body,date,page,text,path
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities,2019-03-13,1,"ITEM 3-A
COMMISSION ON DISABILITY
MEETING MINUTES
Wednesday, March 13, 2019, 6:30 PM
1.
ROLL CALL
Jenn Barrett: I'd like to call to order the meeting tonight on the Commission on Disability. Today
is Wednesday, March 13th. We're starting a little bit late at 6:37 PM, just seeing if we could get in a
few other commissioners to come due to traffic. Would you like to start off with roll call?
Liz Acord: We have Chair Kenny absent. Vice Chair Barrett?
Jenn Barrett: Present.
Liz Acord: Commissioner Aghapekian?
Anto Aghapekian: Present.
Liz Acord: Commissioner Brillinger, absent. Commissioner Deutsch?
Susan Deutsch: Present.
Liz Acord: Commissioner Hall is absent. Commissioner Linton is absent. Commissioner Roloff?
Jennifer Roloff: Present.
Liz Acord: Commissioner Morrison?
Leslie Morrison: Present.
Liz Acord: Five present.
2. MINUTES
2-A
Approve of Minutes for the November 28, 2018 Meeting
Jenn Barrett: Five makes quorum, so we're going to continue on. The second item on our agenda
is the minutes. Item 2A: Approval of minutes for the November 28, 2018 meeting. Would anyone
like to approve that?
Susan Deutsch: I move to approve.
Jenn Barrett: And a second?
Anto Aghapekian: I second it.
2-B
Approval of Minutes for the January 16, 2019 Meeting
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Jenn Barrett: Item 2B is approval of the minutes from our January 16th meeting. Does anyone
wish to approve these?
Leslie Morrison: I move.
Jenn Barrett: And do we have a second?
Susan Deutsch: I second.
2-C Approval of Minutes for the February 9, 2019 Retreat
Jenn Barrett: Item 2C is approval of minutes of our retreat which was on February 9th. Does
anyone wish to approve this?
Leslie Morrison: I move.
Anto Aghapekian: Yes.
Jenn Barrett: And second?
Anto Aghapekian: I second.
Leslie Morrison: So do you have to then call for a vote on each of those? You've had a motion and
a second, but don't you have to then ask all in favor of approval?
Jenn Barrett: I guess SO. I'm not.
Liz Acord: Is that what you typically do?
Jenn Barrett: I can't remember.
Liz Acord: Let's go ahead and do that, we'll just repeat the motions. I have noted them. So we
forgot. I can note those for you, and then we'll do the call for all in favor.
Jenn Barrett: So, approval of the November 28th meeting minutes.
Leslie Morrison: And that was moved and seconded, so I think you just need to call for.
Jenn Barrett: Does everyone approve?
Leslie Morrison: All those in favor?
Jenn Barrett: Yes. All those in favor?
All: Aye.
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Jenn Barrett: Any not in favor? I'm also aye. The item 2B: Approval of minutes from January 16th
meeting. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Approval of meetings from the February 9th
meeting. Approval of the meeting. All in favor?
All: Aye.
Jenn Barrett: Any opposed?
Susan Deutsch: I just wanted to say something about the minutes.
Jenn Barrett: Okay.
Susan Deutsch: Does have to put down word for word everything that's said?
Jenn Barrett: Yes. Our regular meetings, they are transcribed. I'm not sure if it's Laurie or someone
else who does the transcribing, but it's done from the video. And then from the minutes from the
retreat, it was a summary that she created.
Susan Deutsch: Is that what has to be done? Because it just seems like a lot of work and then now
with approving three different minutes because of how much time it takes to transcribe. Maybe we
need to ask Laurie if she can summarize, and that way we can get the minutes after each meeting,
instead of looking back to November. It just seems like a lot of work. I was looking at them and I
just don't think it has to be that detailed.
Jenn Barrett: I can ask Laurie about that.
Susan Deutsch: Yes. Or we could just ask her at the next meeting.
Jenn Barrett: Commissioner Brillinger, thank you for coming. We'll mark him as present. We just
went through the minutes, which were all approved.
Arnold Brillinger: I had a comment on that.
Jenn Barrett: Okay.
Arnold Brillinger: When I look at the November meeting minutes, there's a section in there where
we never okayed or approved the minutes for the previous meeting. It may be a technicality but
when we look at it, there was no vote taken.
Jennifer Roloff: For October? For the meeting?
Arnold Brillinger: Yes
Susan Deutsch: In the November meeting, we didn't approve the previous meeting.
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Arnold Brillinger: Right.
Jennifer Roloff: Good memory, I don't know.
Liz Acord: So, I think what I would propose at this point since we have approved the minutes for
November 28th, which I think is what we are discussing.
Arnold Brillinger: Yes.
Liz Acord: Commissioner Brillinger, if you would I will just take a request back to staff to have
them confirm at the next meeting that the minutes for that previous meeting, which I don't know the
date of but I will certainly look up, we can confirm that those were approved. Am I understanding
your question correctly?
Arnold Brillinger: Yes, but according to the written copy, they were not approved.
Liz Acord: Okay, we can look into that. I can look into that with Laurie.
Arnold Brillinger: Okay. I don't even know if it's a real big issue or not.
Jenn Barrett: No, we should definitely look into that.
3.
ORAL COMMUNICATIONS/NON-AGENDA (PUBLIC COMMENT)
Jenn Barrett: I would like to move on to oral communication, non-agenda, public comment.
4. NEW BUSINESS
Liz Acord: We have no speakers.
Jenn Barrett: Thank you. New business, we do not have any new business.
5. OLD BUSINESS
5-A
Commission and Board Liaison Reports (All Commissioners)
Jenn Barrett: So we're going to move on to old business. 5A, Commission and Board Liaison
Reports, all commissioners. Commissioner Brillinger, would you like to start us off with any report
that you have?
Arnold Brillinger: Sure. I actually have reports from five different organizations. Just a moment,
please. My commission that I'm supposed to go to is the Transportation Commission. Since the
January meeting the Transportation Commission met twice, both on Wednesdays and their main
focus was on the intersection of Webster and Central. And so they had four different options of how
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to run it, how to make it work. So they had a hearing. The hearing was on where to place the bike
lanes and the parking lanes. And there seemed to be a difference of opinion depending on if you
were a business or if you were a biker, so that seems to be the crux of the matter. And the
commission did not select any of the choices, but they did say that they would study them further.
And also they adopted a recommendation to extend the protected two-way bike way from Patton
Street to McKay Avenue, and approved the city of Alameda Transportation Program Plan for
Seniors and People with Disabilities for Fiscal Year 2019 to 2020, and that's the same program that
we saw from Gail Payne.
Arnold Brillinger: And then they also had a meeting in February, when they endorsed the
Transportation Choices Plan and I thought, ""Well, Transportation Choices Plan. ""Basically that's
providing more transportation options for Alamedans with the goal of reducing drive alone trips at
the crossings and also throughout Alameda. And they also discussed the Otis Drive traffic calming
and safety improvement workshop and survey debriefing. And if you want to see more on those, if
they spark your interest, they're online. I should say that I did not go to these meetings, but I did
catch them online.
Jenn Barrett: Great. Thank you so much.
Arnold Brillinger: I also went to the Oakland Mayor's Commission on Persons with Disabilities
meeting. And Karen Nakamura - we all know her - she presented a program to us. She is on their
commission in Oakland and at the January meeting, she was elected the president or the chairman
of their commission. So, they've got a lot of things going on all the time. They had two meetings
since our one meeting. I'm just going to let you know what their presentations were. They had a
presentation on disabled parking spaces and abuse of disabled parking. They have a group in
Oakland that just goes around and checks on people's blue cards. And they find some that are made
up and they had some to show. Some of them looked really slick and looked professional, and some
really looked like homemade jobs. But those placards that you hang up.
Susan Deutsch: Interesting.
Arnold Brillinger: And then on their presentation in February, they had a paving update. And we
know that driving through Oakland, they've got a lot of potholes and they also realize that, too. And
then they had a Measure KK. And out of the money that came in from that, they were checking into
how much of it could be used for home modifications to enhance accessibility. And so maybe that's
something that we should look into. We don't have a Measure KK necessarily, which was a funding
measure, but maybe there are grants that we can find that will help out people who need some work
done on their homes to make it more accessible.
Arnold Brillinger: And then, another group that I didn't get to go (but I've been there before) is the
AC Transit Inter-Agency Liaison Committee, and it meets every couple of months. It's several
people from Alameda and several people from AC Transit from their board, and they get together
and they compare what's going and what's not going. From their meeting, I picked up that bus route
96 is eventually going to connect with the Seaplane Lagoon Ferry Terminal, the new one that's
being built out there.
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Jenn Barrett: That's great.
Arnold Brillinger: And to me that's very important because I can't get to the Main Street Ferry,
there's no way. And so I thought I would bring that up because that's important for people to know.
I've got a couple more items I wanted to talk about. I went to the AC Transit Accessibility
Committee meeting, that's where they deal with those problems that disabled people have taking the
bus. And most of the meeting was on the BRT, that's the Bus Rapid Transit, and basically that is on
International Boulevard and East 14th, as it goes into San Leandro. It starts down in Broadway in
Oakland, goes up to San Leandro BART station. And you've probably been on there once or twice,
and seeing where they're really ripping up the place, because they started back in 2017 to work on
this.
Arnold Brillinger: Well, they're hoping that by December of this year it will be ready. They've got
brand new buses and there will be bus only lanes on that stretch. They're trying to get it to really
work and to get people along East 14th and International Boulevard, trying to get them through
there quicker. And again for disabled people, if they're mobility disabled, it's going to be just like
when you go in on BART from the platform right into the bus, where it's going to be level and you
don't have to wait for a ramp or a lift or anything else. And Clipper Cards, there will be places to tap
your Clipper Card right on the platform, to get people into these vehicles really quickly and move
them on down. They figure that they will have them running every seven minutes in peak hours, so
that was interesting to me too. Those are my reports.
Jenn Barrett: Great. Thank you so much for sharing, we really appreciate it. Commissioner
Roloff?
Jennifer Roloff: No, I think I will save my updates. We'll have the same for the follow up
discussions from the retreat, we'll go around again?
Jenn Barrett: Yes.
Jennifer Roloff: So I'll pass for this portion.
Jenn Barrett: Okay. Commissioner Deutsch?
Susan Deutsch: Well, Little John Park has completed their new playground and there's going to be
a ribbon cutting on March 27th at 4 o'clock. And Amy Wooldridge contacted me and asked me to
speak, make a short speech. And she said that if we wanted to have a table there during that time,
we could have a table if we want to give out any information about our commission. Anyway, I just
want to say the playground, it's small, but it's really nice. The structure has the ability for a child
with a wheelchair to get on to the play structure and there are a lot of items for kids to play with that
don't involve climbing. They have musical items where you touch it and it plays music, and they
have different items that you can manipulate and turn and see things happen. And then they have a
lot of nice climbing structures and they have swings for somebody with a disability. It's not a
wheelchair swing, but it is a swing that if you need support it would provide support. Although I
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didn't see any straps on them to buckle in, so I need to ask Amy about that. But I could see that
there are holes in the swing for those straps to be attached.
Jenn Barrett: Oh, that's good.
Susan Deutsch: Maybe this is a work in progress. But anyway, it's a nice little inclusive
playground, not as big as the one in Salinas, but it's nice.
Jenn Barrett: That's great to hear. You said it was on March 22nd, do you know the time?
Susan Deutsch: Wednesday, March 27th. At 4 o'clock.
Jennifer Roloff: What are your thoughts on a table?
Susan Deutsch: Well, if it's easy and everything is available, then I don't have a problem setting up
a table there. But I think most of the people there might be people with kids, so I don't know that we
have information for that. I don't know what our brochures look like.
Jenn Barrett: Arnold, you've hosted at the tables in the past.
Arnold Brillinger: Yes.
Jenn Barrett: Is that correct? Have we had pamphlets to hand out to people?
Arnold Brillinger: We do have pamphlets. Laurie has them in her possession, in her office
somewhere. They're in a big milk crate and there's variety of things.
Susan Deutsch: Well, I can then check. Maybe I can find a time to go to Laurie's office and check,
and look and see.
Arnold Brillinger: I don't know that there's anything that is geared toward children necessarily.
Susan Deutsch: Yes. I don't remember that.
Jenn Barrett: But there might be people who are there, who would have interest in our
commission. And you never know, there might be people of different abilities, obviously, with the
children. So it might be something that they might want to look into too.
Susan Deutsch: I can set up a table.
Jenn Barrett: Does anyone else know off-hand that they might be available to help Susan?
Anto Aghapekian: I would be.
Jenn Barrett: Okay. Anto would Maybe we can get an email with you and Laurie and Anto to
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talk about maybe setting that up. I unfortunately have work, so I wouldn't be able to attend.
Jennifer Roloff: Yes. I was also thinking. Just since it's during business hours, if maybe Laurie
could help if the city has a resource and she has a table that the city uses, if she could get there at
3:30 PM and stay till 5:00 PM or something.
Liz Acord: I think Vice Chair's recommendation to connect everybody on email to Laurie to see
what she can provide. I'm not sure what her calendar looks like off the top of my head, but I think
it's a great question to ask and we'll provide support where we can.
Jennifer Roloff: Okay. Thank you.
Susan Deutsch: If there isn't a table, I definitely could just bring a folding table, a bridge table, to
put the pamphlets on.
Jenn Barrett: Okay, great. Thank you so much. Commissioner Morrison?
Leslie Morrison: Nothing to report.
Jenn Barrett: Okay. Commissioner Aghapekian?
Anto Aghapekian: I really don't have much to report except for the Mastick Senior Center. I
worked with the director over there in identifying hazardous conditions for people that are
wheelchair bound, and we did a lot of remedial work. And my hats off to the director and her staff
for following up and doing the work. And it's still a work in progress, but it's all in good direction.
I'm very impressed with the work they're doing. Other than that, I don't have anything else to report.
Jenn Barrett: Okay, great. Thank you. So I was in communication with Beth, had a great idea for
my building accessibility and businesses plan. I'm going to reach out to the West End Business
Association and then the Park Street Business Association and see if I can get on one of their
agendas to talk to them about my initiative or our initiative to increase the accessibility in our local
businesses. And then, Laurie had mentioned during our retreat, that there might be money available
in order to advertise for this. So, that's definitely something I'm excited to look into further with
Laurie. Unless anyone has anything else for Section 5A?
Jennifer Roloff: Jenn, just to follow-up. Remind me when we had asked if the grant match for
Facade could cover accessibility and Laurie came back and said, ""No,"" and I said, ""Can we push
that a little bit?"" And I think she was going to take that action item up.
Jenn Barrett: I did get a contact for that, so I will definitely. Thank you for the reminder. I'm going
to follow up with them as well.
Jennifer Roloff: Okay, because that was our item, not Laurie's.
Jenn Barrett: That would be awesome if we could get some grant money to further encourage
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people to do that upgrade.
Jennifer Roloff: Tell me how this works but if our commission is tasked with advising council, and
the answer that we got back was just a fairly easy, ""No, sorry, it doesn't apply,"" if we need go to
council. So maybe you start that way, and if not, we can go to Council and ask if the guidelines of
the grant could be extended. Or however policy would have us do it.
Jenn Barrett: That's a fantastic idea, yes.
Jennifer Roloff: Okay. Thanks.
Jenn Barrett: That's great. Thank you.
Jennifer Roloff: Let me know if I can do anything.
5-B
Follow up discussions from February 9, 2019 retreat (All Commissioners)
Jenn Barrett: Okay. Okay, we're going to move on to Item 5B: Follow up of discussions from our
February 9th retreat. I think with this, we'll go around the table or around the commission again, but
I think one of the things that I want to maybe focus on during our discussion is talk about priorities
for the year and how we can achieve our goals. Commissioner Brillinger, would you like to start
off?
Arnold Brillinger: I do have some ideas, but I don't know where this discussion is.
Jenn Barrett: Okay. So I'm just trying to summarize where we left off from our retreat, and I know
that some of the topics that we thought were very important for our commission to focus on this
year was the Census, making sure that people with disabilities are properly counted. Another one
was mental health, we had a talk with the school, some of the school leaders last year and we
wanted to make that maybe one of our priorities, is making sure that people with certain disabilities
within the school had the resources that they needed, and a broader aspect of mental health in our
city. And I think that housing and homelessness, if I remember correctly, was another topic that we
thought was extremely important to discuss. I think it's hard to come up with what is our main goal,
when all of these sound very important and large goals. And so I think that maybe our discussion
can be around how we're going to attack one or all, or I think we need to break it down into a few
achievable goals so that it's not too overwhelming. And we don't have to go in a circle, either.
Arnold Brillinger: I would like to have more programs, presentations to the commission on mental
health issues, because I found from that other on, that we really don't know as much as we could
know. I didn't say should know because I don't know where that is. But, I think that that would be a
good focus, that some of our presentations would deal with the mental health issues.
Jennifer Roloff: And I guess this is more of an education for me and possibly for the whole
commission, for children with mental health issues, we had the school district come in. And I guess
what I would love to be educated on is the schools have their own budgets and the state funding is
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generally responsible for that, and we know how strapped they are. But they shared with us how
limited they are and the extensive challenges they have and where the schools are maxed out with
dollars, where the city can or cannot kick in for that. And I don't know if that's like a city manager,
someone from city finance or. do you know?
Liz Acord: I don't know off the top of my head. We do have staff in Community Development that
work with our police department as part of homeless outreach, so I would imagine that would be a
good starting place. I can ask Laurie to follow up and provide some city points of contact for
continuing that discussion.
Jennifer Roloff: Okay, that would be great. Especially as far as the school district, I think, would
be good. Again, if we can advise the city, ""We need dollars for additional human resources,"" or
something like that, just how that happens. I know, for example, with Parks and Recs, there is
already an established relationship between the pools, right, with the city, it's a 50/50 or something
like that with the city pools? But for schools, I don't know where that is and how much they're
going to pay attention since the state district has its own resources. And that's something I could
probably talk to school board about as well, being the liaison.
Jenn Barrett: It'd be very interesting to hear.
Susan Deutsch: When the people from the school district came to talk to us, they were saying that
most of the mental health money is coming from the county. Because I had thought that the city of
Berkeley had their own mental health, because they have Berkeley Mental Health, and that's where
a lot of kids from the school district get counselors from Berkeley Mental Health, but the people
presenting said that was county money also. So at some point, maybe we can contact Alameda
County and see if we can get some funds that way. If they're giving funds to Berkeley, what funds
are we getting? Maybe we can try to find that out.
Jennifer Roloff: And I can take that on, being the school board liaison, if I can take that action
item. Okay, that's a good idea, and I could even call the Berkeley program, too.
Susan Deutsch: So I think this is bigger than just looking at the issue for schools, right? You're
going to take it to the school board, but following the same lines that you're exploring, what is the
availability of crisis services and not just for kids, but for adults, and what's the funding of those
services?
Jennifer Roloff: Yeah, I was just particularly focused on the kids issue, but of course it extends to
the whole population.
Susan Deutsch: Right.
Jennifer Roloff: So is there an action item we want to take? I think maybe some additional
resources that talk about mental health in general per Commissioner Brillinger. That's a good start
there.
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Jenn Barrett: Okay. And Commissioner Roloff, if you come across anyone through the school
board, in addition, who might be able to come talk to us.
Jennifer Roloff: Sure. Or maybe even through the Berkeley program.
Jenn Barrett: Or through the Berkeley program, right, because we know that they do have some
funding, right?
Jenn Barrett: I'll connect with Laurie on finding out who in the city can help us with that as well.
Leslie Morrison: So it sounds like one of our goals for this next year is to become better informed
about the funding of mental health services and the mental health needs of Alamedans so we can
identify gaps and opportunities. Is that what I'm hearing?
Susan Deutsch: Yeah, I think that sounds good. I mean we definitely need to know more before we
proceed.
Jenn Barrett: Right.
Leslie Morrison: Right.
Jennifer Roloff: Yes. That's a good summary.
Leslie Morrison: And I just, for political language, I think that it isn't just talking about people with
mental health issues, but really talking about in terms of disability, that it is a disability category.
And talking about people that have mental health disabilities makes it squarely fall within this
commission's priority. And I think it's important to label it as a disability. I think that mental health
community has not really always been embraced by the disability community, and I think it's
important to recognize that people with mental health disabilities fall within the disability
community and the jurisdiction of this commission.
Jenn Barrett: That's a great point, thank you. And I think the summary is great, so I appreciate that
as well. Does anyone have any comments on the census being one of our goals for the year, with the
2020 census coming up?
Leslie Morrison: I would just say that one of our priorities is to be sure that people with disabilities
are captured within the 2020 Census and ensuring that the Census is conducted in a way that is
accessible to people with disabilities.
Jenn Barrett: Right. And I know that there are meetings that are happening on this, I believe
they're happening during the day. And so I can follow up with Laurie, so that, Commissioners, if
you are available during the day, to make sure you're able to attend.
Leslie Morrison: It's something that I'm interested in, but it would depend upon when of course.
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Jenn Barrett: Time. Right, of course.
Anto Aghapekian: I would like to volunteer on that. During the days. I will attend the meetings.
Susan Deutsch: I could be available depending on what day the meetings are.
Leslie Morrison: Lots of interest.
Jenn Barrett: Great, that's awesome. Okay, so I will get back to Laurie on that, and if we have the
three of you, it can be kind of like a sub-committee. We don't have quorum, so you guys are able to
work on that together.
Leslie Morrison: And talking about priorities, I have what was captured in the meeting minutes
from February, and you are correct that one of the things that was discussed was homelessness and
I'm just wondering if people here, if the commission feels knowledgeable about this issue. I'm new
to the commission, so I don't really feel like I have a good handle on the implication of
homelessness on the community of people with disabilities and whether or not we want to do
something similar about spending the year becoming informed, or maybe folks are already informed
about that.
Jennifer Roloff: When we had our retreat for 2018, we thought that mental illness is absolutely a
disability and that's something we wanted to focus on, so I think it took a little while to get the
momentum going. I don't know, if there's a legal classification or whatnot, but with mental illness
being a disability, I think it definitely falls within our guidelines and no one has told us otherwise, to
date.
Leslie Morrison: But my question is about the homelessness, it's sort of as a separate topic.
Jennifer Roloff: Oh, I see. Right, right. Because not all homeless people necessarily have.
Leslie Morrison: Necessarily have mental disability, that's right.
Jennifer Roloff: Yes, that's a good point, that's tricky.
Leslie Morrison: So I don't know, are people here informed about the situation of homelessness in
Alameda and the challenges.
Arnold Brillinger: I don't think that we are. You get little snippets and pieces of the figures here for
Alameda, but I need to know or I think I need to know, how they come about with these. What do
they include as homeless in their stats. And I don't even know who is in charge of that in Alameda
or what group. So there's another area that we can focus in on getting some more programs for that.
Leslie Morrison: It does seem to dovetail. I think there's a fair amount of overlap, I suspect,
between people with mental health disabilities and homelessness although certainly it isn't mutually
always that case. But it could be a nice companion if the commission is focusing on mental health
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services to also have a tangent into what's the homelessness situation but look at it with a broader
lens than just mental health disabilities. Does that make sense?
Susan Deutsch: Yes, because there are people that lose their jobs and end up becoming homeless
for periods of time. They don't have mental illness but they just can't afford to pay their rent.
Leslie Morrison: And they may have another disability. This commission really is looking onto the
issue of homelessness, broadly, but how it impacts people with disabilities, I presume. So, right.
Liz Acord: So, I would just say I think this dovetails nicely into the question that we would want to
ask city staff working in the homelessness sector about the availability of funding potentially to
work with the school district. So, I would say let's wrap this into our request to Laurie to ask city
staff to provide some resources and help educate the committee or the commission rather on the
general state of homelessness in Alameda.
Jennifer Roloff: I think Doug Biggs, he came and spoke with us a little bit about Measure A, but he
was particularly addressing what they were working on there, he wasn't talking about the broader
spectrum and I think they were breaking ground on Jean Sweeney and there they had to displace a
homeless encampment and it sounded like, if I remember correctly, it was a consortium of the
police and of Doug Biggs and his organization, probably many other groups. So I don't know if it
falls on any one responsibility. And I thought, when I was reading up on Measure A and Measure B,
there was something that was posted along the lines of a new regulation that said if Crab Cove
became a homeless encampment of sorts, you can't kick them out or displace them unless they have
a place to go, and I don't think that was a city thing. I think that was obviously like county or state
or. I think ""Who makes these policies that affect our cities as well?"" So, I don't know if it's just our
city. If Laurie is the right resource or Doug, we could probably have Doug just come and re-visit the
program. I think he's part of HUD, right?
Jenn Barrett: I think it would be nice to hear from Doug or another city official who can provide
us even more background into the need of Measure A. I think that would be a great topic to cover.
Jennifer Roloff: Yeah, and by the time they come, the election might have already happened and
we're not supposed to be so political anyway when it gets close to election time but I think he's
funded by HUD, by the federal government, the Alameda Point Collaborative? When the military
moved out, we're required to put resource or the federal government gets some of that military land,
I think. So anyway, he could probably, definitely approach the city or we could start there.
Leslie Morrison: He may also know other people who could join him in a presentation. People
who are providing crisis services or something.
Jenn Barrett: I'd also be interested to hear from city staff or the people who are running the
warming shelter. I volunteered there once this year and it was a very good experience, so I'd love to
learn more about what the city is doing in regards to that.
Jennifer Roloff: Oh, right and I think Lisa belongs to that church.
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Jenn Barrett: Lisa volunteers. Yes. And maybe, she can speak to it as well.
Jennifer Roloff: So, if you're going to talk to Laurie, I'm happy to just do a reach out to Doug and
maybe say who would be the most appropriate speaker to speak on Alameda, specifically.
Jenn Barrett: That would be great.
Jennifer Roloff: Is that okay? I'll take that?
Jenn Barrett: Yeah. Because I feel like we have a broad understanding of the region and the needs
but it would be great to have something very specific to Alameda because I think that's missing.
Jennifer Roloff: Okay.
Leslie Morrison: The other topic that's described in the minutes from February is voting access,
voter access which was an issue that I had raised. But since really the big federal election is in
November 2020, it may be enough for us to just tackle these two issues this year and then I would
like for that to be something that the commission focuses on in time for the November 2020
election.
Jenn Barrett: I wonder how much we can learn from the Census in order to help that, because
there's some similarities between the Census and voting as we want to get as many people to
participate as possible.
Leslie Morrison: I suspect that the Census will be a while before the results of the Census become
public and may well be past the 2020 election.
Jenn Barrett: But at least we'll have maybe more of a strategy with these meetings of how to get
more people
Leslie Morrison: To vote.
Jenn Barrett: Right.
Leslie Morrison: Certainly. I have some experience around just ensuring that voting places are
accessible but also how to get out the word about vote-by-mail options. And I have a connection
with someone who does a lot of advocacy around voting issues for people with disabilities and I'd
be happy to have that person come and just talk generally about what's happening in that field. But
maybe that could be later in the year.
Jenn Barrett: Okay, that sounds great.
Leslie Morrison: It doesn't feel as urgent to me.
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Jenn Barrett: Right. I'm not sure if and how many speakers we have scheduled already, but
definitely put that on the list because I think that's going to be huge for 2020, I agree.
Arnold Brillinger: Because we could even have two presentations in the same day.
Jenn Barrett: Does anyone have any further comments about the retreat?
Jennifer Roloff: I reached out to Sarah Henry about social media and she sent me some guidelines
on what the social media policies were for the city, if we wanted to put out our own Facebook page
or whatever social media outlet we find. And I briefed through it and it sounds like something we
were all fairly briefed on it, no vulgarity and stuff like that, and then no political positions. But she
also said that she has a huge Facebook following for the city page and if we ever wanted to send out
announcements, notifications, that she would be happy to send out whatever we wanted on our
behalf.
Jenn Barrett: That's great.
Jennifer Roloff: So I thought that might be a good way to start it.
Jenn Barrett: Okay, great. It takes away from having to have someone monitor the page, which
could be potentially a lot of work.
Jennifer Roloff: Yes, so I think we would just have to figure out how we wanted to get her
information to send out and what information we did. And I don't know if our chair has allowed to
do that based on the minutes or how that works. Or we vote as a group at meetings, what we'd like
to publicize.
Liz Acord: So I think I can answer part of the question. Public Works staff does this - we as staff,
push out information to the public information officer about our various projects, activities, events,
and things. Once you decide and land on the appropriate mechanism to figure out what that
messaging would be, Laurie can handle that push out from the department level to the public
information officer.
Jennifer Roloff: Which is Sarah Henry, right?
Liz Acord: Which is Sarah, correct.
Leslie Morrison: So, what I would just suggest is as we address items that we consider whether or
not it would be something that should be pushed out, for example, the park at Little John, has that
been publicized as now being a park that is accessible to children with disabilities? It seems like
that ought to be something that we ought to be asking them to push out. If they're publicizing the
opening of that park.
Susan Deutsch: I think Amy Wooldridge has, but I don't know how much she has publicized it, but
there were plans that were sent out. Well, at least on the city website so people could look at it. And
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it's been a work in progress for about a year-and-a-half. I could ask her how the ribbon cutting
ceremony is being advertised.
Jennifer Roloff: Yes, I'm just looking at her post, the city of Alameda thread now. And I know I
saw it somewhere, I haven't seen it on hers. But if she hasn't yet, then we could send her a note
saying, ""Please publicize that someone from the Commission on Disability will be there and if
you'd like more information.""
Leslie Morrison: And that the play structure is accessible to children who use wheelchairs.
Jenn Barrett: Right. I think that's huge, is to not only announce that it's opening, but it's a new type
of park.
Leslie Morrison: Right.
Jennifer Roloff: Right. And she might incorporate that in the existing announcement that she's
going to put out. I think that would probably be the best.
Leslie Morrison: And I didn't mean to put you on the spot with that, but I think that as these items
come up for us to just think about is this something that could be pushed out through social media
with a disability focus? And I was using that as an example of something that they're probably
going to publicize so we should just be sure that they add our spin.
Susan Deutsch: Yes, I agree.
Jenn Barrett: Great. Okay, I'll make note of that to tell Laurie as well. Was there anything else that
people had?
Leslie Morrison: Well, just looking at the minutes, the other item that was captured in the minutes
in addition to the items we already talked about was climate change. And I don't know if that sounds
like that's something that this group has had a priority in previous years. It feels to me like
addressing mental health services, homelessness, and the Census is going to be plenty for this year,
but I just wanted to call people's attention to that was the other topic that was discussed in February.
Jenn Barrett: There have been meetings on climate change. I went to one, I think, last year in the
fall and definitely want to keep going to those as I hear about them. But I agree with you, I think
that it's a lot this year. So I think that if I hear of them, I'm definitely going to try to attend. Were
you in the sub-committee, Anto and Jennifer, maybe? Maybe it was just Beth and me and Anto. And
so we'll definitely make sure we attend the meetings just so we know what's going on if there are
more in the future. But thank you for bringing that up.
Arnold Brillinger: One of the things that we need to do is we need to get more of the community
engaged in what we're doing. I don't know how many people are watching us from home. How can
we find out? Is there a way to find out? And can we get them to put in some input into these
meetings to get their opinions heard too?
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Leslie Morrison: So I think this is a larger issue. I love where you're going with this, Arnold. I have
concerns about how accessible these meetings are, and I actually have questions about how
accessible for example, the social media posts are, particularly for people who have hearing
impairments or vision impairments who might use screen readers. And many websites are not
accessible to the technology that people with disabilities who have vision impairments and hearing
impairments use. So it's an excellent topic, and I think that that's the way we reach people. I don't
know how many of you have ever watched one of our meetings.
Leslie Morrison: I don't have a vision impairment or a hearing impairment, and it's a very difficult
way to engage. And so I think you can't dial in, we can't take public comment if someone isn't
sitting here in the room. And in this day and age, there are just so many other ways to engage people
with disabilities who might not be able to be physically present, so I think it's an excellent question.
I think it's cracking open a much larger issue that I've been wondering about myself. Sorry to put a
damper on that.
Jennifer Roloff: But I don't think we should stop the momentum that we do have.
Leslie Morrison: Absolutely.
Jennifer Roloff: Even though we're not capturing everybody. But, yeah, you bring up a good point.
Leslie Morrison: Well, and it is for this commission to raise it, because it really raises the issue of
how accessible all of the city meetings are and the technology that the city uses to engage people
with disabilities to participate.
Jenn Barrett: Right. And as you were talking, I was trying to flip through my notes, because I
know that we do have an email address for this commission that Laurie reviews and if more people
knew about that email address, I think that would be a huge help to get more voice, because even if
they weren't able to attend the meeting they could write us an email and we could bring it up on the
next agenda. So maybe we look into making sure that that email address is dispersed properly.
Sorry, I don't have it right at my fingertips.
Leslie Morrison: So I guess what I was thinking is that this is really another big project that the
commission could take on just in terms of how accessible both the commission is and general
information being pushed out from the city is to people with disabilities. It feels like it's that big of a
topic to me. The firm I used to work with redid its website to make it completely disability
compliant and there's quite a bit involved in doing that, and I'm fairly certain that the information on
Alameda's website probably doesn't meet those high level of standards. If we want to make it a
priority I think it's great, but it should be bigger than just, ""Is our commission accessible?"" It's
really, ""Is city council available? And can we have better technology so people can participate
remotely?"" And that isn't just about our commission, but it's about the technology that exists in this
building.
Anto Aghapekian: Every commission meetings are advertised in the newspaper, what date and
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times. If we could add our email address to that announcement that always comes out on to the local
newspapers, then that will be one way of people to send us whatever comments they have. Just
adding the email address to the announcement they have on a weekly basis, they announce it.
Leslie Morrison: I haven't looked, are the agendas for those meetings posted also? Is there a link to
the agendas for those meetings so people know what we're talking about? I haven't looked.
Jenn Barrett: There's agendas on the city website, but to your point, it can be sometimes difficult
to find.
Jennifer Roloff: And we should push that to Sarah too.
Jenn Barrett: Definitely.
Jennifer Roloff: Sarah Henry, I think. So people can just know how to contact us.
Jennifer Roloff: I know it's only one method.
Arnold Brillinger: Did they just recently revamp the city website?
Liz Acord: Yes, they did.
Jenn Barrett: Are they finished with the updates?
Liz Acord: Still working on the updates, but yes, you are correct. The city's entire website did
recently get a refresh.
Jenn Barrett: I do know someone with an accessibility background, but for a large software
company. I'm going to try to reach out to her and see if she would be interested in coming to talk to
us, because I talked to her once and I found it very interesting to hear accessibility from a whole
different perspective. So I'll reach out to her.
Leslie Morrison: I also have a contact of the web designer that redid the website for this firm that I
used to work for.
Jenn Barrett: Oh, great, okay.
Leslie Morrison: And at much higher, very high disability standards and really helped us work
through things that we didn't know that made our website unaccessible.
Jenn Barrett: And maybe if we could even schedule them for the same night, that would be great.
Okay.
Jennifer Roloff: I just got a new job at Salesforce, which it's very committed to non-profits and I'll
see if there's someone that I can do a reach out to, let you know if I get anything.
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Jenn Barrett: Okay. So I'm going to talk to Laurie about a potential meeting that we might be able
to have this discussion and I'll get back to you guys.
Arnold Brillinger: Because this whole idea of accessibility is a very large topic. It could be
accessibility to storefronts and things but it's also to programs and to the various activities that are
happening in Alameda. And so, we need to make sure that these services, the activities are all
accessible to people no matter who they are in Alameda.
Leslie Morrison: So, something as little as when you post a photograph, you should hover over the
photograph and it should pop up a description of what the photograph is of because people with
vision impairments can't see what that photograph is. So, it has to be built in, whenever you post a
photo or any sort of an image that there has to be a descriptor of what that is. PDFs are inaccessible,
footnotes are inaccessible.
Jennifer Roloff: Because they can't be read by the machine?
Leslie Morrison: The screen reader can't read them. Bullets are inaccessible.
Susan Deutsch: But PDFs can be read now.
Leslie Morrison: Not by all screen readers. And again, I'm not an expert in this area but it's the
kind of stuff that we went round and round about because we posted so much stuff in that way.
Susan Deutsch: I worked in the school district with kids with disabilities and I'm aware that there
are PDFs that can be read so that when a student gets something scanned to them, it can be read.
Leslie Morrison: On a screen reader?
Susan Deutsch: Well, it's an app that reads PDFs. Now, I don't know if that's a screen reader but
there are apps that will read the PDF.
Jennifer Roloff: In the last technology job that I just left, we sold software that could work with
unstructured data is what they call it, right, but you have to pay money for that. So the private
industries will have that, but yes, does the state? Does the city? Do all small, non-profits have that
technology? I think technology is getting more accessible so we'll probably get there but I see your
point right now that it doesn't exist, universally.
Leslie Morrison: Right.
Jenn Barrett: Great. Thank you for bringing up that topic. Okay, unless anyone has any other
issues or items we're going to move on to 5C. Mr. Brillinger?
Arnold Brillinger: I was just thinking we were talking about getting the word out. I think that there
are so many different things that we can let people know. For example, when it's the street fair out
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here on Park Boulevard, if we get certain amount of parking spaces in the parking garage to be for
disabled, more than they normally have, I think the word ought to be disseminated and put in there
also that the Disability Commission has suggested this or has made it happen or whatever it is,
because we need to let people know that there is a group that is working on these kinds of things.
And that's going to be the way that people are more aware of the fact that there are a number of
people that meet every couple of months that are talking about disabilities.
Jennifer Roloff: I think that's a good idea. It makes me even think like could we block off an extra
block of one of the streets just for disabled parking, so we add parking to the total picture and let
it
be for disabled parking.
Arnold Brillinger: Because we have done that in the city garage in past years, where we just asked
for some extra disabled spaces and they made sure that they were on flat ground, not on an angle
and so forth. There are all kinds of things to look at and I think that these things if they are
disseminated among the people, that it will help for us to be more widely known.
Jennifer Roloff: And we can keep pushing stuff to Sarah and I think if we get the traction then, we
could possibly spin off our own but we could start with really getting that information to her.
Jenn Barrett: That'd be great.
Arnold Brillinger: But even as Anto was saying in the newspaper, get these things out to them
also, into the Sun. Some people read that from cover to cover.
Jennifer Roloff: Who was it that got the announcement for our meeting, one of our meetings into
the Sun? Was it Laurie that did that? One of our commission meetings was put in.
Jenn Barrett: I'm guessing it was Laurie.
Jennifer Roloff: We can follow up with her. And then also, what government body of the city
handles the Park Street Fair or the Webster Street or all the fairs?
Arnold Brillinger: The business associations.
Liz Acord: Commissioner Brillinger is correct. The business associations or the business
improvement areas apply for a special event permit with the city to host those fairs and then various
city departments, if not all city departments, do support that effort. So police from traffic control,
public works from public right-of-way, community and economic development, etcetera do support
that effort.
Jennifer Roloff: Okay. So, Commissioner Barrett, are you liaison for the ABA and GABA and all
the business community.
Jenn Barrett: I don't believe we have one but since I'm going to be reaching out to them anyways.
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Jennifer Roloff: Maybe you could mention the parking piece?
Jenn Barrett: Yeah, definitely. So, just to make sure I'm clearly understanding, it's during these
fairs that we want to try to increase the accessible spaces.
Jennifer Roloff: For parking, yes.
Jenn Barrett: Great.
Anto Aghapekian: And I think the city should get involved with that. Parking on the streets, it's a
city issue, it's not the business. I think we should work with the city asking them to ask the
organizers or for the city to dedicate a certain street, a certain area for parking.
Jenn Barrett: Right, because they are city streets and the city owned garage and they decide. I'm
sure the city, maybe they work with the city to determine which streets are closed during the event.
Liz Acord: That is correct. When they submit their special event permit, they are proposing the
parameters of that event including what streets would be closed during what times. And so I think
that this could be sort of a dual effort between communication with the business associations and
then communication with your regular staff person for this commission who happens to sit in the
Public Works Department as keeper of the public right-of-way.
Arnold Brillinger: While we're throwing out different ideas, who is our planning liaison? Planning
board liaison? Anto?
Jenn Barrett: Yes, and myself.
Arnold Brillinger: And yourself. Do we know how many units have been built or are being built
with the universal design or since the Universal Design Ordinance?
Anto Aghapekian: No.
Jenn Barrett: We do not, but I do know that Laurie is helping conduct the reviews of these
buildings, so I'm sure I can get some information from her and if not, the planning department.
Arnold Brillinger: Because it would be great to go out and visit some of these places and see how
well they actually conform.
Jenn Barrett: And it would be a nice thing to share with the community on social media posts and
other things to say, ""Hey, did you know that we have this ordinance and this is what we've achieved
so far from that.'
Anto Aghapekian: And how the buyers of these units, how they're reacting to it.
Arnold Brillinger: Well we need to see all that, because that's part of what we had said. We said
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they need to have some glossy information, not just a thing that is half printed and that it needs to
be a selling point rather than, ""Oh, by the way. So that people want to buy them.
Susan Deutsch: I looked at the new housing element that was written, and it was nice to see that
they are including people with disabilities in the housing element now. And also, they specifically
included people with developmental disabilities. And so it's really nice that all the work we did is
now included in the housing element.
5-C Elections of New Commission Chair and Vice Chair (City Staff)
Jenn Barrett: Great. Okay, I'd like to move on to item 5C which is the election of new commission
chair and vice chair. I believe how this worked last year is that people either nominated themselves
or nominated a fellow commissioner. We can maybe have a little bit of discussion and then we can
vote on the item. I guess we can start with the commission chair. Does anyone have any
nominations for the commission chair?
Susan Deutsch: Does anybody want to be the commission chair?
Anto Aghapekian: I would like to nominate you [Jenn Barrett].
Jennifer Roloff: And I would love to second that nomination.
Jenn Barrett: Okay.
Liz Acord: So I believe now you can call for a vote, because you have a motion and a second.
Jenn Barrett: Okay.
Jennifer Roloff: Please.
Jenn Barrett: All in favor of Jennifer Barrett becoming the new commission chair, those in favor
say, ""Aye.""
All: Aye.
Jenn Barrett: Okay. So unanimous vote that I'm your new commission chair.
Jenn Barrett: Thank you. So now we'll move on to the vice chair. Would anyone like to nominate
themselves for vice chair?
Arnold Brillinger: I'll nominate myself.
Jenn Barrett: Okay. Arnold. And would anyone like to nominate someone else on the commission?
Anto Aghapekian: I would like to nominate Leslie.
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Jenn Barrett: I also wanted to nominate Leslie.
Leslie Morrison: Wow. What does the position of vice chair entail?
Jenn Barrett: So, sorry. I'm sorry we didn't go over this further. So the vice chair basically would
support the chair. If the chair is unable to attend a meeting, the vice chair steps in. If we get an email
about a concern, Laurie gets an email about a concern, for instance, we had the woman who was
stranded because her wheelchair didn't work anymore and so Laurie will reach out to the chair, but
then if she needs additional assistance with that, she'll reach out to the vice chair as well. So it's
basically just assisting with anything that the chair might need help with or that Laurie wants quick
attention to. Say, like when the Census meeting occurred, because she didn't have much time to talk
to Beth, she also included me in the email to see if either of us could attend.
Leslie Morrison: And it's a one year term?
Jenn Barrett: Yes. Both are one year terms.
Leslie Morrison: Okay, I'll throw my hat in.
Jenn Barrett: Okay. Are there any other nominations? Okay, so we will So just to be clear, if
there's no second of a nomination are they still valid?
Liz Acord: So I think what we would want to do is consider Commissioner Brillinger's self
nomination as a motion and then call for a second and then approval and then if that motion were to
fail, move on to the second motion.
Jenn Barrett: Okay, thank you.
Leslie Morrison: It just seems odd to me. That may be procedural, but you have two people who
have been nominated, SO..
Liz Acord: I apologize, I am trying to navigate this the best that I can. I think what the commission
could also do is make a separate and third motion if you will to say, ""I will nominate. "" For
example, you could say, ""I will nominate X and so move,"" and then you could call for a second on
that motion. Failing having any instructions provided to me in the 11th hour before this meeting,
that's what I would see happening.
Susan Deutsch: Can we make a motion to have some sort of a vote that's private?
Leslie Morrison: I don't think that this is a motion, this is a nomination. I think that we're
confusing the terms. So, you have vacant positions and you have people that are nominated and then
you call for a vote of the people that have been nominated. It's different than a motion.
Liz Acord: Okay.
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Leslie Morrison: So other boards I've sat on, you have several people who have been nominated.
Liz Acord: I apologize that I'm unfamiliar with the protocol at this point.
Leslie Morrison: It's alright. Think you have two nominations. You have Arnold and you have me.
And then I think you call for a vote, and you could do a written vote if you want, or since you have
two people who are running, we could also take an oral vote or a hand vote, if you want.
Jenn Barrett: Okay. Thank you for your help with that. I'm sorry, I'm not as familiar with these as I
should be. So I apologize for that. So we have two nominations. We have Commissioner Brillinger
and we have Commissioner Morrison. I think that the best way to do this is by a hand vote. So can
we have everyone who would like to vote for Commissioner Morrison to raise their hand please?
And all those in favor to vote for Commissioner Brillinger? Okay, so the vote is four to two for
Commissioner Morrison to become our new Vice Chair of the Commission.
5-D
Confirmation of New Subcommittee Assignments (All Commissioners)
Jenn Barrett: Okay. We're going to go on to item 5D, which is the confirmation of new sub-
committee assignments. I know that Beth was taking notes on this. I'm sorry, I'm just looking up on
my email that she sent me today. She said that our sub-committee assignments have relatively
stayed the same as last year. I don't have the list that she created, but it's something that we can just
add to the agenda for next time to make sure that everyone is clear on what sub-committee they
have been assigned to, and which board liaisons we would like them to report to.
Leslie Morrison: That would be great.
Jenn Barrett: Okay, great.
Leslie Morrison: We're at end of the meeting and I'm not clear on what I was assigned.
Jenn Barrett: Right, we were very rushed at the end, and so I want to make sure that that goes on
to our agenda for next time. The only item that she has in her notes is that Leslie was going to do
City Council.If Jenny no longer wishes to, otherwise Leslie was going to do SSHRB? Obviously,
Jenny is not present right now, but those were the only two sub-committee changes. Does anyone
have any comments or questions on their sub-committees, other than the fact that we're going to talk
about it next meeting? No? Okay.
6. STAFF COMMUNICATIONS
Jenn Barrett: Staff communications?
Liz Acord: Just very briefly wanted to thank you all for bearing with the last minute staffing
change. Unfortunately, this afternoon, Laurie was no longer able to attend this evening. And so here
I am helping, or hindering, depending on how you look at it. So I appreciate your patience with that,
and Laurie will be back next time.
03/13/19
Page 24 of 28",CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-03-13.pdf
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities,2019-03-13,25,"ITEM 3-A
COMMISSION ON DISABILITY
MEETING MINUTES
Wednesday, March 13, 2019, 6:30 PM
Jennifer Roloff: Thank you.
Jenn Barrett: Thank you so much for filling in last minute. We really appreciate that.
7. ANNOUNCEMENTS
Jenn Barrett: Item 7 is announcements. Do we have any announcements?
Anto Aghapekian: I don't have an announcement, but I have an issue that came up in the
newspaper I got aware of, that I would like to bring to the commission's attention and discussion,
and see if there is anything that we can do about it. It was in last week's Alameda Sun. The Alameda
Unified School District, who has given the parents who have children with learning issues, and they
have arbitrarily, without consulting with the parents, they have moved them to another school,
another area. And the parents are extremely unhappy. I don't know if you want me to read this
article. You may have seen this article.
Jennifer Roloff: Yes.
Susan Deutsch: No, I haven't.
Anto Aghapekian: I think that the parents of these children are, literally, 24/7, 365 days and night,
are working with these kids. And I have a lot of respect to their knowledge and their experience.
And for the school district to just arbitrarily decide to move them around just by giving the parents
one week notice is kind of hard to accept. And I don't know what we can do. I don't know if we can
write a letter to the school district asking them to pay more attention to the parents and their
opinions. Something like this, to my experience, the school district should have organized a
workshop with the parents weeks, weeks, if not months, ahead of that to discuss how they're going
to handle this issue. I do know that the school district has problems with finances and they're trying
to deal with the best they can with how to stretch the dollars that they have, but to do it at the
expense of these children is not a good way to go. So my request is for this commission to let the
school know that we support these kids and their parents, and we would like the school district to
put the brakes on this program and listen to the parents and work with the parents a little closer, to
come up with a better solution than what they have.
Leslie Morrison: What's the date of that article?
Anto Aghapekian: This is last week, this is last Tuesday.
Leslie Morrison: It's a Tuesday, so that would have been the 7th?
Susan Deutsch: It's the Alameda Sun?
Anto Aghapekian: Yes.
03/13/19
Page 25 of 28",CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-03-13.pdf
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities,2019-03-13,26,"ITEM 3-A
COMMISSION ON DISABILITY
MEETING MINUTES
Wednesday, March 13, 2019, 6:30 PM
Jennifer Roloff: It's fairly recent, yes. I saw it on Facebook.
Leslie Morrison: March 5th.
Jenn Barrett: Do you have the title of the article?
Anto Aghapekian: Yes, it's called, ""The program moved, no warning to parents"". And a highlight
from one of the parents is, ""When our children are asked to move, it is often with almost no
recognition, as if our children are invisible."" There is one paragraph in here that touched me. It's
from one of the parents. And I don't know if I should read it, but I think that the school district
should pay more attention to what's going down with these kids and their parents.
Jennifer Roloff: I would be happy to do some follow-up on that as the liaison to school board.
I
could even go for public announcements and maybe just do an outreach to one of the school board
members, as an action item. I don't know if that's going to solve the problem or get exactly what
we
want to do, but I can start there.
Jenn Barrett: Great. Definitely.
Leslie Morrison: Can we write a letter?
Jenn Barrett: I'm going to check with Laurie on that.
Leslie Morrison: I'd be happy to draft the letter, and circulate it for the commission to take a look
at.
Jenn Barrett: Great.
Leslie Morrison: I certainly have a lot more questions about it, so I need to read the article and
understand what's exactly going on.
Susan Deutsch: And I have a lot of questions too.
Leslie Morrison: So, thank you. But I'd be happy to draft a letter.
Jenn Barrett: Great, that'll be great.
Leslie Morrison: And circulate it, once I learn more.
Jenn Barrett: Right. I'm frustrated that our meetings are SO far apart. By the time we come up and
discuss this, it's going to be two months later. So let me reach out to Laurie to see what else we can
do.
Leslie Morrison: So it sounds like what they did is they moved the designated special education
classroom that had been at Lincoln, and they moved it to Wood. That's just the first paragraph, what
03/13/19
Page 26 of 28",CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-03-13.pdf
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities,2019-03-13,27,"ITEM 3-A
COMMISSION ON DISABILITY
MEETING MINUTES
Wednesday, March 13, 2019, 6:30 PM
I'm gathering, is that they moved the entire classroom of probably middle school kids in special
education. But transitions are really difficult. And they're difficult for anyone, especially for
children and children that have disabilities. It can be very difficult. As well as considering how to
ready the new community to receive a classroom now of special education students. And did the
teachers follow?
Jenn Barrett: And maybe there's a statement that we can bring to the school board.
Jennifer Roloff: And I think what we talked about earlier. Where we can interject, where the city
can play, will also be part of the greater conversation, not necessarily this issue.
Jenn Barrett: Right. And because you've been nominated by our commission to speak on behalf of
our commission at the school board, there might be an ability for us to write a statement and have
that said by you at one of their meetings.
Jennifer Roloff: Okay, if you circulate something.
Leslie Morrison: Yes.
Jennifer Roloff: I can send some feedback and maybe just say enough.
Jenn Barrett: I think it's something that we should also bring up with the City Council as well.
Jennifer Roloff: Yes.
Jenn Barrett: I think it's very important.
Leslie Morrison: This article describes the children as some of them are non-verbal, some of them,
it sounds like they have moderate to severe cognitive impairments. So significant sensory issues, all
of which, those kinds of transitions would be something you'd want to plan more carefully.
Jenn Barrett: What I'm wondering, are they getting special transportation now to this different
location?
Leslie Morrison: I suspect that their transportation followed, so they were transporting them to
Lincoln and now they're transporting them to Wood. But the transition itself is
Jenn Barrett: Is hard.
Leslie Morrison: Hard.
Jenn Barrett: Definitely. Okay, thank you so much for bringing that to our attention. Really
important. So I will also bring that up with Laurie and see that we can do something prior to our
next meeting, because our next meeting is so far away.
03/13/19
Page 27 of 28",CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-03-13.pdf
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities,2019-03-13,28,"ITEM 3-A
COMMISSION ON DISABILITY
MEETING MINUTES
Wednesday, March 13, 2019, 6:30 PM
Jennifer Roloff: Yeah, and then we'll follow up about a statement. Okay.
Leslie Morrison: I'll try to have a letter drafted by early next week.
Jenn Barrett: Okay. Great.
Arnold Brillinger: This reminds me that, as liaisons, when we're there at the meetings, we identify
ourselves. And let them know that we're coming. That we are on the Board, or on the commission,
and that the commission is interested in what's going on.
Jennifer Roloff: Right. We can declare that we're there on behalf of. Okay. Thank you.
8.
ADJOURNMENTS
Jenn Barrett: Does anyone else have any further announcements? Okay. Item 8, as adjournment.
Would anyone like to file a motion to adjourn?
Leslie Morrison: I move.
Jennifer Roloff: I second.
Liz Acord: Okay. So thank you all for attending the meeting tonight on the Commission on
Disability.
03/13/19
Page 28 of 28",CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-03-13.pdf
LibraryBoard,2019-03-13,1,"CITY
OF
of
of
$
ORATEIO
MINUTES OF THE
ALAMEDA FREE LIBRARY BOARD MEETING
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2019
The regular meeting of the Alameda Free Library Board was called to order at 6:00 p.m.
ROLL CALL
Present:
Cynthia Silva, President
Dorothy Wismar, Vice President
Amber Bales, Board Member
Kathleen Kearney, Board Member
Joyce McConeghey Board Member
Absent:
None
Staff:
Jane Chisaki, Library Director
Lori Amaya, Recording Secretary
ORAL COMMUNICATIONS. AGENDA (Public Comment)
None.
CONSENT CALENDAR
An asterisk indicates items so enacted or approved on the Consent Calendar
*A.
Report from the Library Director Highlighting Activities for the Months of January and February,
2019.
*B.
Draft Minutes of the Regular Library Board Meeting of November 14, 2018 and January 9, 2019.
*C.
Library Services Report for the Months of December, 2018 and January, 2019.
*D.
Financial Report Reflecting FY17/18 Expenditures by Fund for January and February, 2019.
*E.
Bills for Ratification for the Months of January and February, 2019.
Director Chisaki shared that the unsheltered are becoming an issue. One in particular has been issued a
trespass warning because he screams obscenities and scares patrons and staff. A knife was found hidden
in the collection and staff are starting to feel unsafe. Comfort and safety of the community and staff are a
priority, so the library is looking into hiring a part-time security person to patrol inside and outside the
building. The library is having issues in the parking lot with businesses parking in the lot. Signs will be",LibraryBoard/2019-03-13.pdf
LibraryBoard,2019-03-13,2,"Page 2 of 3
Minutes of the
Alameda Free Library Board
January 9, 2019 Meeting
installed instead of parking meters. Staff Development Day will be on April 1, 2019. Alameda Point
Collaborative will come in to speak on de-escalation and the unsheltered. The Strategic Plan will be on
hold briefly and Director Chisaki will hold until after conference calls with President Silva and the
potential consultants are held. Cosette is retiring in May and the opening for her position will open
tomorrow for three weeks. The I.T. manager unexpectedly retired, and an analyst will be moving up into
the manager position. David Boxton will make a lateral move from the library to City Hall's analyst
position. The library will hire a replacement for David. Carol Roth's replacement starts on Monday. We
are asking for three brand new full time positions in the budget. The new streaming services are going
well and classes have been full. The Bay Farm branch will start a new film series to go along with their
book club. Adult Literacy is busy. Their funding looks stable, so they are able to plan ahead.
Board Member Kearney moved to accept the Draft Minutes of the November 14, 2018 and January 9,
2019, Regular Library Board Meeting. Board Member Wismar seconded the motion. Board Member
McConeghey abstained. The motion passed with a 4-0-1 vote.
Vice President Wismar moved to accept the Consent Calendar. Board Member Kearney seconded the
motion, which passed with a 5-0 vote.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
A.
Strategic Plan Status Update. (J. Chisaki)
Some consultants have not responded to Director Chiaki, so the City Attorney advised that as long as there
is record of dates and time she attempted to speak to them, it would be fine to move forward with the
selection of the a consultant. Director Chisaki will work with President Silva on the selection.
NEW BUSINESS
A.
Elimination of Library Overdue Fines. (J. Chisaki)
Director Chisaki would like all patron accounts to start with a clean slate. Fines going back for seven
years will be waived. Lost fees will not be waived. $25 is the threshold for patron accounts to go to
collections. Receptacles will be placed at strategic location for patrons to return overdue books. There
will be two automatic renewals. Staff will make phone calls to patrons asking for the books to be returned
if the books are being held by others. This will be implemented after the start of the new fiscal year.
There will be press releases, social media posts, handouts, etc. to advertise. Vice President Wismar
suggested we clarify language so there is no confusion between fines and fees.
Vice President Wismar moved to move forward with the elimination of overdue fines. Board Member
McConeghey seconded the motion, which passed with a 5-0 vote.",LibraryBoard/2019-03-13.pdf
LibraryBoard,2019-03-13,3,"Page 3 of 3
Minutes of the
Alameda Free Library Board
January 9, 2019 Meeting
B.
Friends of the Library. (J. Chisaki)
The next Friends meeting is on May 20, 2019. They are busy with their upcoming book sale on May 3 -
5, 2019. The Public Works Department has started cleaning out the space for the Friends to move into.
They have not yet moved forward with their Strategic Plan because they are busy with programs.
C.
Patron Suggestions/Comments (Speak-Outs) and Library Director's Response
None.
LIBRARY BOARD COMMUNICATIONS
Board Member Wismar shared that she listened to the ""Room of Requirement"" episode of the ""This
American Life"" podcast. Brooklyn Public Library launched a new podcast this week. The first episode is
""Books are not dead"" and she will start listening to that series.
Board Member Kearney shared that when the patron that yells was shouting in the library, someone went
to her and she suggested they write a letter of her concerns to Director Chisaki, and she called 911.
Board Member McConeghey shared that she went to the MLK celebration and enjoyed it. She
appreciated Director Chisaki informing her about it. Board Member Kearney and President Silva also
attended and they found it interesting.
Board Member McConeghey attended the EOC Open House and signed up for CERT training.
DIRECTOR'S COMMENTS
Director Chisaki asked the Board if they received invites to the Meet Your Public Officials event. Board
Member Bales had not yet received hers. The City has a new City Attorney and he starts on May 13,
2019. The City Manager is starting on April 12, 2019.
ORAL COMMUNICATIONS, NON-AGENDA GENERAL
None.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 7:25 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Jane Chisaki, Library Director and
Secretary to the Alameda Free Library Board",LibraryBoard/2019-03-13.pdf