2005-12-02 Committee on People with Disabilities Minutes

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T. Spinola-Campbell stated that she read in the West Hawaii Today about the door to door service that will be operating for people with disabilities in Puna and Kona for $2. She checked with T. Brown to see if there will be difficulty charging the $2 fare because free transportation is available on the island. The FTA said they can charge the $2 fare because its a different service, its door to door service versus commuter service. D. NOMINATING TEAM M. GLEASON/L. TOBOSA/B. WHITNEY L. Tobosa reported that the nominating team suggested re-advertising in the newspaper. However, there has been no response from interested applicants. L. Scadden said if anyone knows someone from the Konaside who is interested in serving on this committee to contact J. Viernes or B. Kossow from the Kona Mayors Office for an application. UNFINISHED BUSINESS A. VOLUNTEER PARKING VIOLATION ENFORCEMENT PROGRAM UPDATE SGT. D. VERIATO J. Lawhead reported that the volunteer officers are doing well and they just finished their third year. There are four volunteer officers in Kona and only one in Hilo. Sometimes they are busy and there are times when they rarely issue a ticket. Behind Lulus and Kona Alii Plaza are two areas with problems and they have been told to go there often to issue citations. Its kind of scary for the volunteer officers to approach delivery truck drivers who are illegally parked in or across the reserved parking spaces. The police patrols have been told to look into those areas. J. Lawhead said an improvement is the replacement of their vests with t-shirts saying Hawaii Police Department and their identification tag which makes them look moreofficial.Oneoftheirbiggestproblemsisgettingpropertyownerstocomply with properly marked disabled parking stalls and access aisles. The volunteer officershavenoclouttogetthemtocomplywiththerules.SheandMajorJ.Dawrs sent a letter to T. Spinola-Campbell explaining the situation and wondered whether MCPD or private individuals could help in this situation. T. Spinola-Campbell said she forwarded J. Lawheads report to Ron Amundson, Disability Rights Hawaii and they discussed it at their meeting this past week. Donald Thomas was also present from Hawaii Disability Rights and he seemed interested in this issue. She spoke to DCAB and they thought of writing to more corporate headquarters that they are not getting a response at local levels. R. Amundson wanted to check with all the businesses to see if they received a letter from DCAB and they can bring it forward to Hawaii Disability Rights. The report was also forwarded to the Planning Department because they can investigate businesses who havent done what the plan says it suppose to be doing. B. UPDATE FROM DCAB C. FLEMING/N. OLESEN/K. SHAW The November report from K. Shaw, DCAB was distributed to MCPD members. 3