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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCommission On Disability - Minutes - 06/16/1997COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES June 16,1997 2:00 pm Council Liaison: Michael Byrne Staff Liaison: Nancy Stirling Chairperson: Kathy Lassen Phone: (H) 204-0614 (W) 491-5930 Members Present: Mark Kramer Mark Cummings Angela Byrne Ray Sanderson Amy Rosenberg Shirley Reichenbach Initha Stuckey Members Absent: Kathy Lassen City Staff Present: Laurie Fonken-Joseph, Human Rights Officer Sharon Getz, Building & Zoning Mike Gebo, Building & Zoning Felix Lee, Building & Zoning Nancy Stirling, COD Liaison Guests: Jean Batchelder, Access by Design Dane Talmage The meeting was begun at 2:15 pm and brought to order by Vice -Chair Mark Kramer. I. Approval of May Meeting Minutes. At this time of the meeting there were not enough Commission members present to form a quorum. Therefore, approval of the May meeting minutes was postponed until the next COD meeting. II. Video Viewine: "Fair Housine Accessibility Guidelines - HUD" Jean Batchelder provided this video from her personal library to be viewed by the Commission members as well as some City personnel from the Building & Zoning office who were invited to view this video. (Nancy attempted to take notes of the video -- there is much good information given and it was difficult for her to keep up.) This video is available for check out. Persons wanting to view the video can contact Jean Batchelder at 229-1516. The video did stress the point that contractors and building planners need to keep in mind that accessibility is a Civil Rights issue — not a building and planning issue. Commission on Disability Meeting Minutes June 16, 1997 Page 1 III. The Commission took a break at this time and acknowledged that this meeting was the last official meeting Shirley would be attending as a member of the Commission. Her appointment will end July 1 '. Shirley has been involved with the Commission for about as long as the Commission has been around. She will be recognized by City Council at the July 15 Council meeting and other Commission members were encouraged to attend. Personnel from Building and Zoning said their goodbyes to Shirley, who, among other pursuits, has contributed much time and effort to building accessibility issues and building code enforcement. IV. Public Access Survey This item was carried over from last month's COD meeting. Mark and Frank had reviewed the results from the Public Access Survey done in 1994. They have determined that the results are inconclusive and offer little useful information. They would like to conduct a new survey and will draft a new questionnaire — and will include more specific questions concerning demographics. V. Other Business: A. New COD members? At this time, the status of who will be appointed to the Commission and when was unknown. Angela, who is reapplying to the Commission, said she had been told that Commission openings were going to be re -advertised and that she would then be able to be interviewed along with the other applicants. Addendum: Nancy confirmed this information with the City Clerk's office. There will be some appointments made in July — they will not be announced until after July 2nd. There are currently six vacancies on this Commission and there were not enough applicants to fill all the positions, hence the re -advertising. Nancy will keep members posted as she is informed. B. Proclamation: Shirley attended the June 3`d City Council meeting as a representative of the Commission to present a proclamation to Mr. Perrin Truel, a Dial -a -Ride driver who was being recognized for "going above -and -beyond the call of duty" which saved the life of a customer. Transportation personnel had asked the Commission if they would recognize this driver. The Commission wrote up a proclamation which the Mayor and Shirley would present to Mr. Truel. Shirley informed the Commission at this meeting that Mr. Truel did not attend the Council meeting to receive his recognition. C. Nancy Snow Visit: Ms. Nancy Snow of the State of Colorado's Civil Rights Division has been invited to present at the next COD meeting on July 21. Ms. Snow has been asked to discuss HUD guidelines. Personnel from Building & Zoning have also been invited to attend this meeting. D. Mayor's Awards: Date? Nancy asked the Commission members to select a date for the Mayor's Awards. Nancy had dates from the Mayor's personal calendar (to be sure the Mayor would be available to attend) and asked the members which date would work for them. It was decided that the Mayor's Awards Ceremony would be a Luncheon to be held on Tuesday, October 14 — time has not been determined as yet, but probably would be from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm. Nancy is preparing to send out nomination forms within the next couple of weeks. Also, Nancy has received approval for funding to have ads placed in the Coloradoan requesting nominations for the awards. Commission on Disability Meeting Minutes June 16, 1997 Page 2 E. Disability Awareness Committee: Nancy, Blair Leist, Kathy Lassen, and Laurie Fonken-Joseph (Human Rights Officer), met together last week to discuss preparations and ideas for upcoming Disability Awareness events — and also how to enlist members of the business community to participate in this Committee. Blair has composed a letter, to be signed by Mayor Azari, that will go out to most (if not all!) business entities in the community asking for volunteers to participate on the Committee and/or to support and promote future Disability Awareness events. As the "kick off' event for this year's anniversary celebration of the ADA, it has been suggested to do a series of newspaper articles around the date of the Anniversary (July 24?). The articles will tell of the history of the ADA, what the ADA is and consists of, as well as detail some of the things the City and the community have done in response to the ADA. Blair is working on getting a writer from the Coloradoan to be involved in this project. F. Dial-a-Ride/Shamrock: Background: At the April COD meeting, David Lilly and Ralph Power of Transportation Services presented to the Commission a proposal to have the City of Fort Collins self -operate the Dial -a -Ride program. At present, Shamrock Taxi Services, owned by Tom Hofmann, provides drivers for DAR on a month -to -month contract basis. Transportation identified areas that would be improved or incorporated if the program was in-house: adequate training for DAR drivers, uniform appearance of drivers, efficient use of resources (cross - training of drivers between Transfort and DAR; full employment and benefit offers for drivers). Transportation also provided costs estimates that were lower in comparison to Shamrock's current costs to provide this service. Mr. Hofmann disagreed with the costs provided by Transportation. The major issues of concern for COD members at this time were: 1) cost of operation, 2) driver sensitivity, and 3) vehicle preference by riders (vans vs taxis). At the conclusion of the meeting, the Commission asked Mr. Hofmann to provide them with cost estimates of Shamrock's services and to present them at the next meeting (May meeting). It was hoped that once information was received from Mr. Hofmann that the COD could then take into consideration both Transportation and Shamrock information when they make their recommendation. At the May COD meeting, Mr. Hofmann came with financial information of operating costs. However, it did not provide the same type of financial information already provided by Dial-a-Ride/Transportation. Consequently, most Commission members felt they were being asked to compare these programs using financial information that could not be compared. The Commission decided at that time that they could not make a recommendation based on the information they had at hand. It was decided that Commission member, Mark Kramer, would review the financial numbers with the City and Shamrock and report back to the Commission. After ironing out the financial information so it could be compared, Shamrock and Dial -a -Ride would return to the Commission (at the next monthly meeting) with the continuing objective of getting the COD's recommendation. On Monday, June 9, Mark Kramer met with Transportation and Dial -a -Ride personnel, Mr. Mark Egeland of the Transportation Board, and Shamrock. The purpose of this meeting was to clarify the numbers and costs of the two proposals. David Lilly presented a chart that gave the breakdown of costs for one day's service using both vans and taxis. Mr. Hofmann Commission on Disability Meeting Minutes June 16, 1997 Page 3 disagreed with the figures Transportation gave. It was decided that both Dial -a -Ride and Shamrock would generate cost estimates over four random weeks (24 days of service) and bring their information to the Commission at the July COD meeting — at which time the COD would hopefully have information they could compare and base a recommendation upon. On Thursday, June 12, a regular meeting of the Dial -a -Ride Advisory Committee was held. Mark Kramer, Ray Sanderson, and Angela Byrne, members of the COD, were in attendance along with Ralph Power of DAR. At this meeting it was evident that some were very frustrated with the whole issue and process — that it was "dragging on" and personnel were not able to concentrate on their main responsibilities of supervising DAR operations [because so much time was being spent on this issue]. At today's Commission meeting, Mark gave an update of what transpired from last week's meetings. The Commission discussed the issue and the process and agreed on the following: a) costs were no longer a major concern of the COD b) the COD were very concerned about the quality of service and felt it was being effected by this whole process c) most constituents of the COD (i.e., wheelchair users) cannot utilize taxis, hence the issue of incorporating taxis is not a concern of the COD Taking these items into consideration, and since there was enough members present to form a quorum, the Commission decided it was not necessary to wait until the next meeting to make their recommendation. Member Shirley Reichenbach motioned to put this issue to a vote. Angela Byrne seconded seconded the motion. Vice -Chair Mark K. asked the members to vote on whether to give the Commission's support to Transportation Services for self -operation of Dial -a -Ride. The vote was unanimous to give that support. A letter of support will be drafted and sent to Transportation Services (pending approval from Kathy and Mark K.). G. Other: Shirley asked the Commission to pursue the following issues: 1. Transportation (for individuals with disabilities) to other areas outside of Fort Collins (and Loveland). 2. Why is the Airport not accessible? 3. Talk to Walmart about placing a railing outside (east side) of the store — there is a steep walkway there that makes maneuvering down it very difficult. The meeting adjourned at 4:15 pm. Commission on Disability Meeting Minutes June 16, 1997 Page 4