Don't forget to contact your representatives and I also contacted the Speaker of the House and the Commission of Education. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Easy Talk" <Easytalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2012 11:30:07 AM Subject: [tabi] Re: Fw: comperhensive report of IG's report on DBS attached Hi Wendy, Excellent. I suggest you send this message to Ashley at the democrat and attach the file. aames@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Robert ----- Original Message ----- From: wendy.hoss@xxxxxxxxxxx To: tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2012 10:10 AM Subject: [tabi] Re: Fw: comperhensive report of IG's report on DBS attached Good Morning all, I have been thinking about this report and the more I think about it the more angry I become. I am angry that she and her cronies continue to sit there and get away with this. If a CEO of a company embezzled money like this he/she would be in jail right now. If a company engaged in practices such harassment and intimidation to create a hostile work environment, they would be siting in civil court with a big fat law suit. But there she and her crew sit free as a bird, free to embezzle more tax payer dollars, free to harass and destroy the lives of people who dedicated their careers to helping people with blindness. We can not stand back and watch this happen or wait for someone else to do our job. It is our job to stand up for ourselves, to say we are not going to take it anymore. If people with disabilities had stood by in the 60s and 70s waiting on someone else to stand up we would have no rights today, there would no ADA. They did not wait, they fought and so we have our civil rights. Now it is our turn, the agency that is there to serve us is being robbed and usurped by the CRPs, she is just their agent. Good people, your friends in some cases, are being harassed and intimidated daily because they have been labeled as a problem. I do not say this purely from reading that report, I lived it. I refused to sit in my office at DBS and say nothing about what I saw going on around me, I reported very similiar matters to the IG 2 years ago and nothing happened. Nothing happened because only one other person chose to stand with me. I also reported what I knew to the FCB president and people with offices in NFB, neither group spoke up. Due to my refusal to be quiet, my refusal to ignore the fact that the CRPs were being paid for work they were not doing, my refusal to be silent on the issue of the lack of monitoring I had to pay a high cost, my career and my future and all the years wasted on getting an education I will never be able to use again. I too was harassed and intimidated until I could not take it anymore and I had to leave. And beyond that now, no matter how hard I try I can't get another job in my field. I gave up everything to stand and fight against what is happening, to fight against the embezzlement of tax payer dollars, against the abuse of DBS employees, to stop the flow of money away from the districts and away from direct services. If you are tired of your counselor never being able to get for you what you need to succeed, if you are tired of not having a choice about who is going to provide training to you, if you are tired of being a DBS employee who is trampled on daily and made to fell worthless because you don't work at your local CRP then stand and fight with me. It is time to make our voices heard. I call for FCB and NFB to make a strong statement in this matter, I call on you to write to your elected officials, to contact the news media, and if all that doesn't work I say we protest, we need to act like those fighting for civil rights and bring out the protest signs and have a rally at the Turlington building. Pass this message on to your friends around the state, let's get fired up and take out the trash at DBS! ----- Original Message ----- From: "Easy Talk" <Easytalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2012 8:52:49 AM Subject: [tabi] Re: Fw: comperhensive report of IG's report on DBS attached Sorry but that isn't my bag so maybe someone else will volunteer. Robert <blockquote> ----- Original Message ----- From: wendy.hoss@xxxxxxxxxxx To: tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2012 8:15 AM Subject: [tabi] Re: Fw: comperhensive report of IG's report on DBS attached We also need to find a way to upload this to any and all social media like Facebook. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Easy Talk" < Easytalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > To: tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2012 5:51:10 AM Subject: [tabi] Re: Fw: comperhensive report of IG's report on DBS attached here you go. aames@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx doug.ray@xxxxxxxxxxxxx mike.clark@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Robert <blockquote> ----- Original Message ----- From: wendy.hoss@xxxxxxxxxxx To: tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2012 10:03 PM Subject: [tabi] Re: Fw: comperhensive report of IG's report on DBS attached I would like the contact info and I will send too. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Easy Talk" < Easytalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > To: tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2012 9:57:41 PM Subject: [tabi] Re: Fw: comperhensive report of IG's report on DBS attached HI Wendy, I have sent it to the Democrat, Gainesville Sun and Jacksonville times union but the more people that send it the better our chances of getting them to publish something. I also think it has been sent to the Sentinel star and Miami Harold. Robert <blockquote> ----- Original Message ----- From: wendy.hoss@xxxxxxxxxxx To: tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2012 7:23 PM Subject: [tabi] Re: Fw: comperhensive report of IG's report on DBS attached Robert are you going to send this the newspaper or would you like one of us to send it. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Allison and Chip Orange" < acorange@xxxxxxxxxxx > To: tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2012 6:22:06 PM Subject: [tabi] Re: Fw: comperhensive report of IG's report on DBS attached Thanks Robert for sharing this with all of us. I don't know what to say; I think this is inevitable given all the outsourcing that's going on from DBS. There's just too much money being handed all around (except maybe to clients), and unfortunately, many people in the pipeline get a direct percentage of the money their organization takes in (or an indirect percentage). Money handled like this tempts everyone, which includes a lot of unqualified people to come into the system (they're doing it for the money, not because it's their calling). If you don't think this is the ultimate source of the problem, just contrast this to the system where a state bureau chief receives a standardized salary, regardless of how much money his bureau handles. Think about why a group of people have hired their own lobbyist to see that they get as much money as possible. I think we'll never be able to clean up the system as long as it works like this; money is too difficult to manage, too much of a temptation. I think we need to go back to a system where state employees do this work, and they do it in a standardized way, for a standardized salary, across the state, and if you as a client have a problem, you have a long chain of command which you can work with to get satisfaction. Chip <blockquote> From: tabi-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:tabi-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Easy Talk Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2012 9:58 AM To: tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [tabi] Fw: comperhensive report of IG's report on DBS attached ----- Original Message ----- From: Easy Talk To: fcb-l@xxxxxxx Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2012 9:32 AM Subject: comperhensive report of IG's report on DBS attached Hi all, Thought some of you might be interested in reading the comprehensive report from the IG's office on the recent management review on DBS. It is time to take action on this issue. This is the worse I have ever seen on the miss use of the tax payers dollars and in my opinion is embezzlement of funds through state contracts. I strongly encourage you to send copies to your local news paper to get the attention of the commissioner of education and the governor so it isn't swept under the rug. I am so up set I am still shaking after reading it. This is another classic example of the lack of concern for blind citizens of Florida. If you recall from the Town hall meeting at the FCB convention, Mrs. Hildreth said she felt the out come of the report would be positive, well it's time for us to get up off our asses and let her know isn't in no way positive and we aren't going to allow blind citizens to be treated this way. The information in this post is solely my opinion and in no way reflects the opinion of FCB. Robert </blockquote> </blockquote> </blockquote> </blockquote>