From:
Dedicated Memorial Parents
Group
Phil
Ellenbecker, Director
Public Hearing on Bill SB-80
Malinda’s Traveling Sales
Crew Protection Act
Amended for accuracy
Testimony of Phil
Ellenbecker:
Before I begin I would like
to thank the senate committee members for giving me the opportunity to speak on
behalf of Senate Bill SB-80 this morning.
I would also like to thank
Senator Erpenbach, and his staff for helping to bring this very important
legislation to your attention today.
And last I would like to
thank the Department of Workforce and Development, the Department of
Agriculture Trade and Consumer Protection for their continued support of this
bill and for their ongoing work with this most serious problem.
I would like you to keep in
mind that the SB-80 bill is structured to protect Wisconsin children, young
adults, and homeowners from the brutal violence that has plagued the traveling
door to door sales industry both her in Wisconsin and across the country. The
bill is a matter of public safety and as such requires that the protection and
safety of
I
can tell you from the depth of my soul that every waking minute of every day
Malinda is in my heart. She was a beautiful child with a wonderful future. She
was loved by many and had so very many dreams.
Now all we have are memories of a time that is gone forever. Her life and part of mine ended that night. I buried Malinda not more than five blocks from where she lived and I drive by the cemetery taking my son Dustin to his friend's house almost every day. And still to this day we become so very quiet as we pass by her in the car. I think that if you have children then you know what I am trying to say but it is not something that can be put into words and it is not something that you can experience unless you have
lost
a child.
The
death of my daughter affected my son severely. One of the hardest things that I
have ever had to do in my life was to tell my eight-year-old son Dustin that
his sister Malinda was dead and in heaven with the angels.
It
has been eight years this past March 25 since the horrible van crash that took
my daughter's life and the lives of six other children. Since
Just as recent as
The
traveling door-to-door sales industry is totally out of control. There are
currently no federal or state laws regulate the industry.
Since November of
2006 there have been 2 murdered magazine sales agents, 1 sales agent death by
drug overdose, 5 rape cases, 2 sexual assaults, a kidnapping/attempted sodomy
case, and two more van rollovers.
Because of the
continued and escalating crimes the Dedicated Memorial Parents Group has added
a wanted page to our traveling sales crew’s information website: (www.travelingsalescrews.info .)
Currently we have logged 3 unsolved murders and 3 unsolved rapes. All directly
related to the door too door sales industry.
In
total since the Dedicated Memorial Parents Group started monitoring these
crimes in 2002 we have logged over 200 criminal felony cases and 74 deaths. The
crimes are almost always against homeowners and range from fraud, burglary and
felony assault to sexual assault, rape and murder.
After
the
Since
my daughter Malinda and the other six kids were killed on
The traveling door to door
sales industry has become a silent killer of youths in
Many labor officials,
critics, and even our own former Attorney General Jim Doyle have coined these
groups: "teen sweat shops of the streets." Many of the crews are on a
daily basis are breaking child labor and state solicitation laws.
Kids who have the misfortune
of being recruited into these crews are lured in and lied to. Many are
abandoned, physically and mentally abused, introduced to drugs, and cut off
from their families and friends. Girls are forced to have sex with the managers
and are told that if they do not comply they will be abandoned without any
money sometimes thousands of miles from their homes.
One magazine sales crew out
of
Those that can get out before
it is too late survive, but with horror stories that haunt them for life.
Many of these kids never come
home.
The dirty business of child exploitation
is alive and well in the door to door sales industry. Children and young adults
across this country are at risk of being falsely lured into this brutal and
immoral business.
But Children and young adults
are not the only victims of this out of control and unregulated industry. Our
research has uncovered an alarming trend in violent crimes being carried out
against anyone unfortunate enough to open their door to a traveling sales crew
member. Many of the individuals hired by the unscrupulous fly-by-night sales
crew recruiters have criminal backgrounds. Our records show that these
individuals have committed some of the most heinous crimes imaginable, crimes
that have destroyed lives and devastated families across the country.
But the real villains of this
national tragedy are the clearinghouses and publishers that on a daily basis
continue the dirty business of sales by exploitation without legal
entanglement.
The clearinghouses and
publishers maintain their distance from any legal entanglements by insisting
that the kids working on the sales crews are independent contractors when in
reality the passage of money flows directly from the crew subscriptions, to the
clearing house and then on to the publishers. This arrangement is not by
accident. It has been thought out and planned this way in order to minimize any
legal and liable connection between the kids selling products door to door and
the clearinghouses and publishers. This arrangement also virtually eliminates
any rights that the kids would have if they were considered employee’s of the
sales crews. By manipulating the grey area of law the clearinghouses and
publishers can literally get away with murder. The children have no rights, no
minimum wage, no insurance, and no benefits and are treated as indentured
servants and slaves. The independent contractor arrangement also saves the door
to door sales companies a lot of money. The Southwestern Company out of
Last year the Southwestern
Company protested the SB-251 bill during a house small business committee
hearing after the bill had been unanimously passed through the Senate. There
argument was that it would affect their so called “business model.” What they
were actually protesting was the fact that they do not want to make their sales
agents employees of the company because it would cost them money and cut into
their profits.
On
Last year Southwestern stated
that they wished to work with us to find some reasonable way for them to
continue operating under their current “business model.”
What they really meant was
that they wanted to be exempt from the SB-80 legislation. Southwestern did not
help us with this legislation, they tried to destroy it. Southwestern is not
interested in the well being and safety of
This entire process of
watching what happened to our bill last year makes me sick. How could a representative
of the State of
During the house small
business committee hearing last year a UW of Wisconsin recruiter working for
Southwestern company was asked if she was aware of any problems with their
industry. Her answer was no. In reality besides the Grewe accident there was
another vehicular accident
on
The Southwestern Company has
also been banned from 2 college campuses, the University of
The
Three
years ago the Dedicated Memorial Parents Group worked with the Wisconsin
Department of Education and together with the 12 CESA's in Wisconsin we
distributed Dedicated Memorial posters to every high school in the state in an
attempt to warn our kids and their parents about the many dangers involved with
door-to-door sales. But education alone will not solve this problem and will
certainly not protect our homeowners and consumers.
The
magazine and cleaner crews come into our state, recruit our kids, rip off our
consumers and commit crimes against both the kids and homeowners. They fraud
our consumers by marking up the price of a subscription as high as 300% over the
actual cost and they lie to the homeowner, telling them they are from the local
high school and working toward a scholarship.
This
is not a republican or a democratic issue, it is not a big business issue, this
is about protecting our children and homeowners from exploitation and crime.
Senator
Erpenbach has created a piece of legislation (SB-80) that we believe would be a
very good bill for the State of
I
am asking you for my daughter Malinda and for the other six kids that died on
March 25, 1999 and I am asking you for all of the thousands of children and
families that have been brutalized by this most violent and immoral industry.
Thank you for your time.
And thank you for your
consideration in this most important matter.
Sincerely,
Phil
Ellenbecker
Director
The
Dedicated Memorial Parents Group
Contacts:
Dedicated Memorial Parents
Group
Phil Ellenbecker
Home Phone: 608-845-1711
Work Phone: 1-608-838-4197
x161
Fax: 608-838-8367
Email: trollpt@charter.net
Websites:
For further information on
door to door sales crews: