4-8 sw
THE PLAIN DEALER

Ohio

TUESDAY
NOVEMBER 2, 1999

[Headline] Disability-rights protesters invade state office
By SANDY THEIS and T.C. BROWN
PLAIN DEALER REPORTERS

COLUMBUS State troopers arrested four disability-rights protesters and cited them for disorderly conduct last night, after about 200 protesters, most in wheelchairs, took control of a state office tower and demanded to meet with Gov. Bob Taft.

What began as a peaceful sit-in apparently turned violent about 7:30 p.m., when the foursome attempted to break through a glass doorway in the lobby where they had camped out since about 10:30 yesterday morning, said a spokesman for the governor.

The protesters are members of American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today, a national group that wants Ohio and other states to earmark a greater percentage of their Medicaid Money for in-home care, rather than for nursing homes.

ADAPT is meeting this week in Columbus.

[quote]`We didn't come here with just one trick in our bag. At least this governor wants to play.'
-MIKE AUBERGER, organizer, American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today

[text resumes] In addition to arresting the four, all of whom were released, the state secured a temporary restraining order from a Franklin County Common Pleas judge. The order prevents the group from "continuing to obstruct main elevator access" in the Vern Rife Center for Government and the Arts.

State officials said they would allow only five protesters to remain on the 14th and 30th floors today.

"At some point this evening, we have to clear the building so people can return to work," Brian Hicks, the governor's chief of staff said about 9:30 p.m.

About 70 ADAPT members filled the lobby of the governor's office on the building's 30th floor, and an additional 40 crammed into the 14th floor, where House Speaker JoAnn Davidson's office is located. The arrests occurred outside Davidson's office.

Throughout the day, about 100 more picketed the ground floor and perimeter of the Rife Center. ADAPT organizer Mike Auberger said Taft "probably saved face by coming with this TRO," but he hinted at escalating trouble.

"We didn't come here with just one trick in our bag.," said Auberger, whose group has blocked public transportation and shut down government buildings in other cities. "At least this governor wants to play."

Armed with bullhorns, sirens and signs, group members made their case for increases in home-based services for the disabled.

Ohio ranks seventh in the country in per-capita spending on nursing homes, Auberger said. It ranks near the bottom, he said, in the percentage of long-term care dollars spent on home-based services.

Ohio already is expanding in-home services, said Scott Milburn, a spokesman for Taft. He cited statistics showing that between 1992 and 1998, the number of people receiving home- and community-based care jumped by 200 percent, while the nursing home population grew by just 6 percent.

By midday, chants from the protesters rang through the hall-ways and stairwells of the Riffe Center.

"We're ADAPT, and you've been trapped," chanted protesters who used their wheelchairs to jam elevators and block the lobby to Davidson's office.

Both Davidson and Taft were out of town and unavailable to meet with ADAPT, although Milburn maintained throughout the day that the governor hoped to arrange a meeting later this week.

When the building closed at 6 p.m., ADAPT members refused to leave, despite warnings that they faced possible trespassing charges.

"Nursing homes take everything you have," said Gabe Lawson, a 24-year-old protester from Indiana who once spent five days in a nursing home.

"It's so depressing," Lawson said. "All you see is people dying."

Throughout the day, Auberger attempted to negotiate a meeting with Greg Moody, the governor's executive assistant for human services, acting as the state's liaison.

"We will consider it, but I cannot commit to a decision as long as the building is inaccessible," Moody told Auberger, who broadcast the negotiations to the assembled crowd via speaker phone: "As soon as we return to normal functions, we will be flexible either late, Wednesday or Thursday."

The protest disrupted state workers and angered dozens of parents who had trouble getting to their children enrolled in the day-care center on the building's seventh floor.

"Are you a mother?" one angry woman shouted at a protester. "I don't make the laws. I'm just here to have lunch with my daughter."'

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