Call-A-Ride rides back to DD Council

The Call-A-Ride Program is no longer with the Office on Aging since last week due to the lack of official documents and its interference with the Aging Office’s own operations.

According to Aging Office director Howard Macaranas, who just came to office two weeks ago, the decision to send back the Call-A-Ride program to the Developmental Disabilities Council was a “bilateral termination” of operations.

Macaranas said he had to give it back to the council due to the absence of a Memorandum of Agreement between the two from the previous administration.

“There’s no record at all,” he said.

Macaranas said he had decided on this course of action to comply with legal issues, especially with regards to the certification of drivers.

He said the Call-A-Ride operations also interfered with his office in transporting its own clients from their homes to the Man’amko Center and vice-versa.

“In the future we’d do it legally. I’m more than willing to take it,” he added.

DD Council director Tony Chong confirmed yesterday that his office is tentatively running the Call-A-Ride operations. He said the program now has two new drivers that were trained and provided by the Workforce Investment Agency.

Chong also confirmed that there was no MOA that existed when the previous administration assigned the Call-A-Ride program to former Aging Office director Joseph Palacios.

Thomas J. Camacho, the Office of Disability Policy and Programs special assistant, said yesterday that he was not informed about the action of the Aging Office. He said that, as he had mentioned several time, the DD Council could not handle the program under U.S. Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act. The Act, he said, does not allow Chong’s office to operate the program.

Camacho reiterated that the council serves as an advocate for individuals with developmental disabilities and conducts or support programs, projects, and activities that carry out the purpose and principle of the DD Act.

He said the council would be in conflict with its mission if it starts operating a service for people with disabilities because the council is a systems change agent for individuals with developmental disabilities, which is why the council never operated or managed the system and other private and public entities were involved in the operation and management of the program since its inception.

The Call-A-Ride has to be bid out to private entities. Chong said that he is hoping to bid out the responsibilities of the Call-A-Ride to a prospective private company “in a couple of months.” Chong clarified that the Call-A-Ride operation has not been stopped because of the transfer.

Camacho earlier said the long-term solution to the problem is also being addressed with the help of the Public School System. Camacho said the program is looking at a $90,000 federal grant from the Federal Transit Administration through a PSS application to help people with disabilities.