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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-07-31, 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 31, 2013 The County of Hawai‘i Mayor’s Committee on People with Disabilities met at 10:10 a.m. at the Aging and Disability Resource Center at 1055 Kino‘ole Street, Hilo, Hawai‘i 96720. MEMBERS PRESENT: Paige De Lima, Chair, Wesley Tanigawa, Vice Chair; Pauline Aughe, Chris Cholas, Janice Mancini, Laura Tobosa. ABSENT: Jessica Arruda, Raelene Souza, James Souza, Dr. Ron Wagner-Wright. OTHERS PRESENT AND GUESTS: Teri Spinola-Campbell, Human Resources; Sandra Arriola, Aging; Jesse Floyd, DD Council; Sam Nagasawa, Maureen Denning, Fred Stone, Debbie Ward, Ron Amundson, Donald Haumea, Gail Yoshishige, Martin Hodapp, Marianne Hodapp. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order at 10:10. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF THE JUNE 26, 2013 MEETING P. De LimaL. Tobosa called for approval of minutes. moved to approve the J. Mancini minutes. seconded it. All were in favor. None opposed. Minutes approved. STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC P. De LimaRon inquired if there were any statements regarding agenda items. Amundson , secretary with Disability Rights Hawai‘i, a non government organization, had some suggestions regarding the letters from the Access Ad Hoc Committee. For Mass Transit an important issue is a lack of taxis with wheelchair accessibility. There have been discussions with Mass Transit for over 20 years regarding increasing service to people with disabilities, including sort of a handivan type service that would be able to carry people with disabilities. The institution of the drop off points at the bus stops is new and it may change the legal requirements of Mass Transit for service to people with disabilities. He feels it would be appropriate to raise the question to Mass Transit if they are aware of any legal responsibilities that they may have to provide something like lift taxis, lift van taxis, something like handivans. The buses all have lifts now and that’s really good, but there’s a need for another kind of transportation that the disabled have been promised and it hasn’t come through for a very long time. So C. Cholas if you could bring that up. stated that what we want is to set up a time where Tiffany from Mass Transit can meet with our committee and that would be one of the areas we would consult with her and explore that area along with the other areas. D. Ward stated that she made dozens of calls from the mainland where her husband was at a rehab facility trying to find out whether there was any service to take them with a motorized wheelchair from the airport to their home in Kurtistown when it was time to return. They found Hana Hou Handivan but now that they’ve closed, there wouldn’t be anything. Being a tourist destination, she feels it’s rather astonishing that we wouldn’t provide any services whatsoever for people who are coming from the mainland and don’t have any services in terms of getting their wheelchairs from one place to another. She felt this was something that maybe the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority should look into as well as the Mayor’s group. She’s also been working with Alisa Mitchener about the access to the pools with lifts. She thanked the committee for being here. R. Amundson commented that it would be helpful to let the people that are being invited know ahead of time some questions that are going to asked of them so that they may be able to prepare for it better than if you just kind of spring it on them. With respect to the Chief of Police there have been difficulties historically with police interacting with disabled members of the community. And this especially includes deaf people and people with autism or similar disabilities. I think there was a dramatic case of a deaf man who was arrested because of small traffic infraction. He wasn’t allowed to communicate with anyone. He was pretty much just held down for quite a long time. And it was completely inappropriate. P. De Lima stated that they had problems like that where a gentleman with R. Amundson Downs Syndrome was handcuffed and he later died. felt it was important and worth discussing with the Chief whether they have any training for officers. It should be regular training, not just once and then assume that they’re going to be okay. Sort of renewal training for dealing with people that have different abilities. P De Lima felt it would be nice to have a directory for people with disabilities. NEW BUSINESS Review Recreation Committee revised draft letter to Mayor Kenoi regarding renovations at Richardson’s Beach Park C. Cholas As understood it is already in the Transition Plan to do the access, but they have renovated the building there for classrooms ahead of the beach J. Mancini access. According to the Mayor felt that getting the building done first was more important because the children need it as a place for learning. After that he was going to work on the access to the beach. Chris thought the intent of the letter was just to prioritize because it is in the Transition Plan to do it eventually, but it keeps having other things coming up ahead of it. Paige felt the 2 letter should be more specific to beach access instead of the Federal Grant. There was more discussion and the committee would like access to the beach be the priority now since people have been waiting all these years for beach access. There are a lot of resources for children but nothing for the disabled – no beach access for people with disabilities. If it finally came to fruition, this would be the first time that people with disabilities had beach access on the Big Island. F. Stone stated that there were over 40 people waiting to get into the ocean on S. Nagasawa Mobi Mat day at Richardson’s. agrees with making this a regular thing instead of only three moths of the year, one day a week. There is no wheelchair accessible beach and here is the perfect place for it. Pauline suggested having a page of supporting documents or quotes. So it was decided that the intent of the letter is good – maybe taking out some technical stuff and having an appendix, and then simplifying the letter that there is a need for a beach that has wheelchair accessibility and from recent events it is evident by the amount of people who show up for beach days, and it should be made the highest priority for renovation at Richardson’s over any other renovations. Ron will help Janice with rewording, etc. Chris thanked Janice for working on the letter. REPORT OF AD HOC COMMITTEES 1. Access Committee Letter to Mass Transit Agency was read by Pauline C. Cholas suggested after the first bullet, add: eg, wheelchair accessible taxis and handivan service. In the letter, just extend an invitation to one of our upcoming meetings. Pauline inquired if the letter should state - please expect a call from Paige De Lima, Chair. There was no more discussion about the letter except getting dates for the next meeting. Letter to Police Department was read by Chris Some of the changes that were discussed: For the second paragraph after such as: add under that a bullet – police awareness and training of the police department for interacting and communicating with people with various disabilities including those with communication impairments. This was suggested by Pauline. Jessie suggested that the second paragraph could be – The Mayor’s Committee on People with Disabilities advises the Mayor on issues and programs that affect those who have disabilities who live in Hawai‘i County. The first bullet – policies, I’d probably delete that because police, they enforce laws. The second one being – the Police Department’s actions to enforce the law regarding illegal parking in designated parking stalls for people with disabilities, particularly in recreational and shopping areas. The last paragraph – We hope you will be able to…- I’d delete all the way down. Pauline stated to share an overview of police interaction in relation to people with disabilities. Letter to Public Works was read by Pauline The letter was fine the way it was, but just add that Paige will contact them. There was no other discussion. 3 C. Cholas recommended the approval of the three invitations to the guest speakers with corrections. It was seconded by Wes. All were in favor. None opposed. Letter to Mayor Kenoi Regarding Awareness Day Letter was read by Pauline. The committee discussed different things they could do with the Mayor like going shopping with James, with Dr. Ron crossing the streets, or Pauline, Janice and Chris, with wheelchairs going into a store that’s not really accessible. And after all that go down to Richardson’s to tie in with beach access day. Pauline will be the contact person for the letter. P. De LimaP. Aughe asked for a motion to approve the letter. made a motion to C. Cholas approve and it was seconded by . All were in favor. None opposed. Motion was passed. When the date is set, Paige will contact Ilihia who is the Public Relations person from the Mayor’s Office. 2. Emergency Preparedness Committee P. De Lima inquired if Jesse goes to the Civil Defense station for emergency preparedness and if he has relations with people that have special needs. Jesse stated that he works with the individual within the framework of the skills they need in order to being safe. The county is putting out the AFN-TIPS which is an app for accessibility to professional responders. The first responders can access the information - their medical needs, their physical limitations, behavioral needs issues, dietary, etc. And that app is going to be statewide. On the Big Island, the point person is Mar Ortaleza. If you like, he will come and he will present that application to you. According to Chris there will be an emergency preparedness collaboration between Civil Defense and the Puna Action Committee. They will be using Keaau High School and will be showing different aspects of being prepared for emergencies. This is for the rural areas such as Leilani Estates and Fern Acres where they’re really trying to encourage the neighborhood associations to be more on top of getting involved with the first responders. Some of those people have gone to Oahu to get training. And they inform the residents in their subdivision what’s available in terms of emergency, evacuation, shelter. Communication/Education, Housing, Employment Committee Because the understanding from legal advisor is that if there is no active objective on an ad hoc committee, then we should do away with it, it was decided to discontinue Communication/Education, Housing, and Employment Committees for now. Recreation Committee The Recreation Committee designed the letter so that’s done. Wes stated that at the last meeting Alisa mentioned discussing an activity to recognize persons in the community who provide services to people with disabilities. Since Alisa is not here it was decided to wait until she is present. 4 REPORT OF THE COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I OPPORTUNITY OFFICER AND ADA COORDINATOR, TERI SPINOLA-CAMPBELL Contacted the Police Department regarding the concerns about illegal parking in the accessible space and access aisle of Coconut Island and asked for increased surveillance and citations in the area for people that were parking illegally. Received a positive response from the police. The Department of Parks and Recreation is also considering placement of barriers outside of the access aisle in the parking lot at Coconut Island to discourage parking in the access aisle. As long as you’re outside the access aisle, you can put something up. So a lot depends on the space that’s available. Work on the accessible parking space and the curb ramp at the entrance to the University Heights Park in Hilo is scheduled to start this week. This week the Highways Division of Public Works starts paving the shoulder from the bus stop to the driveway to the Hilo Medical Center. Teri and Alisa attended training with the facility access unit staff from DCAB – it was with the CERT volunteers, the community emergency response team volunteers. They had a survey on emergency shelter. They used the ADA checklist for polling places, cause it had a nice kind of survey document that’s available on line at www.ADA.gov . The Department of Justice has postponed issuing proposed regulations governing the accessibility of websites under Title II and Title III. And they postponed the dates now to November 2013 for Title II and March 2014 for Title III REPORT OF THE COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I ADA RECREATION SPECIALIST, ALISA MITCHENER W. Tanigawa stated that Alisa could not be here because she’s at the Beach Access Day. She wanted to let the committee and everyone know that Deep and Beyond is offering a Snorkel Day at Spencer’s Beach on Friday, August 9 from 10 to 2:00. She recommended checking out the beach access on that day, but she will be observing and would welcome committee members’ input. For Hilo, it will be August 23 at Richardson’s Ocean Park. Alisa also has Snorkel Day at Kahalu‘u on the third Friday, every month, year round in addition to the Spencer Beach. ANNOUNCEMENTS J. Floyd According to , Workforce Solutions is going to have an Employer Forum on September 25, 2013 at the ADRC from 10-3 and it is for persons with disabilities. They are going to have an employer present who will discuss what they’ve done to work with people with disabilities, hiring people with disabilities, talk about what the challenges are, and answer questions. There will be some employees that have disabilities also there for discussion. 5 Jesse also stated that Curtis Tyler who is the chair of the State DD Council and the West Hawai‘i DD Committee, would like to know if this committee has plans to meet over in Kona. P. De Lima agreed that the committee should have a meeting in Kona. Her personal thought is that Kona should have its own committee because it’s just too hard. She would like to firm up the dates for the meetings with Public Works, Mass Transit and Police, and then fit in Kona for one of the meetings. Jesse will suggest to Curtis Tyler about having a separate committee for Kona and have him contact the Mayor regarding that. Paige stated that if that’s not possible then the committee will just deal with it. L. Tobosa just wanted to say that she had an opportunity to attend the National Council on Independent Living, (NCIL) Conference in Washington, D.C. This was done through the statewide Independent Living Council here where she serves on the board. They are pushing for Senate Bill 1356 to go through and this is the reauthorization of the Rehab Act. Congress is supposed to reauthorize this legislation every five years but it’s been nearly 15 years since they did that. So they are trying to get that passed and in the bill instead of CIL, Centers for Independent Living and the Statewide Independent Living Councils be under RSA (Rehabilitative Services Administration), they wanted to be under ILA, which is Independent Living Administration. They want it moved out from what it is now. So RSA will have nothing to do with it. And this ILA will be under the Department of Education. The other priority is ABLE act. They are trying to pass this bill which will allow individuals and families to save more private funds for parents of a child with a disability, tax free account which is an ABLE account that they can put in for the support of their health care, their education, their independent living and all of that. That’s another priority. So if you go to the website, NCIL.com it has all the priorities. The last couple of pages show a summary of what they are supporting and what they are opposing. ADJOURNMENT Meeting adjourned 11:40. NEXT MEETING To Be Announced Respectfully submitted, Sandra Arriola Transcriber 6