----- Original Message -----
From: LARAFOIAInfo
To: joeharcz@xxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: BSBPFOIA
Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2016 8:58 AM
Subject: RE: flint office bldg crisis and blind information resources - FOIA
Request
Dear Mr. Harcz:
This notice responds to your February 8, 2016 and February 9, 2016 emails
(copies attached), received by the Department of Licensing and Regulatory
Affairs (LARA) on February 9, 2016 and February 10, 2016, respectively,
requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), MCL 15.231
et seq.
You have asked for numerous documents related to the Bureau of Services for
Blind Persons and the Flint water matter.
Your request is granted in part and denied in part. Records responsive to your
request are attached. Section 13(1)(d) of the FOIA provides that information
specifically described exempt from disclosure by another agency statute is
exempt from disclosure; therefore, portions of your request have been denied.
(MCL 15.243(1)(d)) Consumer information contained in the documents has been
redacted per the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 34 CFR 361.68.
Information related to the Flint water matter is available on our website at
www.michigan.gov/bsbp. Please see the link entitled "Outreach to Flint's Blind
Community Helps Ensure Access to Information and Resources" is under the
"Spotlight".
Section 10 of the FOIA, MCL 15.240, provides that you may seek judicial review
in the Court of Claims within 180 days after the final denial determination.
If you prevail in such an action, the court is to award reasonable attorney
fees, costs, and disbursements, and possible damages.
If you have questions concerning this matter, please feel free to contact the
LARA FOIA Office at LARAFOIAInfo@xxxxxxxxxxxx. You may also write to us at the
address listed below and enclose a copy of this letter.
LARA's FOIA Procedures and Guidelines can be accessed at www.michigan.gov/lara.
Thank you,
LARA FOIA Office
sf
--- Begin Message ---
- From: "Haynes, Carla (LARA)" <haynesc@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: LARAFOIAInfo <LARAFOIAInfo@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 8 Feb 2016 13:39:46 +0000
_____
From: joe harcz Comcast
Sent: Monday, February 8, 2016 7:54:33 AM (UTC-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
To: Rodgers, Edward (LARA)
Cc: Mike Pemble BSBP Dep. Dir.; Zimmer, Mike (LARA); Larry Posont NFBMI Pres.;
Mary Ann Robinson NFB MI; Georgia Kitchen FANFB; David Robinson NFB MI; terry
Eagle; Mark Eagle; Sarah Gravetti MISILC DNM; Marlene Malloy MCRS Dir.; Rodney
Craig MISILC; Christyne.Cavataio@xxxxxx<mailto:Christyne.Cavataio@xxxxxx>;
BRIAN SABOURIN; Elmer Cerano MPAS
Subject: bsbp and flint water crisis
February 8 2016 to Rodgers Flint Water Crisis Accommodations for Blind
Paul Joseph Harcz, Jr.
1365 E. Mt. Morris Rd.
Mt. Morris, MI 48458
joeharcz@xxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:joeharcz@xxxxxxxxxxx>
810-516-5262
Re: What Are You Doing?
To: Ed Rodgers, Director
Mich. Bureau Services for Blind Persons
(Via e-mail)
Dear Mr. Rodgers,
As the Director of the lead agency for blind people in the State of Michigan I
have some questions related to BSBP's efforts to assist people who are blind in
Flint and indeed Genesee County.
For example, your agency has data and discrete information about blind citizens
of this count. So has BSBP acted affirmatively to send out any information in
accessible formats to even one person who is blind about resources, etc.?
Has BSBP done anything about ensuring ththat other agencies including DHHS
makes all of its information fully accessible to blind citizens including where
to get lead testing kits and how to make those materials concerning how to use
them accessible? Or has it done anything about making videos related to this
fully accessible? Has BSBP sent out any of its Vision Rehab Therapists to homes
to show people the alternate techniques of acquiring and installing filters,
lead testing, and even just how to get water?
Has BSBP done one thing to assist blind residents about anything including in
its own Flint Office building where now Lt. Gov. Calley is working?
Also, what proactive role has BSBP ever engaged in related to emergency
preparedness and people who are blind? Please give me even one example.
In that regards would you please remit to me any and all correspondences
between you, anyone within BSBP and anyone in state government concerning BSBP
and its efforts related to the Flint Water Crisis.
Oh, yes and please send those to me in a fully accessible format and without
delay or surcharge. You know the requirements under Section 504 and the ADA and
you know my most accessible format.
By the way I'm a blind resident of this county and deal in Flint all the time
and I live just three miles from the Flint City limits. I've received nothing.
Sincerely,
Paul Joseph Harcz, Jr.
Cc: NFB MI
Cc: Mike Zimmer, LARA
Cc: RSA
Cc: MCRS
Cc: MPAS
Cc: MSILC
Cc: several
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---_____
- From: "Haynes, Carla (LARA)" <haynesc@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: LARAFOIAInfo <LARAFOIAInfo@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 9 Feb 2016 15:33:48 +0000
From: joe harcz Comcast
Sent: Tuesday, February 9, 2016 6:56:25 AM (UTC-05:00) Eastern Time (US &
Canada)
To: Rodgers, Edward (LARA)
Cc: Zimmer, Mike (LARA); White, Elizabeth (LARA); Marlene Malloy MCRS Dir.;
BRIAN SABOURIN; Sarah Gravetti MISILC DNM; Rodney Craig MISILC; Elmer Cerano
MPAS; Christyne.Cavataio@xxxxxx<mailto:Christyne.Cavataio@xxxxxx>; Larry Posont
NFBMI Pres.; David Robinson NFB MI; terry Eagle; Mark Eagle; Jeff Crouch-
k8tvv; Georgia Kitchen FANFB; Mary JacksonFANFB; Mary Ann Robinson NFB MI
Subject: flint office bldg crisis and blind information resources
February 9 2016 Rodgers on Flint Office Building
Paul Joseph harcz, Jr.
1365 E. Mt. Morris Rd.
Mt. Morris, MI 48458
joeharcz@xxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:joeharcz@xxxxxxxxxxx>
810-516-5262
Re: Flint Office Building What Did BSBP DO?
To: Edward Rodgers, Director
Michigan Bureau Services for Blind Persons
(Via E-mail)
Elizabeth White, District Supervisor, BSBP
(Via E-mail)
Michael Zimmer, Director, LARA
(Via E-mail)
All,
Please note the Detroit Free Press article after my signature line that denotes
state personnel at the Flint Office Building on Union Street knew or should
have known of problems with the Flint water in January of 2015. Now, I'm
requesting the following information:
Any correspondences to staff or customers related to the water coolers and
their locations.
-Any correspondences related to any measure to notify the public who are blind
in alternate formats about this option. In other words were large print and
Braille notices produced, let alone disseminated and posted?
-Copies of any notice from anyone in BSBP to customers in the Flint Michigan
area about the potential hazardous water during that time to the present.
-Any correspondences to any blind customer from then to the present in the
Flint area detailing resources for lead testing, availability of bottled water,
or any other resource. In other words just who, what, when, where, why and how
were blind customers notified not only of the crisis but, also of resources?
-Also show me even one post to BSBP's own web site relative to notice to the
public and resources and note as of yesterday there was a big "nothing".
Of course, I'm still awaiting any such document, notice, etc. as it sure hasn't
been forthcoming to my person in any format.
Regardless, please send requested information in my most effective format, a
timely manner, and without surcharge in accordance with your Obligations under
Title II of the ADA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Send
them as plain text attachments to my e-mail address listed above.
Sincerely,
Paul Joseph Harcz, Jr.
Cc: RSA
Cc: NFB
Cc: MSILC
Cc: MCRS
Cc: MPAS
Cc: several
Attachment:
Amid denials, state workers in Flint got clean water
Paul Egan,
Detroit Free Press 1:33 p.m. EST January 29, 2016
635895943064268577-Flint-water-tower.jpgBuy Photo
The state started buying bottled water for its employees in Flint in January
2015.(Photo: Ryan Garza/Detroit Free Press)Buy Photo
LANSING In January of 2015, when state officials were telling worried Flint
residents their water was safe to drink, they also were arranging for coolers
of purified water in Flint's State Office Building so employees wouldn't have
to drink from the taps, according to state government e-mails released Thursday
by the liberal group Progress Michigan.
A Jan. 7, 2015, notice from the state Department of Technology, Management and
Budget, which oversees state office buildings, references a notice about
a violation of drinking water standards that had recently been sent out by the
City of Flint.
"While the City of Flint states that corrective actions are not necessary, DTMB
is in the process of providing a water cooler on each occupied floor, positioned
near the water fountain, so you can choose which water to drink," said the
notice.
"The coolers will arrive today and will be provided as long as the public water
does not meet treatment requirements."
Caleb Buhs, a spokesman for DTMB, said the water coolers were provided in
response to the city health notice in late December or early January, which he
acknowledged was about a contamination issue the city said had already
subsided. The state continued to provide the coolers of purified water, right up
to today, because "there were more findings as we went along," Buhs said.
Buhs said his department never told state workers the tap water was unsafe to
drink, but only provided an alternative, as a landlord would do for tenants.
Lonnie Scott, executive director of Progress Michigan, said it appears the
state was not as slow as initially thought in responding to the Flint drinking
water crisis.
"Sadly, the only response was to protect the Snyder administration from future
liability and not to protect the children of Flint," Scott said. "While
residents
were being told to relax and not worry about the water, the Snyder
administration was taking steps to limit exposure in its own building."
After months of downplaying concerns, including warnings from researchers about
high lead levels in both the drinking water and in the blood of Flint children,
the administration of Gov. Rick Snyder acknowledged around Oct. 1 a problem
that is now a full-blown public health crisis garnering international headlines.
Michigan DEQ Director Dan Wyant resigned in December after acknowledging
officials failed to require the city to use needed corrosion-control chemicals
when they switched the source of their supply to Lake Huron water treated by
Detroit to Flint River water treated at the Flint water treatment plant.
The lack of corrosion controls caused lead to leach from pipes, joints and
fixtures into an unknown number of Flint households beginning in April of 2014,
when the city began using the Flint River as a temporary cost-cutting move
while under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager. Flint customers
were switched back to Detroit in October, but the potential danger persists
because of damage to the water distribution infrastructure.
Snyder declared a state of emergency on Jan. 5 and a week later called out the
Michigan National Guard to help distribute bottled water and water filters
in Flint. The state of emergency, which was set to expire next week, was
extended Thursday through April 14.
Included in the e-mail string obtained by Progress Michigan is an e-mail from
Mike Prysby, a district engineer in the DEQ's drinking water division, whose
name had surfaced earlier in connection with the Flint drinking water public
health crisis.
Prysby, who had been forwarded an e-mail from other state officials asking
whether he would know more about the safety of Flint's drinking water by March
1, forwarded the e-mail to Stephen Busch, the district supervisor, who on Jan.
22 of this year was suspended without pay for his role in the drinking water
catastrophe.
"
Appears certain state departments are concerned with Flint's WQ (water
quality)," Prysby said in the e-mail to Busch. "I will return the call ..."
On Jan. 23, 2015, the
Free Press ran a story,
accompanied by a photo of Flint residents holding up jugs of brown water, that
said concerns of city residents ranged from the taste, appearance and odor
of the water to unexplained rashes and illnesses, even sick pets. Concerns
about lead had not been raised then, though experts now say the color of the
water - and the fact GM had announced it stopped using it because it was too
corrosive to metal parts - should have been a tip-off that metals, including
lead, were leaching into the water.
The January 2015 Free Press story noted that in August and September, the city
issued three advisories to boil Flint water after detecting coliform bacteria.
Just before Christmas, residents received notices that state tests indicated
higher-than-acceptable levels of trihalomethane (TTHM), a by-product of the
chlorine disinfectants added to the water to kill the bacteria.
The article said that despite a recent alert about TTHM levels having exceeded
federal guidelines in 2014, city officials maintained the water was safe.
The article said that Michigan DEQ officials gave the same assurances at a
meeting at Flint City Hall on Jan. 21.
Prysby represented the DEQ at that Flint City Hall meeting and told residents
the chlorine did its job and cleaned the water of microbial pathogens that
can cause disease within days, the article said. That meant the water was safe
for healthy people to drink for a short time, Prysby was quoted as saying.
The trade-off, Prysby said, was TTHM, possibly a danger for the very young, the
very old, or the very sick if they ingest it long-term, he added.
"But we're talking decades," he said, adding that those who are worried should
talk to their doctors.
Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or
pegan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:pegan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>. Follow him on Twitter
@paulegan4.
31621 CON
Source:
http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/flint-water-crisis/2016/01/28/amid-denials-state-workers-flint-got-clean-water/79470650/
--- End Message ---
Attachment:
Lawrence Sharday.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document
Attachment:
Wilson Debbie.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document
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Marshall Phyllis.pdf
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File of Information for FOIA - E. Rodgers.pdf
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White Elizabeth.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document
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Blind Master.xlsx_Redacted.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document
