Setting things straight about Call-a-Ride project

Setting things straight about Call-a-Ride project

In last Wednesday’s (11/09/05) Letters to the Editor section of the Saipan Tribune, former Executive Director for the CNMI Council on Developmental Disabilities (Council), Mr. Thomas J. Camacho stated that I (the Director of the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation) “made a couple of untrue statements about the Call-a-Ride and the Council on Developmental Disabilities.” He was referring to my comment in a newspaper article that “the program (Call-a-Ride) still lacks a sustainability plan.” Further on in the letter, Mr. Camacho agreed that the Call-a-Ride was initially a federally funded program and states that my comment “that it has to be sustained locally is misleading.”

To the readers who are not familiar with Call-A-Ride (CAR), it is a transportation initiative that the Council on Developmental Disabilities decided to take on as a project several years ago. The transportation project was meant to create public awareness on the lack of or inadequacy of a public transportation system, an issue that individuals with disabilities have to confront daily. The CAR project was to also demonstrate the need for a reliable and affordable public transportation system. The Council is not a direct service provider, but a system change agent. The expected outcome of the CAR project was to eventually effect a system change in our community by the participation of a private sector initiative or through enactment of a public policy. The CAR project was intended by the Council to be a partnership between a government and private entity.

I applaud the Council’s success in initiating and implementing the CAR project but I stand on my statements about the lack of a sustainability plan to ensure operations after subsidies from the Council cease. Had there been one, the CAR project would not be in the situation it is in today. PDI has stopped operating the van since October 1, 2005 and the Office of Aging has taken over on an emergency basis. Recent information I received is that the Rota CAR operator has mentioned his intent not to continue operation of the van on Rota. Who will step in to take over? The Tinian CAR operation is still functioning because of the support of the Tinian Legislative Delegation. This is a good example of local sustainability. A sustainability plan would have identified means and resources to maintain the CAR operation after federal funds were exhausted.

In the past, there have been instances when important information was intentionally withheld from the Council. If there are means and resources that have been identified, I would appreciate being enlightened by Mr. Camacho as to who and what these are.

Felicitas “Tee” P. Abraham
OVR director and agency representative on the Council for Developmental Disabilities