{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 1, "text": "COMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MUTES OF\nWednesday May 9, 2018 6:30 p.m.\n1.\nROLL CALL\nBeth Kenny: I would like to call to order the meeting of the Commission on Disability for\nWednesday, May 9th, 2018. I'd like to start with roll call.\nLaurie Kozisek: Beth Kenny?\nBeth Kenny: Present.\nLaurie Kozisek: Anto Aghapekian?\nAnto Aghapekian: Present.\nLaurie Kozisek: Lisa Hall?\nLisa Hall: Present.\nLaurie Kozisek: Jenn Barrett?\nJenn Barrett: Present.\nLaurie Kozisek: Susan Deutsch?\nSusan Deutsch: Present.\nLaurie Kozisek: Arnold Brillinger?\nArnold Brillinger: Here.\nLaurie Kozisek: Jenny Linton? And Jennifer Rolloff. Did I call you? Susan Deutsch.\nSusan Deutsch: Yes.\nLaurie Kozisek: Okay.\n2.\nMINUTES\nBeth Kenny: Thank you. Moving on to agenda item number two, the minutes. We have approval of\ntwo minutes for this meeting. First, we'll start with the approval of the minutes for the February\n14th, 2018 meeting. Does anyone have any corrections or questions about those minutes? I move\nthat we approve the minutes for the meeting of February 14th, 2018.\nArnold Brillinger: Second.\n05/30/18\nPage 1 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 2, "text": "COMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MUTES OF\nWednesday May 9, 2018 6:30 p.m.\nBeth Kenny: All in favor?\nAll: Aye.\nBeth Kenny: Approved unanimously. Minutes for the April 11th, 2018 meeting, does anyone have\nany comments, questions, or changes they'd like to see on those minutes? I don't know if this is the\nappropriate place to say this. I missed that meeting, but I just wanted to say I did watch it and I\nthought it was an excellent meeting. And yes, guys, I'm sorry I missed it. I did have one question\nthat I don't know, again, if this is the right spot to address this, but in the SeeClickFix, during your\npresentation, you said that you go in as a citizen, and I'm just wondering about that verbiage, if we\ncan say residents instead of citizen.\nLaurie Kozisek: I think it's just listed as citizen, but there are two main ways to get in, either as a\ncitizen or as a staff member for the city. So I was just trying to show it from both points of view.\nBeth Kenny: Okay. So there's nothing that somebody has to click saying, \"I am a citizen\"?\nLaurie Kozisek: No.\nBeth Kenny: Okay.\nLaurie Kozisek: You could be just somebody who happens to be coming through.\nBeth Kenny: Okay. Great, thank you.\nLaurie Kozisek: And so I might make comments about Oakland or something too. Who knows?\nBeth Kenny: Great. Thank you.\nLaurie Kozisek: For the record. Jennifer Rolloff is here too.\nBeth Kenny: Welcome. I move that we approve the minutes for the April 11th, 2018 meeting. All in\nfavor?\nAll: Aye.\nBeth Kenny: Any opposed?\n3.\nORAL COMMUNICATION\n[None]\n4.\nNEW BUSINESS\nBeth Kenny: Now we'll move on to agenda item number three, oral communications, non agenda.\nIt does not look like we have any public comments tonight on non agenda items. So let's get right\n05/30/18\nPage 2 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 3, "text": "COMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MUTES OF\nWednesday May 9, 2018 6:30 p.m.\ninto it. Agenda Item Number Four, New Business, item 4A, Climate Change and Disability by Alex\nGhenis. Climate Policy Specialist with the World Institute On Disability. Welcome, Alex.\nAlex Ghenis: Hi.\nBeth Kenny: And Patrick.\nPatrick Peligri-O'Day: Hi. Great pleasure to be here. My name is Patrick Peligri-O'Day. I am an\nAmericorps fellow placed with the city working in the Public Works Department on the\ndevelopment of our climate action and adaptation plan. And I have been in touch with Alex for the\npast few months. We've been talking about the possibility of taking considerations of the disability\ncommunity more seriously in this plan, because there's an important intersection between climate\nadaptation, climate preparedness efforts, and the disability community and Alex has been a really\ngreat resource. And so I'm very excited that he's here to talk to you all today and excited for his\npresentation. And Alex is a climate policy specialist. Is that your title?\nAlex Ghenis: Policy and research specialist.\nPatrick Peligri-O'Day: Policy and research specialist at the World Institute on Disability. He does\na lot of really amazing work. He has worked mostly at the state level, I believe, with California\nDepartments of Public Health and California Offices of Environmental Services. So it's a big\npleasure to have him here in Alameda today talking to us. So without further ado, go ahead.\nAlex Ghenis: Great, thank you.\nAlex Ghenis: Hi everybody. So yes, my name is Alex Ghenis. I'm a policy and research specialist\nwith the World Institute on Disability. We're located in Berkeley. We are a non-profit that focuses on\na number of disability related issues such as employment, economic empowerment, healthcare, and\nalso have been working in the field of disaster readiness for over a decade. About four years ago, we\nstarted an initiative to research and begin developing policies looking at the intersection of climate\nchange and disability. So how people with disabilities will be affected by climate change, and then\nwhat we can do to safeguard people with disabilities' well being and as cities or other government\nentities such as Alameda are planning for climate change in the future, to ensure that disability is\nincluded in those plans.\nAlex Ghenis: So I'm here to talk just about that general issue, what Alameda is looking at in the\nfuture. We, as I mentioned just a minute ago, have done research, we've done presentations, we've\ndone direct work with other entities around disaster readiness especially, and we're very interested\nin communicating and potentially partnering with Alameda to be a constructive partner in the\ndevelopment of the city's climate resilience plan. I've got a presentation here to give a bit of an\noverview. It's one that I've done before, but really tried to tweak it to meet the needs of Alameda and\nwhat you will be doing going forward.\nAlex Ghenis: So just a quick overview is the simple bullet points. Climate change is here and\nprogressing. I'm going to give a quick run down on climate change because I think it's important to\nset the stage why we need to focus on adaptation and resilience, especially at the individual city\n05/30/18\nPage 3 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 4, "text": "COMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MUTES OF\nWednesday May 9, 2018 6:30 p.m.\nlevels. Cities can reduce greenhouse emissions but also need to get ready for what's on the way. And\nthat's actually very possible here at the city level. The need to focus on disability and then Patrick\nhas shared with me and we've talked a bit about Alameda's plans and needs going forward. Then\nhow we can integrate disability and then a little bit about the potential for a partnership between our\norganization and your city.\nAlex Ghenis: Really the TLDR [Too Long Didn't Read] of what is climate change is basically the\nsun gives thermal radiation. There are different gases in the atmosphere, oxygen, nitrogen,\nhydrogen, helium, don't hold any heat. They don't vibrate when the sun's rays hit them. The only\nthings that keeps us from being the temperature of space are greenhouse gases such as carbon\ndioxide and those have gone up, CO2 has gone up about 46% since we started burning coal way\nback in the 1880s, and that is starting to make things a lot warmer. As things get warmer, that\nchanges the way that the earth operates. It changes many, many aspects of the climate system.\nAlex Ghenis: Beth and I were very briefly talking about the city's focus on disaster readiness, but\nthere really is a lot more than that. Alameda for example is very concerned about sea level rise,\nespecially over the long-term, being that most of the city is pretty close to sea level. And that will\naffect nature ecosystems and humanity, and affect all of these in kind of intersecting and diverse\nways.\nAlex Ghenis: Just a quick graph right here. The next slide is, you can see this is how carbon and in\nsolid form and in gases moves throughout the system. And we have started, I had another slide, and\nI don't know why I forgot to put it in here, but it has circles around a good half dozen of these 20\ndifferent things that we've really started to throw out of whack. So burning fossil fuels, we're\nstarting to pull that coal gas the way that we've changed our farming. There are more forest fires\nbecause things are getting hotter. And one of my main concerns is the fact that we've kickstarted a\nsystem that is going to perpetuate itself, even if we go entirely renewable. And that's why it's so\nimportant to adapt.\nAlex Ghenis: Some of the impacts of climate change, I'm sure you all have seen these before, the\ndirect impacts being stronger, more frequent storms. What hit us last year in 2017, the winter of\n2016-2017 was really unprecedented, especially in the way that those storms came down.\nExpanding drought and forest fires. There's a lot of drought in the southwest right now. It's certainly\naffecting California and the forest fires, I think, as we all know, were a big, big issue this past year,\nand will continue to be going forward. And if there's forest fires in Napa, it doesn't necessarily\naffect homes in Alameda, but it certainly affects people with asthma and particulate matter and\nthings like that will affect the population over here.\nAlex Ghenis: Sea level rise and ocean acidification. As oceans get warmer, they expand and get\ntaller. And as our ice caps melt, all that ice floods into the ocean and the oceans get taller still. And\nwe're looking at a lot of that, potentially a whole lot, which is really important as I said to the city.\nMore intense heat waves, especially in urban areas. The Bay Area certainly deals with a lot of that.\nAnd Alameda has certain parks and open spaces, but for the large part is an urban environment and\nthere will be very intense heat waves here. And then just general weather pattern changes, which\nwill affect us. We've built society around a certain weather pattern and it's going to change moving\nforward. It will have indirect impacts on infrastructure, food insecurity, poor health and mortality. It\n05/30/18\nPage 4 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 5, "text": "COMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MUTES OF\nWednesday May 9, 2018 6:30 p.m.\nwill lead to a greater number of people with disabilities and exacerbate disabilities, which is\ncertainly something pertinent to this commission. There will be economic disruptions which I know\ncertainly, I think people with disabilities rely on the modern economy and social services a whole\nlot more in some ways than able-bodied folks do. So certainly, if that goes haywire, that'll affect our\ncommunity.\nAlex Ghenis: And then other issues, I'd say, widespread migration and displacement in climate\nrefugees here. But one of the things that Alameda's initial scoping shows is that, if certain parts of\nthe city in the very long-term, start to deal with sea level rising go under water, then the city might\nhave to plan a certain amount of managed retreat from certain parts of the island of Alameda. Really\nquickly, we can't stop it. And I love Al Gore and 350.org, and the rest of that. But the reality is that\nif you look at the left side of this slide, this was from actually the mid 2000s, one of the\nInternational Panel on Climate Change graphs. And you can see where we've come from 1850 in\nterms of average surface temperature. And depending on how much we omit moving forward, that\nblue is the lowest optimistic scenario, which a lot of people are saying is pretty much not going to\nhappen, and things can go all the way up to the red. And if some of the nature's feedback loops go,\nthen it can go even more than that. Again, it's a very serious issue for us.\nAlex Ghenis: It's important for us to adapt. And this actually I think is one of the most under\naddressed issues, but something that really, really matters for society and saving lives and well\nbeing. And I see it as two main steps, which is, number one, generate general resiliency in society in\ngeneral. This is economic resiliency. This is strong social systems. This is strong infrastructure. And\nwhether you're focusing on climate change or otherwise, this is really valuable. The Bay Area might\nget hit by an earthquake. If we have more community and infrastructure resilience, in the face of\nclimate change, it's beneficial regardless. And then finally, situation focused planning, on the many\nimpacts of climate change. And I'll talk about the specific ones that Alameda is looking at in a\nminute. And this all does take time, partnerships, very detailed planning and resources. And it's best\nto start early and really invest with a strong forward looking plan. So adaptive climate justice.\nPeople talk about climate justice, is that the basics are certain vulnerable communities will get hit\nhardest by climate change.\nAlex Ghenis: What we've found in our research, and in a lot of the literature and planning, is that\npeople with disabilities are just a word in a list of \"vulnerable communities\" as opposed to\nrecognizing kind of the intersectionality, the diversity of types of disabilities and the diversity of\nneeds. But certainly other communities are developing countries and the global south. Economically\ndisempowered individuals, which is a focus of the city's resilience planning. People of color and\nreligious and ethnic minorities that might be marginalized already. And then again, people with\ndisabilities. Adaptive climate justice says, first of all, this is something we all care about period is,\naddress the root causes of vulnerability and disproportionate kind of marginalization, and make sure\nthat that isn't there on the baseline. Provide the resources for people to have a healthy, sustainable\nlife. But then as we are preparing for climate change, recognize that certain communities will need\nspecialized, focused resources for the future. Provide those and continue to provide them into the\nfuture, using what we call an equity framework.\nAlex Ghenis: Don't just say, \"We're going to give out all the resources equally and everybody will\nbe happy.' Recognize that some people need more and then distribute them in an equitable way. So\n05/30/18\nPage 5 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 6, "text": "COMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MUTES OF\nWednesday May 9, 2018 6:30 p.m.\nhere's a question mark. What does climate change have to do with disability? You might start to get\na gist of it, but I'll give a quick run down. First of all, people with disabilities need support, and\nthese are different types of supports for health and independence. This can be medical support, such\nas quality healthcare, medical equipment. I got this wheelchair on Friday. It's awesome. Different\nsupplies, medical supplies being shipped through the port of Oakland, perhaps which again, is at sea\nlevel. Medication and a quality healthcare system. Life quality resources, such as personal care\nattendants, or just community support. Accessible housing. Accessible and public and affordable\ntransportation that meets people's needs and personal situations. And then, jobs with the necessary\naccommodations and the necessary civil rights protections, to keep people employed and\neconomically safe.\nAlex Ghenis: It does provide funding and stability, or require funding and stability. So certainly\nsocial services is something that is constantly in danger and needs our overall communal and\nsocietal support. Community and family support is also something important there, and it takes time\nand effort to develop. It's vulnerable. And I think this hits at all levels. We're seeing, oh gosh, I think\nit was Louisiana or another state recently, where they are just kicking tens of thousands of people\noff of Medicaid, and they're getting kicked out of long-term care facilities, and nobody knows\nwhere they're going. It takes a lot of time and effort to build these things up, but they can be fragile.\nOn the flip side, even at the social network, I remember when I was in college, I lived in a co-op\nwith 56 other people, which was a fantastic community. And then I graduated and I moved into an\napartment with one roommate. And it was like, \"Okay, I have to rebuild my whole social network or\nemotional and sometimes logistical well-being.\" So it's something that we all need to focus on and\nrecognize as vulnerable.\nAlex Ghenis: Something to be concerned about, climate change does lead to more disability. There\nis a problem is that most climate change reports simply quantify disability into what they call,\n\"Disability Adjusted Life Years' which says, \"If you're 100% disabled and dead, and you're that way\nfor one year, then that's one disability adjusted life year. If we think that your disability is half of\ndeath then, and you have that for one year because of some public health impact, then that's half a\ndisability adjusted life year.' We don't like this format obviously, because it does not recognize the\ndynamism and the complex needs of people with disabilities, but it shows that to a certain extent,\nclimate change will have health impacts on people, and we need to move beyond that public health\nmeasure to recognize that this is a social issue as well.\nAlex Ghenis: Some of the issues are storm-related injuries that could happen here, things such as\nmalnutrition, the drought in California, if it raises food prices, if we start to see long-term droughts\nand we have people with disabilities that are economically disadvantaged, then that might actually\naffect their health. Invasive diseases, we haven't seen that so much here, but it certainly is a concern\npotentially into the future. At the broader scale, climate-related conflict, more injuries, and then\nthings such as the exacerbation of disability through, say, more air pollution from forest fires\naffecting people with asthma that can cause long-term lung damage. Next. So some of the major\nimpacts, if we look at the And actually, the framework that I like to use for disability, and I'm\ngoing to take a quick step back here is And you mentioned you all talked about intersectionality,\nright?\nAlex Ghenis: Disability is diverse, complex, and intersectional. So is climate change. We, I think,\n05/30/18\nPage 6 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 7, "text": "COMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MUTES OF\nWednesday May 9, 2018 6:30 p.m.\nneed to take a look at The way to look at this is, look at types of disabilities, how that impacts, or\nhow that interacts with different effects of climate change. And it's difficult for us because it is so\ncomplex to put that into policy and to put that into efforts to protect people's well being, that we\nneed to take a really dynamic look at it. But some of the simple ways to look at it, if you can\nimagine major impacts on people with disabilities is during extreme weather events, which could\ninclude storms and natural disasters. We might need to have concerns about the accessibility of\nshelters and evacuation methods, warnings about incoming disaster events. Certainly, people in the\nfires that were up in Napa who were deaf, didn't hear the sirens going down the street and people,\nsome people were able to escape, but only because they woke up from the smell of smoke. That we\nneed to have good outreach and communication during disasters. There are fragile support systems,\nso that if something happens and people get scattered then individuals that need personal care\nsupport will need to re-establish that.\nAlex Ghenis: And that also something we should focus on providing potentially in disaster shelters\nif need be during heat waves. I, with my spinal cord injury, can't sweat on very hot days. It's a very,\nvery frustrating part of my disability, and certainly people with other compromised health\nconditions might be vulnerable to extreme heat. Also because of economic situations, might have\nlower quality housing or reduced access to air conditioning or the ability to pay for that. When we're\ntalking about displacement and migration and potentially longer term efforts at shifting around the\npopulation of Alameda within the city, we do need a focus on accessible transit, accessible housing,\nand then also the ability to have portable personal care support and government and healthcare\nbenefits. Some of the economic effects is, as I mentioned briefly earlier, that people with disabilities\nalready deal with disproportion of poverty, already deal with higher levels of unemployment, things\nalong those lines, and if economies go haywire or just simply have some disruptions due to climate\nchange, then that will especially affect our community.\nAlex Ghenis: So a quick example here is natural disasters, these are certainly things that we've\nseen. And what we notice is that the main one that got people's attention was Hurricane Katrina and\nthe view of people who used wheelchairs stranded in the middle of streets in New Orleans. Those\nare the bottom two images, the left side is Katrina, and then the right side is the middle of the Super\nDome. On the top left, we've got forest fires in California. We're unlikely to get direct fires here in\nAlameda, but certainly smoke and some of the maybe even disruptions to power, if fires hit major\ntransmission lines could be a concern for our community. On the top right, the busting of Oroville\nDam, which caused 300,000 or 200,000 people to need to evacuate last 2017, January 2017. So\nsome of the issues that we care about, and certainly things that Alameda cares about in terms of\ndisaster readiness are communications for people with sensory disabilities, first of all, to make them\naware of what disaster response plans are and produce those in accessible formats, digital formats.\nAlex Ghenis: Potentially print braille, potentially large print for people with cognitive or learning\ndisabilities, making sure that resources are available in very easy to understand manners and\nresources, and a diverse range of media. Having appropriate announcements in shelters including\ninterpreters and if need be, closed captioners, things along those lines. Evacuations having\naccessible buses and operational Paratransit during, before and after natural disasters for evacuation,\nand also having coordinated evacuations of nursing homes or other areas that might have a higher\nconcentration of people with disabilities that would otherwise be potentially stranded. So for\nshelters, which Alameda is looking at, and it's certainly something to look at in the future, shelters\n05/30/18\nPage 7 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 8, "text": "COMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MUTES OF\nWednesday May 9, 2018 6:30 p.m.\nare fully accessible, physically accessible.\nAlex Ghenis: And also when we've worked with the Red Cross before, and we ensure that when\ntheir functional assessment service team members are looking at the layout of a disaster shelter to\nensure that if there is a designated accessible area, there should be one or at least there should be the\nability for people with disabilities to navigate everywhere. But the provision of accessible beds, the\nprovision of wide enough aisle ways, the provision of not only accessible restrooms but washing\nareas, and then also the personal support and medical care needed both in the short-term and the\nlong-term. And if the proper care can't be provided in the long-term in a disaster shelter then having\na long-term plan to allow people to get to areas that can meet their needs. And finally recovery,\nwhich is housing and employment, which I think is actually self-explanatory. As we're rebuilding\nthings, we always need to make sure that we rebuild them socially and physically accessibly.\nAlex Ghenis: So something for Alameda to keep in mind just with any sort of long-term planning is\nthe integration here in California with Executive Order B-30-15. So I was just talking about the\nneeds of people with disabilities. This is actually a state statute that is very important for the city to\nwork with, especially in coordination with state agencies moving forward, looking at climate\nresilience. So it was signed in 2015 by Governor Brown. It set a greenhouse gas reduction target of\n40% below 1990 levels by 2030. But the parts that are really especially important to us are, it\nmandated the updating of a full safeguarding California climate adaptation and resiliency plan every\nthree years. And it mentioned that the state's recurring five-year infrastructure plan will take current\nand future climate change impacts into account in all infrastructure projects. And something that\nwe've worked with the California Department of Public Health on is this last sentence, as they're\nproducing their health equity language and efforts, \"Actions should protect the states' most\nvulnerable populations.\"\nAlex Ghenis: And as I mentioned earlier, usually disability is a word in that list, Executive Order\nB-30-15 doesn't say disability specifically. It also doesn't say specifically any other type of\n\"vulnerable populations,\" but it's something where we need to raise our hands if possible and really\nadvocate for the disability community to be included here at the state and here at the city level. So\nAlameda's needs By the way, there's no good aerial pictures of Alameda on Google Image search.\nCan I say, I had to take this from jewishalameda.com It's like, I'm Jewish, but there's gotta be more.\nSo there's Alameda, it's pretty, but it's flat, sea level, isolated in the potential situation of any sort of\nnatural disaster, separated simply by a short series of bridges from the mainland East Bay on either\nside. This is something that I think people in the city are aware of, but it really does raise a certain\namount of vulnerabilities.\nAlex Ghenis: So the things that Alameda cares about are: Stronger storms in extreme weather,\nwhich is what I mentioned earlier about disaster readiness really building resilient infrastructure.\nAnd something that I always advocate for is as And this is simple Americans with Disabilities Act\nbasics of, if something is getting remodeled or given some sort of resilience retrofit, make sure that\nit is up to code and go beyond code, make sure that it's universally accessible. When going through\nclimate resilience, there is going to be updating retrofits, focus on anything from transportation to\nbuilding code to the size and height and strength of levees surrounding the city that wherever\npossible and wherever disability is applicable, to make sure that those retrofits meet and go beyond\ncode.\n05/30/18\nPage 8 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 9, "text": "COMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MUTES OF\nWednesday May 9, 2018 6:30 p.m.\nAlex Ghenis: And then also individual and community preparation. We were talking about bands\non porches for block parties and things like that. This is actually not related per se, but the fact that\nduring natural disasters and extreme weather, if people are isolated or the city doesn't have and\nprobably doesn't want to have, because of privacy invasion issues, a list of people with disabilities\nto go after, that having community networks, communication, assistance, responsiveness, and really\nkind of closeness, so that we don't abandon people in times of strife, is important. So in terms of\ndrought, water shortages, and crop stress, this is something that the entire East Bay is concerned\nabout. In California, we rely on the snowpack for our water, and that is turning more and more into\nrain. And our reservoirs can't necessarily hold it in the way that it's going to be coming down.\nAlex Ghenis: Alameda and the entire East Bay Municipal Utilities District are concerned about\nwater shortages. It's something that the city cares about, and it could potentially be a pricing and\naccess issue, especially during extreme times of drought, if some people can afford bottled water\nand other people can't. Again, that economic issue of people with disabilities comes up. Community\nfood programs, in ensuring that people can afford food is also really important.\nAlex Ghenis: So sea level rise, Alameda is focused on strengthening and raising levees and sea\nwalls around the island. This is something that encroachment of the ocean isn't really anticipated to\nhappen for another at least probably 20 years or so, but king tide flooding and the rest will be an\nissue moving forward, especially if emissions go on kind of unabated. And then finally, housing and\nbuildings, either reinforcing them, kind of getting them up on stilts to deal with the really heavy\nflooding issues or simply relocating communities and doing some managed movement and retreat.\nAnd certain parts of the island will get hit more than others or are economically easier to say, this is\nan area that we're going to deprioritize. So that's something for the commission and certainly long-\nterm city planning is aware of.\nAlex Ghenis: So there are existing efforts that are very relevant to Alameda. There's the Adapting\nto Rising Tides Bay Area consortium of different government agencies and non profits that has a\ngood focus on underrepresented and vulnerable populations. I've been a part of that, and they are\naware of the needs of people with disabilities, but they're looking at what's going to happen in the\nbay as oceans rise over time. What parts are vulnerable and then how do we either build up natural\nor artificial barriers to protect our communities from that. The city of Alameda is doing the climate\nresilience plan. California Department of Public Health has an Office of Health Equity that is very\npassionate about climate change in health equity and we've been one of their main partners in terms\nof including disability into that discussion. And the California Office of Emergency Services also\nhas a Office of Access and Functional Needs. A gentleman, Vance Taylor, is the head of that, and\nhe's incredibly involved all across the state. And there are national partners as well that are really\npassionate about that issue specifically, especially in the face of the unprecedented number of\nnatural disasters that happen across the US, in Puerto Rico, and other incorporated islands.\nAlex Ghenis: So what to do in Alameda? I say that this cycle is research, analyze, educate, and\nimplement. So research first is understand, and this can be the commission. I also will say, the\nWorld Institute on Disability would love to be a partner with the city in any of these efforts,\nespecially as we've already connected with organizations nationally and state wide and really want\nto help the city implement these plans. So identify key stakeholders in terms of disability agencies,\n05/30/18\nPage 9 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 10, "text": "COMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MUTES OF\nWednesday May 9, 2018 6:30 p.m.\nnon profits, and leadership, whether that's Centers for Independent Living, whether that is state\nagencies or sub offices within those state agencies. And then also climate related experts around\nspecific issues, whether it's resiliency, disaster response, or public health. And then, again, focusing\non kind of the subgroups that address the issues of people with disabilities in each of these climate\nfocuses, start to do outreach, understand and document the needs of people with disabilities within\nAlameda. And then also understanding the broader subject of the needs of people with disabilities\nand transposing it onto the city's current and upcoming situation.\nAlex Ghenis: Collect informational resources. We have a good amount available, but we want to\nmake those available to the community as well. And then also be multifaceted and intersectional,\nrecognize that this is an incredibly complex issue and really needs to be addressed from levels of\nmultiple directions and build connections for future work. And something to be said about this is\npeople are becoming more and more aware of climate change, people are caring more about it. This\ncan be a stepping stone to bring together a lot of stakeholders raise the kind of specter of people\nwith disabilities in something that is this role that is noticeable. And that hopefully also will\npermeate out into other areas of civil and human and disability rights.\nAlex Ghenis: So we need to analyze the needs and policies of people in the city. So for primary and\nsecondary climate impacts, I know I've got limited time, so I'll just go through this a little bit\nquicker. But around storms, sea level rise and displacement, housing and economic needs, and\nmultiple disability, focus on all of those. Start to work with experts on policy development, and then\nimplement those and incorporate them into the long-term planning of the city. Recognize that\ncertain stakeholders have different capacities, and some people are overwhelmed. I'm sure the\ncommission has dealt with a lot of non profits with very underpaid folks or volunteers that care a lot\nabout disability and are committing a lot of their time to it. When you recognize that people have\ncertain focuses, but they care about this, and they're passionate. It's the same reason that everybody\nhere is on the commission itself.\nAlex Ghenis: And then finally, build a road map for the long-term. Actually, when I say build the\nroad map for the long-term, the city's climate resilience plan is looking out to 2100 and beyond. We\nwant to safeguard not just the next 20 years, but this is a long-term thing for the survival of the city\nof Alameda. And it should be a long-term thing for the survival and really well being of the\ndisability community within the city. So for education, make sure that we do tailored information\nand outreach, whether it's to climate experts to disability community, to more disability experts and\nnon profits, or just people with disabilities in the city at large. Incorporate people with disabilities.\nI'm sure a lot of you know the phrase \"nothing about us without us,\" which is a huge disability\nmantra, which is include the disability community in anything that has to address disability.\nAlex Ghenis: Don't expect somebody that doesn't live firsthand experiences to provide \"expertise\",\nand certainly the wisdom of the crowd can be fantastic. And then speak the language of each of the\ndifferent stakeholders and focus on solutions. I think we don't want to freak people out. We want to\nkeep a positive forward looking outlook, and we want to integrate this with really what is long-term\nsolution focused planning. Coordinate efforts with everybody involved and here we've got a little\nimage. If we're forming our city for climate resilience, we might as well make it accessible for\neverybody. Recognize that who knows, the Bay Area might have a more stable climate than\nSouthern California running out of water. We might have more people with disabilities moving\n05/30/18\nPage 10 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 11, "text": "COMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MUTES OF\nWednesday May 9, 2018 6:30 p.m.\nhere, period. This is, it sounds cynical humor, but it's, I think a reality that we might be looking at in\nthe future. We want this to be a friendly, inclusive, fully accessible city here and into the future.\nAlex Ghenis: And then also, that disability reforms are beneficial regardless. Climate change\nprovides a really strong point of advocacy for that. I think that the commission and hopefully us and\nany allies can really articulate that. And also on the flip side, the very strong imagery of the\nvulnerability and experience of people with disabilities during climate change provides a real\nkickstart for the need for climate adaptation and resilience. So it's something for us to point out to\nanybody that might be slower on implementing these plans, and then we want to connect and\ncoordinate, brainstorm policies, combined messages, and advocate with everybody that's involved.\nAlex Ghenis: A really quick overview of us in our organization. The World Institute on Disability,\nas I mentioned, we've been working on climate change for about four years, but we've been around\nfor over 35 years. We were co-founded by, some of you may know, Ed Roberts, Judy Heumann, and\na lot of the kind of original leaders of the disability rights movement. We're located at the Ed\nRoberts Campus, on top of Ashby BART and partner with a whole consortium of other disability\nagencies including the Center for Independent Living and Disability Rights Education and Defense\nFund and other partners over there. We have connections in Washington. We have connections in\nSacramento. We have connections internationally. And we really do work to learn and implement\nthe best kind of forward-looking policies for people with disabilities.\nAlex Ghenis: We do direct consulting with government, non profits, and business communities, as\nwell as take grants in for research and policy development. And we have been working with the Red\nCross and other stakeholders for over 10 years on disaster readiness efforts specifically. I started\nresearching climate change and disability a little bit over four years ago, and it's amazing what\nwe've found and how much people care about this, and we really hope to get something going. I\nwill say, we've worked on statewide policy. We've worked on a lot of public education. We have a\nlot very interested people. I'm excited about the potential to work with Alameda because this would\nbe our first opportunity to really get in the weeds of the city's climate resilience plan. And I view it\nas an opportunity to have Alameda as building a framework, a replicable framework for the rest of\nCalifornia, the Bay Area, the country, about how to address the needs of people with disabilities in\nclimate resilience. Because this hasn't happened yet. This focused project and effort hasn't happened\nyet anywhere, and it needs to happen, and I would love to see Alameda be the first city to do it.\nAlex Ghenis: So how can we make it happen? So Alameda is already a leader in its climate\nresilience efforts. I was amazed to hear from Patrick about the work that the city is doing and really\nlooking forward to seeing it moving forward. We believe that we can assist the city in analyzing\ninclusion opportunities in its resilience plans and policies and get into the weeds in that as\nnecessary. Connect to key stakeholders through our networks at various different levels and really\nestablish long-term connections there between the disability community, between the city, and\nreally try to make those sustainable moving forward. Having on the ground community research,\nassembling and bringing forth, whether we do surveys, whether we do We've done a lot of focus\ngroups. We have areas for focus groups, and I'm sure that we can partner with the city to have\na\nspace to hold those focus groups, providing active input in city efforts. And then also in the long-\nterm, if the city chooses to, providing ongoing consultation and up-to-date information as it comes\nabout the regional, state, and national levels.\n05/30/18\nPage 11 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 12, "text": "COMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MUTES OF\nWednesday May 9, 2018 6:30 p.m.\nAlex Ghenis: So next steps for us certainly is to see how interested everybody here is, continue\nmoving forward, seeing what the capacities of the commission and the rest of the city are, bringing\nyou all in, and hopefully at least providing a conversation and a set of resources for you, if you\nchoose to take this on whatever level you do. And then finally developing a plan, long-term plan for\naction, some timeframes, and resource needs. And the last slide is simply to collaborate. We hope to\ncollaborate. So thank you. The next slide has my contact information if anybody wants to write it\ndown as well.\nBeth Kenny: Thank you, Alex. That was very informative on topic presentation of what we're\ndealing with here. I'm going to start with Commissioner Brillinger. We've been trying to find a new\nway of going around and having everybody ask their questions, so go ahead Commissioner.\nArnold Brillinger: Thank you very much, Alex. And I've been to a couple of meetings here\nbecause we do have people that are trying to figure out what we should do in this or this whole\nthing of climate change and rising sea level. So we do have people especially interested. And so\nthere are people that are really working on this already. And we thank you very much for your input\nbecause we need to have this kind of information for ourselves. And I just want to say those that are\ninterested in this, when you see meetings here in the city dealing with the climate control and the\nrising sea level, that you go ahead and put in your information also. Thank you.\nBeth Kenny: Thank you, Commissioner Brillinger. Commissioner Roloff?\nJennifer Roloff: Hi. Thank you so much. That was so informative. A couple of questions. One, is\nAlameda your first target city? Is that because we're an island, and we're completely at sea level?\nAre you doing this presentation with Oakland and other cities vulnerable? Or can you tell us a little\nbit about that?\nAlex Ghenis: Yes. Our initial outreach was looking at the cities that were involved in the\nRockefeller Foundation's 100 Resilient Cities initiative. And included in those are Berkeley,\nOakland, and San Francisco. Berkeley, the individual that was involved there, they were near the\nend of developing their general resilience plans and said that they weren't available to help. We had\nactually a very difficult time getting in touch with Oakland and San Francisco. And then How\nin\nthe world did we meet? This was actually kind of a great chance meeting between Patrick and\nmyself. And then you mentioned how much that the city is doing, and it kind of just turned into a\nconversation that turned into the potential for a partnership. So we have done outreach. I've found\nthat Patrick and the city in general have been much more responsive than everybody else, and I\nreally appreciate that.\nJennifer Roloff: Okay, great. The other question I had, have you worked with or met with any of\nthe folks from CASA? Are you familiar with CASA? Patrick, have you introduced Alex to any the\nCASA folks? It's Community Action for a Sustainable Alameda. They've been around for a while,\nbut the past 12 months, they've had a big resurgence. They've had some great events. We have the\nExecutive Director of Sierra Club lives in Alameda, and he's always really participatory. So I think\nthat could be another partner in this.\n05/30/18\nPage 12 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 13, "text": "COMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MUTES OF\nWednesday May 9, 2018 6:30 p.m.\nAlex Ghenis: Is there a question that you'd like me to respond to in there?\nJennifer Roloff: Yes. If you've been working with CASA so far and have shared the WID [World\nInstitute on Disability] with CASA?\nAlex Ghenis: Oh, yes. So some background: CASA is instrumental in the development of the\nclimate plan update. We did have a climate plan in 2008, and this is an update to that, which CASA\npretty much requested. And they are a part of our green team, which is a group of city staff who are\nadvancing the climate plan project forward. And so they're at all of the tables and they are helping\nplan a community outreach process for the climate plan right now. I haven't actually brought WID\nand Alex's potential work up with them yet. So far that's just been a conversation internally, but I\nthink that they would be really supportive. They're planning at least 12 outreach events in between\nnow and September.\nJennifer Roloff: CASA is?\nAlex Ghenis: CASA is, with the explicit goal of reaching people who might not come to our big\nthree community workshops. And so as they're looking to make the outreach process more inclusive\nand accessible, I think there's a lot of opportunity to incorporate some of the ideas that Alex raised.\nJennifer Roloff: Okay, yes. And just a thought, maybe our commission could work with you and\nhave a liaison between you and CASA as well. I know we have liaisons to planning board. I think\nthis is probably really relevant as we look into Alameda's taking on a lot of new development lately,\nand a lot of people are worried about the sea level rising and developing new communities that are\ngoing to be vulnerable in 20 years, give or take. So I'm very interested in following up on this.\nThank you.\nAlex Ghenis: Thank you.\nBeth Kenny: Thank you. Commissioner Deutsch?\nSusan Deutsch: Thank you very much. I just have some comments. I heard you talk about that we\nhave to provide medical care or medical facilities. We need to have medication available. We may\nneed to have a medical personnel available, and I think it's important to note that right now,\nAlameda Hospital has to have some upgrades done to earthquake proof it by 2020. And then by\n2030, the hospital has to be totally earthquake proof, or it has to reach much higher standards. Right\nnow, the hospital is being run by Alameda County Health systems, and there's been recently\nquestions about whether they're going to be doing those upgrades that came up at a board meeting.\nSusan Deutsch: And I think that a hospital is critical for any systems that we put in place, that\nwe're going to need healthcare providers, medication, you mentioned. So I think this is something\nthat's really important for our community to stand by the hospital and try and make sure that we still\nhave a hospital because we are an island, and we are vulnerable, and we have a vulnerable\npopulation here. So I just want to bring that up as something to keep in mind that that's a big issue\nthat's going to be coming up, and it could affect any plans for a disaster or what comes up. Just\ninformation.\n05/30/18\nPage 13 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 14, "text": "COMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MUTES OF\nWednesday May 9, 2018 6:30 p.m.\nAlex Ghenis: Thank you. May I?\nBeth Kenny: Yes.\nAlex Ghenis: We're located in Berkeley. I live around the corner from Alta Bates in Berkeley.\nThey're going to shut it down by 2030 also. And then the only full UCare hospital, there's going to\nbe nothing between Richmond and Oakland. It's certainly something that the whole East Bay I think\nis concerned about. When we're looking at this resilience in case of a disaster, people might not be\nable to get to the hospital. I think having redundancy of medical care all around the island, or at\nleast emergency medical resources is going to be incredibly important as well.\nSusan Deutsch: Yes.\nAlex Ghenis: Yes. Thank you.\nBeth Kenny: Commissioner Barrett.\nJenn Barrett: I just want to say thank you so much for your presentation. It was interesting. Your\nfirst comment, what does disability and climate change have? How do they go together? And by the\nend of it, it's how do they not go together? It's every single aspect. And then just a comment that\nwe've been lucky that diseases haven't hit California as much as other areas, but they are coming.\nLyme disease. KQED did a radio broadcast about Lyme disease just last week. And so something\nthat our community needs to learn about as the rest of the country has had to.\nBeth Kenny: Thank you. Commissioner Hall.\nLisa Hall: Thank you so much, Alex and Patrick. A lot of great information. One point you brought\nup, it's an ongoing struggle to get a list of people with disabilities in any city. And it's been an\nongoing challenge that we're trying to work through because we have to gain the trust of those\npeople to give us that information so we can help them. And I think another point you brought up,\nwe have the eroding shoreline of Alameda, and we are unique and different than other towns\nbecause we are an island, and so we really have to concentrate on helping taking care of all of our\npeople here, especially disabled people, because we've talked about in a crisis, an earthquake, things\nlike that, there are so many things that are not accessible, and you made the statement that a deaf\nperson did die up in the fire because they didn't get out. They didn't get heard. All your work you're\ndoing is wonderful and we want to do what we can, too.\nLisa Hall: I think most of us all acknowledge there's huge problems with the global warming of our\nworld, and it's all connected. We're very connected. The housing and the food inequality, whatever\nyou want to call it, is all connected too. And the sad fact that when a person becomes disabled, their\nwhole life changes, but their whole economic standing, it shelves you right into poverty. It's more of\na challenge already. You've got enough challenges. So anything we can do to help and raise\nawareness is awesome. So thank you so much for what you're doing.\nAlex Ghenis: Thank you.\n05/30/18\nPage 14 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 15, "text": "COMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MUTES OF\nWednesday May 9, 2018 6:30 p.m.\nAnto Aghapekian: Alex, Thanks for your presentation, that was very informative. And there is an\norganization in Alameda called CERT, C-E-R-T [Community Emergency Response Team]. Have\nyou been in touch with them? Have you talked with them?\nAlex Ghenis: Not directly with Alameda. I'll be open, is that Patrick and I have had conversations.\nWe're very much in touch with CERT and actually that whole organization in Berkeley, because\nwe're an active partner in Berkeley. We are moving forward, hopefully soon, on doing more\noutreach in community engagement with Alameda, but we also want to get the buy in of as many\npeople as possible. But we have not yet with CERT. No.\nAnto Aghapekian: Because to my understanding, what CERT has been doing is locating cultural\ncenters, be it a senior center, be it a church hall, as where in case of an emergency people with\naccessibility issues would be gathered. And this going out for almost two, three years, and I haven't\nparticipated. I've been in the periphery. But I was hoping that you would have some connection with\nthem, or they have some connection with you, to get information from people that have needs. I've\nknown where they are. And in case of an emergency, CERT can send people, and go and take them\nto rescue them, and nothing has happened. You have no idea.\nAlex Ghenis: So certainly, that would be one of the organizations that would be a part of our\noutreach research on inclusion in policy and planning. We've worked with CERT before. One of our\nstaff members is CERT trained and has been an active member of that whole process. She\nmentioned that in Berkeley, she went to the CERT training and raised her hand about, \"Wait, what\nabout disability?\" And there wasn't enough response. So, we recognize that, at least in Berkeley, and\nwe've heard stories from elsewhere, that inclusion of disability is an issue. Because this is\nCommunity Emergency Response Training or Community Emergency Response Team. But that\nwould absolutely be on our list of outreach and communication.\nAnto Aghapekian: Great. Thank you.\nAlex Ghenis: Thank you.\nBeth Kenny: Thank you again for your presentation. I felt similar to Vice Chair Barrett, \"What\ndoes climate change have to do with disability?\", before coming across your stuff. And this\nmaterial, this presentation, was very illuminating. The only time I've actually come across it is this\ncommission worked on a Universal Design Ordinance for residential development here in the city,\nand oftentimes one of the major pushbacks was, \"How can we make a zero step entrance when sea\nlevels are rising?\" So I can see a lot of areas where we can really help each other. Because now it\nseems very obvious. At the time, I was like, felt like, \"Well, I have to advocate for disabled people\nand I can't worry about the sea level rise. That's not what I'm doing.\" But to bring it together is a\nmuch better approach.\nAnto Aghapekian: And I would like to work with you. And it seems like a lot of the Commission\nhas expressed the same. What Commissioner Roloff was suggesting, sometimes we do a\nsubcommittee for specific issues where we'll have three to four commissioners asked specifically\nworking on an issue, and that's how we did the Universal Design Ordinance. And I could see\n05/30/18\nPage 15 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 16, "text": "COMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MUTES OF\nWednesday May 9, 2018 6:30 p.m.\nsomething like that really working in this situation, and I think that would be a good approach for us\ngoing forward if that's something that you're interested in. I'm not 100% clear on how we buy in,\nbut I think from what I'm hearing from other commissioners and from my own sense is that we\nwould like to buy in. So how would that ideally look?\nAlex Ghenis: Well, Patrick do you want to address that or should I?\nPatrick Peligri-O'Day: You can go ahead.\nAlex Ghenis: Obviously, part of this is going to be how much time we can devote, depending on\neither grants that the city and ourselves could partner on to really make this a flagship, a replicable\npartnership for the rest of the Bay, the rest of the California, the rest of the country, or simply\ndevoting a certain number of funds, which would be an equivalent number of hours from our\norganization from the existing resilience planning. So I think that a subcommittee would be\nfantastic. Also because I'm located in Berkeley, and if there are commissioners that are interested in\ndoing a lot more email communication, and telephone calls and other little things, so that I'm not\nconstantly bouncing back and forth and SO that everybody's time can be used a little bit better. And\nit seems like you all are very well networked within the disability community and the city over here,\na subcommittee sounds fantastic.\nAlex Ghenis: Again, we would have to identify how much time and energy, and what types of\nresources we can provide. We really don't want to do this on our own. We want this to be a\npartnership. We're not just going to sit and write a white paper on the side. Hopefully this can be a\nreally active involved thing, and there's certainly a lot of players. Patrick knows that there's a lot of\nplayers already in the climate resilience planning development. So yes, I think a subcommittee, and\nthen figuring out what the options are for our involvement would be fantastic. Is that a good enough\nanswer?\nBeth Kenny: I feel like it is. Does anyone else have questions about that response? And just so you\nknow, a subcommittee, it would be, like I said, about three or maybe four members of the\ncommission, and then they would also be reporting back to the commission as a whole because\nwe're all very well networked. When you were talking about aiding transportation, I thought, \"Oh\nman. Commissioner Billinger will be all over that.\" And when you talked about just the different\narchitectural stuff or making things accessible, I thought about Vice Chair Barrett and\nCommissioner Aghapekian. And so I think that we can all still be part of it, but we'd have a\nsubcommittee that could be in touch over email, and certainly if there are meetings that need to be\nattended, send a representative or send our thoughts. Is that what you also were thinking, Patrick?\nPatrick Peligri-O'Day: Yes. I'm very excited to hear what you all are saying. So thoughts off the\ntop of my head. One, depending on the official path forward that this commission decides for itself,\nmy next step would be to elevate this up to my boss. The project manager for this project is the\nDeputy Director of Public Works, Erin Smith, and she knows that I'm here and that we're having\nthis meeting today, and the Director of Public Works, Liam Garland, who is the official executive\nsponsor for the project, from the city side. Funding is a question that would have to get worked out.\nAnd there might be different options, but it seems that this would work best if it's integrated into the\ncurrent plan as much as possible. So there's existing outreach that's planned. There are three\n05/30/18\nPage 16 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 17, "text": "COMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MUTES OF\nWednesday May 9, 2018 6:30 p.m.\ncommunity workshops. So if Wade wants to come and within the Commission want to provide\ninput on the content of those workshops and helping do the outreach for those workshops to ensure\nthat disability community is represented, that's one option.\nPatrick Peligri-O'Day: Another option is actual development of strategies. Well, one, we're going\nto look at what are the risks that we're facing, and there's a lot of insight that Alex has provided. I\nalso want to say that Laurie knows a ton, and I was just talking to her. I learned a lot about things\nalready. So getting that into the assessment of risks and getting that into the assessment of what\nstrategies is the city actually going to set out for itself, and put dollars toward implementing upon\nthe plan's completion. Those are all steps that currently exists in the process, that the Disability\nCommission, along with Alex and WID, if it works out, could provide an answer. Does that makes\nsense?\nBeth Kenny: Yes, thank you very much. Commissioner Brillinger.\nArnold Brillinger: I was going to suggest that Patrick email Laurie whenever there are community\nmeetings on this subject. And that he sends her the information. She'll send it out to us, and we try\nto get to as many as we can. And we won't, all seven of us, be at the same committee or same\nmeeting, but at least there will be several people to put in some input. And we've got to remember\nthat the whole idea of the disability needs to be included in the plan. We don't want to leave it out.\nBeth Kenny: Thank you. I think that along with Laurie sending out the information to us, she can\nalso send it out to our listserv. We have community members who are part of our email listserv and\nwe like to send out announcements to them. So this would be something that we could definitely\nsend out that via listserv. At this point I am going to ask if anybody would be interested in being\npart of this subcommittee.\nAnto Aghapekian: Could you tell us what this subcommittee is going to do?\nBeth Kenny: Sure, it sounds like things are still fluid at this point, and so I can't give you a hard\nand fast of, this is exactly what it's going to do. But I think to start off with, people who would be\navailable to be a point of contact for these two gentlemen and then coordinate with the going to\nthese meetings. But also, when Patrick mentioned having a seat at the table where the policies and\nthings are really being decided, I think it would be great if we could do that. I also respect the fact\nthat we all have a lot going on. So I don't want to say we are 100% there. I would love to be there,\nbut I know that we have other things going on in our lives as well.\nJennifer Roloff: I'd be happy to be a point contact now if no one else is ready to commit, I can just\ntake that on for now and work with Patrick and keep in touch with Alex, and maybe start some\nconversations with CASA and some of the other organizations in Alameda that are already\nunderway.\nBeth Kenny: Thank you. Commissioner Roloff.\nAlex Ghenis: Thank you.\n05/30/18\nPage 17 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 18, "text": "COMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MUTES OF\nWednesday May 9, 2018 6:30 p.m.\nBeth Kenny: And I'd be happy to serve on the subcommittee with you. You can take the lead but I'll\nbe here for anything you need.\nLisa Hall: I would as well.\nAnto Aghapekian: You can include me also.\nBeth Kenny: That's our four members, we can't go past that or else we'll have a quorum. But like I\nsaid, we'll all still be very much involved in The subcommittee will be giving\nreports\nof\nany\nactivities that we have. Is it fair to say that it's a fluid situation and we're I think,\nunless\nthere\nany\nother comments or actions to take on this item, I want to thank you guys so much. This was a great\npresentation.\nAlex Ghenis: Thank you so much for having us, and really looking forward to working with you.\nBeth Kenny: Patrick, make sure that Jennifer can get your contact\nJennifer Roloff: Yes, and I can get that from Laurie too, right?\nBeth Kenny: Yes.\nJennifer Roloff: I have Alex, but Patrick\nAlex Ghenis: Also, WID.org/climate gives you our climate website that has more information.\nBeth Kenny: Thank you.\nLisa Hall: Can I ask one more question? Just curious, since I'm having a daughter graduating. What\nwas your major in college and how did you steer towards this side of the ballgame?\nAlex Ghenis: I did Geography with a focus on climate change in my undergrad, specifically\nlooking at melting methane hydrates, and runaway climate change, and how frightening that is. I\nwent to grad school to focus on energy storage, so batteries and what not, paired with renewable\nenergy. And as I was working on that, so much of it was, \"Wait, I charge my wheelchair at night,\nand solar panels go during the day, and how reliant am I on a functioning system?\" And it was less.\nAnd then I left that job and started this home project with WID because I found that working in the\nrenewable field was great, but working on this problem specifically was a much better use of my\ntime. Yes.\nLisa Hall: Excellent.\n4-B\nOutreach to Businesses and California's Certified Access Specialist program (CASp)\nBeth Kenny: Well, thank you guys. I'm going to move us on to item four B, outreach to business\nand California Certified Access Specialist program. I believe Vice Chair Barrett, this is yours?\n05/30/18\nPage 18 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 19, "text": "COMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MUTES OF\nWednesday May 9, 2018 6:30 p.m.\nJenn Barrett: Do you want me to go up there?\nBeth Kenny: Thank you.\nJenn Barrett: Thank you. Alex and Patrick.\nJenn Barrett: One of the initiatives we were discussing at our group retreat was about increasing\nbusinesses, helping them be more informed about disabilities and how they can make small changes\nto their businesses to make it more accessible and welcoming to people of all different types of\ndisabilities. And so what I came up with and Anto, you've been helping me as well, is coming up\nmore of a reward system than a slap on the wrist kind of thing. And so the thought was, \"Okay, I'll\nhave maybe 10 ways that our businesses can do small things that make a big difference in how\npeople access the built environment.\" Okay, yes. So these are the 10 ways that I came up with and\nI'm looking for your suggestions.\nJenn Barrett: My previous work was more specialized in the built environment, but I know that\nthere's a lot of things that we can do, like training employees, which doesn't cost as much, raising\nawareness, and yes I just wanted to know your thoughts. And we also talked about bringing it up at\na Chamber of Commerce. I actually was at the We Are Alameda at the Faction brewing event, and I\nmet someone from the Chamber of Commerce and she's like, \"Oh, this sounds really interesting.\nAnd \"What can businesses do? And what's something that's not costly for businesses?\" And I was\nlike, \"Well, training your employees. It doesn't cost anything but their awareness of don't put a\nflower pot on the ramp because people need to use the ramp.\" And you'd be surprised that that\nhappens a lot. And so, yes, just excited to hear your thoughts on it.\nJenn Barrett: Okay. And these are a lot of things that I think if they're doing a remodel, they can\nincorporate. Such as the first one, change out doorknobs, which is hard for twisting and small locks,\nwhich need dexterity, changing those out for the lever handles and larger locks. If you're changing\nthe door, you might as well change the hardware to make it easier. Increasing the font size of menus\nand signs. Adding handrails to stairs and ramps. Adding grab bars at toilets, replacing high\nthresholds with a half inch maximum and a one to two bevel so that's easier for wheelchairs to get\nover it. Replacing the center support tables, the ones with the column in the middle of the table,\nwith distributed support, so that you can easily roll under the table. Increase the width of aisles and\nrelocate product to reduce tripping hazards. Securing rugs and entry mats reduce tripping hazards,\nagain. And then, something to reduce background noise for those who are hearing impaired. My\ndad, for instance, is hearing impaired, and sometimes he won't go to a restaurant, because it's so\nloud that it's just very hard on him with the hearing aids.\nJenn Barrett: And then again, training employees on how to assist persons with disabilities. And as\nI'm reading this list, again, it's not only people with disabilities, it's people with strollers or people\nwho just need an extra help. So that was my thought on those. But I know members of our\ncommittee have different disabilities that they're aware of. And so, maybe there's another one that\nwould pertain to something that you guys are familiar with.\nBeth Kenny: Thank you. This whole thing is amazing. Yes, I'm really excited. I'm wondering a\nlittle bit about it. So, is the idea to maybe present it at the Chamber of Commerce and then actually\n05/30/18\nPage 19 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 20, "text": "COMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MUTES OF\nWednesday May 9, 2018 6:30 p.m.\ngo into businesses and talk with them about it? I know at one point we were talking about going\ninto businesses and saying, \"Hey, here are some easy ways that you can make it more accessible.\"\nSo are we going to go for the business associations or the Chamber of Commerce as an entry point?\nOr is that where we distribute the information? How are you thinking about that?\nJenn Barrett: I think that there's a lot of different ways that we can tackle it. But I think that since\nAlameda's businesses seem to be very well networked through the Chamber of Commerce and other\ngroups on the island, I think that's a good place to start at least, and then spread out from there and\nmaybe go to businesses and speak to them specifically. But I know you had a few ideas on it.\nAnto Aghapekian: I support it. And I have enough experience working with merchants in\nsituations as this. And the minute you start talking accessibility, the merchants usually put on a\ndefense. It's like suddenly this wall comes between you and them, because they don't want to deal\nwith the city, with the permit process, the fees. And sometimes they even end up opening up a\nPandora's box, you know, one thing leads to another, another, and this small doorknob ends up\nbeing the whole door, the whole facade, the whole thing. And people don't want to get involved\nwith that. All they want to do is make a living, they're busy as it is.\nAnto Aghapekian: So I think that especially, it's so much easier to be working with the Chamber of\nCommerce and other organizations like the DABA [Downtown Alameda Business Associatin] is\none, and WABA [West Alameda Business Association] is another one, who do basically the ground\nwork gently, who let the merchants know that this is a voluntary program, it's my preferred\nexpression, it's a win-win situation, and let the legwork or the prep work be done by people that\nthey deal with day in and day out. And once one person is interested or a merchant is interested,\nthat's when something like this can easily be given to them. And if even need be, they need to talk\nwith somebody, they can do it through the City, or they can do it through the Commission, our\nCommission. So that things are done not in an adversarial attitude, but done in a friendly manner, in\na helping manner. It's good for them to make their base accessible, and it's also good for people to\nbe able to use it. I have strong reservations about going as a commissioner, of me to go to a business\nand recommend that they do a certain thing. I think that's going to backfire and the word is going to\nspread very fast among the merchants, and we're not going to go any place with it. I think we should\ndo it through their own organization.\nJenn Barrett: I agree.\nJennifer Roloff: I have a question. I know that there's WABA and DABA, all these different\nbusiness associations, I believe they are the same as Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber of\nCommerce organization proper just happened to have that name first, like the other organizations\nare the same. I know that they have a lot of mixers, do they actually have formal meetings too,\nwhere they have agendas where we could come and present to them? Do we know?\nLisa Hall: Yes, they have both.\nJennifer Roloff: They do have both? Okay.\nLisa Hall: The mixers are good, but those are more of a kind of a mixer party kind of environment,\n05/30/18\nPage 20 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 21, "text": "COMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MUTES OF\nWednesday May 9, 2018 6:30 p.m.\nbut they do have general meetings where we could go and present it, and I think Anto has a really\ngood point in that we would want to present it as suggestions, and so it would not go on the\ndefensive, and then maybe happily, some of these merchants will go, \"We've done that and we've\ndone that.\" Just start putting the word out there. Like you said, gently.\nBeth Kenny: Yes.\nJennifer Roloff: I had one more thought maybe for Laurie also is I know from time to time, and I\ndon't know if we're under an umbrella right now, but the city has this facade improvement program\nfor the businesses where they say, if you improve your street facade, we'll match your funds up to\n$5,000. And I wonder if we could work with the city to see if they would do some kind of match\nyour funds up to a certain amount, if they made upgrades to support the disabled community in\nAlameda. Yes. So we could talk to whoever maybe is in charge of the facade program. We could\nreach out to that person and get some guidance.\nBeth Kenny: I think that's a great idea. I could think when I would. Sorry, go ahead,\nCommissioner Brillinger.\nArnold Brillinger: Yes, I went to the disability council in San Francisco in March, and at that time\nthey had a presentation from their small business council or commission, whatever the group was,\nand they are going to make sure that the businesses are accessible by a certain time, like in the\n2020, and if they've got to get through permits by 2019 and stuff like that. And so I'm willing to\nshare that step with the group. It seems to me like this is very subtle compared to what they're doing\nin San Francisco but there are places here in Alameda that I cannot get in because they've got the\none step up, right at the front door, and some of those are right here on Lincoln Avenue right next to\nthe Coin dealership, and that there is some over by the Alameda Museum on Alameda Avenue that\nhave the in accessible entries. There's no way I could go in there if I wanted to or not.\nArnold Brillinger: I'd say that's what I thought you were going to be dealing with, those kinds of\nthings. Because I could come up with a whole list there as I'm going down the street. I say, well,\nthere's something that I can't avail myself of, but I think we ought to also just take a look for\nourselves at some things that are like heavy duties, like San Francisco is doing with theirs, just to\nsee how they're doing it and so forth. And of course, they've got many more people and many more\ndollars and all that kind of stuff to deal with, but it seems like if we go with DABA and whoever\nelse it is. What is Mark over there in. He's over in, his office is at South shore.\nBeth Kenny: That's the Chamber of Commerce.\nArnold Brillinger: Yes. The Chamber of Commerce or Tony with WABA and stuff like that, and\nwe might find that some of them might say, \"Hey, we'd like to push this with our group.\" Because\nthey are not, for the most part, they're not that big of a thing. And it adds a little bit of recognition.\nBeth Kenny: Yes, when I looked at the stuff that you had put together, I saw it as a couple of\npronged approach as far as you would In my imaginings, it was, you would be invited in by these\nbusinesses somehow, whether it be through via the Chamber of Commerce or the business\nassociation, and then you could go over the list with them. And if they made some of the changes,\n05/30/18\nPage 21 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 22, "text": "COMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MUTES OF\nWednesday May 9, 2018 6:30 p.m.\nthey would get that nice poster that you made to hang in their window. And then to follow up with\nthat, you would give them the information about the California Certified Access Specialist Program,\nbecause that would be another step beyond what we're talking about. That's how I imagined it. I\ndon't know if we're all talking about the same thing because it kind of sounds like we are, but I\nreally love Commissioner Roloff's idea of going with the facade grants that were done. Even if we\ncan get our own separate grants for this, that would be great. Or if they do another round of facade\ngrants, having some of it be towards making it more accessible so that people can get in the\ndoorway. I'm really excited about this project. Great work.\nJenn Barrett: Yes, definitely. I just want to stress, Arnold, We'll use this as a testing ground exactly\nand see what businesses are able to provide for resources, and then in the hopes that they'l be able\nto meet more of the code compliance and the needs. And so maybe we'll see how well this small\nwe'll call it a \"test\" goes, and maybe from there we can open it up to, \"Okay, you've done these\nsmall things, but to really encourage and allow people to visit your store, you're going to have to do\nthe larger remodels of removing step and other barriers to entrance.\"\nBeth Kenny: Yes, and am I correct in thinking that the California Certified Access Specialist\nprogram, they'll go through everything that you need to do regardless of cost and come up with\na\nplan for you as to how you can meet that? I think I looked at one where they said, \"Put away a\ncertain percentage of your profits annually towards meeting these goals.'\nJenn Barrett: Laurie was actually going to talk about it.\nBeth Kenny: Okay.\nJenn Barrett: Since she is CASp certified.\nLaurie Kozisek: Thank you. I just recently got my CASp certification, and we have CASp people\non retainer with the building department to make sure that when something comes in for a building\npermit, that it gets looked at by a CASp; Certified Accessibility Specialist. It's a voluntary program.\nIt's voluntary in that building owners can choose to do it. It's not free. But what this program\nrecommends is that you hire a CASp to come look at your building, and either you will get\nsomething that says, \"You meet accessibility standards\" or you'll get something that says, \"It was\ninspected.' Which is, it doesn't necessarily mean that it meets everything. But you'll also get a list of\nreadily achievable modifications and suggestions on a timeline on how to do it. And the advantage\nof it is that if you get sued, your fines will be smaller and you'll have more time to make changes.\nLaurie Kozisek: This is linked to the agenda that I sent you. But this shows that there are two\ndifferent kinds of laws covering this, one is CRASCA and one is non-CRASCA. But when a CASp\nprofessional comes in and looks, they will either say that, \"It meets applicable standards.\" or they' 'll\nsay, \"It was inspected.\" They will put several things on the report, the description of the area, the\ndate, the statement of findings that meet or don't meet it, a list of readily achievable barrier\nremovals, corrective actions and a schedule for them. And then issue a certificate if they want one.\nAnd so, this is a step up from what Commissioner Barrett is suggesting, because most of the things\nsuggested, were things like fixing the rug and door handles. You don't need a building permit to do\nthose.\n05/30/18\nPage 22 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 23, "text": "COMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MUTES OF\nWednesday May 9, 2018 6:30 p.m.\nLaurie Kozisek: These are more like making the path of travel accessible and at that point, you'll\nprobably want to go and get a building permit to get those done. So, when you're getting a facade\ndone, and you're changing the doorway and the entrance, you're going to have to spend a certain\namount of your money making that accessible, and taking out that step. We might be able to push\nfacade improvements that are there more for accessibility than for giving it a different look.\nAnyway, it's another pathway, and this one is one with more construction involved.\nBeth Kenny: And just to clarify, the city has you and some other people who are Certified Access\nSpecialists, but you are not available to be hired by the merchants. You're there, if they get an area,\nyou reinspect it to make sure it's in compliance with?\nLaurie Kozisek: There are two kinds of CASps. There's the one that work for the cities and\ncounties, who generally do permit review and inspection. And we have some CASps that work for\nthe building department as consultants, that do the review and inspection. I don't actively do that\nmuch, but I do, do building plan reviews, mostly the exterior. And then the other kind of CASps, is\nthe one that is privately employed and just does this kind of thing for a living. And there are, I think,\nabout 700 of them in the state of California. This is just a California program. I don't know how\nmuch it would cost to get inspection done but I can imagine it's not much, because it's just a very\nshort hour or two to take a look at it.\nBeth Kenny: Thank you. Unless anybody else has any questions regarding this, I would like to\nsuggest that you guys continue to move forward and reach out to the Chamber of Commerce and\nthe business councils. I can try and send you a list of the ones that I know.\nJenn Barrett: That will be great. Yes.\nBeth Kenny: Yes, and also, if I can start brainstorming on how we can get that grant tied into\naccessibility improvement, for the businesses.\nAnto Aghapekian: What grant, what grant?\nBeth Kenny: It came up, we were talking about. The city has done facade grants. They match the\nfunds. So we're looking to see if there's some way we can have our own grant, or if we should have\nbeen attached to the facade grants, in some way that we can get some matching funding for if\nmerchants are able to make these improvements. Oh, yes. I don't think that we need to vote on that.\nYou guys already have your own subcommittees. Do you need anything else from the Commission?\nJenn Barrett: No. Just any comments or other ideas. I think we had a great discussion on this, and\nwe're looking forward to going and talking to the Chamber of Commerce. If you do have any\nadjustments or additional ideas for the list, I would really appreciate any comments on that. That\nwould be great.\n5.\nOLD BUSINESS\n5-A\nReview of Liaison Assignments (All Commissioners)\n05/30/18\nPage 23 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 24, "text": "COMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MUTES OF\nWednesday May 9, 2018 6:30 p.m.\nBeth Kenny: Great. Thank you. I will rack my brain but I think you guys did a great job. Let's\nmove on to agenda item five, Old Business. Review of liaison assignments. I'm just going to read\nthrough our assignments and if we have any questions or comments, let's go over it now. So, I am\nassigned to SSHRB [Social Service and Human Resource Board] and alternate for City Council.\nI\nhave Vice Chair Barrett for the Planning, and alternate for Housing Authority. Also alternate for\nHistoric Advisory Board. And Commissioner Aghapekian, I have for Mastick and alternate for\nPlanning Board, and alternate for the Rec and Park Board, rather. And then Commissioner\nBrillinger I have for Transportation, and you're also representing us with the AC Transit.\nBeth Kenny: Commissioner Deutsch, you were not present so we assigned you things. Right now\nwe have you at Library and School Board. Do you have a preference as to which one? Do you want\nboth? I know you worked in the past with Library.\nSusan Deutsch: I've met with the library. I thought I was going to do Parks and Rec.\nAnto Aghapekian: That's what I remember. I remember you doing Parks and Rec.\nBeth Kenny: You were, and then every year at the retreat, we opened it up, and I'm sorry, I didn't\nthink to save it for you. I am happy to switch off with you, if you want to do SSHRB instead of the\nSchool Board?\nSusan Deutsch: I can do the School Board.\nBeth Kenny: Okay.\nJennifer Roloff: Or I can do School Board if you'd like to do Rec and Park. That's okay.\nSusan Deutsch: Either one.\nJennifer Roloff: Yes, I have two kids in schools right now, so I wouldn't mind having a reason to\ngo, for sure.\nSusan Deutsch: Alright.\nJennifer Roloff: I was just on our PTA's legislation and advocacy for the PTA, so I'm very familiar\nwith what's going on, and if you want to switch, that's fine.\nSusan Deutsch: If that's what you're comfortable with that.\nJennifer Roloff: Yes. You prefer Rec and Park?\nSusan Deutsch: Well, I'm just kinda interested in that area and I've been doing research. And\nwanted to talk about it.\nJennifer Roloff: Is that okay?\n05/30/18\nPage 24 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 25, "text": "COMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MUTES OF\nWednesday May 9, 2018 6:30 p.m.\nBeth Kenny: Yes, that's why we're talking about it right now.\nJennifer Roloff: Okay, then I'll switch to School Board.\nAnto Aghapekian: And excuse me, and Susan here is going to be on the Rec and Park?\nBeth Kenny: Yes. And then I have Commissioner Hall for the Housing Authority and the Historic\nAdvisory Board. And Commissioner Linton for City Council. And now Commissioner Roloff, you\nwill be doing the School Board.\nJennifer Roloff: Yes.\nBeth Kenny: Are there any questions, concerns or comments about your assignments?\nJennifer Roloff: I just had one question. I did go to Parks and Rec last month. There is a meeting\ntomorrow night. I'm not able to attend, but I thought Laurie, and I went and introduced myself and\nI'm fine to do that on, I think we can all do that on any commission, but is there a way that you\ncould send out a note to these different councils or commissions, especially the ones that are in the\ncity and say, \"Here's our liaisons for the year?\"\nBeth Kenny: You know what? That's something that I might be able to do.\nJennifer Roloff: Oh, okay, okay.\nBeth Kenny: As chair. Coming from me it might be more appropriate, and that's a good idea. So, I\nwill do that.\nJennifer Roloff: Okay. Just for the city of Alameda ones.\nBeth Kenny: Yes. Definitely. I can definitely do that.\nJennifer Roloff: Thank you.\nBeth Kenny: So, if there is, if we're all okay with this assignment, the assignments now, let's go\ninto our boarding assignment reports. We'll start with you, Commissioner Brillinger.\nArnold Brillinger: Okay, well you guys are going to be very pleased for me to say that the\nTransportation Commission has not had a meeting since last month. Because we just met a month\nago. So I don't have anything to report on that. I do have some other things to report later on. But\nnot regarding transportation.\nBeth Kenny: Great, thank you. Commissioner Roloff, did you want to report anything on the Parks\nand Rec, that you went to?\nJennifer Roloff: It was my first meeting, so I did a lot of listening. I think they're having a lot of\nchallenges on Parks and Rec right now with some of the commissioners and the relationships\n05/30/18\nPage 25 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 26, "text": "COMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MUTES OF\nWednesday May 9, 2018 6:30 p.m.\nthey're having with the commission. So I hope that all works itself out. I know there are a couple\nspots open on the commission. If we know anyone who might be interested in actually being on that\ncommission, who has an interest in people with disability in Alameda too, I think we could do some\nnetworking for that. But as far as the meeting I went to, they were doing some assignments on the\ncity property and the different city gyms and who was allowed to use them. They do annually, the\nspace is allocated, and if I had more time, I'd like to see some of the sports teams and groups that\nrepresent and have children with disabilities, if they are getting fair play in there, but being SO new,\nI just went and sit back and listened. Pay attention to them. And as I mentioned, there is a meeting\ntomorrow night.\nBeth Kenny: Great, thank you. Commissioner Deutsch, you mentioned that you had stuff\nSusan Deutsch: Yes, I do. I went to Salinas, and there's an accessible playground there that was\nbuilt totally by community funds through fundraising. And it's called Tatum's Garden. It was started\nby a family who had a daughter with Spina bifida, and her name was Tatum. And this playground\nwas amazing and I've taken a lot of photos and I've taken a few videos, and I was hoping at some\npoint, I don't know what meeting, I could make a PowerPoint and present this to our committee.\nAnd I was also thinking of presenting it to Park and Rec. My last communication with them, they\nwere saying how all the playgrounds in Alameda all need to be redone, one at a time, so that's a\npossibility. But I was also thinking that whole West End project, there's a lot of land out there. An\nopportunity. I'd have to go out and look around. A friend of mine actually told me to look at a\nspecific spot. I have to check in with him again.\nBeth Kenny: Is this Jean Sweeney Park you're talking about?\nSusan Deutsch: No. He was just saying there's nothing there now and they're going to be putting in\nhousing. So but, I can't look that far ahead, but I would like to at least present. This playground was\naccessible to kids in wheelchairs. There were swings for kids with other issues. There was stuff for\nkids with autism. Just it was totally accessible. It was in Salinas, and so it was kind of a farm theme.\nBut it didn't have to be a farm theme, but it was. It made it kind of cute because the climbing wall\nhad fruits and vegetables to hold on to, so I thought that was cute. Hold on to the watermelon, put\nyour foot on the tomato.\nSusan Deutsch: That kind of thing. They do have a lot more land out there, so that does make a\ndifference, but it's just it's something that ever since I've been on this commission, I've wanted to\nsee an accessible playground in Alameda, and I finally saw one that was really good.\nAnto Aghapekian: I think that all of us would love to see it.\nBeth Kenny: Yes. I think we can get you on the agenda for July, if you're able to present then.\nAnto Aghapekian: Oh I'll be able to present in July, yes. Thank you.\nBeth Kenny: Thank you. Vice Chair Barrett?\nJenn Barrett: So for the planning committee, I also have not been to one since our last meeting.\n05/30/18\nPage 26 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 27, "text": "COMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MUTES OF\nWednesday May 9, 2018 6:30 p.m.\nHowever, I believe they're doing something on the seaplane new ferry terminal this Monday, so\nhopefully I'll attend that. And then, I just want to make one comment about the event that We Are\nAlameda at the Faction brewing, they had someone from Alameda Hospital who announced that we\njust got, as of May 1st, Anthem Insurance in network there, which is huge, so I was excited to hear\nthat.\nBeth Kenny: Commissioner Hall?\nLisa Hall: Ongoing issues with the housing authority. Unfortunately, no cause evictions are still\nhappening. And a senior disabled lady was in the family getting evicted, and the woman had a heart\nattack and died. And you didn't really hear anything about that in the newspaper or anything else,\nwhich is just a sad fact of what we're going through. Again, disabled and senior people are our most\nvulnerable, and it's a crisis in our city. Many of the churches are trying to get together to set up a\nwarming center, which would help the homeless people at night, but also perhaps other people that\nmay end up needing it. It has a great model from the Midway Shelter, same people that run Midway\nShelter, and they have a warming center in San Leandro, and hopefully with a lot of support that\nwe've already got in Alameda, it looks like it's going to come together. Hopefully, we're going to\nend up having a warming center for these people to go at nighttime. Hopefully that will happen.\nBeth Kenny: Great, thank you. Commissioner Aghapekian?\nAnto Aghapekian: And last thing is, it's been about half a year now, the Mastick Senior Center set\nup a exercise courtyard, exercise equipment that anybody can use, and it's become very popular,\nextremely popular, for who have issues moving their bodies. They do exercise, and it's a delight to\nsee. I help out with making the bocce ball court and the golf putting court accessible. They didn't\nhave any handrail over the curb. I worked with them on that and all credit should be given to the\nRec and Parks Administration. They're very conscientious assisting. And that's all I have to report. I\nhaven't been to the planning board meetings. I've been following them, but I haven't been\npersonally. The planning board, they start around 7:00, I think, and they keep going on and on and\non and on, and for topics that are absolutely of no interest to this commission. And so I try to follow\nup on the minutes. And I have never been to a rec and park meeting. I know the guy there by the\nname of Ron Limoges.\nJennifer Roloff: He might be the chair.\nAnto Aghapekian: He's a friend of mine, we see each other very often and we do talk. But we're\nfriends, I haven't spoken with him about business, but if there is anything that I can do, let me know.\nI'm more than happy, more than happy to help.\nJennifer Roloff: And also, as far as the city goes, Mastick rolls into Parks and Rec, so you can talk\nto him directly about all of the Mastick stuff.\nAnto Aghapekian: And I have a met Amy Wooldridge. She's the director. And I have a good\nmeeting. Anytime I can be of help. I'm dying to see that place.\nSusan Deutsch: I brought my husband there after I saw it. I just had to visit the playground. He was\n05/30/18\nPage 27 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 28, "text": "COMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MUTES OF\nWednesday May 9, 2018 6:30 p.m.\namazed by it also. It's just that I had never seen a playground like that.\nAnto Aghapekian: And just it occurred to me that one of the things we could do is maybe do the\nsame presentation adding more, and then get on the Rec and Parks agenda and show them what\ncould be done to make it accessible. That would be a big help.\nBeth Kenny: Thank you, Commissioner Aghapekian. So I have not attended a SSHRB meeting.\nWhat I do is I get their agendas and see if there's anything that I think is going to be of interest, and\nthen I'll just go to that part of the meeting in the video. It's pretty easy to get through it if you can\njust go to the right agenda item that you want. But what I did see is Doug Biggs from the Alameda\nPoint Collaborative did an amazing presentation to SSHRB about the potential housing going in\ndown by Crab Cove for seniors and homeless people coming out of hospital. And I would really\nlove to see him give that presentation to us because I think this is something that we could. If we\ncan help in any way, I think this commission would probably be interested in that, especially given\nour focus, our talking about focusing more on people with mental health disability. I think there's a\nlot of overlap in who would be receiving some housing in this area.\nLaurie Kozisek: I've left him a phone message asking him to contact us about that.\nBeth Kenny: Great. So that's my report for SSHRB. A lot going on at council right now, and a lot\ngoing on with the school board right now. I haven't actually watched the school board meetings, but\nthey're talking about consolidating the high schools, and I know there's a lot of issues around that,\nand I would love to find out how it would affect students with disabilities. That's neither here nor\nthere at this point. I just wanted to put that out for you, Commissioner Roloff, for stepping in there.\nJennifer Roloff: Yes, thank you.\nBeth Kenny: I'm sure you're aware of the possibility that Encinal High School might be closed.\nJennifer Roloff: Yes. And then it all turns into one. In fact, I think that Encinal PTA is having a\nmeeting on that tonight, and I'm here.\n5-C\nPresentation for April 2018 meeting (which arrived too late to post last month) Link to\nfurther study: https://haasinstitute.berkeley.edu/search/node/disability\nBeth Kenny: 5C is a link to the presentation that we had at the April 11th meeting. Thank you for\nall who helped put that together because I was having a family emergency and there was some last\nminute issues. So we didn't get that on the agenda, but we put it on here so that everybody can have\nit on the agenda for this time. And now we'll go to agenda item six, staff communications.\n6.\nSTAFF COMMUNICATIONS\nLaurie Kozisek: Thank you, Madam Chairman. The only comments I have are that for the 4th of\nJuly parade, we are going to have the Paratransit bus there, and I understand Arnold's going to be in\nit, and anyone else who wants to be in there and practice their queen wave, you're welcome to\n05/30/18\nPage 28 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 29, "text": "COMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MUTES OF\nWednesday May 9, 2018 6:30 p.m.\ncontact me or Victoria. I think just contact me and I'll make sure that you get all the details so that\nyou can be on there. The other thing is, we did all this work to move the schedule to the odd months\nof the year, not knowing that the Transportation Commission, which normally has their meeting on\nthe fourth Wednesday of the month, doesn't like to do that in November because it interferes with\nThanksgiving. So they moved it to the second Wednesday of the month, before we got it. And when\nI pointed that out, they said, \"You're going to have to move yours.\" So you need to think about\nwhen you want to have it in November. And you can't act on it now because it's not an agenda item.\nBut take a look at your calendars and see if you want to have it on the first or third Wednesday of\nthe month for November, or just skip it, because we will have had enough meetings. So just keep\nthat in mind for. Do you want me to put it on agenda item for next month?\nBeth Kenny: Yes. We can vote about that. Thank you very much.\nLisa Hall: I just want to say something as far as Paratransit, I forgot. I guess it was Victoria that\ngave us the pink application for Paratransit and her business cards. So we had a whole pile that we\ngave out on Tuesday at the food bank. And I only put one at a time because many of the people\ncome and just take one. But this made the people ask and it was wonderful. I said, \"It's open to\neveryone that is a senior or disabled,\" and boom, it was like, \"Oh, my dad, or my mom, or me,\" and\nit was like, \"There you go\". And I was like, \"This is Here you go.\" So getting the word out again,\na little more for people, so it was good.\n7.\nANNOUNCEMENTS\nBeth Kenny: Okay, that actually brings us to agenda item number seven, announcements.\nCommissioner Brillinger.\nArnold Brillinger: Okay. Lisa, were those the schedules that you had?\nLisa Hall: No, they were the actual applications. We have the schedules too, but the actual pink\napplication that they have to fill out so they can get on the program.\nArnold Brillinger: Oh, okay.\nLisa Hall: And then her business card too, so if they had a question.\nArnold Brillinger: Okay, because that's very important. We need to get as many people involved in\nthe taxi program.\nLisa Hall: Right.\nArnold Brillinger: And also the MRTIP.\nLisa Hall: Right. We have that on our bulletin at the church. We have them up there, free, free.\nArnold Brillinger: Yes, because they're very good services. I've had a couple of people that I know\nthat have used them just recently and they had nothing but good to say, compared to getting home\n05/30/18\nPage 29 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 30, "text": "COMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MUTES OF\nWednesday May 9, 2018 6:30 p.m.\non East Bay Transit. So that's good. And of course, the shuttle is open to everybody, including\nArthur, because he rode it.\nArnold Brillinger: And I just had a couple more things on announcements. The 4th of July parade,\nthat was part of what I was going to announce and let Laurie know, so that she can tell Victoria and\nmake sure that we're not, don't have way too many people and they're hanging out the windows\nbecause the windows don't open.\nArnold Brillinger: Okay. And the other thing that I want to talk about a little bit was SRAC, that's\nService Review Advisory Committee for East Bay Paratransit, and at their last meeting, they had a\ncouple of presentations; one was a video done in-house, trying to let their staff know the ones that is\nscheduled, know all the kinds of things that happen in the life of a driver. So they presented that.\nAnd also they had new buses that they're going to be encouraging the providers to buy that have the\nlift door in the middle of a bus right behind the front door. And those are very good because right\nnow they've got the lift doors in the back, and the only place for wheelchairs is right in the back,\nand it is murderous on your hiney and your back and other parts of your body. So they're looking\ninto some of these new buses and they'll be better. And also at the meeting, it was presented that\ntheir service is getting a bit better. They were having so many problems because they couldn't keep\ndrivers. The economy is too good. And so as soon as somebody had some experience, they'd go off\nto AC Transit for twice the money.\nArnold Brillinger: But they've got better incentives now to keep drivers. And I also went to the\nMomentum Expo at the Ed Roberts Campus, and they had a variety of speakers and presentations\nthere. And also the reason I was right here at, like it's 6:32, was because I went to the forum in\nBerkeley, and it had our friend, Karen Nakamura and Silvia Yee, who is a lawyer in disability rights,\nand they conducted this forum and it's very interesting. And again, it's just like with Alex, we need\nto keep these things in mind, because we normally don't think of disability and this, or disability and\nthat. And I think Karen tried to show us that last month, how all those things intersect. So, that's\nvery much it.\nBeth Kenny: Thank you, Commissioner Brillinger. Roloff, do you have any?\nJennifer Roloff: I was just going to say, I was looking it up on my phone, May 19th, the Alameda\nPoint Collaborative is having their annual Farm-To-Table Fundraiser. It's an amazing luncheon, and\nall of the food is sourced from the farm where the residents of Alameda Point Collaborative live,\nand they have a presentation from some of the folks from Alameda Point Collaborative and all the\nfunds go to their programs. It's not cheap, I think it's like $95 to attend. I don't know if anyone can\ngo and we have budget. You're on SSHRB, so if you want to go, I know you're so busy, but if we\ncould send someone and be reimbursed, I think I'm out of town, but I encourage you to go.\nSusan Deutsch: What's the date again?\nJennifer Roloff: May 19th. It's an amazing fundraiser. The food is all locally sourced; I don't think\nthe protein is, but everything else is from their garden or from Alameda, and it really feels good to\nbe there. So spread the word. If you can make it, that would be great. I'm still trying, myself.\n05/30/18\nPage 30 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 31, "text": "COMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MUTES OF\nWednesday May 9, 2018 6:30 p.m.\nBeth Kenny: Thank you. Commissioner Deutsch, do you have any announcements you'd like to\nmake?\nSusan Deutsch: No.\nBeth Kenny: Vice Chair Barrett?\nJenn Barrett: No.\nBeth Kenny: Commissioner Hall? Commissioner Aghapekian? I have a few. First, I think it's also\non the 19th, a sub-section of the Alameda PTA for students with disabilities usually has a resource\nfair, but this year instead, they've opted to have a picnic and they wanted to let you all know that\nyou're invited. I'll be sending out something via Laurie, but I wanted to keep that on your radar. And\nall community members are invited. So if you're able to, please attend.\nBeth Kenny: And then I wanted to mention quickly that there were two things sent out about a job\nfair in San Francisco Public Library, and then also the Exploratorium is going to be hosting a job\nfair for people with disabilities to get jobs in that, not only with the Exploratorium but with a few\nother museums in San Francisco. So please, if you know anyone, send them out that information\nthat has been sent out to you. And if anyone needs that information, they can contact Laurie or\nmyself and we can resend that to you.\nBeth Kenny: I attended the Marina Shores, they had an open house this past weekend, and that is\nthe development that's going to be going along the estuary over along Clement Street there. And it\nwas very interesting. It was on a barge, where they're going to have four of these barges to make\nthem like a community center where there will be makerspace and recreation. I got the card of a\nwoman who is going to be working on the recreation stuff because I wanted to talk further.\nCommissioner Deutsch, I know you're connected with BORP [Bay Area Outreach and Recreation\nProgram]? I always get that name wrong.\nSusan Deutsch: Well, I've contacted them many times, but we've never been able to get them here.\nBeth Kenny: Yes. They're very into the idea of having accessible ways for people to get on the\nwater, which would be great if we can help connect those two organizations. I think those are my\nannouncements. Commissioner Brillinger?\nArnold Brillinger: Yes, I'm sorry. The leg of the microphone was covering up this one item I had\nhere, and that's our special events committee, the sub-committee, that was Lisa, Jenny, Tony, and\nmyself, I think that we ought to have a meeting and see if there are any special events that we want\nto be a part of.\nLisa Hall: Well, the 4th of July picnic, I think that's our big hot topic coming up, right?\nArnold Brillinger: That's right.\nBeth Kenny: I think it would be great for you guys to meet. And now that Commissioner Lewis is\n05/30/18\nPage 31 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 32, "text": "COMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MUTES OF\nWednesday May 9, 2018 6:30 p.m.\nno longer with the commission, if anyone else is interested in joining that subcommittee, there is\nspace available for one more person. So I think that is all the announcements that I have. Anyone\nelse like to make an announcement? Otherwise, I'm going to move that we adjourn. All in favor?\nJennifer Roloff: I'll second that.\n8.\nADJOURNMENT\nBeth Kenny: Great. We're adjourned. Thanks for a great meeting, guys.\n05/30/18\nPage 32 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "LibraryBoard", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 1, "text": "CITY\nOF\nof\nof\n$\nORATEIO\nMINUTES OF THE\nALAMEDA FREE LIBRARY BOARD MEETING\nWEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 2018\nThe regular meeting of the Alameda Free Library Board was called to order at 6:10 p.m.\nROLL CALL\nPresent:\nKathleen Kearney, President\nAmber Bales, Board Member\nCynthia Silva, Vice President\nDorothy Wismar, Board Member\nAbsent:\nTravis Wilson, Board Member\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 March and April, 2018.\n*B.\nDraft Minutes of the Regular Library Board Meeting of March 14, 2018.\n*C.\nLibrary Services Report for the Months of February and March, 2018.\n*D.\nFinancial Report Reflecting FY17/18 Expenditures by Fund for March and April, 2018.\n*E.\nBills for Ratification for the Months of March and April, 2018.\nDirector Chisaki highlighted items from her letter to the Board. Plans for disaster planning were included\nin the Board letter and Director Chisaki welcomed comments from the Board. Alameda Reads is doing\ngreat work and invited the Board to stop by if they ever get a chance. Door count and circulation numbers\nare slowly increasing, otherwise all other statistics are status quo. Library is looking to hire part-time\nlibrarians because there is a need for weekend coverage at the branch libraries. The job posting will\nremain open and applicants will be interviewed on an ongoing basis.", "path": "LibraryBoard/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "LibraryBoard", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 2, "text": "Page 2 of 3\nMinutes of the\nAlameda Free Library Board\nMarch 14, 2018 Meeting\nBoard Member Wismar requested a minor change to the Draft Minutes of the March 14, 2018 under\nLibrary Board Communications. She would like the Minutes to reflect that the principal at Encinal High\nSchool said he would welcome help.\nBoard Member Bales moved to accept the Consent Calendar. Vice President Silva seconded the motion,\nwhich passed with a 4-0.\nUNFINISHED BUSINESS\nA.\nNone.\nNEW BUSINESS\nA.\nDraft Library Policies for Review. (J. Chisaki)\na.\nService Animals\nDirector Chisaki explained that this is a new policy for the Library and asked the Board for any questions\nor comments. Board Member Wismar moved to adopt the Service Animal Policy. Vice President Silva\nseconded the motion, which passed with a 4-0 vote.\nb.\nInternet Use\nDirector Chisaki informed the Board this is an update to the 1998 policy.\ni.\nPublic Access Internet Computer Rules\nDirector Chisaki explained that this goes along with the Internet Use policy and is the internal document\nthat directs staff how to administer the policy when patrons want to use the public computers. After\ndiscussion, Director Chisaki asked the board for any questions or comments. Board Member Bales moved\nto adopt the Internet Use Policy. Board Member Wismar seconded the motion, which passed with a 4-0\nvote.\nB.\nDraft Emergency Plans. (J. Chisaki)\na.\nEarthquake\nb.\nPower Outage\nc.\nFire\nd.\nEmployee Manual\nDirector Chisaki informed the board that she drafted all the emergency plans. Capt. Sharon Oliver and the\nInterim City Manager Liz Warmerdam both feel the library is ahead of the other departments in regards to\nEmergency Plans. Once adopted by the Board, The library will be the example for other city departments.", "path": "LibraryBoard/2018-05-09.pdf"}
{"body": "LibraryBoard", "date": "2018-05-09", "page": 3, "text": "Page 3 of 3\nMinutes of the\nAlameda Free Library Board\nMarch 14, 2018 Meeting\nC.\nFriends of the Library. (J. Chisaki)\nThe Book Sale went well. Attendance was down and may be because of other events happening in the\narea. Live @ the Library concert dates are listed in the Board letter. Friends are planning a volunteer\nappreciation event in July. Board is welcome to attend.\nD.\nPatron Suggestions/Comments (Speak-Outs) and Library Director's Response\nDirector Chisaki shared the patron's complaint of the front porch being dirty. The response was that the\ncustodian now cleans on a weekly basis and power washes as needed.\nA disabled patron complained of a van that is always parked in the handicapped space. The response was\nthat the owner of the van has a Disabled Person Parking placard and is allowed to park there if he chooses.\nAnyone with a placard can park in any available space for any length of time.\nLIBRARY BOARD COMMUNICATIONS\nVice President Silva shared that she worked at the Friends Book Sale and also attended the Friends Art\nDocent program.\nDIRECTOR'S COMMENTS\nA new law in place mandating single-use restrooms be gender neutral. Multi-stall restrooms are exempt.\nBranches will get new signs installed.\nORAL COMMUNICATIONS, NON-AGENDA GENERAL\nNone.\nADJOURNMENT\nThe meeting was adjourned at 7:47 p.m.\nRespectfully submitted,\nJane Chisaki, Library Director and\nSecretary to the Alameda Free Library Board", "path": "LibraryBoard/2018-05-09.pdf"}