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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2012-7-18, Committee on People with Disabilities-Minutes MAYOR’S COMMITTEE ON PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES c/o Hawai‘i County Office of Aging, 1055 Kino‘ole Street,Suite 101, Hilo, Hawai‘i 96720 MINUTES Wednesday, July 18, 2012 – 10:00 a.m. The County of Hawai‘i Mayor’s Committee on People with Disabilities met at 10:00 a.m. in the ADRC Training Room, 1055 Kinoole Street, Hilo, Hawai‘i 96720, with Chair Paige De Lima presiding. MEMBERS PRESENT: Paige De Lima, Chair; Wesley Tanigawa, Vice Chair; Pauline Aughe, Chris Cholas, Edeltraud Hanoa, James Souza, Laura Tobosa. EXCUSED: Jessica Arruda, Jesslie Hook, Janice Mancini, Jean Navarro, Dareth Pung-Boteilho, Dr. Ron Wagner-Wright. OTHERS PRESENT AND GUESTS: Renee Schoen, Corporation Counsel; Alan Parker, HCOA; Sandra Arriola, HCOA; Teri Spinola-Campbell, Human Resources; Tara Trujillo; Donald Haumea; Gail Yoshishige, Joyce Imaino leonaMerle Sugahara, Christine TenBorge, Gene Gustafson. CALL TO ORDER The Chair called the meeting to order at 10:10 a.m. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF THE MAY 16, 2012 MEETING R. Schoen had three corrections – page 2, the second paragraph, should be R. Schoen stated the Court recently approved a ….The next line should be 20 remaining park facilities. Page 3, under Discussion regarding ….I wanted to make it clear that it was a desire to provide funding for the conference at the last meeting. MOTION:W. Tanigawa made a motion to approve the minutes with corrections. E. Hanoa It was seconded by . The minutes was approved. All All those in favor? . Oppose? None STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC (Agenda Items) No statements from the public. NEW BUSINESS P. De Lima stated that the agenda will be taken out of order and will start with Teri Spinola-Campbell’s report and then Alisa Mitchener’s report. Report of the County of Hawai‘i, Equal Opportunity Officer, ADA Coordinator Teri Spinola-Campbell T. Spinola-CampbellJoseph Kamelamela and , Deputy Corporation Counsel, had a conference call with Judge Kurren on July 13, 2012. A revised Transition Plan identified 204 curb ramps to be installed in Hilo, Waikoloa and Kona, which the County completed. Regarding an update on Richardson’s, Parks and Recreation said the administration is currently looking at providing additional funding to proceed with this project. It requires a supplement to the design that’s already been done, to address the issues relating to burials at this site and the historic status of this site. C. Cholas stated that Pahoa wasn’t on that list but a group of clients of the ARC of Pahoa identified several curbs in Pahoa town that they couldn’t access because they have wheelchair balance issues. Together with their Council representative, Fred Blas, they put in some curb ramp requests, and most of them are done. To get a group of people that have a disability meet with their council representative and get things done, that’s self-advocacy in action. Teri added that the curb ramp request program procedure is on the Department of Public Works’ website under Engineering. Anyone can request to have a curb ramp. Report of the County of Hawai‘i, ADA Recreational Specialist, Alisa Mitchener No report - Alisa has been absent per Teri. A. Lions Club Presentation by Greg Ayau No one from the Lions Club was present. B. Update of Ad Hoc Committees 1. Employment Ad Hoc Committee – T. Trujillo – James said that he is on the Employment committee and they haven’t had a meeting for quite some time. 2. Education Ad Hoc Committee – P. De LimaW. Tanigawa stated that there is no report for that. also added that we’re not doing the ADA Day. Laura 3. Transportation Ad Hoc Committee – – no report. 4. Recreation Ad Hoc Committee – P. De Lima said that Janice is not here and neither is Alisa so we just defer that for the next time. C. Cholas announced that DCAB’s Annual Access Conference will be at the Blaisdel Center on September 24 and 25 and is going to be on Recreation Facilities. He suggested that someone from the committee should attend. 2 T. Spinola-Campbell stated that it is on the 2010 Standards for Accessible Designs. It’s geared to designers, architects, engineers. Both Teri and Renee will be attending as well as P&R Staff. 5. Housing Ad Hoc Committee C. Cholas put together a draft of a recommendation that could be used to go to the Mayor regarding visitability. (Read draft letter.) It was decided that Chris and Edel would look into what features are already included in the Building Code before approving this recommendation. P. Aughe announced that they did a show for the disability and it will be airing on NALEO in the next couple of weeks. She’ll send that to Sandy, who will notify everyone. C. Board Meeting Attendance R. Schoen stated that this committee is in existence as long as the Mayor’s term is in existence. Mr. Souza has been on and lasted over the course of many mayor’s, as has Laura. One issue that came up was budgeting and being able to fund the ad hoc committees and attendance by committee members at certain events. The discussion will go towards the ability of the committee to fund mileage for ad hoc committee meetings, the ability to fund request for travel to conferences, in additional to regular mileage. The office also provides lunch for you. The Sunshine Law allows permitted interaction outside of a scheduled monthly board meeting. So, with that in mind, your rules allow you to have subcommittees, yet the Hawai‘i Revised Statutes says if you do have committees, they really should be meeting for a limited purpose and then disbanded. You guys kind of met as ad hoc committees in the beginning and kind of stopped. That’s kind of what I wanted to let you guys know before you began your discussion. P. De LimaL. Tobosa wanted to discuss board attendance. wanted to R. know what our by-laws say regarding attendance. According to Schoen , it doesn’t say anything about attendance, but if there is no quorum then you can’t meet. The Hawai‘i Revised Statute also provides that if there is a board member that continues to not attend meetings such that it prevents the board from making quorum, then that member can be excused (terminated). If we had a meeting in Kona and the video feed went down, we would be prevented from meeting because we agendized it that way. But now the new law is that you can have meetings via telephone. But if say Mr. Souza is going to participate in his home, he’s got to agendize his home and let the public into his home to participate. So one alternative is to have meetings scheduled at the County Building in Kona and then you don’t have to worry about the video. 3 P. De Lima would like to prioritize having a telephone conferencing from a Kona office and would like Jesslie to know about it. I think that we should just prioritize that for the last four months. Paige would like to dismantle all the ad hocs. ADA Day was postponed because we didn’t have a good response for help. ANNOUNCEMENTS P. Aughe An idea that had is to do A Day with the Mayor and film it. And in honor of October’s Disability Employment Month we do a video of me and anyone else who is interested, with the Mayor, going around Hilo and other areas just to give him a more 1-on-1 interaction in the perspective that he might not get without somebody who is disabled and also for the public to get some perspective too. And then do a 15 minute interview with him about what his ideas are in regards to serving people with disabilities. P. De Lima feels it is important for the Mayor to see and talk about the issues that people with disabilities have to deal with. Our thought is to have one of the meetings highlighted with that video and for the Mayor to speak on behalf of what P. De Lima his experience of his day with Pauline was. would like to discuss that and ADA Awareness Day at our next meeting. L. Tobosa had a concern from someone who attended the last meeting and was W. Tanigawa not aware that ADA Day was cancelled. apologized for that and will be sending out an e-mail to all the people apologizing for not informing everyone that ADA Day had been postponed. T. Trujillo interpreting for James who is saying that the interpreter should have a break pretty soon. BREAK D. Budget Planning for Fiscal Year July 2012 - June 2013 P. De Lima inquired if the committee would have a new budget when it A. Parker reconvenes with whoever the new mayor is. said it would be a new budget. What’s there now would go back into General Fund. Paige wants to take the next four months and do something to make a difference and achieve some goals. The ad hoc committees would provide their recommendation as they did last year. In October, make a pre-report and November do the final report, and then have a presentation to the Mayor. Do the final finale in November and have a big meeting. She also wanted to thank the public for coming to the meeting and told them that they were just as important as if you were sitting on the committee. A. Parker Regarding budget, stated that rather than changing budget line items, if changes are needed to fund a special event or project, a request can be made (budget exception form) to the budget review committee. 4 Mileage for ad hoc meetings, Kona meetings and activities P. De Lima wanted it on the record that if we have a meeting in Kona, and we have a bus that is going out to Kona, members should be riding the bus or carpooling so we shouldn’t really be having any mileage reimbursements. Alan stated that the way it’s done with the other committees is that if we’re providing the transportation, if you go on your own, then you’re on your own. E. Hanoa replied that she has vertigo and she could never ride the bus. Both Alan and Paige said that would be a valid exception. Committee approval would be necessary for anything else besides mileage to the meeting. It could be on a case-by-case basis. Alan stated we should just follow what the county has set up - if it’s not allowed, but there is a special need case, we can submit a request for exception to the committee and if it’s deemed important, it would most likely be approved. P. Aughe inquired if there is any way we could put this in the guidelines for the Mayor’s committee so that the next Mayor’s committee won’t have to revisit this issue. It’s already stated in there that these are the processes. R. Schoen The rules can be amended, but suggested that it just be a guideline that the committee adopt, and it be in the minutes. It’s something you follow and not really put in by rule. It would be more like a procedure that the staff of Aging would follow. MOTION:P. Aughe made a motion to add this as a guideline purpose for the L. Tobosa Mayor’s Committee to adopt. Seconded by . Discussion? None. All All those in favor? . Oppose - None. UNFINISHED BUSINESS P. De Lima would like every single board member to have a goal to put into a report. She feels that each individual on this committee has something to share. One of the goals that Paige really wanted to finish was having the Water T. Spinola-Campbell Department more accessible with the website. stated that the Water Department did fix their website, but only ADA accessibility, not to pay their bills online like Paige wanted. A. Parker Although it was a late start, stated the committee should be proud of what they did. The committee had a really good year with ADA Day. It was well publicized; you brought on somebody that put you on TV. So there have been a lot of positive things as far as the committee goes. Don’t feel like you have to apologize to anybody for your goals or what you folks have accomplished. You folks did a wonderful job. 5 Paige thanked Alan for his comments. She stated that this committee is a great committee and she’s proud of this committee. R. Schoen suggested using the minutes of February 1 where all your goals were expressed and have the ad hoc committees provide recommendations for consideration by the entire committee. Use that as a framework, incorporate all of that and come back next meeting with a report. ANNOUNCEMENT P. Aughe announced that the AHA festival is Saturday at the Prince Kuhio Plaza, from 10-3. You can participate in the Flash Mob, which is the first ever disabled and non-disabled flash mob that will be done in the County of Hawai‘i. Mar Ortaleza is the coordinator for that. The next meeting will is scheduled for August 29, 2012 ADJOURNMENT: Meeting adjourned at 11:30 a.m. Respectfully submitted. Sandra Arriola 6