Note:
This webpage is currently under construction. The remaining 2025 resolutions will be added to this page as the final editing is completed for each resolution.

Resolution 2025-7 Administration of the Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired

Whereas: Since 1902 The LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired (LightHouse), based in San Francisco, California, has provided critical services for people who are blind, deaf/blind or who have low vision ; and

Whereas: in spite of its long track record as a highly respected provider of services to the blind, deaf/blind and low vision communities, the receipt, approximately a decade ago a bequest of more than $125 million, and the acquisition of additional assets through the sale of the former LightHouse building at 214 Van Ness Ave. in San Francisco, the LightHouse has fallen into a pattern of large budget deficits which, if not reversed, could lead to the depletion of its financial reserves and its closure in a few short years; and

Whereas: even though the LightHouse Interim Chief Executive Officer stated during a town hall meeting held on April 24th 2025 that the root cause of the organization’s current precarious financial position is insufficient revenues: in response to this crisis the LightHouse Board of Directors and senior management team has instituted a series of deeply concerning cost cutting measures, including program reductions and mass layoffs: and

Whereas, these layoffs involve plans to replace certified rehabilitation professionals trained in the blindness field with Occupational therapist who lack the specific skills for the teaching of individuals who are blind, deaf/blind or low vision; and

Whereas, the rationale for replacing these certified professionals with occupational therapists is to obtain reimbursement through insurance providers, in complete disregard of the negative impact on the quality of services for the consumers being served; and

Whereas: in the past decade Lighthouse employees have indicated the work environment is characterized by low morale, high staff turnover, numerous credible reports of management engaging in vindictive disciplinary actions and abusive behavior, resulting in successful and expensive legal claims against the Lighthouse; and

Whereas: In the past decade, the LightHouse has invested in the purchase of an expensive office building in downtown San Francisco and a second manufacturing facility in Alameda, opened offices in Eureka and on the Ed Roberts Campus in Berkeley, acquired the assets of the Earl Baum Center, in Santa Rosa, and renovated the Enchanted Hills Camp near Nap a, all of which have resulted in the depletion of a large portion of its financial reserves; and

Whereas; Since 2016 the Former Chief Operating Officer who is now the Interim Chief Executive Officer, has been intimately involved in, and has often been the driving force behind, the destructive decisions and actions of the Lighthouse senior management team,

Now therefore be it

Resolved by the California Council of the Blind, in convention assembled virtually this fourth day of May, 2025, that the Council calls on the LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired to reverse its policy of self-destructive and reckless cost cutting and layoffs and shift its financial recovery efforts to fully funding and appropriately staffing its blind rehabilitation and community service programs; and be it further

Resolved, that this organization calls upon the Lighthouse board of directors to begin the process of revitalizing the organization by immediately commencing the search for a new Executive Director, who shall be a qualified person who is blind, deaf/blind or low vision; and be it further

Resolved, that the Lighthouse board of directors immediately remove and replace the Interim Chief Executive Officer: and be it further

Resolved: that the Council calls on the LightHouse Board of Directors to strengthen its oversight of the LightHouse; and be it further

Resolved, that, should the Lighthouse board of directors elect not to proactively and immediately address the concerns expressed in this resolution, the Council president shall work with concerned CCB members to find ways of more broadly publicizing the problems outlined in the foregoing to the community served by the Lighthouse, and be it further

Resolved: copies of this resolution shall be sent to each member of the LightHouse Board of Directors.