[tabi] Re: Fw: article in the Tampa Bay Times on DBS

  • From: wendy.hoss@xxxxxxxxxxx
  • To: tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2012 03:17:07 +0000 (UTC)

I don't think, I know - it is a sensory issue. FAASB has no right to get off 
without competition. If they had to compete like the rest of the vendors, 
better and more services would be available. I know there are several good 
people that work at our CRP and I mean nothing against them personally. The 
friends I have there know I think they are good people, most of whom have 
nothing to do with the theft of taxpayer funds that has been going on and none 
of them would have wanted the state employees to be treated like dog droppings 
as has happened. However, the fact remains that all this has occurred and 
continues to occur and something needs to happen to stop this foolishness so 
that DBS can get back to the business of helping folks with blindness find a 
career and not just any job they can throw us in to get closures so the CRP can 
get its money. 

----- Original Message -----
From: "Easy Talk" <Easytalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
To: tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
Sent: Monday, November 12, 2012 9:24:28 PM 
Subject: [tabi] Re: Fw: article in the Tampa Bay Times on DBS 


Well if that happens, it is about time. I am actually suppressed the article 
did get published and I know for a fact the reporter was given much more 
information and her editor made her trim it down but maybe this will be the 
first of many. As the article said it isn't only DBS and it also refers to how 
little the public knows about DBS so you can imagine how rampent the problem 
is. 

The Faasby members don't have to go through competitive bidding since they are 
non profits that are exempt by state statute for agencies that provide services 
to the mentally and physically disabled. I guess the state considers people who 
are blind either mentally or physically disabled which pisses me off. I might 
have a sensory disability but it isn't mental or physical so how does the FAASB 
members qualify for the exemption. 

So what do you all think, Is blindness physical or sensory. 
. 
Robert 



----- Original Message ----- 
From: Daniel Ben Moshe 
To: tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
Sent: Monday, November 12, 2012 7:29 PM 
Subject: [tabi] Re: Fw: article in the Tampa Bay Times on DBS 


Oh boy sounds like the fat is going to be in the fire here soon. If this story 
grows legs somebody is in big trouble. I think it's going to get real ugly I'LL 
give this a few months. 


From: tabi-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:tabi-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of 
Easy Talk 
Sent: Monday, November 12, 2012 4:21 PM 
To: tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
Subject: [tabi] Fw: article in the Tampa Bay Times on DBS 




----- Original Message ----- 
From: Easy Talk 
To: fcb-l@xxxxxxx 
Sent: Monday, November 12, 2012 4:19 PM 
Subject: article in the Tampa Bay Times on DBS 


TALLAHASSEE — Looking for a lesson in how government outsourcing is working in 
Florida? 
Try this: Organizations that win business with the little-known state Division 
of 
Blind Services can bill taxpayers $58 an hour for travel time to meet with a 
blind 
person. The same organizations can charge taxpayers $2,000 or more to place one 
phone 
call. 
If the deal sounds good for the groups that win the no-bid state contracts, 
it's 
because it is. 
Why? Because the private third-party vendors largely dictate the terms and 
receive 
little oversight, former Division of Blind Services employees say. 
The state agency with a $52 million budget has largely privatized its support 
programs 
as a way to save money and better serve a group of 11,000 Floridians in need, 
state 
officials say. 
But the results are mixed, at best. 
Employee complaints about the Division of Blind Services have spawned at least 
three 
government investigations and four whistle-blower lawsuits, all alleging waste 
on 
some scale. 
Blind Services director Joyce Hildreth, who worked at a group that received 
state 
contracts before joining the state agency in 2008, defends the division. Under 
her 
leadership, she says, the division has repaired fragmented relationships with 
vendors 
while implementing stricter penalties for nonperforming providers. Hildreth, 
65, 
earns $119,000. 
"My expectation of both (the vendors) and the division staff is that they will 
work 
together to the benefit of the client," she said. 
The record, however, isn't so clear-cut. 
• • • 
An annual summer meeting between the state and 16 Division of Blind Services 
providers 
offers a window into the uneven influence the groups have over an agency that 
is 
supposed to oversee them. 
Their joint mission is to line up ways to help blind Floridians manage their 
disability 
from infancy to old age. The division and its outsourced vendors train blind 
people 
for everyday tasks from using a cane to pouring water without spilling. The 
division 
also operates a program to help blind people find jobs. 
At the meeting, state workers and the vendors appear to be business partners, 
according 
to several current and former employees who have attended. But the vendors 
decide 
the performance criteria and penalties. 
"I tried to get (the vendors) to suggest how we could get a mechanism in place 
so 
we don't feed their coffers and have poor service," said Jerry Edwards, a 
former 
contract manager who was fired in 2010 after he criticized the "lack of meat" 
in 
the contracts. "The attitude, from Joyce and from (the vendors) of not wanting 
to 
go there, was a real problem." 
Signs of waste are everywhere, former employees Edwards, Julius Kimmie, Robert 
Irons 
and Mary Ellen Ottman said in separate interviews. 
Although the law requires state workers to monitor all 16 providers through 
yearly 
unscheduled visits, the state only visited one vendor last year, documents 
show. 
Hildreth said the agency monitors the vendors by phone. 
Loosely written contracts also allow vendors to make big money by taking 
advantage 
of loopholes, the former employees say. 
A provider, for example, is paid from about $2,000 to $9,000 per month for each 
person 
it plans to serve. The state pays the money no matter how — or how many times — 
a 
provider helps a client. 
So whether a provider makes 10 in-house visits, or just one phone call, the 
money 
comes in all the same. 
During the 2012 legislative session the division asked for and received more 
than 
$540,000 in additional money to provide care for 201 blind babies on a state 
waiting 
list. But the vendors already received funding from nonprofit groups to cover 
the 
expenses associated with 172 of the same babies, documents show. 
What's more, the state pays vendors based on their plans for service, 
documenting 
only time spent and making no attempt to measure results. 
"The (vendors) call all the shots," said Ottman, a former employee who tried to 
raise 
red flags about the contracts to state officials. She quit in September. 
• • • 
Hildreth says the state actually underpays vendors, which have to raise money 
from 
outside sources to cover their costs. 
The biggest vendors, all nonprofits, include LightHouse of Central Florida, 
Tampa 
LightHouse for the Blind, LightHouse of Pinellas and Miami LightHouse for the 
Blind. 
Top employees make upward of $200,000 per year, according to Internal Revenue 
Service 
documents. 
Representatives for the vendors say they're interested in helping blind people, 
not 
making money. 
"Everyone has to remember this is about providing services to people who need 
it," 
said Colleen Castille, a lobbyist for the vendor trade group, the Florida 
Association 
of Agencies Serving the Blind. 
Gov. Rick Scott, who has sought to privatize government services at an 
accelerated 
pace since taking office, has talked about strengthening contract transparency 
and 
uniformity. 
But state officials have done little to address contracting complaints. 
The state's chief financial officer, Jeff Atwater, has audited three of the 
Division 
of Blind Services' contracts and found them deficient, said spokeswoman Anna 
Alexopoulos, 
citing "significant issues in the management." 
Yet Atwater, whose agency signs the contract checks, only has the authority to 
question 
the prices after the contracts are implemented. He can't void contracts, even 
if 
they are bad. 
"If state agencies opt not to make critical changes to contracts post-audit, 
taxpayers 
will be on the losing end," Alexopoulos said. 
A May report for the agency's inspector general, which does independent 
government 
investigations, criticized Hildreth for inappropriately managing contracts and 
punishing 
workers. Hildreth says those criticisms are unsubstantiated, both in interviews 
and 
with her staff. 
In the state's complicated management structure, the division is overseen by 
the 
Department of Education. 
Former Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson, who resigned in August, said he 
spoke 
with Hildreth about complaints from employees, but not about the division's 
contracting 
procedures. State officials know they need to address contracts, he said. The 
question 
is how. 
State contracts are "a problem across the board, this isn't just Blind 
Services" 
Robinson said. 
Pam Stewart, the interim education commissioner who replaced Robinson, largely 
agreed. 
"We do take seriously the need to look at all of our contracts and make sure 
we're 
getting the best return on our investment," she said. "We are already moving in 
that 
direction." 
Former state employees see it differently. 
"I contacted lawyers, my senator, the NAACP, Fox News and the FBI," Kimmie 
said. 
"But what I found out is … nobody is listening." 
Brittany Alana Davis can be reached at (850) 323-0353 or bdavis@ tampabay.com. 
[Last modified: Nov 12, 2012 07:06 AM] 
Copyright 2012 Tampa Bay Times 

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