[Vendorsmi] BSBP starting to look ugly

[Joe Sontag]

The following was faxed to Director Edward Rodgers early on the morning of October 25, 2012.  Ed, please let me know if you're seeing this for the first time.  It appears things will get much worse before they'll get better, but I hope I'm wrong.

Here's what I sent:

Ed, I am writing you in response to your claim that recording of BSBP meetings is not permissible because of a concern about the official record of any meeting.  While I did in fact stop recording per your request, I stated that I would study the issue.  I have done this and now say that the October 22, 2012 meeting of the Elected Operators' Committee was conducted in clear violation of Michigan's open meetings Act and that BSBP remains bound by the provisions of the OMA for the following reasons:

Meetings of the Elected operators' Committee are to be conducted in conformity with PA267 of 1976 as set forth in BEP promulgated rule R393.52 (2) (a).  You stated to me that the EOC meeting was a public meeting, yet you denied me the right to make my own recording of the meeting, saying I was limited to low-tech note-taking only.  It is also true that no opportunity for public comment was given during this meeting, contrary to the requirements of PA267.  That your staff is fully aware of this, yet remained silent suggests strongly that you may wish to question and more closely examine critically their statements to you about BEP operations and the way they conduct business on behalf of the Bureau

PA267 of 1976 has this to say about the recording of public meetings:

addressing meeting of public body; tape-recording, videotaping, broadcasting, and telecasting proceedings; rules and regulations; exclusion from meeting; exemptions.

Sec. 3. (1) All meetings of a public body shall be open to the public and shall be held in a place available to the general public. All persons shall be permitted to attend any meeting except as otherwise provided in this act. The right of a person to attend a meeting of a public body includes the right to tape-record, to videotape, to broadcast live on radio, and to telecast live on television the proceedings of a public body at a public meeting. The exercise of this right shall not be dependent upon the prior approval of the public body. However, a public body may establish reasonable rules and regulations in order to minimize the possibility of disrupting the meeting.  The OMA exempts meetings in certain departments in which the merits of a case are being deliberated, but there appears to be no application to the former Commission for the Blind or the current BSBP, except as it relates to closed sessions of public meetings.

>From EO2012-10:
B. All authority, powers, duties, functions, records, personnel, property, unexpended balances of appropriations, allocations or other funds of the Commission for the Blind are transferred from the Commission for the Blind to the Bureau of Services for Blind Persons, including but not limited to the following:
1. The Blind and Visually Disabled Persons Act, 1978 PA 260, MCL 393.351 to 393.369,

Finally, from PA260 of 1978:
BLIND AND VISUALLY DISABLED PERSONS (EXCERPT)
Act 260 of 1978
393.365 Conducting business at public meeting; notice; availability of writings to
public.
Sec. 15.
(1) The business which the commission or any committee appointed under this act may
perform shall be conducted at a public meeting of the commission or committee held
in compliance with Act No. 267 of the Public Acts of 1976, being sections 15.261
to 15.275 of the Michigan Compiled Laws. Public notice of the time, date, and place
of the meeting shall be given in the manner required by Act No. 267 of the Public
Acts of 1976.
(2) A writing prepared, owned, used, in the possession of, or retained by the commission
in the performance of an official function shall be made available to the public
in compliance with Act No. 442 of the Public Acts of 1976, being sections 15.231
to 15.246 of the Michigan Compiled Laws.

The emphasis on the OMA in PA260 and in the BEP promulgated rules is a direct result of attempts  in the past to deny the public generally and blind people specifically knowledge of how our Agency was being run, even going so far as to deny the right of BEP operators who were not EOC members to attend EOC meetings.
Events of October 22 and the discovery that there is a plan to introduce legislation that would exempt the Executive and Legislative branches of State government from the  food service priority established in PA260 of 1978 have changed my attitude about BSBP from cautious optimism to one of caution at best.  Ed, here's hoping that you are genuinely interested in repairing and building a better Agency for the blind of Michigan and not merely a more educated and aggressive version of your predecessor.
I've contacted you via fax as my internet service is not available.  I should have working internet service again by 10-29; and the e-mail address that you have on record should remain effective.
Joe Sontag
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