Public commenters told the Louisiana Commission for the Deaf on Tuesday that delays in the state procurement process for support service providers have harmed the deafblind community, and the commission's interim director responded that the delays are outside the agency's control.

At the start of the public-comment period, Dan Araby (video comment) told the commission the SSP services "were established" to come from a telecommunications fund and said recent RFP problems led to gaps and months-long lapses: "I'm asking LCD or have asked LCD to eliminate this, that the cert to eliminate the prolong, in services … It is hurting our community."

The commission's interim director, identified in the meeting as Interim Director Broussard, acknowledged long waits in approval for the current RFP and told the board: "What he's saying is accurate. There's been months and months of wait, waiting for approval and finalization." Broussard said, however, that procurement and the awarding of RFP contracts are handled by another state office and therefore "LCD has absolutely no control over this process." Broussard added that services themselves have continued and that earlier problems involved payment delays to contractors rather than a complete interruption of services: "There has been no breaks in services... but there's been delays in payments to the contractors."

Another member of the public, Peter James Broussard, told the commission he was concerned about an email encouraging protests related to the RFP award and urged community members to seek collaborative solutions: "I feel like it would be hurtful to the deaf blind community ... I encourage you to reconsider this wording because, honestly, it did not seem professional to me."

Commissioner comments during the public-comment exchange clarified that the RFP process includes a standard administrative comment/protest mechanism. Commissioner Wellens, speaking from his experience as an administrative-law attorney, said that public comment or a protest is a typical, neutral part of administrative rulemaking and procurement: "It's not necessarily the language that that we say we want protest. It's just a means of comments about the process."

The commission did not take formal action on the RFP during the meeting. Interim Director Broussard said LCD would respond to concerns and encouraged members with further questions to raise them with staff.

The discussion tied to several specific points raised by speakers: Araby said SSP services had been supported by a telecommunications fund for 17 years and that previous RFP problems months ago caused service lapses; Broussard said the most recent procurement delays dated to a period of months and that the agency had been waiting on state-level approvals. The commission did not provide a timetable for any board-level follow-up other than saying staff would coordinate as needed.

The meeting continued to the next agenda items after the public-comment period.