{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-04-12", "page": 1, "text": "ITEM 2-B\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nBeth Kenny: Welcome to the Commission on Disability Issues meeting for Wednesday, April 12,\n2017. Let's start with roll call.\n1. ROLL CALL\nKerry Parker: Chair Kenny?\nBeth Kenny: Present.\nKerry Parker: Vice Chair Brillinger?\nArnold Brillinger: Here.\nKerry Parker: Commissioner Aghapekian? Commissioner Deutsch?\nSusan Deutsch: Here.\nKerry Parker: Commissioner Franco? Commissioner Hall?\nLisa Hall: Here.\nKerry Parker: Commissioner Lewis? Commissioner Linton?\nJenny Linton: Here.\nKerry Parker: Commissioner Tsztoo?\nMichaela Tsztoo: Here.\nKerry Parker: We have one, two, three six. We have a quorum.\n2. MINUTES\nBeth Kenny: Wonderful. Agenda item number two, approval of the minutes from our February 8th,\n2017 meeting. Does anyone have any changes they'd like to see made to the minutes from our\nFebruary meeting?\nArnold Brillinger: I would like to move to accept these minutes as they are.\nBeth Kenny: Then I'll second that we approve it. All in favor?\nAll: Aye.", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-04-12.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-04-12", "page": 2, "text": "ITEM 2-B\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nBeth Kenny: Great. The minutes have been approved. Just a side note on the minutes, we have been\nhaving trouble hearing everybody in the minutes and as you know we are sending it to a company, so\nif everybody can really make sure they try and speak into the microphone, that would be great.\nKerry Parker: Yes. Even a sign on this table over here it says, \"Speak directly into the mic.\" And\nwe were charged extra money last time for the minutes to be transcribed for this, if we could just take\ncare to speak into the mic that would help. This one is super sensitive, yours are not.\n3. ORAL COMMUNICATION\nBeth Kenny: Oral communications, non-agenda items, public comment section. Do we have anyone?\nNo?\nKerry Parker: We do not have any speaker slips.\n4.\nNEW BUSINESS\n4-A\nPresentation of Services Available at Center for Independent Living (CIL) in Alameda\n(Stuart S. James, Executive Director, CIL)\nBeth Kenny: Great. Moving on to new business. We have a presentation of services available at the\nCenter for Independent Living by Stuart James.\nBeth Kenny: Welcome Stuart. Thank you for being here.\nStuart\nJames: I tend to wander. I think that I have kinetic energy.\n[laughter]\nStuart James: Well first of all thank you for having me. I'm the Executive Director at the Center for\nIndependent Living that a lot of people know as the Center for Independent Living, Berkeley.\nHowever. Can you hear me?\nBeth Kenny: Yes.\nStuart James: We have just opened up a new office here in Alameda. It is our third office. We have\none in Oakland as well. The office here is pretty exciting. It's 6,900 square feet, it's on Mariner Square\nLoop. You come to our assistive technology lab which has three separate parts to it. One part is for\npeople with vision impairments, so we will walk consumers through how to use accessibility features\nthat exist within phones and computers already. Applications and software we can add to the computer\nto help read screen read. We also have other devices that will screen read if you don't want to hook\nup to a computer or that will scan and read hard materials. And we show people how to use all of that\nstuff.\nStuart James: The second part of it is we actually have a living room that is completely controlled\nby an Amazon Echo. So you can turn the heat on, turn the heat down, unlock the doors, turn the lights\n05/24/17\nPage 2 of 29", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-04-12.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-04-12", "page": 3, "text": "ITEM 2-B\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m.\non, turn the lights off, and there's pretty much nothing you can't do without leaving the couch. You\ncan just sort of sit there and control the whole space, and we'll show you how to use all that and we\ncan actually go to your home and help you set it up. And then the third part is we have a whole bunch\nof different mobility devices that we can show you. It's everything, from some power wheelchairs, to\npower assist devices for manual wheelchairs, to sports wheelchairs to these kinds of things. For those\nof you who are not familiar, the Independent Living Center, we're the first one in the country. We're\nactually the first one in the world. There's now 400 centers around the country that are based on us,\nbut they're not affiliated with us directly. We're just sort of the premise for the ideology.\nStuart James: There're also several hundred more around the world and our office on any given\nprobably week or month have groups from other countries visiting us. In the world of independent\nliving we're kind of like Mecca. So we in fact just last week we had a group in from Thailand to come\nand talk about what we do. I am very new to the disability space, other than having one, so I use a\nwheelchair, but I spent 25 years working in sports and entertainment. So actually 10 years ago this\nmonth I was in Shanghai producing a concert for the Rolling Stones.\nStuart James: So my life has changed a little. I ended up here because a variety of things. I have\nosteogenesis imperfecta. My mom founded the OI foundation in the United States. She's one of the\nfounders and for 40 years Inever went to a meeting. It was a 40 year fight I had with my mom because\nshe used to say, \"You got to do something,\" and I'd say, \"Go away. Don't bother me.\" I used to be an\nNFL agent, and I used to send my NFL players to play golf tournaments for my mom's charity but I\nwould never tell them it had anything to do with me. They'd figure it out, but it was just a wall I put\nup, and I didn't like to cross that wall. But that kind of changed when I was living in China and I\nstarted a nonprofit there to help kids with physical disabilities. And through that process I ran into a\nwoman you may or may not have heard of before, her name is Judy Heumann. And Judy Heumann\nis one of the founders of CIL along with Ed Roberts, and Judy's probably most famous for leading\nthe 504 protest in 1977 when we took over the federal building.\nStuart James: Up until a few months ago Judy was the head of human rights and disability for the\nUS State Department. She was an Obama appointee, and prior to that she was undersecretary of health\nand human services for Clinton. She met me in Beijing. She said \"What do you plan to do when you\nget back to the states?\" I said \"I'm going to go work for the PGL.\" She said \"Would you consider\ndoing something else?\" I said \"Maybe,\" and I went to DC and I spent two days with her.\nStuart James: I tell you all of that because I had a very different idea about what needed to happen\nin disability than the conversation that was taking place. She didn't necessarily think I was right, but\nshe said she hoped I was, and she wanted me to come try. For any independent living centers, our\nfederal funding requires us to provide four core services. Peer counseling, so it's people with\ndisabilities helping other people with disabilities on a one-on-one environment. In general you come\ninto our office, you set a goal for yourself, and we try to help encourage you and show you a way to\naccomplish the goal. The second thing is we do advocacy so when it comes to public policy and those\ntypes of things we get involved and participate in that process. The third is independent living skills.\nWe teach people with disabilities how to do certain things so they can live day-to-day like use an\nATM. And the fourth is transition. We help people get out of institutions, or diversion, we help them\nnot go into one to begin with. Actually that's the easier part. Transition out of institutions is really\nhard particularly in the Bay Area because housing is so expensive, but if we can get them before they\n05/24/17\nPage 3 of 29", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-04-12.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-04-12", "page": 4, "text": "ITEM 2-B\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nend up in the institution that's a lot easier, and then that means providing support for the family\noftentimes.\nStuart James: Now within the context of all of those services, how we put that together is up to me.\nHow we premise what the agency represents and want to do is up to me and my staff. It's been one of\nthe problems with independent living centers because there are three in the immediate area. There's\none in Hayward, there's on in San Francisco, and us, and if you were to walk into any of the three you\nwould think you were in three completely separate organizations. Even though we provide the same\nfundamental service, we don't have the same philosophical approach to those services, so they're very\ndifferent. I am on the progressive end. I'm an integrationist, and I think everything we do for disability\nshould be about how to integrate people with disabilities into broader society. And we are practicing\nheavily a thing called reverse integration. Instead of trying to make an environment suitable for\nsomeone with a disability, I'm creating an environment that's for disability and making it suitable for\npeople who don't have one.\nStuart James: One of the things we do is, I use my background in sports for this, and I brought the\nHarlem Globetrotters in to play wheelchair basketball. On the slides you see now, Michaela, is a little\nboy from Alameda Boys and Girls Club playing wheelchair basketball with the Harlem Globetrotters.\nWe had about 150 kids. This lesson is not only for the people who have disabilities, it's actually for\nthe broader community. I want them to have a positive conversation about disability, not a negative\none. And I want them to have a positive experience with disability, not a negative one. So we do\nthings that are fun. We don't think wheelchair basketball is really an adaptive sport, I think wheelchair\nbasketball is its own game, and you just play it and it's its own game, don't compare it. The kids had\na great time and they got a valuable lesson, and the gentleman who runs Alameda Boys and Girls\nClub said that it was just a profound experience for most of the kids.\nStuart James: And that's Buckets Blakes, another Harlem Globetrotter. He's been to three of them.\nWe've done the one in Oakland, one in Berkeley, and one in Alameda, and SO he came again. He\nactually was awful the first time he came, now he's very good. [laughter] That presented kind of a\nproblem. We used to be able to show off and now we can't. In fact one of the projects I'm hopefully\nworking on soon, this was so successful that some other people in the disability movement who have\nbeen working on some issues in Cuba have asked me to try to arrange this to go to Cuba, and bring\nthe Harlem Globetrotters there to play wheelchair basketball. So it's kind of cool. Just another one,\nagain with Buckets and the girls. In this case, we had one or two kids with disabilities, not many of\nthem, again just to have a conversation with the broader community. This is another thing, we already,\nbefore moving to Alameda, we already had a pretty good relationship with Alameda Unified School\nDistrict and the transition kids.\nStuart James: We have a program now that we don't do with Alameda, we do it with Oakland where\nthe transition kids come into our office twice a week, and one class they learned self-advocacy, so\nthey learn about what it means to advocate for the things they have a right to. That class culminates\nby them going to Sacramento and talking to legislators about issues that were important to them. Then\nthe second part of it is self-determination, learning how to set goals, and achieve them. But we also\ndo, within the context of that group, we do a number of special events that are for other school districts\nand Alameda Unified participates in those. This happened to be, I think, our Halloween party, and\nthat young man I believe as an Alameda High School transition student.\n05/24/17\nPage 4 of 29", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-04-12.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-04-12", "page": 5, "text": "ITEM 2-B\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nStuart James: We do this with the Alameda kids, the Oakland kids, Albany, Richmond I think has\ncome. We bring them all in. We had 150 kids at the party. We also did another event with them where\nwe\ntook them on a We have a very extensive Travel Training program to teach kids and adults how\nto use public transportation, and we help map routes for them.\nStuart James: As part of that program, the same thing, we invited all these kids, and we did a\nscavenger hunt around the Bay Area. We give them BART tickets, ferry tickets, bus tickets and they\nget a map, and they have it in teams, and they got to go around and get stuff. It takes them all over\nthe Bay. It's a whole day event. Able-bodied kids or non-disabled kids participate in that. Everything\nwe do is about integration. Nothing we do is segregated. Part of it was we learned a very valuable\nlesson from this - actually it was the Alameda kids that gave us that lesson. When we did this first\nHalloween party, we had all these kids who thought, \"Wow, this is great!\" The teacher at Alameda\nHigh School said, \"This is great, but we're not addressing one problem. And the problem was these\nkids already do a good job at socializing amongst each other. What they want help with is socializing\nwith the other kids in school, trying to break through that barrier.\" So we're starting to work on that.\nWe thought, \"Wow, that's probably a bigger problem. We got to figure out how to make that happen.\"\nAnd I think again, bringing those other kids into our world in a way that's cool is the solution, so\nwe're working on that.\nStuart James: We now also have a program that we do - it's primarily with vets, but it actually spans\nacross anyone with a spinal cord injury. This is also the reverse integration. We get them out playing\nsports. This was a wheelchair tennis camp we did. We had Serena Williams as a guest, and we had\ncoaching from the Alameda Women's Tennis Team. Nothing makes vets happier than playing tennis\nwith college women. [chuckle] This young man here on the screen, Michaela, is a veteran playing\ntennis with one of our players. And I happened to walk past at this moment and I said, \"How's it\ngoing?\" and he said it was the greatest day of his life!\n[laughter]\nStuart James: But actually there is a more serious purpose to this. It is to get them out. A lot of the\nvets live on an island on the VA. They have a lot of support, but they don't get off of that island. And\nthere was one young man that participated in this particular event. He was fresh off his injury, broke\nhis back in Afghanistan and wasn't doing well getting back out into the world. He was in tremendous\nshape. He was going to the VA every day and working out. But he just didn't want to go and do\nanything, and his PT, his physical therapist made him come to this, and we couldn't get him to play. I\ntried and tried and tried, but he just sat and played on his phone. Then the Academy of Arts Women's\nTennis Team girls, some of whom were in wheel chairs and some of whom were not, took his phone\nand said he didn't come here for that, he came here to play tennis with them, and he did, and he ended\nup leaving with them. [chuckle] because those were the girls that he didn't think would be interested\nin him anymore, and once he realized, he got past that mental hurdle, that they didn't care, he was feel\nbetter about himself. So a lot of the programming we do now is premised in that, is trying to get\npeople with disabilities to see themselves in a different way, and to raise the expectation they have\nfor them self in the world.\nStuart James: I think that one of the problems that I saw when I got to Berkley was that a lot of\n05/24/17\nPage 5 of 29", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-04-12.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-04-12", "page": 6, "text": "ITEM 2-B\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m.\npeople with disability lacked ambition. And it was not because they. It was because just they had\njust been beaten down by this conversation at Social Security was their future, and nobody offering\nthem a counter-argument, and nobody showing them examples of like, me, who's travelled all over\nthe world. I have a wife with no disability, I have a very good education, and I've made a lot of money.\nThey needed to start seeing those things. That's sort of the root of what we do now.\nStuart James: As soon as I get enough money, and we're very close to having enough money, we're\nabout to do another really cool thing. We are about to partner with the Audi Racing School in Sonoma,\nand take people with disabilities race car driving. If they have mobility issues, they are actually going\nto get in the car and drive. Audi has agreed to put hand controls on all the cars. For those who are\nvision impaired we're going to have a dual-seater where they can actually drive along with someone\nhelping them drive, so they can get the experience. Part of that idea maybe specific to Michaela is,\n\"Look, even if you are blind or vision impaired and can't see, it's a really good skill to know how to\nturn the car off and on, or how to put it in gear or out of gear, or where the brake might be in case\nyou're in an emergency and you need to deal with it.' So we want to teach you those skills.\nStuart James: Okay. We've taken people out kayaking. This is part of our travel training program.\nWhen we teach people about how to use public transportation, we usually create these expeditions,\nand this happened to be one where we took them over to Sausalito. Everything's paid for, it's\ncompletely free. We take them to lunch and we took them out kayaking. And a lot of these kids were\nalso from Alameda High School transition. Same group, but we also do it for older folks.\nStuart James: This young man There's a group pictured here, Michaela, of three folks, and they're\non a travel training mission, an expedition, and there's a young Hispanic man in the middle of the\npicture in a wheelchair. This young man is kind of the premise of a program I'm trying to start, but\nit's been a bit of a challenge but I'm not giving up on it. He was shot in Oakland. He was a victim of\ngang violence. He wasn't in a gang. He happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He also\nhappens to be an illegal immigrant, so he's got a lot of other problems. And we found that this is a\nsubstantial problem in Oakland. About 100 kids involved in shootings every year. That number's\ngoing up, and 30% of those kids are ending up with physical disabilities. All of the socioeconomic\nchallenges they had before they got shot haven't gone away. But now they have a disability and they\ndon't really have a support system. So one of the things I'm trying to do with these folks is partner\nthem up with the vets, and let the vets do a mentoring program with them. The vets have been really,\nreally wanting to do it. Our challenge has been HIPAA rules and trying to find the kids. But it's a\nwork in progress.\nStuart James: Employment is probably my number one goal. I think employment is a big problem.\nI was really surprised to find that some of the problems and the substantial problems were again, self-\nimposed. There was a federal study that just completed last year and showed that only 28% of kids\nwith disabilities who actually graduate college, including Cal, are actually looking for a job when\nthey graduate. The others just don't think anyone's going to hire them. They never went to college\nthinking they were going to get a job at the end. We had Kaiser Permanente last summer, offered us\n32 paid internships specifically for kids with disabilities at Cal. Cal, which by the way, has 2000 kids\nwho identify as being disabled. We couldn't fill the intern positions. We couldn't get anybody to take\nthem. We ended up having to give gift cards to Starbucks to get someone to take this paid internship\nat Kaiser. And they were good internships. They were serious, not low level. They were in accounting,\n05/24/17\nPage 6 of 29", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-04-12.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-04-12", "page": 7, "text": "ITEM 2-B\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nin billing, these were good things. Couldn't get them.\nStuart James: I'll tell you a story of another one. I had a young man come to me in May. He just\ngraduated from Cal with a degree in History. He had spina bifida, so he's in a wheelchair. He came to\nme with absolutely the most eloquent speech you have ever heard about why he can't get a job because\nof his disability. It was incredible. Obama would have been impressed. I said, \"What did you study?\"\nHe said, \"I studied History.\" I said, \"I've got great news for you. I got a job.\" He said, \"What's the\njob?\" I said, \"San Francisco Unified just called me. They're 17 teachers short for next year. They want\nto hire people with disabilities. You don't need to be credentialed, they'll pay to get your credentialed.\nThey'll hire you tomorrow. I can get you an interview right now.\" He said, \"I don't want to be a\nteacher.\" I said, \"You studied History, what did you think you were going to do?\" He said, \"I want to\nwork in technology.\" I said, \"You studied the wrong thing. You're not getting a job because you have\na disability, you're not getting a job because you're stupid.\" In a nice sort of way.\nStuart James: But this is the conversation: these kids are not having the right conversation early on.\nWe want to start to get people, and this is sort of an ingrained problem with the disability community,\nand the problem that I had before I got involved. The people who I find really succeed, who have\ndisabilities and have succeeded in life, do not come back and help the community. They're so busy\nputting their disability on another side of the wall like I was, that they don't want to cross the wall\nand touch it. It's a thing we got to change. So I'm trying to get people with disabilities who are very\nsuccessful to come back and help set the path.\nStuart James: We are hopefully, but it's not set in stone yet, we're having a conversation, a very\npreliminary thing, with one of the tech companies, and for some reason it just completely left my\nhead. But they have a goal to hire 1,000 kids with autism in the next year or two. They tried this\nalready, and they didn't do so well with it because they were very good at teaching the coding\ncomputer part. They were not so good at teaching some of the soft skills that those folks needed to\nsurvive in the office space. But they're very passionate about doing it because the CEO has a son with\nautism, and he's on the Asperger's spectrum, goes to Cal. The Worldwide CEO also has a kid with\nautism. So they're very interested, and we're about to start working with them.\nStuart James: What I've done at CIL is, I started to create an employment program for people with\ndisabilities that's very specific. There's actually going to be two of them. We've just started with the\nfirst one. We had one that was funded by DOR, and it was basically. DOR sent these people who\nneeded a job and we spent a week helping them write a resume, and learn how to job interview, and\nnobody ever got a job. So I got rid of it. And I told you all we weren't going to do that anymore\nbecause half the people coming through, the disability wasn't the problem they weren't getting the\njob. They had some other issues. They hadn't been to work for 20 years. They weren't educated. They\ncouldn't read. They couldn't write. They were actually the reasons they weren't getting a job, nothing\nto do with the disability.\nStuart James: There's lots of places you can go learn to write a resume. You don't need to come to\nus for that. What we did is we said, \"Where can we really make a difference?\" So we've started with\nthese kids from college and we said, \"We've got to change the way they think about this.\" We started\nto teach them what I call the back door approach to employment. I think the problem for people with\ndisabilities, visual disabilities particularly, is HR. It's an HR person's job to qualify candidates before\n05/24/17\nPage 7 of 29", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-04-12.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-04-12", "page": 8, "text": "ITEM 2-B\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nthey put them through to whomever they're going to work for. There's no incentive for HR people to\ntake chances. My joke is that my wife was an HR executive. She married me, but she would never\nhire me. [chuckle] Because there's no upside for her.\nStuart James: If it's a good experience, that's her job. If it's a bad experience, people are going to\nsay, \"Why did you put that person through?\" I have never not had a job. In my entire life I've never\nnot had a job and I've never had to write a resume because one job always led to my next job. Now I\nhave a very extensive network. If I quit this job I could be working tomorrow. So we teach kids to\nstart building their network, to start meeting the people that can hire them and start to build\nrelationships, so they don't need to worry about going through HR. We start to teach them how to\nmarket themself, how to present themselves in a way that they're comfortable and to build an identity,\nand how to have a conversation; how to use LinkedIn. Then, we've partnered with Facebook, Google,\nLyft, Pandora, and we take the kids in there. What I tell those tech companies is, \"I have no\nexpectation for you to hire anybody I bring in. I don't want that to be the premise of this.\" That's why\nthey allow us to come in. I tell the kids, \"You're not going there to get a job. You're going there to\nbuild your network. So I need you to start meeting the people you're going to meet, getting their\ninformation, following up with them, telling them and reminding them that you're looking for a job,\nand start to build your network.\"\nStuart James: We've had a 75% success rate at getting people jobs that way. Not just any job. One\nof them is producing weather for CBS TV, hadn't had a job in three years. One of them is actually\nworking for Google as an accountant. Another one is working for Accenture on the Google account.\nOne of them is the editor of a paper. They're all doing really great things. Once we got them to start\nto think about themselves in a different way; like if you graduated from Cal, or even Cal State, East\nBay, you shouldn't be thinking about working at Walmart. You should've been going there thinking\nabout what you want to do in a big way. If you're going to fail at getting a job you might as well fail\nspectacularly. Don't fail at the little things.\nStuart James: I'm hoping the next step of this is to apply this same premise to kids with cognitive\ndisabilities. It's to start doing community improvement projects with the Chambers of Commerce\nwith the kids from the transition programs so that they can get to know each other. They can get to\nsee those kids in an environment where they're capable. Where they are having a positive impact on\nthe space. That's my next step. The same sort of backdoor approach of getting those kids to meet\nbusiness people that will hire them directly, and stop worrying about the cold call. But that's a work\nin progress. Even in Alameda unfortunately, we've had union problems. The unions won't let us do\nthe community service projects, so there's some challenges. But we're working on it. I never give up,\nso I'll find a way. That's the employment issue.\nStuart James: This is my staff. That's my assistant. [chuckle] Independent living skills. We used to\ndo this one on one. We used to teach people whatever they want to do, how to manage your money,\nhow to cook an egg, how to do things like this. It was boring and we didn't have a very big.. We\ndidn't have a lot of consumers. We were losing money hand over fist doing it that way. So I decided\nwe were going to do it a different way, and we were going to do it in a way that really attracted the\ncommunity as a whole.\nStuart James: So if you don't know who that is that's Cal Peternell and he's the head chef at Chez\n05/24/17\nPage 8 of 29", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-04-12.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-04-12", "page": 9, "text": "ITEM 2-B\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nPanisse. I called him up, and I said, \"Would you mind doing a cooking class for people with\ndisabilities?\" He said, \"No, when do you want me to come?\" I said, \"Great, we'll do it this week.' He\ncame and we let him promote his book. Michaela, I had one requirement. I asked him to do the\ncooking class and have an assistant who is one of our consumers, a young lady who was blind. He\nsaid, \"Yes no problem, would love to do it.\" So he met with her before, and he got her acclimated\naround the table and he started to show her what he was going to do. He had her chopping stuff for\nhim, and she did a great job. We had about 50 people. About 30 of them had disabilities and about 20\nof them didn't. People loved it. They loved having a chance to meet with Cal. One of the cool things\nis that the young lady who was his assistant, at the end she was very nervous and she said, \"You know,\nI had such a great time. I wish I could go to visit the kitchen at Chez Panisse.\" I said, \"You need to\nask him.\" But she was afraid. I said, \"Come on, you got to ask him.\" I got her a book and I said, \"Go\nask him to sign his cook book for you, and then ask him if you can visit the kitchen.\"\nStuart James: So she did. He's a very tall man, he's got a very deep voice, and he's a little\nintimidating. At first, he said, \"Well, let me tell you that in my kitchen, I have people of all abilities,\nand that you are absolutely welcome to come visit my kitchen, but I have a rule. If you come to my\nkitchen, you have to come and work. That's the rule.\" She was flabbergasted, but he was serious. If\nshe'd come to the kitchen, he was going to put her to work. But again, she became afraid, and she\nnever took him up on the offer. So, we're starting to do that. I've now accumulated a list of some of\nthe top chefs in the Bay Area. They've all been very willing to come in and teach cooking to people\nwith disabilities. It's far more exciting than me doing it, right? And they're teaching them to eat\nhealthy. They're teaching them to eat affordably. They're teaching them to eat things that look elegant,\neven though they're very simple to make. It makes everybody feel good, right? Our one challenge\nwith this, we did this at the Ed Roberts campus, and we should have set up a kitchen. We've been\nhoping to find a better kitchen. So if anybody here knows a kitchen we can use, particularly a\ncommercial kitchen, I'm really game for advice.\nStuart James: This (picture) is, again, assistive technology. Michaela, we got a bunch of people\ntrying out different wheelchairs on the screen. Once we get ahold of a product, we invite people to\ncome in and try it. So this happened to be the Firefly. It's an assistive device that you attach to a\nwheelchair and it turns into a bike. They came in, and we let everybody take it around and try it. One\nof the programs, I don't know if anybody does this at Alameda. This is a Berkeley-only program, at\nthe moment, and we're trying to get in to Oakland, and I don't know if it exists at Alameda. I think it\ndoes. This is a residential access program and it's paid for the City of Berkeley. This particular, last\n20 years, it's been paid by CBDG monies. Community Development Block Grant. CDBG. But next\nyear, I think, Berkeley's going to fund it out of the city budget.\nStuart James: What it is, is low to moderate income folks, who need to have their house customized,\nso they can get in and out. So they may have a child who just acquired a disability, or they may be a\nsenior, who has now acquired a disability. Or they may be a person with a disability whose mobility\nhas declined. Now they need help getting in and out of their home, whether it's a lift, or a ramp, or\nwhether we need to put grab bars in, near the toilets, or widen doors, the City of Berkeley pays for it.\nAnd we do about 44 consumers a year in Berkeley, and we put in lifts, and ramps. And actually, the\nstate just gave us $50,000 to do it within our catchment area as an additional sum of money. We'll do\nall sorts of stuff. We do accommodations for people with vision impairment. The old deputy at CIL\nis blind, and he's now in his 70s, I believe. So we're going to go in and do some accommodations for\n05/24/17\nPage 9 of 29", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-04-12.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-04-12", "page": 10, "text": "ITEM 2-B\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nhim and help him get in and out of his house so he doesn't fall.\nStuart James: This is one of our great programs, because every consumer that comes in is a success\nstory. And I don't know if you guys know, are familiar with Easy Does It? It's a service provider. You\nguys familiar with it? We just did a home, we put a lift in for a home of a woman that was not able to\nget in and out of her house. Easy Does It had been going there to carry her out. And we now just put\nher lift in, so she can get in and out on her own. And this is also part of diversion. This is actually\nmaking it SO you don't have to go into an institution.\nBeth Kenny: This is Judith Heumann. Part of my trying to bring in people who are very successful\nin the disability community, the young lady to the right. So there's two people here, Michaela; one is\nJudy Heumann, and the other is Haben Girma. I don't know if you know who Haben Girma is. Haben\nGirma is the first deaf-blind graduate from Harvard Law. She is Fortune magazine's 30 Under 30. She\nnow lives here in the Bay Area. Particularly timely is that her mother is a refugee and came to America\non the refugee program with her and her brother, who's also deaf-blind. And she has spoken for\nObama. She's one of the most influential woman of Africa, awards from the British government, and\nshe's very heavily involved in CIL now. So she comes in and does speeches for us to kids, and I'm\nactually trying to recruit her to our board. That's a work in progress.\nStuart James: So we bring them in, and we get them to start to inspire kids to think differently about\ntheir futures. That's my travel training team in Napa goofing off. So there's a whole bunch of people\nthere, Michaela, in pink shirts that say: \"Beer Or Normal.\" And they're not working very hard, and\nthey're probably drunk [laughter] But, anyway. And that's it. Thanks to Senator Loni Hancock, we\ngot Non-profit of the Year, last year, for our changes. We are very excited to be part of Alameda. And\nI am always open to, and would very much like to hear from, the Commission at any time about things\nthat we need to be doing to help support the community. These are just things that we've acquired\nthrough my two years here. But you guys know better than I do about what some of the challenges\nare, particularly related to Alameda, and what role CIL can play in helping you address those things.\nStuart James: We are about to make a very big push to the business sector in Alameda thanks to the\nChamber of Commerce, who've been very supportive. Mayor Spencer has been very supportive since\nI got here. So we are happy to have her on board. We will be having our opening ceremony on June\n24th. We'll be partnering with BORP, the Bay Area Recreation Program, and as part of our opening\nceremony, we'll be doing a bike ride around Alameda. And we'll have all sorts of hand cycles, and\nregular bikes, and anybody can come down. And there'll be some food, and all that kind of thing.\nStuart James: As I was speaking to Beth earlier, we're going to see if we can get a float in the parade,\nwhich I need to talk to you about. [laughter] My staff's got all sorts of great ideas about a float that\nthey'd like to do for the parade. We were about to make a very big push in Alameda. We fundamentally\nchanged the way this CIL addresses the problem of disabilities. There's been challenges in Berkeley\nof trying to do that. The Berkeley disability community's very entrenched in a 40-year-old\nconversation that hasn't changed. It's no offense to the Berkeley community because that's our roots,\nbut Alameda is giving us an opportunity to paint a new picture, and to sort of push some of these\nprograms. One of the things we're really desperately trying to do, and we've not been very successful,\nis having a better relationship with the College of Alameda. We've actually been trying to rent\nfacilities from them, and we can't get a call back. Yes, even from the number that says, \"If you want\n05/24/17\nPage 10 of 29", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-04-12.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-04-12", "page": 11, "text": "ITEM 2-B\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nto rent the facility, please call,\" they never call back. So, if anybody can help us with that, we'd really\nbe keen. We need to rent gym space from them and some other things.\nStuart James: But again, you guys are the best folks to tell us what we need to do, and what some\nof the challenges are. I know one of the things I'd like to get very involved in, and we would help pay\nfor it, is I understand that the city of Alameda's about to build a new park over by the Del Monte\nfactory. Right? They acquired some land there. Am I wrong about that?\nKerry Parker: We have the Jean Sweeney Park that's over near Del Monte that is being developed,\nand the Estuary Park, as well. And then, there's supposed to be more parks out at the point.\nBeth Kenny: Yes, out by the ferry. There's supposed to be some parks being built out by the ferry\nbuilding. And I know at one point, they were talking about doing an accessible baseball field, moving\ntowards making things much more accessible, SO.\nStuart James: We would love to see if we can help with that process. We would like to see some\nmore accessible things like wheelchair-friendly softball fields, of which we would be happy to go out\nand help you raise money to make that happen. We can talk to the Giants and the A's for you. The\nGiants just built a beautiful one in Sacramento, but they should be building one here. A lot of the stuff\nthat we run, the tennis programs, we do wheelchair lacrosse, we do the Harlem Globetrotters, we're\nalways having challenges finding facilities. We've been trying to rent the Alameda Point Gym, but\nwe haven't been very successful at it. In any of those types of things, we always could use the help.\nWe'd like to start doing those type events here. And as these new parks come to be, we'd like to have\na voice in talking about some of the things we'd like to see go into those facilities.\nBeth Kenny: Great. Thank you very much. We're going to go around and have each of the\ncommissioners have a chance to ask any questions, or comments that they might have. I'll start with\nCommissioner Brillinger.\nArnold Brillinger: My question was where in Marina Village is your new facility?\nStuart James: Where in Marina Village are we? So, we're right above the Webster Tunnel. Do you\nknow where Pasta Pelican is? If you go through the Webster Tunnel, you sort of loop around behind\nTarget.\nStuart James: You go over the top of the tunnel, we're in an office complex that's in there. If you're\ncoming from Oakland, the 31 bus stops right at our building. There are a number of shuttles. The\nTarget complex is going to start stopping at our complex for us. Actually, I'd love to see if we can get\nthe Alameda city shuttle to stop there. But I don't know how to do that yet.\nKerry Parker: We know something about it.\n[laughter]\nArnold Brillinger: Yes, I was going to say, we here can probably help in some of these things, too. I\nknow that various people here have leads into Like the mayor, and so forth. And the mayor was\nat\n05/24/17\nPage 11 of 29", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-04-12.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-04-12", "page": 12, "text": "ITEM 2-B\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nthe dedication of the Estuary Park. I went there that time and saw that they had some really great\nplans for making it accessible, like you say. And she could, or even Kerry could, direct you toward\nsome people and get you in there. It sounds really great. I heard a couple of months ago that you were\nplanning on starting a facility over here and we're real happy that you're here.\nStuart James: Yes. I live in Alameda. My wife has no intention of leaving this island, ever. We've\nbeen looking to buy a house, which is not a very good time at the moment, but my mandate from my\nwife is that we don't leave the island, so that's the end of it. [chuckle] We love it here. I like the sense\nof community and I think everything that CIL's doing now is premised in the sense of community,\nthe community has to participate with us. So I think we're going to be able to accomplish a lot here.\nBeth Kenny: Commissioner Tsztoo.\nMichaela Tsztoo: I've been here since I was born so I know all the different agencies because I had\nto go through Independent Living skills, but I went through Well, now it's called the Hatlen Center\nfor the Blind, and it's located in San Pablo, and so it's kind of the same idea with this agency, but it's\nmore like they teach people who are blind, hearing impaired, who are in wheelchairs to live in an\napartment, and they teach you full life-long skills with mobility, cooking, and all that sort of stuff. So\nI'm trying to figure out if your facility here, do we have to be affiliated with Department of\nRehabilitation, which knows about different agencies, or with some other agencies, government\nagencies, in order to try out your program, because that's what I had to personally go through.\nStuart James: I didn't catch all that.\nMichaela Tsztoo: Oh, well is your agency affiliated with the Department of Rehab?\n[background conversation]\nStuart James: Actually, all you need to do, Michaela, is walk in the door.\nMichaela Tsztoo: Really? So you guys aren't hooked up to any agency.\nStuart James: You just need to walk through the door and we will totally take care of you. Everything\nwe do at CIL is free. The assistive technology lab is open to the public, the travel training is open to\nthe public, basically anything you want, you just walk through the door.\nMichaela Tsztoo: Now, what about cooking at my own house? Would you guys send someone out to\nwork with me if I ever wanted to have someone in my house teach me how to cook or use a convection\noven that's not blind-friendly? That's a good challenge because.\nStuart James: Just walk through the door.\nMichaela Tsztoo: Well that's good to know because I almost thought I had to go back with\nDepartment of Rehabilitation and work through their agency.\nStuart James: We do have certain programs that are That DOR needs to refer you, but they're really\n05/24/17\nPage 12 of 29", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-04-12.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-04-12", "page": 13, "text": "ITEM 2-B\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nfew. We do workshops and if that's the case, if you come through the door, the peer counselor will\ntell you and then we'll help guide you to how to make that happen. But for the most part, I think\nthere's only like three programs where you have to get referred, and you wouldn't be eligible for any\nof them. [chuckle] One, you have to be a vet. But almost all of our services, you just simply just walk\nthrough the door.\nMichaela Tsztoo: Oh, okay.\nBeth Kenny: Thank you. Commissioner Deutsch?\nSusan Deutsch: Thank you very much for this presentation. I think it was really fantastic and I also\nhave an interest in accessible parks in Alameda, and I would like to help you try to get connected with\nsome people for that. I also would like to know, do you have to live in Alameda to access this CIL?\nStuart James: No.\nSusan Deutsch: So people in Berkeley, let's say, who\nStuart James: No.\nSusan Deutsch: Can come here if they.\nStuart James: Actually, although It's a strange rule that I haven't figured out yet. Although,\ntheoretically, our catchment area from our federal and state grants is Berkeley. It's actually all of\nNorthern Alameda County. So it's Berkeley, Albany, Oakland, East Oakland, and Alameda city.\nActually, you can come from anywhere in California and walk in the door and we serve you.\nSusan Deutsch: Nice.\nStuart James: There are no boundaries, so we often have people from Palo Alto.\nSusan Deutsch: Yes.\nStuart James: And we have a lot of people from San Francisco. We have a lot of people from\nRichmond and El Cerrito. It doesn't matter. You can go as a California resident, you can go to any\nCIL you want in the state. Just walk in.\nSusan Deutsch: Thank you.\nStuart James: But we're the best one.\n[laughter]\nBeth Kenny: Commissioner Hall.\nLisa Hall: Thank you so much. I think your center is just unbelievably wonderful. I would love to\n05/24/17\nPage 13 of 29", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-04-12.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-04-12", "page": 14, "text": "ITEM 2-B\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nsee if I can help anyway on space like you're saying, there are so many big open spaces here that we\nshould be able to, like Alameda Point Collaborative or even my church, our parish hall is big. It's big\nand we use it for many different events.\nStuart James: We would love help.\nLisa Hall: So I think that we could Helping you guys we could do what we can do about getting\nsome spaces because I think the wheelchair basketball is just - I don't know anybody that doesn't love\nthat. It is, it's just a blast and that's SO awesome. Hopefully we can help do that but thank you so much\nfor everything you've done, you're just amazing.\nStuart James: That would be great. The Alameda Boys and Girls Club by the way has been\nwonderful. They are a wonderful partner, but there's restrictions on what we can do there. So we do\na lot with the vets. And we do a lot with people with spinal cord injuries. We are now going to be\nhosting a regular tennis clinic. We'd love to do that in Alameda. We host a wheelchair lacrosse team\nhence my sweatshirt that I'm wearing. And at the moment we do that at Treasure Island, but it's only,\nbecause it's the only gym we can get. We'd rather be doing that here. I have 18 sports wheelchairs in\nmy office. So when we do these events, we have all the equipment, you only need to show up. We\nhave the sport chairs, we have the sticks, we have everything. We bring the coaches and we invite\nable-bodied folks to everything we do. So even though lacrosse, we have a lot of able-bodied lacrosse\nplayers that just come because they think it's fun. Then they all go out to a bar. [chuckle]\nBeth Kenny: Commissioner Linton.\nJenny Linton: I just want to thank you for coming and talking about your program. We have\nexperience with the Center for Independent Living in Brooklyn, and you've given me an entirely new\nperspective on what we might be able to find at the Center for Independent Living. So I have a few\nquestions. Do you have a calendar of events? So we can see what kind of things you're doing and\nmaybe come to some.\nStuart James: I didn't hear you.\nJenny Linton: Do you have a calendar?\nStuart James: Other events?\nJenny Linton: Yes.\nStuart James: Like for.\nJenny Linton: Some of the things, you just mentioned tons of things that are going on.\nStuart James: We've got a lot of ideas for events, it's just a matter of whether I can pull them off.\nJenny Linton: Okay. Perfect.\n05/24/17\nPage 14 of 29", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-04-12.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-04-12", "page": 15, "text": "ITEM 2-B\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nStuart James: I need to probably cover my bases. We've got a very good relationship with Berkley,\nand with community members in Berkley. So we are working with Freight and Salvage hopefully to\nmaybe do an event there. We are working with the UC Theater. The UC Theater is a non-profit theater\nmuch like the Freight and Salvage but bigger. And they have a theater education program which is\nteaching low-income people the business of theater. So about engineering, lighting, accounting,\nbooking arts, promotion, marketing. We have been working with them to incorporate people with\ndisabilities. And we are looking to do one single event that will be our folks who they are training\nwill produce the event. And with some help from me. So that's something. One of the things we have\nbeen really focused on and this might be something that commissioners should think about. I'm again\nan integrationists. So one of the things you'll see in the disability community particularly in Berkley,\nis them creating programs for people with disabilities. So they created a program called CTP which\nis a great program. It's Computer Training for People with disabilities.\nStuart James: My thinking though is that there is a lot of those programs, one of the best ones is\nactually here in Alameda called NPower and it's over at the college Alameda. It's free to anybody\nwants to, if they're qualified, you have to be low-income I believe. And you're pretty much guaranteed\na job at the end. So for me I think, why should we have a separate program for people with disabilities,\nwhy don't we just go to NPower and make sure they're accessible, and that they are accommodating.\nAnd they've been very happy to work with us to make that happen. That's our approach. I would\nrather not reinvent the wheel. I would rather go to some of these companies that have a really good\ntrack record of success and say, \"How can we help you get people with disabilities involved?\" I do\nwant to point this out because there's something. I don't want to take up all your time. But, and I'm\nhappy to go public with this.\nStuart James: I was very upset recently, I had a conversation with a new Disabled Student Services\nDirector at the Cal University. And we have very different thinking about what needs to happen. And\none of her big ideas, they've cut a substantial portion of their programing for disabilities. They've cut\nworkability. They've just removed 20,000 plus pieces of video that were for education purposes\nbecause they weren't all captioned. So people with hearing problems couldn't watch them. Instead of\nfixing them, they took them all down. So there was no longer anything. Cal's got lots of problems.\nBut she had come to me with this new big idea. And her big idea was that she wanted to hire a person\nwho was a disability specialists in the career counseling office. And I said, \"Interesting.\" What do\nyou anticipate that person to do?\nStuart James: And her thinking was that anybody who had a disability or identified as disabled at\nCal, when they're ready to go get a job would go see that person. And I said, \"That is the worst idea I\never heard of.\" I don't need help with my disability. I'm an expert at my disability. I don't need anybody\nhelp me with that. If I'm an architect major, I need someone who knows all the people in architecture\nto help me get a job. I don't need to go to the disability person. And if you want to have a disability\nexpert, it shouldn't be for the student, it should be for the other counselors, so that they can figure out\nwhat accommodations a person might need in the workplace. That's the kind of thinking we're trying\nto change. We're trying to say, \"Look let's not reinvent the wheel, I don't believe in segregation.\nSegregation's not equal.'\nStuart James: We just had the exact same experience at Cal State, East Bay. We're hiring at the\nmoment and I sent my HR person to Cal State, East Bay for recruiting. So she went to the career\n05/24/17\nPage 15 of 29", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-04-12.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-04-12", "page": 16, "text": "ITEM 2-B\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m.\ncenter and said, \"Hey, I'm here to recruit people and preferably if they have a disability.\" They said,\n\"Oh, if you want to hire someone with disability, you got to go to the disability student office.\" \"Wait,\nyou're the career center, why are you sending me over there?\" We're trying to change that mentality.\nIt's the wrong mentality. That's something we're working on, that's part of our advocacy efforts. If you\nhave an idea for something you want us to do, I'm open to any event idea you have.\nJenny Linton: Okay.\nStuart James: Any of them. I mentioned answering Michaela's question about some of the programs\nthat we do require referral. We are required by law to have anybody with any disability pretty much\ndo anything, and that's a really big task. It's impossible, quite frankly. So a lot of people who have\nreally specific needs, our idea of help is we got to refer them to somebody who knows more than we\ndo. Right? One of the areas that is the most difficult and the most challenging is mental health because\nthey require long term support. And we have, for years, not done a good job in that place.\nStuart James: We had programs, we had a great program at Oakland to get people who were\nhomeless and mental health issues off the street. We had a really high success rate, we were serving\nabout 230 consumers a year, and paid for by the county of Alameda. The problem was, within three\nmonths almost all of them were back on the street again. So it was just a vicious cycle. We do do a\nprogram that is special for that group, also funded by the behavioral health services from Alameda\nCounty, and we help people with severe mental illness who are doing well and who have stabilized\nthemselves and who are ready to try to go back to work. And we help them with their work incentive\nbenefits so they understand the process of how to get off services and what they can and cannot do\nand the steps it takes. But that program is specific to that group, you have to be referred into us. But\nwe only have three of those types of programs.\nJenny Linton: I agree with you on the mental health services, that's very important.\nStuart James: There is no idea you could come up with that I wouldn't be interested in.\n[laughter]\nJenny Linton: Okay. I think I have an idea on getting access to the college of Alameda. So I'll give\nyou a contact.\nStuart James: Yes, we would love that.\nJenny Linton: Okay.\nStuart James: It's right kind of across the street from us so we'd really like to have a better\nrelationship with them. But absolutely. I am a creative sort, so I think if it sounds cool let's do it.\n[laughter]\nJenny Linton: Okay.\n05/24/17\nPage 16 of 29", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-04-12.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-04-12", "page": 17, "text": "ITEM 2-B\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nStuart James: Yes.\nBeth Kenny: Thank you so much for coming and this has been a great presentation, and I do think\nthat there's a lot of opportunity for us to work together. As Commissioner Deutsch said, there's interest\nby the Parks and Rec Department to make things more accessible, and so we can work there together.\nThere are many opportunities and I have to plug my own, which, one of the things that this\ncommission has been working on for many, many years is a Universal Design Ordinance. I'm not sure\nif you're familiar with universal design. The idea that things should be designed to be accessible to\nthe most amount of people. So you have the backing put in the shower SO that if you need a grab bar,\nit can be easily put in. You have the hallways be an acceptable width SO that wheelchairs can get in.\nYou have zero step entrance. As you know there's quite a bit of construction that's coming up on the\nPoint, so we're trying to get this ordinance passed soon, and I think it works well with your mission\nas well. [chuckle] So, yes, I thank you for coming in and.\nStuart James: No worries, and I hope you all come for a visit. We're a little messy still, but come\nanyway. Yes.\nBeth Kenny: Great. Thank you very much.\nStuart James: Okay. Thank you.\n[applause]\nBeth Kenny: Thank you.\n[Background conversation]\n5.\nOLD BUSINESS\n5-A\nProposed Name Change\nBeth Kenny: Now, we move on to old business, and the first items of old business are changes that\nwe had talked about making during the CDI retreat, and we'll vote on whether we want to accept these\nchanges or not at this time. So, the first one is the proposed name changes. There are three up there,\nand I wrote a few pros and cons for each.\nBeth Kenny: And if we do end up changing the name, we have to do it by ordinance. So, it would\nhave to go through the city council, which we can do, but that was not a factor that I knew about when\nI was writing the pros and cons.\nBeth Kenny: So, the first proposed name change is Commission on Disability. And the pros I have\nis it's easy to change logo, etcetera, just remove 'issues', and we can sort of phase out, as new people\nget their badges, have the issues removed. It's not too different from what we have, so we won't have\nto change everything right away. The con is that it does require a change to the logo, but only a slight\none. And I know, Commissioner Brillinger, you were worried about being known as CDI, and I spoke\nwith Harry and we both thought that we could, even if we changed it to Commission on Disability,\n05/24/17\nPage 17 of 29", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-04-12.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-04-12", "page": 18, "text": "ITEM 2-B\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nwe could still be referred to as CDI. So, that's the first one.\nBeth Kenny: The second one is City of Alameda Commission on Disability. Pros, it includes\n'Alameda' and removes 'issues\"'. Cons, it's a difficult logo change and it's a mouthful. And then, the\nthird one is Commission on Disability Issues, no change. So, we'll keep the 'issues', we'll still be CDI,\nand we'll keep it the way it is. Does anyone have any comments they'd like to make about these before\nwe vote?\nLisa Hall: I have a question. On other commissions in the city, is their name with 'City of Alameda'?\nKerry Parker: That was my thought about it, that that becomes a default naming. I work for the City\nof Alameda Public Works Department, but we're generally known as the 'Public Works Department'.\nSo, I think, you're right, Commissioner Hall, that you are the City of Alameda Commission on\nDisability Issues right now.\nLisa Hall: So, I mean, on number one, then basically we would just be removing the 'issues', which\nis a big part of the reason we're all kind of.\nBeth Kenny: Talking about it in the first place, yes.\nLisa Hall: We don't care for the word 'issues'.\nBeth Kenny: Yes. And, Kerry, do you have anything more you wanted to add about the process for\nchanging the name?\nKerry Parker: The city clerk let me know we had to change it by ordinance, that basically we would\nbe getting council to approve an ordinance so we would strike that word out of where it is read in the\nmunicipal code, that basically declared this the Commission on Disability Issues. We would remove\nthat word. So basically we would be editing the municipal code to omit that word wherever it shows\nup. That would require the writing of a staff report, the ordinance, and putting it in front of council as\na regular item. I don't think anybody would have major objections to it, but it does require a little bit\nof work, and it might not happen right away.\nBeth Kenny: Thank you. So, does anyone else have any comments they'd like to make?\nSusan Deutsch: Can you review the discussion, why were we taking the word 'issues' out? I can't\nremember right now what the discussion was about the word 'issues'.\nBeth Kenny: Yes. So, this first came up in a meeting with the mayor, and she said, \"Why is it\nCommission on Disability Issues?\" It's something that has kind of always bothered me. It makes it\nsound like persons with disabilities have issues. I think that if we're the Commission on Disability, it\njust seems a little less - I don't know - it seems a little bit more inclusive and less, making it about\n\"issues.\"\n[chuckle]\n05/24/17\nPage 18 of 29", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-04-12.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-04-12", "page": 19, "text": "ITEM 2-B\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nSusan Deutsch: Alright. I just, I was having trouble recalling, I knew we discussed it but I couldn't\nrecall. Why? Yes.\nBeth Kenny: So, should we take a vote? Do people feel ready or is there more conversation that\npeople would like to have?\nJenny Linton: I do have a question before we start.\nBeth Kenny: Sure.\nJenny Linton: One and two are the same thing?\nBeth Kenny: Yes.\nJenny Linton: Okay.\nBeth Kenny: So, we're voting between, let's say we're voting between, one and three.\nJenny Linton: Yes, right.\nKerry Parker: We need a motion to vote.\nBeth Kenny: Yes, so I move that we vote and you choose whether you want The Commission on\nDisability or a Commission on Disability Issues. Change or no change. Why don't we just say that?\nSusan Deutch: I second.\nBeth Kenny: Great. [chuckle] Commissioner Brillinger, what is your vote? Number three. Alright,\nCommissioner Tsztoo, number three is The Commission on Disability Issues, no change and number\none is removing the issues.\nMichaela Tsztoo: I definitely want number one.\nBeth Kenny: Okay.\nSusan Deutsch: Number one.\nLisa Hall: Number one.\nJenny Linton: Number three.\nBeth Kenny: And I am going to vote for number one.\nKerry Parker: Alright, that poll is four to two, as I see it, to change.\nBeth Kenny: Alright. So we will begin the process of changing our name. Alright, thank you\n05/24/17\nPage 19 of 29", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-04-12.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-04-12", "page": 20, "text": "ITEM 2-B\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m.\neverybody. The next thing that we will talk about is\nLisa Hall: Can I just ask one quick question?\nBeth Kenny: Sure.\nLisa Hall: Just to get why you guys wanted to keep issues. Wondered why not change for us?\nJenny Linton: Not to change it. I don't like change.\nArnold Brillinger: Okay, my reason was I didn't see the reason, necessarily, for the change. There\nare other commissions in the East Bay. Like in Oakland and Berkley, they are called the Mayor's\nCommission On Disabled People. And so I saw the disabled visibility issues, kind of, took care of\nthat too. Not that we have issues, necessarily, but issues that deal with disabilities.\nJenny Linton: Happy to support the name change. I'm happy to support the name change.\nLisa Hall: There you go. Thank you, I just, I was curious, right? I knew you guys had reasons, I just,\nwhy? Yes.\n5-A\nCDI Bylaws - Retreat Edit\nBeth Kenny: The next item is the CDI bylaws. We talked about this at the retreat, of making it so\nthat the Commissioner Liaisons could go before the different groups that they're assigned to and\nidentify themselves as a member of The Commission on Disability Issues and let them know that they\nwill act as Liaison. Let me read it out loud for everybody. The proposed change. Actually, it's not a\nchange, it's an addition into our bylaws. Nothing is going to be removed. If we put this through it\nwould be an addition. \"Each commission member will be assigned to act as a liaison between CDI\nand another Alameda Board or Commission. As liaison, commission members should identify\nthemselves as Liaison from this Commission. The liaison will act as point person between the\ncommission and his or her assigned commission board. In this role, the commission member will alert\nCDI if there are any items that his or her assigned commission or board are or will be working on that\nmay effect persons with disabilities. The commission members should make his or her report during\nOld Business portion of the commission meetings.\"\nArnold Brillinger: I move to accept the addition to the bylaws\nBeth Kenny: I'll second the move for a vote. All in favor of the addition to the bylaws?\nSusan Deutsch: Aye\nBeth Kenny: Aye.\nJenny Linton: Aye.\nLisa Hall: Aye.\n05/24/17\nPage 20 of 29", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-04-12.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-04-12", "page": 21, "text": "ITEM 2-B\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nArnold Brillinger: Aye.\nBeth Kenny: Any opposed?\nMichaela Tsztoo: I'm undecided on what I should do, but you guys can do whatever you want.\nBeth Kenny: Oh, Commissioner Tsztoo, you're going to abstain from the vote?\nMichaela Tsztoo: Am I allowed to or should I vote?\nBeth Kenny: Yes, you're allowed to.\nMichaela Tsztoo: Alright. (Abstain)\nBeth Kenny: That will be added to our bylaws. And that just makes it so that were in compliance\nwith Brown Act when we go to our different commissioners, commissions and board representing the\nCommissioner on Disability.\nLisa Hall: You have notes somewhere that who was doing, which liaison?\nBeth Kenny: I didn't bring that with me.\nLisa Hall: I was trying to find my notes.\nKerry Parker: You know the minutes for the retreat, which were basically the Chair's notes, have\nnot yet been put together but we will have that for the June meeting.\nBeth Kenny: We can do a quick go around of what commission or board you chose to represent us\nin, so Commissioner Brillinger. (?) Commissioner Tsztoo, I think you had left by the time that we\nwere making decisions, so I don't know that you got assigned to one yet.\nMichaela Tsztoo: I kind of wanted to do something else, but since my term is almost over, I haven 't\nchosen anything.\nBeth Kenny: Yes, okay. Commissioner Deutsch you were.\nSusan Deutsch: I'm doing Park and Rec.\nBeth Kenny: Okay.\nSusan Deutsch: But, I wanted just, I mean want to to continue, but I just want to say that their\nmeetings always tend to be the day after we meet. So, it's been really hard for me to go to two meetings\nin a week, so I'm actually hoping that maybe one of their meetings is on an off-month for us. I have\nbeen in contact with them through email, but I haven't gone to any one of their.\n05/24/17\nPage 21 of 29", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-04-12.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-04-12", "page": 22, "text": "ITEM 2-B\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nBeth Kenny: Are you on their listserv so that they send you out their agendas?\nSusan Deutsch: Yes.\nBeth Kenny: Great. And Commissioner Hall, do you remember which one.\nLisa Hall: I definitely do. The Alameda Housing Authority. I actually went to an event, it was put on\nby the housing authority for faith leaders. It was put on by. Alameda Housing Authority invited faith\nleaders of the city of Alameda, our pastor was away on spring break, and SO he asked me to attend\nand I was happy to attend. It was informative and interesting and a lot of good feedback from the\ncommunity. Housing issues affects not just.. It's everyone. So, it's disabled people, it's seniors, it's\nworking class, so they also address the homeless issue in our city too. And Sweeney Park is going to\nbe right on the forefront because they are going to eventually have those people, Operation Dignity,\nI believe it's called, will be helping those people to relocate. So, it's going to be interesting.\nBeth Kenny: And Commissioner Linton?\nJenny Linton: I'm afraid I don't know. I think that it was the City Council.\nBeth Kenny: I believe so too.\nJenny Linton: Yes, I think it's the City Council, and I have not contacted them yet. I did however\njoin the sub-committee on Events and I have some event reporting to do on that later.\nBeth Kenny: Great, and you know, the City Council is - they meet more often than any others, so I\nam available to help you with that. I believe I'm doing the Board of Education. Our next item is to\nvote on participation for 2017 events. You want to take this over Vice Chair Brillinger?\n5-A\nVote on Event Participation for 2017\nArnold Brillinger: Okay, we did have a meeting and we talked about various events, and because\nKerry was so Because she's so super, she gave us a worksheet or a list of different things and I'm\ngoing to have Jenny go ahead and report on it.\nJenny Linton: Okay, we've talked about the events that we've posted up here. The Alameda Special\nEducation Family Support Group Resource Fair, we are assigned a table there, thank you Beth, on\nMay 6th for 10:00 to 2:00; I'd be happy to attend. Do we want a list of attendees for these events, at\nleast those that are coming up?\nBeth Kenny: Yes. So, with that, I'd be happy to attend that with you and that you don't really need\ntoo many people, the two of us could easily go for that.\nJenny Linton: Perfect. Okay, one event down. Event number two, Downtown Alameda Spring\nFestival; we see these as a big events and Lisa has offered to lead the pack in this event on May 13th\nand 14th. The next event, The Mastick Senior Center Resource Fair, I wrote Lisa, Arnold and Jenny?\nArnold is primary on the Mastick Event.\n05/24/17\nPage 22 of 29", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-04-12.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-04-12", "page": 23, "text": "ITEM 2-B\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nBeth Kenny: The Mastick Event is generally pretty small and can be handled by one person.\nJenny Linton: Note that May 31st is a Wednesday. Our next event, the Neptune Jam on Webster\nStreet, another big event, this is Father's Day weekend and we didn't assign ourselves anyone for that\nevent yet. The Mayor's Fourth of July parade, Arnold took this one on. We have some great ideas\naround getting a Paratransit shuttle into the parade.\nBeth Kenny: When I was speaking with Stuart from the Independent Living Center, he was talking\nabout they want to do something for the Fourth of July parade, and it would be great if we could do\nsomething in conjunction. He seemed open to the idea.\nJenny Linton: Special Olympics is also part of the parade every year.\nLisa Hall: Now that's always fun.\nJenny Linton: Downtown Alameda Art and Wine Fair, we don't have a primary lead on that for July\n29th and 30th. The Emanuel Lutheran Church Fair both Arnold and Lisa were interested in leading\nthat.\nLisa Hall: Arnold's going to lead that.\nJenny Linton: For the commission, Lisa's going to lead it for the Food Bank. That's what we know\nit to mean, okay.\nBeth Kenny: So, are you guys suggesting that what we do all of these events? Is that Sorry, go\nahead.\nArnold Brillinger: I would like to say that we could divide these into small events and large events.\nThe small events, like you said, take one or two people because they're only for three or four hours at\na time and if we have the materials which Kerry has, I believe we can get a bag or a pouch or a box\nof goodies to take along that are for those people. The ones that are the big events, the three of them\nare the street fairs and the parade, we will need all of the commissioners to put in some time on that,\nand we ask for everyone's help with that. So I would like to make a motion. Now also if there are\nsome events that you hear about that we should also be a part of and just send one or two people to it\nand to have a table and give out information we can add those to the list. But I would like to make\na\nmotion that we, as a commission, decide to participate in these on a yearly basis and then - that's the\nmotion.\nBeth Kenny: So are you saying that we decide to vote on it? I'm sorry, I just need a little clarification.\nAre you suggesting that the vote that we would take would be for all the years or just for this year\nand then whatever else comes out?\nArnold Brillinger: You see this, we're trying to get it so that we don't have to start again. Right? In\nJanuary with a new list. We can add some more things to it as we have people who are interested in\ndoing other resources and health fairs, whatever that we could put our information out.\n05/24/17\nPage 23 of 29", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-04-12.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-04-12", "page": 24, "text": "ITEM 2-B\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nBeth Kenny: Yes.\nArnold Brillinger: I would suggest that or my motion says that we would adopt these events. In\nanother time we could have another motion to say, \"Hey we don't want to be part of such and such\nevent, but this one.' Then it's part of the minutes SO that everyone knows that these are the events that\nthey will see somebody from CDI or the Commission on Disability.\nKerry Parker: I just want to offer some advice as an event planner. Right now I'm getting ready to\nparticipate in the Earth Day Festival on April 22, 10:00 to 3:00. I hope to see all of you there. But\npart of event planning for us: I have a calendar of events that includes Coastal Cleanup Day and other\nsuch environmental events. Every year we have to look at them again to see, okay they stay on our\ncalendar so I agree that maybe these should be adopted into the calendar, but you go over each of\nthem again like is this going to be a year that we do this? You figure out who is available, and do we\nhave enough money, and do we have everything we need for this event? So maybe that instead of\nsaying, \"Yes we're going to do this forever,\" that you adopt this as kind of a good framework for your\ncalendar and next year we update it again with the new dates and whatever is available for that year.\nArnold Brillinger: Okay then I make a motion, because no one seconded the other one anyway. So\nthat's good. I make a motion that we adopt this for this year and that these are the events. Also there\nis, like Alameda Hospital will have a wellness fair or whatever they have, a health fair. I think that\nwe as a resource ought to be there also.\nBeth Kenny: So let's start with the motion to accept these events for 2017 and keep them on the\nschedule to be reviewed annually. Can we start with that one? Because I'll second that one.\nArnold Brillinger: A good idea.\nBeth Kenny: All in favor?\nAll: Aye.\nBeth Kenny: Anyone opposed? The ayes have it. The second thing you were saying about the\nhospital and other resource fairs that come up. There are a lot of other resource fairs out there, there\nare a lot of different places that we could be going. Not even just in the city, but countywide. I think\nthat that's something that we're looking towards the event committee to figure out where those things\nmight come and which we should be actively pursuing. But yes this is not a comprehensive list that\nwe can't add anything to. We can always add something. Is there anything else from the\nArnold Brillinger: Do we need to take a vote if we add a motion and a second?\nBeth Kenny: A vote?\nArnold Brillinger: Did we vote like aye or nay?\nBeth Kenny: For?\n05/24/17\nPage 24 of 29", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-04-12.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-04-12", "page": 25, "text": "ITEM 2-B\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nArnold Brillinger: For the motion of this being the calendar for this year?\nBeth Kenny: Yes we did that vote. Yes. And then all of us said \"Aye\". So if the event committee has\nnothing else they want to report on.\nLisa Hall: I just have one question, and maybe afterwards, but Kerry for submit application for the\nspring festival, you'll let me know what we have to do? Okay, thank you.\nBeth Kenny: And I want to thank the event committee for getting together and working on this. This\nis going to be great, and it's not only a great way to get out and meet people in the community but\nalso, as we talked about in retreat, build relationships with other non-profits serving persons with\ndisabilities. So, good work you guys, thanks. Alright, so\nLisa Hall: And thank you Kerry for making this list us, it was just wonderful when we got there to\nput it together.\nKerry Parker: As your Staff Liaison I am happy to put together lists like this and I'm happy to adjust\nit. If we decide that As I was listening to the group and no one was really expressing interest, let's\nsay, in the Neptune Jam, it could be that that one is not one of the ones you visit every year.\n[background conversation]\nKerry Parker: It's a big one. Let's pretend that, let's pretend that there's one big one that you choose\nnot to, just for argument's sake. So this can just be modified on the fly, but this can be the structure\nof the year and we can reassess it every year.\nBeth Kenny: Yes and I would encourage all the commissioners to get involved in these events. We\nreally need everybody to make it work. At something like the spring festival where it's eight hours,\ntwo days. That's not something that four people can handle, but it's a great opportunity, and you have\na place to sit at a festival.\nLisa Hall: That's right.\nKerry Parker: Another thing to do might be to shorten the hours of the commission at any one of\nthese.\nArnold Brillinger: Right.\nKerry Parker: So if you say well we can be there but we'll be there between noon and 2:00. That is\nwithin your rights too.\nBeth Kenny: Yes and I would suggest, and maybe Arnold you would know this too, from last year\nwhen we did the Art and Wine festival, it seemed like if we were going to cut hours, it would be better\nto cut them in the morning than it seems like as the fair goes on at night it gets a lot more traffic going\non. So, just a suggestion.\n05/24/17\nPage 25 of 29", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-04-12.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-04-12", "page": 26, "text": "ITEM 2-B\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nSusan Deutsch: I just want to let the commission know that I am not going to be available for the\nSpring Festival because my son is graduating medical school so I'm going to be in Wisconsin that\nweekend. Sorry. I've been looking forward to this.\nS?: Congratulations.\nBeth Kenny: Let's move on to staff communications\n6.\nSTAFF COMMUNICATIONS\nKerry Parker: I keep interjecting with my staff communications so I think you've heard a lot from\nme tonight. The Public Works Department will assist this Commission in changing its name. As I say,\nit might take a while because I'm dedicated to other things for the next couple of months, but as I\nspeak about it with my administrative staff, it's something that we could probably incorporate into\nour workload. I just wanted you to know that about urgency, I wish for you to not have an urgent\nfeeling about it, but other than that, we can get it moving. I made the mention about Earth Day which\nis lovely, but I think that for any event planning if you need my assistance in getting a contact or\nsomething like that I'd be happy to get it for you. I am about to fill out applications for banners in the\nmonth of October for the CDI banner. We have two weeks that are open to us. I've got the Commission\non those weeks, it's a week over on Webster and a week at Central and Oak. Park Street's totally taken\nfor all of October. So I just wanted to mention that. But usually, I'm going to give you a contact and\npass it off to you. So just be ready for that. I can make a quick list at times, but usually, I have to be\npulled in another direction for the other work that I do. I had another thing I wanted to mention and I\ncan't think of it. I'll forward it to the group when I remember what I was just about to say.\n7.\nANNOUNCEMENTS\nBeth Kenny: Thank you, Kerry. Now we move on to announcements. Does anyone have any\nannouncements they would like to make? Why don't you do that?\nJenny Linton: I'd just like to announce that April is Autism Awareness Month. That was mentioned\nto the City Council earlier this month. It was a proclamation at the City Council earlier this month.\nThank You.\nBeth Kenny: Thank you, Commissioner Linton.\nArnold Brillinger: I was just wondering on that should there be a suggestion or recommendation\nfrom this commission to proclaim April as Autism Awareness Month?\nBeth Kenny: There was a proclamation that the City Council did. We had a former commissioner\nwho accepted the proclamation on our behalf, Jody Moore. She has done a lot of work in the autistic\ncommunity. Is that what you were looking for?\nArnold Brillinger: No, I was looking for, should we next year make a recommendation? They're\n05/24/17\nPage 26 of 29", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-04-12.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-04-12", "page": 27, "text": "ITEM 2-B\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m.\ngoing to do it whether we do or not, I'm sure. But it just sounds like it would be better if it came from\nus.\nBeth Kenny: It does come from us.\nArnold Brillinger: Okay.\nBeth Kenny: It does and Jody was interested in doing it, and so I made the decision to have her go\nahead and accept it on behalf, as a former commissioner of the Commission on Disability.\nArnold Brillinger: Okay. No problem.\nKerry Parker: That raises a great point. I do know that Tony was interested last year in having a\nproclamation for White Cane Day.\nBeth Kenny: Yes. White Cane Month which is also October.\nKerry Parker: Or month, which is also October, but we could include that in a proclamation\nlanguage. That gets in front of me every year, \"Is this what you want to say?\" And I looked at the\nproclamation for Autism Awareness Month, as well. So if anyone wanted to take up the cause of If\nthere is any proclamations we would like in council, that's something that needs to be written,\nscheduled, approved. Submit something to me, and I can look at what that schedule would look like.\nThey're not going to want a whole waterfall of proclamations, but if we spaced them out thoughtfully\nwe could certainly do that.\nBeth Kenny: Yes, and also in October, we do have a proclamation that the city does annually for\nDisability Employment Awareness Month which we can share the language with that with the\ncommission. Maybe we can send that out to everybody? Does anyone else have any announcements\nthey'd like to make?\nArnold Brillinger: Well, I'm not necessarily anyone else, but [chuckle] I just wanted to say, that I\nthink that Beth suggested to the Transportation group in Mastick, that I be on the committee that is\nlooking at the new contracts for the next four years for which provider to use. So, we've got our work\nset out for us. We've got six different proposals from companies. I just want to say that Victoria\nWilliams who was here at our last meeting is working on the shuttle which is the Alameda Loop.\nThat's their new name that they've decided on. I've even got posters on the sides on my wheelchair\nand stuff. \"Ride the Free Alameda Shuttle\" or \"Ride the Free Loop\" and things like that. People come\nup and they say, \"What is that?' because they think I'm giving free rides on my wheelchair.\n[chuckle]\nArnold Brillinger: I said, no. It's this bus that comes around here on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and\nThursdays, that no one really seems to see because it just blends in with everything else. At the last\nmeeting, we suggested that they do a like a bus wrap. Getting the word, \"free\" on it. Making it colorful\nand so it stands out. Whatever. Myself, I've just taken it around a couple times. I went on the loop\nthat goes out to Alameda Landing and that area. The Westside, I believe. And like I reported to\n05/24/17\nPage 27 of 29", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-04-12.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-04-12", "page": 28, "text": "ITEM 2-B\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nVictoria, \"We've got a lot of drive-bys.\" And she said, \"Oh well. It doesn't stop at the places on the\nschedule unless there's somebody waiting there.\" I said, \"But no, I'm talking about we've got a lot of\nplaces on the schedule that there is no sign. No one would stand there in a million years, knowing or\nthinking that the bus is going to be there.\" These are all things that they're going to be working on.\nThere's a lot of things that need to be done and I hope that if you are, or I know lot of you are at work\non Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays but, if you have the chance to and you see the bus, go ahead\nand get on it. I also asked, \"why can't we go ahead and put the shuttle in the parade?'\nArnold Brillinger: I was told, \"Well, there's not enough time.\" I went in after our last meeting. I was\nthere in February. The Friday after that Wednesday. So, it mystified me it takes the city that long to\nwork. I'm realizing now that she meant that there's not enough time from when the new contract\nstarts, because the new contract starts the 3rd of July. The Monday of that week. And to get it wrapped\nand all that kind of stuff. So, we'll probably see it in the next 4th of July parade. Not in this year. But\nthe following year. And we're inviting all of you to come and ride on it. I'm thinking that that would\nbe a good thing to have the Transportation Committee also to ride on it. Make a big deal of it.\nBeth Kenny: Yes, I'm so happy that you are doing this because we've really been offered a seat at the\ndecision-making table as to where they going to contract the transportation through, and then also\nCommissioner Lewis has been doing something similar but with the taxi services that they going to\ncontract with. To me it's wonderful. We're getting at the table where decisions are being made and\nthank you for doing that.\nArnold Brillinger: Because, Beth, in response to that, Ikind of had the feeling that a lot of times, we\nare given presentations, and we're just asked to rubber stamp them. Now, we're saying that, \"Hey\nthere are chances for people from this commission to be involved in those decisions before they get\nrubber-stamped or stamped.\" So, that's a good deal.\nBeth Kenny: Yes. Thank you.\nLisa Hall: So, one quick question then. So that means we won't be able to have the shuttle for this\n4th of July parade is basically what they've said?\nArnold Brillinger: Right. So if we're going to do a float or some other transportation.\nLisa Hall: So, we need to figure out something else. Some other transportation. A truck or something\nelse if we're going to do that.\nArnold Brillinger: Yes.\nBeth Kenny: And that's where perhaps partnering with somebody like the Independent Living Center\ncould work well for us. If we couldn't, maybe get a trolley or something with them, that would be a\ngreat way to get this done.\nSusan Deutsch: I agree.\n8.\nADJOURNMENT\n05/24/17\nPage 28 of 29", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-04-12.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-04-12", "page": 29, "text": "ITEM 2-B\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nBeth Kenny: Are there any other announcements? Then I move that we adjourn.\nJenny Linton: Second.\nBeth Kenny: I think everybody seconded that. [laughter] We're all in favor.\nThe meeting adjourned at 8:17 p.m.\nRespectfully submitted,\nKerry Parker\nCity Staff Liaison\nCommission on Disability Issues\n05/24/17\nPage 29 of 29", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-04-12.pdf"}