body,date,page,text,path
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities,2017-02-08,1,"COMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES
MEETING MINUTES OF
Wednesday, February 8th, 2017 6:30 p.m.
1.
ROLL CALL
Chair Kenny: For Wednesday, February 8th, 2017. Let's start with roll call.
Kerry: Very good. Chair Kenny?
Chair Kenny: Present.
Kerry: Vice-chair Arnold Brillinger?
Arnold Brillinger: Here.
Kerry: Commissioner Aghapekian?
Commissioner Aghapekian: Here.
Kerry: Commissioner Deutsch?
Commissioner Deutsch: Here.
Kerry: Commissioner Franco? Commissioner Hall?
Commissioner Hall: Here.
Kerry: Commissioner Lewis?
Commissioner Lewis: Here.
Kerry: Commissioner Linton?
Commissioner Linton: Here.
Kerry: Commissioner Tsztoo? Alright. We have seven. We have a quorum.
2.
MINUTES
Chair Kenny: Great. Let's move on to our next agenda item. Approval of the draft CDI meeting
minutes from December 14th, 2016. Did anyone have any changes or corrections they would like
made?
Vice Chair Brillinger: I move that we accept them as presented.
Commissioner Hall: I second.
Chair Kenny: All in favor?
1",CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-02-08.pdf
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All: Aye.
Chair Kenny: Anyone opposed? Carries unanimously.
3.
ORAL COMMUNICATIONS/NON-AGENDA (PUBLIC COMMENT)
Chair Kenny: So, our third item is Oral Communications. Non-agenda items. Public comments, do
we have anyone who would like to speak on non-agenda items?
Kerry: We do not have any speaker slips for this item.
Chair Kenny: Then we'll move right in to new business. First off, we're going to have Nicole Blake
from the Social Service Human Relations Board, also called SSHRB. Nicole is the vice president of
SSHRB and she's here to talk to us about their 2017 Community Needs Survey.
4.
NEW BUSINESS
4-A. Provide Comments on the Social Service Human Relations Board (SSHRB) Draft 2017
Community Needs Survey (Nicole Blake, Vice President SSHRB)
Nicole Blake: Thank you commissioners. Good evening. My name is Nicole Blake. Thank you for
this opportunity to present our draft 2017 Community Needs Survey. First, a little background on our
history. So SSHRB, the Social Service Human Relations Board was established in 1917 with our
original name as The City of Alameda Board of Social Services. And with that we were charged with
advising the city council on all matters pertaining to care and relief of the needy. Fast forward to
1977, SSHRB's name was then changed by way of the city charter to its current name and with it with
a mission to create an environment which encourages and brings about mutual understanding, respect
and goodwill among groups of people in the community.
Nicole Blake: And in order to further this mission, the charter set forth certain goals. One of which
is to assess and report to the city council the social service needs of the people and the methods of
meeting those needs. In order to achieve this goal, SSHRB created the assessment and awareness
group in order to evaluate the community's social service and human relations needs through surveys
and focus groups and to also build awareness of those needs among community stakeholders. We use
the survey which you have a draft of tonight in your packet as one of the tools to identify these needs.
SSHRB administers the survey roughly every five years and we use the information in order to help
us make funding recommendations for both city and federal grants that focus on public service. And
we also found that non-profits find the data collected helpful in writing their grant applications to
help Alamedans.
Nicole Blake: And so tonight's purpose, we're reaching out to you, since you are experts on disability
issues in hopes that you can review the draft survey and we can get some input from you on what you
think is working well, what needs to be improved, what gaps need to be filled. We realize that we
probably don't have enough time tonight to go question by question, but we can direct comments to
Jim Franz, that's on the next slide. And so we just want to make sure that the needs for people with
disabilities is properly represented and included within the survey. If you have any questions,
comments or suggestions, you can ask them here tonight, but you can also send them to Jim Franz.
He's the Community Development and Resiliency Coordinator.
Kerry: We got this in our packet.
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Nicole Blake: Okay. So it's all great? Okay. And we also realize that we may not be able to include
every single question that you may want to include in the survey, but we are more than happy to
collaborate with the commission to maybe develop a more specific survey that meets your needs as
well. Any questions?
Chair Kenny: Thank you very much. I will say, the Commission has used your 2012 Community
Need Surveys in our work to get a universal design ordinance passed. So it's been very helpful to
have those figures available. And I do have some questions, or initial thoughts on the survey itself.
Nicole Blake: Sure.
Chair Kenny: One question I had is, in the first section you have no need, low need, moderate need,
and high need?
Nicole Blake: Right.
Chair Kenny: I'm wondering if you guys had considered putting in, ""I don't know"" cause for some
of these things, like I don't really know what the need is for youth services, not having a child of my
own.
Nicole Blake: Okay, yeah. Yeah, that's helpful.
Chair Kenny: And then, just a more general thing I'd like to see a little bit more fleshed out is mental
health care available in the city, and how many people are in need of that. If there's a need for a clinic
or drop-in emergency place, because it's been brought to our attention before by members of the
public that Alameda has a very high rate of 51-50s, or people detained for the purpose of being
evaluated for 51-50s. And I know that the police force goes through excellent training, and really
seems to be doing a good job of being able to flesh out when it's appropriate to 51-50 somebody. So,
I'm wondering if there's some sort of need that we could fill where it's between being 51-50'ed or if
there is some sort of mental health shelter or emergency contact that people could go through?
Nicole Blake: Okay.
Chair Kenny: And then I don't know how to include that in your survey, because it's been something
I've been hearing it from the public and I've been following it in the newspaper. If you look at the
police blogs, almost every day, there is at least one person from the city who is detained for psychiatric
purposes. And that's pretty high for a city our size.
Nicole Blake: Great.
Chair Kenny: Does anyone else have any questions?
Commissioner Deutsch: Well, I noticed healthcare is on your list, and I'm just wondering whether
there could be some additional questions, like you have housing, and then you have a lot of other
questions underneath housing but nothing healthcare specific. And I think healthcare in Alameda is
changing right now. Accessing the hospitals, the various insurances available or not - so it would be
nice to know what people think.
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Nicole Blake: Okay, yeah. Great.
Chair Kenny: And Susan, your comment brought up another issue for me, in your survey, where you
talk about housing, one of the things you're ranking is housing for people with disabilities. I would
love to see it more fleshed out so that we can understand this better. One of the things we're working
on is a Universal Design Ordinance. And so I would love to get a little bit more information on how
many people have had a family member who lives with them, who has trouble getting upstairs. Or
have had to build a ramp into their house to accommodate a family member. So, yeah, again I don't
have the exact way of doing this, but I'd like to flesh out a little bit more about those needs around
universal design and visit ability. Does anyone else have anything they'd like to say? Alright, well,
thank you very much.
Nicole Blake: Thank you.
Chair Kenny: And we appreciate this and feel free to contact us. And we appreciate you bringing it
here.
Nicole Blake: Okay. Great. Thank you.
Chair Kenny: Next item, we have Gail Payne to present the Alameda Paratransit Program for the
fiscal year of 2017-2018. Welcome Gail.
4-B.
Approve City of Alameda Paratransit Program Plan for Fiscal Year 2017/2018 (Gail
Payne, Transportation Coordinator
Gail Payne: Good evening, honorable chair and commissioners. Again, I'm Gail Payne, the city's
transportation coordinator, and I'm here tonight to ask your approval for the City of Alameda
Paratransit Program for fiscal year 2017-2018. So the next fiscal year starts July 1st, and I also would
like to first introduce our new Paratransit coordinator, Victoria Williams. And I'd like her to come up
and say a few words about herself. She has a lot of passion about seniors, and individuals with
disabilities and providing services. So here she is.
Victoria Williams: Hi there. Thank you very much for having me. I love to be here already. I've spent
30 years working with people who are aging or who might have disabilities. 12 years in senior
transportation, 10 of those with the city of Hayward as a Paratransit coordinator. And then, 14 years
in affordable housing, and the balance in other social service programs that serve people who have
disabilities and people who are aging, which is all of us luckily. So I'm grateful to be here and I'm
really looking forward to working with this great program and making it even better. Thank you.
Gail Payne: Thank you Victoria. And Victoria already has gone above and beyond the call of duty at
least once since she's been here, what is it, three weeks? Four weeks? Fourth week, and so we feel
very fortunate. Just to step back, what is the city of Alameda Paratransit program? We are very
fortunate in Alameda County to have passed measures B and BB. They're the transportation sales tax,
and so that's where this money comes from. It comes directly to each local jurisdiction and we get to
choose how we want to use it according to the guidelines by the Alameda county transportation
commission. And they do require to apply every year. That application is due in March. So before the
application, we always go out to the community, so that's what I'm doing tonight is asking for your
approval on what I'm about to present. And so, I'm going to provide a service overview, talk a little
bit about the program changes, the budget that we're recommending, and tell you about our planning
process for this next fiscal year.
4",CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-02-08.pdf
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities,2017-02-08,5,"members say, ""We don't want one-hour's frequency, we want more frequent service."" That was the
most common complaint we received. We have only so much money and so much time, so we decided
to increase the frequency to 30-minute frequencies. We have three different loops, Tuesday is the west
end loop, Wednesday is the east end loop and includes Bay Farm Island, and Thursday is the central
loop. And so instead of operating on one-hour loops, there will be frequency of every 30 minutes. We
think that that will be a much better service. It's open to the general public, it targets locations where
seniors and individuals with disabilities are more apt to go. And we are looking at rebranding it and
right now it's called the Alameda Paratransit Shuttle. And in our survey, the top name for rebranding
it is Alameda Loop, and it does makes sense because it does have these loops for each day.
Gail Payne: As for the taxi service, we have the Premium Taxi Program. Right now it's a 50%
reduction in taxi trips. We want to increase that to 70% because we have money in our budget to do
SO. Measure BB was just passed in 2014 so we have all these additional revenues, so why don't we
provide better service with additional subsidies? So that's what we are recommending. Increasing the
subsidy of taxi trips from 50% to 70%. So the voucher cost right now is $2.50 and consumers get $5
voucher back. What we're recommending is instead of providing $2.50, they would provide $3 and
get a $10 taxi voucher back. So they will have to be paying 50 cents more for that travel voucher but
instead of receiving a $5 voucher back, they'll receive $10 voucher. Most trips are at least $11 for a
taxi trip, so we think this will work well.
Gail Payne: For other program changes, we'll be considering a new program for the Volunteer Driver
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Program, our potential other program. We used to have Mobility Matters which is now defunct in
Alameda County. So we're looking at what we can do just for the city in terms of maybe it would be
a volunteer driver program, maybe it would be some other type of mobility management program. So
that's something Victoria is very excited about, analyzing and looking at other key stakeholders to
potentially partner with. Group trips, there's Mastick monthly trips, there's the leisure club, there's the
Annual Nursing Home Trip. We plan to increase the subsidy for the Annual Nursing Home picnic.
For the scholarship program, we'll continue the taxi subsidies and also the Alameda Point
Collaborative Discounted Bus Passes for those residents.
Gail Payne: We do have a significant reserve because of measure BB that was passed in 2014. So it's
challenging to spend it down because then all of a sudden, with these operations, you have to
discontinue it once the reserve is complete. We're recommending spending it down with capital
programs, such as improve shuttle stops, poll signs when we do the rebranding, that's necessary. We
are also looking at other potential infrastructures such as accessible pedestrian signals. You heard
Commissioner Tsztoo last time I was here talking about the importance of those. That's something we
could speed up the progress in installing that type of infrastructure with this money. With the
rebranding of the shuttle service, we are looking at a push on marketing and outreach to get the word
out about the rebranding of the shuttle service and the new frequency of every 30 minutes, and it's
open to the public. So that, we're also are recommending.
Gail Payne: We have a budget of revenues coming in is $672,000 and I recommend expenditures of
$608,000 with reserves of $64,000. Keep in mind that we are conservative when doing this budget
and so we do place contingencies in here, and yet, we still are showing reserves. For the outreach that
is going into this next fiscal year recommendation, we do a survey every winter that we just
completed, and we also reached out to the commissions like we're doing tonight. Tomorrow night,
will be recreation and park commission, and later this month, transportation commission and SSHRB.
And then the application is due next month.
Gail Payne: For survey results of the survey that we just completed this past winter, this is the first
time that we had a web survey component, so we had a lot more people reply, 115. We had many
more attracted non-users and one of the number one reasons they said they don't use the subsidized
taxi program and the shuttle is that they didn't know about it. 33% stated they didn't know about the
taxi program, and 27% stated they didn't know about the shuttle service. That's another reason why
we're excited to have Victoria here because she's really going to do a big push on reaching out to the
key stakeholders and the community members, and going directly to them, explaining the program
face-to-face. We'll have some marketing pieces, and orientations at Mastick Senior Center. We will
be doing quite a bit, thanks to Victoria.
Gail Payne: This year, at least we're planning on keeping with our current taxi provider, and not
going with Lyft and Uber. It still feels like it's quite in flux right now, what's happening with Lyft and
Uber, and the regulations and all that. So this year we're going to let Victoria have time to ease into
this position, and then re-evaluate using Lyft and Uber next year. For the survey, when we asked this
question about Lyft and Uber, the respondents did say that if they could get a cheaper ride by sharing
rides with Lyft Using Lyft and Uber, Uber Pool and Lyft Line, that 61% said that they would prefer
this option to just a regular standard taxi. I could see us going in that direction in the future, just not
this upcoming fiscal year.
Gail Payne: And this is the last slide, it shows Victoria Williams' contact information, and we are
here for questions and comments. Thank you for your time.
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Chair Kenny: Thank you, Gail. Does anyone have any questions they'd like to ask? Commissioner
Brillinger?
Arnold Brillinger: Yes. Now that means that you're going to have two vehicles?
Gail Payne: Yes.
Arnold Brillinger: Instead of one. One of the things that you should do because the second one isn't
painted up yet, to say ""shuttle"" or whatever it says now, is get a big circle or something that says 'free'.
Nobody knows that it's free. Also, now the Alameda Loop, that sounds pretty good, but we need to
make sure that it's clear. I would say paint the vehicle in some bright colors so that you can't just say,
""Oh, there's another vehicle going down the street,"" that something that says, ""Hey! Here I am and
it's Thursday. Jump out here and get on me."" Those are a couple of things. I was wondering, could we
back up a couple of slides in your presentation? Maybe right there. On the capital and outreach, now
there will only be money for that the first year, right? Because we'll be using a lot of the
Gail Payne: The reserves. Right.
Arnold Brillinger: The reserves. And.
Gail Payne: We still will have some money to do outreach.
Arnold Brillinger: Okay, but not like this year?
Gail Payne: We're not expecting maybe it would be as big. We're expecting it to be bigger next fiscal
year than in other years, yes. We're thinking of doing a special push especially for the shuttle because
we're having a more frequent shuttle. We will be using a shuttle wrap, a bus wrap, and to make it
really bright and I wrote down ""free"" so that's something. We can do a better job of saying it's free.
Arnold Brillinger: Because right now it's free to everybody in town, children included. Well, 12 and
up maybe. Because you don't want the little critters [chuckle] going by themselves. But they could
go with their parents, or grandparents and stuff like that. So people need to know that most of the
time, that vehicle is making these loops empty. It's got two or three people in it. Once in a while it's
got a wheelchair, [chuckle] that's me. But There are couple of other wheelchairs too I've seen on
there. And the other thing is that it can only accommodate one wheelchair at a time. If there were two
people going from the nursing home, they'd have to go by themselves, with their families and stuff.
Gail Payne: Okay, thank you.
Commissioner Lewis: I had a couple of questions. The one concern that I have about the taxis are
that with Uber and Lyft, there's a shrinking pool of taxis that anyone can use. The wait period to get
a taxi sometimes can be a wait up to an hour sometimes to get a taxi. And I don't know who your new
provider is, is it not Welcome anymore?
Gail Payne: It is. They've changed their name to First American Transit.
Commissioner Lewis: Oh, First American now? Okay, but it's the same company more or less. Yeah,
and I think that's really the problem that a lot of people have is the wait period that you're having
because of Uber and Lyft, and I'm just kind of wondering why, why wait?
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Gail Payne: Are you having the problem with this program, with this service using premium or Mr.
Tip, the long wait?
Commissioner Lewis: I'm just saying, generally when you're using a taxi here in Alameda, because
we're not San Francisco where you have DeSoto and Luxor and all that. I mean we pretty much have
one company more or less here in Alameda, and I think that they're struggling. I don't want to put
words in their mouths, but just based on the service because of Uber and Lyft, because most people
are taking Uber and Lyft now as an alternative. I understand that Victoria's great, that we have Victoria
and she'll be point person in all that, but I kind of think that it's important for us to get going on it
because it's tough. If you're going to go grocery shopping and you're sitting and waiting an hour, you
got frozen stuff, could be a potential problem. I just don't know what they're saying. Did they give an
idea what the wait period is or what the number of drivers they have now? Or.
Gail Payne: Actually, we should not be having that type of wait and I have not been hearing that type
of problem in the survey. That didn't come out and so we can look at it in more depth. We can also
talk to Alameda CTC to see what the potential is on moving forward with Uber/Lyft this fiscal year.
So far none of the cities have done Uber/Lyft and so we wanted to not be the guinea pigs, the test run.
However, we can check in with them and see what they recommend since they're the funding agency.
Commissioner Lewis: Yeah. I think that would be a good thing. And also the other thing is I'm not
sure how - the voucher program still will be administered through Mastick?
Gail Payne: Yes.
Commissioner Lewis: I was just wondering how that gets translated to the public.
Gail Payne: When you say how it gets translated, you mean how the public learns about it?
Commissioner Lewis: Yeah, how they know that.
Gail Payne: Yeah, and that's something that we are going to do, like I said, a bigger push about that
in general than we have already. Mastick has orientations that they do when new members come on
board. There's also an orientation they do, I think its quarterly just on transportation and they talk
about transportation for all the new members as well and we have a bunch of print media and then
we also go face to face to the various groups and homes to talk about the program. And that's what
Donatella Zepplin, who retired, was doing and now Victoria's taking her place and there was a little
bit of a lag time between the two and so that effort will start up again.
Commissioner Lewis: Yeah, because I was just thinking mainly also just for people who aren't
seniors who don't necessarily have a reason to go Mastick, you know somebody who may have
epilepsy or something, maybe a younger person and all that. What other avenues that they would
know that might steer them in that? And to say I know you're not a senior but it's okay because
Gail Payne: Right, Okay. So we can talk more with Victoria about this. There are a number of non-
profit organizations, maybe that's one way. Like Center for Independent Living, they may have a
listserv for their Alameda consumers so we could do a better job of maybe partnering with Alameda
Meals on Wheels for example or other groups. And as Victoria gets her head into that she'll have 101
more ideas on that I'm sure.
Commissioner Lewis: Yeah. And the Mr. Tip program too, that's the, if I'm understanding it, that's
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the one for doctor's appointments, right?
Gail Payne: Yes, and for East Bay Paratransit members only.
Commissioner Lewis: Right. Do the hospitals know about that program or is that possible that for
somebody who may be going to Alameda hospital? Somebody shows up in a crisis situation and it
gets resolved and they have to go home, they say they don't have any money and they're referred to
the social worker, does the social worker have access to that?
Gail Payne: They do and there's also another program that's called the Hospital Discharge Program
that is administered directly by Alameda CTC, Alameda County Transportation Commission. So the
social workers do know that they can get a free ride home through that program, it's totally free, or
they could use this program.
Commissioner Lewis: And I have one more, I don't want to dominate this, but I just have one more
that I'm just getting to the shuttle. What's happened with the shuttle on occasion is that a driver may
not show up at a stop. It could be various reasons, maybe their replacement didn't come at lunch time
or whatever. Is there any way that the public can know that there may be a two hour wait or not two
hours, cause you are changing it to every 30 minutes. If there's going to be a delay, how would the
public know if there is some glitch in the system?
Gail Payne: Right, We've talked about working with text messages, now that many more people
nowadays have smartphones and use the texting feature, so that's something that we will continue to
think about, and other ways as well.
Commissioner Lewis: So, telling them to call Mastick probably wouldn't be a good idea to call, then
Gail Payne: They do know to call Mastick, SO that already happens, yet what I was understanding is
how we could do a better job of proactively, mentioning to riders that the shuttle is delayed, so that's
one way that we've thought about it is through texting, but they are always welcome call Mastick.
Commissioner Lewis: So the texting may happen this year?
Gail Payne: That is something that again Victoria will have to look at.
Commissioner Lewis: Okay.
Chair Kenny: I had a couple of questions. With the loop service, at one point, weren't you talking
about having it go to Fruitvale BART?
Gail Payne: We were.
Chair Kenny: And what happened with that?
Gail Payne: We looked at what the tradeoff would be, and the tradeoff would be that it could no
longer go to a nursing home on Westline Drive, and then it couldn't serve that whole side of town,
because it requires significant time to get over there. We felt like it would take up so much of the time
within the central part of Alameda, that we felt like it is better to stay on island, the tradeoff was just
too severe because that nursing home in particular is a frequent user of the shuttle and highly
dependent on it. We have really good AC Transit service, that feeder service to Oakland and the
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BART stations and so we talked about it even today is doing a better job of getting the word out about
those services. We just have a new AC Transit service line 19 along Buena Vista avenue, for example
that goes between Fruitvale BART, and Oakland Downtown BART and so basically we need to do a
better job getting the word out of how to get to Oakland and we're fortunate to have a lot of ways.
Chair Kenny: Okay. With the capital improvements, I believe we have a Commissioner who is not
here tonight, Commissioner Franco who has looked at different spots where she thought pedestrian
crossings might need a little bit more marking or where we've heard from the public. I would love it
if she could get in touch with you guys and mention those spots to you if she hasn't already.
Gail Payne: That would be helpful and what is her name again?
Chair Kenny: Commissioner La Donna Franco.
Gail Payne: Okay.
Chair Kenny: It's through the Alameda County Transportation Commission, but I never knew about
the wheelchair and scooter breakdown service, that's pretty amazing. I've had plenty of clients who
have had issues with their scooters and wheelchairs, so that's a completely free service?
Gail Payne: Yes.
Chair Kenny: Oh wow! That is wonderful.
Gail Payne: Yeah. And so is the hospital discharge service. They are both administered directly by
the Alameda County Transportation Commission.
Chair Kenny: Great. Commissioner Brillinger?
Arnold Brillinger: The wheelchair breakdown thing, is that for wheelchairs that are broken down at
your house?
Gail Payne: Anywhere, so if you are in an emergency situation.
Arnold Brillinger: Oh, I've called them, and it says, ""We'll get back to you next Monday.'
Gail Payne: Okay.
Arnold Brillinger: They're only open certain days, I mean certain hours per day.
Gail Payne: Oh. I thought it is for emergency. Let me look at.
Arnold Brillinger: I did too, but I called them just to find out and I got an answering machine, it says
we'll call you, leave a message, we'll call you tomorrow.
Gail Payne: Okay.
Arnold Brillinger: And to me, that didn't sound like anything I want or needed.
Gail Payne: Okay.
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Arnold Brillinger: That's why I thought, ""Well, maybe it's for people whose wheelchairs break at
home,"" they can call up and say, ""Hey, the wheel came off"", or something, but not for someone who
is sitting down here on Park Street and saying, ""Oh, my wheel fell off,"" or whatever the thing is. You
know, they're not going to get any help.
Gail Payne: Okay.
Chair Kenny: One other question that I had is, when you talk about the group trips, is it the social
club? Is it just for seniors, or are there other populations that are targeted in this?
Gail Payne: So there's a couple different programs. There's three total that this funding subsidizes.
There's the monthly Mastick trips, and those are mainly targeted for seniors. There's also the leisure
program, and so that's targeted for individuals with mental disabilities, and adults specifically. Then
the last one is the annual nursing home picnic.
Chair Kenny: Great, thank you. Does anyone else have any more questions? Commissioner Lewis.
Commissioner Lewis: Yeah. I just wanted to follow up. You were saying about the money available
for accessible signal lights. I think you and I have talked about this before, Gail. What's a little
complicated in Alameda, some streets are managed by the city, and some are managed by Caltrans,
how is that going to get resolved?
Gail Payne: We, as a city, have to take the initiative to provide the money to make it happen, and
then we work with Caltrans. It's a whole process where we seek encroachment requests, and then we
install, or they may come out and install with us. So it's definitely a little bit more cumbersome, yet
we don't avoid those locations. This past batch that just came in, for example, there have been nine
that were recently installed. The highest criterion was being near bus stops, so that's how we batched
them. Moving forward, we'll have to see what the highest priorities are. If you have some locations
where you'd like to have them installed, it would be interesting to know.
Commissioner Lewis: I called, I believe it was your replacement, regarding just getting some type
of notification across from that little intersection at Benton and Encinal, and a gentleman mentioned
that I needed to call Caltrans if anything was going to get resolved, because that is a Caltrans high-
way.
Gail Payne: Wait, so, are you talking about the signal at Sherman and Encinal? Because it's right
near.
Commissioner Lewis: It's not actually that one. I was talking about the one across from Jay's, because
there's the school
Gail Payne: Okay.
Commissioner Lewis: Right across the street. There's just a lot of foot traffic back and forth there.
And just to get a I can't remember what you call those lights
Gail Payne: Rectangular Rapid-Flashing Beacon.
Commissioner Lewis: Yeah, like the one at Peru and Encinal. He was saying that it didn't qualify.
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But I thought it was just a very heavy area, where there's a lot of foot traffic.
Gail Payne: We are installing those around town, and I could look to see if that's a priority location,
because we do install there even if it's Caltrans property. I'll have to look on the future plans for those
Rectangular Rapid-Flashing Beacons.
Commissioner Lewis: And is there a list of the ones that are going to be coming out, the accessible
signals?
Gail Payne: For the accessible signals, we do not currently have a list. However, it is being included
in this budget, as well as part of the capital improvement program for the next fiscal year. And so this
is a great time for you to let us know your priorities, and we will check with the pedestrian plan too,
to see what the priorities there are. There's a list of all the different intersections that need those
devices, and it's in the pedestrian plan.
Commissioner Lewis: Yeah. Cause there's a set of folks that are blind that live at Encinal and High
Street. And there's a light there, of course, but there's also a left-hand turn off of Encinal onto High
Street, which go in front of the pedestrian, which is a little daunting. And the one gentleman that Peter
mentioned that he's called several times about that, and just wanted to know if we can get that as a
priority. It seems a sensible one, to me.
Gail Payne: Okay. Great. If you think of any others, please let me know. I'm at your convenience.
Chair Kenny: Commissioner Hall.
Commissioner Hall: I would just like to say that the Commissioner makes a very good point, I think
any kind of marketing outreach we need to do should be humongous signs, neon signs saying, ""Free!
Free! Free!"" And the other thing, because it seems like, throughout the city, I haven't seen a lot of
brochures or even a flyer in the different areas. Yes, at Mastick Center but I'm wondering about other
places. Like you said for the disabled, and not just the seniors. Do you have flyers at the food bank?
Do you have flyers at the Alameda Family Center? Basic places where all ages of different people
are going to be, but especially so the disabled people see it too, not just the seniors. And to know it's
free, I think a lot of people, like you said, that in your survey they didn't even know it was free and
that it's out there.
Gail Payne: Yeah. And also just keep in mind we've been postponing outreach on the shuttle because
we've known for a little bit that we've wanted to change it to 30 minute frequency and we've wanted
to re-brand it, so we didn't want to do a big push until we get those things done and then do it. So
yeah. It all feels like it's finally coming together, thankfully, yet it's taken some time.
Chair Kenny: Can I just ask, does the Alameda Paratransit program have a listserv where they can
let the people who are already involved in the program know of changes?
Gail Payne: We don't really, but that's something we can look at. We do have a listserv of anyone
who has enrolled in the premium taxi program. But we could do a better job of compiling emails.
Yeah definitely.
Chair Kenny: Ah, Commissioner Aghapekian.
Commissioner Aghapekian: Thanks for your presentation, thank you.
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Gail Payne: Thank you.
Commissioner Aghapekian: I need just clarification. The Paratransit stops at bus stops, it's not door
to door?
Chair Kenny: Yes. The shuttle is a fixed route service. It's a loop. Fixed route with fixed bus stops
and they have their own bus stops and at times they do share a bus stop with AC transit at some
locations.
Commissioner Aghapekian: And I see in here in your presentation of the program, you have bus
benches? Planning to install bus benches?
Gail Payne: Yes.
Commissioner Aghapekian: I live very close to South Shore, I see a lot of people taking the shuttle
and/or the bus, and benches are perfect, a great idea. Highly, highly recommend because I see people,
elderly people, and people that have difficulties, either leaning or standing or sitting on the sidewalk.
They have no place to sit. And sometimes during the summer especially, never mind the winter time,
it gets very hot and the sun is very strong and they're sitting there, standing there for hours. Maybe
not hours but for a long stretch of time and if it's do-able I highly recommend that these benches have
some kind of sun protection, whether it is possible or not. I can feel their misery. And the other
clarification that I need is, it's every other day that the loop happen in specific areas, is that the
program?
Gail Payne: It will continue its current days of the week. The shuttle operates Tuesdays, Wednesdays
and Thursdays. And what it does is it operates at different parts of the town for each day. And so
Tuesdays is West End, Thursdays is East and Bay Farm and then the Central Island is Thursday.
Commissioner Aghapekian: So if a person needs a ride on a day off, is it possible for them to have
other means of transportation available to them?
Gail Payne: So that's where the taxi program comes in, the subsidized taxis and also we're looking
at this mobility management, considering a new program and looking at a potential volunteer driver
program. And so volunteer drivers can help individuals get from their door to the door of wherever
they're going, if it's a medical appointment or wherever they need to go.
Commissioner Aghapekian: Thank you.
Gail Payne: And a clarification on the benches. We're looking at benches not just for this shuttle yet
for all bus stops and this will help pay for that.
Chair Kenny: Commissioner Lewis.
Commissioner Lewis: This is something that I wouldn't know. Are the areas where the shuttle
stopped, is it marked along with the AC Transit sign?
Gail Payne: It is. It has a bus flag, a bus stop sign, similar look and feel to an AC Transit bus stop
sign except different color schemes.
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Commissioner Lewis: And will the - I'm assuming it will be the West End - will that be expanded to
the ferry?
Gail Payne: It will not be expanded to the ferry, however, I do have good news in that Line 31, AC
transit Line 31, is extending to the ferry in March.
Commissioner Lewis: Will it go actually to the ferry, though?
Gail Payne: Yes, it will have a layover at the Main Street Ferry Terminal. Yeah.
Chair Kenny: Well, Gail I would like to thank you for presenting this and all the effort that has gone
in, it's clear that it's been thoroughly thought through and a lot of work has been put into this. At this
time I would like to make a motion that we approve the application for Measure B and BB Paratransit
funding for the fiscal year '17-'18.
Commissioner Deutsch: I second.
Chair Kenny: All in favor?
All: Aye.
Chair Kenny: Any opposed? No. Great.
Gail Payne: Thank you. Thank you for your great comments I appreciate it.
Chair Kenny: Thank you. Now we go onto old business.
5.
OLD BUSINESS
Kerry: And this is really annual business. I'm going to take over from you, Chair Kenny.
Chair Kenny: Yep.
5-A. Election of new Commission Chair and Vice Chair (City Staff)
Kerry: So in the bylaws it says that we annually elect a new chair and new vice-chair. And basically
that being chair or vice-chair entails helping to set up the agenda and discussing things that you'd like
to see on the agenda. It's definitely more communication with your staff. And both the current chair
and vice-chair have let me know that while they'd be willing to do this again, they're also willing to
let someone else give it a go if they're really interested. I'd like to start by accepting nominations for
commission chair.
Commissioner Aghapekian: I nominate Beth.
Commissioner Lewis: Second.
Commissioner Deutsch: I second.
[laughter]
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Kerry: Oh my goodness!
Commissioner Deutsch: And she's doing a great job.
Kerry: Okay so we have a nomination. Are there any others? Okay. So I'd like to For all those who
would like Beth to run another year as commission chair, how many ayes do I have?
All: Aye.
Kerry: Any opposed? Okay. Ayes have it. You get to keep your name tag.
[laughter]
Kerry: Okay. Very good. And for vice-chair, do we have any nominations for vice-chair?
Commissioner Lewis: Nominate Arnold.
Commissioner Deutsch: I second.
[chuckle]
Commissioner Lewis: I like staying consistent.
Kerry: Okay. All those in favor or Arnold Brillinger having another year as vice-chair?
All: Aye.
Kerry: Any opposed? Ayes have it. Vice-chair Brillinger, we have you for another year.
Arnold Brillinger: That's also a cost saving measure.
[laughter]
Kerry: That's right. The city thanks you. Okay, very good. That was nice and simple, thank you. I'm
excited about it: I'm excited to work with you another year, Beth; and excited to work with you another
year, Arnold.
5-B. Selection of a Retreat Date (City Staff)-
Kerry: I have then another item for old business but it's really just regular business. We have agreed
in our bylaws that we meet six times a year. As you know the selection of having it every even month
of the year, on the second Wednesday has been very convenient for us, except that in August this
room (Council Chambers) and it's technology and everything goes dark. We essentially don't support
big meetings in this room in August. So that means we move our August meeting to a retreat. Now
we had a retreat last year in January because we got it together to set a date I think in December.
Kerry: But now we are up against looking at when to schedule the retreat for this year. I have put
forward that March might be a good month. The retreat would be probably a morning, or a morning
to afternoon, over at Mastick Senior Center in a classroom. That's where we did it last time and it
worked nicely because we have all the conveniences there of a parking lot and restrooms and that sort
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of thing. Jackie Krause of Mastick has let me know that the Saturdays in March would be just fine. I
have a very faint looking calendar on the screen that is hard to see, but the Saturdays that I'm
discussing are Saturday the 4th, Saturday the 11th, Saturday the 18th and Saturday the 25th.
Kerry: So I guess I'd like some discussion of what day you guys would like to choose for that retreat.
Chair Kenny: Why don't we start with if anybody has days that they cannot meet of the days that
Kerry put out.
Commissioner Deutsch: I cannot do the 25th.
Chair Kenny: Okay. Great. So if nobody else has any other days they can't do it. I would propose
the 4th or the 11th, because I would like to see us do it sooner, rather than later. But I'm, again, open
to the 18th as well. Last time we did it, I think we started at 10:00 and I think that time worked for
everybody, and so that we were able to get out by, I think, it was 1:00, so people could have the rest
of their Saturday. Does anyone have any preference between the dates?
Commissioner Lewis: 11th.
Commissioner Aghapekian: 11th.
Chair Kenny: All in favor of the 11th?
All: Aye.
Chair Kenny: Any opposed? Great.
Kerry: Great, March 11th at 10:00 AM. So then what will happen next is, I'll send you all an email
reminding you that we just chose March 11th, and then I'm going to want to post an agenda, because
we'll probably have more than a quorum at this meeting, so that means it has to be formally posted.
But that's fine. That's easy to do.
Chair Kenny: Yeah, and I did have some things that I wanted to put on the agenda. There are a couple
of items in our bylaws that I was wanting to propose we make adjustments to. So I can let you know
that information to put on the agenda. If anyone else has things that they think we need to talk about,
let Kerry know so she can put it on the agenda.
Kerry: I know one item was, perhaps discussing the task force that would get put together for Sharon
Oliver, Captain Sharon Oliver, of the Fire Department who presented to us in December. Maybe some
good brainstorming could happen, like we'd have a segment where you could brainstorm how to
create a database of folks who might need help in a disaster, that sort of thing just to recall back to
that discussion, as an item. Be thinking of a list and you can always contact your vice chair or your
chair. It doesn't matter, or contact me directly too.
Commissioner Lewis: I have a question, I just wanted to go back to Gail's discussion, maybe with
that conversation, do know the channel of PSAs (Public Service Announcements) related to the city?
Kerry: You're asking me, and I wish I knew. I am not an Alameda resident, so I don't know but I have
a feeling, yes, that we do.
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Commissioner Lewis: I don't have cable, so I don't know.
Chair Kenny: Does anyone here have Channel 15, the local Alameda channel?
Kerry: There's usually city public slides that run on that. So, let's say there's an event coming up,
sometimes they'll show for an event. Let's say there's something about battery recycling. Sometimes
that'll slide up.
Commissioner Hall: I'm sorry, what was the question? About the channel?
Commissioner Lewis: If there's any PSAs related to Alameda. We were talking about how we get
the word out for these, and I'm fairly convinced that a lot of people don't really know or understand
Paratransit, for instance. And I just thought that, I don't know, we could use this. So it'd be nice to
have information on emergency preparedness, if you like information on shuttles, those kinds of
things. I just don't know if that's how, like I said, I don't have cable, so I don't know.
Chair Kenny: I can tell you in the time that I've been on the commission, we haven't utilized that,
but I think that it's an excellent point and we can definitely find out more information about what's
going on. Yeah, I understand what you're saying, especially with the conversation we had with Gail
because that is important that what is offered is somehow publicized.
Commissioner Lewis: Even in the Alameda Sun, how an ad could help education the public. That
would pertain to residents. Like a little picture of a shuttle going around town, like you were saying
in the branding, or whatever residents in Alameda are most paying attention to.
Kerry: Yeah, and they've left already, but I think that if you have a suggestion for that team to address
in their marketing push for the shuttle, go ahead and email me and I can forward it onto them. They
would love to hear that sort of idea.
Commissioner Lewis: Or just different things like we were saying like emergency preparedness. I
like that!
Commissioner Hall: Channel 15, I think, if I recall most the time it'll say like, ""The city is offline
now."" It'll just be at the same spiel. Sometime I have seen it there is like slides, and flashes of I don't
know and then you could be the very first to find out.
Commissioner Lewis: It should be like movie trailers.
Chair Kenny: We can put that on there. Right. I mean, why not?
Commissioner Lewis: Like movie trailers, before the movie comes on before the council meeting
or.
Chair Kenny: Yeah. Right. I think that's an excellent idea.
Arnold Brillinger: We could also do that kind of information at the theatre.
Commissioner Lewis: Yeah. Right, because the theatre does a lot of city programs. They do advertise
a lot of city stuff.
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Chair Kenny: Yeah, we'd have to check with the theatre cause I'm sure that a lot of the stuff that
they're advertising, it's fee-based but the Alameda Theatre has been excellent, so it's definitely worth
investigating.
Commissioner Aghapekian: There is an organization in Oakland that represents the western part of
USA in issues with handicap people. And there is a lady over there who did a presentation when we
went to that seminar in the city, and I had seen her present in other conferences where she talked
about the civil rights that is law. I think it'd be beneficial for us if we can invite her to our retreat.
Maybe she can talk with us for one or two hours, and give us some information as to what the law is,
because the law is always changing, and if that is agreeable to everybody. And if she needs a fee, if
we need to pay her a fee for her coming. Do we have any funds for that?
Kerry: Yes. If you imagine that we have funds for education and conferences. So, that is what paid
for
your attendance at that I think it was the Pacific ADA Conference class last summer?
Commissioner Aghapekian: Right.
Kerry: So, I think that we could look into it. It'd be great since you remember her and like her that
maybe if you could look up the Pacific ADA Group and see if you could find her, that'd be great.
Commissioner Aghapekian: I can. I know where she is.
Kerry: Oh great.
Commissioner Aghapekian: Yeah, and I picked up the pamphlets for distribution for the fair. That's
easy, and if everybody is agreeable, I'll pursue it and let you know.
Chair Kenny: Yeah, I think that would be a great idea. The only thing I would say is I wouldn't want
to get it too long. Maybe an hour is a good amount of time because we do have commission stuff also
that we have to get done. But I think it's a great idea.
Commissioner Aghapekian: An hour for her presentation?
Chair Kenny: Yeah.
Commissioner Aghapekian: Not including our questions.
Chair Kenny: So, if we're done with the retreat, then we move on to the staff communications.
6.
STAFF COMMUNICATIONS
Kerry: Staff communications is really that now we're going to start building a retreat agenda and also
our April meeting agenda. I have a feeling that the April meeting agenda was something about the
Universal Design Ordinance. I do know that there are some updates with the ordinance. I can let Beth
talk about that in a second during your announcements. I just want you to be thinking about future
agendas.
7.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Kerry: Also I received something in the mail. I often will receive things in the mail to announce to
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you guys, and it will be too late, like I won't be able to announce it to you in time. So I'll either email
to you, but this one was something that was timely. This is from the Alameda County Developmental
Disabilities Planning and Advisory Council. They'd like to invite you to attend the Annual Transition
Information Fair for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families. It's
Saturday, March 25th, from 9:30 AM to 3:00 PM, at the College of Alameda, 555 Ralph Appezzato
Parkway here in Alameda. It's a collaborative event planned by members of the Alameda County
Transition team. The target audience for the transition fair is students, younger students, 14 to 22
years, with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families, regional center staff and
school district staff. The Transition Fair includes a showcase of adult service providers and
educational workshops. This is a wonderful opportunity for families and students to explore the world
of adult services as they transition to life after high school.
Kerry: Let me know if you want more information about that. It sounds like it's coming up next
month, and not on the same Saturday as our retreat. They also checked in to make sure that they had
all of the right information for our commission, probably as a resource. That's all I've got.
Arnold Brillinger: Kerry, if you could just send that around to everyone.
Kerry: Absolutely.
Arnold Brillinger: I went to it last year.
Kerry: Oh, you did?
Arnold Brillinger: Because I had a friend who had a son, who is 17, and needed some special
attention. And what she did is, the several presentations that were going on. Two of them that she
needed were at the same time. So, she got me to go and get the information from the one. And then
they've got a bunch of tables set up with all kinds of little gadgets to give away and also information
and stuff.
Kerry: Well that sounds like a great resource then. Yes, I'd be happy to scan this and send this to all
of you.
Chair Kenny: Alright. So now we'll move on to announcements. And I have a couple that I just want
to start with. In regards to the Universal Design Ordinance, we had a slow down during the holidays.
And are now picking it back up again. This Monday the 13th, the latest draft of the Universal Design
Ordinance will be presented at the planning board meeting. And that will be open to public comment
at that time. And I suggest anyone who is interested, please come and please let us know what you
want to see, what you think is missing. Eventually, it will be presented to our commission, the
Universal Design Ordinance will be presented here. And I asked, they'll be looking for our approval
on the ordinance. So this will not be your only time to have questions on the ordinance. If you cannot
make it.
Chair Kenny: The other announcement I wanted to make is the League of Women Voters of Alameda
has invited each of us to an annual mixer and fundraiser that they hold called Meet Your Public
Officials. And we're public officials folks. [laughter] So it's Thursday, March 30th from 5:30-7:30
PM, at the community center on Harbor Bay Island. If you're interested please let them know. I believe
Commissioner Linton and I are already RSVP'd to go. Hope to see some of you there.
Kerry: And wear your name tags.
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Chair Kenny: Yes. [laughter] Does anyone else have any other announcements they'd like to make?
Commissioner Lewis: I do, on just. We were invited to go to a church fair of some sort.
Kerry: Emmanuel.
Commissioner Lewis: Emmanuel. That's what it was. We'll be doing Emmanuel Church Fair. The
Park Street Fair - that comes up at the end of July, right?
Arnold Brillinger: But there are several other events.
Kerry: Right. There's a Spring Festival that's Mother's Day weekend, on Park Street. But also the Art
and Wine Fair that you're discussing Tony, in July. And there's one on Webster Street that I don't know
what the date of that It might be June.
Arnold Brillinger: It's around Father's Day.
Kerry: It's moved, yeah. So perhaps the Event Subcommittee needs to get together.
Chair Kenny: Yeah, and I think it would also be good for us to speak about this at our retreat. And
kind of get a little bit more input on what events we want to go to and how much people are able to
give to these events. Cause I don't want it falling all on the event committee.
Commissioner Lewis: Good idea.
Commissioner Hall: Mother's Day is coming up in May, and having the little table and some of the
information. Different people, like you said not every day we get invited to events. I think that was
wonderful, because that was the first time, last summer when I saw the table. And I was like, ""Oh my
God. Look. Finally. A table for the Commission on Disability Issues!""
Chair Kenny: Are there any other announcements? Alright then I am going move to adjourn the
meeting.
Commissioner Lewis: Second it.
Chair Kenny: Alright. Adjourned.
8.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 7:50 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Kerry Parker
City Staff Liaison
Commission on Disability Issues
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