Friday June 20, 2014

Members Present:  Carol Bergquist, Sheryl Diamond, Trina Edmondson, Sara Grivetti, Rod Jones, Deanna Middlebrooks, Caryn Pack Ivey, Michael Poyma, Anne Riddering, Ed Rodgers (Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs – Bureau of Services for Blind Persons LARA-BSBP), Brian Sabourin.

Members Excused:  Mark Eastburg, Mitch Tomlinson, Matthew Weaver.  

Members Absent:  Sue Howell (Department of Human Services – Michigan Rehabilitation Services DHS-MRS), William Jones, Adam Kaplan, Jennipher Wiebold.   

Guests Present:  Valarie Barnum-Yarger (Statewide Independent Living Council), Diamalyn Gaston (LARA-BSBP), Gary Gaynor, Joe Harcz, Leamon Jones (BSBP), Lisa Kisiel (LARA-BSBP), Shannon McVoy (LARA-BSBP), Mike Pemble (LARA-BSBP), David Robinson, Joe Sontag.   

Staff Present:  Marlene Malloy, Shori Teeple. 

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order by Chairperson C. Bergquist.  Roll call determined that a quorum was present.  

Welcome & Introductions

C. Bergquist welcomed Council Members and guests.  Introductions were made.

Agenda

The draft agenda (June 20, 2014) was reviewed by the membership.  

A motion, made by S. Diamond and seconded by A. Riddering, was passed to approve the agenda as presented.

Public Comment

The public comment statement was read aloud.  

Joe Harcz

Ensuring the efficacy and viability of the program of BSBP is a seminal job of this statewide rehabilitation council.  Ladies and gentlemen, you don’t even get accurate and up-to-date data relative to how these programs and services are put together.  Let me digress just a little bit to tell you how a competent voc rehab program works.  I have a lady friend; yes, I even have a life.  She happens to be in another state.  She’s 66 years old but still working.  She went to apply for services to learn new adaptive technology in her home, because Windows 8 is pretty complicated for blind people.  Immediately they opened a case, set her out with eligibility in accessible format in a timely manner.  She’s got a plan developed and she’s got the services in her home.  Contrast this to what’s happened to Joe Harcz as a consumer advocate, which many of you people have seen, where I get abused on things relative to this State Plan, including yesterday a three hundred dollar expense related to documentation on the memorandum of understanding and the so-called consumer satisfaction survey conducted with the one-stops.  No response whatsoever about the memorandum of understanding with the VA (Veteran’s Administration).  None.  None related to their activities with DHS (Department of Human Services) and ensuring that they’re accessible to blind people and yours truly by the way is documented that they are not.  I got print information on my Medicare premium reimbursement and their website is not accessible.  We do not have due process and that goes back to the illegal executive order in which the final agency determination is made by the agency, and that includes our VR (vocational rehabilitation) programs and the DSA (designated state agency) is run by Mike Zimmer, who runs M-A-H-S (Michigan Administrative Hearings System), or did, created it, and the DSU (designated state unit) is run by Mr. Rodgers, who is with M-A-H-S.  Ladies and gentleman, we’ve got millions of dollars, and I’m not kidding you, of voc rehab dollars going into non-VR functions with no accountability.  That’s even in the state capitol location on the Business Enterprise Program and into the Anderson Building, of which there’s not even a licensed operator who happens to be blind and there isn’t even one blind employee.  Again on a personal note, we’ll go to transition services.  Brian Sabourin and others attended the Advisory Committee meeting where you had parents begging for work experience for their kids.  And yet we’ve had yet untold non-disabled, non-blind student assistants hired to do non-VR functions and everything else, and not one blind student, not one.  Ladies and gentlemen, this is a vocational rehabilitation program, federally funded that has to have accountability.  I am going to be writing to RSA (Rehabilitation Services Administration) directly to defund this program.  It is so out of control and so unaccountable that that’s all I can do, but what I beg you people to do, today, because you know in your recommendations that this agency hasn’t supplied you information consistent with what MRS (Michigan Rehabilitation Services) does.  That’s right in your recommendations, which I wholeheartedly support, except for they should be demands, because that’s what the Voc Rehab Act requires, period.  But I ask you to exercise your conscience as individual members to either abstain from approving the state plan supplement, which is full of documented lies.  You cannot call anything a lie but a lie, documented falsehoods and no accountability, none.  You notice, by the way, we’ve got all these consumer satisfaction things, which you rightfully asked for, where’s the tool, where’s the instrument?  It’s pretty hard to have five minutes to go after everything, but I’ll tell you, many of you people have seen these ludicrous responses, and I’m sorry if I’m a little bit upset but I’m kind of suffering from PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) from the bullying and outright discrimination.  Thank you.

David Robinson

Ladies and gentlemen, I too am a blind person and also a former employee of the Commission for the Blind, which is now the BSBP.  I worked in the Business Enterprise Program, so I’m very familiar with the details and ins and outs of this particular program as well as the agency.  I am also a member of the National Federation of the Blind and very in tune with what’s happening with services for the blind in this state.  I too support everything that Joe says in terms of I urge all of you not to approve this plan.  It is full of lies, documented lies.  There is, just for example, in the Business Enterprise Program the NFB (National Federation of the Blind) took the agency to court to force them to obey the rules in regards to bidding out a facility at the Operations Center, which is in West Lansing.  The agency settled with that and said that they would bid it out in the correct way.  One of the litigants in that suit was one of the operators who subsequently received that location, was awarded that location.  Now, that operator is out there in that location and can’t get one dime of support in her transition, even though she’s eligible for such things as upward mobility and accessible equipment that’s necessary for a blind person to function in that facility.  She is getting nothing.  Nothing.  And yet, the Anderson Building cafeteria who does not employ any, not a single blind person, which is a mandated building, spent over $170,000 in VR money for equipment has spent, since October, more than $87,000 for food to various facilities, including the Anderson Building, more than $25,000 just in the last month and a half in terms of food from Gordon Food Service, and not one blind person is getting employed.  In fact, the whole program has been diminished by a number of blind people giving up and leaving the program.  So this effort, this VR money that’s supposed to be spent to employ blind people is getting robbed by agency bureaucrats.  For example, when the BSBP was formed, when it was it was the Commission for the Blind, we had a director of the agency, there was a director, Pat Cannon.  Now we have a director, an assistant/deputy director, and then we have a whole new division, which hasn’t done one thing in employing a blind person, not one thing.  It’s been in existence for almost a year, and all those people receive well over $100,000 a year, plus there’s a bunch of support staff that’s been hired, not one blind person.  Several student interns have been hired to run BEP facilities, not one blind person.  People are not getting the services that they need.  They have to get successfully employed, including technology training and other factors.  It’s truly a sham, and I think this agency is out of control and it needs to be shut down and the people there need to be held accountable for what they’re doing to blind people in this state.  I hope that you, as responsible people, that monitor the VR services in this state, will take the necessary action to assure that each and every blind person is getting the services they need to get in order to succeed in this world, because that’s what the 26 million dollars that they get every year is for.  Thank you.

Joe Sontag

Like Dave and Joe, I am a blind person and I am also a member of the National Federation of the Blind of Michigan.  I don’t have a whole lot to regale you with, just to say that I wholeheartedly support the recommendations of your council with respect to BSBP and its goings on.  I say this from a background of relative ignorance, I must admit, that I have to say that it looks good, at least in theory, and I think that given the fact that I and many other people have no real idea what is going on in BSBP within the last year or thereabouts.  I can only hope that things get better, because by God, they sure can’t get worse.  Thank you.

Attachment 4.2(c) for BSBP FY 2015 State Plan – Brian Sabourin, Vice Chair, MCRS State Plan Advisory Work Team Chair

An overview was provided of the process for development of the Draft Attachment 4.2(c) for BSBP by the MCRS State Plan Advisory Work Team.  The draft document reflects the work that has been done to date, and the recommendations reflect those things that council members recognize that they need to do their job.  One edit was proposed on page 6 for language in Recommendation #1 for the ‘MRS’ acronym to be changed to ‘BSBP’.  

A motion, made by R. Jones and seconded by A. Riddering, was passed to approve Attachment 4.2(c) for the BSBP FY 2015 State Plan as amended.

Draft BSBP FY 2015 State Plan – B. Sabourin

An overview was provided for the State Plan process with BSBP, including the Council’s attendance at and involvement with BSBP State Plan meetings over the past couple of months.  

Concern was expressed by C. Pack Ivey about comments made during Public Comment at the beginning of this meeting regarding approval of this State Plan.  Pack Ivey stated that she was struggling with being able to approve the State Plan without having the option to have the public comments addressed first.  Pack Ivey asked if it would be appropriate, or not, for there to be some type of clarification, not a response, to have the public comments addressed.  

In response, E. Rodgers stated that as Director of BSBP, he would be more than willing to address the concerns that were expressed by Mr. Harcz, Mr. Robinson, and Mr. Sontag, but he would like to do that by sending it to the Council in writing.  He further stated that they used a real shotgun approach on BSBP; these are concerns, but if the written response to the concerns is looked at, it will alleviate any fears that Council members may have with approving the plan.  E. Rodgers further stated that he didn’t believe that approval of the plan should be held up based on comments by individuals who come on and talks for five minutes; the work group has had everything in front of them, with lots of data, and have worked with BSBP staff diligently.  E. Rodgers added that the comments are factually incorrect; they are not new allegations, but rather are from people who have made the same allegations over and over, some coming from a former employee of the agency.  These allegations have been refuted before and BSBP will do it again if the Council wants that.  Rodgers added again that as an ad hoc member, the Council should go ahead and vote.

C. Pack Ivey shared her appreciation for the comments from Director Rodgers.  She additionally stated that she was by no means stating that she believes or disbelieves the public comments that have been made, but rather acknowledges that concerns were raised and that they sounded familiar.

R. Jones added that is inappropriate to respond to public comment.

A motion, made by A. Riddering and seconded by D. Middlebrooks, was passed to approve the BSBP FY 2015 State Plan as presented.

Adjournment

There was no further business for discussion.

A motion, made by D. Middlebrooks and seconded by T. Edmondson, was passed to adjourn the meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 12:36 p.m.

NEXT BUSINESS MEETING: 

Friday August 8, 2014

MCRS Meeting Room, Lansing
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