{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-10-11", "page": 1, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, October 11, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nLOCATION:\nCity Hall, 2263 Santa Clara Avenue, Third Floor, Council Chambers\nAlameda, CA 94501\n1. ROLL CALL\nBeth Kenny: I would like to call to order the Commission on Disabilities meeting for Wednesday,\nOctober 11th, 2017.\nLaurie Kozisek: Chairman Beth Kenny?\nBeth Kenny: Present.\nLaurie Kozisek: Vice-Chair Arnold Brillinger?\nArnold Brillinger: Here.\nLaurie Kozisek: Commissioner Anto Aghapekian - he had an excused absence.\nLaurie Kozisek: Commissioner Jenn Barrett?\nJenn Barrett: Present. [Commissioner Barrett expressed that she was ill and left at 6:50 PM.]\nLaurie Kozisek: Commissioner Susan Deutsch?\nSusan Deutsch: Present.\nLaurie Kozisek: Commissioner Lisa Hall?\nLisa Hall: Present.\nLaurie Kozisek: Commissioner Tony Lewis? [Commissioner Lewis arrived at 6:45 PM, just after\nroll call.]\nLaurie Kozisek: Commissioner Jenny Linton?\nJenny Linton: Present.\nLaurie Kozisek: Commissioner Tom Mills? Okay, we have six, so we have a quorum.\n2. MINUTES\n2-A\nApproval of Minutes for the June 14, 2017 meeting\nBeth Kenny: Wonderful. Thanks for your patience tonight. So, agenda item two, the minutes, we\n12/13/17\nPage 1 of 16", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-10-11.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-10-11", "page": 2, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, October 11, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nhave two sets of minutes to approve tonight. The first set is from our June 14th, 2017 meeting. Did\nanyone have any changes or corrections they'd like to see made in those minutes? Unless there is\nanyone who has anything, I move that we adopt the minutes as is from the meeting of June 14th,\n2017. All in favor?\nAll: Aye.\nBeth Kenny: All in favor? Any opposed? Passes six to zero.\n2-B\nApproval of Minutes for the July 25, 2017 meeting\nBeth Kenny: And now to the meeting, our special meeting on July 25th, 2017, does anyone have\nany changes they would like to see made to those minutes? I move that we adopt the minutes as\nthey are. All in favor?\nAll: Aye.\nBeth Kenny: Wonderful, another six to zero adoption of minutes.\n3. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS/NON-AGENDA (PUBLIC COMMENT)\nBeth Kenny: We move onto item number three, oral communications non-agenda. Do we have any\npublic comments for non-agenda items tonight? Did we receive any speaker slip for the non-agenda\nitems?\nLaurie Kozisek: I did not get any. [Addressing the audience:] Do either of you want to speak on\nnon-agenda?\nAudience [off mike]: No\n4. NEW BUSINESS\n4-A\nPresentation by the Pacific ADA Center [Jan Garrett, Program Manager\nBeth Kenny: Then let's move on to new business. Tonight we have Jan Garrett, program manager\nfrom the Pacific ADA Center here to tell us a little bit more about what the Pacific ADA Center\ndoes and Very excited. Welcome, Jan.\nJan Garrett: Thank you all for inviting me, it's nice to be here. And on behalf of Erica Jones, our\nDirector, I just want to express my appreciation that so many of you came to our ADA conference\nthat we just had in late September. So we really appreciate the support from all of you, and we hope\nthat you learned a great deal, and also had a good time. And I wanted to explain a little bit more\nabout who we are for those who may not have been able to attend the conference, and for those who\nmay be watching this later or reading the minutes. So the Pacific ADA Center is one of ten ADA\ncenters across the country. And so we're regionally based. We are at the Pacific ADA Center in\n12/13/17\nPage 2 of 16", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-10-11.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-10-11", "page": 3, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, October 11, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nRegion Nine, and we serve Arizona, California, Nevada, and Hawaii, and the Pacific Basin\nterritories of Guam, American Samoa, and the commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.\nJan Garrett: So we have a very large territory, even though we're only one of ten regions, and the\nother ADA centers serve different regions; some of them are more rural and some of them have\nmore urban areas, but we sort of have a mix of urban and rural in our region. And the 800 number\nthat you can call to reach us, 1-880-949-4232, if you call that number anywhere in the United\nStates, you will get the center that serves you, from your area code that you're calling from. So it's\nthe same number nationwide that you can get the ADA Center. So that's helpful for people to know\nthat may be in other parts of the country, or may have friends or family in other parts of the country.\nSo what the ADA centers do, and what we do, is we provide technical assistance on our 800 hotline\nfrom our region. And technical assistance can be mostly on the ADA, of course, but it can be on\nother disabilities civil rights laws as well. So it might be on the Rehabilitation Act, it might be on\nthe Air Carriers Access Act, or Fair Housing Act. Even though, really primarily, what we try to help\npeople with is the ADA and that's what we're funded to do, we do answer questions about other laws\njust because they end up being related, a lot of times, to the ADA, and people have questions about\nthose.\nJan Garrett: So we do end up answering those questions. People can also email us at Adatech,\nthat's A-D-A T-E-C-H at adapacific.org. Adatech@adapacific.org So they can email us, of course,\nanytime. It doesn't have to be between 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM, Monday through Friday, but we do\nanswer the phone during all those hours, including lunch time. People are often surprised when they\nget someone on the phone and they say, \"Wow, every number I call, everywhere else, I get a\nrecording.\" So I think people find it helpful to actually get a live person. But feel free to also email\nus if you're not calling Monday through Friday, eight to five. And we can talk you through things,\nwe can talk with you about California law or Hawaii law or Nevada law, at least as it relates to\ndisability issues, as it relates to building code issues for accessibility, other things like that.\nJan Garrett: So that's the advantage of the ADA centers being regional is that we can, not only\nknow what the federal laws are, we can also know about state laws and about state building codes\nand other things of that nature. So that's helpful to people. And we often talk through buildings with\narchitects or with the building code officials or with individuals with disabilities, so we talk about a\nwide variety of issues. And I must say that probably our most popular issue, in many forms, is\nservice animals. So whether it be a service animal, an emotional support animal, other kinds of\nanimals, we get lots of calls about that, both from the business community and people with\ndisabilities, and from people in housing as well, from housing owners, as well as tenants and\nresidents. So lots of calls about that. But we certainly answer questions across the board about many\ndifferent things.\nJan Garrett: We also have lots of materials. We have a lot of materials that we send out\nelectronically these days, so we'll send them out by email or people can download them from our\nwebsite. They can also download them from the ADA National Network website, which is\nAdata.org, which stands for ADA Technical Assistance, but it's Adata.org. And so there's lots and\nlots of materials there, as well as our materials.\n12/13/17\nPage 3 of 16", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-10-11.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-10-11", "page": 4, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, October 11, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nJan Garrett: And we are also in a leadership role, with regard to the ADA National Network, in\nworking on emergency preparedness issues, which I know is of interest to many of you. And so, we\nhave done a number of webinars, actually, since 2012. We have many webinars that are now\narchived on the website. And we do one pretty much every month. Sometimes there are months that\nwe skip, but most of the time we're doing some sort of emergency preparedness and inclusion of\npeople with disabilities webinar. And we have people from FEMA on those webinars. We have\npeople from the International Code Council. We have people from other states describing what best\npractices they've used in emergency preparedness, in a variety of ways, with regard to people with\ndisabilities and inclusion. So there are many, many different topics on those webinars that are\navailable, and they're free, and they're always on the second Thursday of the month at 11:30 AM,\nPacific Time.\nJan Garrett: So you're welcome to sign up. You do have to pre-register, but you don't have to pay\nanything. You just have to put in your email, and then we'll send you an email confirming that\nyou've registered, and then you can sign in when the time comes because we send you a link. And\nwe use Blackboard Collaborate to do the webinars because we found that it's the most accessible\nwebinar system that's out there that we have found. So we do encourage you to listen to the\nwebinars. We also encourage you to go to our website under the emergency preparedness section,\nand there are many materials there as well, that you might find useful, that you can download. And\nif there's ever any technical assistance that we can give you about emergency preparedness, we're\nalso happy to do that. So that's And the other piece that we do a lot of is training, so we do it\nthrough webinars but we also do in-person training. And we do our conference pretty much every\nyear. So that's something that we do for lots of different people, lots of different groups, that's\navailable. So before I move away, are there any questions that people may have about the ADA\nCenter, and what we do, and how we can help you?\nBeth Kenny: I have some questions. So first, I want to know what the webinars Are they archived\nso that we can go back and watch old ones?\nJan Garrett: They are, they're archived all the way back to the first ones from 2012.\nBeth Kenny: And so you work with the state laws and the federal laws, which is amazing. Do you\nwork in conjunction with any of the state or federal organizations like the EEOC or Department of\nFair Employment and Housing?\nJan Garrett: Well, we definitely partner with them, and we partner with many of them to present at\nour conferences, but also, the advantage of the ADA National Network across the country is that we\nreceive direct training from the EEOC, the Department of Justice, the Department of Transportation,\nthe Department of Education, so the Federal Agencies give us direct training. And so we often know\nthings a little bit early, and that's helpful for us in terms of giving technical assistance and training.\nAnd we have direct contacts with those agencies. Now, we don't really give out direct contacts, but\nit means that we can call them directly and get a specific opinion from them about a particularly\ngrey area that someone may have called us about. So we work directly with them. And we do have\nsome contacts at the state level as well, that we can call and get more of an opinion on difficult,\nchallenging questions.\n12/13/17\nPage 4 of 16", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-10-11.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-10-11", "page": 5, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, October 11, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nBeth Kenny: Wonderful. Do any other commissioners have questions? Or I Go ahead,\nCommissioner Lewis.\nTony Lewis: Yes, I was wondering, have you done any training or work with the rideshares? You\nmentioned about service animals. The rideshares, Uber or Lyft, in terms of taking service animals\nor.\nHave you got anything with that?\nJan Garrett: We have not actually worked with the rideshare companies. They have not asked us to\nwork with them.\nTony Lewis: I guess the bigger question is, has anybody reached out to you who've been\ndiscriminated, with service animals?\nJan Garrett: Not to us specifically, no. And if they have, it was just for technical assistance for us\nto tell them, \"Is this discrimination under the ADA or is it not?\" which we would have said, \"Yes, it\nis, if they have turned you down because you have a guide dog or another service animal.\" And\nactually, there are specific policies, at least I'm aware of, with Uber that I have actually seen, that\nthey have a policy that says you must accept people with service animals, and you can be\ndisciplined or decommissioned, whatever they call it, as a driver if you do not accept people that\nhave service animals. So I specifically have seen that policy and know that it exists, and we can tell\npeople about that.\nTony Lewis: Yes, and I guess also, the thing with service animals is that there seems to be a lot of\nconfusion about therapy dog service animals, emotional support. Is there any training that you've\ndone with them? Have employers reached out to you about training regarding it? For them, what's\nclear about that? The differences, and what constitutes what, and what is a legal certified service\nanimals, emotional support animal, or a therapy animal?\nJan Garrett: Well, sometimes employers have reached out to us. I will say that I think the concept\nof service animals, and maybe even emotional support animals in the work place, is a relatively new\nconcept, even though service animals have been around for a while. I don't think they've been in the\nwork place all that much, although they are starting to be more so, except for of course people who\nare blind who have brought their guide dogs, and I think that's been happening for quite some time.\nBut other service animals haven't really been that prevalent in the work place, and I do think that's\nstarting to change. But the people who call us more often about service animals are businesses,\nrestaurants, shops, other kinds of businesses that are wondering, do they have to allow these\nanimals? What questions can they ask?\nJan Garrett: All of those kinds of things. And then we have a lot of housing providers that call us\nas well, because in housing, it's different. Housing needs to allow service animals and emotional\nsupport animals. So the landlords and housing providers, and tenants as well, often have questions\nabout what kinds of animals can be allowed in housing. So that's mostly the people that call us\nabout service animals and emotional support animals.\n12/13/17\nPage 5 of 16", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-10-11.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-10-11", "page": 6, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, October 11, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nBeth Kenny: So are the businesses and organizations that you work with, are they self-selecting in\nthat they reach out to you? Or do you ever get have people who are referred. that might be\nhaving problems understanding, whether it be the ADA or Unruh Act, can they be referred to you.\nJan Garrett: They can, and people call us all the time that are referred. But because we're a neutral\nentity, and I do want to stress that. We don't do enforcement of any kind, and we don't take a side.\nWe just tell people what the law is. And we think it's important that we're neutral because we do\nwant everyone to call us, and we want people to know that if they call us, we're not going to call\nDepartment of Justice, or we're not going to call Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to\ntell on them or to turn them in, in some way. We're just going to give them information. And\nsometimes an employee can call us and tell us, an employee with a disability, many things that are\nhappening and the difficulty they may be having with reasonable accommodation with their\nemployer, and 10 minutes later the employer calls, and it's clear that it's the employer of the\nemployee who had just called.\nJan Garrett: But because all of our calls are confidential, we don't tell either one of them that we\nhave talked to the other, and we give them both the same information. So that's one advantage of\nhaving us is that we would give everybody the same information across the board. We don't take\nsides, we don't enforce, and we don't reveal any calls or emails that we've had.\nBeth Kenny: Well, thank you very much. Does anyone else have a question?\nTony Lewis: I have one more. So in a case, there was a gentlemen two weeks ago who mentioned\nto me, he was in a wheelchair. At the post office, he has a PO Box that's out of his reach from his\nwheelchair, and so what's customary was, he asked the person behind the window to get his mail\nout of his PO Box, and she refused, because she said that it was illegal for her to touch someone's\nmail. So he was upset, and the customers in line were upset, everybody was upset about it. What\nyou're saying is that you wouldn't call the post office and say, \"Hey you're out of compliance.' You\nwould just give him the information, the citation of the law, and say to him, \"This is what you can\ntell the person.\"\nJan Garrett: Well, we would give him the information, and if we know that someone can complain\nto a specific person, if we know that there's a specific entity or person with whom they can file a\ncomplaint, we will tell them how to do that. We will give them the website or the phone number, the\nname of the entity or the person, and tell them that they can file a complaint. For example, US\nPostal Service is under the Rehabilitation Act because it's federal government, and we would tell\npeople to complain to the Postmaster, because that's who they would have to work with in terms of\nanything disability-related and mail. And that's our understanding. But we know who to complain to\na Department of Justice, we know the complaint process at EEOC, at lots of the state agencies, so\nwe would not only give them what the law is, but we would tell them how to complain, if that's\nwhat they wish to do.\nBeth Kenny: Does anyone else have any more questions? Well, thank you very much Jan, this was\nvery informative. I'm really looking forward to checking out the emergency preparedness stuff you\nhave, and I'd love to touch base with you at some point about it.\n12/13/17\nPage 6 of 16", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-10-11.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-10-11", "page": 7, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, October 11, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nJan Garrett: That would be great. We would welcome that, and we hope that you'll find our\nwebsite useful, and that you'll call us with any questions or any materials that we can help you with.\nBeth Kenny: Thank you very much.\nJan Garrett: Thank you.\n[applause]\nJan Garrett: Thank you. Bye. Thank you.\n5.\nOLD BUSINESS\n5-A\nCommission and Board Liaison Reports (All Commissioners)\nBeth Kenny: Now we move on to old business. Item 5A is Commission and Board Liaison\nReports. So in this section, we need people to talk about if their sub-committees have met and what\nhas happened, or the board or commission that you're assigned to, if there's anything that\nCommission on Disability should be aware of. So Commissioner Brillinger, Vice-Chair Brillinger,\nwould you like to go first?\nArnold Brillinger: Yes. I want to talk about the Transportation Commission. The important thing\nthat I want to make sure that you know is that the ICS, that's where AC Transit meets with officials\nfrom Alameda and goes over the different routes and how things were working in Alameda, they've\ngot a meeting, I believe it's on the 18th at 10:00 AM in the morning, and it's in the room right next\nto the conference room, right back there. They're going to be talking about having AC Transit\ninclude the Main ferry terminal, the Main Street ferry terminal. They've got three different options.\nIt's online that you can check it out. If you want, you can send me an email, and I'll pass it over to\nyou of where it is. And to me, I'm always interested in transportation here in the city and the whole\nEast Bay, because that's the only way that I get around. I can't get into anybody else's car. I can't get\ninto a taxi. I have to use the buses and BART, and so forth. And also, I could get on the ferry. So I'm\nalways interested in how to make that easier. So I just wanted to bring that up to the Commission,\nso that you would be aware of it.\nBeth Kenny: Thank you. Is there anything else you would like to discuss? I think you did a street\nfair?\nArnold Brillinger: Well, we did a street fair, and Jen and Lisa and Tony was there. Anto helped\nwith getting the stuff over to Park Street, and also taking it back. And so we did have a lot of\nparticipation here from the Commission. One of the things was we were in front of the Walgreens,\nright there on Park Street, and next to us were a couple of other booths, and they were all up on the\nsidewalk, even though most of the people were down in the street. But they were up on the sidewalk\nbecause across the street from us was where the big rides were, the things for kids to play on, the\n12/13/17\nPage 7 of 16", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-10-11.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-10-11", "page": 8, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, October 11, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nvarious things like a merry-go-round type things. And so they had us up on the curb. Then on the\ncorner where the cut-out is, where I would normally go down, that was blocked by a tent. They\nwere selling something over there.\nArnold Brillinger: And I complained. I complained to the police, I complained to the people that\nput on the whole deal, and most of them were eager to just say, \"Well, someone had to okay it for\nthem to be blocking the sidewalk and there's nothing that we could do about it.\" But I did file\ncomplaints even with Laurie, because if someone was in the street and wanted to know about\nsomething that we had on our table, and if I wanted to come around and see them and talk to them,\nby the time I went down to Smashburger, they'd left.\nArnold Brillinger: They figured I'd deserted them. And so then I had to go around several times\nthat way, and that was a problem. And it's one of those things that only people with mobility issues\nwould have noticed that. I think that it probably needs someone to help them out in some of those\nareas and say, \"No, here's a place where people can get on the sidewalk to the street. Let's not block\nit.\" But we did have quite a few people stop by, and we did have some times when the wind gust\ncame. Jenny bought a bunch of bottled water to put up on them, so we had some weights. And it\nwas a good event for us.\nBeth Kenny: Wonderful, I'm glad to hear that. As far as the blocking of the curb cut, do you think\nthat it might be a good idea for us to follow up with a letter from the Commission to the people who\nput on the fair, which I believe is the Park Street Business District, just reminding them that that is\nnot something that they should be doing?\nLisa Hall: Excuse me, but that should never happen again.\nBeth Kenny: Yes. Do you think that something like that might be appropriate in this case? It can be\nfriendly, but \"Hey, this is a problem that needs to You can't do this.\"\nArnold Brillinger: \"Bringing this to your attention.\"\nBeth Kenny: Yes.\nTony Lewis: I was wondering, it's even for strollers or crutches, or anybody who's navigating there.\nBeth Kenny: Yes. Well, yes, and I definitely think that it might be nice to draft a letter, and then at\nour next meeting, we can vote on whether we want to send this letter or not. Would you like to draft\nit Arnold?\nArnold Brillinger: I will.\nBeth Kenny: Okay. Thank you.\nSusan Deutsch: I also volunteered and I was at the fair also. And I also think there was a problem\nwith the location, being right across from the rides. Because I think a lot of people with disabilities\n12/13/17\nPage 8 of 16", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-10-11.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-10-11", "page": 9, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, October 11, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nmight not even want to walk that or, even in their wheelchairs, go to that section, because that\nsection was mostly kids and families. And it seemed like we were out of place in that location, that\nwe really should have been more central to the fair.\nTony Lewis: Trafficked area, yes.\nLisa Hall: We were in the last block.\nSusan Deutsch: Yes, because a lot of people did not come by at least when I was there.\nTony Lewis: It was more of an accident if they did.\nSusan Deutsch: Yes.\nBeth Kenny: Yes, I think that we can definitely ask about that. I do want to point out, though, that\npart of that is our fault because we did not get our application in until very late, and most of the\nspots had already been assigned at that point.\nSusan Deutsch: Oh, okay. I thought I heard that.\nBeth Kenny: I apologize for that.\nSusan Deutsch: I thought I heard that they were putting all the non-profits in one section.\nBeth Kenny: They were supposed to at one point, and then that fell apart.\nSusan Deutsch: Anyway, I think we should think about that for next year.\nLisa Hall: Definitely.\nSusan Deutsch: I think there might have been people that would have stopped to get information,\nbut they were, \"I don't need to go to that section because that's where the rides are.\"\nBeth Kenny: That's a good point. Thank you. Commissioner Lewis, do you have anything to\nreport?\nTony Lewis: I don't.\nBeth Kenny: And Commissioner Deutsch, did you have anything else you'd like to say?\nSusan Deutsch: I'm on the Library Liaison, and I got an email just saying that the library is going\nto be putting out these little libraries all over the park. Right now there are some in Alameda, like in\nfront of people's houses, there's a little booth, there's books. You can take a book, you can put a\nbook in to share. Well a lot of the parks now are going to have that, so that books will be more\naccessible to people in the community, and there'll be these little booths. Take a book, book share,\n12/13/17\nPage 9 of 16", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-10-11.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-10-11", "page": 10, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, October 11, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nand put books in, and I think it's a nice, really good idea.\nBeth Kenny: Oh yes, that sounds wonderful.\nSusan Deutsch: Yes, it sounds really good in terms of literacy and leisure reading accessibility.\nBeth Kenny: Yes. One thing I was wondering about with the library, when we had the excessive\nheat, I know that San Francisco was saying, \"Oh we have cooling stations. You can go to our\nlibraries or you can go here.\" I'm wondering if that's something we should explore with the library,\nif they'll open to being a cooling station, because it's not going to get colder. We're going to have a\nlot more hot days in the future. And some people with medical issues, they need some place to go\nto. And there is air-conditioning in the libraries, correct?\nSusan Deutsch: Yes, I believe it is there.\nBeth Kenny: Yes. So it might just be a matter of them saying, \"Oh, we'll be fine with that.\"\nSusan Deutsch: Yes, it would be.\nBeth Kenny: Because they're open anyways. Thank you Susan, Commissioner Deutsch?\nCommissioner Linton?\nJenny Linton: I'm on the event committee and I also went to the street fair, and the thing I would\nadd, first of all, I saw everything that everyone else saw at the fair, and I would agree with the\nassessment. Regarding Arnold's comment about accessibility, the event was actually in the middle\nof the sidewalk, so it wasn't only just made inaccessible from the street, it blocked the whole\nsidewalk.\nBeth Kenny: That might be a good thing to include in the letter.\nArnold Brillinger: It blocked the whole side.\nBeth Kenny: Yes, because I've seen that before and it's definitely problematic. So if you can\ninclude that in the letter - that would be great.\nArnold Brillinger: Sure.\nBeth Kenny: Commissioner Hall, did you have anything you'd like to talk about?\nLisa Hall: I do. I appreciated Jan speaking. I met her at my first Pacific ADA Center Update\nConference on September 21st and 22nd, along with Anto and Laurie, in San Francisco. I thought it\nwas a wonderful cornucopia of information. There were three different workshops at each session,\nso you could attend six different sessions throughout both days. Different entities such as the US\nAccess Board, Disability Rights Education, and Defense Fund, Legal Aid at Work, were among\nsome of the presenters. Topics varied from employment cases under ADA, recent regulations and\n12/13/17\nPage 10 of 16", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-10-11.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-10-11", "page": 11, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, October 11, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nsettlements, emergency preparedness, fair housing and accessibility, service animals, recreation and\nmedical equipment and facilities. ADA has been around, I don't know if she mentioned that, since\n1991, and it's been instrumental in bringing rights and awareness to the disability community.\nLisa Hall: We are so fortunate to have the Pacific ADA Center right next door in Oakland. They're\nthere to answer questions, educate, and assist. We received a great emergency preparedness\nresources of names, addresses, emails, etcetera, which was wonderful, and so many knowledgeable\npresenters. It was almost mind-boggling.\nLisa Hall: I so enjoyed it. My brain was on overload after two days. But it was just a bundle of\ninformation and really eye-opening. So feeling like you can see where their changes have been,\nprogress has been, and where we're going, and I feel we're very lucky again, like I said, to have\nPacific ADA Center right there. They were all just wonderful, and I look forward to going back next\nyear. Also, I do want to mention at the end of this month, there is the Asian group, Disability\nAwareness Project Summit. Again, it's the second year. It's called \"Making the Invisible Visible\",\nand it's going to be at Maya Lin School, and it's from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM on Saturday, October\n28th, and they have workshops, information speakers.\nLisa Hall: And again, I attended it last year. It was wonderful. I cannot attend this one, but I would\ndefinitely recommend you guys to come, to go and attend. Austin Tam, many of you know, is\nchairing this event, and it's really a good, informative event, especially around our children with\nmany disabilities including the mental illness, so they address a lot.\nBeth Kenny: Thank you, Commissioner Hall. I would like to report about the Universal Design\nsub-committee. We are going to have our first reading of the Universal Design Ordinance at the\nnext city council meeting on October 17th. So that is next Tuesday. It's a pretty full agenda, so\nfingers crossed that we aren't bumped. But it's very exciting. The process will go through the first\nreading, and then there'll be a second reading, and then if everything goes well, it should be\nadopted. And you are all probably sick of hearing about Universal Design. We've been working on\nthis all for so long, but I am very excited for this, and anyone who can come, should try and come to\nthat meeting. We have a couple other things that pertain to the CDI at that staff meeting that I think\nLaurie is going to talk about, but I'm very excited about the first reading of the UDO. The other\nthing I wanted to say is, Commissioner Lewis, I think you wanted to be part of the Emergency\nPreparedness Sub-Committee, is that true? I couldn't remember who it was.\nTony Lewis: I don't remember that.\nBeth Kenny: Okay.\nTony Lewis: I certainly would be open to it, for sure.\nBeth Kenny: Because I would like to have the Emergency Preparedness Sub-Committee meet in\nthe next two weeks. There's so much going on that every time I see something new I'm like, \"We\nhave got to get that done, we have to get on top of that.\" So, anyone who wants to be part of the\nEmergency Preparedness Sub-Committee, please come talk to me afterwards and we'll figure out a\n12/13/17\nPage 11 of 16", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-10-11.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-10-11", "page": 12, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, October 11, 2017 6:30 p.m.\ndate. Thank you. And so that concludes old business.\n6. STAFF COMMUNICATIONS\n6-A Upcoming at the October 17th City Council: UDO, Proclamations, name change\nBeth Kenny: Staff communication.\nLaurie Kozisek: I'm happy to announce that at the next community council meeting, we will have\nthe proclamation that will be for White Cane Day and Disability Awareness Month. They sort of\ncombined the thing into one proclamation. That'll be at the beginning of the meeting, hopefully. And\nthen, later, we'll have the first reading of the Universal Design Ordinance, and then the second\nreading will be a month later, in which they'll actually vote on it and have a public hearing. And\nthen, way at the end of the meeting, is the change of the mission's title from \"Commission on\nDisability Issues\" to \"Commission on Disability.\" And hopefully they'll get to that too, but it was\none of the last items.\nBeth Kenny: Thank you very much.\nTony Lewis: I had a question about the proclamation, Laurie. Are they going to be giving the\nproclamation to someone to receive or are they just going to read the proclamation? I just want to\nknow how that one's going to work.\nLaurie Kozisek: Normally, the way it works is, either one or a bunch of people come up, and the\nmayor reads the proclamation and then hands it to a representative of the interested group. Like if\nit's the Boys and Girls Club, or some members of the Commission, or you had a person who is an\nactivist in the Lion community, I believe, who's interested? Whoever will accept the proclamation\nand get a photo op.\nBeth Kenny: Yes.\nTony Lewis: Yes, there's going to be quite a few folks coming for the White Cane.\nLaurie Kozisek: Okay, great. They can all stand up in front and everyone will clap, then somebody\nwill take the proclamation.\nTony Lewis: Oh, okay.\nLaurie Kozisek: You want us to get it in Braille? I can do that.\nTony Lewis: You can put it into Braille?\nLaurie Kozisek: Yes.\n12/13/17\nPage 12 of 16", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-10-11.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-10-11", "page": 13, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, October 11, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nTony Lewis: Laurie is multi-talented, I want you to know. I did a dragon boat with her the other\nweek, which was pretty fun and amazing. No, I think we'll be fine, but you could if you I have a\nBraille printer, so if you wanted to do that, I could print it for you.\nLaurie Kozisek: Oh, could you print that on Braille?\nTony Lewis: What's that?\nLaurie Kozisek: A lot faster than my slate and stylus.\nTony Lewis: Okay. Yes, if you wanted to do that, I could do it. If you could email it to me, I could\ndo it, give her a printout of it.\nLaurie Kozisek: Okay, I'll do that.\nTony Lewis: Okay.\n7. ANNOUNCEMENTS\nBeth Kenny: Wonderful. So Section Seven, Announcements. I don't know if any of you have seen\nit, but we got a new banner for Disability Awareness month and it's been hanging up, so thank you,\nLaurie.\nLaurie Kozisek: Actually, Kerry Parker did that because I was a little swamped. It's going to hang\nover Park Street for a week, and then over Webster Street for a week.\nBeth Kenny: Yes. And does anyone have any other announcements they'd like to make? Then I\nmove we adjourn the meeting.\nLaurie Kozisek: Wait, wait. We need to ask if we have any speakers. Did either of you want to\nspeak?\nBeth Kenny: Carol, are you speaking about the Pacific ADA?\nCarol Gottstein: I didn't know if anybody else had heard of Christina Hansen? She was a 28-year-\nold woman in a wheelchair, who just died in the Sonoma fire because she was in a wheelchair. CNN\nreported on how she had called everyone she knew. She lived right next door to her father, and her\nfather was evidently the only one who tried to get her out, but he sustained third degree burns over\nmore than half his body, and right now he's in a medically induced coma. They couldn't even airlift\nhim to a burn center because the helicopters couldn't fly. So that, more than anything, underscores\nthe importance of emergency preparedness and knowing where all the disabled people are in the\ncommunity.\nCarol Gottstein: I have one more thing, it's really completely separate. I didn't think of it until after\n12/13/17\nPage 13 of 16", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-10-11.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-10-11", "page": 14, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, October 11, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nthe time to speak had passed, so I apologize. People who have low-income or are disabled are\neligible for what's called the VITA Program, which is Volunteer Income Tax Assistance. It's funded\nby the federal government, and there are certain places around every area where people can go to\nhave their taxes prepared for free. But, of course, these places have to be physically accessible. And\nmost of them only operate during tax season. And if you get nailed by the franchise tax board or\nsomebody for a delinquent tax return, even though you can still file between April and October,\nonly problem is, there's no places open in the East Bay except one.\nCarol Gottstein: I had to go there last year and I found that even though they had one of those blue\ndisabled signs out on the front of their building, it's all on the second floor and there's no elevator,\nand the doorbell didn't work. So I filed a complaint against the Internal Revenue Service with the\nDepartment of the Treasury, and they found in my favor. And after six months of going back and\nforth and filing lots of paperwork, I got a list of things that the IRS has to do to correct this,\nincluding move it off the second floor or put it in another building, because they actually did send a\nsite person out to explore the site and they discovered there's only stairway access and the doorbell\ndoesn't work, so if a disabled person who can't use the stairs does show up at the front door, they\ncan't even let the people on the second floor know that they're there. And there was no alternative.\nCarol Gottstein: I mean I literally couldn't file my tax return without help and they were the only\nplace in the East Bay. I would have to go to San Francisco to find another place. So I'm happy to\nshare more about that if you ever want to hear about it in another meeting.\nBeth Kenny: Thank you for doing that. That helps quite a few people, I'm sure.\nTony Lewis: Congratulations.\nBeth Kenny: Also, if you're interested in being part of the Emergency Preparedness Sub-\nCommittee, you're more than welcome to join us.\nTony Lewis: I wanted to mention too, I believe that there is another VITA site, but they only do\noperate during tax season.\nLisa Hall: I also want to just add that what you brought up is so, so sad and true. One of the\nworkshops was, that I did attend, was the emergency planning and preparedness for people with\ndisabilities and the cities they live in, and the gentleman told us some very sad stories about a\ngentleman was taking a night class, on the third floor, and the whole high school had to be\nevacuated, and the elevator didn't work. And they had to have all these firemen come, he was in a\nwheelchair, and they had to have all these firemen come and help bring him down by the stairs, and\nit took like an hour and a half. Thank God it wasn't a fire. But nonetheless, it was just one example\nof how vulnerable people with disabilities are, especially in a situation like that. What you did is a\nvery good thing, to make the complaints, because this is what we have to do. We have to make\nbusinesses, including our own IRS, aware of these things.\nSusan Deutsch: Yes, I just want to say that, in terms of evacuation of people in wheelchairs\nWhen I was working in Berkeley, any student that had a class on the second floor, or if there were\n12/13/17\nPage 14 of 16", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-10-11.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-10-11", "page": 15, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, October 11, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nany stairs that there had to be an evacuation chair, somewhere near that classroom, hanging on the\nwall, and the teachers and instructional assistants and other people on that site had to be trained on\nhow to use that evacuation chair, how to get somebody down the stairs, and I think it's really\ncritical. And I know that when the person came to talk to us about that, about emergency\npreparedness, that was not part of what she talked about, and I remember bringing that up to her that\nthere are these evacuation chairs that allow you to get somebody out of a building in an emergency.\nBut you all know.\n8. ADJOURNMENT\nBeth Kenny: Thank you very much. Unless there are any other announcements, I would like to\nmove that we adjourn tonight's meeting.\nLisa Hall: I second.\nBeth Kenny: All right, all in favor?\nAll: Aye.\nBeth Kenny: Thank you everybody.\nThe meeting adjourned at 7:26 PM.\nRespectfully submitted,\nLaurie Kozisek\nCity Staff Liaison\nCommission on Disability Issues\n12/13/17\nPage 15 of 16", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-10-11.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2017-10-11", "page": 16, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES\nMEETING MINUTES OF\nWednesday, October 11, 2017 6:30 p.m.\nThank You for choosing Scribie.com\nCross-check this transcript against the audio quickly and efficiently using our online Integrated\nEditor. Please visit the following link and click the Check & Download button to start.\n https://scribie.com/files/246f719c1a5d474e866blalfceb7a760016dca0\n12/13/17\nPage 16 of 16", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-10-11.pdf"}
{"body": "SocialServiceHumanRelationsBoard", "date": "2017-10-11", "page": 1, "text": "City of Alameda\nCITY OF\nTERNA\nMeeting Minutes\nWednesday, October 11, 2017\n6:30 PM\nSPECIAL MEETING\nCity Hall, 2263 Santa Clara Avenue, Room 360, 3rd Floor, Alameda,\nCA 94501\nSocial Service Human Relations Board", "path": "SocialServiceHumanRelationsBoard/2017-10-11.pdf"}
{"body": "SocialServiceHumanRelationsBoard", "date": "2017-10-11", "page": 2, "text": "Social Service Human Relations\nMeeting Minutes\nOctober 11, 2017\nBoard\n1\nCALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL\n2\nAPPROVAL OF MINUTES\n3\nAGENDA ITEMS\n3-A\nWORK SESSION TO DEVELOP AN OUTREACH STRATEGY FOR\nLAUNCH OF THE 2017 COMMUNITY NEEDS SURVEY\n4\nBOARD/STAFF COMMUNICATIONS, NON-AGENDA\n5\nORAL COMMUNICATIONS\n6\nADJOURNMENT\n*NOTES\n****\nTranslators or sign language interpreters will be available on request. Please contact\nCommunity Development at 747-6800 or 522-7538 (TDD number) at least 72 hours\nbefore the meeting to request a translator or interpreter. Accessible seating for persons\nwith disabilities (including those using wheelchairs) is available. Audio tapes of the\nmeeting are available upon request. MINUTES OF THE MEETING ARE AVAILABLE IN\nENLARGED PRINT. Please contact Commnuity Development at 747-6800 or 522-7538\n(TDD number) at least 72 hours before the meeting to request agenda materials in an\nalternative format, or any other reasonable accommodations that may be necessary to\nparticipate in and enjoy the benefits of the meeting. Materials related to an item on this\nagenda submitted to the Board after distribution of the agenda packet are available for\npublic inspection in the Community Development office during normal business hours.\nDocuments related to this agenda are available for public inspection and copying at\nCommunity Development Division, Room 120, Alameda City Hall during normal business\nhours.\nCity of Alameda\nPage 1", "path": "SocialServiceHumanRelationsBoard/2017-10-11.pdf"}