OREGON COMMISSION FOR THE BLIND
535 SE 12th Ave. (Portland office)
BECC SPECIAL MEETING
Friday, October 17, 2014 at 3:30 PM
Conference line: 404-443-6397
Participant code: 943611#
AGENDA
1. Called to order- Chairwoman, Lewanda Miranda.
a. Roll call.
b. Disposition of minutes (Sept. 27, 2014).
2. Nominations for outlying area.
3. Assignment of vice chair.
4. Legislative changes, opening our Act (possible action item).
5. Adjournment.
VERBATIM
Miranda: Okay, I’m going to call this meeting to order. And we’ll start with roll call of the Elected Committee. Tessa Brown?
Brown: Present, finally.
Miranda: Char Mckinzie?
Mckinzie: Finally, present.
Miranda: Cathy Colley-Dominique?
Colley-Dominique: Present.
Miranda: Art Stevenson?
Stevenson, Art: Hooo!
Miranda: And Lewanda Miranda. Now we’ll do roll call of the membership. Jerry Bird?
Bird: Here.
Miranda: Derrick Stevenson? Gordon Smith? Harold Young?
Young: Here.
Miranda: Ken Gerlitz?
Gerlitz: Here.
Miranda: Lin Jaynes? Steve Gordon? Randy Hauth?
Hauth: Here.
Miranda: Sal Barraza? Steve Jackson? Ann Wright?
Wright: Here.
Miranda: Roll call of the Agency?
Morris: It’s Eric from the Agency.
Miranda: Any visitors? Okay, next is disposition of minutes. I would like to make a motion that we accept the minutes as recorded and distributed by Kathy Ewing for September 27th, 2014 meeting.
Stevenson, Art: I second that motion.
Brown: I would like to second.
Miranda: Any comments?
Stevenson, Art: Somebody else just…
Miranda: [inaudible] roll call vote? Cathy? Should it pass, yes or no? Cathy Dominique?
Brown: Her phone might be on mute.
Miranda: Okay.
Colley-Dominique: Yes.
Miranda: Char?
Mckinzie: Yes.
Miranda: Tessa Brown?
Brown: Yes.
Smith, Karen: Uh, Gordon Smith’s on the line.
Miranda: Thanks, Karen.
Smith, Karen: Mm-hmm.
Miranda: Art Stevenson, yes or no? Art Stevenson?
Stevenson, Art: Yes.
Gerlitz: Sounds like he’s yelling from home!
Miranda: And yes, the [inaudible] passed. Okay, nominations for outlying area. As you know, I was elected at Fall In-Service for Chair. So that left a position open for outlying area. And in that area is Ken Gerlitz, Steve Gordon, and Gordon Smith. So, do we have any nominations?
Wright: Ann Wright. It is, am I allowed to from an outside area, nominate somebody?
Miranda: Sure.
Wright: Okay, I would like to nominate Ken.
Miranda: Ken, do you accept the nomination?
Smith: This is Gordon, and I’ll second that.
Miranda: So, Ken, do you accept that nomination?
Gerlitz: Yes, thanks.
Miranda: Do we have any other nominations? Do we hear any other nominations? Do we hear any other nominations?
Stevenson, Art: Those nominations be closed, and… I guess we could do a roll call vote just to make sure everybody’s cool with that.
Miranda: Okay, Art Stevenson? Yes or no?
Bird: Who’s running the meeting?
Miranda: Art Stevenson? Yes or no?
Stevenson, Art: Yes.
Miranda: Cathy Dominique, yes or no?
Colley-Dominique: Yes.
Miranda: Char Mckinzie, yes or no?
Mckinzie: Yes.
Miranda: Tessa Brown, yes or no?
Brown: Yes.
Miranda: And Lewanda’s a yes. So, welcome aboard, Kenny.
Brown: Woo hoo! Welcome, Kenny.
Gerlitz: Thank you.
Miranda: I [inaudible], I think Kenny will do a good job with his expertise in training, and education, and policy writing, and so I look forward to working with you, Kenny.
Gerlitz: Well, thank you.
Miranda: Sure.
Gerlitz: I look forward to working with all of you and especially a new female Chair. I think it’s going to be exciting.
Miranda: Thank you. Okay, assignment of Vice Chair. Now, when I was elected I really didn’t feel like I needed a Vice Chair and wasn’t interested in having one. Art Stevenson’s been there from when Harold had assigned him, er, appointed him. And so, working with Art and the state of our program right now, I think Art Stevenson would do a good job as my Vice Chair. And so I would like to assign him to that position. I think he has a lot of knowledge in the, legislative knowledge, also program knowledge, and he is willing and eager to always help out. So, I’m going to do a roll call vote to see if, if you accept. So I’ll start with, how about you, Ken Gerlitz?
Gerlitz: Yes.
Miranda: Cathy Dominique?
Colley-Dominique: Yes.
Miranda: Char Mckinzie?
Mckinzie: Yes.
Miranda: Tessa Brown?
Brown: Definitely. Yes.
Miranda: Art Stevenson?
Stevenson, Art: I, I humbly accept the job. I guess.
Miranda: Good. It’s a deal. Okay, next is legislative changes, opening our Act, possible action item. [inaudible]
Stevenson, Art: Madam Chair?
Miranda: Yes, Art.
Stevenson, Art: I’d like to say that the rules committee had a meeting on Mon--, Monday or Tuesday? Tuesday. And we talked about the opening of the Act and we took a vote, vote of the Committee. And, and, and we would like to recommend that, the committee would like to recommend that the Board not support opening the Act at this, at this time until we explore our options in rule making, the willingness of the Commission for the Blind to adopt rules to, to follow what the Andy Friedman memo said. And so it was unanimous the Committee would like the Elected Committee to take that stand. And so I would like to make the motion that the Elected Committee not support any effort opening the Act until we’ve followed all avenues of the rule making first.
Wright: May I make a friendly amendment to that motion?
Miranda: Sure.
Stevenson, Art: Let…
Wright: For the rec--, just for record, the motion that, was actually made at yesterday’s meeting, the 16th. We did discuss it on Tuesday’s meeting. It was actually made a motion and passed at yesterday’s meeting at the 16th.
Stevenson, Art: Was it yesterday’s?
Wright: It was indeed.
Stevenson, Art: Oh, okay, well that, it doesn’t need to be included in the motion. My comments, I correct my comments.
Wright: I just wanted it on record.
Stevenson, Art: Yeah. Okay. Yeah, it doesn’t need to be in the motion.
Female voice: [inaudible]
Gerlitz: May I add one thing?
Stevenson, Art: To the, to the motion, Ken, or?
Gerlitz: Yeah. To the motion? I thought we had three options on that. One being to develop rules that would help expand and interpret the meaning of our state act. And secondly, they said that we could also get a federal, well, it didn’t say just federal, a judge to interpret the law for us is another option. And then finally, if neither of those seem to be viable for us, then we’d look at opening the Act.
Stevenson, Art: Well, hey, hey, Kenny? You know…
Miranda: Well, listen, hey, I’d like to get a second for the motion and then we’re going to open it up for discussion from everyone. So, do I have a second on that motion?
Gerlitz: I’ll second.
Miranda: Okay, Kenny seconds. So, open for discussion.
Stevenson, Art: Okay.
Bird: Jerry Bird.
Miranda: Yes, Jerry?
Bird: Yes, I’d like to discuss this. I think as you all know that I am one of the ones that support not opening up these laws unless absolutely necessary. And I think I’ve made myself clear on that, even when, before. However, as I read the Friedman stuff and that, I absolutely agree with that, too. That’s the way I’ve always seen that, the, our program’s supposed to be operated, you know, with, as a preference and stuff like this. But trying to do it in a rule, rules can be changed every day. They’re not a law. Rules are rules, and Chuck Young used to want to do that to where so, you know, every meeting we can just change a rule because it don’t go anywhere but us. And then the thing is, is the AG is not willing to work with us. We’ve proven it, we’ve tried it, we’ve asked them, you’ve had Terry Smith talk to them. You say, Rosnik is going to the NFB. But, you know, she’s not going to change her ways. I mean it’s proven right now that they don’t even want, they want to say we, we have no rights on state property, and that’s how they, they stand. Now, saying that, you know, I’d be more than happy to come up with a rule, a rule can’t do it, it’s got to be a regulation, saying what they say to allow the Blind Commission to tell the other agencies that, no, this is how it’s done. You guys don’t get to decide. Well, putting it in a rule and trying to get the AG to do it, is never going to happen. I wished it would, I swear to God, I wished we could do it that way. But all I see is you sitting on your hands waiting for another year, because they can’t be done. So here we are, we’ve trying to open up a bill here to protect us. I’m not saying it will go through, but if we didn’t, we only had a certain amount of time. So therefore we had to open up a bill so we can work on it and try to get legislature. The only way we’re going to get legislature to change the AG’s thoughts. And so we don’t have any state stuff now, so if you’re afraid of them taking colleges away from us, taking this away from us, they’re already taken away from us. So, what, what [inaudible] doing something to protect ourself and to get the Agency to follow the Randolph Sheppard Act and the requirements give us a preference, it’s never going to be done in a rule, and so therefore I want you guys to think about that. Of course we don’t want to open up and do that, but we have no choice. If we do it right, then we need to get all support. You guys haven’t even read it. You’re putting something down you haven’t even read, you got, not leaving your minds open, because it might be the best thing you ever seen.
Several voices: [inaudible]
Miranda: We haven’t had that opportunity, Jerry.
Stevenson, Art: Um, um, Madam Chair?
Bird: Excuse me?
Miranda: We haven’t had the opportunity to read it.
Stevenson, Art: Okay, okay, now.
Bird: I know, because it… That’s, that’s not the thing and I, I can understand you not wanting to push anything you haven’t seen. I agree with that. I wouldn’t either, it’s like, how can I vote on, but how can you vote “no” on something you haven’t seen. So I would think you’d be open minded enough to at least, well, it’s going to come out here and then to look at it. But I guess you can change your mind then, but I just, I just want you all to think… This ain’t nothing I take lightly opening these up. I see no other way and, and if Terry Smith and them… Terry made it pretty clear that it probably didn’t have to be this. You know, once again, if you guys can condense it in a rule, you just, anyway, thank you.
Miranda: Thank you, Jerry. Do we have any other comments?
Gerlitz: Yeah, I, I think we, we still have some hope with Lynn, although, you know, obviously I disagree with her interpretation. And I think she’s sucking cement, which I don’t think any attorney should be. And I’m hoping that she’s supposed to attend this training in Texas. I’m hoping maybe she will learn something in that, there’s a number of states that have enacted this by rule, and successfully. And maybe if she hears from representatives of those states, she might not be so stuck in her ways. What scares me is, you know, it could be much worse. I mean, we could lose the intent of our state laws completely. We don’t know what kind of additions to our laws they from the legislators may make as a result of opening it, it up. And that’s what concerns all of us. I, I think you’re right, Jerry. I’d like to see what this revision to the law said, and I don’t understand why we didn’t. I mean, that’s the process. And that’s what Terry said specifically, is we need to approach this as a consolidated group. We need to look at this and if it makes sense, and if we feel that it’s the only way to go, we need to approach it that way. But you know, we need to generate a campaign to support it. But right now, it’s just out there. We just heard it’s out there, and none of us know what it says.
Miranda: Thank you, Kenny. Would anyone else like to make a comment?
Wright: Ann Wright.
Miranda: Okay, Ann. I would like to say, I’m, I’m pretty disappointed after all the work that I know individuals went into in working with active participation and what we expect from the Agency that our own fellow managers went about doing this in a big shroud of secrecy, and we still don’t know what other people are trying to determine for our futures.
Miranda: Thank you, Ann. Any other comments?
Hauth: Yeah, this is… Yeah, Lewanda, this is Randy.
Miranda: Hi Randy.
Hauth: Hi there. Yeah, I’d just like to share with everybody on the line that any Oregon resident can propose, sponsor, support legislation. It’s a legislative process. So anybody can do that. So that’s, that’s one thing. Secondly, for everybody to be on board on something that’s going to be constructive and positive, even though I, I understand the fear. People haven’t seen the finished product yet. And I believe a couple emails have went on, out, encouraging people to be patient until this proposed amendment gets back from pre-filing. And then we are going to share with the membership and ask their support. Now, what I can tell you is, the argument to say, don’t open the Act because we’re scared we’re going to lose it is not an argument that is going to fly very well in the face of legislators. I’ve met with numerous legislators who have seen even the draft of this. They’re very supportive of it. It not only brings our state statute into law with the federal Act and enforces a priority, they’re also put some scoring criteria in there relevant to the Agency, because the Agency’s doing their business, okay? Making sure that the legislative assembly has oversight on our program. If you look back through the program and the health of the program, regardless of what some are saying, it’s not healthy. I’m sorry, you know, the facts, the facts don’t lie. Another thing is it brings into line active participation within the state statute. So even though, even though you guys haven’t seen it, I do know that we’re going to be supporting sponsoring, moving forward with this. As soon as it comes out of pre-filing, I’ll get it out to you guys, and I’m just hoping that everybody can support this. And if you find anything wrong with it, we can certainly talk about it. Session doesn’t start until January. This was a process that, you know, just kind of was rolled out, and you know, if it offended you, you know, sorry. But hopefully this will be something that will be for the betterment of the program. Last but not least, Jerry is right. And I, I, I don’t agree with Ken related to Lynn Rosik’s position. It is well known, the AG is not going to backtrack on all their positions. They’ve taken positions against Chemeketa. They’ve taken positions against the Port of Portland. They’ve taken positions against our preference. They are not going to, no matter how much training we give them. I, too, wish that the rule making process could help push our program into the next generation. But even look at what we did through the Confluence Center. That’s being thrown back in our face, and there’s concerns and challenges there. So, bottom line, you know, I hope that when it does come out, it’ll be supp--, it’ll be supported, so… Thank you.