Varpness.com

// November 24th, 2009 // No Comments » // Humor

Here is a picture of what free range chickens choose to do, when given free will. Oh, and in case you were fooled, the USDA has NO standard of what a free range chicken egg means. In fact, many farmers choose to call their eggs “free range” simply because the chickens have a little more room than average in their cages.

// August 30th, 2009 // 6 Comments » // Humor

For many, the Quote-of-the-Week feature of this website has been a cherished tradition, for others, a beloved pastime. Still others find the Quotes-of-the-Week to be a stroke of genius unmatched by any predecessors of human philosophy. Therefore, it is with great trepidation that I announce the discontinuation of the Quote-of-the-Week feature. But before you take up arms against a sea of trouble, let me make an offering of this immense chunk of consolation to you; any new quotes, while not heralded on the main page, will still be shared with all visitors in the Quotes section of this website. So, if you’ve been MIA for a while, or you make varpness.com a daily routine, please click the link entitled “Quotes” at the top of the page in order to access my weekly brilliance.

// July 15th, 2009 // No Comments » // Political

Last week State Senator Majority Leader Dean Florez convinced the Board of Central Valley Regional Center to take back $500,000 in one-time salary adjustments given to employees and instead turn the money over to Senator Florez and the State general fund. While it has only been a week since these events first transpired, Senator Florez has not yet made any statements about his progress in actually getting the money back, nor on his promise to try and get the secured funds earmarked for services to the disabled community. Meanwhile, a more concerning issue has surfaced regarding four millions dollars that was given to employees of Clovis Unified School District for the same reason CVRC employees were given their salary adjustments.

On May 25, Marc Benjamin of the Fresno Bee reported that nearly $4,000,000 was given to employees of Clovis Unified School District, almost 8 times as much money as CVRC’s $500,000. The reason for the bonuses, according to the Fresno Bee, was “frugality.” CUSD was able to cut their self-funded insurance costs and therefore issued a one-time, 2% reward. Essentially, CUSD was able to use their money responsibly, had money left over, and decided to give the extra money to employees rather than return the funds to the State, just like Central Valley Regional Center did.

Strangely, two months later, Senator Florez has yet to make any public statement regarding this discrepancy, but he needs to decide soon. Either all leftover money originating from tax paid services should be sent back to the general fund, and Senator Florez needs to demand four million dollars from Clovis Unified, or private organizations and school districts that are responsible with their money should be allowed to use the excess funds the way they see fit, and Senator Florez owes the Board of CVRC and director Robert Riddick an apology. If Senator Florez hopes to win the Lieutenant Governor position next year, he will need to be consistent in his positions, and now is a good time to straighten out his views on excess funds in private and State organizations.

As a thank you for interviewing me the other day, I offered this information to Barbara Anderson of the Fresno Bee on July 11th, but I have yet to receive a response from her or find any follow up stories in the Bee.

(Matthew Varpness is a local educator and committed volunteer in this community.)

// July 10th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // Political

Even while a growing number of people in the Central Valley are becoming outraged over Senator Florez’ campaign to take CVRC employees’ salaries, there are still a few individuals that have some misguided ideas about the one-time salary adjustments that were issued a few weeks ago. While many parents and family members of CVRC clients are saying things like, “I am so sorry to see that this is happening to such a good agency,” and, “They deserved their bonuses,” others are still not so sure. Hopefully by the end of this article, we can all come to a better understanding of how regional centers work, and be better educated when sharing our ideas publicly.

It has been suggested that CVRC should have send the $500,000 in surplus funds to the State, alleging these were taxpayer funds. Again, this information is incorrect. The excess funds don’t belong to taxpayers any more than Senator Florez’ saving account funds belong to the taxpayers. The State made a contracted agreement to pay the privately owned CVRC a specific amount to perform their job, and while other regional centers in California failed to manage their money appropriately, CVRC made the necessary operations adjustments to provide their promised, contracted services within their budget. Other regional centers are actually having to go back to the State to request additional money, due to their irresponsible management of what they were paid. Senator Florez should consider contacting CVRC director Robert Riddick and the Board and asking them to provide insight and training on how to manage a regional center in a fiscally responsible manner. In a time when so many companies are failing, isn’t is refreshing to see one that does their job for the agree-upon price?

Another misconception a few people have is in regards to the State cutting dental, vision, and podiatry services to disabled adults. This was a decision that California lawmakers made, including Senator Dean Florez; so CVRC has no way of providing those services, even with the paltry $500,000 left over from the operations budget. Unfortunately, the CVRC operations budget is completely separate from their budget to provide services, so it is actually illegal for CVRC to use that $500,000 for anything other than operations, including payment of staff members who made sacrifices in order to stay within their means.

Finally, there is a great deal of ignorance concerning the Board of Directors for CVRC. They have been called imbeciles, lacking in foresight, and described in other negative and invalid ways. Two facts should help educate everyone with an opinion of the board members, and resolve this argument once and for all. The Board did not vote to give themselves any of the $500,000 in salary adjustments. They voted to award the money to case managers who have had to take on the workload of 17 vacant positions that have not been filled. They voted to award the money to employees who have not been allowed to claim any overtime pay, despite the fact that they have taken on much more responsibility with, before now, absolutely no additional compensation. The Board voted to award the money to people who did everything asked of them in order to fulfill their State contract without begging for more money. One uninformed individual said that the board members don’t know what clients and vendors are going through; yes they do. CVRC’s Board of Directors and committees are made up of clients, parents, vendors, and community leaders and absolutely know what clients and vendors are going through. This is not something being reported in local papers for some reason, but the Board and committees are actually comprised of the very vendors and clients that CVRC services. You cannot get much more ethical than this. The Board knows what vendors and clients are going through and they also know what CVRC employees are going through and have gone through in order to be fully responsible with the money taxpayers paid them to perform a valuable service to our community.

(Matthew Varpness is a local educator who hopes this article will help others come to ethical, sound conclusions based on logical thought.)

// July 9th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Political

State Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez just issued a press release regarding the Board of Central Valley Regional Center’s decision to return the $500,000 salary increase for employees of CVRC. (See my previous article for more information.) Senator Florez says that he is “pleased to learn the Board… has acted promptly to reverse the distribution of half a million dollars in ‘leftover’ funds as pay bonuses in the midst of a budget crisis.” And he should be pleased; after all, this was something that Senator Florez became quite vocal about only a few days ago. But there are a few things regarding Sentor Florez’ press release that should concern everyone involved in this story, people in favor and opposed to the one-time salary adjustment alike.

When CVRC’s executive director Robert Riddick wrote to Senator Florez and informed the Senator that the Board had voted to return the funds, Mr. Riddick requested that the money be earmarked especially “for programs and services under the Department of Developmental Services.” Senator Florez should have been thrilled to hear this, and should have assured Riddick that the funds would be used in such a manner; he did not. Instead, Senator Florez said, “I will see what avenues are still available to make that happen.” In other words, there is no guarantee the money will be used for the disabled community at all, and if one were to look at Sacramento’s track record with management of the general funds, it won’t happen at all.

While we can appreciate the fact that Senator Florez offered to take a voluntary cut of 5% from his own salary a few months ago, it should be noted that the $500,000 in funds were already allocated to the operations of CVRC, have already been paid to the employees (in many cases, have already been spent), and such a return is not voluntary but forced by the Board under the pressure and threats of the California State government. This is not the same as Senator Dean Florez’ generous pay reduction. Telling CVRC to return the $500,000 in well-managed “leftover” funds is more like telling Senator Florez to return all of the salary he has “left over” after paying his mortgage, utilities, and gardeners. CVRC was responsible with their operations funds, as I’m sure Senator Florez is responsible with what he has been given.

At the risk of introducing an ad hominem argument, it should also be said that Senator Florez raised no concern with a proposal that passed and went into effect July 1st which cut dental, vision, and podiatry services to all adult Medi-Cal recipients, including those with developmental disabilities. Granted Senator Florez was not on the subcommittee which dealt with this proposal, but it is concerning that he would ignore such a huge cut to services, while complaining about the CVRC funds that were legally awarded to CVRC employees instead of being returned to him and his constituents. As State Senator Dean Florez prepares for his 2010 run as Lieutenant Governor of the State of California, I sincerely hope he is not using this issue to garner favor with California voters, being that corporate bonuses have been such a hot topic recently. The elimination of vital dental and vision care for the disabled community is a much more important issue, but thus far has received little or no attention from Senator Florez simply because it is not an issue being discussed in the public eye right now.