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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005-01-07 Committee on People with Disabilities Minutes COMMITTEE ON PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES Friday, January 7, 2005, 10:30 a.m. Aupuni Conference Room PRESENT: Lawrence Scadden, Chair; Ted Yamanaka, Vice-Chair; Denise Cowdrey, Michael Gleason, Jack Matsui, James Souza, Laura Tobosa EXCUSED: Betsy Whitney, Secretary GUESTS: Malina Dravis, Interpreter; Andrea Johnson, CNA; Alisa Mitchener, Recreation Specialist-Department of Parks and Recreation; Sonia Scadden, Teri Spinola-Campbell, ADA Coordinator (Personnel Program Specialist); Charles Taliferro, Laila Tamimi, Landscaper Architect-Hawaii Volcanoes National Park CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order at 10:35 a.m. L. Scadden reported that MCPD members received a letter from Mayor H. Kim offering reappointment. Those members who did not decline the opportunity will continue to serve. An introduction of committee members, staff, and guests was made. APPROVAL OF MINUTES The December meeting was cancelled due to lack of a quorum. L. Tobosa made a motion to accept the minutes of November 5, 2004. M. Gleason seconded the motion. The motion was passed. STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON AGENDA ISSUES None. TREASURER’S REPORT The treasurer’s report was reviewed. M. Gleason made a motion to accept the treasurer’s report as submitted. T. Yamanaka seconded the motion. The motion was passed. CORRESPONDENCE A. Letter from Mayor H. Kim to MCPD in response to installing automatic doors L. Scadden reported that MCPD sent a letter to the Mayor in November suggesting that County Building entrance doors be more accessible to people with disabilities. He also suggested that the county investigate the possibility of securing funds through the Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) which can be used for making emergency facilities such as the fire departments and police stations accessible to people with disabilities. Hawai‘i County is an Equal Opportunity Provider and Employer SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS A. EDUCATION/PUBLIC AWARENESS SUBCOMMITTEE – M. GLEASON M. Gleason reported that this subcommittee did not meet this month. B. RECREATION SUBCOMMITTEE – L. SCADDEN L. Scadden reported that this subcommittee did not meet this month. However, there have been correspondence and telephone calls among D. Cowdrey, A. Mitchener, and himself. C. TRANSPORTATION SUBCOMMITTEE – B. WHITNEY No report. L. Scadden reported that he is interested in finding out about some of the new changes supposed to be made for transportation in Kona. T. Spinola-Campbell reported that effective January 3, 2005 all Hele-On bus routes from Hawaiian Ocean View to Kawaihae are free. The new bus schedules will take effect in February. New routes will allow transportation from the Kona airport and Kona hospital. D. Cowdrey added that the route from Pahoa into Hilo is free for two years. UNFINISHED BUSINESS A. VOLUNTEER PARKING VIOLATION ENFORCEMENT PROGRAM UPDATE – SGT. VERIATO Sergeant D. Veriato submitted program statistics for the Volunteer Disabled Parking Enforcement Program for the year 2004 which was distributed to MCPD members. B. UPDATE FROM DCAB – C. FLEMING/D. JACKSON/N. OLESEN The December 2004 and January 2005 report from D. Jackson, DCAB was distributed to MCPD members. C. ADA COORDINATOR’S REPORT – T. SPINOLA-CAMPBELL T. Spinola-Campbell provided her report as the ADA Coordinator for November and December 2004. ADA Coordinator’s report attached. L. Scadden said that The Arc of Hilo is involved with the bottle bill. He assumes that considerations are given to accessibility issues because someone has raised it to DCAB. M. Gleason replied that all of their sites will be accessible and all of their employees working at those sites have to have a year’s experience working with people with disabilities. L. Scadden suggested some kind of publicity because the community needs to know about accessibility. M. Gleason reported that the bottle redemption centers which will be operated by The Arc of Hilo are: Keaau Transfer Station, Kealakehe Transfer Station, Waimea Transfer Station, Hilo Transfer Station, Waiohinu Transfer Station, Keauhou Transfer Station, and Puako Transfer Station. 2 D. Cowdrey questioned how do persons with disabilities that don’t drive get to the transfer station to redeem their bottles/cans? In California, they have curbside service or reachable machines available in grocery stores for bottle redemption. M. Gleason said he didn’t know and he hopes someday in the future there will be curbside service, delivery service, or pickup service for persons with disabilities. The bottle redemption centers are a new system and hopefully all issues could be addressed. L. Scadden said that MCPD should continue to track this issue and make sure information is disseminated on what is available. D. PARKS AND RECREATION REPORT AND ADA GUIDELINES UPDATE – A. MITCHENER A. Mitchener reported on the following: She offered staff training/briefing for 16 of the new intercession staff. She offered observations and assessments at four sites islandwide for 11 children with disabilities. One resulted in a formal recommendation for evaluation for special education at the parent’s request. Created a behavior assessment kit for the Parks and Recreation children’s program. Created a playground supervision checklist for the recreation staff to use in order to provide safe and inclusive playground supervision. The Recreation Division had a walk in collaboration with the Start Living Healthy program at Panaewa Zoo on December 29, 2004. Approximately 150 people registered and there were several people attending who had disabilities. In the past, wheelchairs were available for people to use. However, wheelchairs are no longer made available to the public due to a liability ruling by Corporation Counsel. Working with T. Spinola-Campbell in collaboration to purchase an assistive listening system for Parks and Recreation. Part of their goal is to make sure all new equipment is compatible with other systems used throughout the County. She attended two CPASS meetings. Research has included locating training resources for recreation staff, rentals of assistive listening systems, and recreation grants for funding adaptive recreation equipment and training material. A. Mitchener reported that the Department of Justice has asked for public comments on the new ADA Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG) published in July by the Access Board. Public comments are due by January 28, 2005. The public has a chance to comment on recreation facility issues such as swimming pools, golf courses, and playground equipment. She would like to offer a collection of information to the Recreation Committee to come up with some comments from MCPD. 3 L. Scadden suggested that MCPD members provide comments as individuals because of the upcoming deadline. He is interested in looking at the current guideline and at the questions. J. Matsui asked how long it takes to implement all these programs that A. Mitchener is talking about. A. Mitchener said she does not know the timeline from receiving public comments to then making it into law. L. Scadden clarified that the law is the same as the ADA and the regulations will be used to enforce the ADA. After some discussion, A. Mitchener suggested forwarding the questions to J. Viernes to forward to MCPD members for individual comment. DCAB has a committee looking at the new ADA Accessibility Guidelines, but they chose not to comment on recreation questions since the changes are minimal. E. EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS – L. SCADDEN No report. F. EAST-WEST ISLAND VIDEOCONFERENCING OF MCPD MEETINGS L. Scadden reported that MCPD has decided not to pursue videoconferencing at this time primarily because if a video link collapsed, then the meeting would have to be cancelled. D. Cowdrey said that she understood from the Sunshine Law training that if all committee members were on one site in Hilo, MCPD could still continue to have the meeting for members in Hilo if the video link went down in Kona for members of the community. But, MCPD couldn’t have members of the committee in two different sites. L. Tobosa stated she understood previously there was no videoconferencing site in West Hawaii. L. Scadden noted that the Kona Mayor’s Office conference room and a state office in Kona have that capability. L. Scadden reported that MCPD will continue to meet as one committee and alternate between East and West Hawaii. M. Gleason asked if MCPD could use the travel budget to pay for airline tickets to travel from Hilo to Kona roundtrip on Island Air for $38 instead of claiming for mileage. L. Scadden asked J. Viernes to check on any provisions from the county. A. Mitchener stated that she wanted to share information on a videoconferencing meeting that she attended for the Veteran’s Advisory Committee held in the County Councilroom. The visual was not useful and there was no one manning the equipment to zoom in on who’s talking. It just showed a picture of the room and a lot of it was tables and lights. Her consideration is for the interpreter to be able to know who is talking from the other site. Training would need to be done on the other site to identify them before they speak. Arrangements would have to be made with the 4 videoconference scheduler to reserve the site. However, a person needs to be assigned to each site to man the equipment. The meeting was recessed at 11:35 a.m. The meeting was reconvened at 11:40 a.m. NEW BUSINESS A. MCPD COMMITTEE NAMES L. Scadden reported that we should not be using the word “subcommittee” because the subcommittee meetings would be subject to the Sunshine Law and require public announcements prior to the meetings. After some discussion, MCPD suggested changing “subcommittee” to “team.” L. Scadden reminded MCPD members to notify J. Viernes if he/she is not able to attend a meeting. He suggested that MCPD members call the day prior to the meeting if possible. STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON NON-AGENDA ISSUES C. Taliferro raised concerns about his driver’s license number that was recently assigned to him and the wrong identification photo placed on his driver’s license renewal. L. Scadden responded that someone obviously made an error. He asked MCPD for guidance and comments to provide to C. Taliferro. J. Matsui suggested that C. Taliferro inquire assistance from Corporation Counsel. A. Mitchener suggested the Legal Aid Society and Hawaii Disability Rights as other possible agencies to seek assistance. A. Mitchener recommended that the MCPD meeting be published on-line for the County newsletter. J. Matsui pointed out that a notice is published in the newspaper. ANNOUNCEMENTS The next meeting will be held on Friday, February 4, 2005, at 10:30 a.m. in Kona. Location to be announced. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 12:00 p.m. RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED, _______________________________ JEAN VIERNES, STAFF SECRETARY 5