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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006-06-02 Committee on People with Disabilities Minutes COMMITTEE ON PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES Friday, June 2, 2006, 10:30 a.m. Kona Mayors Office Conference Room PRESENT: Lawrence Scadden, Chair; Ted Yamanaka, Vice-Chair; Michael Gleason, James Souza, Julia Staten, Laura Tobosa EXCUSED: Betsy Whitney, Secretary; Denise Cowdrey, Jack Matsui GUESTS: Malina Dravis-Tucker, Interpreter; Susan Golden, Alisa Mitchener, Recreation Specialist-Department of Parks and Recreation; Scott Nago, Office of Elections; Sonia Scadden, Teri Spinola-Campbell, ADA Coordinator (Equal Opportunity Officer); Marichu Paz, CNA; Dwayne Yoshina, Office of Elections CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order at 10:30 a.m. An introduction of committee members, staff, and guests wasmade. APPROVAL OF MINUTES T. Yamanaka made a motion to accept the minutes of April 7, 2006. M. Gleason seconded the motion. The motion was passed. STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON AGENDA ISSUES None. TREASURERS REPORT The treasurers report was reviewed. M. Gleason made a motion to accept the treasurers report as submitted. T. Yamanaka seconded the motion. The motion was passed. CORRESPONDENCE A. Letter from Police Chief Lawrence Mahuna to L. Scadden regarding the Police Departments role in enforcing current parking violation laws B. Letter from MCPD to Myles Miyasato, Chair of the Cost of Government Commission in response to the commissions questions TEAM REPORTS A.EDUCATION/PUBLICAWARENESSTEAM€M.GLEASON No report. B. RECREATIONTEAM €L. SCADDEN Noreport. Hawaii County is an Equal Opportunity Provider and Employer C. TRANSPORTATION TEAM € B. WHITNEY No report. UNFINISHED BUSINESS A. VOLUNTEER PARKING VIOLATION ENFORCEMENT PROGRAM UPDATE € SGT. D. VERIATO Sergeant D. Veriato submitted program statistics for the Volunteer Disabled Parking Enforcement Program for January to March 2006 which was distributedto MCPD members with theApril agenda. B. UPDATE FROM DCAB € C. FLEMING/N. OLESEN/K. SHAW The May report from K. Shaw, DCAB was distributed to MCPD members. C. ADA COORDINATORS REPORT € T.SPINOLA-CAMPBELL T. Spinola-Campbell provided her report as the ADA Coordinator for May 2006. The April report will be mailed with the minutes. ADA Coordinators report attached. D. PARKS AND RECREATION REPORT € A. MITCHENER A. Mitchener provided a report on Administration, the Elderly Activities Division, Aquatics, and Recreation. The report is attached. E. EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS € L. SCADDEN S. Golden reported about a new group that has been established called Disaster- Disability. The World Bank is doing it and it looks at disaster preparedness for vulnerable people around the world. S. Golden mentioned that the biggest problem in any disaster is communication. The problem with cell phones is you have to be able to recharge it. The first thing to go down in a disaster is electricity. Therefore, she recommended to DCAB that they ensure every recreation site have a backup generator for electricity. NEW BUSINESS A. UPDATE ON IMPROVEMENTS FOR ACCESSIBILITY € DWAYNE YOSHINA/JOAN BIRD, OFFICE OF ELECTIONS D. Yoshina reported that in 2002 the President of the United States signed into law the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which has amongst other things a requirement that voting places and services be accessible to individuals with disabilities. This is not a new mandate orrequirement. There is the Voting Rights Act, American with Disabilities Act, Elderly Voters Act, and numerous acts that have ruled society towards making opportunities for independent voting a requirement. Unfortunately, its a requirement that has been put on the back burner many times. The Office of Elections has tried to implement various portions of the act over the years. For example, accessibility assessments have been done at polling places in themiddleandlate1990s.Theyfoundthatmanyprivatefacilitiesthatarebeing used are not as open to accessibility as they should be. With HAVA, the Office of 2 Elections has purchased temporary accessibility items so that polling sites are physically accessible. However, there are some sites that are impossible to make accessible such as the Hakalau Gymnasium. The site has been moved to a nearby Buddhist Temple, but it was found to be inaccessible also. The Office of Elections will provide curbside voting in those cases where it is physically impossible to have a physical accessibility. For curbside voting, there will be a bell to ring and someone will come out to you and give you a ballot. The Office of Elections has an inventory of all accessible sites and pictures of all polling places. They have shared all their findings with the Department of Education (DOE) when they use the DOE facilities and the DOE has used them to make their sites accessible. These pictures are also on the web page and all of the polling sites in the State of Hawaii will be on the web page at some point in the future. A person will be able to go on the web page and look up the polling site, address, map to the site,andaballot.ThewebsiteisfullyaccessibleandTVadsaresupposedtobe captioned. Within the polling place, they have auxiliary aids kit. In 2004, these kits were available, but some of the precinct officials were not committed to getting these kits out and informing people it was available. Therefore, the training this year will stress the importance of the auxiliary aids kit. A new kit is available with a magnifying glass and a signature matrix for people who cannot see. If a person wishes to use an electronic voting device, one electronic voting machine will be available at each voting site statewide. These voting machines will also be available at the early vote sites. A person will have the option of voting using a paper ballot or the electronic voting machine. The Office of Elections has worked with DCAB very closely and they have retained a staff member in the Office of Elections, but that person is housed at DCAB. D. Yoshina said he has begun to understand that developmental disabled people are also citizens and they deserve the right to vote independently. They are trying to address those needs now which he didnt think that any of the elections industry people have even begun to address. They are now revisiting this whole area of the developmentally disabled and they are meeting with service providers in the mental health area. They are in the process of developing policy for the County Clerks so they understand that being nearly adjudicated as being incapacitated does not automatically remove somebody from the voting rolls. There are also political party members who are questioning whether care home residents have the capacity to vote. The Office of Elections has an equipment loan program during a non-election year. All of the temporary accessibility equipment may be borrowed by various agencies and returned before the election period. The Office of Elections is trying to recruit people with disabilities to service precinct officials. Some of the requirements are that a person has to be able to lift 25 pounds 3 and be able to read and speak English. The Office of Elections is also looking for volunteers to work as poll workers. A precinct official will receive $85 a day, a voting assistant official will receive $95 a day, and a chair will receive a $110 a day. The training for precinct officials includes a portion of that training that has to do with working with people with disabilities when they come to the polling place. The meeting was recessed at 11:30 a.m. The meeting was reconvened at 11:40 a.m. S. Nago reported that one of the requirements of HAVA was accessible voting for all individuals. There was a deadline of January 1, 2006 to meet that requirement. The State actually went ahead and did it for the 2004 election. Unfortunately, the contract for 2004-2006 was cancelled at the end of 2004 because of protest by a vendor. Therefore, to meet the 2006 requirement the State had to go out with anotherRFPtogetanothersystemintothepollingplace.In2005,theLegislature passed a requirement for a voter verifiable paper audit trail which means that the electronic voting system need to print out a paper receipt for the voters to verify prior to casting your ballot. This will be a new feature that people will see on the electronic voting system this election. J. Souza asked if all the people who work in the voting office will have training and know how to use the voting machine when the RFP is accepted. S. Nago said there was a time issue during the 2004 election, but there is more awareness now. A. Mitchener asked if the Office of Elections is keeping track of how people with disabilities vote, how many people are using the different kinds of devices, and how many people with disabilities use absentee ballots. S. Nago responded that they keep track on how many times the voting machine was used, but not by whom. T. Spinola-Campbell asked if the Office of Elections received any complaints statewide during the last election from people who felt it was inaccessible. D. Yoshina said that 85 percent of the people who used the voting machines liked the machines. There is a small minority that said they didnt like the machine because they were more concern about whether they could trust the machine. However, they received a lot of good comments from individuals with disabilities who were really happy to be able to vote. D. Yoshina reported that he is working with Joan Bird whether to have the outreach workers attend a training session. They have a statewide training program and a statewide manual. The vendors will be providing onsite training for poll workers and the chairs. The County Clerks Office work very closely with the Office of Elections in the training process. S. Scadden asked if there is an age requirement for a poll worker. D. Yoshina responded that a poll worker needs to be a registered voter or pre-register at 16 4 years old. A person can pre-register to vote if he or she is going to be 16 by June 30. D. Yoshina reported that there is also a fundraising opportunity for groups as long as they have a tax-exempt status. M. Gleason commended D. Yoshina for his dedication and commitment for people with disabilities. D. Yoshina added that the County Clerks Office and their staff should be commended also. All the County Clerks Office has a TTY phone. T. Spinola-Campbell asked about access for people with disabilities under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act providing services for people that are limited English proficient. D. Yoshina said that all of the voting machines have the mandated languages on them. The Office of Elections will normally recruit people who speak the language in thatparticularprecinct.OnElectionDayonOahu,theyhaveanelectioninformation center that has language entered within the center. All of the election related materials in the polling place are separated into mandated languages. However, the County of Hawaii is not covered under those languages. STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON NON-AGENDA ISSUES None. ANNOUNCEMENTS L. Scadden and T. Yamanaka will be attending the 2006 Disability Access Conference on June 8-9, 2006 in Honolulu. The next meeting will be held on Friday, July 7, 2006, at 10:30 a.m. in the Aupuni Center Conference Room. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 12:00 p.m. RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED, _______________________________ JEAN VIERNES, STAFF SECRETARY 5