Answer: (1) Go to the Top of the organization. (2) Simultaneously, go to the source of real power. In the United States that is the media. I have no intention of litigating, which could go on for Dickensonian decades.
Part I of this answer was given to me by the president of RCA when, barely twenty years old, I worked as his assistant secretary. "If you have a problem," he said, "go straight to the top and don't mess with Mr. In Between."
This struck home with me because that's how it worked in our office, on the 53rd floor of the RCA Building, overlooking the skating rink at Rockefeller Center. It was a firm policy to deliver unopened any letter marked "Personal" and addressed to Mr. Frank M. Folsom, President, Radio Corporation of America.
He always read those letters, no matter how obscure the writer. True, they were then turned over to his executive secretary, who decided which vice president should handle the matter. She then gave the letter to me so that I could enter it into a log with a follow-up date by which time the selected VP should have resolved the issue.
The point is: I might end up dealing with someone other than the president of the Dry Creek Inn but it would be the Right Someone, instead of going through Customer Services where my complaint would be one of many.
So, I wrote a provocative letter to the president and general manager of the Dry Creek Inn, in which I threw down the gauntlet with "You bring shame to Healdsburg." I did not want to dance a stately minuet. I wanted to get to the solution, fast.
Deliberately, I chose U.S. mail and marked my letter "Personal" because a real letter is a bit unusual in these days of tweets and email and it might get more immediate attention. Sure enough, I get a real letter back from the president in which he says, effectively, that all this is in my mind, thereby adding the proverbial insult to injury. He says his hotel is up to code for the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). If it were not then he would never have received a permit for occupancy from the City of Healdsburg. In sum: I'm a little old lady verging on senility and I imagined all this stuff.
I replied with another "Personal" letter, correcting him with some rather strong but not vulgar language. For instance, I wrote: "You are dishonest. My son tells me he did not apologize for my anger at" the woman at the front desk whom I call Barbie Doll. Telling someone explicitly that they are dishonest means that you want to engage them in a serious combat. As is said in chess when my Bishop directly attacks your Queen: That's "putting the question". Will you counterattack? Retreat? Capture my Bishop? Resign? You've got to do something. In the case of Dry Creek, I have nothing to lose. My body is bent and broken but my mind is sharp and I have a witness who saw the rooms that were so blatently unsuitable for people with disabilities. In addition, my integrity is well known. Lying is so self-defeating.
While that letter was melting a few mail boxes enroute to the Dry Creek Inn's president, I simultaneously inquired of the City of Healdsburg: How did the Dry Creek Inn get a permit to rent rooms for people with disabilities when the shower is too low, the bed is not accessible because it's too high, the shower is not accessible, etc. What is going on here?
Well, what is going on is that the man who gave the "permit for occupancy" to the Best Western/Dry Creek Inn in Healdsburg, CA understands "federal supremacy," as he so eloquently put it but "I do not completely apply the ADA in Healdsburg," a charming tourist city in the heart of California's wine country. When I asked, with immense surprise, whether that was the right approach in a situation where I could not sit on or even get into the bed I was blown off with this bit of arrogant wit: "I do not do beds. They are beyond my ken."
"Oh," said I, "what a wonderful quote. I will just put that into the OpEd piece that I am sending to the New York Times, the Sacramento Bee and your own Healdsburg Tribune."
The Permit Man did have a meeting last week with the President of the Best Western/Dry Creek Inn but I don't know the outcome. However, if I want results then I can't let grass grow under my feet. So, I have played phone tag with the City Manager, had a pleasant phone conversation with the Permit Man's Boss who is going to explore the issue and seek a resolution. Intelligent guy, this Boss. He asked what I wanted. I told him I just want other people with disabilities to not be defrauded by paying for services that don't exist, and I want the Dry Creek Inn and the City of Healdsburg to stop breaking Federal Law. I said changes could be made in a timely way, say a year. I know that one doesn't wave a magic wand to have everything done by tomorrow. And now the whole issue of permits may raise a scandal so, possibly, there is an incentive to resolve this in favor of people with disabilities? The trick is to let the media use its awesome power.
Meanwhile, (you remember I made a commitment to do some one thing every day) I got in touch with the Congressional representative's office for the City of Healdsburg and a sympathetic staffer is now looking into this, from the perspective of government. It's a dispute between a citizen and a business firm so she will not be contacting the Inn. But there is hanging, like an unguarded Queen, the whole matter of why the government of Healdsburg issues permits when they should not.
Being a former secretary I know how easy it is to copy in others, so my letters also went to the Mayor, the City Council, the Visitors Bureau (all of whom have kept a thundering silence), the Better Business Bureau, the U.S. Justice Department's Department for Accessibility, and I put a note on Trip Advisor so the worldwide web will not feel neglected. The OpEd pieces have been mailed and I have a long list of other organization to get in touch with, such as the AARP, the accreditation agencies for hotels, etc. various radio and tv stations that have consumer type programs. Enough work to keep me going.
When I have some news I'll get back to this.
The Stanford University's museum story is somewhat amusing. That might be a good next post.
Anne
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