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BUSINESS ENTERPRISE PROGRAM OF OREGON SPECIAL MEETING

SPECIAL MEETINGDate: Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Time: 4:00 pm

OREGON COMMISSION FOR THE BLIND535 SE 12th Avenue (Portland office)

Conference line: 404-443-6397Participant code: 943611#

Agenda • Any of the agenda items listed below may become an action item.• Any of these items may be a conflict of interest.

1. Call to Order

2. Adoption of Minutes

3. Public Comment

4. Strategic Priorities Discussion/Overview

5. Director’s Report

a. New Managersb. Budget Workshopc. Location Developmentd. Delinquent and Liquidated Accounts/Exempt Accounts Reporte. Agency Proposal as it relates to Public Bodies

6. NABM Fly-In, Select 3 Attendees/Processing Request

7. Sub-Committee Business

8. Concerns With Receiving Program-Relevant Information Requests

9. Other

10. OLD BUSINESS a. Assigned Locations Updateb. New By-Laws Recommendationc. BEP Budget Workshopd. Strategic Prioritiese. Other

11. NEW BUSINESS a. Directing use of set-asideb. Administrative Supportc. Legislative Imitative

4-18-18 BECC Special Meeting Verbatim of 39

d. Legal Fund Discussione. Other

12. Open Discussion

13. Schedule Next Meeting

14. Adjourn

Verbatim

Hauth: All right, everybody. I just sent a text message to Steve Jackson. So hopefully he’ll join us. But we do have a quorum so we can go ahead and start. Thanks everybody for joining us. Let’s go ahead and take roll. And, obviously, Eric, you’re here, correct?

Morris: I’m here.

Hauth: Okay. Thank you. So I’ll go ahead and take roll, start with the board. Art Stevenson. Art…?

Art Stevenson: Yeah, I’m here.

Hauth: Okay. Derrick Stevenson?

Unknown voice: All right. Bye bye.

Hauth: Derrick?

Derrick Stevenson: Yeah, I’m here.

Hauth: Thank you, Derrick.

Derrick Stevenson: I just want to mention that I’ll only be here for a short time because…

Hauth: Sure. Okay. Thank you.

Derrick Stevenson: All right.

Hauth: I know tonight’s a busy night for you.

Derrick Stevenson: All right.

Hauth: Jerry Bird?

Bird: I’m here.

Hauth: Okay. Thank you. Steve Jackson. Okay. And I will tell you, I was contacted by Gordon and he will not be on – Steve Gordon, he will not be on the call tonight. So do we have Steve


Jackson? Have you joined us? Okay. Steve Jackson? Steve Gordon? No? Okay. Lin Jaynes. Lin Jaynes? Okay. Cathy Dominique. Do we have Cathy Dominique? Okay. Char Mckinzie?

Hawkins: I’m here.

Hauth: Hi, Char. Welcome. Okay, do we have Gordon Smith?

Smith: Yes.

Hauth: Okay. Salvador Barraza or Tessa Brown? Okay. Do we have Harold Young on the line? Okay. I heard Lewanda. Lewanda, do we have you on the line?

Miranda: Present.

Hauth: Hi, Lewanda. And do we have Celyn Brown on the line?

Jackson: Steve Jackson’s on the line.

Hauth: Hey, Steve. Thanks for joining. Okay…

Jackson: Sorry I’m late.

Hauth: And Eric’s on the line. Have I left anybody off? Of the managers or committee members? Okay. And Eric, you’re here. Is there anybody else from the agency here joining?

Morris: No, it’s just me.

Hauth: Okay. And how about anybody from the public that would like to identify themselves, please do so.

Edwards: James Edwards.

Hauth: Hey, James. Welcome. Anyone else? Okay, we’ll go ahead and call the meeting to order. Adoption of Minutes. I would like to have a motion to adopt the previously recorded minutes, as recorded. Do I have a motion as such?

Derrick Stevenson: I so move.

Hauth: Okay. Do we have a second?

Bird: Second.

Hauth: We have a second. Okay. Any discussion around that? Okay, hearing none, we’ll go ahead and do a roll call vote, yea or nay. Derrick Stevenson?

Derrick Stevenson: Yea.4-18-18 BECC Special Meeting Verbatim of 39

Hauth: Art Stevenson. Art Stevenson.

Art Stevenson: Yea.

Hauth: Okay. Jerry Bird?

Bird: Yea.

Hauth: Steve Jackson?

Jackson: I’ll vote yes.

Hauth: And I vote yes, as well. That motion passes. Moving on to public comment, before we move on I do want to just let everybody know, initially, what… this meeting was called not only to finish up some of the unfinished business from our last agenda and to deal with a few other items. But as well to get engaged with the strategic priorities. So I… initially, the thought was that I was… we were going to work with the committee and have the facilitator – who I believe has been engaged with the agency and who will be at the meeting on Friday – facilitating, was requesting that – Barb, I think her name is, Eric identified – was going to be here to help us step through the process and maybe have more discussion around that. However – and I know Eric will let us know, maybe during the report, he said he had… would be able to fill us in on that.

But, bottom line, she’s not here. I don’t think we’re going to spend an hour on the strategic and budget priorities. But, as you know, we did send out a bullet point and number point identifiers. We did so on the strategic priorities. And we did that prior to the agenda coming out for the OCB board meeting, which also looks like it’s going to include budget priorities.

You know, I would just like to say for the record that, even though the budget priorities are, I believe, a first step in the process, it still kind of sets the stage and the tone. And I don’t know that the Elected Committee to this point has been involved in that. I don’t recall us being involved in that. And even though there have been requests for budget trainings and workshops, maybe those are yet to come. But it looks like this ball is rolling and rolling without us at this point. But, that said, I did put together some budget priorities that we’ll mention today for the sake of consideration.

I just want to say, again, that we will… the Elected Committee has been invited to participate Friday at the Commission for the Blind strategic planning and priority…. I think we were limited to a half hour. And, quite honestly, again for the record, we had to fight for the right to be there. Initially, it was identified that the agency was putting together strategic priorities. We asked to be involved and we said no, there’s not really a place for us to be. And so, with some perseverance, then we were invited to become a part of it. I know this is different than the last few strategic planning priorities. But, again, we’ll make the best of it. And I think the most important thing is to identify, for the record, the strategic priorities that we sought input from and that we’ve identified.

So just wanted to lay that out there. Thank you for listening to that. Moving…. Art, did you want to say something? Okay, somebody… we hear a little bit of background. I don’t know


if you… I know it’s hard to mute your phone when you’re a committee member and you’re, you know, actively engaged in it. But if you guys could mute your phones, that’d be great.

Moving on to public comment, does anybody have any public comment, please? If so, let me know. Any public comment?

Art Stevenson: Randy?

Hauth: Yes.

Art Stevenson: Okay. Yeah, this is Art. I just want to say for the record… and I’m saying this not as a member of the Elected Committee but I’m saying it as a blind licensed manager, I’m very, very concerned about the things that are going on. And there is a ton of it. And I would also like to say that, you know, I believe the Elected Committee has been trying really hard to be engaged with the agency, to do things.

And, from my perspective as a blind licensed manager and, you know, that just isn’t occurring. And so, I’d like to say good job, you know, on developing some things there, the strategic priorities and good attempt to try to be and actively participate in the budget process. But to this time… at this time I can say there hasn’t been a whole heck of a lot of active participation in the budgeting process and that, as a blind licensed manager, I’m very, very concerned that on Friday the Commission board is going to be voting on budget priorities and there has been no input at all, no attempt with the State Licensing Agency to participate with the Elected Committee in even putting anything together. And so, very disappointed about it. And I guess that’s all I’ll say for now.

Hauth: Thank you, Art. Any other public comment? Okay. Any other public comment before we move along? Okay. Let’s go ahead and move along to strategic priorities and planning. Eric, I know during the Director's Report you have some other things that we’ve asked you to report on but do you want to give us your perspective on this? Or share what the conversations were with Barb or… so forth?

Morris: Sure. You want me to go now?

Hauth: Sure.

Morris: So I talked to Barb briefly yesterday, as I said in my email earlier today, and Barb is… Barb is facilitating the strategic planning discussion on Friday. So my understanding is the Elected Committee’s been invited to come and participate in that meeting, to give input. So that’s different than what’s kind of been teed up in the emails and stuff. I think Art sent an email that had a bunch of talking points for actually strategic planning. Like, as a group, like, the Elected Committee would sit down and do strategic planning, which is… I think is different than what’s being asked of you guys for Friday. So, you know, that’s… I think that’s one of the comments that we talked about, is that, you know, the strategic planning stuff is going to happen at the Commission level. And then once the Commission sets the strategic priorities then, as a division, the Business Enterprise Program, we can talk about how we fit in to the strategic priorities of the agency.


So I think it’s important, when you guys talk to the Commission board on Friday, that you have that context around where we all fit in the puzzle. Because the strategic priorities are not just the Business Enterprise Program, it’s the whole entire agency. And I know that, you know, the Elected Committee has a special place within the agency. But having that higher level discussion… and I looked through the stuff you sent out late this afternoon and strategic priorities are high, high level priorities – excuse me – that you build structure under around, I think, for different talking points that Art had sent out in his email, talked about measures and stuff like that. Measures and those kind of things aren’t at a strategic level. So I think it’s important you keep that in mind when, you know, you come in on Friday… or if I was going to come into a strategic planning meeting as a participant, as a stakeholder, I would say, “Hey…,” you know, let’s say for like a school board, if I go to a school board meeting where they’re doing strategic planning, the number one most important thing for me is that my kids get a good education. That’s… That’s kind of the context. And I know that’s a different context than what we’re talking about right now. But, you know, you have to be able to give input… and going to the meeting and saying, “Hey, we haven’t gotten enough information about the budget,” to say how we want the budget priorities” isn’t going to be… that’s not going to be helpful. But if you said, “Hey, we want to invest more in, let’s say, training. Or more in innovative practices or things like that, that’s going to be constructive. So that’s… that higher level input is what they’re kind of looking for, from my understanding.

Hauth: Thank you, Eric. And the only think I would say to that is, we’re brought into this at the last minute. Lookit, this is Thursday and this is the first day…. Just so you know, those talking points and priorities went out a couple of weeks ago. And then they went again back out today. But if you put yourself in our shoes, here we are, Wednesday, and we’re expected to participate in the Commission for the Blind board meeting at 11:00 Friday and this is the first that you’re now directing on how this all should be. I mean, I’ve requested, on behalf of the Elected Committee, budget planning and budget training and discussion. We had a question and answer with Gail Stevens but that was it. Back at the in-service we talked about this and I believe it was you that said, “Oh, it’s not ready. We’re not teed up to do it.”

And so what we did – because, again, we were told that we weren’t even going to be involved in this. And it’s clear through your job description and it’s clear through the code of federal regulations and it’s clear through the state statute now, House Bill 3253, that the Committee does have a special role in actively participating. And so, for you to suggest, and maybe I’m misreading this, but for you to suggest that the agency lays all these priorities and we just find a place to fit into it, I don’t think it’s proper. Because active participation and inclusion of the Elected Committee is different than other programs within the agency. So I think that’s sometimes, you know, I wish we would’ve had more discussion around this but we didn’t.

So what we did is, we took the lead on this and tried to lay out some things that we felt would be important, you know? We found a, you know, through… I found a template and put a template together that was basically out there on the internet and I sent it out to the managers and Committee members asking for input. And so, anyway, what we put together is what the input that received… what I put together was the input that was received. I keep saying “we” but I headed the program up and sought input from everybody. So, yeah, anyway, there was still no training provided to us. But hopefully these items that were put together are, you know, hopefully you see them as a benefit and as constructive.


I don’t plan, personally, and I don’t think any other manager or Committee member plans on going in and, you know, disgracing the program. I believe our intention is to go in and lay out what we see our program’s priorities as and how are those going to match up with the agency’s and how do we get there, you know?

So I just want to go over a few of these for people who haven’t seen it. The template basically goes through and talks about, you know, today. And this is for any organization, right? Any organization out there put a strategic planning. They always want to look at where have we been? Where’s the past been? Well, I think, you know, we can all reflect on where the past has been here. I would suggest there’s been a lot of stagnation. There’s been a lot of non-inclusion. There’s been concerns around litigation. There’s been concerns around active participation and program growth, right? For a number of years there were a lot of, you know, no managers brought into the program. So that was the past. Today, where we are now, I think we have a lot of great opportunities. House Bill 3253 is one of those opportunities and the efforts and energy of this Elected Committee pushing and encouraging the agency to take a more proactive role in growing the opportunities.

So I think today we’re in a pretty good place, even though there’s still a lot of challenges. You know, and then it talks about the vision. Where should we go? Well, clearly, where we should go is we should comply and support the intended purpose of House Bill 3253’s mission, and that’s to put blind vendors to work, right? We should support the Code of Federal Regulations, the Act, about remunerative employment and enlarging economic opportunities. I mean, that’s the vision, you know? Inclusion and being part of that. So… and core values. I mean, the guiding principles of our work… I believe if we always hold to the intended purpose of this program then we’re going to not get off base on that.

And then it talks about obstacles, what could prevent us from reaching our vision. Well, clearly, the Oregon Commission for the Blind, as the State Licensing Agency, is the authority, the administrative authority. So, at the end of the day, depending on how that administration functions, you know, those are obstacles that we run in. So if the Committee puts together a great strategic priority and puts together a great plan and it’s not received by the agency, that can be an obstacle, right? So we have to… if that happens we have to find ways around that. Hopefully, you know, we’ll work collaboratively. But that can be an obstacle. And there’s other obstacles out there, as well. You know, funding and time management and all those type of things.

So long-term goals, what do we want to do? What do we want to realize the vision? Well, we want to accomplish our goals, right? We want to put more blind vendors to work… or vending facility managers. Instead of having 16 we want to have 60. We want to expand the opportunities. We want to grow and maximize our vocational potential. You know, that’s what I see, clear. Short-term goals, one-year/two-year, believe we need to put those and stay committed and focused. You know, bringing in three new vendors a year, bringing in three new opportunities a year, increasing employment and income by 10%. I mean, we can identify those through active participation with the agency.

Measurement of success: clearly we can measure that through RSA-15 reports, through the quarterly reports, through the income ranking system, resources assessment, infrastructure requested. So there’s a couple of things to talk about, finance and resources. Clearly, that’s where we need to be as the Elected Committee involved with the budget creation, the budget development and the budget adoption. So that we can help work with the agency on making sure that this plan that we develop collaboratively is implemented.


So those are… those are some of the things that it, you know, it’s food for thought. It kind of prompts a person to think through what they need to do. And then… so what we put together, as far as talking points, is, you know, is building collaboratively complete, compliant BEP rules. That’s clearly an issue and item that is not only of concern but that we have taken a position needs to happen and needs to drive the success of the program forward, for the future. Two is building an agreed upon and comprehensive active participation definition and communication protocols for implementation of active participation and inclusion. I know there’s been a lot of the agency says, “You guys get active participation.” The Elected Committee says, “No, we don’t.” So we need to find out some way to communicate. I believe that most on the Elected Committee would say that these type of things need to be improved and identified, and clearly not just identified by term but identified by actions. So, you know, that’s clearly something that was brought to the attention.

Evaluate the internal/external obstacles impacting our program. Again, we talked a little bit about that. If that’s staffing, if it’s funding, if it’s effectiveness of staffing, time management. You know, there’s a lot of things that can impact that.

So, maximize earnings of managers, address locations unassigned and vending revenues unassigned. Clearly, that’s been a re-occurring issue and it’s something that’s near and dear to most people’s hearts. It goes back to the intended purpose of the program. So that is, I believe, a key priority that was brought. How do we address that? How do we work with the agency on changing that? Do we do that collaboratively or do we do that through litigation? Or however that change needs to occur.

Number five is build a marketing and outreach plan to secure new locations and also to bring in new qualified vending facility managers, right? So we’re at a point now where we have an opportunity to grow the program and create new opportunities. And hopefully, when we hear from Eric a little bit later, we’re going to find out we have new managers licensed and we have new managers close to being licensed. But I think we need to work collaboratively with the agency to put together a marketing plan. How do we do outreach to these agencies and let these agencies know about House Bill 3253 and about our program and the rights that the blind vendors have for remunerative employment opportunities. How do we do outreach to bring qualified people in? That’s clearly something that’s important to us.

Explore opportunities outside the BEP box. I know that’s been a national conversation. How do we do that? Is there opportunity to do that here in Oregon? So that discussion has to occur.

And so those were the six priorities. There was also…. Let me pull this up here. There was also some items around budget, okay? And so, again, we were kind of playing catch-up on this. Because, like Art stated earlier, it looks like the Commission board is going to set and establish budget priorities and strategic priorities agency wide. However, those still impact us. And, again, we haven’t been at the table through these. But we did put together – and I’ll forward these out to everybody – budget priorities. Number one: How set-aside will be expended in the 2019-21 budget must be determined between the agency and the Elected Committee of blind vendors. For example, no set-aside money should be directed to agency staff salaries without the the Elected Committee of blind vendors’ involvement and agreement. So, years and years back, the Elected Committee has had little to no involvement in the budget process. I still believe that the agency would prefer the Elected Committee not to be involved in it. However, it’s our right, it’s our role, it’s our responsibility so we’re going to continue to push


on that . And our set-aside monies need to be… need to be spent and directed in accordance through collaboration and through the voice of the Committee, it is believed.

Number two: The amount of set-aside monies expended on each of the five purposes needs to be developed with the active participation of the Elected Committee.

Number three: Determination of funding and/or policy funding packages for new equipment and other equipment needs for the establishment of locations given priority under House Bill 3253. I will say one thing right now: you know, we did get a new opportunity and congratulations to Char. I believe she’s in there running the State Capitol. I looked at some of that equipment when I went through there and it looked like it was old and dirty and outdated. So, now, if that needs to be… if those need to be repaired or replaced, or other facilities that we get need that, I believe the Elected Committee needs to work with the agency to put together some kind of mechanism and some kind of funding. But, again, you know, I think the intention of this, Eric, and identifying these is to let the agency know, we deserve and demand a seat at the table. And these are our priorities and, you know, so that’s kind of where it is.

I don’t know if anybody else wants to weigh in and identify anything else. I know there’s things that, you know, maybe were left out. Or maybe there’s things that kind of duplicate each other. But I believe at least this gets the message that we have across. So if anybody wants to say anything, you know…. And then we’ll have Eric weigh in on that again. I know we did prior, but let me know…

Art Stevenson: Chair Hauth?

Hauth: Yes, Art.

Art Stevenson: Okay. First of all, I’d like to respectfully disagree with Eric on strategic priorities. Definitely went back and read the first strategic priorities thing and I think the Elected Committee at that time did a good job. Of course, they were fortunate enough to be sitting at the table for at least an hour, I think, to develop those strategies and stuff. And I believe the strategic priorities we put together are very similar.

However, there are some things that we know need to be strategic priorities to make and create a successful program. And… And so, you know, I’m a little offended that the list that you put out, Randy, was not called strategic priorities, when I know you know and I’ll bet you a lot of the managers know and would say so, these are things that need to occur so that we have a successful program. And the reason I say that is because I’ve been all over this country and watched the successful states operate from Alabama to Illinois to New Jersey, all over. And these are strategic priorities to create a program that experiences growth, experiences true active participation and also solves problems that we’ve been having in the past.

And so, I want to commend you, Randy. I know you put together a lot of this stuff. But I think you’ve done it from experience. Because you’ve been all over the country too and you know what it takes to create a healthy, vibrant, successful program. And to say the list that we created isn’t what strategic priorities is, well, I disagree. Because these are the things that if we implement, we’re going to have a better program.

Bird: Randy.

Hauth: Thank you. Thank you, Art. Jerry, go ahead.4-18-18 BECC Special Meeting Verbatim of 39

Bird: Yeah, I just want to say quickly that first, I can see Eric’s part and I think what he says is that this is the whole Commission’s planning, which I think we all understand. And we’re a small part of it because we’re a part of their thing. Now, I know a half hour isn’t that great, but I think Randy just nailed it, what he just told to us. He done it within a half hour. And that’s about all they need to know, is that, you know, we understand that, you know, they got other priorities and stuff.

But this is our priority. And I can’t believe that Eric can’t see that, of course, it’s our program, the blind vendors’ program, is what it is; not the administration. But… so, therefore, the Elected Committee and that, we are to make sure that we know what’s going on and we come up with priorities. Because priorities, as we know, is that you put the worst ones or the best or what you want completed or done first or most important at the top. That’s how I look at it, is you got to come up with all the stuff. You can’t put them all up there, of course.

So it’s a way to get to talk and discuss the priorities we want to use. So if they don’t get the priorities from the program that it affects… I’m just talking the BE Program, we’re the Randolph-Sheppard Program. We have separate budget, although we are controlled by the Commission board still has a say. So that’s where I can see that, you know, like, they don’t want to give us too much time.

But they… we’ve got some time. That was perfect, Randy. It was showing them exactly where we’re coming from and what we believe. And then we need to go back and sit down and become the very top ones and more identify them on how we’re going to reach these goals. And that’s where we hope they’ll at least give us a blessing to do that. If not, we need to do it anyway. Like I said, even, you know, even surveys and stuff need to be dealt with properly. They’re what starts our whole process.

So there are very, very important things kind of got thrown away that’s not a big deal. For some reason I can’t get no information about them. But they write figures down but there’s nothing to back them up. But, you know, they’ve got to be detailed and they’ve got to be so we can identify if these can be a successful facility. I mean, it’s just smart business. And so that’s kind of where I get at, is Eric trying to say and then he tells, you know, don’t go in and start or you shouldn’t. I think he advises and sometimes we can take it or not.

Go in and really bash them about the budget. Well, you don’t get to be on the budget, even though, of course, they’re going to make a decision tomorrow or something or Friday on the budget. But, you know, I just think we need to… I think our priorities on trying to get this program back to where it’s for the managers and we operate it in the way we need to do it and make sure things are proper is a very great thing. And I appreciate the opportunity for them to allow us to do it. So I’ll stop there.

But once again, Randy, I think you really done an excellent job of explaining the best you could in a short time what our actual thoughts are and where we’d like to see this program go. Thank you.

Hauth: Thanks. Yeah, thanks a lot, Jerry. And I just want to say, something came to mind. You know, when I was preparing for this I did look at the previous priorities that were put together, including the ones from 2016. And I’ll tell you, they’re not much different than… you know, they’re not much different than some of the ones that we’re putting together, as far as being on that level of action, you know, for things that need to happen or need to change. So, you know, I’m a little confuse by that, too. But, you know, thank you.



Hauth: Yes. Go ahead.

Art Stevenson: Okay. And I… So let’s kind of move the ball around. I make a motion that we adopt these strategic priorities and we designate Randy as our spokesperson at the 30-minute time slot. Because, quite frankly, all the Elected Committee isn’t going to be able to talk, especially and make the kind of presentation that Randy just did here on the phone. So I make that motion that we adopt these strategic priorities and budget priorities and then have Randy as our spokesperson on Friday.

Hauth: A motion has been made. Do I have a second on that?

Bird: Second.

Derrick Stevenson: Second.

Hauth: Second’s been made. Any discussion?

Morris: Were you going to…?

Derrick Stevenson: This is Derrick.

Morris: Sorry.

Hauth: Derrick, go ahead.

Derrick Stevenson: Yeah, well I just want to say, I understand that this has to do with the Commission for the Blind as a whole. But we’re a separate group with a separate budget and separate financial things. And I think they need to be careful not to throw us in with everybody else. Because we still have to have… we still have to set out own priorities for our program; needs to be separate from what the Commission does. And our priority on how, you know, set-aside is spent, you know, like you said, is supposed to be with the Elected Committee. And they… And those things need to be done separately from the whole. If that made sense to you.

Hauth: Yep. Thank you, Derrick. I think I heard somebody else trying to get the floor…

Morris: Randy, are you going to bounce back to me eventually?

Hauth: Yes, I am.

Morris: All right.

Hauth: Anybody else?


Bird: Randy, do you…?

Hauth: Eric…

Bird: Would you be the spokesman, is I guess the next question.

Hauth: Yeah, sure. Sure. Yes, I will. Eric, go ahead. Before we take the vote, you can go ahead and have discussion.

Morris: Yeah, thank you. I appreciate that. Hey, just one of the comments that I picked up earlier in the discussion was somebody… somebody said, you know, that the strategic priorities for the Elected Committee… you know, we need to make sure that they, you know, that the agency agrees or, you know, it’s the agency’s versus the Elected Committee’s strategic priorities. The discussion we’re having today and the context to keep in mind is that the agency doesn’t set the strategic priorities. I don’t have strategic priorities. I take the strategic priorities from the board and then, within the program, set, like, measures and all those kind of things to make them happen. So it’s not like I have a list of strategic priorities to say, “Well, this is my list of strategic priorities.” I can say, “Hey, this is the list I’ve been working off of for the past couple of years.”

But hopefully you guys understand that context. And, to be quite frank, some of the things you guys have listed as strategic priorities are going to be hard to operationalize. I… They just will be. Some of them, very simple. But other ones, pretty complex. And I’m not sure… I’m not sure if you’re setting yourselves up for success by adopting some of these as they’re written. Because the question would be, “What’s that mean?” Now, part of the… part of strategic planning is really vetting through that. And maybe that’s a longer conversation we can have after the board meeting, depending on what the board sets for strategic priorities for the entire agency. Within the Business Enterprise Program… and Derrick’s right. We’re a separate budget. But also remember, every program within the agency: VR, the Training Center, IL, Older Blind all have separate budgets.

So we’re not special in the fact that we have a set-aside fund that is unique to our program. But everybody has separate budgets. It’s just how budgeting works. So it’s not like there’s just us and our little pile of money and everybody else has one big pot of money. It’s just… It’s not set up that way.

So I think it’s important to remember that, you know, we have to… you know, if you guys want this stuff to happen, it has to make sense to everybody. And “everybody” in this discussion needs to include the agency. And I’ll just say it needs to include me, too. Because I’ve got to be able to look at it and go, “How are we going to do that? Like, number one and number two.” I’m not sure how we’re going to do that. We’ve been working on it for a long time but I’m not sure how to do that. Not necessarily a great conversation for tonight, but just to keep that in mind.

And, to be quite frank, when it comes to strategic planning, I’ve done a lot of it. Not here at the Commission so much, but outside of the Commission I’ve done a lot of strategic planning. So it’s just… you have to keep elevated to the level of, you know, “Here’s the end game. We want to have….” And somebody, I think Randy said it, we want to have 50 managers in the program. That’s a great thought because I can instantly say, “That’s a number that we can look at to say, A) is that viable? Could we support 50 people in the program? And if we


could that’s great. But how do we go about doing that?” And it’s a lot more than three a year, based on the fact we’ve only got 16 right now.

So those kind of thing, specifics are good. Because we can start planning around that and operationalize it. But, you know, it just… some things sound really good because they’re big words and they’re all together and it’s just… it’s hard to operationalize.

Hauth: Okay. Thank you. I will say that House Bill 3253 clearly identifies the role of budgeting for the Elected Committee. And another thing is that we did previously request that we be involved and be provided training around this, you know, that we be engaged. We believe that Barb has probably been working either with Dacia or some of the Commission. Because I don’t think she’s coming in cold turkey and start – I mean, you know, correct me if I’m wrong – but there’s probably been some kind of formulated concept around this.

And here, the Elected Committee, we go from two and a half months ago, where you guys, and I say the agency, I think it was Dacia Johnson said basically, “Nope, there’s no room for you here.” So then we had to do an end around to finally get a seat at the table. Now we’re being told, you know, right, wrong or indifferent, how to do it. And, you know, so, again, we did ask for training. We did ask to be included in this. And so this is what we’ve come up with. I don’t think it’s… I don’t think it’s too far of a reach to clearly identify that these are things that most if not every manager wants to happen different.

So, you know, I think, Eric, really, I think most people are at a point right now is, we’re either going to do it collaboratively or we’re going to do it through litigation. I mean, those are the two options. And I believe not only the previous Elected Committees but this Elected Committee and a lot of managers have worked really hard to try and get some of these things done. And I think most people feel they’ve been stonewalled. So my hope is that, if we identify this and if we bring it to the front to people who need to be in the know, then hopefully things will, you know, the agency will finally say, “Gosh, we need to work on getting these things resolved. And we need to work with the committee to do these things.”

I mean, that’s the way I see it. There’s two options: either we’re all going to work together or we’re going to find a way to, you know, force this through litigation. And unfortunately that’s the way I… I hope that the first one is the best, but… You know, I mean, I know you’ve shared your opinion. I have a different opinion on it. So…

Morris: Well, and I…

Bird: Randy.

Morris: Sorry.

Hauth: Go ahead, Eric.

Bird: Oh.

Morris: I was just going to say, I totally understand the context, Randy. I think the thing that a lot of people don’t remember is that “collaboratively” doesn’t mean you tell me what to do. And I think a lot of times that’s the perspective from a lot of people, not only myself, but a lot of people who pay attention to the program, is that working to… collaboratively is always the


Elected Committee telling the agency what to do and if we don’t do it, then we’re not working collaboratively. Now, that's just my opinion. But that’s… when we talk about…

Hauth: Yeah.

Morris: …collaboration and stuff, I’m happy to collaborate. I’ve always said that. As long as… if there’s something that we can’t, you know, just because we can’t agree on it doesn’t mean that collaboration breaks down. Because there’s things… it’s a give-and-take process, just like the House Bill 3253 process; going through the Legislature, that’s collaborative to a big extent. But at a certain point you go, they’re like, “That’s not going to happen.” You know, it doesn’t break down everything and you start suing people. So collaboration works both ways.

Hauth: Well, yeah. Yeah. And, you know, Eric, unfortunately, I mean, I get what you’re saying. But even that… that comment that you’re saying, “It doesn’t mean you’re going to tell us what to do.” But, you know…Bird: [Inaudible.]

Hauth: … the agency’s… even though the agency is the ultimate authority, you’ve been in trainings by Terry Smith and others that said it doesn’t mean that the agency just tells…. You know, and so, obviously, we’re at a point where we are because something has gone wrong. You know, the agency probably points their finger at the committee and we probably point our finger at the administration.

But clearly, as an administrative authority, if things are going off the wheels, which they appear to be, then there should be a smarter way to do business. And we hope, you know, we hope that the administrative authority finds a way to do that, instead of just, you know, putting their feet in the ground and saying, “You’re not going to tell us what to do. It’s not going to be this way. And we’re just going to do it.” And, you know, I think that’s… every committee member on the line would probably support that that’s what it is. So, you know, I mean, you’re entitled to your opinion and we are too. So…

Morris: Yeah, no, I appreciate that.

Hauth: … we hope… we hope that we can find a way to work together. That’s everybody’s overall desire. But…

Bird: Randy.

Hauth: Yes. Yes, Jerry.

Bird: What kind of gets me is, first off, is… it’s… it’s the program. It’s not the administration’s program. It’s not Eric’s program. [Inaudible.] And then he says, “Well, it’s not the BECC’s program.” Well, it is, too. And it’s our program. It’s the Randolph-Sheppard Program. And they have a set of rules and the way you do them are established; they’re not for you to want to change and try to think that over… put words in and think, “Well, they must mean this. They mean that we get to do this and don’t tell me what to do.”


But the way we look at it is it’s the program that we’re looking out for. It’s not whether Eric gets told what to do or not and he just hates that. It’s like, it’s what’s best for the program as the blind people, which we’re trying to do. And we don’t see it being that way. It kind of has went the other way, to where “I’ll bring in the money. I’ll decide. I’m the keeper of this program.”

So I hate to keep getting on Eric every now and again, but it’s just the dang truth, how we see it. And then… And then to say the priorities… I don’t think any of these priorities were, like, they will be detailed and this is how they go. You got to bring priorities up out of the bunch; bring them baddest apples up, which Randy described. And then you talk, like, “Well, I don’t know if we agree with your priorities.” I mean, I just… I just absolutely… all I see is the program, the intent of the program is not even close to your mind, Eric. It’s a different… It’s a whole different ball game, it seems, to you. You’ll have no problem giving staff 40,000 but not one of our people that have a family to feed. I mean, to me, it just don’t make sense. And that’s… I’m sorry, but you can’t continue. And, you know, it’s not like we’re threatening with legal stuff. But that’s what it may take. You know, because you can’t continue that every time we want to do something as a program… that’s what the BEC’s about, a group of people that, you know, become the program with all our managers, not just one or two people wanting, hoping to do it a different way. So we need…

Hauth: Hey, Jerry?

Bird: Anyway, I’ll end it that way. But thanks.

Hauth: Jerry? Yeah, and listen, you’ve made some great points and honestly you have and I think, you know, so has Eric. But, you know, we’ve had some good discussion. I do think we need to call for the vote because we did get a little bit… I got a little bit off track on this. However, I do think…

Derrick Stevenson: Yeah.

Hauth: … the communication and discussion we had was good. So we did…

Derrick Stevenson: I’d just like to add one more thing.

Hauth: Sure. Go ahead.

Derrick Stevenson: Yeah, my point is that this meeting that’s happening Friday, it’s going to happen and they’re going to tell us how much money’s going to be budgeted and things like that. So that’s only step one. Step… there’s… the steps after that is getting together with the Elected Committee and figuring out how things can be done under the budget that we receive and the things of importance. I just don’t want the conversation to stop after Friday. Because that’s when we get together and really start prioritizing things as partners, going forward. I mean, I think that’s important.

Hauth: Yeah. Thank you. Point taken. So let’s call for the vote. A motion’s been made, a second. Call for the vote, yea or nay, Art Stevenson.


Art Stevenson: Am I off mute?

Hauth: Yes, you are.

Art Stevenson: Yea.

Hauth: Derrick Stevenson.

Derrick Stevenson: Yea.

Hauth: Jerry Bird.

Bird: Yea.

Hauth: And Steve Jackson.

Jackson: Yes. Yea.

Hauth: And I’ll go ahead and vote yes, as well. I accept that and I appreciate it and I’ll do my best to convey these priorities in the best way possible. So, moving on to number five, Director's Report, I know, Eric, you noticed… and hopefully you’ve had enough time to be able to, you know, might wrap your mind around some of these things here. But I did put some things together that people have been wondering about, as you noticed: new managers, budget workshop, location development. So I don’t know if you can systematically walk through that and give us an update on, you know, a) through e) but it would be great.

Morris: Yeah, Randy, I’ll do my best tonight and just with the qualification that we… I haven’t been in the office much. I’ve been down at the Capitol with Char trying to get that place stood up. So there’s some of the things I can definitely talk to. Some of the things I’m not prepared to talk about tonight. So if I can move ahead with that qualification, I’d appreciate that.

Hauth: Sure.

Derrick Stevenson: Yeah, this is Derrick.

Morris: Sorry.

Derrick Stevenson: I’ve got to go.

Hauth: Okay, Derrick.

Derrick Stevenson: I’ve got to go. So.

Hauth: Thank you for joining in.


Derrick Stevenson: Yeah.

Hauth: Okay. Have a good night. Okay.

Derrick Stevenson: Thanks.


Morris: Okay. So the first one on there is new managers. We don’t have any new managers right this second. I think everybody would know if we did have new managers in the program. But when I saw that, I’m just assuming you’re asking about people in the training pipeline. And…

Hauth: Yeah, well, yeah. And, Eric, just so you know, I think at a meeting or two ago you said there was somebody ready to get licensed, like, real close to get licensed. Maybe you told the Commissioners that or you told us that. But did that change? Was there somebody that…?

Morris: No, there’s…

Hauth: … was in the program [inaudible]?

Morris: I told… I think I told both bodies the same thing. We thought the person was very close to being licensed. And we’re trying to make sure, as we go through the licensing exam, that they’re fully qualified and demonstrating that. So that person still is close. I’m hoping – we’re in the middle of April, the middle of April right now – within the next few weeks that person will be licensed. So that’s my hope.

Hauth: Are there any other trainees in the program at all?

Morris: Yeah. That’s what I was just going to talk about. We have two other trainees in the program who are either working on Hadley classes right now – and just so everybody remembers, there’s like 12 units of Hadley that are distance education. And then we’re mixing that up with time on locations, working at different live operations so they can get some hands-on experience. And there’s some people I think on the call – I know Char, for sure – who’s been helping with that and assisting with some of that hands-on training, which, like everybody knows, you can sit down and read a book and, you know, maybe do some online classes. But it… the helpful part is the combination of the two.

So we have two people right now, besides our top candidate, three people in the pipeline. And we have one other person who is interested in coming into the program that’s working with they’re VR counselor, who has a ton of food service experience prior to losing his vision and is looking at coming into the program. I had one other person with a similar background I just heard about last week while I was out of the office that’s kind of in the same boat, that’s interested in the program.

So we have lots of people who are interested in the program. The piece that always concerns me is, a lot of people are interested in the program want to come in and do vending. That’s all their targeting, is thinking about coming in and doing vending. So I make sure that


when Kathy’s talking with them, Kathy Ewing, and when I talk to the counselors and when I talk to them myself, is that, you know, that’s all well and good, but the program isn’t just vending operations and that they need to be fully… they need to demonstrate proficiency throughout the different types of, you know, vending facilities that we run. So, just so they’re aware of that.

And, like I talk about with the VR counselors, you know, once a person’s licensed, it’s not compulsory that they apply for a location. You know, they can evaluate locations as they come open and go, “Yeah, that location’s for me” or “It’s not for me.” So at least that way there’s some thought process behind it.

Hauth: Yeah. And, Eric, if I may, you know, as you know – I hope you know. I believe you do. But as everybody on here who’s done the trials and tribulations of becoming a vendor, you know, when you come into the program you can’t… you can’t necessarily have the cream of the crop or be as choosy as you want to be or feel you have a right to be. You need to work through the opportunities, just like everybody here did. You know.

Smith: Mm hm.

Hauth: And so, that’s how it goes. When you start, you know, you usually work your way up. And after 30 years, you know, many of us… or 20 years, many of us are lucky to be able to have positioned ourself in a facility that, you know, is a good facility. But that’s how it goes. So… and I think you know that. Maybe we just need to convey that to people, that it’s, you know, they need to understand that they have to work their way up. So.

Morris: No, and I say that same…


Morris: Sorry.

Art Stevenson: No, go ahead and respond, Eric. And then I’ll talk.

Morris: Oh, okay. Randy, I tell them the same thing. I mean, it’s like… it’s like any other field of work you get into or any other, you know, business you get into: you’ve got to start at the bottom. And I think sometimes it’s hard for people to hear that, you know, because they’re like, “Well, geez, you know, I’d love to be, you know, position X, at the very top of the management structure in a corporation.” Well, nobody starts at the top; everybody starts in the mailroom. So, yeah, I give them that same advice, that, you know, I understand that that’s their top line goal. But, yeah, it takes time. So I definitely say the same thing.


Hauth: Yes.

Art Stevenson: Randy, it’s Art.

Hauth: Yeah, Art.4-18-18 BECC Special Meeting Verbatim of 39

Art Stevenson: Okay. Eric, I know we’ve got these trainees and stuff. And have you, OCB incorporated any training at all on commissaries? And also, of course, we tried to get more involved in the commissary thing and have discussions and stuff like that. But it seems like, you know, that hasn’t been occurring too well.

And so, I do believe, number one, as the Training and Education Chair and member of the Elected Committee, we should be doing that. I know I attended a session at BLAST that talked about commissaries. And we all know that commissaries is going to be, I believe, as important, if we get our rears in gear, as vending, rest areas…. And, therefore, are you doing any of that right now? Because, quite frankly, I know it should be occurring with the current blind licensed managers, but it also should be occurring on these people coming in. Because we know that that’s a part of our program now.

Morris: Well, Art, the short answer is no, we’re not doing any training around that right this second.

Art Stevenson: So, and again, it needs to because it’s out there. And, quite frankly, it’s lucrative. And, quite frankly, we’re losing a lot of money because we’re not moving forward in this. And so I just…

Hauth: Hey, Art?

Art Stevenson: I just want to question that and move on.

Hauth: Art, I will share with you, on number c) we have location development. So why don’t you mull over some, you know, ideas on how we can do that. But we have b) we have workshop and c) we have location development, which I think you as a…

Art Stevenson: No, I agree with that, Randy.

Hauth: Okay.

Art Stevenson: But I just want an answer on, you know, are they receiving any? And also that we should talk about that definitely. But it’s most definitely a training thing that needs to occur.

Hauth: Thank you.

Morris: Yeah, and I don’t disagree…

Hauth: Did you ask…?

Morris: Sorry.



Morris: I was going to say, I don’t disagree with Art. I’m not quite sure, and maybe that’s a good question for the Tennessees of the world, what the training program for commissaries would actually look like. I think Hadley sets up different systems for, you know, running a cafeteria, running vending operations, those kinds of things. And the way I see commissary operations, just talking off the cuff, is it’s not that different from vending operations. So, but I definitely think it’s important. And we can talk about it under item c) or whatever.

Hauth: Okay.

Morris: Because commissary is one of the last undiscovered countries or undiscovered opportunities that we need to get into and figure out a strategy for doing it and pull the trigger.

Hauth: Okay. Hey, Eric, I’ll just share with you, real quick before we move on, that in Tennessee, as I recall when I visited there and talked to the most recent BEP Director, they once a year have a specialized training for, I think, senior managers. You almost have to qualify to get into the commissary. But I believe VendEngine and the BEP of Tennessee put on a one-and-a-half- or two-day training, as I recall. But anyway.

So if we can move on to b) budget workshop. You know, I think the thoughts are following up on what Derrick said is lookit, Friday, you know, the priorities are going to be set, I believe. And then the work begins. So have you had any discussions with Dacia or with Gail or yourself about how we’re going to roll out and ensure that the Elected Committee has an inclusive seat at the table for the BEP budget?Morris: Well, to give you a short answer, no, I haven’t had any talks about that yet. So I think the… just… here’s what I think it’s going to look like on Friday. And I haven’t talked to anybody about this, but this is how it normally works. They’re not going to be, as far as I understand it, they’re not going to be crunching numbers for budgets on Friday. But when they talk about budget priorities, my understanding of the context is that, like, in the past it was, “Hey, we need to focus on, like, pre-employment,” which was mandated by the feds anyway.

But, you know, those are the high-level discussions. They’re not going to say, you know, the minimum payment or the minimum amount to spend on pre-ETS, pre-employment services for transitions people, is 15%, it’s going to be 20%. I don’t think those are the kinds of discussions we’re going to have on Friday. And I don’t believe they’re going to say, “Well, BE, you only get an operational budget of $1.5 million.” I don’t think it’s going to look like that. At all. Because my understanding is that’s not the context. You know, at a high level, what should the agency be doing? Like, before it was – and now my mind goes completely blank – you know, getting people to work. That’s not one of them, but that kind of a concept, where you’re, “Hey, we want blind Oregonians working” in the context of the agency, that’s… because we’re a VR agency.

Now for BE, if we say, “Hey, a budget priority is developing commissaries,” that seems like a cool budget priority I think we could probably all get behind. So if we walk away with those kind of high-level things, then I see it, especially… because you gave it some bullet points earlier about budget priorities where we would sit down with Gail, maybe without Gail, it just depends on the timing, and talk about policy option packages. And I sent you guys a budget instructions that went out to all agencies about the forecast for the budget, the, you know, the what do you call it, financial… how things are sitting right now with the economy. The economy’s spinning up, the feds are concerned about inflation so they’re cranking up interest


rates a little bit and how that affects statewide budgeting. There’s going to be a big revenue increase but they’re still projecting that it’s not going to be enough. So all that’s taken into account when you start asking for money from the Legislature.

So what I think we should do is, after this Friday, is sit down and say, “Okay, budget priorities. Like, when it comes to the policy option packages, which is a fancy way of saying requests, when you have a request, you put in a policy option package. Sometimes people will call it a POP, P-O-P for policy option package. So if we said we want… oops. Sorry.

Hauth: We’re here.

Morris: If we wanted to open, let’s say, three commissaries in the next biennium, so the next two years, let’s just say round numbers, and it was going to be $70-$80,00 a commissary to get them spooled up and running and, you know, with all the equipment and everything, which I think is a pretty good ballpark.

So we would say, “We’re going to request 200, let’s call it $230,000 in a policy option package, to employ three vending facility managers at a certain level, you know, that’s the kind of talk we would want to have. And if the committee’s like, “Hey, three is way too many” or “not enough,” you know, four of five or whatever is viable… and I think two or three’s probably reasonable, then staff, me, could work on writing up a policy option package. And what we would try to do with those policy option packages is to say, “Here’s the result. Here’s some data behind what we think would generate, like, income for a manager,” say $60,000 a year, so that there’s some data behind it, not just saying, “We’d love to have pie-in-the-sky three commissaries.” You have to build them so there’s a business case behind them.

So I think those kind of discussions… you know, we can talk about, we can have the discussions about how much we’re spending for set-aside expenditures. And I think, now that we’ve got some, at least I’ve been here long enough to see the trends in how much we spend for equipment costs and stuff like that, we could sit down and do some budgeting around that. That’s cool. I don’t mind doing that. I think that’s a good exercise. Because the important thing is, you guys get a better concept of how things are done.

Now, like, the base budget itself, the… I’ll just call it the operational budget – I don’t think that’s what they actually call it – but the what do you call it, the year-to-year budget, the biennium-to-biennium with the State is pretty much, it’s written right this second. It was written when the last one was written because they essentially take the last budget and they gross it up with all of the increases that DAS charges for, you know, power and rent and all the things that it takes to have an agency. And that creates the basic budget from the beginning. So it’s not like you have to sit down and go, “Okay, we have five staff members and that’s X amount of payroll. So how much are we going to have to spend on rent?” We know that because DAS tells us, “Hey, rents went up 2.6%” or whatever it is.

And I think, even in that budget document, I was looking through it, I just started reading through it, it has a link to what DAS will tell us – Department of Administrative Services, basically our landlords – of how much costs of increase for rent, utilities, vehicles, health benefits, retirement benefits, all those kind of things are just automatic increases in the budget process. So that piece of the budget is kind of off on the side, as it’s going to create itself to a certain extent. And there’s not a lot anybody can do about it, except for either the Governor or the Legislature. And usually when they’re messing with that stuff, it’s either a reduction – very seldom is it a “Hey, you’re going to get a bunch extra” in that part of the process, because it is


just kind of, it’s the status quo to a certain extent, unless there’s dramatic cuts, which, you know, would be unfortunate.

So if we want to develop some policy option packages I think it would be appropriate to go back and say, “Hey, last time around they cut half of one of the positions, one of the policy analyst positions for BE.” I think we asked to get that money back, which would have to come through a policy option package. And we ask for that money to come back from General Fund.

We, you know, we talk about facility development, which we’re rolling right into. Is that more commissaries? Is that more vending? Is that more live facilities? And we can have some more discussions about that and what that looks like and building the policy packages. The cool thing is, it costs nothing to ask and the worst thing they can do is say no. But if you give them compelling arguments and compelling data, it’s… the Legislature’s been very good to the agency over the years. So I think those are the kind of discussions we can have that, you know, will help you guys understand the process better and, you know, we all move the needle forward when it comes to budgeting.

Hauth: Well, and, Eric, I appreciate that. And one of the things that I did notice is that I think May 30… so the Commission is identified as an early submitter. So May 31st and I think August 1st are two dates that are identified where they’re submitting the budget packages or the proposals. So if you would, as Director, work to get some timelines for us, how we’re going to meet and what we’re going to set up and discuss. If you could take the lead on this I think it would not only be proper but would be beneficial and… in getting us all organized and, you know, figure out who needs to, you know, who needs to be there and what we’re going to talk about. But May 31st isn’t too far away, you know. So…

Morris: Yeah, six weeks.

Hauth: Yeah, if you would do that, that would be great. So.

Morris: So… just so I have… so I understand, because I, you know, I kind of lined out what the process is, is that… does that feel good to you guys? Is there something…? Because, you know, the budget seems like a big, mysterious thing at times, but it’s really not. I mean, it’s pretty simplified. Because, you know, they’ve done it for millennia, it seems like, here within the State. So, you know, if we’re going to go out and do some policy option packages, you know, does that feel like what you guys are interested in doing? Or is there some other context that you would like to work within that…? I’m just trying to get a handle on it.

Hauth: Well, let me… let me speak for myself and then the other board members can join in, if they so choose. Clearly – and Art, I know, will testify to this – the committee working together with the agency, going to the legislators and supporting budget packages, are strong, right? So what we’re interested in is, yeah, how do we find money to get new facilities? You know, how do we find money for training? How do we identify within the budget that, you know, our other funds and set-aside aren’t just going to be automatically rolled in as, you know, really a revenue stream. And, you know, and how do we identify, like you had talked about, what kinds of operations, you know? It costs $300,000 to set up a cafeteria versus 70,000 to set up a….


So I personally think that, you know, those types of discussions would be good. But we need to get some timelines and start having those discussions. Is there any other manager that wanted to weigh in on that? I mean, board member or manager?


Hauth: Yes. Yes, you are.

Art Stevenson: Okay. Yeah, that sounds really great. Because, as a matter of fact, I’m very familiar with the budget process, very familiar with the Legislature and very familiar with the Governor’s Office and how we the blind community and all the managers, you know, that are in the vending program obviously are a part of the blind community. But I can tell you that, you know, there does need to be more involvement. We do need to have the input so that we could go forward and do the necessary things to ensure that we have the budget, you know, that we need that’s going to create more jobs.

I can say for a fact – and six weeks isn’t very long and it’s going to be right upon us and we need to get in gear and definitely do that. But I do want to… I do want to mention that there’s three people on this phone that were very instrumental getting the budget for you, Eric, that got you the employees that you have, and that’s James Edwards, myself, and Lewanda Miranda. So we’re… we’re very… we know how the budget process works. We’ve been proactive, but now it’s time – and I hope this does occur in the next six weeks – that we are very intricately involved in putting together the budget package so that we can advocate.

Hauth: Thank you. Thank you, Art. Hey, you guys, listen. There’s 45 minutes left. I think we need to move along. But, Eric, if you would please spearhead that and start, you know, putting that in place for the workshops or discussions, that would be great.

So, location development, I think, is next on the list. And I know we’ve talked a little bit about it, but if you could update us what’s going on, I know the Marion County commissary issue was afoot. And, you know, clearly, the State Capitol Café is up and running. But if you could update us on what’s going on. And, Art, you know, if you have any recommendations or suggestions, that’d be great. So.

Morris: Yeah, thanks, Randy. I don’t have an update on the Marion County thing. I’ve seen the… I saw it come through on ORPIN and it talks about… we need to find… we’re digging into it. I got Art Marshall looking into it. But it talks about a school year in that solicitation. So I don’t know if that’s part of… because… some of you may be aware that, like, the State runs, like, high schools within their correctional facilities. So I’m not sure exactly what that… it reads like a food service management… that’s what they posted it as. But I need to get some more details on it. So I’ll update you when I have more details about it. And…

Hauth: Okay. Is there anything else going?

Art Stevenson: Eric? Yeah.

Hauth: Hold on just a second, Art. Oh, go ahead. If it’s specific to that, go ahead, Art.


Art Stevenson: Well, and, you know, I thought, okay, and maybe I was wrong, you know, that OCB – and I’m glad you’re looking into it. But I thought you guys were signed up for ORPIN and you were getting notifications on that stuff. Is that still happening, Eric?

Morris: Yeah, Art, I… I saw the original one that came out and I looked at it. And, like I just said, when you look at the solicitation and read it in ORPIN it talks about the school year, like, what is it, August through June, for either the contracting period or… Anyway, references that schedule and I thought, “Well, that’s probably school stuff.” So I didn’t dig into it a whole bunch right at that time. But I remember also it’s a super long solicitation. So after I got your ping I went back and looked at it again and said, “Okay, Art’s interested in it, so let’s take a deeper dive and see what’s going on with it.” So we’re looking at it.

Hauth: Eric? So I know you have a few other things to talk about, but if you just want to say… maybe you… can you answer, has the agency been proactive at all in sending out, like, a notification to these entities to say, “Hey, now based on the new legislation, you know, and identified priorities and we, you know… like, have you done any… has the agency done anything like that?

Morris: Not at this point, Randy. We’ve been doing… I’ve been doing some… I personally have been talking to myself, I think you said that earlier, about the best strategy for doing that. I talked to procurement earlier this week about that. Because there’s a whole network of people out there that do procurement for the State. I know you guys all know that. But it’s easy… and actually the State of Oregon isn’t usually the problem when it comes to the preference and priority. They know about us. It’s these other… and Art referenced it in his email, it’s this ORCPP, which is a cooperative group of counties, municipalities and, like, the Metros of the world that use ORPIN to post out solicitations.

So I was talking to one of the senior people at ORPIN the other day and I said, “What’s a good way? Could we post something on ORPIN?” And so I need to talk to another person who actually runs ORPIN and that division of ORPIN to find out, can we send a notification out. And we’ve developed a survey that will assist agencies and municipalities to basically satisfy part of House Bill 3253, which is now part of the statute. Because they’re… nowadays, with the new statute, they’re supposed to report annually. It’s not just, like, “Hey, whenever you have an opportunity come up.” They’re supposed to report annually about potential sites, sites that they have and anything that’s coming up in the future. So we’ve developed a survey to basically help them do that, so they don’t have to sit there and write us some complex… everybody sends us a different type of email.

But we haven’t pushed that out yet because I want to… and I was also kicking around the idea of maybe seeing if the Governor’s Office or somebody senior at DAS could push it out. But that’s… we’re still trying to figure that piece out. And I take… If you guys have some ideas about that, I’d welcome that. That’d be great.

Hauth: Well, and Eric, if you’d send that survey out to the committee and membership, that would be great. I don’t… I don’t know why the agency would have a problem with doing that. So we’d appreciate that. You mentioned Metro. Are you familiar, Metro is also developing an RFP to address vending and procurement. Are you aware of that one?


Morris: Yeah, so that’s a… that’s a really interesting one, if you’ve read it. And it’s a fun one to read… fun not with a capital F. It’s kind of… it’s really confusing, is what it is. Because they have a solicitation out right now, they’re soliciting a company to basically build the solicitation for next year for their food service management contract, which, when you read the solicitation, is… I had to read it several times to even understand what they were talking about. Because the original posting is confusing as heck. So…

Hauth: Yeah.

Morris: The good news is…

Hauth: I mean, I guess I would say, we have the priority. So I mean this is where… I know that you said you haven’t done it yet, but I would just encourage that we need to sit down and figure that out. Because really, the way I look at it, they’re wasting money and the whole process because if we have the priority on those locations, which clearly we do, we should be somehow engaging with them and, you know, maybe not taking over every facility they have at this point. But I mean, you know, it sounds like you’re struggling with figuring out how to do that. So obviously we need to try and do it and, you know…

Morris: Well…

Bird: Randy.

Hauth: I don’t… yeah. Yeah. Go ahead.

Bird: Yeah, and I said this for a hundred, I don’t know, many, many years and we all know it, what… because it’s… hasn’t changed. They’re not hitting on Eric’s door saying, “Please take our vending. We see your statute changed and, you know, we don’t want to have it go to the… income go to the direction we would prefer it go.” But… so the thing is, it’s just like Eric said, “God, we just… God, they’re hard to read and I just don’t quite, you know…” Shoot. Well, you know, they’re probably designed that way, to be confusing. But you know what’s not confusing? Is when you send them a letter and tell them that this law, we have a priority now so we’ve got to make sure you are within that. Then you put the old shoe on the other foot, don’t you? Then they have to come back and try to get out of our priority. What you’ve done is just let them out without any restrictions or even, you know, trying to slow them down just because I’m not… I don’t know.

And it’s gone on and on. And why don’t you notify them? It sounds like to me because you’re not even clear to this day what our priority actually means, or if we have it. Or, you know, I thought you did, on the House Bill. But where’s your attorney? Why isn’t she sending them letters on behalf of the Blind Commission? Geez. Since all the blind people… other people… but, you know, lots of money on that type of stuff. I just… it just seems like to me it’s the same story over and over, we just don’t know how to do it. It used to be we didn’t know if we had it or not. And then you get it and it’s like, “Well, I don’t know how to deal with it.” I don’t… so I don’t know. I’m confused and maybe that’s the idea. Thanks.


Hauth: So, Eric, so what do you suggest? How do we, you know, instead of… instead of not exactly knowing how we should do it, how do we get together and figure out how to do it?

Morris: I don’t know the answer, Randy. I’ve been thinking a lot about it. There’s a lot of different ways to do it. And I think, to address Jerry’s point, I’m pretty darn clear on what the priority and preference is. I don’t think you need to doubt that in your mind. And, you know, to be quite frank, I was right there when all that was happening for House Bill 3253. So I’m pretty clear on that. But the other part that I am very conscious of is that, irrespective of the different agencies that are out there and the different places, Metros and municipalities, you know, there’s a difference between a carrot and a stick. And it’s all about relationships. And I know I’ve talked about that a whole bunch of times.

But I don’t mind beating people over the head, but I also want to make sure we’re doing it… because I think last time we went back and looked, there’s 900 different special districts, municipalities, counties, and agencies within the state. 900. I think there’s 900 plus. So figuring out an effective way…. Now, we could send it to Metro. I frankly hadn’t come to that conclusion, yet. Obviously, we could do that. But the rest of them are the bigger problem. So how do we do that effectively? How do we send it out with, you know, besides…? And most of the agencies and municipalities I’ve talked to people about, they’re aware, they get all the changes in the law, they understand that. They’ve… they can, you know, grasp the concept. And some of them, I think secretly, this is my fear, is that, like, the Metros of the world and different places think that it doesn’t apply to them. Now, I don’t think that’s accurate. I think the priority does apply to them and that’s what we’ll argue. But, you know, it’s all about timing and doing it the right way that’s going to hopefully open doors and not people throw…

Hauth: Yeah.

Morris: … and all of a sudden you’re talking to the attorney, which is not a good way to start. So.

Hauth: Yeah. And, you know, Eric, obviously we’re not going to get it solved today. But clearly there’s some concerns. I don’t know why the DOJ isn’t involved in this. I mean, we’re in April. You know, you’re talking about relationships and, my opinion, if you allow agencies like Metro to go forward with RFPs and the belief that they don’t, you know, have to fulfill the obligations of the statute, it’s almost like undermining them. So there should be a way that we reach out to these entities and let them know that, on behalf of House Bill 3253, these are the new requirements and the agency looks forward to working collaboratively and together to build opportunities for persons who are blind. You know, it doesn’t mean we have to take every location, right? But as long as we… and that’s part of the thing that I put with the marketing plan on the strategic priorities, we need to find a way how to market the Randolph-Sheppard Business Enterprise Program to open up those opportunities.

And, you know, I’ve heard Dacia Johnson talk about ambassadors and relationships, I mean, for years and years and years. And really, to me, all it is, is talk. We need to actually get something done. We actually need to go out and… you know, I don’t want to be sitting in front of Human Services Committee in January and say, “Gosh, you know, even though we did all this, there’s still not even… don’t even know how to do anything still.” You know? And I don’t believe that’s the truth. I think, personally, I think you’re being hamstrung by the agency. And if


that’s right or wrong, I don’t know. But we need to find a way to work together and get some new opportunities to make us all look good. So, again, we’re not going to get it worked on this call but clearly this needs some more conversation. And hopefully you… you know, if I have any ideas or anybody else has any ideas, please send them to Eric for his consideration.


Hauth: Yes.

Art Stevenson: Okay. You know, I’ve just to say this, okay? I’ve been in this program for 31 years and I know the difference between a carrot and a stick and I know how to talk to people with a carrot first and I understand that concept. And, quite frankly, I’ve seen the concept work over and over again. And I just want to put it out there, that through appropriate active participation, working together collaboratively and, you know, to resolve these issues to work together….

Now, I haven’t seen the document that you just talked about. It should be widely distributed, you know, to the Elected Committee, to the Vending Facility Development Committee and we should be working together to come up with constructive ways on how to do that. And that’s what active participation is all about. And, quite frankly, I’m a little tired of the nuances being put out there, that the Elected Committee and the people on the Elected Committee, especially myself, don’t know how to do this stuff or we can’t work together to make it happen.

So I just wanted to put that out there. Because I know [phone cut out] and I know what a stick is. And we can do that, too, if we’re given the dang chance. And that is what will make this program click and run a hell of a lot better.

Hauth: Yeah. Hey, Art, thank you. You’re right. I mean, we’re going to have to have more conversation around this. But we do need to move on or we’re not going to get any of this stuff done. Just a quick question, Eric. I don’t know if Char’s still on the line but have you guys done any, or has Char entertained doing any publicity around the opening of the café and House Bill 3253 and the opportunities of expansion for persons who are blind?

Morris: That’s… Char, are you still on?

Hawkins: I’m here. I didn’t quite hear… I was trying to get off of mute, so I didn’t hear the whole…

Hauth: That’s all right. I was wondering if the agency has done any promotion of House Bill 3253 opening a new opportunity for a person such as yourself who is blind in the State Capitol Building. If they’ve done any press around that.

Hawkins: I know that… I don’t really know what they’ve been doing except helping me and making sure that I had, you know, everything that they possibly could give me that I needed to make it successful. I believe they’ve been down talking to the facility manager and they’ve had some suggestions to us about going from office to office with our menu and kind of introducing ourselves and that kind of thing. I don’t know…


Hauth: Okay.

Hawkins: … other than that, what else they’ve done. But anyway…

Hauth: Thank you. Thank you.

Hawkins: … it’s awesome. So.

Hauth: Awesome. Good.

Hawkins: It’s great.

Hauth: Good. I’m going to come in and see it.

Hawkins: Yeah! Come see me.

Hauth: So, Eric, have you guys done any promotion around that to the media?

Morris: No, we haven’t, Randy. Not yet.

Hauth: Do you know why?

Morris: I…

Hauth: Why wouldn’t… I mean, I’m interested why we wouldn’t do something like how impactful that would be about, you know, House Bill 3253 has opened these opportunities and now we’re in the State Capitol Building. And, you know, wouldn’t that be a good way to introduce these new opportunities to other state entities and county entities and that?

Morris: Yeah, I think it’s a great idea. I haven’t done it yet. But I think it’s a great idea. Because it’s a great example of… I’ve been in the weeds, like, unpacking boxes and doing stuff like that. So I know the building…

Hauth: No, I get that.

Morris: Yeah, the building management’s been pushing…

Hauth: I get that.

Morris: … internally, in their intranet structure. But I think media is a good idea. I think it’s a great idea.

Hauth: Well, and that might help get the word out, you know what I mean?

Morris: Sure.4-18-18 BECC Special Meeting Verbatim of 39

Art Stevenson: Hey, Randy?

Hauth: Yeah.

Art Stevenson: Randy…

Hauth: Yes.

Art Stevenson: Being the Chair of the Vending Facility Development Committee and stuff, I will work with Eric and Char to make sure that happens and that it doesn’t fall… you know, fall behind.

Hauth: Sure.

Art Stevenson: Because the sooner it’s done, the better.

Hauth: Sure. Yep. Okay. Well, I’m just curious. So, Eric, I know you said there’s a few things you weren’t ready and prepared to… I assume it’s the delinquent and liquidated accounts thing that…. Is that one of them that…?

Morris: I’m not even on the next page. I just had one note I wanted to ask real quick about, before we moved on.

Hauth: Sure.

Morris: Spring in-service. Has anybody been talking about spring in-service at all? Because spring kind of got here. So, you know, we usually do it later May or June. But has anybody…?

Hauth: Well, hey, Eric, I think under number seven we have subcommittee business…

Morris: Oh.

Hauth: So hopefully we can talk through it about there, if that’s okay.

Morris: Sure. Yeah, no, I hadn’t even thought about that part.

Hauth: Okay.

Morris: Yeah, that’s fine.

Hauth: Okay. No worries.

Morris: Yeah, d), I don’t even know what that’s about, besides the report I sent to Art.


Hauth: Okay. And if I can, and if the board is okay with it, there’s a couple of questions that we had on it. I mean, when we looked through it, when Linda found it and kind of helped me understand it, it looked like that had been submitted back in October to the legislators. And I know it took some efforts by Art Stevenson to try and get it. I think he got it here last month. But a couple of questions on there, it looks like…. Anyway, I’ll follow up with some questions. It looks like there are some monies that are earmarked and I think they identify them as exempt. And, again, this is our set-aside money, it appears. So that’s where Art’s interest comes from. It looks like the agency has identified that they’re going to collect these monies through collection efforts and/or litigation. And so we just have a couple of questions for clarification that we’ll pass along to you. So.

Morris: Yeah, and I’ll ask accounting about it. I’m not sure how much detail I can give you, just from a privacy perspective. And, like, the… I thought that report, just from a high level, I thought that report was posted, like, in the first quarter of the year. I didn’t realize they’d been posting it for a while. So that’s why… I was waiting for the, like, to be posted for January. So that’s why there was a delay.

Hauth: Yeah, and I know, you know, I get it. But we’ll pass the questions along to you. You know, it looks like this is the first year the agency’s ever even identified it. And so it says, like, there’s $33,000 and then there’s $19,000. And so we’re trying to figure out how that all, you know, coincides with each other. And then it talks about monies that the agency’s going to go after. So we’re trying to get the… you know, without naming names, we’re trying to get the detail around that.

And so, Agency Proposal as it Relates to Public Bodies. And I know you had pushed something out earlier and I know that you saw a response. I don’t know…. You know, I’ve been advised personally that it’s not an appropriate point of business to entertain at this time. I’m still looking into it, but I wanted to give you the courtesy of being able to share your points, if you wanted to.

Morris: Yeah, Randy. I appreciate that. And I think the… you know, we’ve kind of had a running email debate about it. But the point is, and I think tonight’s kind of a good example of it, because we started out tonight, you’d sent this… you sent the Proposed… I’m trying to figure out what it’s called, Proposed for Adoption, that language around… that was developed for the strategic planning stuff. And, now, that was done in a vacuum. You literally sat down yourself, typed it all up and then just sent it out to everybody to say, “Hey, we’re going to talk about this tonight.” That…

Hauth: I did.

Morris: Yeah, I think that’s okay. But also, usually when public bodies are meeting, the… I’m not sure who all this went to. I mean, there’s a whole big stack of people that are copied on it. But if, like, you’re putting out a public meeting notice and it’s on the agenda, but this wasn’t on the agenda, so not everybody had a chance to understand…. You see where I’m going? So, especially around public records and public meeting law in Oregon, there’s been some decisions that have went to the very highest courts in Oregon about what constitutes a meeting and all of the drama that goes with a public meeting within Oregon.


And so, you know, I sent you a couple examples of different motions and stuff that have been taken within committee meetings that sound like somebody’s going to do some work afterwards – right a letter, for example – and then send it. Well, if somebody comes to the agency and says, “Hey, there was this motion back in November or October or whatever and the Elected Committee was sending a letter to RSA, I want a copy of it.” So it’s the agency’s burden to have those records available for public records requests, which we’re all familiar with.

So as a public body…. Now, if you guys are just… if you guys are routinely copying me or copying… somehow copying the agency server – because it doesn’t have to be me, we could figure out some other way to do that – then we would be in compliance. But the thing that concerns me is, there’s a high potential, and our program pops its head up every once in a while in the public eye, that people are going to wonder what’s going on behind closed doors. Because we do a lot of meetings, a lot of public meetings like this one. But there’s this kind of chatter every once in a while, especially around some of these motions, where people don’t know what’s going on. It seems like there’s stuff happening and I can’t say, “Hey, I was copied on that. I have a copy of it right here.”

So that’s the concern. The Elected Committee’s a public body. We’ve all come to that conclusion that it is the fact of the case. And so, as a public body, you have to carry yourselves in a certain way, just like any other… like the Commissioners or city council or school board or state agency, you know, state legislators. They all have to carry themselves in a certain fashion…

Hauth: Yeah.

Morris: … and certain ways. So this is more to protect you guys. I mean, it protects the agency too. I won’t lie about that. But, you know, you have to be above-board when it comes to this stuff. Because eventually it’s going to circle back around and bite somebody. So that’s…

Hauth: Well, and Eric, I, you know, I do appreciate that. I will say that, you know, case in point, you mentioned the Commission board. On this coming agenda there’s an action item for strategic planning and priorities. So, I mean, you know, come on. You know. But what I will share with you is, I was advised personally by an attorney that this request that you made, which I forwarded along…

Morris: Sure.

Hauth: … is not an appropriate, proper…. And so that’s where we’re still trying to work around it. But, you know, I mean, you… you have the agency’s point of view and perspective and, you know, some others have different ones. So I did want to, you know, at least give you your opportunity to share your concerns. So.

Morris: Well, and I guess the one point I would make, that it’s not the agency’s point of view, but just as a recommendation for you guys to consider, is that, if you ask yourself the question, “Am I unwilling to make a vote in a public meeting, that I’m complying with all public meeting law and public records law” and take that kind of an action item, if you’re unwilling to do that, it’s got to give you some pause. That’s the only thing I would ask you to consider.



Hauth: Yeah, I mean…. Yeah, thank you. Go ahead.

Art Stevenson: Yeah, and, quite frankly, you know, he wanted it on the agenda. It would’ve been nice maybe to send you… have an email sent to you, Randy, and say, “Well, hey, you know, I think I might be missing for our public records an email that you guys made a motion to send to Jesse Hartle about meeting with him concerning that.” So you would… you could’ve explained, Randy, or I could’ve explained, “Well, hey, if you remember, Eric, I called you up right after that and said, ‘Hey, do we have to… if we, the Elected Committee meets with Jesse and talks about our issues, do we have to do it in an open meeting?’” And then Eric, after I talked to him about that, sent out that email and said, “Well, I understand you want to have… set up a meeting.” And you copied Jesse on it. And, of course, I sent that to you as a reminder, Eric, of what exactly went on on that.

And so, you know, that kind of stuff is maybe completely explained. So I believe we’re headed towards… we may be headed towards where we will definitely keep the records, to make sure that they are there. Because, quite frankly, you know, it’s kind of hard for us to get public information from the agency. And so I think that might be a way we’re going. We are investigating it. But to make a long story short, that letter was never written because of what transpired after the meeting. And then to already throw out that, “Hey, you guys got to state this in the meeting” and all that stuff, like, you know, “This is what you got to do,” as you were kind of alluding to earlier, that’s what created a controversy. I can tell you right now that an official letter… we made the motion, we did pass it. But I can tell you, as far as I know, no letter went to RSA, requesting them to do a monitoring. And so that document doesn’t exist.

And… and so, this whole thing was kind of a fiasco and stuff. And so I believe we will come to an appropriate way that we make sure that we’re following all the laws and rules and regulations. And again, if we are a public body, Eric – and these are questions that are going to be asked, so, you know, you can kind of think about them – if we are a public body, then why don’t we have access to the AG’s Office and have a representative who gives us advice, other than Gretchen Merrill, which is OCB’s representative, which, in my opinion…

Jackson: [Inaudible.]

Art Stevenson: … is a huge conflict of interest. So I just wanted to throw those couple of comments out there. I absolutely want to comply with all the laws and stuff like that. And we will get this issue resolved…

Hauth: Yeah.

Art Stevenson: … so that there is, that you feel comfortable, Eric, with the fact that the documents are available if a public records request comes out.

Hauth: Art, thank you very much. We have about 15 minutes left, so let’s…

Morris: Just…4-18-18 BECC Special Meeting Verbatim of 39

Hauth: … get through some other items. I did…. You know, Eric, just so you know, I mean, I personally am still looking into this and maybe other, you know, board members are, as well. But, you know, I guess we’ll address it as…

Morris: Well, just…

Hauth: … we need to address it. So I just wanted to…

Morris: Just one real quick thing, Randy. Art talked about the Elected Committee being a public body. Correct. But the thing to keep in mind is the Commission for the Blind is the overarching umbrella that the Elected Committee lives with… underneath. And each elected… each elected public body within the state of Oregon has different capabilities, different responsibilities and stuff. So, you know, that’s… it’s not apples to apples for every single public body when it comes to responsibilities and commissions and all that kind of stuff. But the public meetings law is consistent.

Hauth: Yeah. No disrespect, but it kind of reminds me of – and this isn’t for you, but agency – it reminds me of what Roger Harris said during the arbitration is “oppressive agency.” So every twist of the road, looks like the agency just wants to, you know, control everything about the Elected Committee or the managership. I mean, that’s my opinion, right, wrong or indifferent. But anyway, let’s go ahead and move on. And, again, we’ll deal with this as we need to and as we need to.

So agency… or, let’s see, NABM fly-in, select three attendees. What I will share is that I did send… on the agenda I sent out anybody who was interested in going to the NABM fly-in to let me know. I hadn’t heard from anybody other than Art Stevenson, Lewanda Miranda, and I’m certainly interested in going. I know there was some back and forth. And this is the good news, Eric. I do appreciate you working to make sure that funding could be provided for those attendees. I know there was some, you know, concern about if it could or if it couldn’t be, but it looked like it could be.

So what do we want to do, as far as assigning the three persons to go? It did say through the motion that the Elected Committee would assign those persons and I haven’t heard from anybody else. So I don’t know. So.

Morris: So… so, Randy, just to give you an update on that, we… I requested, through fiscal today, prior approval through the new TAC, technical assistance bulletin, that came out last week, apparently we’re using that now, because that’s what Terry said. So that went out today. And basically what I put in the request was that three Randolph-Sheppard vendors, because we’re talking to the feds, would be… we want to send three people. So you guys need to figure out who wants to go. And then, as soon as we have that figured out, we’ll get hotels booked and flights booked and all that kind of stuff.

Hauth: Okay. So, committee members, what’s your druthers?



Hauth: Yes.

Art Stevenson: Okay. Well, I make a motion that we send those three individuals… the funding for Randy, you, Lewanda and myself.

Hauth: So a motion’s been made. Yeah, there is a potential conflict of interest on this. So, obviously, you know, we’d need to state that. But a motion’s been made. Do we have a second?

Jackson: I’ll second it. Steve Jackson.

Hauth: Okay. Steve Jackson seconded. Any discussion around it? Are there any other vendors out there that I haven’t heard from that want to go?

Jackson: I might want to go. I just… I’m not… I wasn’t thinking about it.

Hauth: Okay. Well, at this point…

Jackson: [Inaudible] time in my head.

Hauth: Okay. So at this point in time we need to make an action. So let’s go ahead, a motion and a second and we’ll take a vote. And I do believe there needs to be a conflict of interest identified. So yea or nay, Art Stevenson.

Art Stevenson: Conflict of interest. Yea.

Hauth: Yea or nay, Jerry Bird.

Bird: Yea.

Hauth: Yea or nay, Steve Jackson.

Jackson: I vote yes.

Hauth: Okay. And I…

Jackson: [Inaudible.]

Hauth: … have a conflict of interest. I vote yes, as well. So that motion passes. So it would be Lewanda, myself and Art Stevenson at this point in time going.


Hauth: Yes.

Jackson: Did Art vote?


Art Stevenson: Yeah, I voted.

Hauth: Yes.

Art Stevenson: Eric, just so you know, [inaudible] go through, I’m going to definitely go. I do already have a reservation because they have a limited amount of room. I have a reservation number for you that I can turn over to you so that you would have that with the hotel. And I believe Lewanda has the same thing.

Morris: Oh, good.

Art Stevenson: So the air fare…

Morris: Mark is out today and tomorrow so I’ll have Kathy ping you guys tomorrow to start getting the ball rolling on that stuff.

Hauth: Okay. And like you know, Eric, I’ve identified by email that I’d already booked my room and booked my airfare. And I know in the past Mark has been great on working and giving equal value for, you know, cost and this and that. So we’ll work through that, as we move forward. I hope.

So Subcommittee Business: Eric? So, in-service.

Morris: Yeah. Spring in-service.

Hauth: First on the…. Yep. Mm hm. So… so, Lewanda, I don’t know if you’re on the line. I know you’ve been awful busy getting set up with your, you know, your self-service operation.

Miranda: I’m here. Hauth: Are you interested at all working with, like, Art or whoever it would be to do the in-service or get that…? I know that’s kind of your bailiwick. Do you have any interest…

Miranda: Yeah, I would love to.

Hauth: Okay. Well, we’d love you to. So, Eric, what are you thinking?

Morris: I was thinking that I can’t believe it’s almost springtime, or almost summertime, to be honest…

Hauth: [Chuckles.] Yeah, well, it is.

Morris: So, obviously, Kathy’s my point person on that stuff and she was basically reminding me as I came into the meeting, “Make sure you ask about spring in-service.” So I’m sure Lewanda and Art can work with Kathy to start building some structure around that. I don’t… I don’t know any big events that are happening. I’m trying to think May…. Well, there’s legislative days and potentially a short legislative session that’s spooling up. I’m aware of that. But I’m not sure of


any other big events happening in May or June that would conflict with those. So, that’s my thoughts.

Hauth: Okay. Well, Lewanda and Art, if you guys will get with Kathy and, like, just kind of keep me in the loop, that’d be great. So.

Art Stevenson: Well, hey, Randy?

Hauth: Yeah.


Hauth: Yes.

Art Stevenson: So, Eric? What can we afford to do? Because, quite frankly, unless we can book the room somewhere else, if we have a…. Were you thinking Portland this time? Because we’ve got… we don’t have much time at all, that would probably be the only place we really could have it. Because reserving rooms and stuff like that is going to be a lot heck of harder anywhere else, concerning that. And, quite frankly, if we can’t book in a different hotel than the one that OCB because of logistics and getting around, it’s a pretty bad hotel for blind people.

Morris: Are you talking about the Residence Inn, Art?

Art Stevenson: Yeah, I believe so.

Morris: Okay.

Art Stevenson: I believe that’s the one.

Morris: Yeah, I mean I…

Art Stevenson: So…

Morris: I was just going to say, right off the top of my head, you know, a lot of times, especially up here – which seems like we ran into that looking last fall or last spring – these rooms up here get booked up pretty solid, too. So I have to crunch some numbers and take a look, to be honest.

Hauth: Well, if you guys can start working on that, that’d be great. And just one suggestion as we look at it, maybe depending on what’s the schedule, maybe we can even kind of tie in the budget workshop or some of these other things, like the marketing plan and, you know, that. But anyway…

Art Stevenson: I think that’s…


Hauth: We’ve got five minutes. I do want to deal with one other item, if I can. So… And, listen, Eric, I’m not going to beat you over the head with this. I’m just…

Morris: Thank you.

Hauth: … puzzled at… [Chuckles.] You’re welcome. So, number eight, it says Concerns with Receiving Program-Relevant Information Requests. And I know that Jerry had reached out asking for surveys. And I know that I had asked for unassigned vending. And I know that I had asked for communications back and forth on the rules with RSA. And I know you had deemed those non-program-relevant and so I ended up, to get those, I ended up doing a public records request. So I’m just curious as to your motivation of why information isn’t more readily available or why, you know, I would be directed to public records to get that information. If there’s a way that we can, you know, get past end up having to do that. So.

Morris: Well, I can… I guess I can speak in vague terms. I don’t understand, when I say, “Hey, I communicated with RSA” and people want the specific email. And so, like, when I think Art requested that the other day, I literally cut and pasted the context of what I sent to Jesse. “Jesse, I’ve requested this.” So, you know, I don’t see how it’s relevant, to be perfectly honest. And, you know, I’m willing to entertain some idea of how it would be relevant if I said, “Hey, I’ve communicated with RSA. I haven’t heard back yet.” There’s no reason for me not to say… or not for me to lie about that. So it doesn’t appear to be relevant, from my perspective. So that’s my spin on that, I guess.

Hauth: Okay. And I think that’s one of the things we were trying to decipher here a while back, when we tried to identify relevant information. Because I know there was some requests previously made. But, you know, clearly when you’re talking about unassigned vending locations and the agreements and when you’re talking about surveys and that, I think that’s a harder argument to make. But I’m just trying to wonder, you know, how we can get to the point, I mean, you know, where we can get this information as requested. And if not, you don’t feel threatened by us requesting it or something. And I’m not saying you do. But.

Morris: Well, I think… I think the important thing is, just like… just like the note that I sent out about the public records/public meetings type of discussion, I gave some context behind why I was asking for that motion to be put on the agenda, to… you know, basically spoke to the point of why I was asking. So if people can provide that, to say, “Hey, I’d like to see X….” Because, like, when you talk about unassigned vending, you know, that is part of the financial reports we send out every quarter, the dollar amounts for that. So, you know, it… explaining… it doesn’t have to be comprehensive, but just to give me an idea of what….

Because, like the one thing you were talking about with unassigned vending, reports, contracts and all that type of stuff, that takes staff time. We’ve had that discussion several years ago about what staff time… and people were talking about today, what we’re spending our time on. You know, that takes away from people doing other work. So if I can have some perspective of why it’s important to the committee…. And sometimes, to be honest, it’s hard to tell one committee member… and I know managers can request program-relevant information whether they’re on the committee or not, but when program… like, delinquent report… the delinquent reports/liquidated account report thing, there was no context around why you


wanted it. I could’ve probably tried to get some answers if I would’ve had some context ahead of time. I had no idea. So I just go out and try to find the crazy things.

So, you know, it’s all about, you know, if I tell staff to do something, “Hey, I’d like you to do this because I need this, this and this.” And so that’s just kind of a common courtesy deal. And we’re running right up…

Hauth: Well, I mean, that gives me at least a perspective of where you’re coming from. So, you know, I again believe that the, you know, program information that supports the reports, like surveys and unassigned vending, quite honestly, there’s a lot of committee members that believe that there’s been vending set up that, you know, that the agency is reaping the rewards from and the revenues from. And there’s probably agreements set up with subcontractors that we would like to review and work with the agency on deciphering and, you know, so…. The concern around that, I can tell you, is we need more information. Because most of the time we don’t feel that we get the information up front. You know, we get it after the fact.

So. But anyway. So I know it’s getting close to…


Hauth: … o’ clock. Yeah, I will let you talk in just a second, Art. But I do want to say, Eric, I do appreciate you having this meeting starting at 4:00 and going to 6:00. I think it’s important; it helps people participate. But we’ll get ready to wrap it up here in a little bit.

Morris: Thank you. I need to get going.

Hauth: Closing comments. Go ahead, Art.


Hauth: Yes.

Art Stevenson: Okay. Well, let me say, Eric, because I do want to respond to what you said, okay? And these are facts. Number one: we’re blind licensed managers and we have assets that we can use to help do things. And, quite frankly, we don’t need to or have to explain it to you, what we’re doing. When we’re dealing with RSA, as a matter of fact, we’re not only members of the Elected Committee, we’re members of an advocacy group and we can do some things, you know, to help enhance what’s going on in the program, you know, with RSA or whatever. And so, quite frankly, the federal law says that you should provide us with program relevance. And then what we do with it, you know…. We shouldn’t have to explain ourselves every time. And so that’s the comment I’m going to make. The federal law says that you’re supposed to provide us with program-relevant information. When you as the Director are writing an email to Jesse Hartle at RSA concerning our program that is relevant with the program, we have the right to that information. And we don’t have to go through a long explanation on what we’re trying to do. You know, we just want you to comply with the law. And that’s why I wanted that email that you sent to Jesse, so I could read it, what you said. And then, if I decided to do something else to speed along the process or to get some other advocacy from other organizations like the ACB to help us, then I’m going to do it. But I shouldn’t have to explain it to you. You…. And I’m


not… Hey, I don’t make requests to you just because I want to bug you or I want to take away from your time. I definitely do have purposes. The law says I’m entitled to that information and that’s why I ask for it. So that’s what I’m going to say on that for now. It’ll be definitely a topic of discussion because… unless, you know, we come to some idea on, you know, we’re going to keep having this. And, quite frankly, I just wish that we’d do what the law says and then… and then, you know, leave it at that.

Hauth: You know, Art. Anybody else before we close the meeting?

Morris: Randy, I got to go!

Hauth: Okay, thank you. We’re going to go ahead and adjourn the meeting. Thank you very much everybody.

Motions Passed During April 18 th BECC Special Meeting

1. That minutes for the March 8th BECC Special Meeting be approved. Proposed: Derrick Stevenson. Seconded: Jerry Bird. Passed (with Steve Gordon absent).

2. That the vending facility managers adopt the strategic priorities and budget priorities as presented by Chair Hauth, and that Chair Hauth be the spokesperson to present those priorities to the OCB Commissioners at the April 20 strategic planning meeting. Proposed: Art Stevenson. Seconded: Jerry Bird. Passed (with Steve Gordon absent).

3. That Randy Hauth, Art Stevenson, and Lewanda Miranda be the three vending facility managers to attend the NABM fly-in, with lodging and flight paid for by OCB.Proposed: Art Stevenson. Seconded: Steve Jackson. Passed (with Steve Gordon and Derrick Stevenson absent).

Transcription: Mark Riesmeyer


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