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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015, 01-21, Committee on People with Disabilities Minutes William P. Kenoi William H. Farr, III Mayor Acting Executive on Aging MAYOR’S COMMITTEE ON PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES c/o HAWAI‘I COUNTY OFFICE OF AGING Aging and Disability Resource Center, 1055 Kino‘ole Street, Suite 101, Hilo, Hawai‘i 96720-3872 Phone (808) 961-8600 Fax (808) 961-8603 Email: hcoa@hawaiiantel.net  West Hawai‘i Civic Center, 74-5044 Ane Keohokālole Highway, Kailua-Kona, Hawaiʻi 96740 Phone (808) 323-4390 Fax (808) 323-4398  MINUTES Wednesday, January 21, 2015 The County of Hawai‘i Mayor’s Committee on People with Disabilities met at 10:05 a.m. at the Aging and Disability Resource Center at 1055 Kino‘ole Street, Hilo, Hawai‘i. MEMBERS PRESENT: Paige De Lima, Chair; Wesley Tanigawa, Vice Chair; Chris Cholas, Janice Mancini, James Souza, Laura Tobosa, Pauline Aughe (via telephone). ABSENT: Jessica Arruda OTHERS PRESENT AND GUESTS: Teri Spinola-Campbell, HR; Alisa Mitchener, P&R; J Yoshimoto and Renee Schoen, Corporation Counsel; Jesse Floyd, DD Council; W. Horace Farr, Aging; Sandra Arriola, Aging; Sheree Matheson, Interpreter; Kauila Haumea, Gail Yoshishige, Sam Nagasawa, Hannah Hedrick, Lynise Tarring, Patricia Legge and Ed Burton. CALL TO ORDER J Yoshimoto explained the procedure to follow because Pauline Aughe (due to unforeseen circumstances) requested to participate by telephone. The committee needs to make a motion to amend the agenda to allow P. Aughe to participate by telephone. Then during the discussion portion, the committee needs to find that in amending the agenda it is not of reasonably major importance and will not affect the significant number of people. P. De Lima made a motion for Pauline to participate by phone for the meeting by L. Tobosa amending the agenda. seconded the motion. Chair inquired if there was any discussion. There was none. Since there was no discussion, in amending the agenda it is not of reasonably major importance and will not affect a significant number Motion is passed of people. All were in favor. None opposed. . Pauline was connected by telephone. Hawai`i County is an equal opportunity provider and employer. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF THE SEPTEMBER 17, 2014 MEETING P. De LimaL. Tobosa called for approval for September 17 minutes. moved to accept W. TanigawaMotion passed minutes. It was seconded by . All were in favor. . STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC (Agenda Items) Hannah Hedrick would like to add the lack of accessible transportation to the airport as a specific agenda item under Unfinished Business. She stated that there has been no response from the Mayor or Mass Transit Agency (MTA) to this committee or to the Puna Community Development Plan Action Committees’ numerous communications and other issues but specifically transportation to the airport. W. Tanigawa mentioned that the committee did not include transportation to the airport in the Transportation recommendations to the Mayor, however, it will be addressed today on item 5C. Ed Burton spoke about Shared Ride Taxi coupons and the problems that are encountered when trying to get a ride. You never know if they will pick you up. W. Tanigawa thanked them for their comments. UNFINISHED BUSINESS Recommendations to the Mayor regarding Hawai‘i County Department of Parks and Recreation W. Tanigawa stated that the member who is involved with this isn’t here today and inquired if Alisa had anything to report. Alisa stated that the ad hoc committee had not met for a while and she was not prepared to answer that. The matter will be tabled to the next meeting. Recommendations to the Mayor Regarding Hawai‘i County Office of Housing and Community Development Wes stated that he would finalize the correspondence to Housing. NEW BUSINESS W. Tanigawa recognized William Horace Farr, Acting Executive on Aging who will be advisory person to the committee. Presentation by William Horace Farr, Acting Executive on Aging W. Horace Farr, Acting Executive on Aging, introduced himself and gave a brief history about himself and his family. He stated that he works with Aging issues but needs to familiarize himself more with the disability side. He and his wife are not new to disabilities as they take care of her 42 year old brother who goes to ARC and her mom where English is not her first language. He is getting a better sense about what takes place and how to make access easier. He also wanted to let the committee know that -2- he is here and wants to be part of the group. He thanked the committee and invited them to feel free to stop by and visit. Presentation by Stan Shigeishi of Stan’s Taxi Regarding the Need for a Wheelchair Lift on a Taxi Van W. Tanigawa stated that he left a message for Stan about today’s meeting but it looks like he was not able to make it. We can move this for another meeting. Discussion of Additional Recommendations to the Mayor Regarding Public Transportation W. Tanigawa stated the committee would like to add in public transportation to the airport as one of the recommendations. C. Cholas agreed that it is definitely needed - bus service for everyone and specialized services like wheelchair lift service. Many wheelchair users have to be on their chair and cannot get off their chair to sit in the taxi. E. Burton wanted something done to make the taxi companies be more accountable for the services they should be providing. He feels that once the taxi companies pass their L. Tarring probation period, they don’t service disabled people like they should. agreed with Ed. She was also left waiting for a cab that never came. She stated that when she first signed up for Shared Ride Taxi service there were seven taxi cab companies and now there are only four. She also recommended using County Coordinated Services for the Elderly for transportation to a doctor’s appointment, getting medications and to do food shopping. J. FloydW. Tanigawa After inquired about the discussion, notified him that this is an addendum to that report and we were adding public transportation and improving the Shared Ride Taxi. Jesse feels that there is no accountability in place that takes this information and works with it, gets community input and tries to develop a coordinated transportation system with coordinated plans. H. Hedrick had requested a Mass Transit Agency plan eight years ago. She stated that there is still no plan, no coordination, no accountability, and there has been no response from various department heads, specifically Mass Transit Agency and the Mayor’s Office, to repeated requests. She stated that it is 2015 and the committee is only now developing an addendum to this problem. She stated that it’s been years now since the Mayor has been contacted and nothing has happened. At one time she said that Bob Jacobson believed that it was important to have public transportation to the airport so he took it to the Council and twice they did not vote for it. J Yoshimoto Regarding public transportation to the airport, does remember it coming before the Council. Basically that’s what happened. It became a political issue. It was addressed but did not pass any legislation to basically make it happen. P. Aughe suggested that maybe it is time to revisit having the people that were invited to our meetings to come back and give us a report based on the discussion that we had in 2013 and see where they are at in terms of the recommendations we made. -3- J. Floyd spoke about the adopted Puna Community Development Plan that was adopted by the Council back in 2008. It had to do with a Mass Transit Master plan like Hannah mentioned. There are timelines for certain things and a lot of things were not accomplished. He thought the park and ride lots in Puna weren’t implemented but Alisa said they do exist - one in Keaau at the Makuu Farmer’s Market and one in HPP. H. Hedrick stated that another issue that Mayor Kenoi admitted to in meetings was the reason that there is no public transportation to the airport is because of the taxi drivers who control public transportation to the airport. They didn’t want the Hele-On bus going to the airport and picking up their potential passengers. She commented that Bill Brilhante, at one of the meetings, made some statements that were anti-ADA and anti-people with disability. His comment was something along the line of, well, unless it’s in County Code, we don’t have to do it. S. Nagasawa stated that when she asked Mr. Brilhante if it was allowable that taxi drivers would charge $1 a grocery bag for each person that takes the cab, he replied that yes it was legal for the taxi drivers to do that. And when I asked him why that’s allowed and why there are so much issues with the cabs, he said, well, what we can do is, do away with it and then there is nothing. Is that what you guys want? I felt that was really not an appropriate response. I just wanted to back up Hannah. When I go to Honolulu, they take my suitcases, they put it in the trunk, they take it out. Nobody charges me. Why should they charge somebody for a grocery bag? Lynise stated that she was never charged per bag for groceries. K. Haumea stated that when there is a ship in Hilo port, the taxi service becomes non-existent for the Hilo community. C. Cholas felt that because of the amount of concerns, the amount of people that are affected by transportation issues, that the best thing that this committee can do is plead with the Mayor to call a meeting with Mass Transit and make it a public forum so that all the things we’re hearing now can go to where something can happen. Because all we’re going to be doing is channeling it to the Mayor. (Janice Mancini arrived at 10:50.) It was decided that Pauline would draft the letter to the Mayor on behalf of the Committee strongly encouraging him to create a forum that would include Mass Transit Agency, Mayor’s Office and the public, to express their concerns about transportation needs. Committee members would provide input and Laura would finalize it. J Yoshimoto stated that the committee would have to be in agreement with the content and have one more meeting to approve the letter. He wouldn’t recommend going back and forth with e-mails because that might be a Sunshine issue. R. Schoen After inquiry from Sam, stated that yes, the forum would have to be advertised because the members of this committee would be attending. It would be like an official business for which you have to provide a notice of public meeting. She suggested that it could be at a regularly scheduled Committee on People with Disabilities meeting and then it would have to be agendized. -4- Discussion on Jessica Arruda’s Status on Committee W. Tanigawa stated that Jessica has not been present or responded to continuation on the committee. The committee would need to decide whether to discontinue her on the committee. After Renee read the by-laws about missing meetings, (3 unexcused C. Cholas meetings) recommended that we remove Jessica from the committee. It was J. ManciniMotion was passed seconded by . All were in favor. None opposed. . Report by Paige De Lima, Chairwoman P. De Lima thanked Chris for his time on the committee. She understands his frustration and believes that it is true the Mayor should be getting back to the committee regarding the letters that was sent out to him because everyone worked very hard on it. She spoke about what the committee has done – meeting with different department heads, making them aware of the issues that the committee would want addressed. People with disabilities have issues and it’s good that we communicate and keep going. She reiterated that this is a positive and good committee and the committee has done some really good things, but Paige feels we could also make it greater. C. Cholas’ frustration is due to the fact that it takes a long time to get a recommendation to the Mayor and then there is no response back. He has a limited amount of energy and he is thinking about putting his energy in some other directions. There is a regular following of public that comes to our Mayor’s Committee meeting and anyone out here could be a good member of this committee. He thinks change is good. Give another person in the community a chance to serve. He stated that in his letter he mentioned that one of the great things that we’ve done is to meet with the various department heads and representatives. We don’t have much more to do then just do the dialogue because we are not an action committee. We can’t continue to meet with the same departments and solve problems. We can only go to the Mayor. We are an advisory committee. They know our needs, we’ve sent recommendations. And the other thing is by meeting with the various departments we’ve gotten a feeling of what the challenges are in our county and departments like Public Works, Housing, have super challenges that we are now more acquainted with the things that they are facing. Chris was thanked for his service on the committee. J. Floyd stated that from his perspective, the committee is a conduit from the community to the Mayor and it does not serve the Mayor. It serves the community to pass information on to the Mayor. You are not affiliated with any organization. You’re not just there to make the Mayor look good. I think you guys don’t give yourself enough credit. P. De Lima indicated that the committee can steer this body to have a driving force. We just need to make sure that we have our committee members in place that are going to be here. And we can really make a difference H. Hedrick agrees with Jesse that the committee is a conduit, but believes it is sluggish. Paige was upset with the sluggish statement. She feels that everybody here at the meeting has good intentions and is trying to make a difference, and to make a comment -5- like that is disrespectful. Hannah apologized and said she is here speaking for the J. Souza public and also sharing the perceptions of the public. feels that not having a quorum is hurting the committee. The people deserve better service from us. S. Nagasawa feels the committee has no control over a quorum and that the committee is burdened by rules that have to be adhered to. She feels that everyone who sits here today is committed to doing something good. She stated that we should give the committee the credit that is due them. Paige thanked Sam for her comments. REPORT OF THE COUNTY OF HAWAI‘IEQUAL OPPORTUNITY OFFICER AND ADA COORDINATOR, TERI SPINOLA-CAMPBELL Teri worked with Bill Nakamatsu of DCAB who came up with an abbreviated reference card for the police. It has the statutory references for Hawai‘i Revised Statute 291, the penalties and what the police can do. Hopefully this will help them when they receive calls regarding violations. See attached report. REVIEW FROM COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I ADA RECREATION SPECIALIST, ALISA MITCHENER Alisa works for Parks and Recreation and her goal is to include people with disabilities in park programs, program access and inclusion. She doesn’t deal with the facility access, but deals with people. See Attached Report ANNOUNCEMENTS S. Nagasawa was very happy to hear about the extended night time swimming at Pahoa pool. J. Floyd announced that the State Council on Developmental Disabilities is going to have its annual day at the Capitol sometime in March. That’s an annual event where they meet with Legislators for Hawai‘i Island. Second thing is they are in the planning stages with the University of Hilo and the Department of Health for a legislative forum for person with disabilities. It will be held after the Primary election in August and you meet with the legislators and discuss issues relevant to Hawai‘i Island. Third thing is October is National Disability Employment Month. Posters of persons with disabilities that are employed are displayed at the Capitol. It’s very rewarding. Another announcement that Wes made is that today is Chris’ last day with the committee and wanted to thank him for the years of service, time and energy that he has put into the committee. Chris thanked everyone. NEXT MEETING Next meeting will be scheduled for Wednesday, February 18 in Hilo at the ADRC Training Room at 10:00 a.m. -6- ADJOURNMENT Meeting was adjourned at 11:35 a.m. Transcribed by: Sandra Arriola -7-