What has changed since the wrongful termination of Nancy Carroll?

Updated August 2004

* In the spirit of fairness we want to report that items in green below show progress made by DHHSC in making changes asked for by our group to improve services or make the Board of Directors more accountable to the deaf community.

*Red represents the problems with the new provisions or where the Board of Directors has failed to make changes we believe are needed for the agency.

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. 

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.

Board elections by the Deaf Community were the normal process for the first 15 years of Valley Advocacy and Communication Center. We believe the board abolished Deaf Community elections shortly after firing Nancy Carroll to prevent her supporters from joining the board. In fact at one time there was only 3 board members making all the decisions for this whole Deaf Community.

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.

They refuse to have Saturday or Sunday Board meetings so that Monterey and Merced could have full opportunity to have regular Board representation.

Liaison positions were created to give some representation to Merced, Mariposa and Madera counties as well as Monterey and San Benito counties. One Board member representative is chosen from each Deaf Action Committee located in each of those counties with full board voting rights. Saturday meetings are only provided quarterly so that these members can attend. The Community still doesn't elect these representatives in open well advertised elections. In fact Litita Young was chosen to represent Merced before the final bylaws were finished describing the position or how they were to advertise it to the community for their input. ( See Oct. 7, 2004 Board minutes. On page 2 the minutes say, "Standard operating Procedures for Liaisons- Made revisions requested at last meeting and brought back for approval" and on page 4 Rosemary stated that, "Merced chose a liaison." Apparently Rosemary thought it was not a problem to just do this at the advertised "Community night" ( Not a Deaf Advisory Committee election) before final approval of the position or advertisements were made to the Merced Deaf Community. Page 5 of those same minutes say under Section XI. New Business "Approval of Member Recruitment Flyer- postpone to next month to allow addition of liaison information" This shows the disregard for bylaws, and rule bending has become all to frequent at DHHSC. Maybe DHHSC should write their bylaws in pencil so that Board members or the Executive Director can change them daily to justify their actions.

Visalia also received one of these special representatives although traditionally they have participated with Fresno and VACC was originally formed in Visalia. This gives Fresno and the South Valley unfair voting advantages over Merced and Monterey though more than $400,000 of the $722,000 that DHHSC receives from Department of Social Services was originally designated for their counties. Rosemary Diaz has repeatedly given excuses for using money originally designated for Monterey, San Benito, Merced, Mariposa and Madera Counties saying, Department of Social Services contract no longer requires that money to be spent where it was originally designated. The people that worked to get that money feel that it is ethically wrong for the Board or Director to take that money now for any other use. It was meant to bring quality services to those counties not previously served by DSS and poor services are what they have now while Fresno enjoys a new office and large community room for the use and comfort of the self selected Board and the Fresno staff.

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.

Our Alliance members have been provided with all these documents upon request. We hope that others are asking for this information as well and are becoming better informed community members.

One practice we feel is disturbing is that though a financial report is given at each board meeting the details of that financial information is not given to those attending the board meeting or the Deaf Community at large. The information is not entered into the minutes after review either. We would like to see full disclosure of where funds are coming from, as well as where they are being spent.

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.

According to page 10 of June 30, 2003 Financial Statements available by request from DHHSC, two interpreters on the Board of Directors made $12,000 in revenues from the agency. The Board of Directors sets the pay rate for freelance interpreters. These two interpreters are not named or reasons given why they were chosen over other equally qualified interpreters to avoid possible conflicts of interest.

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. No Change

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?

The "At Will Policy" has continued to be used to terminate employees without giving them reasons for their dismissal.

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.

There has been over 30 employees that have been fired, laid-off or quit since Nancy Carroll was wrongfully terminated as Executive Director of VACC/DHHSC. (At least two lawsuits are currently pending against the agency.) Several have been terminated and not given any reasons for being fired.

DHHSC has lost it's contract with Employment Development Department. Two employees lost their jobs as a result.

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. No Change

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!

Now called "Community Comments" topics of discussions are chosen by the Board and the Director. This prevents unpopular topics from being introduced for community discussion.

 

10. The Alliance strongly encourages and now demands that Reno Coletti 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 a cash award for their wrongdoing.  (At least two lawsuits are currently 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.

Reno Coletti continues to serve as President of the Board of Directors and refuses to step aside though he was involved in breaching of the confidentiality of Nancy Carroll as an employee of Valley Advocacy and Communication Center. As stated in the Decision by the Arbitrator, " The uncontroverted evidence establishes that the board... met covertly to orchestrate Ms. Carroll's termination,"... etc.

"The arbitrator therefore concludes that the employment contract was breached by defendant VACC."