Missouri Code of State Regulations › Title 13 - DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES › Division 40 - Family Support Division › Chapter 91 - Rehabilitation Services for the Blind (RSB) › Section 13 CSR 40-91.010 - Business Enterprise for the Blind

Current through Register Vol. 49, No. 14, July 15, 2024
PURPOSE: This amendment simplifies the definition of
				  creditable service, reflects changes in facility licensing levels, updates the
				  definition of vending machine to include electronic transactions, changes
				  minimum requirements to reflect the current Review of Locations form in
				  procedures and policies, and removes additional forms.
PURPOSE: This rule establishes the guidelines for
				  administration of the Business Enterprise Program of the Family Support
				  Division, Bureau for the Blind, as mandated by the Randolph-Sheppard Act, as
				  amended through 1974, 34 CFR 395, sections 8.051 and 8.700-8.745,
				  RSMo.
(1) Legal Authority.
				The Business Enterprise Program (BEP) of the Family Support
				Division/Rehabilitation Services for the Blind is administered according to the
				Randolph-Sheppard Act, as amended through 1974,
				34
				CFR 361.50, 34 CFR 395, sections
				8.051
				and 8.700-8.745, RSMo. The Family Support Division/Rehabilitation Services for
				the Blind administers the Business Enterprise Program according to the terms of
				this rule.
(2) Definitions.
(A) "Administrative fee" means an assessment
				against the operating income from direct sales in vending facilities, including
				income from manager-serviced vending machines and from commissions that vending
				companies pay on proceeds from vending machines located in facilities in which
				there is an on-site manager.
(B)
				"Assigned income" means income from commissions that vending companies pay to
				the nominee on proceeds from vending machines in vending facilities in which
				there is an on-site manager. The nominee disburses this income to the manager,
				according to subsection (15)(C).
(C) "Blind person" is a person whose central
				visual acuity is no more than twenty/two hundred (20/200) in the better eye
				with best correction or whose field of vision in the better eye is restricted
				to a degree that its widest diameter subtends an angle no greater than twenty
				degrees (20°).
(D)
				"Rehabilitation Services for the Blind" is the unit within the Family Support
				Division that administers the Business Enterprise Program. Rehabilitation
				Services for the Blind is referred to in this rule as RSB.
(E) "Business Enterprise Program" means the
				total vending facility program within the Family Support
				Division/Rehabilitation Services for the Blind. The Business Enterprise Program
				is referred to in this rule as the BEP.
(F) "Cafeteria" means a full-line food
				service facility in which the food is prepared on-site.
(G) "Certificate of Training" means the
				certificate that RSB presents to a blind person who successfully completes
				vending facility manager training. The certificate indicates the level of the
				training which a blind person has completed and the level at which the state
				licensing agency (SLA) may license the blind person, as stated in subsection
				(2)(T).
(H) "Change fund loan"
				means an interest-free loan from the nominee to be used for the manager's
				initial operating funds.
(I)
				"Convenience store" means a vending facility that has over-the-counter sales
				but does not have on-site food preparation that requires the manager to handle
				unpackaged products, except for hot and cold beverages.
(J) "Creditable service" means only those
				periods when a manager is employed as a full-time contracted BEP
				manager.
(K) "Deputy director"
				means the person in the Family Support Division/Rehabilitation Services for the
				Blind who directs the administration of all service programs of RSB and who is
				referred to in this rule as deputy director.
(L) "Direct competition" means the presence
				and operation of a vending machine or a vending facility operated by an entity
				other than a blind manager on the same premises as a vending facility operated
				by a blind manager. Vending machines or vending facilities operated in areas
				serving employees, the majority of whom normally do not have direct access, in
				terms of uninterrupted ease of approach and the amount of time required to
				patronize the vending facility, to the vending facility operated by a blind
				manager shall not be considered to be in direct competition with the vending
				facility that is operated by a blind manager.
(M) "Family Support Division" is the state
				licensing agency that is designated by the Secretary of the United States
				Department of Education to issue licenses to blind persons for the operation of
				vending facilities on federal, state, and other property. The Family Support
				Division is referred to in this rule as the SLA.
(N) "Equipment" means occupational fixtures,
				furnishings, machinery, tools, and accessories that are required in the
				operation of a vending facility. Equipment has a life of at least one (1) year
				and can be used repeatedly.
(O)
				"Executive committee of blind vendors" is the executive body that is elected by
				the Blind Vendors of Missouri, as discussed in section (6). Blind Vendors of
				Missouri is referred to in this rule as BVM.
(P) "Fair minimum return" means the amount
				RSB establishes as the minimum level of net income that a manager derives from
				a vending facility.
(Q) "Federal
				property" means any building, land, or other real property owned, leased, or
				occupied by any department, agency, or instrumentality of the United States,
				including General Services Administration, the Department of Defense, the
				Department of Energy, and the United States Postal Service, or any other
				instrumentality wholly owned by the United States.
(R) "Individual location," "installation," or
				"facility" means a single building or a self-contained group of buildings. In
				order for RSB to consider two (2) or more buildings to be a self-contained
				group of buildings, the buildings must be located in close proximity to each
				other and a majority of the employees housed in any of the buildings must move
				regularly from one (1) building to another in the course of official business
				during normal workdays.
(S)
				"Initial inventory" means the marketable merchandise and consumable supplies
				that RSB determines is necessary for a manager to begin operation of a new or
				substantially altered vending facility.
(T) "License" means the written instrument
				the SLA issues to a blind person and that confirms that person's eligibility to
				operate a vending facility on federal, state, or other property. A Level 1
				license is for the management of vending machine banks in which all income is
				derived from commissions. A Level 2 license is for the management of
				convenience stores.
A Level 2.5 license is for the management of a
				  manager-serviced vending machine route or a convenience store. A
				  manager-serviced vending machine bank requires a Level 2.5 license. A Level 3
				  license is for the management of vending machine banks, convenience stores, and
				  snacks bars. A Level 4 license is for the management of vending machine banks,
				  convenience stores, snack bars, and cafeterias. A Level 5 license is for the
				  management of military dining. The SLA shall issue a license only to those
				  blind persons who are citizens of the United States, whom RSB certifies, as
				  defined in subsection (2)(G), as qualified to operate a vending facility, who
				  have successfully completed a six- (6-) month probationary period as an active
				  facility manager, and who are in need of employment.
(U) "Licensee" means a blind person to whom
				the SLA has issued a license to operate a vending facility on federal, state,
				or other property.
(V) "Management
				services" means supervision, inspection, quality control, consultation,
				accounting, regulating, in-service training, and other related services
				provided on a systematic basis to support and improve vending facilities
				operated by blind vendors. Management services do not include those services or
				costs that pertain to the ongoing operation of an individual vending facility
				after the initial establishment period.
(W) "Manager-serviced vending machines" means
				vending machines for which the manager is responsible for purchase of product,
				filling, and maintenance of the machines. The manager receives all revenue,
				less administrative fees, from sales and pays all operational expenses except
				for repair of vending machines.
(X)
				"Net income" means operating income plus income from commissions, less
				administration.
(Y) "Nominee" means
				a nonprofit corporation which, through a written agreement with the SLA, acts
				as the agent of the SLA in providing services to vending facility managers in
				the BEP.
(Z) "Normal working hours"
				means an eight- (8-) hour work period between the approximate hours of 6:00
				a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.
(AA) "Operating income" means income from
				operations, less operating expenses.
(BB) "Other property" means property which is
				not federal property or state property and on which the SLA establishes or
				operates vending facilities by the use of any funds derived in whole or in
				part, directly or indirectly, from the operation of vending facilities on
				federal or state property.
(CC)
				"Over-the-counter sales," including "manager-serviced vending machines," mean
				any transaction in which a customer purchases products which a manager has
				procured for the purpose of resale within the vending facility.
(DD) "Probationary period" means the first
				six (6) months of active facility management by a certified graduate of the BEP
				training program.
(EE) "Property
				management" means a person or instrumentality that grants a permit, contract,
				or agreement to the SLA for the operation of a vending facility at a specific
				location.
(FF) "Set-aside funds"
				means funds which accrue to the nominee from all unassigned income from vending
				machines located on federal property and from the administrative fee that the
				nominee assesses against the operating income from direct sales in all vending
				facilities and from the administrative fee that the nominee assesses against
				commissions paid by vending companies on vending machine proceeds in all
				vending facilities in which there is a manager on-site.
(GG) "Snack bar" means a vending facility
				with limited on-site food preparation and over-the-counter sales.
(HH) "State property" means all real
				property, or part of real property, that is owned, leased, rented, or otherwise
				controlled or occupied by any department, agency or body of the state of
				Missouri, including roadside rest areas, except property of Department of
				Mental Health. State property does not include a building in which less than
				one hundred (100) state employees are, or will be, located during normal
				working hours; a building in which less than fifteen thousand (15,000) square
				feet of interior floor space is to be used for state government purposes or in
				which services are to be provided to the public; or a building that state
				government employees are to occupy for less than three (3) years.
(II) "Supplies" means items that are
				expendable, necessary to carry out the day-to-day operation of a vending
				facility, and that are used on the premises.
(JJ) "Unassigned income" means income that
				accrues to the nominee from commissions that vending companies pay on proceeds
				from vending machines on federal, state, and other property in which there is
				no on-site manager. The nominee uses these funds for manager and program
				benefits according to subsection (15)(D).
(KK) "Vending facility" means a business that
				the SLA establishes for the sale of products. It may consist, exclusively or in
				combination, of automatic vending machines, convenience stores, snack bars, or
				cafeterias. A vending facility may consist of only a portion of a building, it
				may be comprised of one (1) or more locations within a building, and it may
				encompass more than one (1) building.
(LL) "Vending facility manager" means a blind
				person who has been licensed by the SLA and who has a Vending Facility
				Manager's Agreement. Vending facility manager is referred to in this rule as
				manager.
(MM) "Vending Facility
				Manager's" Agreement means a written document, entered into by the licensee,
				the SLA and the nominee that states the terms and conditions for the licensee
				to be on-site to operate a vending facility at a specific location. Vending
				Facility Manager's Agreement, a copy of which follows this rule, is referred to
				in this rule as manager's agreement.
(NN) "Vending machine bank" means one (1) or
				more coin-operated or electronic transfer of funds vending machines that
				dispense articles or services and that are located in one (1) or more locations
				in one (1) or more buildings that RSB designates as a vending facility. Vending
				machine bank does not mean those machines that are operated by the United
				States Postal Services for the sale of postage stamps or other postal products
				and services, or machines located on federal property that provides services of
				a recreational nature.
(OO)
				"Vending machine income" means proceeds from vending machine operations on
				federal, state, or other property where the machines are operated, serviced, or
				maintained by, or with the approval of, a department, agency, or
				instrumentality of the United States, Missouri, or other public or private
				entity. Vending machine income also includes commissions that a commercial
				vending company pays to the nominee on proceeds from vending machines that the
				commercial vending company operates, services, and maintains on federal, state,
				or other property for, or with the approval of, a department, agency, or
				instrumentality of the United States, the state of Missouri, or other public or
				private entity.