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Sunday, December 15, 2013

TASK FORCE, DECEMBER 10, 2013, PART I: FLAWED MINUTES OF THE MEETING!

NOTE TO ANY TASK FORCE MEMBER!  IF ANYTHING IN THIS OVERVIEW OF THIS MEETING OR ANY OF THE OTHER MEETINGS I'VE SUMMARIZED ON THIS BLOG IS NOT CORRECT, PLEASE CONTACT ME AND I WILL CORRECT ANY ERRORS.  JUST EMAIL ME AT THE FOLLOWING ADDRESS:   SLOPERCATHY@GMAIL.COM

The meeting started with everyone looking through the minutes of the previous meeting which was held on November 26, 2013.  Judge Weissmuller was concerned that the minutes did not reflect the nature of his questions regarding billing.  He stated that it is important to know sometimes people choose to bill insurance while at other times they choose to pay privately.  It is important to know what is going on given the expense. 

Mr. Joseph DiTunno commented that it wasn't correct to ask Dr. Keith Roeder the questions regarding billing because that is not what he is there for.  Judge Weissmuller said he didn't think it should have been a problem because he personally provides information on his billing all the time.  In response, Mr. DiTunno said he felt it is not fair to ask a person something is off topic.  If we want information about that, we should ask an expert.  Ms. Jennifer Veraneault stated that if we wait to ask questions regarding billing, we will have serious delays and won't be able to get the task force report in on time. We still need to get copies of GAL bills.

Attorney Sue Cousineau stated we don't need bills from GALs.  We don't go after individual people.  we recognize there is an issue related to cost, with all of our three charges, and particularly the problem with getting issues before the court.  In response, Ms. Jennifer Veraneault stated that our charge is to investigate--we had over 1000 people testify about these problems. . .
 
At this point, Dr. Elizabeth Thayer interrupted and spoke right over what Jennifer was saying, and [personally I thought that was pretty rude, and if Jennifer Veraneault or Judge Weissmuller had pulled that kind of stunt either would have been immediately reprimanded, I am sure.]   She stated, "We need to finish the minutes so we can have this conversation.
 
Judge Weissmuller stated, billing is part of care.  It is so important that some people don't get care.  the minutes should be corrected to show that this was part of the focus.  In other words, not attacking individuals.  I made it clear that I do not know the man at all.  But if he is active, so much so that he came before this task force, this means that he is able to answer the question.  it is a relevant question because it is in our charge.
 
Sharon Dornfeld then stated she would ask Mr. Epolito (sp?) to add another bullet point or two.  With any luck at all, poor Mr. Epolito (?) can relook at this.  [There was a lot of commiseration towards Mr. Epolito (?) and talk about how he had looked at the video of the task force repeatedly in order to get it right, but I am very skeptical of that.  If Mr. Epolito (?) had done it right there wouldn't have been these complaints, and I myself have particularly noticed the gulf between what gets said on the  task force and the minutes of the meetings posted on the task force website.  I am personally very pleased that someone has finally addressed that problem.  Nobody here is "poor".  Look, if this is too hard for Mr. Epolito (?), I'll come in and do the job for half the price and my work will be ten times better.  People who mess up the jobs they are paid to do, are not entitled to sympathy in my book.  What bothers me in particular is all this sympathy for fogging the issues--refusing to answer straightforward questions regarding billing, and refusing to get the minutes of the meeting right, and insisting that the best persons to speak on any of these issues are AFCC members who are known for their corruption and fraud!]
 
In the end, the minutes were tabled.
 
Next, Attorney Sharon Dornfeld [by the way, if anyone is interested, her name in German means "field of thorns"] stated that she has invited a person from the Office of the Public Defender to come in to discuss when a GAL is appointed and how folks are determined to be indigent.  She said she expects some to come in to speak about this at the next meeting on December 19, 2013.
 
Attorney Dornfeld also stated there law students have taken the task of coming up with comparable statutes re GALs in other state and have run with it, and at this point have accumulated several 100 pages.  The task force has asked them to distill the information down.  Many states have a substantial amount of information so it will be somewhat difficult to plow through all these details without some kind of comparison basis.  It may be possible to have this information by the end of December despite the fact that the students have final examination.  At this point, Attorney Dornfeld suggested that the task force move forward to the discussion of our charge--the lack of compliance of parents.
 
Attorney Sue Cousineau stated that there seems to be a concensus after listening to Dr. Roeder that there are serious consequences to non compliance and getting the issue before that court can take a long time.  we need to discuss the issue of bringing the issue before the court so things don't linger forever and ever.
 
Ms. Jennifer Veraneault stated that the special charge of the task force is to consider the costs associated with custody and divorce including the cost of GALs.  So, she stated, "I think we need to look at a section of GALs bills and a good sample would be 20 percent.
 
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