Transcript: 3 Yr. Plan Public Hearing - Dayton
Posted by: Alan R. Cochrun
Date Mailed: Thursday, June 18th 1998 09:33 AM
Date Mailed: Thursday, June 18th 1998 09:33 AM
PART: 4 of 4
REFERENCE: e99d83ed
24 about, you know, the SILC.
25 We don't have any legitimacy
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1 with anybody except our own little small
2 exclusive word of mouth network when we can do
3 what we can, when we can get people involved
4 and make sure they're satisfied with what we're
5 doing as centers, and, you know, other than
6 that, other than a very small piece of, you
7 know, maybe one grassroot, you know, nobody
8 else knows what we are, or why we're there or
9 feels like they have any reason to listen to
10 us.
11 And that's just been a big
12 frustration for me in advocacy effort in what
13 we've done, so I think those are two different
14 issues; but I just, that's what I want to see.
15 Just basically how, you know, how can the SILC
16 and we as centers get clout and really stop
17 spinning our wheels on systems changes and
18 start making people feel like they better
19 listen to us?
20 MS. LINDA GOOD: I can answer
21 from a personal opinion, but I can't speak for
22 the rest of the SILC on this, but the only way
23 that I think that we're ever going to be able
24 to get the respect that, that we need to get is
25 to be as independent of everybody as we can, so
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1 that we don't have to rely on their money or
2 care, whether they shoot missiles at us to take
3 us down when we disagree with the systems they
4 have in place.
5 Right now we're going up against
6 systems that have millions and sometimes
7 billions of dollars in their budget. We have a
8 very, as you know, $200,000 started, was our
9 beginning budget for the operation of the
10 Statewide Independent Living Council, and our
11 money flows through Rehabilitation Services
12 Commission, which has almost, well, which has
13 millions of dollars in their budget.
14 It's sometimes difficult to tell
15 people they need to change their systems when
16 they're holding your purse strings. The thing
17 we're working toward now is to keep the power
18 that we have from congress and from the
19 Governor, but to be totally independent of all
20 of the influences that can corrupt.
21 It's very hard to do that when a
22 lot of people in the legislature don't even
23 understand why we're there or what we're
24 supposed to do or why on earth somebody thinks
25 there's something wrong with their system.
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1 It's difficult when you have
2 people standing on their own two feet, with
3 good vision, good hearing, who have
4 transportation to wherever they need to go, and
5 jobs every day.
6 It's hard to make them
7 understand that we're Americans with the same
8 rights and desires and goals as they have.
9 What I see as one of our number one things,
10 which doesn't even have to, doesn't have to be
11 addressed as a goal in our plan is, is for us
12 to get the respect and the power from the
13 legislature that we need so that we don't, we
14 don't have to keep knuckling under or answering
15 to people every time we criticize them.
16 MR. WOODY OSBURN: I, I want to
17 add to that, that, that I hear what you're
18 saying, that you're saying to the SILC, you
19 know, provide some leadership. Is that what
20 you're saying?
21 MR. DARRELL PRICE: Well, I
22 mean, yeah, I guess, I guess what we're talking
23 about here is maybe, like, a case in point. To
24 be quite honest, maybe has nothing to do with
25 the purpose of the hearings, but I just hear
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1 all our comments kind of going into this black
2 hole.
3 It's kind of, like, well, we'll
4 do what we can when we can, but I don't have an
5 idea, okay. So, you know, autonomy is the
6 first step, so, you know, what's next? How do
7 you get there?
8 I mean, let's talk about, you
9 know, a plan that means something. I mean,
10 what do we need to do? What do other people
11 need to do? I mean, what's happening?
12 MS. LINDA GOOD: Two or three --
13 was it three years ago, Roland, we went to
14 Representative Lawrence to be able to hire our
15 own staff?
16 Before that even though the
17 verbage was that we would not be housed under
18 any designated state unit or under any
19 government entity, our money came through RSC.
20 Our temporary help to
21 get-together came from RSC, and they were
22 helpful in many ways, but their mission is in
23 some ways the same as our mission, but in some
24 other -- philosophically we're light years
25 apart.
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1 You have to be aimed at
2 employment with, with that system, and some of
3 us need to be aimed at getting out of bed in
4 our system.
5 A lot of us believe life
6 independently has, has merit and virtue whether
7 or not you'll ever be employable by the, by the
8 norm, and I say that with tongue as far as in
9 my cheek as I possibly can.
10 We had, we had to go to
11 Representative Lawrence to have language put in
12 the budget to give us the ability to hire and
13 fire our own staff, otherwise our executive
14 director would have come from that state
15 agency.
16 That's, it's ridiculous. It's
17 hypocrisy. It's against everything that
18 Statewide Independent Living Councils were
19 designed to do. It's being done that way in
20 some states because there's not enough money
21 and not enough power and because we're so new
22 we have to fight for everything.
23 In many ways this is like the
24 civil rights stuff from the 1860s all the way
25 through the 1970s, and it's a long slow march
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1 and we have to keep taking it a little bit at a
2 time.
3 Our next thing should be to go
4 and get language put in so that we're not going
5 to disappear every time a Governor comes into
6 office or leaves office or whatever so that
7 we're created and destroyed and created and
8 destroyed.
9 I know this is not very clear.
10 If, if you haven't read Title seven and all the
11 things that, that are attached to, I know you
12 have Darrell, but this is probably as clear as
13 mud.
14 Basically we are supposed to be
15 free and independent and Americans who can say
16 this is what's right with the system and that
17 is what's wrong with the system, that we
18 represent all individuals with disabilities and
19 we represent them based on what they tell us
20 they want, not based on what we believe they
21 want.
22 But we're going up against
23 systems that have been in place where other
24 people are making decisions, saying this is
25 what you want, this is what you need, this is
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1 what you deserve and this is what we'll pay
2 for.
3 And when you got up against
4 those systems and try to fight, sometimes those
5 are the systems that control your money, so
6 what we're trying to do is get as independent
7 as we can so that we don't get slapped down in
8 little ways or ignored by legislators when we
9 want money.
10 One of the things I think that
11 the SILC did pretty well during the last budget
12 process was to get at least a little bit of the
13 money into the Ohio budget to at least bring
14 the Centers For Independent Living up to what
15 they determined was, well closer -- I shouldn't
16 say up to -- closer to what they determined to
17 be their need for a budget to be able to do
18 their four core services and the extras that
19 they, that they do.
20 But those centers are
21 responsible for doing the advocacy, to extend
22 and expand so that all the people who are not
23 being represented can have a voice. But the
24 Statewide Independent Living Council does not,
25 we do not individually audit the centers, so
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1 when, when people say this center's money is
2 well used and this center's money is not well
3 used, that is not our job.
4 That is rehabilitation service
5 administration's jobs, and only then do we have
6 a voice in what each of the individual centers
7 do. Am I making any sense at all? I lost you,
8 didn't I?
9 MR. DARRELL PRICE: No, no. I
10 think I personally have at least a fair
11 understanding of some of the political
12 realities but I just feel like, you know, we're
13 all saying that there's some problem and we
14 need to solve it, but then I just have a
15 feeling once we all walk away, that's all
16 that's going to be said here. And, you
17 know --
18 MS. LINDA GOOD: That can't
19 happen because in a short time Governor
20 Voinovich will not be Governor Voinovich, so if
21 we all just walk away, then we're in big
22 trouble.
23 MR. DARRELL PRICE: And I hope
24 to come away from this hearing with at least a
25 better understanding, you know, if the SILC
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1 isn't in a position to support the centers in
2 more ways that I'd like to see personally right
3 now, then what is going on and when will
4 that --
5 MS. LINDA GOOD: Actually the
6 ways that you were talking about, financially
7 we can only help so much, but as far as the
8 other part --
9 MR. DARRELL PRICE: I didn't say
10 money at all.
11 MS. LINDA GOOD: Well, you said
12 resources. If you're talking about money
13 resources, we can only help to a certain
14 degree. If you're talking about people
15 resources, we have the ability to help a
16 lot.
17 MR. DARRELL PRICE: That's what
18 I'm saying. I don't understand how, I
19 literately don't know enough about the SILC to
20 understand --
21 MR. WOODY OSBURN: Let me give
22 you an example. I mean, okay. When you talk
23 about the SILC. Who is that? Is that the
24 people at the table? Well, I don't think so.
25 The SILC is a network of Centers
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1 For Independent Living and most of all, most
2 importantly of all of advocates of consumers of
3 the grassroots.
4 How does that happen? It has to
5 happen through that network, whether you access
6 us through our 800 number or you can access us
7 through your local Center For Independent
8 Living or however you access us.
9 But one of the things that we
10 have in our plan for this year for June 2 and 3
11 is a retreat to Salt Fork. I can never
12 remember that.
13 And what we're asking in
14 addition to each center director showing up in
15 person is that they bring with them people from
16 their staff.
17 Now, my personal preference is
18 that they bring the number one advocate that
19 they've identified in their Center For
20 Independent Living. And that's how, that's how
21 grassroots movements are formed.
22 That's how plans come together,
23 but the only way we're going to ever become the
24 Ohio SILC, a network, a systems change
25 organization, is by working together, is
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1 through unity, not by tearing each other
2 apart.
3 And I'm not, I'm not being
4 defensive. Don't misunderstand what I'm
5 saying. Because I'm talking about a number of
6 things that I've seen in the 18 years that I've
7 had my disability.
8 It's, it's the most frustrating
9 part of advocacy. And that's, that's we tend
10 to eat our young. We tend to put down other
11 advocacy efforts. We tend to think that our
12 way's the only way. Well get-together. Let's
13 talk about it. Let's debate it. Let's argue.
14 Let's fight about it.
15 But let's come away with an
16 agreement that we are one and, you know, so
17 anyway, if you want to come to that, to that
18 retreat and you are a Center For Independent
19 Living, hit your director up.
20 MR. DARRELL PRICE: Okay.
21 MR. WOODY OSBURN: Use some of
22 that SILC money.
23 MR. DARRELL PRICE: Thanks.
24 MS. KATHY HATCH: I just want to
25 say one of the other things, you say you don't
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1 know what SILC is. I've only been with SILC
2 for three months now and so have all the rest
3 of us too. I'm one of the people that talked
4 to Carolyn. All I could say was good luck,
5 that was me.
6 But what I want to say is the
7 newsletter that I'm putting out through the
8 SILC, it will be finished in a few days, and
9 the whole purpose of it is to let people know
10 who the SILC is. Who the CILs are. Where they
11 are. The phone numbers, all kinds of things.
12 Something about CASA. It's got
13 information in there. It's going out to 10,000
14 people around the state including consumers and
15 legislatures and lots of folks, so part of my
16 job is to let people know who we are, and, I
17 mean, hope that answers part of what you said,
18 because you said you have don't know who we
19 are.
20 And to be honest I'm not exactly
21 sure at this point either, but I do know a
22 little bit. I'm trying to help to educate as
23 many people as possible about that and, you
24 know, if you've got questions or you want to
25 talk to me about things, if you have things
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1 you'd like to see in the newsletter, please,
2 please, let me know.
3 You know, my cards are
4 available. Or you've got the 800 number and
5 everything too. I just wanted to say that.
6 MS. LINDA GOOD: We have some
7 people in the back who have been kind of
8 quiet. Would you like to say anything or share
9 a thought, a hope, a dream?
10 MR. WOODY OSBURN: I think
11 Kathleen's point is, you know, sharing
12 information. We want to get information to
13 you, but we'd also like some of you to talk to
14 us and tell us what your priorities are.
15 Not just for the state plan. I
16 mean, whatever goes into this state plan is, is
17 our plan for the next three years. What we
18 have to prioritize.
19 But, you know, we're not limited
20 to that. You know, ideally it should be in the
21 state plan to justify us spending money on it,
22 so forth, so, you know, these hearings around
23 the state, it's the opportunity to get in the
24 state plan what you want us to be working on in
25 the next three years.
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1 If that's
2 deinstitutionalization, great. Whatever it
3 is. Any other comments? Debra, did you have
4 anything you wanted to say? Okay. If not,
5 then I guess I'm going to thank all of you for
6 coming out this afternoon. We appreciate very
7 much your input.
8 Remember send in your written
9 comments. Remember, use that 800 number.
10 MS. LINDA GOOD: We'll be here
11 till 3 o'clock.
12 MR. OSBURN: The newsletter will
13 be coming out with our E-Mail address finally.
14 It's at the printers now, so it will be going
15 out, 10,000 of them statewide, so, you know,
16 read it. Pass it around. Encourage your
17 friends to get involved. Thank you. And we'll
18 see you next time.
19 (WHEREUPON, the hearing was
20 concluded at 2:30 p.m.)
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1 C E R T I F I C A T E
2 I, Julie Hohenstein, a Registered
3 Professional Reporter, do hereby certify that
4 the foregoing is a full, true and correct
5 transcript of my notes taken in the
6 above-styled case and thereafter transcribed by
7 me.
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11 Julie Hohenstein
Registered Professional Reporter
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