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Deaf community mobilizing protest in Baton Rouge | Shreveporttimes | shreveporttimes.com
Over several decades, the Betty and Leonard Phillips Deaf Action Center (DAC) has successfully provided services to the deaf community of north Louisiana. As a result of its collaboration with and service to the deaf community, the DAC has enjoyed its complete support.
So we were stunned when we recently found out the DAC lost two state contracts from the Louisiana Commission for the Deaf for interpreting services and distribution of equipment to the deaf community. Instead, they were awarded to New Horizons Independent Living Center, an organization that works with developmentally disabled adults.
The DAC has been a contractor with the commission for more than 28 years with a documented and proven record of quality services to the deaf and hard of hearing. The DAC is the only comprehensive service agency for the deaf in northwest Louisiana.
New Horizons has been in the area for a number of years and works successfully with developmentally disabled adults, but people who are deaf are not developmentally disabled. New Horizons has no credible experience in working with the deaf, no knowledge of deaf culture or history and no one on staff who can communicate efficiently with the deaf. Nor does it have the resources to provide certified interpreters as mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act. In fact, New Horizons recently contacted the DAC to obtain information and help in providing interpreters.
So why would the commission take contracts from the DAC and award them to New Horizons? The commission made this decision under pressure at the last minute from its executive director, who recommended that five providers throughout the state (including the DAC) lose those contracts.
This action was taken after these same five filed a grievance against the executive director in July 2009. The grievance alleged that the executive director demonstrated a perceived preferential treatment of certain vendors, hostile behavior toward other vendors, a lack of transparency and a lack of communication. These providers (including the DAC), repeatedly and unsuccessfully have asked the executive director, her supervisor and the state Health and Hospitals secretary for meetings to try to resolve these issues.
All five agencies had their contracts given to other agencies for fiscal years 2012-14 after the complaint was filed. When the five agencies understandably complained that this appeared to be direct retribution for filing a complaint, one of the agencies was given back its contracts with no explanation of why it lost the contract or why it was being restored. The commission's executive director later indicated she had a problem with the DAC's performance; she provided no evidence to support her claim. Site review reports indicate all contract requirements were met. The deaf community never was asked how it felt about the DAC or the idea of giving these contracts to another agency.
Our deaf community, the true victim in this, is upset, angry and insulted. It is desperately worried about continuing to receive the high quality of services it has received in the past from the DAC.
When government contracts are taken from agencies with demonstrated experience and expertise and awarded to those with none, those previously served by those agencies are left unprotected and unserved. The well-being of the deaf community, a group of people with special needs, now is directly threatened by the very agency charged with protecting that community. This situation would hardly survive Gov. Bobby Jindal's litmus test for ethical behavior.
David Hylan, of Shreveport, is executive director of the Leonard and Betty Phillips Deaf Action Center.
Over several decades, the Betty and Leonard Phillips Deaf Action Center (DAC) has successfully provided services to the deaf community of north Louisiana. As a result of its collaboration with and service to the deaf community, the DAC has enjoyed its complete support.
So we were stunned when we recently found out the DAC lost two state contracts from the Louisiana Commission for the Deaf for interpreting services and distribution of equipment to the deaf community. Instead, they were awarded to New Horizons Independent Living Center, an organization that works with developmentally disabled adults.
The DAC has been a contractor with the commission for more than 28 years with a documented and proven record of quality services to the deaf and hard of hearing. The DAC is the only comprehensive service agency for the deaf in northwest Louisiana.
New Horizons has been in the area for a number of years and works successfully with developmentally disabled adults, but people who are deaf are not developmentally disabled. New Horizons has no credible experience in working with the deaf, no knowledge of deaf culture or history and no one on staff who can communicate efficiently with the deaf. Nor does it have the resources to provide certified interpreters as mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act. In fact, New Horizons recently contacted the DAC to obtain information and help in providing interpreters.
So why would the commission take contracts from the DAC and award them to New Horizons? The commission made this decision under pressure at the last minute from its executive director, who recommended that five providers throughout the state (including the DAC) lose those contracts.
This action was taken after these same five filed a grievance against the executive director in July 2009. The grievance alleged that the executive director demonstrated a perceived preferential treatment of certain vendors, hostile behavior toward other vendors, a lack of transparency and a lack of communication. These providers (including the DAC), repeatedly and unsuccessfully have asked the executive director, her supervisor and the state Health and Hospitals secretary for meetings to try to resolve these issues.
All five agencies had their contracts given to other agencies for fiscal years 2012-14 after the complaint was filed. When the five agencies understandably complained that this appeared to be direct retribution for filing a complaint, one of the agencies was given back its contracts with no explanation of why it lost the contract or why it was being restored. The commission's executive director later indicated she had a problem with the DAC's performance; she provided no evidence to support her claim. Site review reports indicate all contract requirements were met. The deaf community never was asked how it felt about the DAC or the idea of giving these contracts to another agency.
Our deaf community, the true victim in this, is upset, angry and insulted. It is desperately worried about continuing to receive the high quality of services it has received in the past from the DAC.
When government contracts are taken from agencies with demonstrated experience and expertise and awarded to those with none, those previously served by those agencies are left unprotected and unserved. The well-being of the deaf community, a group of people with special needs, now is directly threatened by the very agency charged with protecting that community. This situation would hardly survive Gov. Bobby Jindal's litmus test for ethical behavior.
David Hylan, of Shreveport, is executive director of the Leonard and Betty Phillips Deaf Action Center.