body,date,page,text,path
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities,2019-01-16,1,"ITEM 2-B
COMMISSION ON DISABILITY
MEETING MINUTES
Wednesday, January 16, 2019, 6:30 PM
1. ROLL CALL
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: A meeting of the Commission on Disability for January. It's January,
Wednesday, January 16th, 2019. Agenda item number one, roll call.
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: Present.
Lisa Hall: Present.
Susan Deutsch: Present.
Jenny Linton: Present.
Arnold Brillinger: Here.
Laurie Kozisek: Three others have called in that they couldn't make it because we made a change
to the date. So we have a quorum.
2.
MINUTES
2-A
None
3.
ORAL COMMUNICATIONS/NO-AGENDA (PUBLIC COMMENT)
None
4. NEW BUSINSS
4-A
Victoria Williams, Paratransit Coordinator, City of Alameda
City of Alameda Transportation Program Plan for Seniors and People with Disabilities
for FY 2019/2020
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: Agenda item number two is the minutes and the December minutes are
not available yet so we have no minutes to approve. I'll move on to agenda Item number three, Oral
Communications/Non-agenda Public Comment. I don't believe we have anyone here for that. I'm
going to move along to item number four, New Business. 4A, we have Victoria Williams, the
Paratransit Coordinator for the City of Alameda here to speak to us tonight about the City of
Alameda Transportation Program Plan for Seniors and People with Disabilities for the fiscal year of
2019-2020.
Victoria Williams: Thank you very much.
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: Thank you.
03/13/19
Page 1 of 16",CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-01-16.pdf
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities,2019-01-16,2,"ITEM 2-B
COMMISSION ON DISABILITY
MEETING MINUTES
Wednesday, January 16, 2019, 6:30 PM
Victoria Williams: Thank you for having me honorable chairperson and commission. We're happy
to have these paper pieces to look at tonight so that we can go through everything. So we're here
tonight to let you know what our plans are for next year and to get your support in that. Each city
and county is required to take their plan for the following year to commissions and boards to get
some support and to get the input of residents of the community. Well, our funding is Measure B
and BB which gives us a supplemental program to East Bay Paratransit, the Adults with Disabilities
Act mandated service. So each city gets to choose what programs work best for their city and we've
chosen some really good ones, they've been going for some time and we've got more than a lot of
cities. So I'd like to tell you a little bit about those. So our agenda is the service overview, then the
recommended program, budget and our planning process. So the service overview, like I said,
Alameda has a wide variety of transportation services for the residents of Alameda. We have the
free Alameda Loop Shuttle. It runs Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM. It's
open to the public.
Victoria Williams: There are two buses which are accessible and they have bike racks. We've got
two-subsidized taxi programs. One is MRTIP - that stands for Medical Return Trip Improvement
Program - to help people get home from their doctor's appointments in a smoother fashion. And the
other is a premium taxi program, and that's for any purpose whatsoever. We have scholarship
programs. One is a scholarship program that helps a resident who is low-income purchase taxi
vouchers. And the other one is we've been able to provide some free AC Transit bus passes for
people who live at Alameda Point Collaborative and in some of the Alameda Housing Authority
properties. That's going really well too. We've got group trips. Mastick Senior Center provides once
a month, a trip, a local trip, for people to go to. There's a Leisure Club which is a group of folks
who are over 18 and have special needs. So twice a month, they go on outings and we help fund
that. And once a year there's a nice, big picnic at Crown Bay. It's for those folks who live in skilled
nursing facilities and so we help pay for the transportation to get people out to have fun. We've got
capital investments.
Victoria Williams: We have some needs. Some of the bus stops are in not great shape and some of
the benches at bus stops need to be repaired or replaced. We share some bus stops through the
shuttle. With AC Transit, we share some of the same bus stops. So we'll be doing some
improvements to those bus stops. And there are a few ADA accommodations we want to make sure
are in place so we've got funding to use for that. Customer service and outreach, that would include
my talking to anybody who will listen and printing the schedules for the shuttles, and you have
those in front of you. And one of the newest things is that we're now at the movie theater. You'll see
the shuttle at the movie theater, you may recognize the voice. And let's see what else.
Victoria Williams: And just monitoring the service management then is monitoring the service and
keeping track of things. And responding to phone calls, and helping people enroll and selling the
vouchers, things like that. The next page is a little bit about the Alameda Loop Shuttle. In October,
you remember, you've heard me say this before. We changed from a one shuttle service that was
several years old to two brand new shuttle buses. Which, like I said, are accessible and have room
for two bikes on the front. So we changed that in October. And what used to be a one-hour loop, we
still have a one-hour loop, but now that we have two buses, they're a half an hour apart so you can
03/13/19
Page 2 of 16",CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-01-16.pdf
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities,2019-01-16,3,"ITEM 2-B
COMMISSION ON DISABILITY
MEETING MINUTES
Wednesday, January 16, 2019, 6:30 PM
go and get your business done and not have to wait a full hour for the bus to get back. There's
another bus coming in a half an hour, so that's working well. Also the shuttle was renamed through
a survey of residents and it previously was called the Alameda Paratransit Shuttle. And through a
voting process it's now the Alameda Loop Shuttle and it does go in a loop so that makes good sense.
Victoria Williams: The next page shows the shuttle status and you can see that the average
monthly shuttle boardings have increased from 449 in 2016 to 451 in 2017 up to 686 in 2018. Now,
we have two buses so we still need more than that. But Arnold was on the bus the other day when it
was full, 18 people, he called to tell me. So it's getting there. The cost per trip however, is more
expensive. It was $16 when we just had one bus and a $16 per trip average when we had one bus
and now it's $21. And the funder, Alameda County Transportation Commission, is the agency that
the money comes through. They have guidelines, it's called the Paratransit Program Implementation
Guidelines. They want us to be under $20 but they give us two full years, two full fiscal years to get
there. So we've made it through the first fiscal year, we still have another fiscal year and we're
already at $21 so we think it's going to be great.
Victoria Williams: The next page, this is the taxi service status and we are using a local Alameda
taxi provider that has a couple of accessible taxis in the fleet. We are also in the process, this is the
exciting news, we're in the process of negotiating for an emergency wheelchair breakdown service.
Alameda County Transportation Commission funded such a thing and they even controlled it,
managed it, ran the program for several years and they've stopped running it so there is nothing in
the whole county. Some cities have fire departments who can do that, ours can't. So we're
negotiating right now with the same transportation provider that we use with those accessible cabs
to be able to offer that. We don't have everything finalized, we're looking at a pilot project where we
start it small and become successful within bringing people home within Alameda and then
expanding it probably to the county like the other programs. The other two taxi programs serve
people who need to go to any kind of appointment throughout Alameda County.
Victoria Williams: And the second exciting thing, but it's not too close yet, we're exploring Uber
and Lyft-type shared services. Some of the larger cities in the county have started that already so
we're watching to see how it goes for the big cities before we try something like that. Let them work
out all the problems and then we'll tag on to that. But it's exciting. We've just done a survey and lots
of people have cell phones, not everybody does, but there are concierge services that are go-
betweens, GoGoGrandparent and Arrive are two that I recommend to people and so it's happening,
transportation is happening. You don't have to have a car anymore, that would be a great goal. We
don't have to have a car, we have all of these options.
Victoria Williams: Go to the next page about the taxi services. You can see that we've increased
those trips. In 2014, there were 48 premium taxi trips a month, that's an average. And now there are
174, so you can see that one's been well-received. The MRTIP program again, that's the trip to come
home from your medical appointment. And it's primarily put together for those folks who use East
Bay Paratransit to get to their appointment. East Bay Paratransit is a shared ride service that you
have to call a day in advance. Well, most of us don't really know exactly when our doctor's
appointments are going to be finished so it can cause some stress if your ride comes and you're not
out to meet it and the ride leaves without you. So this is a service where you call the taxi company
03/13/19
Page 3 of 16",CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-01-16.pdf
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities,2019-01-16,4,"ITEM 2-B
COMMISSION ON DISABILITY
MEETING MINUTES
Wednesday, January 16, 2019, 6:30 PM
after your appointment is finished and then they come pick you up. So it's improved from 27 rides
per month average to 34 rides. It's still not huge but it's moving in the right direction.
Victoria Williams: And then the scholarship programs. Again, we can help with assisting people to
buy the taxi vouchers. A family can receive $90 worth of free taxi vouchers. It's a matching program
so if someone can buy some, then we can match that SO they have their input as well. And then, as I
mentioned before, the free AC Transit bus passes, you can see that one's going up quite well too. It
started really well but it's still going well. So we're real happy with those programs and just to be
able to get people out of their houses is, it's a huge deal. So we'd like to recommend that the
Alameda Loop Shuttle continue doing what it's doing. We need to continue to market all the time
and let it be known that the service is more frequent than it was. We're investigating real-time
shuttle location technology so that will be a real help when we get to that point. But right now, we're
still doing the research on that.
Victoria Williams: My phone number's on the bus and on all the schedules and I don't get a huge
amount of calls, you would think I would, I don't. So most part, I think it's working pretty well for
people but I do hear from people saying, ""Where is the bus?"" And that happens, sometimes there's a
problem. It slows down, it happens but that will help people and it will help me see where the bus
is. So when I get the call from someone who can't access that, I can say, ""Well, it's just right over on
that corner, it'll be there soon."" And then the taxi services. Again, we want to continue marketing
and outreaching those and then we'll explore working with Uber and Lyft in some kind of a shared
service way. And the next page, we'd like to recommend that we continue the scholarship programs
as they are with more free bus passes. And we're working on, like I said, that emergency wheelchair
breakdown service which is new and exciting. Group trips, we'd like for those to continue as they
are now with the Mastick monthly trip, the Leisure Club trips and the Skilled Nursing Facility
picnic.
Victoria Williams: Next page shows you a picture of our new shuttle stop sign, you'll see some of
those posted around town. They're not all up yet but they are orange and blue like the bus and the
same color of the last sign. So they're pretty, they're out there. And there are schedules being posted
underneath them so people standing at that sign will actually know when the bus is expected. So
again, our capital program would be the bus stop improvements, the benches. Oh, I forgot to
mention the benches. We've ordered some benches and improving the shelters, replacing some of
the benches that are already currently in need of replacement. And then the outreach and marketing
will continue. We've got information on the website, we put out press releases and presentations,
and orientations. Every other month I do a Transportation 101 at Mastick Senior Center and we talk
about all the kinds of transportation options that are available to Alameda residents and it's a lot, it's
great. We will continue with, of course, we'll continue printing those shuttle schedules, and
brochures, and mailings and program incentives.
Victoria Williams: The next page shows our budget. And I need to note that on the Measure B
they give us a projection so we don't know exactly but your original packet had a lower number
than this. This is a more recent number, $385,144 is what's projected for us to work with next year.
We've already got a carry over of $227,128 and we expect to sell about $4000 worth of the East Bay
Paratransit tickets, and about $8000 worth of taxi vouchers which will bring us with to total
03/13/19
Page 4 of 16",CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-01-16.pdf
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities,2019-01-16,5,"ITEM 2-B
COMMISSION ON DISABILITY
MEETING MINUTES
Wednesday, January 16, 2019, 6:30 PM
revenues of $624,272 to work with. The expenditures, the management would be $66,439.
Customer service would be $38,000. Trip provision, $319,500. Capital improvements would be
$120,000. And those would total $543,939 leaving us reserves of $80,333. And none of this comes
from the general fund, it's all Measure B and Measure BB funding.
Victoria Williams: And the next page shows our planning process. We did a survey in December,
we're still analyzing that. We were really pleased that we got 178 responses and for the most part,
things are good. We have a few suggestions. Some of them are really good ones, some of them are
very creative and I wish we could do but we'll be analyzing those to see which ones are really
feasible. And then we'll be coming to the commission meetings, the Transportation Commission and
the Commission on Disabilities. Thank you. Rec and Park Commission, Human Services Social
Services, Human Relations Board. And then our program plan which is our grant application is due
earlier this year, it's due at the end of February rather than the end of March so we're working on
that now. And that is it. Do you have questions for us?
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: Thank you very much, I really appreciate all of your hard work. And
I
want to also mention that you forgot in your outreach to mention that you guys were in the Fourth
of July Parade this year.
Victoria Williams: Yes, we were. Thank you. You saw us? Boy. That's a longer parade than I
thought since we were walking and handing out things. It was fun, it was really fun. So thank you,
I'll have to remember and put that in the next one.
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: Yes, I enjoyed seeing you guys there. I do have a few questions that I just
wanted to ask about.
Victoria Williams: Sure.
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: The emergency wheelchair breakdown service, can you tell me a little bit
more about that? We did have somebody inquiring about this service. What is that? I don't know
even, actually know what it entails. How do you get somebody who has a wheelchair that's broken
down to get it repaired? What does that involve?
Victoria Williams: Well, we would have to do some major marketing to let people know that we've
got this service available because the previous program had little stickers that people put on their
wheelchairs, so you had the phone number right there. And so let's say one of our riders goes to
Oakland to go to church and while they're there, their wheelchair, maybe it's a motorized chair,
doesn't work. They can't get home, it can't be pushed to the AC Transit. They can't get home.
Victoria Williams: So that would entail, our vision of this and we're still working with the funder
because they did it in the past. We're trying to get all of their information, how many rides, how
much did it cost. What words were used in your contract? We're hoping our taxi company, they
could call the taxi company and the taxi company which has accessible vehicles could come and
pick them up and then take them and their chair home. So it would be a simple, smooth thing if it
works as well as we hope it does.
03/13/19
Page 5 of 16",CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-01-16.pdf
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities,2019-01-16,6,"ITEM 2-B
COMMISSION ON DISABILITY
MEETING MINUTES
Wednesday, January 16, 2019, 6:30 PM
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: And then the taxi company is able to help the person with pushing them
in and out?
Victoria Williams: Right. That would be part of the contract that they would be able to do that and
it wouldn't be a cost to them, there wouldn't be any cost to the rider at all. We would pay for that.
Out of our funding because it's not their fault the chair broke.
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: Thank you. I just was wondering a little bit more about that. Another
thing that I wanted to ask about: I had the opportunity to be part of the LimeBike interview process
and I got the opportunity to speak with somebody who works for the city of Oakland and they have
partnered with BORP, I believe, to try and start an accessible bike-share program over there for
people with disabilities.
Victoria Williams: Wow.
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: I don't know if that would fall under your duties under Paratransit quite,
I'm not sure.
Victoria Williams: I'm not either.
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: But I was just wanted to put that out there as a transit option to think
about.
Victoria Williams: Interesting. Thanks, that's interesting. I'll make a note of that.
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: Those were my questions. Again, I want to thank you for your hard work.
I'm going to pass it along to the other commissioners right now so I don't slow things down. Start
with Commissioner Brillinger.
Arnold Brillinger: I just want to say the MRTIP program - it's a very good program. What you do
is you take Paratransit to your doctor's appointment, then you can call them up and say, ""I'm here, I
need a ride at such and such a time, I'll be done."" And I've had several people comment on this and
I'm always trying to listen to what do we need to fix it or what do we need. And this person or these
people, actually but mostly one person gave me some insights and they've had three different
drivers taking them back home and they said, their personality and they were just delightful people,
so there wasn't any, grumpiness or something like that about it. So that was good to hear. And then
the vehicles, I've heard about three different vehicles that they used. Two of them are fairly decent,
one of them could use a little bit of maintenance, or care, or some kind of thing. They even told me,
they said, ""Don't bring this one up."" But I did anyway because we need to know that.
Arnold Brillinger: Because we want, and we need as many people as possible, to use this because
it is paid for whether the people use it or not. I mean, there's a certain minimum that the company
gets and we need to use it because it is such a convenience, the people going to their medical
appointments and getting back. I think they're supposed to call the day ahead of time, say, ""I'm
03/13/19
Page 6 of 16",CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-01-16.pdf
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities,2019-01-16,7,"ITEM 2-B
COMMISSION ON DISABILITY
MEETING MINUTES
Wednesday, January 16, 2019, 6:30 PM
going to need an appointment,"" or ""I'm going to need a taxi at between 12:00 PM and 2:00 PM."" Or
something like that. But then they could call that day and say, ""Oh, I'm getting out on time."" Or,
""I'm getting out a little bit later."" And the people have been very agreeable, the drivers and
everything with them. Also the office people, as far as I can tell, they've been very helpful.
Victoria Williams: Great, thank you. That's great to hear.
Arnold Brillinger: So I just wanted to say that. And we need more MRTIP riders and possibly, we
need to make this known in the nursing homes. And of course, we need them for people who are at
home getting back without having the extra long waits.
Victoria Williams: That's right, thank you. That's great ideas.
Arnold Brillinger: I don't have any personal times/experiences with them because I use AC Transit
and I'm not sure that my vehicle, that my chair will fit into them because there's like a mini-van-
type situation.
Victoria Williams: Thank you.
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: Thank you, Commissioner Brillinger. Commissioner Linton?
Jenny Linton: Thank you for your presentation. I'm very interested in the number of opportunities
you provide for people who need transportation.
Victoria Williams: Great, thank you.
Jenny Linton: I was going to ask about the wheelchair emergency service too. We're glad to hear
that that's going in place. I just have one question on the budget, and I should probably know this as
a voter, Measure B and BB, is that an ongoing funding or will that sunset at some point but come
back on?
Victoria Williams: They will and I can't remember the years. Do you remember the years they
sunset? I will be old when this is gone.
Jenny Linton: And dead? Yeah, okay.
Victoria Williams: I can't remember, I'm sorry.
Arnold Brillinger: In like 10 or 15 years, right?
Victoria Williams: More, I think, yeah.
Arnold Brillinger: At least.
Victoria Williams: I think we have at least 10 more years. And I just heard that some place and I
03/13/19
Page 7 of 16",CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-01-16.pdf
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities,2019-01-16,8,"ITEM 2-B
COMMISSION ON DISABILITY
MEETING MINUTES
Wednesday, January 16, 2019, 6:30 PM
even wrote it down but it didn't stay in my head. But we do have ongoing funding for some time
and I would hope BB is going to replace B when that sunsets. They're both in process now and one
will fall by the wayside and then the other one continues. And hopefully by then, we'll have
something else voted in so that we all have those opportunities when we need them.
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: Thank you, Commissioner Linton. Commissioner Deutsch?
Susan Deutsch: Thank you, I just have a question about the taxi service. What's the radius? How
far can somebody use this taxi for a doctor's appointment?
Victoria Williams: Alameda County.
Susan Deutsch: I've gotten some information about using the bikes, adapted bikes, in the Bay Area
for people with disabilities.
Victoria Williams: Great.
Susan Deutsch: There was an article in the New York Times that I found and it turns out that some
cities around the country have been doing trials of this. And Oakland is going to be doing a trial. It's
not as simple as people think but they're trying to solve the problem of a person using a bike and
then they get to their destination, and they don't have their wheelchair.
Victoria Williams: Oh.
Susan Deutsch: So that's like one of the issues because there have been people with cerebral palsy
that can ride these bikes and they really like it, it's a leisure activity but it seems like they're
exploring this in Oakland. And I brought copies, in case people want copies of this. You could pass
it. It's just interesting and we should just be aware of it and see what happens with the trials.
Victoria Williams: Yes, absolutely. That's great. And I think that I would love to have a copy of
that if there's plenty? We do have meetings every couple of months of those of us working on
Paratransit projects. So they often keep us updated what's going on. If it comes through Paratransit,
then I will get to hear about it. If it comes a different direction, then probably Gail or Rochelle will
hear about it. Again, let the big city do it first and then we can follow along.
Susan Deutsch: Well, it's just interesting. You're reading it in the New York Times and Oakland
is
in the forefront.
Victoria Williams: Yes, that's a great.
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: Thank you, Commissioner Deutsch. Commissioner Hall?
Lisa Hall: Thank you, Victoria.
Victoria Williams: You're welcome.
03/13/19
Page 8 of 16",CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-01-16.pdf
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities,2019-01-16,9,"ITEM 2-B
COMMISSION ON DISABILITY
MEETING MINUTES
Wednesday, January 16, 2019, 6:30 PM
Lisa Hall: My question, and maybe I should know this too like you said, Jenny, is what about
animals?
Victoria Williams: Service animals are welcome.
Lisa Hall: On the Paratransit, and the Loop and the taxis?
Victoria Williams: That's correct.
Lisa Hall: You're going to look into, like you said, down the road, Uber or Lyft?
Victoria Williams: Right.
Lisa Hall: Because I just spoke with a lady today, she's blind, and she had the most awful situation.
She was not in a familiar place in the Bay Area and it was evening and her phone was about dying
and she had her dog, and three Ubers would not take her because she had the dog. And she was
literally in tears when the fourth guy that who they called, they had got somebody finally. And she
said, ""Please, I'm begging you."" And he took her. But it was like, WOW, I was very surprised. So I
was just like, I would hope that we do that.
Victoria Williams: We do.
Lisa Hall: Service animals are a must, right?
Victoria Williams: Absolutely, they are. And it is also possible to take your animal, if it's a caged
animal, to the vet, if it's not a service animal, if it's small enough to be caged.
Lisa Hall: Right.
Victoria Williams: But hopefully, as Uber and Lyft become more accessible, that should be a part
of the program. Part of the progress.
Lisa Hall: Because so many people use it.
Victoria Williams: Right.
Lisa Hall: Like you said. And there are a lot of people that can drive don't want to drive and they
are using more transportation. Which is good, we want it.
Victoria Williams: That's a good point, we'll have to watch for that because I hadn't thought of that
yet.
Lisa Hall: Yes. I hadn't either. Well, I was thinking, of course, that the Loop would, that you could
bring your service animals but I never thought about Uber or Lyft.
03/13/19
Page 9 of 16",CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-01-16.pdf
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities,2019-01-16,10,"MEETING MINUTES
Wednesday, January 16, 2019, 6:30 PM
Victoria Williams: Ahh, I hadn't either.
Victoria Williams: As we're investigating, that's a good thing to keep at the top of our minds.
Thank you.
Lisa Hall: And then the subsidized taxi service and the scholarship programs. If somebody is
interested, where would they just start? Call your number?
Victoria Williams: Yes. Or Mastick Senior Center, my office is there so they can call Mastick and
they'll find me or send them to my voicemail. And my phone numbers are on all of the schedules.
Lisa Hall: I know a lot more of the seniors know about our information, about things going on
because of Mastick and others and you reach out but there's a small disability group of younger
people and they don't know about a lot of the services. So that's why we're obviously, we're trying to
get the services, the word out. So that's good, I just want to make sure because somebody asked me
about the taxi service and I said, ""Yeah, I know we have it going, I'm just not sure about all the
parameters."" So thanks for all you're doing.
Victoria Williams: Oh, you're welcome.
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: Thank you, Commissioner Hall. Also I would like to suggest that you
have your friend reach out to the commission about what happened with Uber. We have reached out
to Uber in the past about a very similar issue so we could definitely do that, again. And they could
definitely use the reminder. So one thing that I wanted to ask about was have you guys considered
running one of the shuttle days be a weekend day?
Victoria Williams: We haven't at this point, there are some suggestions in the survey that they'd
like to have more days but it's funding. So we haven't explored that at the moment, but I know it is
something that would be great to do.
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: Yes, I hear a lot more people talking about the shuttle than I have
previously. I think there's a lot of confusion as to what it is. People think often, that it's the shuttle
that's been talked about by different business districts. But the other thing that I hear is like, ""Well,
why doesn't it run on the weekend?"" But I do appreciate all that you have done and you are doing,
it's a lot of work and I think you're doing a great job. So thank you.
Victoria Williams: Thank you, thank you. So shall we tell our funders that we have your support?
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: Why don't we take a vote on it? I move that we vote to support the
Transportation Plan for the fiscal year, 2019-2020 for the City of Alameda Transportation Plan for
Seniors and People with Disabilities. Do I have a second on that motion? Commissioner Deutsch
seconded my motion. All in favor? Aye.
All: Aye.
03/13/19
Page 10 of 16",CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-01-16.pdf
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities,2019-01-16,11,"ITEM 2-B
COMMISSION ON DISABILITY
MEETING MINUTES
Wednesday, January 16, 2019, 6:30 PM
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: Any opposed? Alright, I think it passes unanimously. Thank you.
Victoria Williams: Thank you very much.
4-B
Gail Payne, Senior Transportation Coordinator, City of Alameda
Transportation Awareness Campaign
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: Now we will move on to item 4B. We have Gail Payne, the Senior
Transportation Coordinator for the City of Alameda, is going to present on the Transportation
Awareness Campaign.
Gail Payne: Thank you, Chair Kenny. Thank you, Commissioners. Good evening, I'm Gail Payne,
a Senior Transportation Coordinator for the City of Alameda. When we went out and did outreach
and went out to the community about the city-wide transportation plan, during that planning effort,
we heard a lot from community members about them not realizing all the transportation options that
are actually available and that that's one of the reasons why they're not taking advantage of all the
options that we have. And we are blessed with quite a few for the size town we have. We have two
ferry terminals which is really unusual for a size town that we are, AC Transit, we have our free
Alameda Loop Shuttle. So we have these great options yet, what we haven't done is so much of a
comprehensive effort of an awareness campaign of getting the word out. So with that in mind, it's
actually now a project in the city-wide Transportation Choices Plan, this Transportation Awareness
Campaign.
Gail Payne: So we just met with the advisory group for the first time, so we're trying to get
together a little action plan. And where we landed is just to really do a comprehensive, ongoing way
of getting news and information and materials out there as well as working with our partners and
community members and more of a grassroots effort. Doing a better job with social media and
working with our public information officer on getting the word out in these fun ways that are a
little bit different than we're used to. And so we focused on the Alameda Loop Shuttle because we
know that we want to get more riders there. We also want it to be a celebration. Happy International
Day of Persons with Disabilities, that was December 3rd. And so that's just one example.
Gail Payne: Really, we don't have a big budget, we don't have budget to hire big consultant firms
and giving their public relations spin on it. That's not what we can afford. And so we're really
looking to community members to help us, our partners, the school district, AC Transit, all working
together to come up with some ongoing materials that we can push out to inform Alamedans about
all the transportation options. And so I see it more as a grassroots effort. Anything that, any type of
group or way of reaching out to people, it would be really nice to hear from you about that. If you
think about it later, just feel free to let us know because it's helpful. Another part of this awareness
campaign is safety and bicycle safety education is not offered in schools, through schools, that is.
It's offered through the county-wide, Safe Routes to Schools program for some of our schools. So
the city wants to put together our own money and so most school kids in the city will have some
type of bicycle safety education by, we were thinking all, by the time they leave and graduate from
high school.
03/13/19
Page 11 of 16",CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-01-16.pdf
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities,2019-01-16,12,"ITEM 2-B
COMMISSION ON DISABILITY
MEETING MINUTES
Wednesday, January 16, 2019, 6:30 PM
Gail Payne: We want to also do a Line 19 pilot promotion, that's a fairly or new, restored line in
Alameda AC Transit line. Some people might not realize that that's been restored back in December
2016, along Buena Vista Avenue. So there's available seats there, it's not a full bus. So let's get the
word out. So we want to start small, start there with materials, and then build out of different
geographic areas as we get better at these materials. And we are going to have our second advisory
group meeting in February 7th so we're coming along and we're really open to how to do a better
job of getting the word out. So thank you.
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: Thank you, Gail. Can we offer some feedback right now?
Gail Payne: Oh, yes. That would be perfect.
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: I'm sure this has come up before, my wife is on Facebook and member of
Alameda Peeps. And they're constantly talking about transportation on there so it seems like a great
merger to - I think they have something called, ""Self-promotion Monday"" and where you can kind
of promote your own thing. If on Mondays, you guys put something like, ""Hey, the 19 goes to X, Y,
Z."" Or, you know?
Gail Payne: Yes, that's a great idea. Thank you.
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: Yes. I'm just going to open it up to any commissioners because this is
specific. Commissioner Deutsch?
Susan Deutsch: Thank you, Gail. I also have a suggestion. A lot of people on the Nextdoor app are
talking about transportation all the time. And specifically, I've been hearing people talking about the
Harbor Bay ferry. There's a new, an extra ferry run now at 9 o'clock but people are still complaining
about the parking over there. So yeah, I don't know. I'm hoping that people start using that extra
ferry run because by then, the parking lot is filled up and there's no street parking anymore. But the
Nextdoor app is really good, people all over Alameda are commenting on it and I applaud the
bicycle safety because I see so many kids riding without helmets and, yeah. And I wish the
LimeBike would solve that problem too, yeah.
Gail Payne: I also forgot to mention, the schools, I focus on that because that's more of the effort.
However, there is a smaller component for adults and I'm really impressed with it. Victoria showed
me some of their flyers. And what they've done is they've focused on some of the barriers, like night
riding and how to lock a bike. And so they do a really great job of customizing the programs for
some of these obstacles that seem to happen for us when we bike.
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: Thank you. Do any other commissioners have any suggestions they'd like
to make on this topic? Alright, well thank you, Gail. I think we're going to keep you up here though
because you're also our next agenda item.
Gail Payne: Yes.
03/13/19
Page 12 of 16",CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-01-16.pdf
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities,2019-01-16,13,"ITEM 2-B
COMMISSION ON DISABILITY
MEETING MINUTES
Wednesday, January 16, 2019, 6:30 PM
4-C
Gail Payne, Senior Transportation Coordinator, City of Alameda
Update on the Clement Avenue Project
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: For agenda item 4C, we have Gail Payne, Senior Transportation
Coordinator with the City of Alameda, is going to give an update on the Clement Avenue Project.
And I believe this came out of a suggestion from Commissioner Aghapekian who unfortunately is
not here tonight but he was wondering, he had made some comments about the lack of sidewalks
along Clement Avenue and the safety hazard that that presented. And so I believe that's part of why
we asked you to comment specifically about what's going on with Clement Avenue.
Gail Payne: Great. So Clement Avenue. The good news is we do have a funded project. We
received a competitive grant, federal funding, I guess that was back in maybe 2017. And we're just
now got the consultant hired to work on that and that is Clement Avenue between Grand and
Broadway. And what we're looking at, the main components of this project are indeed, making the
sidewalks accessible. There's some sidewalks, there's a couple of portions where they don't even
have some sidewalks along Clement Avenue. Clement Avenue is the Northern Waterfront, it's a
former industrial site, so it has that industrial feel. It really wasn't built as thoroughly to
accommodate people walking as other parts of our island. So we're going back and retrofitting and
doing a better job. There's other parts of the street where one sidewalk is only 18 inches and that's
actually by Walnut there. And then there's a lot of different spots where there's utility poles that are
in the way and so that's just the sidewalk part.
Gail Payne: And so how we're going to get around that is going to be tricky. And some ideas are
maybe to have the sidewalk go into the street because we can't move the utility poles and so some
parking loss could occur from that. And to widen the 18-inch sidewalk. It depends, it's a case-by-
case issue. There's also some issues with curb ramps and some slopes on the sidewalk. So it's going
to take some work. The other, the end-street part is we're trying to put a bike-way in and then take
out or mitigate the railroad tracks that are in the middle. Again, it's an old industrial street and SO we
don't want those railroad tracks to be a hazard. And right now, they've been paved over but they
come up and get slippery for people and so we need to figure that out. And so that's the main scope
of the project. We have a $5 million federal grant to figure it out and with our local money is
attached, it's about $6 million. So we are starting that effort, hope to have outreach in the spring and
summer with some decisions in the fall and construction could even happen in next year if all goes
smoothly. Federal funds do take a little bit more time so fingers crossed.
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: I know that there's a big development project going on over there or
slated to go on.
Gail Payne: Yeah, so that is west of the study site, that's Del Monte. Is that what you're thinking of?
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: No, I thought like Marina Shores is going in right there.
Gail Payne: Oh, yes. Oh, that one. There's an Alameda Marina. We're going to be working with
them on what improvements that development will fund and what project development components
we will fund. So absolutely, we're working with them and they've consolidated some of their
03/13/19
Page 13 of 16",CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-01-16.pdf
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities,2019-01-16,14,"ITEM 2-B
COMMISSION ON DISABILITY
MEETING MINUTES
Wednesday, January 16, 2019, 6:30 PM
entrances and SO to reduce the impact on the street from that development so we're working closely
with them.
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: Great, do any commissioners have any questions that. About the Clement
Ave Project? When I brought up the Marina Shores Project, one thing that comes to mind is that
project is speaking about water taxis which I can imagine will somehow fall under transportation.
But there again, we want to keep an eye towards accessibility which I'm sure you guys, the
Transportation Department does an excellent job of doing SO.
Gail Payne: Absolutely.
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: Thank you.
Gail Payne: Thank you.
5.
OLD BUSINESS
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: Alright, I believe that wraps up our New Business. I'm going to move on
to item five, Old Business and then we're going to do our Commission and Board Liaison Reports.
I'm going to start with Commissioner Brillinger.
Arnold Brillinger: Okay, this is in line with Gail's report. Now, I haven't been to the Transportation
Commission meetings but I've watched some of them online and they have a real, full agenda for
next Wednesday here at 7 o'clock. And I would suggest that you take a look at it and see if there's
something in there that you're interested in talking about or to. They've got things on down on
Webster and Central. The whole thing about making sure that the kids get to school safely on their
bikes and stuff, they've got another section on various projects. Well, they've got so many different
projects, I'm surprised they could get it into their time. And I also wanted to mention about the ILC,
that's the group that meets quarterly between AC Transit and Alameda, and they've taken and
diverted some of the bus line 96 and shortened the 19, I think. Took out some of the route where it
went around.
Arnold Brillinger: Well anyway, they've took some from one and put it on the other and extended
it more so it's all pretty good. The 19 will take you into Oakland. Well, the 96 does too but not
downtown. Oh yes, it does. I just remembered. Okay, so either one of those. And I just want to say
that I'm into the BART Task Force and to the AAC which is the Alameda County Accessibility
Committee. And just kind of keeping up with them and seeing how things go. Thank you.
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: Great, thank you Commissioner Brillinger. Commissioner Linton?
Jenny Linton: I have been going to the Alameda County Commission on Developmental
Disabilities, I hope I used the right term for the group, second Wednesday of the month at 1000
Broadway. And they have been covering items like In-Home Supportive Services, that's a county
program, lot on transportation, changes in BART, changes in some of the bus routes. Housing,
housing for the developmentally disabled as well as emergency preparedness and registration if
03/13/19
Page 14 of 16",CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-01-16.pdf
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities,2019-01-16,15,"ITEM 2-B
COMMISSION ON DISABILITY
MEETING MINUTES
Wednesday, January 16, 2019, 6:30 PM
you'd like extra help during an emergency. I know we talked about that with the fire commission,
with the fire chief here a year ago or two years ago. And so anyway, I've been going to that on a
monthly basis.
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: Great, thank you, Commissioner Linton. Commissioner Deutsch?
Susan Deutsch: Well, the Park Department, Parks and Rec, their last meeting, they were just
discussing the new developments of Alameda Marina, Marina Shores and the Encinal Terminals on
the West end and just discussions about the Park but it's not in-depth yet, it's still a ways away
before they really get into details SO.
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: Thank you, Commissioner Deutsch. Commissioner Hall?
Lisa Hall: Thank you. Our church has set up the Warming Center with the City of Alameda and
we've been dealing with the homeless but also a few people with disability concerns that have come
to the shelter. So that's getting good feedback there. I also wanted to bring up to everyone's attention
that this year, the Women's March is going to have a disability contingent and they will be leading
the Women's March, one of the groups. The disability contingent will be leading the Women's
March in Oakland this year. So anybody is welcome to join and strong support of the disability
community and there's a lot of different people from the Bay Area. So it's really been interesting.
I'm meeting different people and how they're helping our disabled in Berkeley and Oakland and in
different ways. So I'm kind of excited about the Women's March because it's going to put us right
out there that we are strong and we are enabled.
6. STAFF COMMUNICATIONS
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: Thank you, Commissioner Hall. Alright, at this point, I'm going to move
on to staff communications.
Laurie Kozisek: Thank you, Chair Kenny. I went to a Senior Services meeting which is held
quarterly at the Mastick Center and it is all different kinds of senior services representatives that
talk about the different programs that they have. And I picked up a few interesting tidbits I'll share
with you. Alameda Family Services provides case management for seniors two days a week at
Mastick Senior Center as part of its Senior Connection Program. There are about 10,000 seniors in
Alameda, 20% of them are on MediCal/Medicaid. ECHO Housing offers free tenant-landlord
counselling and mediation. Centro De Legal offers free legal help to people who are being evicted
in Alameda. There is a warming center at Christ Church at Santa Clara and Grand, thank you,
whenever the temperature drops below 40 degrees or there's over a 50% chance of rain. So that's
probably on tonight. All this week, okay. And there are some shared housing options developing.
Some for-profit groups and some non-profit groups are trying to find ways to get people to rent out
rooms that wouldn't otherwise want to rent out a room. We heard from one private group for-profit
group that was trying to get Alameda and Oakland teachers who can't afford rent paired up with
people who would like to rent a house or rent a room to a teacher. Right now, there is a 2 million
housing unit shortage in California, 2 million. There are 35 new jobs created per housing unit
created. I don't know where they're putting everyone. And should I continue to go to these meetings
03/13/19
Page 15 of 16",CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-01-16.pdf
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities,2019-01-16,16,"ITEM 2-B
COMMISSION ON DISABILITY
MEETING MINUTES
Wednesday, January 16, 2019, 6:30 PM
and report back to you or would one of you like to go to the meetings? There aren't any other
commissioner-type people there, it's mostly representatives from social service agencies. I'm just
offering. It was on January 8th and its once quarterly. Oh no, I didn't say when the next one is but
it'll be in three months and it's like around 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM in the morning.
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: I would suggest that we put that on as an agenda item to vote on for the
retreat, we can talk about whether we want to do it. And vote on if we want to do it or not at the
retreat.
Laurie Kozisek: Yes, it is a lot of information. Let's see, the other thing I had was the Alameda
County Complete Count Committee is a committee that's trying to get a full census count in
Alameda County because for every person that we identify, we get several thousand dollars in
federal assistance. They had their first meeting on the 9th, I was not able to attend because I was on
something else but their next meeting is Wednesday, March 13th from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM.
Location to be determined, I can find out where it is. They would like input on how to reach hard-
to-count people and included in that hard-to-count people is seniors, non-computer savvy seniors
especially because the first outreach is by computer, and people with disabilities. So if anyone is
interested in going to that meeting, I can send you the link and you can attend that. They're already
in contact with The CIL, The Center for Independent Living and with I can't remember the name
of it but it's the group that outreaches to homeless people. That's all I have.
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: The Alameda Point Collaborative, is that who are there?
Laurie Kozisek: No, it's a different group, I think.
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: Okay. Alright great. Thank you, Laurie.
Laurie Kozisek: You're welcome.
7. ANNOUNCEMENTS
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: Alright, item number seven, I think we covered. But in case anybody has
any additional announcements, we'll do announcements. Does anyone have any announcements
they'd like to make? Oh, we do have one. Hold on a second, folks.
Laurie Kozisek: Another thing I looked up, Measure BB is going to go until 2045.
8.
ADJOURNMENT
Chair Elizabeth Kenny: Alright, thank you for looking that up. Alright, then I am going to move
that we adjourn tonight's meeting of the Commission on Disability.
03/13/19
Page 16 of 16",CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-01-16.pdf