[nfbwatlk] Report on Yesterday's Meeting with Staff ofGovernorGregoire

[Mike Freeman]

No. That'll probably be in another meeting.

Mike

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Sellers" <robertsellers500 at comcast.net>
To: "'NFB of Washington Talk Mailing List'" <nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 05, 2010 10:40 PM
Subject: Re: [nfbwatlk] Report on Yesterday's Meeting with Staff 
ofGovernorGregoire


>
> Thanks, Mike.
>
> Some things never seem to change. The attitude and thinking of the 
> Govenor's
> office and the arguments for the benefits of a separate agency providing
> services to the blind are like echos from the 1970's.
>
> If we lose this fight it will be a long time before we  have another
> separate agency serving the blind.
>
> Was there any discussion about the status or future of WSSB?
>
> Bob Sellers
> Message-----
> From: nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Mike Freeman
> Sent: Tuesday, January 05, 2010 7:38 PM
> To: NFB of Washington Talk Mailing List
> Subject: [nfbwatlk] Report on Yesterday's Meeting with Staff of
> GovernorGregoire
>
> Fellow Federationists:
>
> Yesterday, Cindy van Winkle, President of the State Rehabilitation Council
> (SRC) for the Department of Services for the Blind (DSB), Denise Colley,
> President of the Washington Council of the Blind (WCB) and I met with 
> three
> members of Governor Gregoire's staff involved in efforts to streamline 
> state
> government and more efficiently spend the state's money. The staff present
> were: Kathleen Drew, Executive Policy Advisor, Sustainability, State
> Government, Reform, Kelly Wicker, Policy Analyst, Government Reform & Kari
> Burrell, Executive Policy Advisor, Human Services. The meeting lasted 
> about
> an hour.
>
> It was obvious throughout the meeting that the "bean-counter" mentality
> holds sway in the Governor's office. The staff apparently views all human
> services as interchangeable widgets that can be mixed and matched with no
> diminution of the level or quality of services to those being served by
> agency reorganization. Put another way, it was clear that the Governor's
> staff had virtually no concept that rehabilitating the blind is a
> specialized endeavor involving a unique mix of instruction in the skills 
> of
> blindness both to clients and their famlies and teaching the clients to 
> cope
> with the attitudes, erroneous stereotypes and misconceptions about 
> blindness
> held by society. In the view of the staff, since the umbrella agency of 
> the
> Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) provides human services to
> many Washingtonians (including those provided by the general 
> rehabilitation
> agency, the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation, DVR), it would be a
> good fit for DSB. It had not occurred to the staff that DSB might have
> special accounting expertise in making best use of vocational 
> rehabilitation
> funds from the Federal Government (Section 110 moneys) and Social Security
> reimbursements. In fact, the staff maintained that even were the blindness
> groups successful in protecting the separate agency status of DSB,
> accounting functions would undoubtedly be ordered to be done by the 
> general
> accounting agency for the state.
>
> In investigating what organizational structure might be contemplated for
> DSB, the staff looked at states similar in size/population to Washington 
> but
> admitted that it had not considered how well services for the blind were
> rendered by these other states with combined services nor were the 
> consumer
> groups of the blind in those states consulted to ascertain what the blind
> themselves thought of their vocational rehabilitation services.
>
> Staff would be interested in statistics re level of services ans
> satisfaction of clients with such services. I told them that we (both
> consumer organizations) had a wealth of anecdotal evidence that 
> conglomerate
> agencies did not serve the blind adequately but that meaningful statistics
> might be hard to come by because (1) we, the blind, are a small minority 
> and
> coming up with statistically valid conclusions is thus problematic and (2)
> how could one easily quantify "good services". (Yes, one can use closures 
> as
> a measure but this does not always accurately reflect good service.) I did
> not mention this but, to some degree, efining "good services" is sort of
> like the late Justice Potter Stuart's definition of pornography: "I can't
> define it but I know it when I see it!"
>
> Staff asked the three of us if we would meet with the head of DSHS to
> strategize how to meet our objections while going ahead with the
> reorganization. I said that we would always talk but that we would be
> extraordinarily difficult to convince and that we would see everyone in 
> the
> legislative arena.
>
> It boggles my mind that it never occured to staff to actually ask the 
> blind
> themselves whether a reorganization was or could be made to work. It is
> obvious to me that appearances (that is, the structure of government on an
> agency organization chart) matters to staff almost more than functionality
> of said agencies. Although I did not state it this baldly, it would appear
> that in approaching the state legislature, the form of government matters
> almost more than the substance. I hate to make such a harsh judgment but 
> it
> is hard not to come to such a conclusion.
>
> So where to we go from here? WE can try to come up with anecdotal
> information regarding poor VR services under conglomerate agencies. 
> Barring
> a miracle, however, I believe that we must now mobilize ourselves for the
> legislative session. I suspect that any reorganization will go through the
> "Government Operations" committees in the Senate and House. I will 
> ascertain
> who chairs these committees in the next day or two and we should start
> making contacts. WE should also begin to contact our local legislators,
> making it clear that while DSB is not perfect, its current structure and
> placement within state government should not be altered and that the blind
> of Washington are united in this view.
>
> Stay tuned.
>
> Michael Freeman, President
> National Federation of the Blind of Washington
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