Shortage of drivers delays Call-A-Ride pick-up

For several months now, the Call-A-Ride program has been picking up clients later than the expected 15-minute pickup time.

Cynthia Attao, a government employee living with disabilities, said the van always picks her up from Kagman at 8am, although she is expected to be at work at 7:30am. She said her office is now questioning her tardiness.

Sometimes the van never comes at all, so she almost decided one day to just run her electronic wheelchair all the way up from Kagman to her office.

“If that happens again, I would really do that and if something happens to me, it would be on their conscience,” she said. “Are you treating people with disabilities like this?”

Attao said the problem does not only happen to her but also to those people living with disabilities undergoing dialysis treatment at the hospital.

Special Assistant for Disability Policy and Programs Thomas J. Camacho admitted that the problem is caused by the lack of trained drivers for the program. He added, though, that the problem is being addressed right now.

Camacho said the Call-A-Ride program is now collaborating with the Workforce Investment Agency, which promised to train two or three on-the-job trainees to be the program’s van drivers.

He said these trainees could possibly work for the program up to 12 months. He added that this is part of the short-term solution to the problem.

The special assistant said the long-term solution to the problem is also being addressed with the help of the Public School System. Camacho said he met with the central office in mid-February and was glad to have the office’s cooperation and assistance.

He 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. Camacho said that PSS federal programs advisor Tim Thornburgh had told them that the application for this grant is getting some positive feedback.

Once the grant has been approved, Camacho said there would be a possibility that the OJTs would serve the program more permanently and delays in the pick-up of passengers would be avoided completely.

In a letter to the editor, Camacho corrected an article that came out about Office on Aging director Joseph Palacios allegedly saying that his office would soon turnover the Call-A-Ride program to the CNMI Council on Developmental Disabilities.

“That article is erroneous,” Camacho told Saipan Tribune yesterday. He added that the council never accepted this idea or proposal because the motion would not be allowed under the U.S. Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act, or the DD Act.

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.