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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2003-08-01 Committee on People with Disabilities Minutes Action Required : MAYOR'S COMMITTEE ON PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES 1. Letter to M. Ben Î L. Scadden 2. Follow-up with Friday, August 1, 2003, 10:30 a.m. P&R on portable Kona Mayor's Office Conference Room luas Î A. Levin PRESENT: Michael Gleason, Chair; Ted Yamanaka, Vice-Chair; Elizabeth Mason, Lawrence Scadden, James Souza EXCUSED: Betsy Whitney, Secretary; Laura Tobosa GUESTS: Emily Childress, West Hawaii DD Council; Chuck Fleming, DCAB Board Member; Susan Golden, Himeo Hanato, Karen Hand, John Hartman, H.A.W.K.; Herman Harvey, Andy Levin, Mayor's Office; Alisa Mitchener, Recr Department of Parks and Recreation; Sonia Scadden, Malina Thorpe, Interpreter CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order at 10:45 a.m. An introduction of committee members, staff, and guests was made. APPROVAL OF MINUTES E. Mason made a correction to the minutes on page 3, C. ADA Coordinator's Report, second paragraph regarding a news release was published in the newspaper. Since the news release was published in both the Hilo and Kona newspapers, the sentence should reflect "newspapers." L. Scadden made a motion to accept the minutes of July 3, 2003 as corrected. T. Yamanaka seconded the motion. The motion was passed. STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON AGENDA ISSUES J. Hartman expressed his concerns about the Personnel Program Specialist position. He felt that having a driver's license requirement is discriminatory. S. Golden announced a voting machine demonstration to be held on at 2:00 p.m. at Hale Halawai. Secondly, the law says if you get portable toilets in any grouping, at least one toilet must be ADA accessible. She felt it was unacceptable that the county is recommending portable ADA compliance unisex toilets if a county facility does not have an accessible toilet facility. A. Mitchener offered an application for the Personnel Program Specialist for interested people to review. She also has a copy of the ADA Compliance Procedures available for review. TREASURER'S REPORT The treasurer's report was reviewed. E. Mason made a motion to accept the treasurer's report as submitted. L. Scadden seconded the motion. The motion was passed. CORRESPONDENCE A. Memorandum to MCPD from the Office of the Corporation Counsel regarding Legal Services of the Corporation Counsel and Inter-Departmental Work Request Form B. Letter to A. Levin from Harry Kubojiri, Deputy Police Chief, regarding the first and second quarter statistics (January to June 2003) for the Volunteer Disabled Parking Enforcement Program A. Levin reported that Sergeant Apele will be attending the next meeting in Hilo as well as the next meeting in Kona to respond to any questions or may have. C. Letter to MCPD from Michael Ben, Director of Personnel, in response to the ADA Coordinator's Position L. Scadden expressed concerns about the driver's license requirement. There's enough case law under Section 504 which shows it would not stand in court. Therefore, he suggested removing this provision or to indicate t accommodation will be provided. However, his major concern with the Personnel Program Specialist description is that it's obviously primarily a personnel and equal employment opportunity position. The issue is dealing with county ADA compliance, specifically with Title II and dealing with citizens with disabilities access to county programs and services. He would like to know to whom would the individual findings regarding ADA compliance or lack thereof be reported. E. Mason stated that she wants to make sure that ADA is adequately covered. C. Fleming said that the job description should incorporate at least program access. L. Scadden offered to draft a letter to M. Ben with a copy to the Mayor addressing these concerns. D. Email reply to MCPD from Paula Mochida E. Email to MCPD from Pamela Mizuno, Deputy Director of the Department of Parks and Recreation regarding portable luas S. Golden expressed concerns that it does not comply with the law. The law says that whenever you have portable toilets in any grouping, at least one ADA accessible portable toilet must be available. A. Levin offered to follow up with the Department of Parks and Recreation. SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS A. EDUCATION/PUBLIC AWARENESS SUBCOMMITTEE Î M. GLEASON M. Gleason reported that the honorees for the Hilo recognition luncheon will be contacted and invited to the luncheon in September. 2 B. RECREATION SUBCOMMITTEE M. Gleason reported that MCPD needs to find a committee member to spearhead this subcommittee. C. TRANSPORTATION SUBCOMMITTEE Î B. WHITNEY No report. D. MEMBERSHIP SUBCOMMITTEE Î M. GLEASON/L. TOBOSA/B. WHITNEY M. Gleason reported that the subcommittee will need one more month and will provide recommendations at the next meeting. A. Levin stated that if MCPD decides not to make recommendations, then the committee should inform the Mayor so he can proceed and make appointments. J. Hartman mentioned that in the past the County Council preferred representation on the committee from each district. A. Levin explained that since this is an advisory committee, representation from each district is not required. However, the Mayor is sensitive to having East and West Hawaii representation. UNFINISHED BUSINESS A. VOLUNTEER PARKING VIOLATION ENFORCEMENT PROGRAM UPDATE Î A. LEVIN No report. B. UPDATE FROM DCAB Î C. FLEMING/N. OLESEN No report. C. ADA COORDINATOR'S REPORT Î A. LEVIN A. Levin reported that the ad came out for the Personnel Program Specialist. He will address the concerns about the driver's license requirement to the Department of Civil Service. In the meantime, interested persons should apply for the position even though he/she does not have a driver's license. The deadline to apply for the position is Monday, August 4. The proposed salary range is betw $69,700. There will be two voting machine demonstrations by the Office of Elections to try to select the most appropriate voting machine for persons with vari disabilities. The Kona demonstration will be held on Monday, August 4, at 2:00 p.m. at Hale Halawai. The Hilo demonstration will be held on Friday, August 8, at 10:00 a.m. at the County Building. A. Levin said that he will follow up with the Department of Parks and Recreation on the portable toilets. S. Golden pointed out that whenever an event requires luas, it has to be accessible. D. PARKS AND RECREATION REPORT Î A. MITCHENER A. Mitchener reported on the following: 3 1. The summer fun program has just ended. She visited 12 park sites, helped children with disabilities in the program, and supported families with referrals to community resources. 2. Created curriculum and lead activities for Summer Fun ability aw approximately 400 kids. The children designed accessible playground parks, which are displayed in three community exhibits. 3. Researching past practices for access to recreation programs which includes policy changes. 4. Collaborating with different community agencies that are providing participants with skills trainers and personal assistants. 5. Tracking requests for new program ideas. There has been heavy d after school program for kids with disabilities, daily between 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. 6. Requests for adult programs include ceramics, drop in programs for games and crafts, yoga, camping, horseback riding, easy exercise, oral history, and teen mentoring programs. Inclusion is the goal. 7. Community input for the lending library is complete. She will forward it to the Assistive Technology Resource Center for a grant for a lending library of recreation equipment. 8. Bids are being received for all-terrain wheelchairs. 9. In the fall, she will offer awareness training and review the transition plan with other Recreation Divisions. 10. Next month she will share her goals and objectives for 2004 base transition plan for access to recreation programs. E. Mason stated that she would like the division and staff training done in both East and West Hawaii. A. Mitchener responded that she would keep it in m summer fun training. NEW BUSINESS A. PROJECT IMPACT S. Golden reported that her original thought came from the National Organization on Disability that every location needs a committee to look at emergency procedures. In addition, people with disabilities need to be involved in the committee and report to the Mayor. She suggested creating a committee to look at our emergency procedures which shall include people with disabilities in emergency planning. 4 M. Gleason replied that last year MCPD wrote a letter to Bill Davis, Civil Defense Administrator, recommending that a new Civil Defense Committee for Emergency Preparedness be created. B. Davis said that he did not believe it was necessary to create a new committee, but he was very willing to include persons with disabilities in civil defense planning projects. A. Mitchener stated that people forgot what project impact was and suggested calling it "emergency preparedness." Perhaps a subcommittee could be established in MCPD. M. Gleason suggested seeking a subcommittee to see if there is any recommendation that MCPD could make. He would like to put this on the agenda for next month as emergency preparedness and ask the full member establishing a subcommittee. L. Scadden offered to spearhead th with assistance from E. Mason and C. Fleming. A. Levin mentioned that Troy Kindred is the new Civil Defense Administrator so MCPD might receive a different answer if it raises these issues again. C. Fleming mentioned that he knows of an excellent manual on emergency preparedness for disabled people which is available from the Center on Disability. He offered to obtain the website and forward the information to J. Viernes for distribution to MCPD members. J. Souza brought up a concern about police officers stopping deaf people. There have been several incidents already. He felt that police officers need training about how to approach deaf people properly. He suggested an identification card issued by the police department for hearing impaired people. He has not heard anything from DCAB about this issue. C. Fleming offered to follow up with DCAB. STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON NON-AGENDA ISSUES S. Golden asked the status of the curb cut near the Kona Alii Condominium. The manager of the condominium told her on May 1st that it would be completed within 90 days. As of this date, there has been no construction and she is wondering what happened. A. Levin reported that tentative drawings have been submitted by the condominium to him which he forwarded to DCAB. DCAB wrote to the condominium representative directly, pointing out what needs to be done, and the county is now waiting for the condominium to come back with detailed plans. J. Hartman mentioned that he has a copy of letter dated July 28, 2003 from F. Wai to Mr. Bill Stockton regarding the Kona Alii Condominium. F. Wai tried to tell them some of the issues that they didn't address or didn't address properly. (This is the letter th A. Levin was referring to.) 5 H. Hanato raised a concern that there is no disabled changing room at the Kona airport for adults. The only changing table available is for infants. Therefore, his family ends up changing their 17-year old son in public. The Honolulu airport has one disabled restroom, but there is no changing table. J. Hartman stated there is a family room for families to use for care assistance at the Hawaiian Airlines section in Kona. C. Fleming suggested that H. Hanato write a letter to the airport to provide a changing room. A. Levin recommended that H. Hanato check out the room that J. Hartman is referring to and call A. Levin to let him know whether the room is satisfactory. A. Mitchener welcomed E. Childress from the West Hawaii DD Council since it has been awhile since the council has been fully staffed. ANNOUNCEMENTS The next meeting will be held on Friday, September 5, 2003, at 10:30 a.m. in Hilo. Location to be announced. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 11:50 a.m. RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED, _______________________________ JEAN VIERNES, STAFF SECRETARY 6