» Ph.D. Milwaukee, Wisconsin March 23, 2003 Attorney General Peggy Lautenschlager Wisconsin Department of Justice 114 East State Capitol Madison, Wisconsin 53702 Dear Attorney General: am writing you this letter in support of the concerns and assertion of Mr. . He sent you a letter dated 1/17/03 (accompanied by detailed documentation of the problems in the DECA Program of Milwaukee County and the lack of effort on the part of county representatives and executives to investigate Mr. ‘allegations of discrimination of people with disabilities that may have been going on for over a decade). Although I can not address specifically any of his concerns regarding the former or current elected members of Milwaukee County that he has well documented, I have also had a less than satisfactory experience with the DECA Program from 8/99 to 2/00. In short, I was a doctoral candidate working on my dissertation in the Rehabilitation Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was looking for a viable sample of participants for my research study on the topic of disability harassment in the workplace. Initially the assistant director seemed to be very cooperative and encouraging with my proposal to use the current members of the DECA Program as my sample population, especially after meeting with him at his office in the County Court House. However, the director of DECA and I talked by phone later and he was anything but encouraging and kept telling me to write a formal request and enclose a copy of my study proposal. After some research delays the formal request was sent in which my research advisor and myself spent considerable a considerable amount of time composing a two-page letter. ‘The response came so soon (in faet the next day) that it appeared that the director had the letter already written and was just waiting to let me know that “we are not prepared to be involved in this survey of our employees.” I believe that fear of exposure and other political considerations were at the heart of their rejection of my proposal. Eventually, I was allowed to ask eligible clients of the Wisconsin Division of Vocational Rehabilitation to participate in my study and earned my doctorate degree.