WORKSHOP BOARD IN CAPE SAYS IT GETS FEW COMPLAINTS

The advisory board for Cape Girardeau's sheltered workshops has not heard complaints about conditions for its handicapped workers, past and present board members said.

"We've just been able to help a whole lot of people here," said Robert Landgraf, chairman of the advisory board.

Cape Girardeau's nine-member board operates the same as Perry County's, which has been criticized for complacency by parents of handicapped children, county officials and a state representative.

But Cape Girardeau's board has not experienced the controversy, Landgraf said.

The board's basic job is to subcontract work and provide subsidy funding to VIP Industries, he said.

The funding, which comes through a county tax that has generated more than $400,000 annually, goes mostly to VIP Industries.

Cape Girardeau's sheltered workshop board has existed since 1968, said Gerald Jones, presiding county commissioner. Jones was one of the board's initial members.

Jones recalled the sheltered workshop's first contracts: repairing wooden crates for Coca-Cola bottles and repackaging diapers for Procter & Gamble Paper Products Co.

Since then VIP Industries has become the largest sheltered-workshop operator in the state, with more 300 handicapped workers at four plants in three counties.

Besides the plants, other operations are part of VIP Industries' group of companies. Heartland Industries advertises assembly and packaging work as well as 300,000 feet of warehouse space and 50 over-the-road trailers for distribution.

Another VIP Industries firm, Regency Management, offers a variety of services to the handicapped. They include transportation, recreation, training and a number of other items.

Regency Apartments offers the handicapped semi-independent living conditions. They include two apartment complexes in Cape Girardeau, one in Jackson and another in Marble Hill.

The president of VIP Industries, Hillary Schmittzehe, was also on the first advisory board, Jones said.

State Rep. Patrick Naeger, who is also a member of Perry County's workshop board, has stated that Schmittzehe's influence on his board does not allow it to act truly independently of VIP Industries. Four supervisors at the Perryville sheltered workshop recently resigned, complaining that employees at the workshop were overworked.

Landgraf said the Cape Girardeau board operates independently of Schmittzehe.

"We are basically just subcontracting to VIP," he said. "We don't do the hiring, we don't pay salaries. That's up to VIP."

Kathy Southard was a manager for VIP Industries' Cape Girardeau workshop for nine years before retiring in 1985. She said she never saw the handicapped overworked or intimidated on the job, and Southard credited Schmittzehe's leadership for creating that atmosphere.

Micki Gudermuth has heard different stories from some of VIP's handicapped employees. Gudermuth, director of SEMO Alliance for Disability Independence, said she has received numerous calls from the handicapped complaining about their treatment in VIP Industries' workshops. But the handicapped have expressed fear of retaliation if they complained publicly, Gudermuth said.

"I feel at a loss, because I can't help them if they won't come out," she said.

Landgraf said that his board operates strictly by the rules set out for so-called Senate Bill 40 boards, which are given authority through the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. The boards are all made up of nine persons, at least two of which must have a relative who is handicapped. Members are selected by county commissions and serve for a period of three years.

There is no limit as to the number of terms that a person may serve, Landgraf said.