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EDUCATION 1969-1971 University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, School of Social Work. Master's Degree in Social Work. EMPLOYMENT 1983-Present, President, One Stop Service By Denny Wood, Inc. A business that screen prints T-shirts & Signs, does Printing and sells Advertising Specialties including Photo T-shirts. ACTIVITIES 1960-1962 High School Junior Class Vice President, lettered in football, wrestling and track in Junior and Senior year. Broke the school record in the half mile. RELIGION: Protestant HOBBIES Breeder of Black Lace Angel Fish. And stopped when my business caught fire and destroyed 17 tanks of 5 and 6 generation beautiful fish. I may do it again someday. APPOINTMENTS 1973-1974 Member, Mayor's Housing Symposium, chaired by Commissioner Harvey Ruvin, appointed by Dade County Mayor Jack Orr. OFFICES 1960-1961 Vice President, Junior Class, Archbold High School. CIVIC ACTIVITIES AFTER MOVING TO FLORIDA IN 1971 In 1972, or thereabouts I would picket the Sweetwater City Hall that was not accessible by wheelchair, where my voting precint was located. Three years later I would lobby the accessible election site bill through the State Legislature. 1973 Organized the picketing of the Jackson Memorial Rehabilitation Center over the too steep ramp to the entrance. Our picketing event was due to years of frustration. It made the Miami Herald and Miami News, TV stations and other media. The ramp was rebuilt soon after the media event. This would be the first of two picketing events in Dade County I organized. Picketing was always a last resort in my problem solving mode. 1973-1974 - At the direction of Commissioner Harvey Ruvin, at the Mayor's Housing Symposium, I was asked to create a committee and work with the Metro Dade County Board of Rules & Appeals to rewrite Section 515, Accessibility Section, of the South Florida Building Code. This ordinance passed April 2, 1974. (58 days later I would usher it through the Florida Legislature.) 1974 Legislature Organized the first real assault on the State Legislature with over 17 separate issues that needed legislative remedy. This included being elected president of the Florida Council of Organizations, which consisted of organizations from Pensacola to Miami, drafting the legislation and legislative goals and coming out of the 1974 state legislature with 13 bills on the desk of the Governor. I would return with little or no "expenses only" funding in 1975, 1976, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1993 and 1994. And good things happened every year for Florida's disabled. I and Damian Gregory attended the 2004 session. We got $5000 for Vocational Rehab that had a large federal match. I would return alone in 2005 and 2006. And I will return one way or another in 2011 for that session. I will go as an elected official or a lobbyist. 1975
1975
1974 Legislature
1974 or 1975 or 1976 Legislature
The subcommittee vote hinged on turning around key senators who wanted the money for other projects. My testimony challenged the senators to go out to Sunniland and see what I had observed. Sen. Holloway, one of the swing votes, did a bit of speech making in response to my testimony, but ultimately voted along with state Senator Graham, another swing vote, for the money for the retarded. Martha said I made the difference that day. And I think Martha and the Senators made the difference. I was just glad to have helped. The bill passed that session, with the money. My dates, 74 or 75, are unclear and the amount of money may be slightly off, but the incident always stayed with me as how easy it sometimes was to get so much money, with one little emotional, from the heart, presentation. As a social worker I would always be amazed at how much good could be done at 60 days that legislative session. One could accomplish in 60 days, which a social worker in the field could not accomplish in 60 years. And that is why I went back, and back again, for a total of 13 legislative sessions. It took a lot of cunning work, and it was not always easy, but I always regarded it as waving a "magic wand" for people who desperately needed some "magic." 1974 Legislature
1975 Legislature When I arrived at the state capitol in 1975, I was advised by the new Speaker of the House that I would never have a year like 1974. He asked me to pick a few priorities and his office would help me with them. In 1974 we had 17 separate pieces of legislation and I was just trying to get them all passed. I did not know that getting 12 bills through the Legislature was history making, nor did I know that Special interests, no matter how good, were on an unwritten "quota" system. This is the session that I joined the women seeking passage of the Women's State Equal Rights Amendment. My button on my clothing created much antagonism with the powerful Dempsey Barron who had helped me in 1974. Senator Holloway told me that I was hurting the legislation I was pursuing by getting involved with the ERA issue. I explained that the women legislators helped us pass the constitutional amendment the last night of the 1974 legislature, and that I was obligated to help pass the ERA. It made it to the Senate Floor and failed by just a few votes. In the next session the women decided to abandon the ERA amendment and focus on passing meaningful statutes that helped women. Frankly, I was relieved, and concentrated on the disability issues. Had they attempted another shot at passing the Florida ERA in 1976, I would have been helping. Prime Lobbyist on the following bills that are now Florida Law:
1974-1976 It was one of these years that the Retarded had a bill of rights bill at the legislature, but it did not have the 10 million nailed down to funded it. Two Dade County Senators sat on a subcommittee regarding this money. A very persistant lobbyist for the Association for the Retarded was Marcia Beach, now a judge in Broward County, lobbied me and almost forced me to attend that subcommittee and speak to Senator Graham and Senator Holloway, sitting members on the subcommittee, to get the money. Marcia Beach, bless her heart, saw something in me, and she knew that I could close the deal. I didn't know,but she did. I had recently written a letter to the editor on the Sunniland Training Center about the deplorable conditions for the retarded. My presentation to the subcommittee urging them to give the 10 million to the Bill of Rights funding was some presentation. The vote was taken and the two Dade County Senators voted yes for the money. The presentation I made did not take ten minutes and I learned how easy it was to score big bucks at the legislature. In later sessions I would be around to help fund people with disability programs. 1975 County Commission I had asked Commissioner Harvey Ruvin to introduce an ordinance giving the general public a vote to use one million dollars to retrofit existing buses with wheelchair lifts. My peers sandbagged me and came to the hearing, but asked that if money was to be spent, they would prefer to begin a door to door transporations program. I signaled Commissioner Ruvin that I would rather join this effort, than pursue the retrofit of buses. We left that meeting with the million dollar commitment to begin the Special Transporation Service (STS). The commissioners said that it did not have to go to the ballot as they had the money. In the following year Eddie Stienburg got a huge financial grant and the STS system was started. While I did not get the buses retrofitted, my issue that day began the finest STS system in the world. And in 2010 it is still the finest STS system in the world. 1976 Legislature An election year. I was the prime volunteer and unpaid lobbyist on the following bills sent to the Governor and were made law:
1980-1984 Date not clear At the request and urging of members of the Florida Paraplegic Association, I organized a picketing event at a Pantry Pride Grocery Store. The issue was iron posts to keep the shopping carts in and the wheelchairs out. We had this problem a lot, throughout our county despite the passage of a law in 1974 to have these posts removed. Our local building departments would not enforce the law. The picketing event included the full media of Dade County. While the picketing event was going on the Pantry Pride Admistrators sent a work crew with blow torches from Palm Beach County. Thanks to the Pantry Pride Administration the event went on for more hours than we planned. The media, came back the same day and filmed and photographed the workmen removing all the iron posts. Bob East, a famous Miami Herald photographer, brought back to the picketing event of a photo of me, holding a picket sign. He said the Miami Herald would not run the photo but he wanted us to have it. It was "snatched" by FPA member Gene Bybel, not to be seen again until an Awards Banquet in December. The FPA had blown the photo up and had it framed. It was given to me as an Award, with a second lifetime membership. The first lifetime memebership was given to me at another annual banquet for activism well done. The picketing event, got the attention of the building departments and the iron posts at too many grocery and retail stores began to immediately vanish. This was my last picketing event in Dade County, that I would organize. In 1990 the U.S Congress and Senate and George Bush passed the Americans With Disabilites Act, and such issues were moved into the courts by the Florida Paraplegic Association, Inc. Our organization was founded in 1957, and has been removing barriers ever since. One founding member is still alive and saw it all happen. 1985 State Legislature I returned with issues needing remedy. One was a necessary rewrite of Chapter 553, Part V, which I failed to accomplish until 1989. I was able to pass other important issues but the big one took five consecutive sessions. These are the following bills I pursued as the prime lobbyist. Please note that this session I simply got sponsors to offer amendments to solve issues:
1986 Legislature Once again full time, unpaid volunteer grass roots lobbyist for disabled issues. I was the prime lobbyist on the following two bills that became law:
1987 Legislature Successfully amended the Florida Lottery bill to insure that all lottery retailers would provide access to wheelchairs and all other disabilities.
1987 Led the effort to make sure all new public pay telephone installations would be accessible to all people with disabilities at the Public Service Commission. (A section of this 1987 rule was rolled back, where ADA law was misused, again, in an unadvertised, sneaky rule change, which could not be reversed with fair hearings and a presentation to the PSC. This dirty trick rule change by the PSC did not include a single notice to any disabled organization or entity. All of the Pay Telephone entities had ample information this rule change was proposed and going before the PSC.) 1988 Legislature Our bill, sponsored by Rep. Art Simon, providing access to every commercial business was recalled from its trip to the governor's office, gutted, and returned to the House. We had to accept it as it was the last day of the Legislature. Intact was the disabled parking section requiring blue disabled parking striping. This is what George Armitage, dying of lung cancer asked me to pass. He would live long enough to see his blue paint on disabled parking spaces. The lottery amendment of 1987 was removed. Both losses in this bill and the above major effort bill would become moot as we were pursuing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This was the year that the blue placard law was enacted. I had traveled to Washington DC to sit on a committee in the Department of Transportation to define the requirements of this placard, fulfilling a mandate by the U.S. Congress. Senator Souto was the sponsor at the Florida Legislature and I attended the committees as this bill sailed. Today, I am unhappy about the abuses of this blud placard, and intend to repair it in the 2010 or 2011 legislative session. 1989 Legislature
This bill gave the disabled interests everything that we came to the Legislature at that time in new construction and 'remodeling of commercial buildings. We also got the 29" clearance in single family housing in the master bedroom bathroom. Rep. Glickman was the sponsor, but the disabled advocates and the opposition worked together to get this fine law passed. Its passage was somewhat ceremonial on the House Floor, and ended my 5 year mission to upgrade this Florida Access Law. I might add that the opposition always was the Tallahassee based Florida Home Builders Association. This organizaton at the Tallahassee level makes Florida Home Builders look bad. The Miami-Dade Chapter of the Florida Home Builders were always supportive of our Accessiblity Building Code enhancements. 1989 Metro Dade 1989 County Commission At the Miami-Dade County Commisson, Peter Mainhiemer and I made presentations seeking the reversal of a Transportation Department and County Manager Plan to buy 95 buses WITHOUT wheelchair lifts. Peter made an outstanding presentation. I followed and told the commission we would not only sue, but I would begin shutting down the Metrorail Stations with civil disobedience tactics to draw attention all over America over this bus purchase. The Commissioners knew that I was serious and had the wheelchair people power to indeed begin shuting down the metrorail stations. That Committee decided to reverse the County Manager and Transportation Department and decided to order the buses with wheelchair lifts. The committee then voted that all future buses would be lift equipped. It took some years, but the bus fleet is 100% wheelchair lift equipped. Commissioners Harvey Ruvin took the lead for the buses with lifts and stated "De ja vou". He vividly recalled my efforts to put wheelchair lifts on existing buses in 1975, an effort that evolved into the creation of the Special Transportation Program. That day we got a million dollars to begin STS. Today, the annual budget for STS is 200 million dollars. The bus wheelchair lifts saved millions and millions as a round trip on STS in a wheelchair van is about $60.00. 1994 Metro Dade Served as a member of the Federal Dept. of Transportation "Handicapped Parking Regulatory Negation Advisory Committee which significantly contributed to establishing regulations to assure parking for persons with disabilities." (Quoted from the plaque from Samuel K. Skinner, Secretary of Transportation.) 1997 Submitted a Federal Complaint against the Busway to the Civil Rights Division of the Federal Department of Transportation. This complaint is still pending, with only minor sections having been addressed. One section required the complete revisit to all the intersections in South Dade that run parallel to the Busway. Now safe, usable curb cuts are at every intersection. If further action is not forthcoming, I will take the issue into the Federal Court. 1990 Washington DC ADA bill signing I was invited to the White House for the Americans with Disabilities bill signing by President Bush. I'm sure others who worked harder on this issue were not invited and I followed this by publishing the ADA story, complete with photos in a first issue of Dignity, and mailed it to every address I had of People With Disabilities. One of the photos of President Bush leaving the Whitehouse to make the long walk to the podium past about 4,000 people is in the photo gallery of this web site. I was positioned in the back row of this sea of humanity just to get a good photo of President Bush. I got as close as the security personnel would let me. 1992 Hurricane Andrew Civic Work I emerged as the volunteer coordinator of the Perrine Plaza food and supplies distribution center in front of Winn Dixie in the days that followed Hurricane Andrew. My assumed job was administration, to make our distribution system work smoothly, to use the emergency phones to bring donations of ice, clothing, water, food and other basic goods to distribute to our neighbors. I supervised the unloading of semi trucks and smaller trucks. The two major entities I worked with were Metro Emergency Management and the Salvation Army. It was the Salvation Army who came through with a continued supply and many truckloads of donated goods. Many of the volunteers who willingly put in long hours every day were neighbors I recruited to help out. Some of our best help came from men sent by the U.S. Air Force who arrived and asked what they could do. This fine unit made the distribution process run smoothly. Finally, the County sent a Parks Administrator to help out. This resulted in getting only one badly needed (and daily requested) pallet jack, which helped unload the trucks, especially long semi-trucks, faster. Hand operated pallet jacks are a vital necessity at volunteer food and supply distribution centers. Keep that in mind for the next national disaster! 1993 Legislature I returned to the legislature as the State wanted to make the Chapter 553, Part 5, Access Law conform to the Americans With Disabilities Guidelines. Which entailed huge rollbacks of years of my work. With a 60 day uphill effort we were able to retain the fine Florida Construction Standards, improve these standards as well as adopt the fine standards in ADA. During this session Department of Business Regulation Secretary Stuart and I both attended committee after committee to establish a Board of Building Code Inspectors. Only in a legislative session after Hurricane Andrew could such a measure pass. It did and our issue was signed by the governor. Later, I would try to use this Board with a complaint against Charles Danger, Miami-Dade Building Director. I got a one line letter back saying they did not cover this type of complaint. I am very much ashamed that I helped create another meanless Board, which just let's bad professionals off the hook, similar to the Engineering Board and the Florida Bar Association. 1994 Legislature I returned to the legislature, mostly to do defensive lobbying to protect Chapter 553, Part 5. Also, I got another bill amended that created the voluntary contribution listed on all auto registrations for the Special Transportation Service fund. This is the language that appears on all mail registration forms 2004 Legislature Denny Wood and Damian Gregory attended this session with a series of bills. We were unable to find sponsors for our issues under the 6 bill limit imposed by the Speaker of the House. We were instrumental in adding 5 million to the appropriations budget which had a 3 to 1 match of Federal money for the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation program. 2005 Legislature I attended this session alone, and again, was unable to find sponsors for a series of bills we had drafted. This session I was able to secures only 2.5 million for the Vocational Rehabilitation program with a 3 to 1 Federal match. I had attempted to add a million dollar amendment for getting quadriplegics out of nursing homes. That effort failed after an agressive lobbying effort with Rep. Bean, Chairman of a committee that had the power to add this amendment. 2005 Worked with the Department of Motor Vehicles Director Fred Dickenson and House Member Evers to insert language into major Department bill to halt the destruction of people with disabilities modified vehicles from being "crushed". Ricky Goff, former Present of the Florida Paraplegic Association called Denny Wood about this issue. This amendment was to stop the Certificate of Destruction on vehicles with people for disabilities modifications, some costing $50,000 after accidents. This allowed them to be reclaimed and repaired and sold back to people with disabilities at a low cost. This came as a request from former president of the Florida Paraplegic Association, Rick Goff. Ricky had attended one legislative session with me, and was helpful that year. He educated me and lobbied my by telephone to get this amendment into the Florida Statutes. Ricky, to day, still is buying wrecked vans, fixing them up and reselling them to people with disabilities at an affordable cost. This is the actual amendment that was passed: 319.30 (2)(b) However, if the damaged motor vehicle is equipped with custom-lowered floors for wheelchair access or a wheelchair lift, the insurance company may, upon determining that the vehicle is repairable to a condition that is safe for operation on public roads, submit the certificate of title to the department for reissuance as a salvage rebuildable title and the addition of a title brand of "insurance-declared total loss." The certificate of destruction shall be reassignable a maximum of two times before dismantling or destruction of the vehicle shall be required, and shall accompany the motor vehicle or mobile home for which it is issued, when such motor vehicle or mobile home is sold for such purposes, in lieu of a certificate of title, and, thereafter, the department shall refuse issuance of any certificate of title for that vehicle. Nothing in this subsection shall be applicable when a vehicle is worth less than $1,500 retail in undamaged condition in any official used motor vehicle guide or used mobile home guide or when a stolen motor vehicle or mobile home is recovered in substantially intact condition and is readily resalable without extensive repairs to or replacement of the frame or engine. Any person who willfully and deliberately violates this paragraph or falsifies any document to avoid the requirements of this paragraph commits a misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083. 2006 Legislature This was a session where I had upset the leadership of the House and Senate over the Capitol Report on all the ADA barriers. This year I did not try to get more money for the Vocational Rehabiltation program as I did not see where a single dollar helped any persons with disabilties in the two previous years. I was successful in getting the million dollars for quadriplegics, which was vetoed by Governor Jeb Bush This session would see my work get over one million dollars in a pilot program to assist the quadriplegics get out of nursing homes and into the mainstream. Governor Bush vetoed this appropriation. This veto story is at www.dignity4disabled.com, and will remain there until the death of Jeb Bush. I have had some unpleasant lobbying experiences from time to time, watched statutes I helped pass get gutted, but this veto was about the most mean spirited act I had ever encountered in my pro bono lobbying career. My only recourse was to write to his mother, Barabra Bush about her son's most wicked act. During this session I discovered the Police Officer Down Memorial in the capitol courtyard. I missed it in two sessions and I frequented the courtyard every day in the session. I decided to create a statue so that it would never be missed by anyone going into the Courtyard. I recruited a sculptor, told him what I wanted and he gladly began working on the model I had in my head. Two photo shoots later he had my concept in his mind too and went to work. It was unveiled on March 9, 2009. This story about the statute is at www.dignity4disabled.com. I might add, this is my first and last statue project. 2009 County Commission For the second time, the Miami-Dade County Commission had the Airport attempt to remove free parking for the disabled. This time I knew that the vote was 13-0 against us, but I went and spoke to the issue. The Airport had worked for this event for a year, with paid staff bending the ear of commissioners. We were clearly out lobbied. At least the Commission gave us a full hearing, and ultimately told the sponsor, they had came prepared to vote for her ordinance, but ought to withdraw it as they were going to vote no. In all my years of lobbying I never went into a committee or commission with the vote an certain defeat for people with disabilities, but we were able to completely turn the sitting commissioners around. Our presentations were of clarity, setting the record straight and showing how the parking perk was intergrated with the Special Transportation System. 2009 Legislature Did "back home" lobbying for no smoking in casinos. I had only spent two days at the session and spoke to committee Chairman Rep. Galvano, and half of the committee members. While I sent many e-mails to the the full House and Senate, I do not know the extent of my actions on this issue, but the following was added to the Seminole Casino Compact bill:
The Tribe and the State recognize that opportunities D. to 1. new Designate 2. a smoke-free area for slot machines at all new 3. for table games in its Facilities sufficient to respond to demand for such tables. Closing Statement In closing this above resume is only a partial resume. It leaves out the many ADA lawsuits, the too many appearances at the Miami-Dade Commission on ordinances and many presentations at other entities. Im trying to write a book about the Florida Civil Rights movement for people with disabilities. There is just too much activism to document. While I was always on the forefront, I cannot understate the many helpers and supporters along the way. Many have passed over to the other side and I miss them. Others still live and we continue on, never quitting a mission that we were given from the higher source. The above are the highlights. One of the problems is that it just goes on every day. The bottom line is that we Florida activitists laid the foundation for the Americans With Disabilities Act, an act that ultimately is used to do "take aways" of our fine florida laws or local programs. We have taken some losses. But I will work to get them back at the State Legislature. Our efforts lead the way for other states to follow.
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| Last Updated on Thursday, 09 December 2010 13:35 |