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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCommission On Disability - Minutes - 10/13/1997COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Council Liaison: Michael Byrne Chairperson: Kathy Lassen Members Present: Members Absent: City Staff Present: Guests: October 13,1997 2:00 pm Phone Initha Stuckey Laura Burnett Mark Cummings Alan Apt Nancy Baker Staff Liaison: Nancy Stirling (H)204-0614 Amy Rosenberg Don Fish Kathy Lassen Nancy Stirling, COD Liaison None. (W) 491-5930 Stacey Abate Ray Sanderson Mark Kramer Meeting was brought to order by Chairperson Kathy Lassen at 2:11 pm. [Note: This meeting takes the place of the regularly scheduled monthly meeting originally scheduled for October 20 so that the Commission members could meet prior to the Mayor's Awards on Friday, October 17 and discuss any last minute details.] I. Approval of Minutes Chairperson Kathy Lassen asked the members if there were any changes or comments for the September meeting minutes. There were none. Member Amy Rosenberg moved to accept the minutes as they now stood; Member Ray Sanderson seconded. The meeting minutes were put to a vote and were unanimously accepted. II. Discussion: Role of DARAC Ms. Goodall, a member of the Dial -a -Ride Advisory Committee (DARAC), was expected to attend this Commission meeting; unfortunately, she was not able to make it. Ray Sanderson, COD member, is also a member of the DARAC and so provided information to the Commission on what the DARAC was seeking. Commission on Disability Meeting Minutes October 13, 1997 Page 1 Ray provided an overview of what the DARAC does: it sort of "monitors" Dial -a -Ride and investigates customer complaints toward DAR. The Committee is under the Commission on Disability and consists of members representing various agencies around the community. The DARAC wanted from the COD some direction on an issue concerning funding for DAR customers with very low income. DAR currently institutes rates for low income individuals, yet these lower rates are often still difficult for some customers. DARAC came up with the idea of a "scholarship" fund which would assist those who could not afford the transportation. The question is how to come up with the funds for the scholarship? Should the COD and/or DARAC solicit community businesses for funds? Can the COD, as an entity of the City of Fort Collins, do this legally? Who should head this operation? Is there some organization within the City that already has established some mechanism for raising funds that this program could be incorporated into? A suggestion was made to ask a non-profit organization residing in this community if they would take on the responsibility of soliciting funds and overseeing the program. Ray said that he would try to contact Nancy Jackson at Disabled Resource Services and see if they would be willing to administer the scholarship program and collect funds. Also, was to get information from Ralph Power of Dial -a -Ride as to how much money he thought would be needed for the scholarship. Could this money come from a City budget? COD could possibly submit a memo to City Council requesting that they consider including in Transportations budget money for the scholarship. A vote was requested to support DARAC in gaining supplemental funds for the scholarship program - vote was unanimous. Action: Ray is to talk with Ralph Power and have him provide information to Nancy to be included in a memo to City Council. Kathy Lassen and Nancy Stirling will put together the memo to City Council. ADDENDUM: Nancy did not receive information from Ralph until the day prior to the deadline for information to be submitted to City Council. Ralph did, however, inform that he thought Transportation would assist by: providing a tier/sliding scale system and provide money from their operational savings. He assures us that "a program is imminent" and will continue discussions with the DARAC. (Please see attached copy of message from Ralph Power.) III. Mayor's Awards Nancy and Kathy gave a brief run-down on the activities and plans for next Friday's Mayor's Awards at the University Park Holiday Inn: • Guests would check in beginning at 11:30. Nancy will have nametags available for each guest. • Kathy will welcome guests at 11:40 am and lunch will begin to be served. • At approximately 12 noon or soon after, Kathy will begin the Awards Presentation. She Commission on Disability Meeting Minutes Page 2 October 13, 1997 will introduce COD members. Mayor Pro Tern Will Smith will be attending in the Mayor's place and will give a brief talk. Kathy will read off each nominee and winners will be presented with plaques. Runners- up will receive a "Certificate of Appreciation." At about 1:00 pm, Kids on the Block will give their performance. Awards Presentation and Luncheon will conclude by 1:30 pm. As of this date, Nancy was still waiting to hear from some of the nominees and nominators as to whether they would be attending the luncheon. Kathy said she would assist by calling the ones not heard from yet and getting their response; then forward the information to Nancy. IV. Other Business: A. Commission Workplan for 1998 The Workplan for 1998 is due to the City Clerk's Office the end of November. All COD members are encouraged to review the current workplan and bring their comments, ideas, etc. to the next COD meeting in November. B. Multi -Cultural Retreat Members received notification of an upcoming Multi -Cultural Retreat. This retreat is sponsored by the City of Fort Collins and headed by the City's Human Rights Department. Members who have not already attended a retreat are encouraged to do so. The retreats are held bi-annually, in the Fall and in the Spring. Nancy will forward information to members of the next retreat when she gets it. Administrative Services, if needed, can assist with the fees. C. Building Code Review Meeting Alan Apt is representing the Commission on Disablity at the Building Code Review Meeting. He informed the Commission that the next meeting is on Tuesday, October 14 and that he would be attending. The meeting should include a discussion of issues and items relating to accessibility. D. CSU - Accessibility Issues Members discussed the many problems CSU has concerning accessibility to facilities. The Mayor meets with members of CSU and the Commission members would like to get on an agenda at one of these meetings to discuss these problems. Nancy will send a message to the Mayor and request to get on an upcoming agenda. Meeting was concluded at 4:00 pm. Commission on Disability Meeting Minutes Page 3 October 13, 1997 From: Ralph Power • Tb: FC2.ICS.NSTIRLIN• Date: 10/15/97 9:45am Subject: DAR Scholarship Nancy, I met with Tom Frazier and David Lilly this morning regarding the DAR scholarship program. The discussion focused on low income scholarships versus across the board fare reductions. It was determined that the simplest way to set up a scholarship program was to focus on the low income segment, utilize a tier/sliding scale system and provide the money from operational savings which will be achieved by DAR this year. No dollar amount was discussed, however, based on program savings and increased revenues (from non fare sources such as Medicaid) a "decent' amount of money is available. The other possibility which we have discussed in DARAC meetings is an across the board fare reduction based on scholarship money available or raised. This option is considerably more difficult, as it becomes a political rather than staff issue. Money proposed for the scholarship would have to be on agency work plans for 98, etc., etc. Anyway, a program is imminent (YES!) and we need to discuss details, dollars. etc. at the next DARAC meeting in November. I haven't the time to provide you with more detail at this point, however, I will be available this afternoon. Hope this helps for today's meeting. Ralph CC: FC1.Exec Net.AAZARI