ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, July 18, 1996 TAG: 9607180042
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ANN J. FRANCIS
I WAS amazed and appalled to read Leslie Taylor's July 5 article (``Council may face FBI probe'') regarding a report that the Virginia Council on Child Day Care and Early Childhood Programs had directed a consultant to turn records over to the FBI.
Having read the full report, written to Gov. George Allen by R. Jefferson Garnett, the council's chairman, and Elizabeth Ruppert, its executive director, I fail to see any evidence of the alleged bid-rigging conspiracy. What I did see was a vindictive, partisan diatribe regarding what Garnett and Ruppert consider to be the radical liberal agenda that is espoused by professional organizations such as the National Association for the Education of Young Children and its state affiliate, the Virginia Association for Early Childhood Education.
I was quoted extensively throughout the report as a leader of the Virginia Child Care Resource and Referral Network (VACCRRN) that supposedly tried to influence the council's decision in awarding bids for the Centers for Families That Work. These quotes came from internal memos that I sent to VACCRRN members expressing my personal opinions on how we could support families through resource and referral in Virginia. I didn't bid on the contract. Those who did weren't involved in the writing of the bid specifications. The meeting to which some of us were invited was intended to provide council staff with information from experts regarding what was considered to be best practice in the resource-and-referral field. The accusations regarding bid-rigging were politically motivated and quite unsubstantiated.
Mary Ellen Verdu, the council's former executive director, did more to invite public comment on every decision the council made regarding expenditure of the block-grant funds than any agency director I've known. Public hearings were held all around the state, extensive notices were mailed well in advance announcing the hearings, and, yes, experts in the field were often called upon to provide opinions or ideas. Verdu or one of her senior staff members was always in attendance to hear the comments and respond to questions. This is in stark contrast to Ruppert's habit of calling required public hearings with very short notice, mailing notification of meetings to a very limited mailing list, and holding one hearing in one location - Richmond. Ruppert never attended hearings, and the Allen-appointed council didn't seem to care about public opinion when its members proceeded with their own agenda for how the funds should be spent.
This attack on programs intended to help children and families continues as the Allen administration proposes major revisions to the child-care licensing regulations. These will substantially weaken what are already some of the weakest regulatory protections in the country for children in child care.
I am proud to be associated with the national and state organizations that were attacked in this ludicrous report. I am proud to have been associated with the Council on Child Day Care and Early Childhood Programs and its former director, Verdu. I will continue to work to improve the quality of care for young children and for programs that support families such as the Centers for Families That Work. I hope that soon our state government will again see protection for children as a priority.
Ann J. Francis of Roanoke is director of the Resource and Referral Service at Virginia Tech.
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