August 11, 2015:

The attached document was provided to the Department of Developmental Services (DDS) at a meeting on August 7^th  in response to the request from the Department to sit down and talk about what the SDC Coalition would like to see in the Center’s closure plan. This memo represents our best effort to summarize all the feedback we received from the community at our May 2nd “Transform SDC workshop” in Sonoma, and our technical analysis of what we need to see in the closure plan in order to meet our overall objectives for the future of SDC.

It remains to be seen how much of what we proposed will make it into the draft closure plan. The public comment deadline is September 1^st, and we expect that a draft closure plan will be publicly released in mid-September.  DDS has indicated that they will also likely hold another public hearing to solicit feedback on the draft plan prior to the October 1^st submittal deadline to the Legislature. If you or your organization are planning on submitting comments to DDS prior to September 1^st, please feel free to use this memo as a basis for your comments.  The meeting on the 7^th is also covered in today’s Index Tribune article by Christian Kallen, “Upcoming SDC meetings: public, private.”

Recommendations for the SDC Closure Plan, SDC Coalition