HomeMy WebLinkAbout2012-9-19, 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, September 19, 2012 – 10:00 a.m.
The County of Hawai‘i Mayor’s Committee on People with Disabilities met at
10:20 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, Edeltraud Hanoa, Jesslie Hook, Jean Navarro, James Souza.
EXCUSED:
Jessica Arruda, Dr. Ron Wagner-Wright, Chris Cholas, Laura
Tobosa.
ABSENT:
Janice Mancini, Dareth Pung-Boteilho.
OTHERS PRESENT AND GUESTS:
Renee Schoen, Corporation Counsel;
Woody Kita, HCOA; Sandra Arriola, HCOA; Teri Spinola-Campbell, Human
Resources; Jesse Floyd, DD Council; Sheree Matheson, Interpreter; Donald
Haumea; Gail Yoshishige, leonaMerle Sugahara, Mar Ortaleza.
CALL TO ORDER
The Chair
called the meeting to order at 10:20 a.m.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF THE JULY 18, 2012 MEETING
P. De Lima
called for approval of the minutes.
MOTION:J. Navarro
made a motion to approve the minutes. It was seconded
E. Hanoa
by . The minutes was approved. All were in favor. None opposed.
STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC (Agenda Items)
No statements from the public.
NEW BUSINESS
Proposal to change meeting date to the third Friday of the month.
W. Tanigawa
proposed changing the meeting dates to the third Friday or
Friday’s in general because of the inability to get an interpreter for the usual time
on Wednesday’s. Discussion ensued, and it was decided to keep it on
October 17, the third Wednesday, with Sheree doing the sign interpretation.
Ad Hoc Committee Reports
Employment ad hoc committee:
J. Navarro
stated that the most important thing for their committee is
meeting with the HR person from the County to try one last time to give
some more input as to why the county applications are really difficult for
the disabled population to utilize. Mayor Billy Kenoi was given a lot of
good information, formally and informally about the economy and how it
effects our population, employment wise. The disabled are the last hired
and the first let go when things get tight. Two people on the committee
have recently been employed. They both had disabilities and were
serving because they wanted to tell us how hard it was to get a job.
Another person on our committee is Val Poindexter who is running for
County Council who has a daughter in our program. She really gets what
it’s like to have to try to maneuver through the system. So if she wins her
election, that’s wonderful for us.
Jean stated the committee learned that our community health centers
were not at all ready to receive persons with hearing impairments to get
services. So with the right resources some headway was made about
services. This was done through the committee.
Education ad hoc committee:
P. De Lima
stated that they didn’t have anything to report.
Transportation ad hoc committee:
E. Hanoa:
There is no report since the committee has not met.
Recreation ad hoc committee:
No report.
Housing ad hoc committee:
No report.
Planning for October and November meetings and further meeting
It was decided that the committee would use the goals the they submitted in the
February meeting, and present a report showing accomplishments and
recommendations that the committee wants to see happen. Everyone should
have their preliminary report for the October meeting and have a presentation to
the Mayor in November.
Report of the County of Hawai‘i, ADA Recreational Specialist,
Alisa Mitchener
T. Spinola-Campbell
stated that she spoke with Alisa who is off island but
th,
reported that the last Mobi Mat day is on Thursday, the 27 if she’s back by then.
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Report of the County of Hawai‘i, Equal Opportunity Officer, ADA
Coordinator, Teri Spinola-Campbell
T. Spinola-Campbell
reported that DCAB conducted two training sessions for
County employees. One was on the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design
and Accessible Recreation Facilities. Francine Wai and Mona Higa were
instructors. The second training was Effective Communications with instructors
Christine Pagano and Lisa Ann Todd from Sprint Relay. We hired an ADA
student helper to assist the departments with website accessibility issues and
also conducted two classes for our employee on making pdf documents
accessible.
The Center for Disability Studies, the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, is working
on a project that will make access and functional need tips available to first
responders electronically and it will also include community resources. They will
be requesting a list of all the resources within the county so it would be great to
obtain contact information for your agencies. The Center for Disability Studies is
currently assessing a voluntary data base which allows people with disabilities to
self-register and provide information about themselves. The data base is not
maintained by any County department or agency, or State department or agency.
It’s maintained by a company and the information would be shared with first
responders on an as-needed basis. It’s good because the people who want to
use that data base have to register themselves and input information that is
pertinent for first responders to have. The Project Manager for these projects is
Dawn Skaggs.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
J. Navarro
announced that the ARC of Kona will be having a bazaar on
November 17 in Kealakekua on the Konawaena School campus. This is a
fundraiser for the people in the group home in Captain Cook that was burglarized
earlier this month. The website is www.arcofkona.org if anyone wants to make
donations.
W. TanigawaJesse Floyd
introduced Jesse Floyd. is the new representative
for East Hawai‘i and West Hawai‘i and for the Developmental Disabilities Council.
ADJOURNMENT
Paige adjourned the meeting at 10:50 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Sandra Arriola
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