Thursday, September 03, 2009

Praise Where It's Due

I have been critical on this site (and most places I've bothered to write or speak) of our legislators' lack of curiosity regarding the outcomes of the program they fund with taxpayer money. So I have to give credit to Assemblymember Hector Delatorre of Southgate. The commentary below and decision to audit the system represent a surprisingly thoughtful first step on a long road toward capable legislative oversight of DDS.

Given that a letter from vendors was cited as a reason for the audit, you can imagine why whistle-blower protection plays such a big role in Delatorre's presentation. That wouldn't have been on my list of first topics, particularly because client confidentiality and the vagaries of client choice make proof of retaliation unlikely even upon granting whistleblower immunity. Whistleblower protection could be a useful cog in some future accountability machine, and any of you who read this blog frequently know how I feel about accountability. Still, only a vendor could think this was the best beginning.

But I have to say, I was impressed by Delatorre's grasp of the subtler point that regional centers function as much as government agencies as they do as non-profit public benefit organizations. That isn't as obvious as it is true and the Assemblyman brings up points in the video below I had certainly never thought of. This issue has a stomach-turning potential to turn out in strange ways if explored in depth, and many of those ways might be sort of sinister. But I'm going to guess that restructuring the system away from regional centers or absorbing them into the apparatus of the state is far far beyond anything the legislature will be ready to handle soon.

I'll confess I'm a little concerned about the feedback the audit will receive. If the audit committee were auditing the vendor community, quite a bit of the feedback from other stakeholders would surely be scathing and some of that unfair. In this case, the same is likely to be true. People like to come forward with a complaint. Sycophancy is also a risk.

At some later point, I might write something about opportunities and risks that loom behind this survey. But, for now, kudos to the assemblymember for taking an interest in our system.

22 comments:

too cute by a whole and a quarter said...

embedded video is VERY cool. I gotta get me one dez hair blogs..

paul said...

“I'll confess I'm a little concerned about the feedback the audit will receive.”

Doug,
Just a little?

I don’t think that we don’t need to wait for feedback to justify your concern.

This audit has received VERY little reportage as far as I have noticed (Caveat/Qualifier :I am trying to notice less and less each day). Additionally, what reportage it has gotten has come from atypical sources.

Audits are nothing new, but potential focus of this audit just might be

What will be the structure and focus of the audit, when will it begin, when will it likely conclude, when will we see the results?

Rhetorical questions meant to imply that we will likely not get the answer to these questions from our usual (objective?) sources.

An Audit from 2004 titled, "Sex Offender Placement" concludes:

“that Developmental Services cannot identify the total number of individuals it serves who are sex offenders, and is not required to do so.”

“Furthermore, the law only allows the California Attorney General (attorney general) to provide Developmental Services the criminal histories of its potential consumers in very limited circumstances. That same law generally prohibits law enforcement agencies and others from sharing this information with Developmental Services or the regional centers.”


Regardless, referencing this audit an RC executive director's “opinion” was:

“Regional centers do a better job, in my opinion, of ensuring community safety than other social service entities dealing with sex offenders.”

Now – I am understand that this is only opinion, but can someone form an opinion about something when he or she does not have the information to support ANY opinion one way or the other?

Perhaps

Can I opine that the people of Reykjavík are the sweetest people in the world if I have no idea how many people I know are from Reykjavík?

Sure! Is this opinion worth anything? Not to me..most likely it is not my “opinion” but my BS, and I suppose that if nobody calls me on it I will continue.

If our RC directors do not understand eligibility, fair hearing procedures, rate setting regulations, and the fact that they have NO IDEA how many sex offenders are consumers (OR BS or play coy about all of the above) we have a problem that only human resources can solve solve.

Doug The Una said...

Oops, I thought I replied.

Paul, no not a little a lot. You're right and I hope the people who provide input into this audit are aware that wherever they fit with this system, if that part was audited, their would be plenty of angry people with good cause lined up to comment. If the legislature audited the roles of families, the auditors might hear a lot of stories of wealthy families demanding the moon and stars. The stories would be true but unrepresentative.

If he were looking into providers, likewise, there would be plenty of people eager to tell stories about lousy agencies packed with unhappy clients and billing a fortune. Those would be true stories too.

So, yeah. I'm a lot concerned about the input and whatever action might be taken.

You can opine whatever you want and, yeah, I fear it would become fact if you opined to an auditor. But, like Mayor Villarraigosa, I have been to Reykjavik twice and I know better.

paul said...

“The stories would be true but unrepresentative”

Maybe I give the auditors too much credit.

I have never been involved in an audit of this type, but I do know that the worth of the audit is more closely tied to methodology rather than the outcome.

Unfortunately - I have no doubt that most everyone’s respect, praises, or derogatoriness will be based on the outcome, rather than the accuracy of that outcome.

If I have a barrel of monkeys I certainly also have, “plenty of angry [monkeys] with good cause lined up to comment.” I have lived in a barrel before…an let me tell ya…I agree that it would be “unrepresentative” of me to select which monkeys I audit based upon his or her level of anger.

However, if I select my monkeys at random and find that I have “plenty of angry [monkeys] with good cause” it is more likely that most of my barrel is filled with angry monkeys, with good cause to be angry, rather than unrepresentative true stories.

Again – maybe I give the auditors too much credit but they have not yet given me reason to take credit away. On the other hand – The blue bloods have given me reason to take much credit away.

Either way I would not fear that much Doug. The audit will take some time and the blue bloods are good at priming the fallacy pump. Perhaps we can take a cue and begin to practice now:

1. “Yarns, Tales!!! Prevarications!!!! – off with the auditors heads”, or
2. What great insight!! Finally THE TRUTH!!!

Doug The Una said...

Just what I fear, Paul, old friend. But here's to the possibilities.

stanley said...

[doug say] But I have to say, I was impressed by Delatorre's grasp of the subtler point that regional centers function as much as government agencies as they do as non-profit public benefit organizations. That isn't as obvious as it is true...

RCs are a government agency...non-profit by Lanterman definition only...RC centers have used this to confuse and prevent financial transparency...


re audit scope and objectives, a reliable source writes on DDRights list:

They miss the big point, and that is what the Region Centers do to assure that the service providers contracted by the Regional Centers provide services and supports that result in value-based OUTCOMES for individuals with disabilities and their families. Everybody continues to look at paper and process, which mean nothing if individuals are not receiving benefits to achieve outcomes in rights and dignity, individual choice and control, community membership, relationships, personal goals and achievements, and health, safety and economic security.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DDRIGHTS/message/5255

my comment

they do indeed...

many examples in DD community...eg,
1.valley village the agency that kicked my daughter out cause i was an irrational parent had 2500 pages of records [paper/process bs] w/ lots of boxes checked...RC loved the checked boxes.
2. I forget the certification provider got ready for with more paper work...little/no improved life for the people served....

ditto in another life/area...admin inspections in the US Navy proved nothing re a ships readiness...just more checked boxes...

similar ditto in construction cost analysis/comparison...bean counters check hour times the rate...never mind a project should have taken 100 days vice 1000...or 200 days would have yielded product that lasted 10 vice 5 years...

those being evaluated know this and the games go on and on and...etc, etc...

perhaps s bad as my hyperbola indicates...but NOT close to whats needed to ensure positive outcomes...

heck off sheets should be eliminated...replaced with essay answers:)...

note: checkoff sheets short hand for general system evaluation...

FYI

2009-118 AUDIT SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES Department of Developmental Services, Regional Centers

The audit by the Bureau of State Audits will provide independently developed and verified information related to the Department of Developmental Services (DDS) and a sample of regional centers and would include, be not be limited to, the following:

1. Review and evaluate the laws, rules, and regulations significant to the audit objectives.

2. Examine DDSs oversight responsibilities for its regional centers and determine the extent to which DDS performs oversight at the regional centers selected for review.

3. Select a sample of paid invoices for the past two fiscal years at each regional center and determine if the activities for payment were allowable under the law.

4. Select a sample of service provider contracts for the past two fiscal years at each regional center and evaluate the regional centers policies and practices for awarding contracts to service providers including how the regional centers determine that the service providers can satisfy the needs of the consumers, whether past performance by a service provider was considered, and the potential for conflict of interest did not exist.

5. For a sample of current and past service providers, conduct a survey to obtain information on whether the providers believe they experienced retaliation from the regional centers and the reason for the retaliation.

6. Determine if the regional centers procedures for allowing public access to information on operations comply with the law. Specifically, determine if requests made in the past two fiscal years by service providers for public records were satisfied in a timely manner and within the requirements of the law.

Bureau of State Audits

stanley seigler

Andrew said...

Story time, boys and girls.

Stanley, your point about the piles of paper is as true as true gets. But, I also take issue with outcomes (who’da thunk, huh?) as the engine and the aim.

If it was only that easy …

Ironically, it was a state auditor who one day looked at my pre-vocational day program and, in less than a minute, extinguished the beaming pride I took from my creation.

“Is this all they do?” he asked.

They move on to our workshop … forty percent, in fact, in the previous two years. How many day programs could boast of that kind of outcome? … Who could demonstrate that level of progression and movement? He seemed genuinely horrified.

”And they never do anything in their communities?”

I felt sick when I answered him. And I would never again allow myself to be that ignorant of my own profession.

Within a few months I had moved the program to the heart of a small downtown, directly facing the town’s plaza … and I was on a roll. I knew what I was doing now. Every goal and activity had purpose. A task analysis detailed each of the teaching steps on the y-axis of a graph. Progress was now visual, brightly displayed, and one’s independence, or lack of it, clearly quantified. This was how quality could be maintained over generations of staff.

(cont.)

Andrew said...

A year later we were interviewing for a staff position to replace a guy who had a thousand reasons why he couldn’t come to work. My staff wanted only one thing: reliability. I suggested a friend who I knew had worked for the past four years, seven days a week, without ever missing a day. He had very little experience, and I told them not to select him solely because we were friends. They wanted a sure thing, and if I knew this guy would never miss a day, that’s all that mattered to them.

Days after hiring Patrick, I received the results of our latest CARF survey (quality audit) and our program on the plaza was lauded as example of what all day programs should aspire to become. Our graphs and data impressed the surveyors with the meaningful, important work we were doing and the corresponding accomplishments of our clients.

Patrick was the first, of only two friends, I have ever hired. He was an eccentric, funny character who had trouble putting a call on hold, using keys, or withdrawing cash from an ATM. When it came to crunching numbers, or simply adding single digits on a calculator, he was as adept as a bag of hammers. I knew he would struggle with our graphs and charts and percentages, but he’d work as long as necessary and, at the time, I believed I could teach anyone our methods who was willing to learn.

I worked late with him, three to four nights a week, and after a month I wanted to strangle him in his sleep. I had made a huge mistake, and I had to find someway to fix it, before he could have an effect on the quality of the program.

During breaks and lunch, arrival and departure, one staff would take their turn watching our forty clients, while the other four used the down time to bitch about me and their workload and bang their calculators and chart their data points.

Perhaps knowing he had all night with me to drown in data, Patrick left the other staff, complaining at their cubicles, and spent his lunch hour and all other free time, with the clients. He told whoever had the watchtower to take off, if they wished, and he’d “hang with the homeys.” No one before had ever spent his breaks like this, when he didn’t have to! It was an eccentric, if not a confounding, choice.

Soon, one of the other staff noticed it was a hell of a lot more fun to stay on duty at these times, than it was to return to the cubicles. They were the best times of each day, and he too, hung out when he didn’t have to. Then another staff stopped leaving for lunch each day, and did the same … followed by another.

I had noticed the change, but was too busy diving into our data and proclaiming our achievements as I came up for air, to be able to see the change ...Until one day during lunch, six weeks after hiring my old, incompetent friend. I was putting together our program evaluation report for our annual board of directors retreat the following week. I was going to blow their minds with what I had to report, and when I paused for a moment to bathe in the thought …. I FINALLY heard what quality sounded like.

It was raucous laughter. Laughter that wouldn’t subside for the next four years, and it made clear what mattered most to our clients. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t our graphs and data points, or praise from outsiders, but rather who they spent their time with and how those folks felt when they were with them.

I joined them for the remainder of lunch that day, and I saw that Patrick had become a dervish of energy and excitement, which in a day program—any day program—is a compelling, irresistible force. The guy who never used a microwave because of the learning curve it required, hijacked my perfect program. It was as if one of the Stooges … Curley, in fact had put on tights and a pointed hat, picked out a penny whistle, and as the Pied Piper, led us in a new direction. I followed immediately.

(cont....of course)

Andrew said...

From then on we worked harder then ever before and had the time of our lives. Almost every day after the program ended we spent hours talking and arguing about our services and how they could improve. The staff embraced any change, regardless of the work it required, if I could convince them of its value to our clients.

When someone realized Mark, a client whose knees could not bend, was terrified to walk up, or down the stairway of our new site—secured after our building on the plaza fell apart in the 1989 earthquake—we didn’t wait to introduce it as a new goal at his annual meeting, or convene a special meeting, or even wait to write it up. We agreed on our approach and began the next day. All of us worked with him at every opportunity and within a week he’ was flying up and down the stairs without hesitation or assistance.

Over the next four years the program soared and did some truly groundbreaking work. It’s quality came from it’s people, as it always had, and the culture they created … a culture that made good staff great, great staff giddy, and bad staff leave. We kept up on our required paperwork, but I never again invested it with any special powers or significance.

I think outcomes, when imposed from elsewhere, as a blanket of fog across the landscape, are often only a little less meaningless than the nothingness that passes for service. Not much different than those everday lies on paper.

At times in peoples’ lives, outcomes are the bottom-line, only thing that matters ...the one truth. From sickness to health … from oppression to opportunities … from crowd to person ….These are outcomes as imperatives … they apply universally.

I worry about when those needs are met and the world gets subtle … no less real, no less crucial, but difficult to tag an outcome to a sense of identity … and a deep sense of self … of adulthood … of belonging … of connection. That’s where life is lived! …. and screw some abstraction of "The Community." The outcome, I'm afraid, everyone will end up with.

Andy

paul said...

“It’s quality came from it’s people, as it always had, and the culture they created … a culture that made good staff great, great staff giddy, and bad staff leave.”

I must confess that I have developed a rather intransigent belief over the years.

No matter what the architecture of our service system, centralized and state run, hands off laissez faire, or some marriage of the two – the quality of services to people with disabilities will be determined by the culture of the service provider. That culture is created by the staff and that creation is fomented by frontline leadership and support.

While looking towards Sacramento for salvation, or pointing fingers towards DDS, serves many purposes it does little to improve actually delivery of those services. That is in the hands of owners, directors, and boards of managers of our service providers

Sure – the Regional Centers and DDS need to do their part to address problems (and that part includes funding...focused funding), but they need to clearly recognize what is our largest problem. Our largest problem is that most providers are unable to foment a culture that creates quality. While Sacramento and Lanterman can SUPPORT a providers in this endeavor, looking to Sacramento, DDS, or even the Regional Centers for ‘salvation’, rather than support, will not solve this problem.

The advocates that do nothing more than point towards Sacramento do more to perpetuate and likely increase this problem by failing to recognize the nexus, and take responsibility.

stanley said...

[ap say] But, I also take issue with outcomes (who'da thunk, huh?) as the engine and the aim. If it was only that easy...Story time, boys and girls

[most reliable source] writes: They miss the big point...Everybody continues to look at paper and process, which mean nothing

who'da thunk..is issue w/ outcomes in general...not to say what you thunk, but seems you have no issue with reliable source...you and reliable source are on the same page...ie/eg, raucous laughter should be an outcome... Story time, boys and girls should replace check off sheets...

if it (life, whatever) was only that easy...if i were king dilly dilly...you'd be DDS director.

There are no check off sheets in my daughter’s records now...daily logs (story time) with main question was she happy; did she smile...why/why not. Of course detail medical issues/history.

Perhaps there are some outcome clues in PBS documentary (27sept,LA kcet at 4:30pm)...ie/eg, clip from promotion:

A couple of years ago, my friend Paula Kluth and I spent two days in Baltimore filming a set of interviews with several people with autism, at all levels of the "spectrum." A few of the people I met changed my entire understanding of what we call disability. Before then, I thought that I understood what it was to "presume competence" of people with various conditions like autism. By the end of two days of filming, I realized how much I had still been willing to judge these people - these amazing books - by their covers, using notions like "low functioning" and "high functioning" as an excuse to do it. A couple of the people we interviewed - Jamie Burke and Sue Rubin - have since become wonderful friends. Which is an interesting word to apply to these people with autism, who the world seems to believe are uninterested in such things as friendship, and incapable of such things as empathy. We've got a lot to learn. [John Hussman]

Some desired outcomes ...friendships made, empathy shown...raucous laughter

back to the RC audit...will it in anyway approach auditing story time outcomes...how can auditors be directed to do so...

We've got a lot to learn...believe more can be learned from a 30 min documentary than from the 160-page National Standards Report.(similar to paper/process stuff)...which DDS helped finance.

references
*PBS documentary: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DDRGHTS/message/5314
*National Standards Report:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DDRIGHTS/message/5301
*Most reliable source:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DDRIGHTS/message/5255

stanley seigler

too cute by 6 3/4 said...

"...if i were king dilly dilly...you'd be DDS director.
Stanley

Ok - let us keep it professional here please. We all know that if Stanley is King Dilly Dilly Andy is not his euphemistic DDS director...

Lets save it for Oprah

Andrew said...

To my chagrin ...and Paul's eternal embarrassment, (once it's in cyber space, Paul, Martians from 10,000 years in the future will be reading your faux pas and laughing ... derisively!) there is no King Dilly Dilly! I looked it up! I too loved Stanley's turn of phrase ... and, for once, showing a little leg.

As Stanley correctly wrote it, (though, in Paul's defense to the Martians, in a post poorly punctuated ... and confusingly capitalized) the phrase comes from a song which goes something like this ...

Lavender blue, dilly dilly
Lavender green
If I were king, dilly dilly,
You'd be my DDS queen

If you feel like me, dilly dilly
O, please say 'Yes!'
We'll cross the sea, dilly dilly
To the Land of DDS."


I'm flattered by the offer, of course, and muse ...with a sigh.. .oh, were I but twenty years younger ....(and you, 50 years younger, Stan),

I presume, that at the time, your Daddy was rich? ... and your Mama, good looking?

Woulda-coulda-shoulda ... huh, Stanley?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After re-reading my previous post, I should make clear, that I'm not against outcomes as quality indicators. I don't like the idea, though, of a few rough-hewn, predetermined outcomes defining the interests, needs and preferences of a widely diverse group of people.

Like everything else we do under this dilly dilly system ... like our service designs and service codes, our program models, our performance outcomes, our program development needs assessments, our legislative agendas, our best practices and our best laid Five-Year Plans, our cherished beliefs, our preferred futures and our shameful pasts ... we base it all, and build it all, on a premise of needs for a handful of disability--and disabling--demographics.

Thousands of varied outcomes, for thousands of different people, is where true quality lies.

( ... and that, dear reader, was the promise that self-directed services once held for thousands of individuals)

...Andy

stanley said...

[andy say] Thousands of varied outcomes, for thousands of different people, is where true quality lies...(...and that, dear reader, was the promise that self-directed services once held for thousands of individuals)

and that dear reader was/is also the promise of Lanterman...the IDT and IPP shudda/cudda provided Thousands of varied outcomes, for thousands of different people...still can with proper leadership.

Who told me so, dilly, dilly, Who told me so?
I told myself, dilly, dilly, I told me so.



[ap say] I presume, that at the time, your Daddy was rich? ... and your Mama, good looking

daddy not rich...mama good looking...son spoiled only child

the time: Summertime//And the livin' is easy//Fish are jumpin'//And the cotton is high...in summerville, my kingdom by the sea

summerville my small hometown...a few miles "up the road a piece" from porgy and bess's hometown, charleston

apologies for off topic "maudlin-ing"...maybe not too far off topic...porgy did have a disability; is an example of it not getting him down; and tried to get bess in rehab.

stanley seigler

too cute by 7 and 3/8 said...

Why do I have “The Promise” by When in Rome playing in my head?

“oh, were I but twenty years younger ....(and you, 50 years younger, Stan),”

Easy now Cowboy!! Remember, “Only fools rush in.” -King Presley-

I am quite certain that I am the only thing holding you two together! Can it last without me – the bete noir [that’s not Latin Andy..it is French..I am evolving] that drives the “The Promise”?

I have little doubt, and much fear, that should I take a sebatical I will return to find You with the proverbial axe protruding from your libido.

Doug – it will have to be you that dusts for the “kiss”. I wont go there..

Chivalry is not be dead!!

“If you need a friend,
don't look to a stranger,
You know in the end,
I'll always be there.

And when you're in doubt,
and when you're in danger,
Take a look all around,
and I'll be there.”

too cute by 7 and 3/8 said...

Why do I have “The Promise” by When in Rome playing in my head?

“oh, were I but twenty years younger ....(and you, 50 years younger, Stan),”

Easy now Cowboy!! Remember, “Only fools rush in.” -King Presley-

I am quite certain that I am the only thing holding you two together! Can it last without me – the bete noir [that’s not Latin Andy..it is French..I am evolving] that drives the “The Promise”?

I have little doubt, and much fear, that should I take a sebatical I will return to find You with the proverbial axe protruding from your libido.

Doug – it will have to be you that dusts for the “kiss”. I wont go there..

Chivalry is not be dead!!

“If you need a friend,
don't look to a stranger,
You know in the end,
I'll always be there.

And when you're in doubt,
and when you're in danger,
Take a look all around,
and I'll be there.”

Andrew said...

Doug, I'll explain the "axe and kiss" comments later. Right now I'm trying to get a grasp on Paul's statement, [that’s not Latin Andy..it is French..I am evolving].

Leaving anything, or anywhere ... language, country, literature, deportment, etc. (excluding cuisines ... and Celine’s fiction) for (the) "French" is not how our species evolves!

Au contraire, it is devolutionary (!) ... through an over-refinement of affected good taste, coupled with a concurrent, baseless explosion of self-esteem. You are going backwards ... stop if you can! Please, try to watch football--college and pros--all weekend, followed by hours of game highlights throughout the week.

If you can't stop, I will need to figure out at what point, when we visit in the future, you're going to expect me to meet you on a branch, and to pick the mites from the hair on your head and back?

AP

(p.s. ... bicycle riding is not a sport and cannot be substituted for football)

stanley said...

whatever the latest posts are about they seem more personal than remotely DD System Reform or RC audit related...thus better handled off blog...

certainly unintentional...but sorry if i had anything to do with whatever...

stanley seigler

Doug The Una said...

Stan, thanks for the audit declaration. That's very helpful.

Andy, great story although at a system-wide level, without graphs and charts the wrong people get to do the laughing for the wrong reasons.

Paul, I agree with you, too. But that doesn't solve the problem of how people get to the agency with the right culture. Right now, nothing solves that problem which is why dull programs continue to suck up lives.

Stan, I think we can leave it with auditors in charge of learning how RC decisions are made and agency staff responsible for raucous laughter and good stories. I don't care if Sacramento gets why Andy's program works or doesn't, but someone ought to know if it works before sending someone to spend a chunk of life there.

Too cute, who do you suppose is King Stanley's DDS director?

Yeah, Andy. I miss SDS badly. Oh, Shenandoah...

Paul, Poppa was a rolling stone.

AP, your evolution from agency director to ape inspires me.

King Dilly Dilly, all is forgiven. I think I need a new post up.

too cute by 9 and 3/16 said...

Sport!!!??? Does Bocce Ball count?

The only moments this jester gets a chance to perform for the King and Queen is in the evenings and the weekends [morning coffee today].

If I play a sport I cannot perform here, and then who will be your Rodeo Clown??

“I think I need a new post up.”

Doug
Don’t give into the negative reinforcement!!

stanley said...

[doug say] I think we can leave it with auditors in charge of learning how RC decisions are made and agency staff responsible for raucous laughter and good stories. I don't care if Sacramento gets why Andy's program works or doesn't, but someone ought to know if it works before sending someone to spend a chunk of life there.

I think we can leave it with auditors...dont think we have a choice...but if we did...i dont think we can, they need your input...andand

dont care if sacramento gets why...not sure you mean it...would hope Tolstoy's last words are what you really think: "The truth is -- I care a great deal -- what they --"

[doug say] who do you suppose is King Stanley's DDS director

IF/then...not a career politician...someone who doesn't need the job...someone who would "take all necessary action" as required by law (lanterman 4434b).

one considered, not appointed made statement give me two years and i will have enough department directives in place to change the system, then they can fire me.

housekeeping: anyone know why comments for praise due post up show on my desktop not on laptop.

stanley seigler

Doug The Una said...

And, I used to keep a bocce set in my trunk for emergencies.

Well, Stanley, that leaves me out. I'm apt to need the job in a hurry if things continue as they're going. Most vendors wouldn't like what I'd say to the audit committee if I said something to the audit committee. You might, though.