body,date,page,text,path
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities,2017-04-12,1,"ITEM 2-B
COMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES
MEETING MINUTES OF
Wednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m.
Beth Kenny: Welcome to the Commission on Disability Issues meeting for Wednesday, April 12,
2017. Let's start with roll call.
1. ROLL CALL
Kerry Parker: Chair Kenny?
Beth Kenny: Present.
Kerry Parker: Vice Chair Brillinger?
Arnold Brillinger: Here.
Kerry Parker: Commissioner Aghapekian? Commissioner Deutsch?
Susan Deutsch: Here.
Kerry Parker: Commissioner Franco? Commissioner Hall?
Lisa Hall: Here.
Kerry Parker: Commissioner Lewis? Commissioner Linton?
Jenny Linton: Here.
Kerry Parker: Commissioner Tsztoo?
Michaela Tsztoo: Here.
Kerry Parker: We have one, two, three six. We have a quorum.
2. MINUTES
Beth Kenny: Wonderful. Agenda item number two, approval of the minutes from our February 8th,
2017 meeting. Does anyone have any changes they'd like to see made to the minutes from our
February meeting?
Arnold Brillinger: I would like to move to accept these minutes as they are.
Beth Kenny: Then I'll second that we approve it. All in favor?
All: Aye.",CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-04-12.pdf
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities,2017-04-12,2,"ITEM 2-B
COMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES
MEETING MINUTES OF
Wednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m.
Beth Kenny: Great. The minutes have been approved. Just a side note on the minutes, we have been
having trouble hearing everybody in the minutes and as you know we are sending it to a company, so
if everybody can really make sure they try and speak into the microphone, that would be great.
Kerry Parker: Yes. Even a sign on this table over here it says, ""Speak directly into the mic."" And
we were charged extra money last time for the minutes to be transcribed for this, if we could just take
care to speak into the mic that would help. This one is super sensitive, yours are not.
3. ORAL COMMUNICATION
Beth Kenny: Oral communications, non-agenda items, public comment section. Do we have anyone?
No?
Kerry Parker: We do not have any speaker slips.
4.
NEW BUSINESS
4-A
Presentation of Services Available at Center for Independent Living (CIL) in Alameda
(Stuart S. James, Executive Director, CIL)
Beth Kenny: Great. Moving on to new business. We have a presentation of services available at the
Center for Independent Living by Stuart James.
Beth Kenny: Welcome Stuart. Thank you for being here.
Stuart
James: I tend to wander. I think that I have kinetic energy.
[laughter]
Stuart James: Well first of all thank you for having me. I'm the Executive Director at the Center for
Independent Living that a lot of people know as the Center for Independent Living, Berkeley.
However. Can you hear me?
Beth Kenny: Yes.
Stuart James: We have just opened up a new office here in Alameda. It is our third office. We have
one in Oakland as well. The office here is pretty exciting. It's 6,900 square feet, it's on Mariner Square
Loop. You come to our assistive technology lab which has three separate parts to it. One part is for
people with vision impairments, so we will walk consumers through how to use accessibility features
that exist within phones and computers already. Applications and software we can add to the computer
to help read screen read. We also have other devices that will screen read if you don't want to hook
up to a computer or that will scan and read hard materials. And we show people how to use all of that
stuff.
Stuart James: The second part of it is we actually have a living room that is completely controlled
by an Amazon Echo. So you can turn the heat on, turn the heat down, unlock the doors, turn the lights
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on, turn the lights off, and there's pretty much nothing you can't do without leaving the couch. You
can just sort of sit there and control the whole space, and we'll show you how to use all that and we
can actually go to your home and help you set it up. And then the third part is we have a whole bunch
of different mobility devices that we can show you. It's everything, from some power wheelchairs, to
power assist devices for manual wheelchairs, to sports wheelchairs to these kinds of things. For those
of you who are not familiar, the Independent Living Center, we're the first one in the country. We're
actually the first one in the world. There's now 400 centers around the country that are based on us,
but they're not affiliated with us directly. We're just sort of the premise for the ideology.
Stuart James: There're also several hundred more around the world and our office on any given
probably week or month have groups from other countries visiting us. In the world of independent
living we're kind of like Mecca. So we in fact just last week we had a group in from Thailand to come
and talk about what we do. I am very new to the disability space, other than having one, so I use a
wheelchair, but I spent 25 years working in sports and entertainment. So actually 10 years ago this
month I was in Shanghai producing a concert for the Rolling Stones.
Stuart James: So my life has changed a little. I ended up here because a variety of things. I have
osteogenesis imperfecta. My mom founded the OI foundation in the United States. She's one of the
founders and for 40 years Inever went to a meeting. It was a 40 year fight I had with my mom because
she used to say, ""You got to do something,"" and I'd say, ""Go away. Don't bother me."" I used to be an
NFL agent, and I used to send my NFL players to play golf tournaments for my mom's charity but I
would never tell them it had anything to do with me. They'd figure it out, but it was just a wall I put
up, and I didn't like to cross that wall. But that kind of changed when I was living in China and I
started a nonprofit there to help kids with physical disabilities. And through that process I ran into a
woman you may or may not have heard of before, her name is Judy Heumann. And Judy Heumann
is one of the founders of CIL along with Ed Roberts, and Judy's probably most famous for leading
the 504 protest in 1977 when we took over the federal building.
Stuart James: Up until a few months ago Judy was the head of human rights and disability for the
US State Department. She was an Obama appointee, and prior to that she was undersecretary of health
and human services for Clinton. She met me in Beijing. She said ""What do you plan to do when you
get back to the states?"" I said ""I'm going to go work for the PGL."" She said ""Would you consider
doing something else?"" I said ""Maybe,"" and I went to DC and I spent two days with her.
Stuart James: I tell you all of that because I had a very different idea about what needed to happen
in disability than the conversation that was taking place. She didn't necessarily think I was right, but
she said she hoped I was, and she wanted me to come try. For any independent living centers, our
federal funding requires us to provide four core services. Peer counseling, so it's people with
disabilities helping other people with disabilities on a one-on-one environment. In general you come
into our office, you set a goal for yourself, and we try to help encourage you and show you a way to
accomplish the goal. The second thing is we do advocacy so when it comes to public policy and those
types of things we get involved and participate in that process. The third is independent living skills.
We teach people with disabilities how to do certain things so they can live day-to-day like use an
ATM. And the fourth is transition. We help people get out of institutions, or diversion, we help them
not go into one to begin with. Actually that's the easier part. Transition out of institutions is really
hard particularly in the Bay Area because housing is so expensive, but if we can get them before they
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end up in the institution that's a lot easier, and then that means providing support for the family
oftentimes.
Stuart James: Now within the context of all of those services, how we put that together is up to me.
How we premise what the agency represents and want to do is up to me and my staff. It's been one of
the problems with independent living centers because there are three in the immediate area. There's
one in Hayward, there's on in San Francisco, and us, and if you were to walk into any of the three you
would think you were in three completely separate organizations. Even though we provide the same
fundamental service, we don't have the same philosophical approach to those services, so they're very
different. I am on the progressive end. I'm an integrationist, and I think everything we do for disability
should be about how to integrate people with disabilities into broader society. And we are practicing
heavily a thing called reverse integration. Instead of trying to make an environment suitable for
someone with a disability, I'm creating an environment that's for disability and making it suitable for
people who don't have one.
Stuart James: One of the things we do is, I use my background in sports for this, and I brought the
Harlem Globetrotters in to play wheelchair basketball. On the slides you see now, Michaela, is a little
boy from Alameda Boys and Girls Club playing wheelchair basketball with the Harlem Globetrotters.
We had about 150 kids. This lesson is not only for the people who have disabilities, it's actually for
the broader community. I want them to have a positive conversation about disability, not a negative
one. And I want them to have a positive experience with disability, not a negative one. So we do
things that are fun. We don't think wheelchair basketball is really an adaptive sport, I think wheelchair
basketball is its own game, and you just play it and it's its own game, don't compare it. The kids had
a great time and they got a valuable lesson, and the gentleman who runs Alameda Boys and Girls
Club said that it was just a profound experience for most of the kids.
Stuart James: And that's Buckets Blakes, another Harlem Globetrotter. He's been to three of them.
We've done the one in Oakland, one in Berkeley, and one in Alameda, and SO he came again. He
actually was awful the first time he came, now he's very good. [laughter] That presented kind of a
problem. We used to be able to show off and now we can't. In fact one of the projects I'm hopefully
working on soon, this was so successful that some other people in the disability movement who have
been working on some issues in Cuba have asked me to try to arrange this to go to Cuba, and bring
the Harlem Globetrotters there to play wheelchair basketball. So it's kind of cool. Just another one,
again with Buckets and the girls. In this case, we had one or two kids with disabilities, not many of
them, again just to have a conversation with the broader community. This is another thing, we already,
before moving to Alameda, we already had a pretty good relationship with Alameda Unified School
District and the transition kids.
Stuart James: We have a program now that we don't do with Alameda, we do it with Oakland where
the transition kids come into our office twice a week, and one class they learned self-advocacy, so
they learn about what it means to advocate for the things they have a right to. That class culminates
by them going to Sacramento and talking to legislators about issues that were important to them. Then
the second part of it is self-determination, learning how to set goals, and achieve them. But we also
do, within the context of that group, we do a number of special events that are for other school districts
and Alameda Unified participates in those. This happened to be, I think, our Halloween party, and
that young man I believe as an Alameda High School transition student.
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MEETING MINUTES OF
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Stuart James: We do this with the Alameda kids, the Oakland kids, Albany, Richmond I think has
come. We bring them all in. We had 150 kids at the party. We also did another event with them where
we
took them on a We have a very extensive Travel Training program to teach kids and adults how
to use public transportation, and we help map routes for them.
Stuart James: As part of that program, the same thing, we invited all these kids, and we did a
scavenger hunt around the Bay Area. We give them BART tickets, ferry tickets, bus tickets and they
get a map, and they have it in teams, and they got to go around and get stuff. It takes them all over
the Bay. It's a whole day event. Able-bodied kids or non-disabled kids participate in that. Everything
we do is about integration. Nothing we do is segregated. Part of it was we learned a very valuable
lesson from this - actually it was the Alameda kids that gave us that lesson. When we did this first
Halloween party, we had all these kids who thought, ""Wow, this is great!"" The teacher at Alameda
High School said, ""This is great, but we're not addressing one problem. And the problem was these
kids already do a good job at socializing amongst each other. What they want help with is socializing
with the other kids in school, trying to break through that barrier."" So we're starting to work on that.
We thought, ""Wow, that's probably a bigger problem. We got to figure out how to make that happen.""
And I think again, bringing those other kids into our world in a way that's cool is the solution, so
we're working on that.
Stuart James: We now also have a program that we do - it's primarily with vets, but it actually spans
across anyone with a spinal cord injury. This is also the reverse integration. We get them out playing
sports. This was a wheelchair tennis camp we did. We had Serena Williams as a guest, and we had
coaching from the Alameda Women's Tennis Team. Nothing makes vets happier than playing tennis
with college women. [chuckle] This young man here on the screen, Michaela, is a veteran playing
tennis with one of our players. And I happened to walk past at this moment and I said, ""How's it
going?"" and he said it was the greatest day of his life!
[laughter]
Stuart James: But actually there is a more serious purpose to this. It is to get them out. A lot of the
vets live on an island on the VA. They have a lot of support, but they don't get off of that island. And
there was one young man that participated in this particular event. He was fresh off his injury, broke
his back in Afghanistan and wasn't doing well getting back out into the world. He was in tremendous
shape. He was going to the VA every day and working out. But he just didn't want to go and do
anything, and his PT, his physical therapist made him come to this, and we couldn't get him to play. I
tried and tried and tried, but he just sat and played on his phone. Then the Academy of Arts Women's
Tennis Team girls, some of whom were in wheel chairs and some of whom were not, took his phone
and said he didn't come here for that, he came here to play tennis with them, and he did, and he ended
up leaving with them. [chuckle] because those were the girls that he didn't think would be interested
in him anymore, and once he realized, he got past that mental hurdle, that they didn't care, he was feel
better about himself. So a lot of the programming we do now is premised in that, is trying to get
people with disabilities to see themselves in a different way, and to raise the expectation they have
for them self in the world.
Stuart James: I think that one of the problems that I saw when I got to Berkley was that a lot of
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COMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES
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Wednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m.
people with disability lacked ambition. And it was not because they. It was because just they had
just been beaten down by this conversation at Social Security was their future, and nobody offering
them a counter-argument, and nobody showing them examples of like, me, who's travelled all over
the world. I have a wife with no disability, I have a very good education, and I've made a lot of money.
They needed to start seeing those things. That's sort of the root of what we do now.
Stuart James: As soon as I get enough money, and we're very close to having enough money, we're
about to do another really cool thing. We are about to partner with the Audi Racing School in Sonoma,
and take people with disabilities race car driving. If they have mobility issues, they are actually going
to get in the car and drive. Audi has agreed to put hand controls on all the cars. For those who are
vision impaired we're going to have a dual-seater where they can actually drive along with someone
helping them drive, so they can get the experience. Part of that idea maybe specific to Michaela is,
""Look, even if you are blind or vision impaired and can't see, it's a really good skill to know how to
turn the car off and on, or how to put it in gear or out of gear, or where the brake might be in case
you're in an emergency and you need to deal with it.' So we want to teach you those skills.
Stuart James: Okay. We've taken people out kayaking. This is part of our travel training program.
When we teach people about how to use public transportation, we usually create these expeditions,
and this happened to be one where we took them over to Sausalito. Everything's paid for, it's
completely free. We take them to lunch and we took them out kayaking. And a lot of these kids were
also from Alameda High School transition. Same group, but we also do it for older folks.
Stuart James: This young man There's a group pictured here, Michaela, of three folks, and they're
on a travel training mission, an expedition, and there's a young Hispanic man in the middle of the
picture in a wheelchair. This young man is kind of the premise of a program I'm trying to start, but
it's been a bit of a challenge but I'm not giving up on it. He was shot in Oakland. He was a victim of
gang violence. He wasn't in a gang. He happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He also
happens to be an illegal immigrant, so he's got a lot of other problems. And we found that this is a
substantial problem in Oakland. About 100 kids involved in shootings every year. That number's
going up, and 30% of those kids are ending up with physical disabilities. All of the socioeconomic
challenges they had before they got shot haven't gone away. But now they have a disability and they
don't really have a support system. So one of the things I'm trying to do with these folks is partner
them up with the vets, and let the vets do a mentoring program with them. The vets have been really,
really wanting to do it. Our challenge has been HIPAA rules and trying to find the kids. But it's a
work in progress.
Stuart James: Employment is probably my number one goal. I think employment is a big problem.
I was really surprised to find that some of the problems and the substantial problems were again, self-
imposed. There was a federal study that just completed last year and showed that only 28% of kids
with disabilities who actually graduate college, including Cal, are actually looking for a job when
they graduate. The others just don't think anyone's going to hire them. They never went to college
thinking they were going to get a job at the end. We had Kaiser Permanente last summer, offered us
32 paid internships specifically for kids with disabilities at Cal. Cal, which by the way, has 2000 kids
who identify as being disabled. We couldn't fill the intern positions. We couldn't get anybody to take
them. We ended up having to give gift cards to Starbucks to get someone to take this paid internship
at Kaiser. And they were good internships. They were serious, not low level. They were in accounting,
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in billing, these were good things. Couldn't get them.
Stuart James: I'll tell you a story of another one. I had a young man come to me in May. He just
graduated from Cal with a degree in History. He had spina bifida, so he's in a wheelchair. He came to
me with absolutely the most eloquent speech you have ever heard about why he can't get a job because
of his disability. It was incredible. Obama would have been impressed. I said, ""What did you study?""
He said, ""I studied History."" I said, ""I've got great news for you. I got a job."" He said, ""What's the
job?"" I said, ""San Francisco Unified just called me. They're 17 teachers short for next year. They want
to hire people with disabilities. You don't need to be credentialed, they'll pay to get your credentialed.
They'll hire you tomorrow. I can get you an interview right now."" He said, ""I don't want to be a
teacher."" I said, ""You studied History, what did you think you were going to do?"" He said, ""I want to
work in technology."" I said, ""You studied the wrong thing. You're not getting a job because you have
a disability, you're not getting a job because you're stupid."" In a nice sort of way.
Stuart James: But this is the conversation: these kids are not having the right conversation early on.
We want to start to get people, and this is sort of an ingrained problem with the disability community,
and the problem that I had before I got involved. The people who I find really succeed, who have
disabilities and have succeeded in life, do not come back and help the community. They're so busy
putting their disability on another side of the wall like I was, that they don't want to cross the wall
and touch it. It's a thing we got to change. So I'm trying to get people with disabilities who are very
successful to come back and help set the path.
Stuart James: We are hopefully, but it's not set in stone yet, we're having a conversation, a very
preliminary thing, with one of the tech companies, and for some reason it just completely left my
head. But they have a goal to hire 1,000 kids with autism in the next year or two. They tried this
already, and they didn't do so well with it because they were very good at teaching the coding
computer part. They were not so good at teaching some of the soft skills that those folks needed to
survive in the office space. But they're very passionate about doing it because the CEO has a son with
autism, and he's on the Asperger's spectrum, goes to Cal. The Worldwide CEO also has a kid with
autism. So they're very interested, and we're about to start working with them.
Stuart James: What I've done at CIL is, I started to create an employment program for people with
disabilities that's very specific. There's actually going to be two of them. We've just started with the
first one. We had one that was funded by DOR, and it was basically. DOR sent these people who
needed a job and we spent a week helping them write a resume, and learn how to job interview, and
nobody ever got a job. So I got rid of it. And I told you all we weren't going to do that anymore
because half the people coming through, the disability wasn't the problem they weren't getting the
job. They had some other issues. They hadn't been to work for 20 years. They weren't educated. They
couldn't read. They couldn't write. They were actually the reasons they weren't getting a job, nothing
to do with the disability.
Stuart James: There's lots of places you can go learn to write a resume. You don't need to come to
us for that. What we did is we said, ""Where can we really make a difference?"" So we've started with
these kids from college and we said, ""We've got to change the way they think about this."" We started
to teach them what I call the back door approach to employment. I think the problem for people with
disabilities, visual disabilities particularly, is HR. It's an HR person's job to qualify candidates before
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they put them through to whomever they're going to work for. There's no incentive for HR people to
take chances. My joke is that my wife was an HR executive. She married me, but she would never
hire me. [chuckle] Because there's no upside for her.
Stuart James: If it's a good experience, that's her job. If it's a bad experience, people are going to
say, ""Why did you put that person through?"" I have never not had a job. In my entire life I've never
not had a job and I've never had to write a resume because one job always led to my next job. Now I
have a very extensive network. If I quit this job I could be working tomorrow. So we teach kids to
start building their network, to start meeting the people that can hire them and start to build
relationships, so they don't need to worry about going through HR. We start to teach them how to
market themself, how to present themselves in a way that they're comfortable and to build an identity,
and how to have a conversation; how to use LinkedIn. Then, we've partnered with Facebook, Google,
Lyft, Pandora, and we take the kids in there. What I tell those tech companies is, ""I have no
expectation for you to hire anybody I bring in. I don't want that to be the premise of this."" That's why
they allow us to come in. I tell the kids, ""You're not going there to get a job. You're going there to
build your network. So I need you to start meeting the people you're going to meet, getting their
information, following up with them, telling them and reminding them that you're looking for a job,
and start to build your network.""
Stuart James: We've had a 75% success rate at getting people jobs that way. Not just any job. One
of them is producing weather for CBS TV, hadn't had a job in three years. One of them is actually
working for Google as an accountant. Another one is working for Accenture on the Google account.
One of them is the editor of a paper. They're all doing really great things. Once we got them to start
to think about themselves in a different way; like if you graduated from Cal, or even Cal State, East
Bay, you shouldn't be thinking about working at Walmart. You should've been going there thinking
about what you want to do in a big way. If you're going to fail at getting a job you might as well fail
spectacularly. Don't fail at the little things.
Stuart James: I'm hoping the next step of this is to apply this same premise to kids with cognitive
disabilities. It's to start doing community improvement projects with the Chambers of Commerce
with the kids from the transition programs so that they can get to know each other. They can get to
see those kids in an environment where they're capable. Where they are having a positive impact on
the space. That's my next step. The same sort of backdoor approach of getting those kids to meet
business people that will hire them directly, and stop worrying about the cold call. But that's a work
in progress. Even in Alameda unfortunately, we've had union problems. The unions won't let us do
the community service projects, so there's some challenges. But we're working on it. I never give up,
so I'll find a way. That's the employment issue.
Stuart James: This is my staff. That's my assistant. [chuckle] Independent living skills. We used to
do this one on one. We used to teach people whatever they want to do, how to manage your money,
how to cook an egg, how to do things like this. It was boring and we didn't have a very big.. We
didn't have a lot of consumers. We were losing money hand over fist doing it that way. So I decided
we were going to do it a different way, and we were going to do it in a way that really attracted the
community as a whole.
Stuart James: So if you don't know who that is that's Cal Peternell and he's the head chef at Chez
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Wednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m.
Panisse. I called him up, and I said, ""Would you mind doing a cooking class for people with
disabilities?"" He said, ""No, when do you want me to come?"" I said, ""Great, we'll do it this week.' He
came and we let him promote his book. Michaela, I had one requirement. I asked him to do the
cooking class and have an assistant who is one of our consumers, a young lady who was blind. He
said, ""Yes no problem, would love to do it."" So he met with her before, and he got her acclimated
around the table and he started to show her what he was going to do. He had her chopping stuff for
him, and she did a great job. We had about 50 people. About 30 of them had disabilities and about 20
of them didn't. People loved it. They loved having a chance to meet with Cal. One of the cool things
is that the young lady who was his assistant, at the end she was very nervous and she said, ""You know,
I had such a great time. I wish I could go to visit the kitchen at Chez Panisse."" I said, ""You need to
ask him."" But she was afraid. I said, ""Come on, you got to ask him."" I got her a book and I said, ""Go
ask him to sign his cook book for you, and then ask him if you can visit the kitchen.""
Stuart James: So she did. He's a very tall man, he's got a very deep voice, and he's a little
intimidating. At first, he said, ""Well, let me tell you that in my kitchen, I have people of all abilities,
and that you are absolutely welcome to come visit my kitchen, but I have a rule. If you come to my
kitchen, you have to come and work. That's the rule."" She was flabbergasted, but he was serious. If
she'd come to the kitchen, he was going to put her to work. But again, she became afraid, and she
never took him up on the offer. So, we're starting to do that. I've now accumulated a list of some of
the top chefs in the Bay Area. They've all been very willing to come in and teach cooking to people
with disabilities. It's far more exciting than me doing it, right? And they're teaching them to eat
healthy. They're teaching them to eat affordably. They're teaching them to eat things that look elegant,
even though they're very simple to make. It makes everybody feel good, right? Our one challenge
with this, we did this at the Ed Roberts campus, and we should have set up a kitchen. We've been
hoping to find a better kitchen. So if anybody here knows a kitchen we can use, particularly a
commercial kitchen, I'm really game for advice.
Stuart James: This (picture) is, again, assistive technology. Michaela, we got a bunch of people
trying out different wheelchairs on the screen. Once we get ahold of a product, we invite people to
come in and try it. So this happened to be the Firefly. It's an assistive device that you attach to a
wheelchair and it turns into a bike. They came in, and we let everybody take it around and try it. One
of the programs, I don't know if anybody does this at Alameda. This is a Berkeley-only program, at
the moment, and we're trying to get in to Oakland, and I don't know if it exists at Alameda. I think it
does. This is a residential access program and it's paid for the City of Berkeley. This particular, last
20 years, it's been paid by CBDG monies. Community Development Block Grant. CDBG. But next
year, I think, Berkeley's going to fund it out of the city budget.
Stuart James: What it is, is low to moderate income folks, who need to have their house customized,
so they can get in and out. So they may have a child who just acquired a disability, or they may be a
senior, who has now acquired a disability. Or they may be a person with a disability whose mobility
has declined. Now they need help getting in and out of their home, whether it's a lift, or a ramp, or
whether we need to put grab bars in, near the toilets, or widen doors, the City of Berkeley pays for it.
And we do about 44 consumers a year in Berkeley, and we put in lifts, and ramps. And actually, the
state just gave us $50,000 to do it within our catchment area as an additional sum of money. We'll do
all sorts of stuff. We do accommodations for people with vision impairment. The old deputy at CIL
is blind, and he's now in his 70s, I believe. So we're going to go in and do some accommodations for
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him and help him get in and out of his house so he doesn't fall.
Stuart James: This is one of our great programs, because every consumer that comes in is a success
story. And I don't know if you guys know, are familiar with Easy Does It? It's a service provider. You
guys familiar with it? We just did a home, we put a lift in for a home of a woman that was not able to
get in and out of her house. Easy Does It had been going there to carry her out. And we now just put
her lift in, so she can get in and out on her own. And this is also part of diversion. This is actually
making it SO you don't have to go into an institution.
Beth Kenny: This is Judith Heumann. Part of my trying to bring in people who are very successful
in the disability community, the young lady to the right. So there's two people here, Michaela; one is
Judy Heumann, and the other is Haben Girma. I don't know if you know who Haben Girma is. Haben
Girma is the first deaf-blind graduate from Harvard Law. She is Fortune magazine's 30 Under 30. She
now lives here in the Bay Area. Particularly timely is that her mother is a refugee and came to America
on the refugee program with her and her brother, who's also deaf-blind. And she has spoken for
Obama. She's one of the most influential woman of Africa, awards from the British government, and
she's very heavily involved in CIL now. So she comes in and does speeches for us to kids, and I'm
actually trying to recruit her to our board. That's a work in progress.
Stuart James: So we bring them in, and we get them to start to inspire kids to think differently about
their futures. That's my travel training team in Napa goofing off. So there's a whole bunch of people
there, Michaela, in pink shirts that say: ""Beer Or Normal."" And they're not working very hard, and
they're probably drunk [laughter] But, anyway. And that's it. Thanks to Senator Loni Hancock, we
got Non-profit of the Year, last year, for our changes. We are very excited to be part of Alameda. And
I am always open to, and would very much like to hear from, the Commission at any time about things
that we need to be doing to help support the community. These are just things that we've acquired
through my two years here. But you guys know better than I do about what some of the challenges
are, particularly related to Alameda, and what role CIL can play in helping you address those things.
Stuart James: We are about to make a very big push to the business sector in Alameda thanks to the
Chamber of Commerce, who've been very supportive. Mayor Spencer has been very supportive since
I got here. So we are happy to have her on board. We will be having our opening ceremony on June
24th. We'll be partnering with BORP, the Bay Area Recreation Program, and as part of our opening
ceremony, we'll be doing a bike ride around Alameda. And we'll have all sorts of hand cycles, and
regular bikes, and anybody can come down. And there'll be some food, and all that kind of thing.
Stuart James: As I was speaking to Beth earlier, we're going to see if we can get a float in the parade,
which I need to talk to you about. [laughter] My staff's got all sorts of great ideas about a float that
they'd like to do for the parade. We were about to make a very big push in Alameda. We fundamentally
changed the way this CIL addresses the problem of disabilities. There's been challenges in Berkeley
of trying to do that. The Berkeley disability community's very entrenched in a 40-year-old
conversation that hasn't changed. It's no offense to the Berkeley community because that's our roots,
but Alameda is giving us an opportunity to paint a new picture, and to sort of push some of these
programs. One of the things we're really desperately trying to do, and we've not been very successful,
is having a better relationship with the College of Alameda. We've actually been trying to rent
facilities from them, and we can't get a call back. Yes, even from the number that says, ""If you want
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to rent the facility, please call,"" they never call back. So, if anybody can help us with that, we'd really
be keen. We need to rent gym space from them and some other things.
Stuart James: But again, you guys are the best folks to tell us what we need to do, and what some
of the challenges are. I know one of the things I'd like to get very involved in, and we would help pay
for it, is I understand that the city of Alameda's about to build a new park over by the Del Monte
factory. Right? They acquired some land there. Am I wrong about that?
Kerry Parker: We have the Jean Sweeney Park that's over near Del Monte that is being developed,
and the Estuary Park, as well. And then, there's supposed to be more parks out at the point.
Beth Kenny: Yes, out by the ferry. There's supposed to be some parks being built out by the ferry
building. And I know at one point, they were talking about doing an accessible baseball field, moving
towards making things much more accessible, SO.
Stuart James: We would love to see if we can help with that process. We would like to see some
more accessible things like wheelchair-friendly softball fields, of which we would be happy to go out
and help you raise money to make that happen. We can talk to the Giants and the A's for you. The
Giants just built a beautiful one in Sacramento, but they should be building one here. A lot of the stuff
that we run, the tennis programs, we do wheelchair lacrosse, we do the Harlem Globetrotters, we're
always having challenges finding facilities. We've been trying to rent the Alameda Point Gym, but
we haven't been very successful at it. In any of those types of things, we always could use the help.
We'd like to start doing those type events here. And as these new parks come to be, we'd like to have
a voice in talking about some of the things we'd like to see go into those facilities.
Beth Kenny: Great. Thank you very much. We're going to go around and have each of the
commissioners have a chance to ask any questions, or comments that they might have. I'll start with
Commissioner Brillinger.
Arnold Brillinger: My question was where in Marina Village is your new facility?
Stuart James: Where in Marina Village are we? So, we're right above the Webster Tunnel. Do you
know where Pasta Pelican is? If you go through the Webster Tunnel, you sort of loop around behind
Target.
Stuart James: You go over the top of the tunnel, we're in an office complex that's in there. If you're
coming from Oakland, the 31 bus stops right at our building. There are a number of shuttles. The
Target complex is going to start stopping at our complex for us. Actually, I'd love to see if we can get
the Alameda city shuttle to stop there. But I don't know how to do that yet.
Kerry Parker: We know something about it.
[laughter]
Arnold Brillinger: Yes, I was going to say, we here can probably help in some of these things, too. I
know that various people here have leads into Like the mayor, and so forth. And the mayor was
at
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the dedication of the Estuary Park. I went there that time and saw that they had some really great
plans for making it accessible, like you say. And she could, or even Kerry could, direct you toward
some people and get you in there. It sounds really great. I heard a couple of months ago that you were
planning on starting a facility over here and we're real happy that you're here.
Stuart James: Yes. I live in Alameda. My wife has no intention of leaving this island, ever. We've
been looking to buy a house, which is not a very good time at the moment, but my mandate from my
wife is that we don't leave the island, so that's the end of it. [chuckle] We love it here. I like the sense
of community and I think everything that CIL's doing now is premised in the sense of community,
the community has to participate with us. So I think we're going to be able to accomplish a lot here.
Beth Kenny: Commissioner Tsztoo.
Michaela Tsztoo: I've been here since I was born so I know all the different agencies because I had
to go through Independent Living skills, but I went through Well, now it's called the Hatlen Center
for the Blind, and it's located in San Pablo, and so it's kind of the same idea with this agency, but it's
more like they teach people who are blind, hearing impaired, who are in wheelchairs to live in an
apartment, and they teach you full life-long skills with mobility, cooking, and all that sort of stuff. So
I'm trying to figure out if your facility here, do we have to be affiliated with Department of
Rehabilitation, which knows about different agencies, or with some other agencies, government
agencies, in order to try out your program, because that's what I had to personally go through.
Stuart James: I didn't catch all that.
Michaela Tsztoo: Oh, well is your agency affiliated with the Department of Rehab?
[background conversation]
Stuart James: Actually, all you need to do, Michaela, is walk in the door.
Michaela Tsztoo: Really? So you guys aren't hooked up to any agency.
Stuart James: You just need to walk through the door and we will totally take care of you. Everything
we do at CIL is free. The assistive technology lab is open to the public, the travel training is open to
the public, basically anything you want, you just walk through the door.
Michaela Tsztoo: Now, what about cooking at my own house? Would you guys send someone out to
work with me if I ever wanted to have someone in my house teach me how to cook or use a convection
oven that's not blind-friendly? That's a good challenge because.
Stuart James: Just walk through the door.
Michaela Tsztoo: Well that's good to know because I almost thought I had to go back with
Department of Rehabilitation and work through their agency.
Stuart James: We do have certain programs that are That DOR needs to refer you, but they're really
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few. We do workshops and if that's the case, if you come through the door, the peer counselor will
tell you and then we'll help guide you to how to make that happen. But for the most part, I think
there's only like three programs where you have to get referred, and you wouldn't be eligible for any
of them. [chuckle] One, you have to be a vet. But almost all of our services, you just simply just walk
through the door.
Michaela Tsztoo: Oh, okay.
Beth Kenny: Thank you. Commissioner Deutsch?
Susan Deutsch: Thank you very much for this presentation. I think it was really fantastic and I also
have an interest in accessible parks in Alameda, and I would like to help you try to get connected with
some people for that. I also would like to know, do you have to live in Alameda to access this CIL?
Stuart James: No.
Susan Deutsch: So people in Berkeley, let's say, who
Stuart James: No.
Susan Deutsch: Can come here if they.
Stuart James: Actually, although It's a strange rule that I haven't figured out yet. Although,
theoretically, our catchment area from our federal and state grants is Berkeley. It's actually all of
Northern Alameda County. So it's Berkeley, Albany, Oakland, East Oakland, and Alameda city.
Actually, you can come from anywhere in California and walk in the door and we serve you.
Susan Deutsch: Nice.
Stuart James: There are no boundaries, so we often have people from Palo Alto.
Susan Deutsch: Yes.
Stuart James: And we have a lot of people from San Francisco. We have a lot of people from
Richmond and El Cerrito. It doesn't matter. You can go as a California resident, you can go to any
CIL you want in the state. Just walk in.
Susan Deutsch: Thank you.
Stuart James: But we're the best one.
[laughter]
Beth Kenny: Commissioner Hall.
Lisa Hall: Thank you so much. I think your center is just unbelievably wonderful. I would love to
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see if I can help anyway on space like you're saying, there are so many big open spaces here that we
should be able to, like Alameda Point Collaborative or even my church, our parish hall is big. It's big
and we use it for many different events.
Stuart James: We would love help.
Lisa Hall: So I think that we could Helping you guys we could do what we can do about getting
some spaces because I think the wheelchair basketball is just - I don't know anybody that doesn't love
that. It is, it's just a blast and that's SO awesome. Hopefully we can help do that but thank you so much
for everything you've done, you're just amazing.
Stuart James: That would be great. The Alameda Boys and Girls Club by the way has been
wonderful. They are a wonderful partner, but there's restrictions on what we can do there. So we do
a lot with the vets. And we do a lot with people with spinal cord injuries. We are now going to be
hosting a regular tennis clinic. We'd love to do that in Alameda. We host a wheelchair lacrosse team
hence my sweatshirt that I'm wearing. And at the moment we do that at Treasure Island, but it's only,
because it's the only gym we can get. We'd rather be doing that here. I have 18 sports wheelchairs in
my office. So when we do these events, we have all the equipment, you only need to show up. We
have the sport chairs, we have the sticks, we have everything. We bring the coaches and we invite
able-bodied folks to everything we do. So even though lacrosse, we have a lot of able-bodied lacrosse
players that just come because they think it's fun. Then they all go out to a bar. [chuckle]
Beth Kenny: Commissioner Linton.
Jenny Linton: I just want to thank you for coming and talking about your program. We have
experience with the Center for Independent Living in Brooklyn, and you've given me an entirely new
perspective on what we might be able to find at the Center for Independent Living. So I have a few
questions. Do you have a calendar of events? So we can see what kind of things you're doing and
maybe come to some.
Stuart James: I didn't hear you.
Jenny Linton: Do you have a calendar?
Stuart James: Other events?
Jenny Linton: Yes.
Stuart James: Like for.
Jenny Linton: Some of the things, you just mentioned tons of things that are going on.
Stuart James: We've got a lot of ideas for events, it's just a matter of whether I can pull them off.
Jenny Linton: Okay. Perfect.
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Stuart James: I need to probably cover my bases. We've got a very good relationship with Berkley,
and with community members in Berkley. So we are working with Freight and Salvage hopefully to
maybe do an event there. We are working with the UC Theater. The UC Theater is a non-profit theater
much like the Freight and Salvage but bigger. And they have a theater education program which is
teaching low-income people the business of theater. So about engineering, lighting, accounting,
booking arts, promotion, marketing. We have been working with them to incorporate people with
disabilities. And we are looking to do one single event that will be our folks who they are training
will produce the event. And with some help from me. So that's something. One of the things we have
been really focused on and this might be something that commissioners should think about. I'm again
an integrationists. So one of the things you'll see in the disability community particularly in Berkley,
is them creating programs for people with disabilities. So they created a program called CTP which
is a great program. It's Computer Training for People with disabilities.
Stuart James: My thinking though is that there is a lot of those programs, one of the best ones is
actually here in Alameda called NPower and it's over at the college Alameda. It's free to anybody
wants to, if they're qualified, you have to be low-income I believe. And you're pretty much guaranteed
a job at the end. So for me I think, why should we have a separate program for people with disabilities,
why don't we just go to NPower and make sure they're accessible, and that they are accommodating.
And they've been very happy to work with us to make that happen. That's our approach. I would
rather not reinvent the wheel. I would rather go to some of these companies that have a really good
track record of success and say, ""How can we help you get people with disabilities involved?"" I do
want to point this out because there's something. I don't want to take up all your time. But, and I'm
happy to go public with this.
Stuart James: I was very upset recently, I had a conversation with a new Disabled Student Services
Director at the Cal University. And we have very different thinking about what needs to happen. And
one of her big ideas, they've cut a substantial portion of their programing for disabilities. They've cut
workability. They've just removed 20,000 plus pieces of video that were for education purposes
because they weren't all captioned. So people with hearing problems couldn't watch them. Instead of
fixing them, they took them all down. So there was no longer anything. Cal's got lots of problems.
But she had come to me with this new big idea. And her big idea was that she wanted to hire a person
who was a disability specialists in the career counseling office. And I said, ""Interesting."" What do
you anticipate that person to do?
Stuart James: And her thinking was that anybody who had a disability or identified as disabled at
Cal, when they're ready to go get a job would go see that person. And I said, ""That is the worst idea I
ever heard of."" I don't need help with my disability. I'm an expert at my disability. I don't need anybody
help me with that. If I'm an architect major, I need someone who knows all the people in architecture
to help me get a job. I don't need to go to the disability person. And if you want to have a disability
expert, it shouldn't be for the student, it should be for the other counselors, so that they can figure out
what accommodations a person might need in the workplace. That's the kind of thinking we're trying
to change. We're trying to say, ""Look let's not reinvent the wheel, I don't believe in segregation.
Segregation's not equal.'
Stuart James: We just had the exact same experience at Cal State, East Bay. We're hiring at the
moment and I sent my HR person to Cal State, East Bay for recruiting. So she went to the career
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center and said, ""Hey, I'm here to recruit people and preferably if they have a disability."" They said,
""Oh, if you want to hire someone with disability, you got to go to the disability student office."" ""Wait,
you're the career center, why are you sending me over there?"" We're trying to change that mentality.
It's the wrong mentality. That's something we're working on, that's part of our advocacy efforts. If you
have an idea for something you want us to do, I'm open to any event idea you have.
Jenny Linton: Okay.
Stuart James: Any of them. I mentioned answering Michaela's question about some of the programs
that we do require referral. We are required by law to have anybody with any disability pretty much
do anything, and that's a really big task. It's impossible, quite frankly. So a lot of people who have
really specific needs, our idea of help is we got to refer them to somebody who knows more than we
do. Right? One of the areas that is the most difficult and the most challenging is mental health because
they require long term support. And we have, for years, not done a good job in that place.
Stuart James: We had programs, we had a great program at Oakland to get people who were
homeless and mental health issues off the street. We had a really high success rate, we were serving
about 230 consumers a year, and paid for by the county of Alameda. The problem was, within three
months almost all of them were back on the street again. So it was just a vicious cycle. We do do a
program that is special for that group, also funded by the behavioral health services from Alameda
County, and we help people with severe mental illness who are doing well and who have stabilized
themselves and who are ready to try to go back to work. And we help them with their work incentive
benefits so they understand the process of how to get off services and what they can and cannot do
and the steps it takes. But that program is specific to that group, you have to be referred into us. But
we only have three of those types of programs.
Jenny Linton: I agree with you on the mental health services, that's very important.
Stuart James: There is no idea you could come up with that I wouldn't be interested in.
[laughter]
Jenny Linton: Okay. I think I have an idea on getting access to the college of Alameda. So I'll give
you a contact.
Stuart James: Yes, we would love that.
Jenny Linton: Okay.
Stuart James: It's right kind of across the street from us so we'd really like to have a better
relationship with them. But absolutely. I am a creative sort, so I think if it sounds cool let's do it.
[laughter]
Jenny Linton: Okay.
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Stuart James: Yes.
Beth Kenny: Thank you so much for coming and this has been a great presentation, and I do think
that there's a lot of opportunity for us to work together. As Commissioner Deutsch said, there's interest
by the Parks and Rec Department to make things more accessible, and so we can work there together.
There are many opportunities and I have to plug my own, which, one of the things that this
commission has been working on for many, many years is a Universal Design Ordinance. I'm not sure
if you're familiar with universal design. The idea that things should be designed to be accessible to
the most amount of people. So you have the backing put in the shower SO that if you need a grab bar,
it can be easily put in. You have the hallways be an acceptable width SO that wheelchairs can get in.
You have zero step entrance. As you know there's quite a bit of construction that's coming up on the
Point, so we're trying to get this ordinance passed soon, and I think it works well with your mission
as well. [chuckle] So, yes, I thank you for coming in and.
Stuart James: No worries, and I hope you all come for a visit. We're a little messy still, but come
anyway. Yes.
Beth Kenny: Great. Thank you very much.
Stuart James: Okay. Thank you.
[applause]
Beth Kenny: Thank you.
[Background conversation]
5.
OLD BUSINESS
5-A
Proposed Name Change
Beth Kenny: Now, we move on to old business, and the first items of old business are changes that
we had talked about making during the CDI retreat, and we'll vote on whether we want to accept these
changes or not at this time. So, the first one is the proposed name changes. There are three up there,
and I wrote a few pros and cons for each.
Beth Kenny: And if we do end up changing the name, we have to do it by ordinance. So, it would
have to go through the city council, which we can do, but that was not a factor that I knew about when
I was writing the pros and cons.
Beth Kenny: So, the first proposed name change is Commission on Disability. And the pros I have
is it's easy to change logo, etcetera, just remove 'issues', and we can sort of phase out, as new people
get their badges, have the issues removed. It's not too different from what we have, so we won't have
to change everything right away. The con is that it does require a change to the logo, but only a slight
one. And I know, Commissioner Brillinger, you were worried about being known as CDI, and I spoke
with Harry and we both thought that we could, even if we changed it to Commission on Disability,
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we could still be referred to as CDI. So, that's the first one.
Beth Kenny: The second one is City of Alameda Commission on Disability. Pros, it includes
'Alameda' and removes 'issues""'. Cons, it's a difficult logo change and it's a mouthful. And then, the
third one is Commission on Disability Issues, no change. So, we'll keep the 'issues', we'll still be CDI,
and we'll keep it the way it is. Does anyone have any comments they'd like to make about these before
we vote?
Lisa Hall: I have a question. On other commissions in the city, is their name with 'City of Alameda'?
Kerry Parker: That was my thought about it, that that becomes a default naming. I work for the City
of Alameda Public Works Department, but we're generally known as the 'Public Works Department'.
So, I think, you're right, Commissioner Hall, that you are the City of Alameda Commission on
Disability Issues right now.
Lisa Hall: So, I mean, on number one, then basically we would just be removing the 'issues', which
is a big part of the reason we're all kind of.
Beth Kenny: Talking about it in the first place, yes.
Lisa Hall: We don't care for the word 'issues'.
Beth Kenny: Yes. And, Kerry, do you have anything more you wanted to add about the process for
changing the name?
Kerry Parker: The city clerk let me know we had to change it by ordinance, that basically we would
be getting council to approve an ordinance so we would strike that word out of where it is read in the
municipal code, that basically declared this the Commission on Disability Issues. We would remove
that word. So basically we would be editing the municipal code to omit that word wherever it shows
up. That would require the writing of a staff report, the ordinance, and putting it in front of council as
a regular item. I don't think anybody would have major objections to it, but it does require a little bit
of work, and it might not happen right away.
Beth Kenny: Thank you. So, does anyone else have any comments they'd like to make?
Susan Deutsch: Can you review the discussion, why were we taking the word 'issues' out? I can't
remember right now what the discussion was about the word 'issues'.
Beth Kenny: Yes. So, this first came up in a meeting with the mayor, and she said, ""Why is it
Commission on Disability Issues?"" It's something that has kind of always bothered me. It makes it
sound like persons with disabilities have issues. I think that if we're the Commission on Disability, it
just seems a little less - I don't know - it seems a little bit more inclusive and less, making it about
""issues.""
[chuckle]
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Susan Deutsch: Alright. I just, I was having trouble recalling, I knew we discussed it but I couldn't
recall. Why? Yes.
Beth Kenny: So, should we take a vote? Do people feel ready or is there more conversation that
people would like to have?
Jenny Linton: I do have a question before we start.
Beth Kenny: Sure.
Jenny Linton: One and two are the same thing?
Beth Kenny: Yes.
Jenny Linton: Okay.
Beth Kenny: So, we're voting between, let's say we're voting between, one and three.
Jenny Linton: Yes, right.
Kerry Parker: We need a motion to vote.
Beth Kenny: Yes, so I move that we vote and you choose whether you want The Commission on
Disability or a Commission on Disability Issues. Change or no change. Why don't we just say that?
Susan Deutch: I second.
Beth Kenny: Great. [chuckle] Commissioner Brillinger, what is your vote? Number three. Alright,
Commissioner Tsztoo, number three is The Commission on Disability Issues, no change and number
one is removing the issues.
Michaela Tsztoo: I definitely want number one.
Beth Kenny: Okay.
Susan Deutsch: Number one.
Lisa Hall: Number one.
Jenny Linton: Number three.
Beth Kenny: And I am going to vote for number one.
Kerry Parker: Alright, that poll is four to two, as I see it, to change.
Beth Kenny: Alright. So we will begin the process of changing our name. Alright, thank you
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everybody. The next thing that we will talk about is
Lisa Hall: Can I just ask one quick question?
Beth Kenny: Sure.
Lisa Hall: Just to get why you guys wanted to keep issues. Wondered why not change for us?
Jenny Linton: Not to change it. I don't like change.
Arnold Brillinger: Okay, my reason was I didn't see the reason, necessarily, for the change. There
are other commissions in the East Bay. Like in Oakland and Berkley, they are called the Mayor's
Commission On Disabled People. And so I saw the disabled visibility issues, kind of, took care of
that too. Not that we have issues, necessarily, but issues that deal with disabilities.
Jenny Linton: Happy to support the name change. I'm happy to support the name change.
Lisa Hall: There you go. Thank you, I just, I was curious, right? I knew you guys had reasons, I just,
why? Yes.
5-A
CDI Bylaws - Retreat Edit
Beth Kenny: The next item is the CDI bylaws. We talked about this at the retreat, of making it so
that the Commissioner Liaisons could go before the different groups that they're assigned to and
identify themselves as a member of The Commission on Disability Issues and let them know that they
will act as Liaison. Let me read it out loud for everybody. The proposed change. Actually, it's not a
change, it's an addition into our bylaws. Nothing is going to be removed. If we put this through it
would be an addition. ""Each commission member will be assigned to act as a liaison between CDI
and another Alameda Board or Commission. As liaison, commission members should identify
themselves as Liaison from this Commission. The liaison will act as point person between the
commission and his or her assigned commission board. In this role, the commission member will alert
CDI if there are any items that his or her assigned commission or board are or will be working on that
may effect persons with disabilities. The commission members should make his or her report during
Old Business portion of the commission meetings.""
Arnold Brillinger: I move to accept the addition to the bylaws
Beth Kenny: I'll second the move for a vote. All in favor of the addition to the bylaws?
Susan Deutsch: Aye
Beth Kenny: Aye.
Jenny Linton: Aye.
Lisa Hall: Aye.
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Arnold Brillinger: Aye.
Beth Kenny: Any opposed?
Michaela Tsztoo: I'm undecided on what I should do, but you guys can do whatever you want.
Beth Kenny: Oh, Commissioner Tsztoo, you're going to abstain from the vote?
Michaela Tsztoo: Am I allowed to or should I vote?
Beth Kenny: Yes, you're allowed to.
Michaela Tsztoo: Alright. (Abstain)
Beth Kenny: That will be added to our bylaws. And that just makes it so that were in compliance
with Brown Act when we go to our different commissioners, commissions and board representing the
Commissioner on Disability.
Lisa Hall: You have notes somewhere that who was doing, which liaison?
Beth Kenny: I didn't bring that with me.
Lisa Hall: I was trying to find my notes.
Kerry Parker: You know the minutes for the retreat, which were basically the Chair's notes, have
not yet been put together but we will have that for the June meeting.
Beth Kenny: We can do a quick go around of what commission or board you chose to represent us
in, so Commissioner Brillinger. (?) Commissioner Tsztoo, I think you had left by the time that we
were making decisions, so I don't know that you got assigned to one yet.
Michaela Tsztoo: I kind of wanted to do something else, but since my term is almost over, I haven 't
chosen anything.
Beth Kenny: Yes, okay. Commissioner Deutsch you were.
Susan Deutsch: I'm doing Park and Rec.
Beth Kenny: Okay.
Susan Deutsch: But, I wanted just, I mean want to to continue, but I just want to say that their
meetings always tend to be the day after we meet. So, it's been really hard for me to go to two meetings
in a week, so I'm actually hoping that maybe one of their meetings is on an off-month for us. I have
been in contact with them through email, but I haven't gone to any one of their.
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Beth Kenny: Are you on their listserv so that they send you out their agendas?
Susan Deutsch: Yes.
Beth Kenny: Great. And Commissioner Hall, do you remember which one.
Lisa Hall: I definitely do. The Alameda Housing Authority. I actually went to an event, it was put on
by the housing authority for faith leaders. It was put on by. Alameda Housing Authority invited faith
leaders of the city of Alameda, our pastor was away on spring break, and SO he asked me to attend
and I was happy to attend. It was informative and interesting and a lot of good feedback from the
community. Housing issues affects not just.. It's everyone. So, it's disabled people, it's seniors, it's
working class, so they also address the homeless issue in our city too. And Sweeney Park is going to
be right on the forefront because they are going to eventually have those people, Operation Dignity,
I believe it's called, will be helping those people to relocate. So, it's going to be interesting.
Beth Kenny: And Commissioner Linton?
Jenny Linton: I'm afraid I don't know. I think that it was the City Council.
Beth Kenny: I believe so too.
Jenny Linton: Yes, I think it's the City Council, and I have not contacted them yet. I did however
join the sub-committee on Events and I have some event reporting to do on that later.
Beth Kenny: Great, and you know, the City Council is - they meet more often than any others, so I
am available to help you with that. I believe I'm doing the Board of Education. Our next item is to
vote on participation for 2017 events. You want to take this over Vice Chair Brillinger?
5-A
Vote on Event Participation for 2017
Arnold Brillinger: Okay, we did have a meeting and we talked about various events, and because
Kerry was so Because she's so super, she gave us a worksheet or a list of different things and I'm
going to have Jenny go ahead and report on it.
Jenny Linton: Okay, we've talked about the events that we've posted up here. The Alameda Special
Education Family Support Group Resource Fair, we are assigned a table there, thank you Beth, on
May 6th for 10:00 to 2:00; I'd be happy to attend. Do we want a list of attendees for these events, at
least those that are coming up?
Beth Kenny: Yes. So, with that, I'd be happy to attend that with you and that you don't really need
too many people, the two of us could easily go for that.
Jenny Linton: Perfect. Okay, one event down. Event number two, Downtown Alameda Spring
Festival; we see these as a big events and Lisa has offered to lead the pack in this event on May 13th
and 14th. The next event, The Mastick Senior Center Resource Fair, I wrote Lisa, Arnold and Jenny?
Arnold is primary on the Mastick Event.
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Beth Kenny: The Mastick Event is generally pretty small and can be handled by one person.
Jenny Linton: Note that May 31st is a Wednesday. Our next event, the Neptune Jam on Webster
Street, another big event, this is Father's Day weekend and we didn't assign ourselves anyone for that
event yet. The Mayor's Fourth of July parade, Arnold took this one on. We have some great ideas
around getting a Paratransit shuttle into the parade.
Beth Kenny: When I was speaking with Stuart from the Independent Living Center, he was talking
about they want to do something for the Fourth of July parade, and it would be great if we could do
something in conjunction. He seemed open to the idea.
Jenny Linton: Special Olympics is also part of the parade every year.
Lisa Hall: Now that's always fun.
Jenny Linton: Downtown Alameda Art and Wine Fair, we don't have a primary lead on that for July
29th and 30th. The Emanuel Lutheran Church Fair both Arnold and Lisa were interested in leading
that.
Lisa Hall: Arnold's going to lead that.
Jenny Linton: For the commission, Lisa's going to lead it for the Food Bank. That's what we know
it to mean, okay.
Beth Kenny: So, are you guys suggesting that what we do all of these events? Is that Sorry, go
ahead.
Arnold Brillinger: I would like to say that we could divide these into small events and large events.
The small events, like you said, take one or two people because they're only for three or four hours at
a time and if we have the materials which Kerry has, I believe we can get a bag or a pouch or a box
of goodies to take along that are for those people. The ones that are the big events, the three of them
are the street fairs and the parade, we will need all of the commissioners to put in some time on that,
and we ask for everyone's help with that. So I would like to make a motion. Now also if there are
some events that you hear about that we should also be a part of and just send one or two people to it
and to have a table and give out information we can add those to the list. But I would like to make
a
motion that we, as a commission, decide to participate in these on a yearly basis and then - that's the
motion.
Beth Kenny: So are you saying that we decide to vote on it? I'm sorry, I just need a little clarification.
Are you suggesting that the vote that we would take would be for all the years or just for this year
and then whatever else comes out?
Arnold Brillinger: You see this, we're trying to get it so that we don't have to start again. Right? In
January with a new list. We can add some more things to it as we have people who are interested in
doing other resources and health fairs, whatever that we could put our information out.
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Beth Kenny: Yes.
Arnold Brillinger: I would suggest that or my motion says that we would adopt these events. In
another time we could have another motion to say, ""Hey we don't want to be part of such and such
event, but this one.' Then it's part of the minutes SO that everyone knows that these are the events that
they will see somebody from CDI or the Commission on Disability.
Kerry Parker: I just want to offer some advice as an event planner. Right now I'm getting ready to
participate in the Earth Day Festival on April 22, 10:00 to 3:00. I hope to see all of you there. But
part of event planning for us: I have a calendar of events that includes Coastal Cleanup Day and other
such environmental events. Every year we have to look at them again to see, okay they stay on our
calendar so I agree that maybe these should be adopted into the calendar, but you go over each of
them again like is this going to be a year that we do this? You figure out who is available, and do we
have enough money, and do we have everything we need for this event? So maybe that instead of
saying, ""Yes we're going to do this forever,"" that you adopt this as kind of a good framework for your
calendar and next year we update it again with the new dates and whatever is available for that year.
Arnold Brillinger: Okay then I make a motion, because no one seconded the other one anyway. So
that's good. I make a motion that we adopt this for this year and that these are the events. Also there
is, like Alameda Hospital will have a wellness fair or whatever they have, a health fair. I think that
we as a resource ought to be there also.
Beth Kenny: So let's start with the motion to accept these events for 2017 and keep them on the
schedule to be reviewed annually. Can we start with that one? Because I'll second that one.
Arnold Brillinger: A good idea.
Beth Kenny: All in favor?
All: Aye.
Beth Kenny: Anyone opposed? The ayes have it. The second thing you were saying about the
hospital and other resource fairs that come up. There are a lot of other resource fairs out there, there
are a lot of different places that we could be going. Not even just in the city, but countywide. I think
that that's something that we're looking towards the event committee to figure out where those things
might come and which we should be actively pursuing. But yes this is not a comprehensive list that
we can't add anything to. We can always add something. Is there anything else from the
Arnold Brillinger: Do we need to take a vote if we add a motion and a second?
Beth Kenny: A vote?
Arnold Brillinger: Did we vote like aye or nay?
Beth Kenny: For?
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Arnold Brillinger: For the motion of this being the calendar for this year?
Beth Kenny: Yes we did that vote. Yes. And then all of us said ""Aye"". So if the event committee has
nothing else they want to report on.
Lisa Hall: I just have one question, and maybe afterwards, but Kerry for submit application for the
spring festival, you'll let me know what we have to do? Okay, thank you.
Beth Kenny: And I want to thank the event committee for getting together and working on this. This
is going to be great, and it's not only a great way to get out and meet people in the community but
also, as we talked about in retreat, build relationships with other non-profits serving persons with
disabilities. So, good work you guys, thanks. Alright, so
Lisa Hall: And thank you Kerry for making this list us, it was just wonderful when we got there to
put it together.
Kerry Parker: As your Staff Liaison I am happy to put together lists like this and I'm happy to adjust
it. If we decide that As I was listening to the group and no one was really expressing interest, let's
say, in the Neptune Jam, it could be that that one is not one of the ones you visit every year.
[background conversation]
Kerry Parker: It's a big one. Let's pretend that, let's pretend that there's one big one that you choose
not to, just for argument's sake. So this can just be modified on the fly, but this can be the structure
of the year and we can reassess it every year.
Beth Kenny: Yes and I would encourage all the commissioners to get involved in these events. We
really need everybody to make it work. At something like the spring festival where it's eight hours,
two days. That's not something that four people can handle, but it's a great opportunity, and you have
a place to sit at a festival.
Lisa Hall: That's right.
Kerry Parker: Another thing to do might be to shorten the hours of the commission at any one of
these.
Arnold Brillinger: Right.
Kerry Parker: So if you say well we can be there but we'll be there between noon and 2:00. That is
within your rights too.
Beth Kenny: Yes and I would suggest, and maybe Arnold you would know this too, from last year
when we did the Art and Wine festival, it seemed like if we were going to cut hours, it would be better
to cut them in the morning than it seems like as the fair goes on at night it gets a lot more traffic going
on. So, just a suggestion.
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Susan Deutsch: I just want to let the commission know that I am not going to be available for the
Spring Festival because my son is graduating medical school so I'm going to be in Wisconsin that
weekend. Sorry. I've been looking forward to this.
S?: Congratulations.
Beth Kenny: Let's move on to staff communications
6.
STAFF COMMUNICATIONS
Kerry Parker: I keep interjecting with my staff communications so I think you've heard a lot from
me tonight. The Public Works Department will assist this Commission in changing its name. As I say,
it might take a while because I'm dedicated to other things for the next couple of months, but as I
speak about it with my administrative staff, it's something that we could probably incorporate into
our workload. I just wanted you to know that about urgency, I wish for you to not have an urgent
feeling about it, but other than that, we can get it moving. I made the mention about Earth Day which
is lovely, but I think that for any event planning if you need my assistance in getting a contact or
something like that I'd be happy to get it for you. I am about to fill out applications for banners in the
month of October for the CDI banner. We have two weeks that are open to us. I've got the Commission
on those weeks, it's a week over on Webster and a week at Central and Oak. Park Street's totally taken
for all of October. So I just wanted to mention that. But usually, I'm going to give you a contact and
pass it off to you. So just be ready for that. I can make a quick list at times, but usually, I have to be
pulled in another direction for the other work that I do. I had another thing I wanted to mention and I
can't think of it. I'll forward it to the group when I remember what I was just about to say.
7.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Beth Kenny: Thank you, Kerry. Now we move on to announcements. Does anyone have any
announcements they would like to make? Why don't you do that?
Jenny Linton: I'd just like to announce that April is Autism Awareness Month. That was mentioned
to the City Council earlier this month. It was a proclamation at the City Council earlier this month.
Thank You.
Beth Kenny: Thank you, Commissioner Linton.
Arnold Brillinger: I was just wondering on that should there be a suggestion or recommendation
from this commission to proclaim April as Autism Awareness Month?
Beth Kenny: There was a proclamation that the City Council did. We had a former commissioner
who accepted the proclamation on our behalf, Jody Moore. She has done a lot of work in the autistic
community. Is that what you were looking for?
Arnold Brillinger: No, I was looking for, should we next year make a recommendation? They're
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going to do it whether we do or not, I'm sure. But it just sounds like it would be better if it came from
us.
Beth Kenny: It does come from us.
Arnold Brillinger: Okay.
Beth Kenny: It does and Jody was interested in doing it, and so I made the decision to have her go
ahead and accept it on behalf, as a former commissioner of the Commission on Disability.
Arnold Brillinger: Okay. No problem.
Kerry Parker: That raises a great point. I do know that Tony was interested last year in having a
proclamation for White Cane Day.
Beth Kenny: Yes. White Cane Month which is also October.
Kerry Parker: Or month, which is also October, but we could include that in a proclamation
language. That gets in front of me every year, ""Is this what you want to say?"" And I looked at the
proclamation for Autism Awareness Month, as well. So if anyone wanted to take up the cause of If
there is any proclamations we would like in council, that's something that needs to be written,
scheduled, approved. Submit something to me, and I can look at what that schedule would look like.
They're not going to want a whole waterfall of proclamations, but if we spaced them out thoughtfully
we could certainly do that.
Beth Kenny: Yes, and also in October, we do have a proclamation that the city does annually for
Disability Employment Awareness Month which we can share the language with that with the
commission. Maybe we can send that out to everybody? Does anyone else have any announcements
they'd like to make?
Arnold Brillinger: Well, I'm not necessarily anyone else, but [chuckle] I just wanted to say, that I
think that Beth suggested to the Transportation group in Mastick, that I be on the committee that is
looking at the new contracts for the next four years for which provider to use. So, we've got our work
set out for us. We've got six different proposals from companies. I just want to say that Victoria
Williams who was here at our last meeting is working on the shuttle which is the Alameda Loop.
That's their new name that they've decided on. I've even got posters on the sides on my wheelchair
and stuff. ""Ride the Free Alameda Shuttle"" or ""Ride the Free Loop"" and things like that. People come
up and they say, ""What is that?' because they think I'm giving free rides on my wheelchair.
[chuckle]
Arnold Brillinger: I said, no. It's this bus that comes around here on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and
Thursdays, that no one really seems to see because it just blends in with everything else. At the last
meeting, we suggested that they do a like a bus wrap. Getting the word, ""free"" on it. Making it colorful
and so it stands out. Whatever. Myself, I've just taken it around a couple times. I went on the loop
that goes out to Alameda Landing and that area. The Westside, I believe. And like I reported to
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Victoria, ""We've got a lot of drive-bys."" And she said, ""Oh well. It doesn't stop at the places on the
schedule unless there's somebody waiting there."" I said, ""But no, I'm talking about we've got a lot of
places on the schedule that there is no sign. No one would stand there in a million years, knowing or
thinking that the bus is going to be there."" These are all things that they're going to be working on.
There's a lot of things that need to be done and I hope that if you are, or I know lot of you are at work
on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays but, if you have the chance to and you see the bus, go ahead
and get on it. I also asked, ""why can't we go ahead and put the shuttle in the parade?'
Arnold Brillinger: I was told, ""Well, there's not enough time."" I went in after our last meeting. I was
there in February. The Friday after that Wednesday. So, it mystified me it takes the city that long to
work. I'm realizing now that she meant that there's not enough time from when the new contract
starts, because the new contract starts the 3rd of July. The Monday of that week. And to get it wrapped
and all that kind of stuff. So, we'll probably see it in the next 4th of July parade. Not in this year. But
the following year. And we're inviting all of you to come and ride on it. I'm thinking that that would
be a good thing to have the Transportation Committee also to ride on it. Make a big deal of it.
Beth Kenny: Yes, I'm so happy that you are doing this because we've really been offered a seat at the
decision-making table as to where they going to contract the transportation through, and then also
Commissioner Lewis has been doing something similar but with the taxi services that they going to
contract with. To me it's wonderful. We're getting at the table where decisions are being made and
thank you for doing that.
Arnold Brillinger: Because, Beth, in response to that, Ikind of had the feeling that a lot of times, we
are given presentations, and we're just asked to rubber stamp them. Now, we're saying that, ""Hey
there are chances for people from this commission to be involved in those decisions before they get
rubber-stamped or stamped."" So, that's a good deal.
Beth Kenny: Yes. Thank you.
Lisa Hall: So, one quick question then. So that means we won't be able to have the shuttle for this
4th of July parade is basically what they've said?
Arnold Brillinger: Right. So if we're going to do a float or some other transportation.
Lisa Hall: So, we need to figure out something else. Some other transportation. A truck or something
else if we're going to do that.
Arnold Brillinger: Yes.
Beth Kenny: And that's where perhaps partnering with somebody like the Independent Living Center
could work well for us. If we couldn't, maybe get a trolley or something with them, that would be a
great way to get this done.
Susan Deutsch: I agree.
8.
ADJOURNMENT
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Beth Kenny: Are there any other announcements? Then I move that we adjourn.
Jenny Linton: Second.
Beth Kenny: I think everybody seconded that. [laughter] We're all in favor.
The meeting adjourned at 8:17 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Kerry Parker
City Staff Liaison
Commission on Disability Issues
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