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What has changed since the wrongful termination of Nancy Carroll?
Since the wrongful termination of Nancy Carroll as the Executive Director of Valley Advocacy and Communication Center in 1999 there has been a disturbing number of changes made to the corporate bylaws making the Board of Directors unaccountable to the Deaf community that they are supposed to be serving. The Central California Deaf Community Alliance for Justice is advocating that the Board of Directors restore the Deaf community to their rightful place as overseers of their own agency and it's leadership. The list of items below are suggestions we have been making at DHHSC Board meetings and "Open Forums" and have been recorded in some detail in Board Minutes that are available at the DHHSC office upon request.
The Central California Deaf Community Alliance wishes to see the following changes take place if DHHSC is to truly be an "OF, FOR and BY the Deaf" Agency as its mission proclaims.
1. Restore Board Elections! The present board is self-selected and not accountable to the Deaf Community. Election of Board members should be by the vote of the deaf and hard of hearing people in well-advertised and open elections on a regular basis.
2. Board meetings should be held on a Saturday or Sunday of every month to allow members representing other counties to attend if they so desire. Their inclusion will encourage willingness to serve on the board. Several have already expressed interest, but they prefer to be elected, not appointed.
3. Bylaws, general board meeting minutes and financial statements need to be available to anyone who asks for them. If the deaf community is not informed on current issues, they cannot take an active part in the decision making process.
4. Board conflicts of interests must be immediately addressed. The Alliance does not believe that it is possible for hearing members currently working as interpreters and paid through DHHSC to provide an objective assessment of the Executive Director's overall performance.
5. There should be a policy in place to prohibit working interpreters from serving on the board. This protects the Deaf individual's right to disagree on issues without fear of retaliation.
6. Get rid of the At-Will policy. It sets a bad example for other employers by sending a message that DHHSC employees are not worthy to be treated with respect and fairness when termination is considered, and don't even deserve to be told the reasons why they are being terminated. How can DHHSC expect employers to do what the DHHSC management refuses to do?
7. There are high turnover of employees. DHHSC cannot even keep their employment specialists and they are responsible for the contracts with the Employment Development Department and Vocational Rehabilitation, in addition to the State Department of Social Services.
8. Focus on the real core problems of the deaf is lost due to shift in focus on internship/certification opportunities for sign language/interpreting students at Fresno State and Fresno City College. Also, excessive staff time is spent on planning and raising funds for the new Fresno Headquarters.
9. Open Forums are not really open if the topics of discussion are prearranged by the Executive Director as was the case on April 26, 2003. One member that has been associated with our group was accused of being a spy by a board member's wife and a staff person. This nonsense has got to stop!
10. The Alliance strongly encourages Reno Coletti to resign from the DHHSC Board of Directors. He was one of the three persons that met in secret meetings before joining the board with other sitting board members to discuss a personnel matter, which is considered confidential information. Those actions later resulted in the wrongful termination of Nancy Carroll who won cash award for their wrongdoing. Currently, there is another lawsuit pending against the agency. In addition, under his leadership community elections were abolished and a major financial commitment was made to buy a church building to convert to office space without careful consideration of the ramifications of the cost and how they may impact services.
updated:12-17- 2003 J