{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2019-03-13", "page": 1, "text": "ITEM 3-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, March 13, 2019, 6:30 PM\n1.\nROLL CALL\nJenn Barrett: I'd like to call to order the meeting tonight on the Commission on Disability. Today\nis Wednesday, March 13th. We're starting a little bit late at 6:37 PM, just seeing if we could get in a\nfew other commissioners to come due to traffic. Would you like to start off with roll call?\nLiz Acord: We have Chair Kenny absent. Vice Chair Barrett?\nJenn Barrett: Present.\nLiz Acord: Commissioner Aghapekian?\nAnto Aghapekian: Present.\nLiz Acord: Commissioner Brillinger, absent. Commissioner Deutsch?\nSusan Deutsch: Present.\nLiz Acord: Commissioner Hall is absent. Commissioner Linton is absent. Commissioner Roloff?\nJennifer Roloff: Present.\nLiz Acord: Commissioner Morrison?\nLeslie Morrison: Present.\nLiz Acord: Five present.\n2. MINUTES\n2-A\nApprove of Minutes for the November 28, 2018 Meeting\nJenn Barrett: Five makes quorum, so we're going to continue on. The second item on our agenda\nis the minutes. Item 2A: Approval of minutes for the November 28, 2018 meeting. Would anyone\nlike to approve that?\nSusan Deutsch: I move to approve.\nJenn Barrett: And a second?\nAnto Aghapekian: I second it.\n2-B\nApproval of Minutes for the January 16, 2019 Meeting\n03/13/19\nPage 1 of 28", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-03-13.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2019-03-13", "page": 2, "text": "ITEM 3-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, March 13, 2019, 6:30 PM\nJenn Barrett: Item 2B is approval of the minutes from our January 16th meeting. Does anyone\nwish to approve these?\nLeslie Morrison: I move.\nJenn Barrett: And do we have a second?\nSusan Deutsch: I second.\n2-C Approval of Minutes for the February 9, 2019 Retreat\nJenn Barrett: Item 2C is approval of minutes of our retreat which was on February 9th. Does\nanyone wish to approve this?\nLeslie Morrison: I move.\nAnto Aghapekian: Yes.\nJenn Barrett: And second?\nAnto Aghapekian: I second.\nLeslie Morrison: So do you have to then call for a vote on each of those? You've had a motion and\na second, but don't you have to then ask all in favor of approval?\nJenn Barrett: I guess SO. I'm not.\nLiz Acord: Is that what you typically do?\nJenn Barrett: I can't remember.\nLiz Acord: Let's go ahead and do that, we'll just repeat the motions. I have noted them. So we\nforgot. I can note those for you, and then we'll do the call for all in favor.\nJenn Barrett: So, approval of the November 28th meeting minutes.\nLeslie Morrison: And that was moved and seconded, so I think you just need to call for.\nJenn Barrett: Does everyone approve?\nLeslie Morrison: All those in favor?\nJenn Barrett: Yes. All those in favor?\nAll: Aye.\n03/13/19\nPage 2 of 28", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-03-13.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2019-03-13", "page": 3, "text": "ITEM 3-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, March 13, 2019, 6:30 PM\nJenn Barrett: Any not in favor? I'm also aye. The item 2B: Approval of minutes from January 16th\nmeeting. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Approval of meetings from the February 9th\nmeeting. Approval of the meeting. All in favor?\nAll: Aye.\nJenn Barrett: Any opposed?\nSusan Deutsch: I just wanted to say something about the minutes.\nJenn Barrett: Okay.\nSusan Deutsch: Does have to put down word for word everything that's said?\nJenn Barrett: Yes. Our regular meetings, they are transcribed. I'm not sure if it's Laurie or someone\nelse who does the transcribing, but it's done from the video. And then from the minutes from the\nretreat, it was a summary that she created.\nSusan Deutsch: Is that what has to be done? Because it just seems like a lot of work and then now\nwith approving three different minutes because of how much time it takes to transcribe. Maybe we\nneed to ask Laurie if she can summarize, and that way we can get the minutes after each meeting,\ninstead of looking back to November. It just seems like a lot of work. I was looking at them and I\njust don't think it has to be that detailed.\nJenn Barrett: I can ask Laurie about that.\nSusan Deutsch: Yes. Or we could just ask her at the next meeting.\nJenn Barrett: Commissioner Brillinger, thank you for coming. We'll mark him as present. We just\nwent through the minutes, which were all approved.\nArnold Brillinger: I had a comment on that.\nJenn Barrett: Okay.\nArnold Brillinger: When I look at the November meeting minutes, there's a section in there where\nwe never okayed or approved the minutes for the previous meeting. It may be a technicality but\nwhen we look at it, there was no vote taken.\nJennifer Roloff: For October? For the meeting?\nArnold Brillinger: Yes\nSusan Deutsch: In the November meeting, we didn't approve the previous meeting.\n03/13/19\nPage 3 of 28", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-03-13.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2019-03-13", "page": 4, "text": "ITEM 3-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, March 13, 2019, 6:30 PM\nArnold Brillinger: Right.\nJennifer Roloff: Good memory, I don't know.\nLiz Acord: So, I think what I would propose at this point since we have approved the minutes for\nNovember 28th, which I think is what we are discussing.\nArnold Brillinger: Yes.\nLiz Acord: Commissioner Brillinger, if you would I will just take a request back to staff to have\nthem confirm at the next meeting that the minutes for that previous meeting, which I don't know the\ndate of but I will certainly look up, we can confirm that those were approved. Am I understanding\nyour question correctly?\nArnold Brillinger: Yes, but according to the written copy, they were not approved.\nLiz Acord: Okay, we can look into that. I can look into that with Laurie.\nArnold Brillinger: Okay. I don't even know if it's a real big issue or not.\nJenn Barrett: No, we should definitely look into that.\n3.\nORAL COMMUNICATIONS/NON-AGENDA (PUBLIC COMMENT)\nJenn Barrett: I would like to move on to oral communication, non-agenda, public comment.\n4. NEW BUSINESS\nLiz Acord: We have no speakers.\nJenn Barrett: Thank you. New business, we do not have any new business.\n5. OLD BUSINESS\n5-A\nCommission and Board Liaison Reports (All Commissioners)\nJenn Barrett: So we're going to move on to old business. 5A, Commission and Board Liaison\nReports, all commissioners. Commissioner Brillinger, would you like to start us off with any report\nthat you have?\nArnold Brillinger: Sure. I actually have reports from five different organizations. Just a moment,\nplease. My commission that I'm supposed to go to is the Transportation Commission. Since the\nJanuary meeting the Transportation Commission met twice, both on Wednesdays and their main\nfocus was on the intersection of Webster and Central. And so they had four different options of how\n03/13/19\nPage 4 of 28", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-03-13.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2019-03-13", "page": 5, "text": "ITEM 3-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, March 13, 2019, 6:30 PM\nto run it, how to make it work. So they had a hearing. The hearing was on where to place the bike\nlanes and the parking lanes. And there seemed to be a difference of opinion depending on if you\nwere a business or if you were a biker, so that seems to be the crux of the matter. And the\ncommission did not select any of the choices, but they did say that they would study them further.\nAnd also they adopted a recommendation to extend the protected two-way bike way from Patton\nStreet to McKay Avenue, and approved the city of Alameda Transportation Program Plan for\nSeniors and People with Disabilities for Fiscal Year 2019 to 2020, and that's the same program that\nwe saw from Gail Payne.\nArnold Brillinger: And then they also had a meeting in February, when they endorsed the\nTransportation Choices Plan and I thought, \"Well, Transportation Choices Plan. \"Basically that's\nproviding more transportation options for Alamedans with the goal of reducing drive alone trips at\nthe crossings and also throughout Alameda. And they also discussed the Otis Drive traffic calming\nand safety improvement workshop and survey debriefing. And if you want to see more on those, if\nthey spark your interest, they're online. I should say that I did not go to these meetings, but I did\ncatch them online.\nJenn Barrett: Great. Thank you so much.\nArnold Brillinger: I also went to the Oakland Mayor's Commission on Persons with Disabilities\nmeeting. And Karen Nakamura - we all know her - she presented a program to us. She is on their\ncommission in Oakland and at the January meeting, she was elected the president or the chairman\nof their commission. So, they've got a lot of things going on all the time. They had two meetings\nsince our one meeting. I'm just going to let you know what their presentations were. They had a\npresentation on disabled parking spaces and abuse of disabled parking. They have a group in\nOakland that just goes around and checks on people's blue cards. And they find some that are made\nup and they had some to show. Some of them looked really slick and looked professional, and some\nreally looked like homemade jobs. But those placards that you hang up.\nSusan Deutsch: Interesting.\nArnold Brillinger: And then on their presentation in February, they had a paving update. And we\nknow that driving through Oakland, they've got a lot of potholes and they also realize that, too. And\nthen they had a Measure KK. And out of the money that came in from that, they were checking into\nhow much of it could be used for home modifications to enhance accessibility. And so maybe that's\nsomething that we should look into. We don't have a Measure KK necessarily, which was a funding\nmeasure, but maybe there are grants that we can find that will help out people who need some work\ndone on their homes to make it more accessible.\nArnold Brillinger: And then, another group that I didn't get to go (but I've been there before) is the\nAC Transit Inter-Agency Liaison Committee, and it meets every couple of months. It's several\npeople from Alameda and several people from AC Transit from their board, and they get together\nand they compare what's going and what's not going. From their meeting, I picked up that bus route\n96 is eventually going to connect with the Seaplane Lagoon Ferry Terminal, the new one that's\nbeing built out there.\n03/13/19\nPage 5 of 28", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-03-13.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2019-03-13", "page": 6, "text": "ITEM 3-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, March 13, 2019, 6:30 PM\nJenn Barrett: That's great.\nArnold Brillinger: And to me that's very important because I can't get to the Main Street Ferry,\nthere's no way. And so I thought I would bring that up because that's important for people to know.\nI've got a couple more items I wanted to talk about. I went to the AC Transit Accessibility\nCommittee meeting, that's where they deal with those problems that disabled people have taking the\nbus. And most of the meeting was on the BRT, that's the Bus Rapid Transit, and basically that is on\nInternational Boulevard and East 14th, as it goes into San Leandro. It starts down in Broadway in\nOakland, goes up to San Leandro BART station. And you've probably been on there once or twice,\nand seeing where they're really ripping up the place, because they started back in 2017 to work on\nthis.\nArnold Brillinger: Well, they're hoping that by December of this year it will be ready. They've got\nbrand new buses and there will be bus only lanes on that stretch. They're trying to get it to really\nwork and to get people along East 14th and International Boulevard, trying to get them through\nthere quicker. And again for disabled people, if they're mobility disabled, it's going to be just like\nwhen you go in on BART from the platform right into the bus, where it's going to be level and you\ndon't have to wait for a ramp or a lift or anything else. And Clipper Cards, there will be places to tap\nyour Clipper Card right on the platform, to get people into these vehicles really quickly and move\nthem on down. They figure that they will have them running every seven minutes in peak hours, so\nthat was interesting to me too. Those are my reports.\nJenn Barrett: Great. Thank you so much for sharing, we really appreciate it. Commissioner\nRoloff?\nJennifer Roloff: No, I think I will save my updates. We'll have the same for the follow up\ndiscussions from the retreat, we'll go around again?\nJenn Barrett: Yes.\nJennifer Roloff: So I'll pass for this portion.\nJenn Barrett: Okay. Commissioner Deutsch?\nSusan Deutsch: Well, Little John Park has completed their new playground and there's going to be\na ribbon cutting on March 27th at 4 o'clock. And Amy Wooldridge contacted me and asked me to\nspeak, make a short speech. And she said that if we wanted to have a table there during that time,\nwe could have a table if we want to give out any information about our commission. Anyway, I just\nwant to say the playground, it's small, but it's really nice. The structure has the ability for a child\nwith a wheelchair to get on to the play structure and there are a lot of items for kids to play with that\ndon't involve climbing. They have musical items where you touch it and it plays music, and they\nhave different items that you can manipulate and turn and see things happen. And then they have a\nlot of nice climbing structures and they have swings for somebody with a disability. It's not a\nwheelchair swing, but it is a swing that if you need support it would provide support. Although I\n03/13/19\nPage 6 of 28", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-03-13.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2019-03-13", "page": 7, "text": "ITEM 3-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, March 13, 2019, 6:30 PM\ndidn't see any straps on them to buckle in, so I need to ask Amy about that. But I could see that\nthere are holes in the swing for those straps to be attached.\nJenn Barrett: Oh, that's good.\nSusan Deutsch: Maybe this is a work in progress. But anyway, it's a nice little inclusive\nplayground, not as big as the one in Salinas, but it's nice.\nJenn Barrett: That's great to hear. You said it was on March 22nd, do you know the time?\nSusan Deutsch: Wednesday, March 27th. At 4 o'clock.\nJennifer Roloff: What are your thoughts on a table?\nSusan Deutsch: Well, if it's easy and everything is available, then I don't have a problem setting up\na table there. But I think most of the people there might be people with kids, so I don't know that we\nhave information for that. I don't know what our brochures look like.\nJenn Barrett: Arnold, you've hosted at the tables in the past.\nArnold Brillinger: Yes.\nJenn Barrett: Is that correct? Have we had pamphlets to hand out to people?\nArnold Brillinger: We do have pamphlets. Laurie has them in her possession, in her office\nsomewhere. They're in a big milk crate and there's variety of things.\nSusan Deutsch: Well, I can then check. Maybe I can find a time to go to Laurie's office and check,\nand look and see.\nArnold Brillinger: I don't know that there's anything that is geared toward children necessarily.\nSusan Deutsch: Yes. I don't remember that.\nJenn Barrett: But there might be people who are there, who would have interest in our\ncommission. And you never know, there might be people of different abilities, obviously, with the\nchildren. So it might be something that they might want to look into too.\nSusan Deutsch: I can set up a table.\nJenn Barrett: Does anyone else know off-hand that they might be available to help Susan?\nAnto Aghapekian: I would be.\nJenn Barrett: Okay. Anto would Maybe we can get an email with you and Laurie and Anto to\n03/13/19\nPage 7 of 28", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-03-13.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2019-03-13", "page": 8, "text": "ITEM 3-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, March 13, 2019, 6:30 PM\ntalk about maybe setting that up. I unfortunately have work, so I wouldn't be able to attend.\nJennifer Roloff: Yes. I was also thinking. Just since it's during business hours, if maybe Laurie\ncould help if the city has a resource and she has a table that the city uses, if she could get there at\n3:30 PM and stay till 5:00 PM or something.\nLiz Acord: I think Vice Chair's recommendation to connect everybody on email to Laurie to see\nwhat she can provide. I'm not sure what her calendar looks like off the top of my head, but I think\nit's a great question to ask and we'll provide support where we can.\nJennifer Roloff: Okay. Thank you.\nSusan Deutsch: If there isn't a table, I definitely could just bring a folding table, a bridge table, to\nput the pamphlets on.\nJenn Barrett: Okay, great. Thank you so much. Commissioner Morrison?\nLeslie Morrison: Nothing to report.\nJenn Barrett: Okay. Commissioner Aghapekian?\nAnto Aghapekian: I really don't have much to report except for the Mastick Senior Center. I\nworked with the director over there in identifying hazardous conditions for people that are\nwheelchair bound, and we did a lot of remedial work. And my hats off to the director and her staff\nfor following up and doing the work. And it's still a work in progress, but it's all in good direction.\nI'm very impressed with the work they're doing. Other than that, I don't have anything else to report.\nJenn Barrett: Okay, great. Thank you. So I was in communication with Beth, had a great idea for\nmy building accessibility and businesses plan. I'm going to reach out to the West End Business\nAssociation and then the Park Street Business Association and see if I can get on one of their\nagendas to talk to them about my initiative or our initiative to increase the accessibility in our local\nbusinesses. And then, Laurie had mentioned during our retreat, that there might be money available\nin order to advertise for this. So, that's definitely something I'm excited to look into further with\nLaurie. Unless anyone has anything else for Section 5A?\nJennifer Roloff: Jenn, just to follow-up. Remind me when we had asked if the grant match for\nFacade could cover accessibility and Laurie came back and said, \"No,\" and I said, \"Can we push\nthat a little bit?\" And I think she was going to take that action item up.\nJenn Barrett: I did get a contact for that, so I will definitely. Thank you for the reminder. I'm going\nto follow up with them as well.\nJennifer Roloff: Okay, because that was our item, not Laurie's.\nJenn Barrett: That would be awesome if we could get some grant money to further encourage\n03/13/19\nPage 8 of 28", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-03-13.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2019-03-13", "page": 9, "text": "ITEM 3-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, March 13, 2019, 6:30 PM\npeople to do that upgrade.\nJennifer Roloff: Tell me how this works but if our commission is tasked with advising council, and\nthe answer that we got back was just a fairly easy, \"No, sorry, it doesn't apply,\" if we need go to\ncouncil. So maybe you start that way, and if not, we can go to Council and ask if the guidelines of\nthe grant could be extended. Or however policy would have us do it.\nJenn Barrett: That's a fantastic idea, yes.\nJennifer Roloff: Okay. Thanks.\nJenn Barrett: That's great. Thank you.\nJennifer Roloff: Let me know if I can do anything.\n5-B\nFollow up discussions from February 9, 2019 retreat (All Commissioners)\nJenn Barrett: Okay. Okay, we're going to move on to Item 5B: Follow up of discussions from our\nFebruary 9th retreat. I think with this, we'll go around the table or around the commission again, but\nI think one of the things that I want to maybe focus on during our discussion is talk about priorities\nfor the year and how we can achieve our goals. Commissioner Brillinger, would you like to start\noff?\nArnold Brillinger: I do have some ideas, but I don't know where this discussion is.\nJenn Barrett: Okay. So I'm just trying to summarize where we left off from our retreat, and I know\nthat some of the topics that we thought were very important for our commission to focus on this\nyear was the Census, making sure that people with disabilities are properly counted. Another one\nwas mental health, we had a talk with the school, some of the school leaders last year and we\nwanted to make that maybe one of our priorities, is making sure that people with certain disabilities\nwithin the school had the resources that they needed, and a broader aspect of mental health in our\ncity. And I think that housing and homelessness, if I remember correctly, was another topic that we\nthought was extremely important to discuss. I think it's hard to come up with what is our main goal,\nwhen all of these sound very important and large goals. And so I think that maybe our discussion\ncan be around how we're going to attack one or all, or I think we need to break it down into a few\nachievable goals so that it's not too overwhelming. And we don't have to go in a circle, either.\nArnold Brillinger: I would like to have more programs, presentations to the commission on mental\nhealth issues, because I found from that other on, that we really don't know as much as we could\nknow. I didn't say should know because I don't know where that is. But, I think that that would be a\ngood focus, that some of our presentations would deal with the mental health issues.\nJennifer Roloff: And I guess this is more of an education for me and possibly for the whole\ncommission, for children with mental health issues, we had the school district come in. And I guess\nwhat I would love to be educated on is the schools have their own budgets and the state funding is\n03/13/19\nPage 9 of 28", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-03-13.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2019-03-13", "page": 10, "text": "ITEM 3-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, March 13, 2019, 6:30 PM\ngenerally responsible for that, and we know how strapped they are. But they shared with us how\nlimited they are and the extensive challenges they have and where the schools are maxed out with\ndollars, where the city can or cannot kick in for that. And I don't know if that's like a city manager,\nsomeone from city finance or. do you know?\nLiz Acord: I don't know off the top of my head. We do have staff in Community Development that\nwork with our police department as part of homeless outreach, so I would imagine that would be a\ngood starting place. I can ask Laurie to follow up and provide some city points of contact for\ncontinuing that discussion.\nJennifer Roloff: Okay, that would be great. Especially as far as the school district, I think, would\nbe good. Again, if we can advise the city, \"We need dollars for additional human resources,\" or\nsomething like that, just how that happens. I know, for example, with Parks and Recs, there is\nalready an established relationship between the pools, right, with the city, it's a 50/50 or something\nlike that with the city pools? But for schools, I don't know where that is and how much they're\ngoing to pay attention since the state district has its own resources. And that's something I could\nprobably talk to school board about as well, being the liaison.\nJenn Barrett: It'd be very interesting to hear.\nSusan Deutsch: When the people from the school district came to talk to us, they were saying that\nmost of the mental health money is coming from the county. Because I had thought that the city of\nBerkeley had their own mental health, because they have Berkeley Mental Health, and that's where\na lot of kids from the school district get counselors from Berkeley Mental Health, but the people\npresenting said that was county money also. So at some point, maybe we can contact Alameda\nCounty and see if we can get some funds that way. If they're giving funds to Berkeley, what funds\nare we getting? Maybe we can try to find that out.\nJennifer Roloff: And I can take that on, being the school board liaison, if I can take that action\nitem. Okay, that's a good idea, and I could even call the Berkeley program, too.\nSusan Deutsch: So I think this is bigger than just looking at the issue for schools, right? You're\ngoing to take it to the school board, but following the same lines that you're exploring, what is the\navailability of crisis services and not just for kids, but for adults, and what's the funding of those\nservices?\nJennifer Roloff: Yeah, I was just particularly focused on the kids issue, but of course it extends to\nthe whole population.\nSusan Deutsch: Right.\nJennifer Roloff: So is there an action item we want to take? I think maybe some additional\nresources that talk about mental health in general per Commissioner Brillinger. That's a good start\nthere.\n03/13/19\nPage 10 of 28", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-03-13.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2019-03-13", "page": 11, "text": "ITEM 3-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, March 13, 2019, 6:30 PM\nJenn Barrett: Okay. And Commissioner Roloff, if you come across anyone through the school\nboard, in addition, who might be able to come talk to us.\nJennifer Roloff: Sure. Or maybe even through the Berkeley program.\nJenn Barrett: Or through the Berkeley program, right, because we know that they do have some\nfunding, right?\nJenn Barrett: I'll connect with Laurie on finding out who in the city can help us with that as well.\nLeslie Morrison: So it sounds like one of our goals for this next year is to become better informed\nabout the funding of mental health services and the mental health needs of Alamedans so we can\nidentify gaps and opportunities. Is that what I'm hearing?\nSusan Deutsch: Yeah, I think that sounds good. I mean we definitely need to know more before we\nproceed.\nJenn Barrett: Right.\nLeslie Morrison: Right.\nJennifer Roloff: Yes. That's a good summary.\nLeslie Morrison: And I just, for political language, I think that it isn't just talking about people with\nmental health issues, but really talking about in terms of disability, that it is a disability category.\nAnd talking about people that have mental health disabilities makes it squarely fall within this\ncommission's priority. And I think it's important to label it as a disability. I think that mental health\ncommunity has not really always been embraced by the disability community, and I think it's\nimportant to recognize that people with mental health disabilities fall within the disability\ncommunity and the jurisdiction of this commission.\nJenn Barrett: That's a great point, thank you. And I think the summary is great, so I appreciate that\nas well. Does anyone have any comments on the census being one of our goals for the year, with the\n2020 census coming up?\nLeslie Morrison: I would just say that one of our priorities is to be sure that people with disabilities\nare captured within the 2020 Census and ensuring that the Census is conducted in a way that is\naccessible to people with disabilities.\nJenn Barrett: Right. And I know that there are meetings that are happening on this, I believe\nthey're happening during the day. And so I can follow up with Laurie, so that, Commissioners, if\nyou are available during the day, to make sure you're able to attend.\nLeslie Morrison: It's something that I'm interested in, but it would depend upon when of course.\n03/13/19\nPage 11 of 28", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-03-13.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2019-03-13", "page": 12, "text": "ITEM 3-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, March 13, 2019, 6:30 PM\nJenn Barrett: Time. Right, of course.\nAnto Aghapekian: I would like to volunteer on that. During the days. I will attend the meetings.\nSusan Deutsch: I could be available depending on what day the meetings are.\nLeslie Morrison: Lots of interest.\nJenn Barrett: Great, that's awesome. Okay, so I will get back to Laurie on that, and if we have the\nthree of you, it can be kind of like a sub-committee. We don't have quorum, so you guys are able to\nwork on that together.\nLeslie Morrison: And talking about priorities, I have what was captured in the meeting minutes\nfrom February, and you are correct that one of the things that was discussed was homelessness and\nI'm just wondering if people here, if the commission feels knowledgeable about this issue. I'm new\nto the commission, so I don't really feel like I have a good handle on the implication of\nhomelessness on the community of people with disabilities and whether or not we want to do\nsomething similar about spending the year becoming informed, or maybe folks are already informed\nabout that.\nJennifer Roloff: When we had our retreat for 2018, we thought that mental illness is absolutely a\ndisability and that's something we wanted to focus on, so I think it took a little while to get the\nmomentum going. I don't know, if there's a legal classification or whatnot, but with mental illness\nbeing a disability, I think it definitely falls within our guidelines and no one has told us otherwise, to\ndate.\nLeslie Morrison: But my question is about the homelessness, it's sort of as a separate topic.\nJennifer Roloff: Oh, I see. Right, right. Because not all homeless people necessarily have.\nLeslie Morrison: Necessarily have mental disability, that's right.\nJennifer Roloff: Yes, that's a good point, that's tricky.\nLeslie Morrison: So I don't know, are people here informed about the situation of homelessness in\nAlameda and the challenges.\nArnold Brillinger: I don't think that we are. You get little snippets and pieces of the figures here for\nAlameda, but I need to know or I think I need to know, how they come about with these. What do\nthey include as homeless in their stats. And I don't even know who is in charge of that in Alameda\nor what group. So there's another area that we can focus in on getting some more programs for that.\nLeslie Morrison: It does seem to dovetail. I think there's a fair amount of overlap, I suspect,\nbetween people with mental health disabilities and homelessness although certainly it isn't mutually\nalways that case. But it could be a nice companion if the commission is focusing on mental health\n03/13/19\nPage 12 of 28", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-03-13.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2019-03-13", "page": 13, "text": "ITEM 3-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, March 13, 2019, 6:30 PM\nservices to also have a tangent into what's the homelessness situation but look at it with a broader\nlens than just mental health disabilities. Does that make sense?\nSusan Deutsch: Yes, because there are people that lose their jobs and end up becoming homeless\nfor periods of time. They don't have mental illness but they just can't afford to pay their rent.\nLeslie Morrison: And they may have another disability. This commission really is looking onto the\nissue of homelessness, broadly, but how it impacts people with disabilities, I presume. So, right.\nLiz Acord: So, I would just say I think this dovetails nicely into the question that we would want to\nask city staff working in the homelessness sector about the availability of funding potentially to\nwork with the school district. So, I would say let's wrap this into our request to Laurie to ask city\nstaff to provide some resources and help educate the committee or the commission rather on the\ngeneral state of homelessness in Alameda.\nJennifer Roloff: I think Doug Biggs, he came and spoke with us a little bit about Measure A, but he\nwas particularly addressing what they were working on there, he wasn't talking about the broader\nspectrum and I think they were breaking ground on Jean Sweeney and there they had to displace a\nhomeless encampment and it sounded like, if I remember correctly, it was a consortium of the\npolice and of Doug Biggs and his organization, probably many other groups. So I don't know if it\nfalls on any one responsibility. And I thought, when I was reading up on Measure A and Measure B,\nthere was something that was posted along the lines of a new regulation that said if Crab Cove\nbecame a homeless encampment of sorts, you can't kick them out or displace them unless they have\na place to go, and I don't think that was a city thing. I think that was obviously like county or state\nor. I think \"Who makes these policies that affect our cities as well?\" So, I don't know if it's just our\ncity. If Laurie is the right resource or Doug, we could probably have Doug just come and re-visit the\nprogram. I think he's part of HUD, right?\nJenn Barrett: I think it would be nice to hear from Doug or another city official who can provide\nus even more background into the need of Measure A. I think that would be a great topic to cover.\nJennifer Roloff: Yeah, and by the time they come, the election might have already happened and\nwe're not supposed to be so political anyway when it gets close to election time but I think he's\nfunded by HUD, by the federal government, the Alameda Point Collaborative? When the military\nmoved out, we're required to put resource or the federal government gets some of that military land,\nI think. So anyway, he could probably, definitely approach the city or we could start there.\nLeslie Morrison: He may also know other people who could join him in a presentation. People\nwho are providing crisis services or something.\nJenn Barrett: I'd also be interested to hear from city staff or the people who are running the\nwarming shelter. I volunteered there once this year and it was a very good experience, so I'd love to\nlearn more about what the city is doing in regards to that.\nJennifer Roloff: Oh, right and I think Lisa belongs to that church.\n03/13/19\nPage 13 of 28", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-03-13.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2019-03-13", "page": 14, "text": "ITEM 3-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, March 13, 2019, 6:30 PM\nJenn Barrett: Lisa volunteers. Yes. And maybe, she can speak to it as well.\nJennifer Roloff: So, if you're going to talk to Laurie, I'm happy to just do a reach out to Doug and\nmaybe say who would be the most appropriate speaker to speak on Alameda, specifically.\nJenn Barrett: That would be great.\nJennifer Roloff: Is that okay? I'll take that?\nJenn Barrett: Yeah. Because I feel like we have a broad understanding of the region and the needs\nbut it would be great to have something very specific to Alameda because I think that's missing.\nJennifer Roloff: Okay.\nLeslie Morrison: The other topic that's described in the minutes from February is voting access,\nvoter access which was an issue that I had raised. But since really the big federal election is in\nNovember 2020, it may be enough for us to just tackle these two issues this year and then I would\nlike for that to be something that the commission focuses on in time for the November 2020\nelection.\nJenn Barrett: I wonder how much we can learn from the Census in order to help that, because\nthere's some similarities between the Census and voting as we want to get as many people to\nparticipate as possible.\nLeslie Morrison: I suspect that the Census will be a while before the results of the Census become\npublic and may well be past the 2020 election.\nJenn Barrett: But at least we'll have maybe more of a strategy with these meetings of how to get\nmore people\nLeslie Morrison: To vote.\nJenn Barrett: Right.\nLeslie Morrison: Certainly. I have some experience around just ensuring that voting places are\naccessible but also how to get out the word about vote-by-mail options. And I have a connection\nwith someone who does a lot of advocacy around voting issues for people with disabilities and I'd\nbe happy to have that person come and just talk generally about what's happening in that field. But\nmaybe that could be later in the year.\nJenn Barrett: Okay, that sounds great.\nLeslie Morrison: It doesn't feel as urgent to me.\n03/13/19\nPage 14 of 28", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-03-13.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2019-03-13", "page": 15, "text": "ITEM 3-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, March 13, 2019, 6:30 PM\nJenn Barrett: Right. I'm not sure if and how many speakers we have scheduled already, but\ndefinitely put that on the list because I think that's going to be huge for 2020, I agree.\nArnold Brillinger: Because we could even have two presentations in the same day.\nJenn Barrett: Does anyone have any further comments about the retreat?\nJennifer Roloff: I reached out to Sarah Henry about social media and she sent me some guidelines\non what the social media policies were for the city, if we wanted to put out our own Facebook page\nor whatever social media outlet we find. And I briefed through it and it sounds like something we\nwere all fairly briefed on it, no vulgarity and stuff like that, and then no political positions. But she\nalso said that she has a huge Facebook following for the city page and if we ever wanted to send out\nannouncements, notifications, that she would be happy to send out whatever we wanted on our\nbehalf.\nJenn Barrett: That's great.\nJennifer Roloff: So I thought that might be a good way to start it.\nJenn Barrett: Okay, great. It takes away from having to have someone monitor the page, which\ncould be potentially a lot of work.\nJennifer Roloff: Yes, so I think we would just have to figure out how we wanted to get her\ninformation to send out and what information we did. And I don't know if our chair has allowed to\ndo that based on the minutes or how that works. Or we vote as a group at meetings, what we'd like\nto publicize.\nLiz Acord: So I think I can answer part of the question. Public Works staff does this - we as staff,\npush out information to the public information officer about our various projects, activities, events,\nand things. Once you decide and land on the appropriate mechanism to figure out what that\nmessaging would be, Laurie can handle that push out from the department level to the public\ninformation officer.\nJennifer Roloff: Which is Sarah Henry, right?\nLiz Acord: Which is Sarah, correct.\nLeslie Morrison: So, what I would just suggest is as we address items that we consider whether or\nnot it would be something that should be pushed out, for example, the park at Little John, has that\nbeen publicized as now being a park that is accessible to children with disabilities? It seems like\nthat ought to be something that we ought to be asking them to push out. If they're publicizing the\nopening of that park.\nSusan Deutsch: I think Amy Wooldridge has, but I don't know how much she has publicized it, but\nthere were plans that were sent out. Well, at least on the city website so people could look at it. And\n03/13/19\nPage 15 of 28", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-03-13.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2019-03-13", "page": 16, "text": "ITEM 3-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, March 13, 2019, 6:30 PM\nit's been a work in progress for about a year-and-a-half. I could ask her how the ribbon cutting\nceremony is being advertised.\nJennifer Roloff: Yes, I'm just looking at her post, the city of Alameda thread now. And I know I\nsaw it somewhere, I haven't seen it on hers. But if she hasn't yet, then we could send her a note\nsaying, \"Please publicize that someone from the Commission on Disability will be there and if\nyou'd like more information.\"\nLeslie Morrison: And that the play structure is accessible to children who use wheelchairs.\nJenn Barrett: Right. I think that's huge, is to not only announce that it's opening, but it's a new type\nof park.\nLeslie Morrison: Right.\nJennifer Roloff: Right. And she might incorporate that in the existing announcement that she's\ngoing to put out. I think that would probably be the best.\nLeslie Morrison: And I didn't mean to put you on the spot with that, but I think that as these items\ncome up for us to just think about is this something that could be pushed out through social media\nwith a disability focus? And I was using that as an example of something that they're probably\ngoing to publicize so we should just be sure that they add our spin.\nSusan Deutsch: Yes, I agree.\nJenn Barrett: Great. Okay, I'll make note of that to tell Laurie as well. Was there anything else that\npeople had?\nLeslie Morrison: Well, just looking at the minutes, the other item that was captured in the minutes\nin addition to the items we already talked about was climate change. And I don't know if that sounds\nlike that's something that this group has had a priority in previous years. It feels to me like\naddressing mental health services, homelessness, and the Census is going to be plenty for this year,\nbut I just wanted to call people's attention to that was the other topic that was discussed in February.\nJenn Barrett: There have been meetings on climate change. I went to one, I think, last year in the\nfall and definitely want to keep going to those as I hear about them. But I agree with you, I think\nthat it's a lot this year. So I think that if I hear of them, I'm definitely going to try to attend. Were\nyou in the sub-committee, Anto and Jennifer, maybe? Maybe it was just Beth and me and Anto. And\nso we'll definitely make sure we attend the meetings just so we know what's going on if there are\nmore in the future. But thank you for bringing that up.\nArnold Brillinger: One of the things that we need to do is we need to get more of the community\nengaged in what we're doing. I don't know how many people are watching us from home. How can\nwe find out? Is there a way to find out? And can we get them to put in some input into these\nmeetings to get their opinions heard too?\n03/13/19\nPage 16 of 28", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-03-13.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2019-03-13", "page": 17, "text": "ITEM 3-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, March 13, 2019, 6:30 PM\nLeslie Morrison: So I think this is a larger issue. I love where you're going with this, Arnold. I have\nconcerns about how accessible these meetings are, and I actually have questions about how\naccessible for example, the social media posts are, particularly for people who have hearing\nimpairments or vision impairments who might use screen readers. And many websites are not\naccessible to the technology that people with disabilities who have vision impairments and hearing\nimpairments use. So it's an excellent topic, and I think that that's the way we reach people. I don't\nknow how many of you have ever watched one of our meetings.\nLeslie Morrison: I don't have a vision impairment or a hearing impairment, and it's a very difficult\nway to engage. And so I think you can't dial in, we can't take public comment if someone isn't\nsitting here in the room. And in this day and age, there are just so many other ways to engage people\nwith disabilities who might not be able to be physically present, so I think it's an excellent question.\nI think it's cracking open a much larger issue that I've been wondering about myself. Sorry to put a\ndamper on that.\nJennifer Roloff: But I don't think we should stop the momentum that we do have.\nLeslie Morrison: Absolutely.\nJennifer Roloff: Even though we're not capturing everybody. But, yeah, you bring up a good point.\nLeslie Morrison: Well, and it is for this commission to raise it, because it really raises the issue of\nhow accessible all of the city meetings are and the technology that the city uses to engage people\nwith disabilities to participate.\nJenn Barrett: Right. And as you were talking, I was trying to flip through my notes, because I\nknow that we do have an email address for this commission that Laurie reviews and if more people\nknew about that email address, I think that would be a huge help to get more voice, because even if\nthey weren't able to attend the meeting they could write us an email and we could bring it up on the\nnext agenda. So maybe we look into making sure that that email address is dispersed properly.\nSorry, I don't have it right at my fingertips.\nLeslie Morrison: So I guess what I was thinking is that this is really another big project that the\ncommission could take on just in terms of how accessible both the commission is and general\ninformation being pushed out from the city is to people with disabilities. It feels like it's that big of a\ntopic to me. The firm I used to work with redid its website to make it completely disability\ncompliant and there's quite a bit involved in doing that, and I'm fairly certain that the information on\nAlameda's website probably doesn't meet those high level of standards. If we want to make it a\npriority I think it's great, but it should be bigger than just, \"Is our commission accessible?\" It's\nreally, \"Is city council available? And can we have better technology so people can participate\nremotely?\" And that isn't just about our commission, but it's about the technology that exists in this\nbuilding.\nAnto Aghapekian: Every commission meetings are advertised in the newspaper, what date and\n03/13/19\nPage 17 of 28", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-03-13.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2019-03-13", "page": 18, "text": "ITEM 3-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, March 13, 2019, 6:30 PM\ntimes. If we could add our email address to that announcement that always comes out on to the local\nnewspapers, then that will be one way of people to send us whatever comments they have. Just\nadding the email address to the announcement they have on a weekly basis, they announce it.\nLeslie Morrison: I haven't looked, are the agendas for those meetings posted also? Is there a link to\nthe agendas for those meetings so people know what we're talking about? I haven't looked.\nJenn Barrett: There's agendas on the city website, but to your point, it can be sometimes difficult\nto find.\nJennifer Roloff: And we should push that to Sarah too.\nJenn Barrett: Definitely.\nJennifer Roloff: Sarah Henry, I think. So people can just know how to contact us.\nJennifer Roloff: I know it's only one method.\nArnold Brillinger: Did they just recently revamp the city website?\nLiz Acord: Yes, they did.\nJenn Barrett: Are they finished with the updates?\nLiz Acord: Still working on the updates, but yes, you are correct. The city's entire website did\nrecently get a refresh.\nJenn Barrett: I do know someone with an accessibility background, but for a large software\ncompany. I'm going to try to reach out to her and see if she would be interested in coming to talk to\nus, because I talked to her once and I found it very interesting to hear accessibility from a whole\ndifferent perspective. So I'll reach out to her.\nLeslie Morrison: I also have a contact of the web designer that redid the website for this firm that I\nused to work for.\nJenn Barrett: Oh, great, okay.\nLeslie Morrison: And at much higher, very high disability standards and really helped us work\nthrough things that we didn't know that made our website unaccessible.\nJenn Barrett: And maybe if we could even schedule them for the same night, that would be great.\nOkay.\nJennifer Roloff: I just got a new job at Salesforce, which it's very committed to non-profits and I'll\nsee if there's someone that I can do a reach out to, let you know if I get anything.\n03/13/19\nPage 18 of 28", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-03-13.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2019-03-13", "page": 19, "text": "ITEM 3-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, March 13, 2019, 6:30 PM\nJenn Barrett: Okay. So I'm going to talk to Laurie about a potential meeting that we might be able\nto have this discussion and I'll get back to you guys.\nArnold Brillinger: Because this whole idea of accessibility is a very large topic. It could be\naccessibility to storefronts and things but it's also to programs and to the various activities that are\nhappening in Alameda. And so, we need to make sure that these services, the activities are all\naccessible to people no matter who they are in Alameda.\nLeslie Morrison: So, something as little as when you post a photograph, you should hover over the\nphotograph and it should pop up a description of what the photograph is of because people with\nvision impairments can't see what that photograph is. So, it has to be built in, whenever you post a\nphoto or any sort of an image that there has to be a descriptor of what that is. PDFs are inaccessible,\nfootnotes are inaccessible.\nJennifer Roloff: Because they can't be read by the machine?\nLeslie Morrison: The screen reader can't read them. Bullets are inaccessible.\nSusan Deutsch: But PDFs can be read now.\nLeslie Morrison: Not by all screen readers. And again, I'm not an expert in this area but it's the\nkind of stuff that we went round and round about because we posted so much stuff in that way.\nSusan Deutsch: I worked in the school district with kids with disabilities and I'm aware that there\nare PDFs that can be read so that when a student gets something scanned to them, it can be read.\nLeslie Morrison: On a screen reader?\nSusan Deutsch: Well, it's an app that reads PDFs. Now, I don't know if that's a screen reader but\nthere are apps that will read the PDF.\nJennifer Roloff: In the last technology job that I just left, we sold software that could work with\nunstructured data is what they call it, right, but you have to pay money for that. So the private\nindustries will have that, but yes, does the state? Does the city? Do all small, non-profits have that\ntechnology? I think technology is getting more accessible so we'll probably get there but I see your\npoint right now that it doesn't exist, universally.\nLeslie Morrison: Right.\nJenn Barrett: Great. Thank you for bringing up that topic. Okay, unless anyone has any other\nissues or items we're going to move on to 5C. Mr. Brillinger?\nArnold Brillinger: I was just thinking we were talking about getting the word out. I think that there\nare so many different things that we can let people know. For example, when it's the street fair out\n03/13/19\nPage 19 of 28", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-03-13.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2019-03-13", "page": 20, "text": "ITEM 3-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, March 13, 2019, 6:30 PM\nhere on Park Boulevard, if we get certain amount of parking spaces in the parking garage to be for\ndisabled, more than they normally have, I think the word ought to be disseminated and put in there\nalso that the Disability Commission has suggested this or has made it happen or whatever it is,\nbecause we need to let people know that there is a group that is working on these kinds of things.\nAnd that's going to be the way that people are more aware of the fact that there are a number of\npeople that meet every couple of months that are talking about disabilities.\nJennifer Roloff: I think that's a good idea. It makes me even think like could we block off an extra\nblock of one of the streets just for disabled parking, so we add parking to the total picture and let\nit\nbe for disabled parking.\nArnold Brillinger: Because we have done that in the city garage in past years, where we just asked\nfor some extra disabled spaces and they made sure that they were on flat ground, not on an angle\nand so forth. There are all kinds of things to look at and I think that these things if they are\ndisseminated among the people, that it will help for us to be more widely known.\nJennifer Roloff: And we can keep pushing stuff to Sarah and I think if we get the traction then, we\ncould possibly spin off our own but we could start with really getting that information to her.\nJenn Barrett: That'd be great.\nArnold Brillinger: But even as Anto was saying in the newspaper, get these things out to them\nalso, into the Sun. Some people read that from cover to cover.\nJennifer Roloff: Who was it that got the announcement for our meeting, one of our meetings into\nthe Sun? Was it Laurie that did that? One of our commission meetings was put in.\nJenn Barrett: I'm guessing it was Laurie.\nJennifer Roloff: We can follow up with her. And then also, what government body of the city\nhandles the Park Street Fair or the Webster Street or all the fairs?\nArnold Brillinger: The business associations.\nLiz Acord: Commissioner Brillinger is correct. The business associations or the business\nimprovement areas apply for a special event permit with the city to host those fairs and then various\ncity departments, if not all city departments, do support that effort. So police from traffic control,\npublic works from public right-of-way, community and economic development, etcetera do support\nthat effort.\nJennifer Roloff: Okay. So, Commissioner Barrett, are you liaison for the ABA and GABA and all\nthe business community.\nJenn Barrett: I don't believe we have one but since I'm going to be reaching out to them anyways.\n03/13/19\nPage 20 of 28", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-03-13.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2019-03-13", "page": 21, "text": "ITEM 3-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, March 13, 2019, 6:30 PM\nJennifer Roloff: Maybe you could mention the parking piece?\nJenn Barrett: Yeah, definitely. So, just to make sure I'm clearly understanding, it's during these\nfairs that we want to try to increase the accessible spaces.\nJennifer Roloff: For parking, yes.\nJenn Barrett: Great.\nAnto Aghapekian: And I think the city should get involved with that. Parking on the streets, it's a\ncity issue, it's not the business. I think we should work with the city asking them to ask the\norganizers or for the city to dedicate a certain street, a certain area for parking.\nJenn Barrett: Right, because they are city streets and the city owned garage and they decide. I'm\nsure the city, maybe they work with the city to determine which streets are closed during the event.\nLiz Acord: That is correct. When they submit their special event permit, they are proposing the\nparameters of that event including what streets would be closed during what times. And so I think\nthat this could be sort of a dual effort between communication with the business associations and\nthen communication with your regular staff person for this commission who happens to sit in the\nPublic Works Department as keeper of the public right-of-way.\nArnold Brillinger: While we're throwing out different ideas, who is our planning liaison? Planning\nboard liaison? Anto?\nJenn Barrett: Yes, and myself.\nArnold Brillinger: And yourself. Do we know how many units have been built or are being built\nwith the universal design or since the Universal Design Ordinance?\nAnto Aghapekian: No.\nJenn Barrett: We do not, but I do know that Laurie is helping conduct the reviews of these\nbuildings, so I'm sure I can get some information from her and if not, the planning department.\nArnold Brillinger: Because it would be great to go out and visit some of these places and see how\nwell they actually conform.\nJenn Barrett: And it would be a nice thing to share with the community on social media posts and\nother things to say, \"Hey, did you know that we have this ordinance and this is what we've achieved\nso far from that.'\nAnto Aghapekian: And how the buyers of these units, how they're reacting to it.\nArnold Brillinger: Well we need to see all that, because that's part of what we had said. We said\n03/13/19\nPage 21 of 28", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-03-13.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2019-03-13", "page": 22, "text": "ITEM 3-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, March 13, 2019, 6:30 PM\nthey need to have some glossy information, not just a thing that is half printed and that it needs to\nbe a selling point rather than, \"Oh, by the way. So that people want to buy them.\nSusan Deutsch: I looked at the new housing element that was written, and it was nice to see that\nthey are including people with disabilities in the housing element now. And also, they specifically\nincluded people with developmental disabilities. And so it's really nice that all the work we did is\nnow included in the housing element.\n5-C Elections of New Commission Chair and Vice Chair (City Staff)\nJenn Barrett: Great. Okay, I'd like to move on to item 5C which is the election of new commission\nchair and vice chair. I believe how this worked last year is that people either nominated themselves\nor nominated a fellow commissioner. We can maybe have a little bit of discussion and then we can\nvote on the item. I guess we can start with the commission chair. Does anyone have any\nnominations for the commission chair?\nSusan Deutsch: Does anybody want to be the commission chair?\nAnto Aghapekian: I would like to nominate you [Jenn Barrett].\nJennifer Roloff: And I would love to second that nomination.\nJenn Barrett: Okay.\nLiz Acord: So I believe now you can call for a vote, because you have a motion and a second.\nJenn Barrett: Okay.\nJennifer Roloff: Please.\nJenn Barrett: All in favor of Jennifer Barrett becoming the new commission chair, those in favor\nsay, \"Aye.\"\nAll: Aye.\nJenn Barrett: Okay. So unanimous vote that I'm your new commission chair.\nJenn Barrett: Thank you. So now we'll move on to the vice chair. Would anyone like to nominate\nthemselves for vice chair?\nArnold Brillinger: I'll nominate myself.\nJenn Barrett: Okay. Arnold. And would anyone like to nominate someone else on the commission?\nAnto Aghapekian: I would like to nominate Leslie.\n03/13/19\nPage 22 of 28", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-03-13.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2019-03-13", "page": 23, "text": "ITEM 3-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, March 13, 2019, 6:30 PM\nJenn Barrett: I also wanted to nominate Leslie.\nLeslie Morrison: Wow. What does the position of vice chair entail?\nJenn Barrett: So, sorry. I'm sorry we didn't go over this further. So the vice chair basically would\nsupport the chair. If the chair is unable to attend a meeting, the vice chair steps in. If we get an email\nabout a concern, Laurie gets an email about a concern, for instance, we had the woman who was\nstranded because her wheelchair didn't work anymore and so Laurie will reach out to the chair, but\nthen if she needs additional assistance with that, she'll reach out to the vice chair as well. So it's\nbasically just assisting with anything that the chair might need help with or that Laurie wants quick\nattention to. Say, like when the Census meeting occurred, because she didn't have much time to talk\nto Beth, she also included me in the email to see if either of us could attend.\nLeslie Morrison: And it's a one year term?\nJenn Barrett: Yes. Both are one year terms.\nLeslie Morrison: Okay, I'll throw my hat in.\nJenn Barrett: Okay. Are there any other nominations? Okay, so we will So just to be clear, if\nthere's no second of a nomination are they still valid?\nLiz Acord: So I think what we would want to do is consider Commissioner Brillinger's self\nnomination as a motion and then call for a second and then approval and then if that motion were to\nfail, move on to the second motion.\nJenn Barrett: Okay, thank you.\nLeslie Morrison: It just seems odd to me. That may be procedural, but you have two people who\nhave been nominated, SO..\nLiz Acord: I apologize, I am trying to navigate this the best that I can. I think what the commission\ncould also do is make a separate and third motion if you will to say, \"I will nominate. \" For\nexample, you could say, \"I will nominate X and so move,\" and then you could call for a second on\nthat motion. Failing having any instructions provided to me in the 11th hour before this meeting,\nthat's what I would see happening.\nSusan Deutsch: Can we make a motion to have some sort of a vote that's private?\nLeslie Morrison: I don't think that this is a motion, this is a nomination. I think that we're\nconfusing the terms. So, you have vacant positions and you have people that are nominated and then\nyou call for a vote of the people that have been nominated. It's different than a motion.\nLiz Acord: Okay.\n03/13/19\nPage 23 of 28", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-03-13.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2019-03-13", "page": 24, "text": "ITEM 3-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, March 13, 2019, 6:30 PM\nLeslie Morrison: So other boards I've sat on, you have several people who have been nominated.\nLiz Acord: I apologize that I'm unfamiliar with the protocol at this point.\nLeslie Morrison: It's alright. Think you have two nominations. You have Arnold and you have me.\nAnd then I think you call for a vote, and you could do a written vote if you want, or since you have\ntwo people who are running, we could also take an oral vote or a hand vote, if you want.\nJenn Barrett: Okay. Thank you for your help with that. I'm sorry, I'm not as familiar with these as I\nshould be. So I apologize for that. So we have two nominations. We have Commissioner Brillinger\nand we have Commissioner Morrison. I think that the best way to do this is by a hand vote. So can\nwe have everyone who would like to vote for Commissioner Morrison to raise their hand please?\nAnd all those in favor to vote for Commissioner Brillinger? Okay, so the vote is four to two for\nCommissioner Morrison to become our new Vice Chair of the Commission.\n5-D\nConfirmation of New Subcommittee Assignments (All Commissioners)\nJenn Barrett: Okay. We're going to go on to item 5D, which is the confirmation of new sub-\ncommittee assignments. I know that Beth was taking notes on this. I'm sorry, I'm just looking up on\nmy email that she sent me today. She said that our sub-committee assignments have relatively\nstayed the same as last year. I don't have the list that she created, but it's something that we can just\nadd to the agenda for next time to make sure that everyone is clear on what sub-committee they\nhave been assigned to, and which board liaisons we would like them to report to.\nLeslie Morrison: That would be great.\nJenn Barrett: Okay, great.\nLeslie Morrison: We're at end of the meeting and I'm not clear on what I was assigned.\nJenn Barrett: Right, we were very rushed at the end, and so I want to make sure that that goes on\nto our agenda for next time. The only item that she has in her notes is that Leslie was going to do\nCity Council.If Jenny no longer wishes to, otherwise Leslie was going to do SSHRB? Obviously,\nJenny is not present right now, but those were the only two sub-committee changes. Does anyone\nhave any comments or questions on their sub-committees, other than the fact that we're going to talk\nabout it next meeting? No? Okay.\n6. STAFF COMMUNICATIONS\nJenn Barrett: Staff communications?\nLiz Acord: Just very briefly wanted to thank you all for bearing with the last minute staffing\nchange. Unfortunately, this afternoon, Laurie was no longer able to attend this evening. And so here\nI am helping, or hindering, depending on how you look at it. So I appreciate your patience with that,\nand Laurie will be back next time.\n03/13/19\nPage 24 of 28", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-03-13.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2019-03-13", "page": 25, "text": "ITEM 3-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, March 13, 2019, 6:30 PM\nJennifer Roloff: Thank you.\nJenn Barrett: Thank you so much for filling in last minute. We really appreciate that.\n7. ANNOUNCEMENTS\nJenn Barrett: Item 7 is announcements. Do we have any announcements?\nAnto Aghapekian: I don't have an announcement, but I have an issue that came up in the\nnewspaper I got aware of, that I would like to bring to the commission's attention and discussion,\nand see if there is anything that we can do about it. It was in last week's Alameda Sun. The Alameda\nUnified School District, who has given the parents who have children with learning issues, and they\nhave arbitrarily, without consulting with the parents, they have moved them to another school,\nanother area. And the parents are extremely unhappy. I don't know if you want me to read this\narticle. You may have seen this article.\nJennifer Roloff: Yes.\nSusan Deutsch: No, I haven't.\nAnto Aghapekian: I think that the parents of these children are, literally, 24/7, 365 days and night,\nare working with these kids. And I have a lot of respect to their knowledge and their experience.\nAnd for the school district to just arbitrarily decide to move them around just by giving the parents\none week notice is kind of hard to accept. And I don't know what we can do. I don't know if we can\nwrite a letter to the school district asking them to pay more attention to the parents and their\nopinions. Something like this, to my experience, the school district should have organized a\nworkshop with the parents weeks, weeks, if not months, ahead of that to discuss how they're going\nto handle this issue. I do know that the school district has problems with finances and they're trying\nto deal with the best they can with how to stretch the dollars that they have, but to do it at the\nexpense of these children is not a good way to go. So my request is for this commission to let the\nschool know that we support these kids and their parents, and we would like the school district to\nput the brakes on this program and listen to the parents and work with the parents a little closer, to\ncome up with a better solution than what they have.\nLeslie Morrison: What's the date of that article?\nAnto Aghapekian: This is last week, this is last Tuesday.\nLeslie Morrison: It's a Tuesday, so that would have been the 7th?\nSusan Deutsch: It's the Alameda Sun?\nAnto Aghapekian: Yes.\n03/13/19\nPage 25 of 28", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-03-13.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2019-03-13", "page": 26, "text": "ITEM 3-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, March 13, 2019, 6:30 PM\nJennifer Roloff: It's fairly recent, yes. I saw it on Facebook.\nLeslie Morrison: March 5th.\nJenn Barrett: Do you have the title of the article?\nAnto Aghapekian: Yes, it's called, \"The program moved, no warning to parents\". And a highlight\nfrom one of the parents is, \"When our children are asked to move, it is often with almost no\nrecognition, as if our children are invisible.\" There is one paragraph in here that touched me. It's\nfrom one of the parents. And I don't know if I should read it, but I think that the school district\nshould pay more attention to what's going down with these kids and their parents.\nJennifer Roloff: I would be happy to do some follow-up on that as the liaison to school board.\nI\ncould even go for public announcements and maybe just do an outreach to one of the school board\nmembers, as an action item. I don't know if that's going to solve the problem or get exactly what\nwe\nwant to do, but I can start there.\nJenn Barrett: Great. Definitely.\nLeslie Morrison: Can we write a letter?\nJenn Barrett: I'm going to check with Laurie on that.\nLeslie Morrison: I'd be happy to draft the letter, and circulate it for the commission to take a look\nat.\nJenn Barrett: Great.\nLeslie Morrison: I certainly have a lot more questions about it, so I need to read the article and\nunderstand what's exactly going on.\nSusan Deutsch: And I have a lot of questions too.\nLeslie Morrison: So, thank you. But I'd be happy to draft a letter.\nJenn Barrett: Great, that'll be great.\nLeslie Morrison: And circulate it, once I learn more.\nJenn Barrett: Right. I'm frustrated that our meetings are SO far apart. By the time we come up and\ndiscuss this, it's going to be two months later. So let me reach out to Laurie to see what else we can\ndo.\nLeslie Morrison: So it sounds like what they did is they moved the designated special education\nclassroom that had been at Lincoln, and they moved it to Wood. That's just the first paragraph, what\n03/13/19\nPage 26 of 28", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-03-13.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2019-03-13", "page": 27, "text": "ITEM 3-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, March 13, 2019, 6:30 PM\nI'm gathering, is that they moved the entire classroom of probably middle school kids in special\neducation. But transitions are really difficult. And they're difficult for anyone, especially for\nchildren and children that have disabilities. It can be very difficult. As well as considering how to\nready the new community to receive a classroom now of special education students. And did the\nteachers follow?\nJenn Barrett: And maybe there's a statement that we can bring to the school board.\nJennifer Roloff: And I think what we talked about earlier. Where we can interject, where the city\ncan play, will also be part of the greater conversation, not necessarily this issue.\nJenn Barrett: Right. And because you've been nominated by our commission to speak on behalf of\nour commission at the school board, there might be an ability for us to write a statement and have\nthat said by you at one of their meetings.\nJennifer Roloff: Okay, if you circulate something.\nLeslie Morrison: Yes.\nJennifer Roloff: I can send some feedback and maybe just say enough.\nJenn Barrett: I think it's something that we should also bring up with the City Council as well.\nJennifer Roloff: Yes.\nJenn Barrett: I think it's very important.\nLeslie Morrison: This article describes the children as some of them are non-verbal, some of them,\nit sounds like they have moderate to severe cognitive impairments. So significant sensory issues, all\nof which, those kinds of transitions would be something you'd want to plan more carefully.\nJenn Barrett: What I'm wondering, are they getting special transportation now to this different\nlocation?\nLeslie Morrison: I suspect that their transportation followed, so they were transporting them to\nLincoln and now they're transporting them to Wood. But the transition itself is\nJenn Barrett: Is hard.\nLeslie Morrison: Hard.\nJenn Barrett: Definitely. Okay, thank you so much for bringing that to our attention. Really\nimportant. So I will also bring that up with Laurie and see that we can do something prior to our\nnext meeting, because our next meeting is so far away.\n03/13/19\nPage 27 of 28", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-03-13.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2019-03-13", "page": 28, "text": "ITEM 3-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, March 13, 2019, 6:30 PM\nJennifer Roloff: Yeah, and then we'll follow up about a statement. Okay.\nLeslie Morrison: I'll try to have a letter drafted by early next week.\nJenn Barrett: Okay. Great.\nArnold Brillinger: This reminds me that, as liaisons, when we're there at the meetings, we identify\nourselves. And let them know that we're coming. That we are on the Board, or on the commission,\nand that the commission is interested in what's going on.\nJennifer Roloff: Right. We can declare that we're there on behalf of. Okay. Thank you.\n8.\nADJOURNMENTS\nJenn Barrett: Does anyone else have any further announcements? Okay. Item 8, as adjournment.\nWould anyone like to file a motion to adjourn?\nLeslie Morrison: I move.\nJennifer Roloff: I second.\nLiz Acord: Okay. So thank you all for attending the meeting tonight on the Commission on\nDisability.\n03/13/19\nPage 28 of 28", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2019-03-13.pdf"}
{"body": "LibraryBoard", "date": "2019-03-13", "page": 1, "text": "CITY\nOF\nof\nof\n$\nORATEIO\nMINUTES OF THE\nALAMEDA FREE LIBRARY BOARD MEETING\nWEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2019\nThe regular meeting of the Alameda Free Library Board was called to order at 6:00 p.m.\nROLL CALL\nPresent:\nCynthia Silva, President\nDorothy Wismar, Vice President\nAmber Bales, Board Member\nKathleen Kearney, Board Member\nJoyce McConeghey Board Member\nAbsent:\nNone\nStaff:\nJane Chisaki, Library Director\nLori Amaya, Recording Secretary\nORAL COMMUNICATIONS. AGENDA (Public Comment)\nNone.\nCONSENT CALENDAR\nAn asterisk indicates items so enacted or approved on the Consent Calendar\n*A.\nReport from the Library Director Highlighting Activities for the Months of January and February,\n2019.\n*B.\nDraft Minutes of the Regular Library Board Meeting of November 14, 2018 and January 9, 2019.\n*C.\nLibrary Services Report for the Months of December, 2018 and January, 2019.\n*D.\nFinancial Report Reflecting FY17/18 Expenditures by Fund for January and February, 2019.\n*E.\nBills for Ratification for the Months of January and February, 2019.\nDirector Chisaki shared that the unsheltered are becoming an issue. One in particular has been issued a\ntrespass warning because he screams obscenities and scares patrons and staff. A knife was found hidden\nin the collection and staff are starting to feel unsafe. Comfort and safety of the community and staff are a\npriority, so the library is looking into hiring a part-time security person to patrol inside and outside the\nbuilding. The library is having issues in the parking lot with businesses parking in the lot. Signs will be", "path": "LibraryBoard/2019-03-13.pdf"}
{"body": "LibraryBoard", "date": "2019-03-13", "page": 2, "text": "Page 2 of 3\nMinutes of the\nAlameda Free Library Board\nJanuary 9, 2019 Meeting\ninstalled instead of parking meters. Staff Development Day will be on April 1, 2019. Alameda Point\nCollaborative will come in to speak on de-escalation and the unsheltered. The Strategic Plan will be on\nhold briefly and Director Chisaki will hold until after conference calls with President Silva and the\npotential consultants are held. Cosette is retiring in May and the opening for her position will open\ntomorrow for three weeks. The I.T. manager unexpectedly retired, and an analyst will be moving up into\nthe manager position. David Boxton will make a lateral move from the library to City Hall's analyst\nposition. The library will hire a replacement for David. Carol Roth's replacement starts on Monday. We\nare asking for three brand new full time positions in the budget. The new streaming services are going\nwell and classes have been full. The Bay Farm branch will start a new film series to go along with their\nbook club. Adult Literacy is busy. Their funding looks stable, so they are able to plan ahead.\nBoard Member Kearney moved to accept the Draft Minutes of the November 14, 2018 and January 9,\n2019, Regular Library Board Meeting. Board Member Wismar seconded the motion. Board Member\nMcConeghey abstained. The motion passed with a 4-0-1 vote.\nVice President Wismar moved to accept the Consent Calendar. Board Member Kearney seconded the\nmotion, which passed with a 5-0 vote.\nUNFINISHED BUSINESS\nA.\nStrategic Plan Status Update. (J. Chisaki)\nSome consultants have not responded to Director Chiaki, so the City Attorney advised that as long as there\nis record of dates and time she attempted to speak to them, it would be fine to move forward with the\nselection of the a consultant. Director Chisaki will work with President Silva on the selection.\nNEW BUSINESS\nA.\nElimination of Library Overdue Fines. (J. Chisaki)\nDirector Chisaki would like all patron accounts to start with a clean slate. Fines going back for seven\nyears will be waived. Lost fees will not be waived. $25 is the threshold for patron accounts to go to\ncollections. Receptacles will be placed at strategic location for patrons to return overdue books. There\nwill be two automatic renewals. Staff will make phone calls to patrons asking for the books to be returned\nif the books are being held by others. This will be implemented after the start of the new fiscal year.\nThere will be press releases, social media posts, handouts, etc. to advertise. Vice President Wismar\nsuggested we clarify language so there is no confusion between fines and fees.\nVice President Wismar moved to move forward with the elimination of overdue fines. Board Member\nMcConeghey seconded the motion, which passed with a 5-0 vote.", "path": "LibraryBoard/2019-03-13.pdf"}
{"body": "LibraryBoard", "date": "2019-03-13", "page": 3, "text": "Page 3 of 3\nMinutes of the\nAlameda Free Library Board\nJanuary 9, 2019 Meeting\nB.\nFriends of the Library. (J. Chisaki)\nThe next Friends meeting is on May 20, 2019. They are busy with their upcoming book sale on May 3 -\n5, 2019. The Public Works Department has started cleaning out the space for the Friends to move into.\nThey have not yet moved forward with their Strategic Plan because they are busy with programs.\nC.\nPatron Suggestions/Comments (Speak-Outs) and Library Director's Response\nNone.\nLIBRARY BOARD COMMUNICATIONS\nBoard Member Wismar shared that she listened to the \"Room of Requirement\" episode of the \"This\nAmerican Life\" podcast. Brooklyn Public Library launched a new podcast this week. The first episode is\n\"Books are not dead\" and she will start listening to that series.\nBoard Member Kearney shared that when the patron that yells was shouting in the library, someone went\nto her and she suggested they write a letter of her concerns to Director Chisaki, and she called 911.\nBoard Member McConeghey shared that she went to the MLK celebration and enjoyed it. She\nappreciated Director Chisaki informing her about it. Board Member Kearney and President Silva also\nattended and they found it interesting.\nBoard Member McConeghey attended the EOC Open House and signed up for CERT training.\nDIRECTOR'S COMMENTS\nDirector Chisaki asked the Board if they received invites to the Meet Your Public Officials event. Board\nMember Bales had not yet received hers. The City has a new City Attorney and he starts on May 13,\n2019. The City Manager is starting on April 12, 2019.\nORAL COMMUNICATIONS, NON-AGENDA GENERAL\nNone.\nADJOURNMENT\nThe meeting was adjourned at 7:25 p.m.\nRespectfully submitted,\nJane Chisaki, Library Director and\nSecretary to the Alameda Free Library Board", "path": "LibraryBoard/2019-03-13.pdf"}