[Vendorsmi] BSBP starting to look ugly

[Terry Eagle]

Unless my memory is failing me today, it seems this same issue arose at a
MCB Board of Commissioners meeting when Ms. Velma Allen attempted to stop
the news media from videotaping a public meeting, and only backed down when
Commissioner Mr. Mark Eagle cited the same applicable section of the
Michigan Open Meetings Act.

Could it be true that the past tactics and sins of former Director Patrick
Cannon are bound to be repeated?

I thought the Snyder administration stood for reinventing the way state
government does business, with transparency and accountability to the
public.  Could I be incorrect in what I heard during the last election
campaign and the past twenty-two months of the Snyder administration?  Is It
just the same old method of doing governmental business,and just another
party title?  Is it just that the talk changes with the new party, but that
career bureaucrats actually set the agenda and run the government in the
same old way?  That must be why there is the saying, "The more things
change, the more things stay the same".  I guess it is also true that if we
don't learn from our history, mistakes, and sins; we are bound to repeat the
history, mistakes, and sins.

Does there really exist a fresh breathe of air, as suggested by EOC Chair
James Chaney, at the meeting on Monday, October 22nd, or we simply
experiencing a momentary shift in the air flow, or a calmness before a storm
of more of the same destructive climate of the past administration, whereby
the attitude, actions, andlack of accountability toward the blind of
Michigan are simply being repeated?  I hope and pray not, however are
conditions such that the destructive storm is inevitable, and the reign of
the administration will pour down upon us, as did the reign of the last
destructive administration storm upon we  the blind.  I hope for the
transparency of days filled with sunshine to disinfect the climate and
environment toward we the blind, providing a near perfect forecast of clear
vision of participation, independence, and self-supporting prosperity for
all blind persons of Michigan, not just a privileged or favored few.   


-----Original Message-----
From: Vendorsmi [mailto:vendorsmi-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Joe
Sontag
Sent: Friday, October 26, 2012 7:51 PM
To: VENDORSMI List
Subject: [Vendorsmi] BSBP starting to look ugly

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