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***   Blunt runs unchecked...**
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3/19/2006 article in St Louis Post-Dispatch


 Consultants get No-Bid deal. at rates MUCH highter than those of state workers. Please read the whole article, it's not the first time of money wasting.
per  Post article
by Carolyn Tuft
ctuft@post-dispatch.com

..excerpt

At a time when state officials complain it's too expensive to keep open a St. Louis-area center for the mentally retarded, they are now paying consultants to help run the facility - at rates much higher than those of state workers who do similar work.

In deals that have angered the state auditor, the state workers union and some patients' families, the Missouri Department of Mental Health has signed, renewed and extended contracts that would allow charges of up to $12 million with the Columbus Organization for advice and staff for the Bellefontaine Habilitation Center since October 2004.

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Micky Slawson responds in article..

Mickey Slawson, president of the Bellefontaine Parents Association, said the state failed to replace the roof at the center's Elliot Building, even though the Legislature set aside $1 million for the job. The department simply patched the roof. Now, workers at the Elliot - where the center's most severely mentally and physically disabled live - must use buckets to catch rainwater.

Slawson also said the department recently canceled a contract to fix leaky pipes that could burst in a hard freeze.

"They're just wasting money on things that don't benefit these residents," she said.

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1-12-2006  Pres link below for article
News-leaders.com
State faces suit in closing of Bellefonataine's Hab Center

Post dispatch article

. The Bellefontaine Hab Center isn't the only facility/service in eminent danger.  Also, the Links section is on the left, look for it to be updated with sites helpful to our cause.

** Please note, I have linked to the Missouri Senate and to the MO House Reps. There is a legislator Look-up in both, use it if you're not sure who both is for you. That is the main way to make something happen. They need to be made aware, over and over, what their constituents want, and what the residents NEED.
 To paraphrase Tim Green, "to stand up for those who can't stand up"

  Also added a link to VOR. organization dedicated to ensuring that people with mental retardation and their families are able to access a full array of quality residential services and support options, including community and facility-based care.


Here's some more pics from the Jeff City Rally

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What a great report by Ch4 News Monday night
" Bellefontaine closure could end up costing state

09:39 PM CST on Monday, February 28, 2005

By HEATHER J. CARLSON / Associate

FINALLY, it's being reported again that is NOT the $18 milliion savings pablum spewed by the Governor's handlers, it's in the #2-2.3 million range for the State in costs, and matched almost 10-1 by Fed and Private funds!!!!! FINALLY, the words gets out again.

May the Appropiations Committee GET the real figures, NOT the pablum

Please read the comments by Sen Tim Green and Rep Gina Walsh

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Here's a response (click again to enlarge letter)from the  Parent's Association Vice-President & RAM President Betty Coll  to Mental Health's 'Rumors unfounded'

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Here's a letter from 2/23 From Parent's Presiden Mickey Slawson to the Post-Dispatch
titled, " They have no place to go"

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This is from District 69 Representative Gina Walsh

  I think what you are doing is wonderful. I do
not have a web site but post my e-mail address
(Gina.Walsh@house.mo.gov) as well as my phone
number in Jeff City (573-751-6845) so anyone
that wants to can contact me.
Thanks for the thanks but I am not doing anymore
than anyone else I just happen to be the one they
sent with the message.  Speaking of messages,
Tim Green stood on the Senate floor for 14 hours
in a filibuster. If he said Bellefontaine Hab
Center once he said it 100 times.

 We are fired up here as well we just need to keep
our momentum going for 8 more weeks.

Gina

** Way to go Gina & Tim ! 2 more people passionate
and caring, and fighting for our cause

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Initially, the plan held enormous promise. Government leaders had devised an initiative that would "rescue" hundreds of mentally retarded adults from the institution they lived in, one notorious for the poor treatment its residents received. The facility would close its doors for good, and its residents would move to privately run group homes. They would receive more individualized care, and they would finally be free of the abuse and neglect they'd suffered for decades.

It was the plan Washington, D.C., officials had in the 1990s to provide what they thought would be the best care for some of its most vulnerable residents. But years later, it proved to be a catastrophic failure.

A Washington Post investigation revealed hundreds of incidents of abuse and neglect to residents in some of the group homes, 80 percent of which operated on a for-profit basis. Some of the homes were owned and operated by people with dubious backgrounds, including a man with a criminal record.

In the end, many of the relocated residents were no better off than they had been before.

The D.C. plan bears alarming similarity to Gov. Matt Blunt's plan to close the state-run Bellefontaine Habilitation Center in Bellefontaine Neighbors on July 1. Blunt, citing allegations of abuse at the facility, believes its nearly 400 mentally retarded and disabled residents would receive better care in the private sector, in community-based group homes. The governor claims Bellefontaine's closure will save taxpayers $13.8 million.