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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSenior Advisory Board - Minutes - 12/14/1994I . 9• SENIOR ADVISORY BOARD Minutes of the December 14, 1994 Meeting CALL TO ORDER The December meeting of the Senior Advisory Board was called to order by Kay Rios, chair, at 2:00 P. M. on Wednesday, December 14, in the Senior Center, 101 Remington Street, Fort Collins. ATTENDANCE Members Kay Rios, Chair Yvonne Myers, Vice Stan Ulrich, Secretary Jane Davis Jane Goodhart Ed Johnson Marjorie McTaggart Wayne Moellenberg Mary Alice Spelts Jill Taylor Margaret Watts PUBLIC PARTICIPATION Staff William Borland Laurie Bayless Steve Budner. Gary Everett Jennifer Klink, RSVP Kim LeFever Pam Moore John Pfeiffenberger Angie Stroes No one wished to speak before the Board. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING Guests Jeff Bridges Staff Liaison Barbara Schoenberger Council Liaison Absent After taking attendance, Kay asked for approval.of the minutes of the previous meeting. Before approval, however, several (beaucoup!) cor- rections were made. Kay stated that Home -Builders should be changed to HomeBounders on Pages 2 and 3. Under Dial -A -Ride on Page 3, Kay said that one should be changed to two on the number represented by the Commission on Disability on the Dial -A -Ride Committee of the Trans- portation Board. The last sentence under the topic Dial -A -Ride should be deleted. on Page 5, Kay said that will write should be changed'.to past perfect tense, had written, because she had written that before the meeting on December 14. Under New Business, Kay continued, the last sentence under Santa at the Square should be deleted because Barbara said no! Under Seniors Airborne on Page 6, Jill should be replaced with Kay in the first sentence. Marjorie pointed out that Jane should be changed to Judy on Page 6 under Concerned Seniors. Mary Alice Spelts said her name should be added to the attendance list for November because she was there. Finally, Kay pointed out that the sen- tence, New Mercer will pay for Diane's transportation, should be added at the end of Volunteer Report. The minutes were then approved as re -written. CORRESPONDENCE Stan mentioned that the SAB had received another issue of the Colorado Senior Lobby's newsletter and he passed it around for the members to read. He also mentioned that the Board had received a memorandum from the city, and it stated that Mayor Ann Azari had been appointed as the liaison to the SAB to replace Gerry Horak. The last item of correspon- Page 2, SAB Minutes, '-icember 14, 1994 d dence was another memo from the city that listed all the work plans for the city boards and commissions. It was passed around for the members to read. PRESENTATION BY SENIOR CENTER STAFF Steve Budner stated that he and the Senior Center staff were attending the meeting at the request of the SAB and then introduced his staff to the members. His staff is nearly complete, he added, and said that it lacks only one more person, an arts and crafts specialist. The staff at present includes the following persons: Gary Everett, assistant facilitator in charge of setup and the night crew; John Pfeiffenberger, Ankie's assistant and in charge of tours, outreach, publications and promotion; Bill Borland, facility technician; Laurie Bayless, coordina- tor of drop -in programs, special events and membership; Kim LeFever, secretary responsible for clerical positions at the front desk; Ankie Stroes, trips and travel coordinator and volunteer coordinator, general interest and education coordinator and liaison for SOAP, Front Range Forum, Adult Learning and Continuing Ed Program and Library and Media Committee of the Senior Center; Barbara Schoenberger, mistress of all trades and liaison to the SAB; Pam Moore, program director for fitness, wellness, dance and program development and liaison for Senior Games, senior dances and fitness and wellness groups; and -Steve Budner, head. honcho. After the introductions, Steve asked each person to tell about his/her program. Pam went first and told about some of the new programs that she plans to start when the new senior center opens because she had had many inquiries about the wellness and fitness programs that are planned. That morning, she said, several persons representing many diverse groups had met to talk about their expectations and the prog- rams she was going to develop. Basically, she said, they agreed with her plans. They had talked about track and field, aerobic equipment, Senior Games, darts, badminton, table tennis, swimming, basketball and volleyball leagues and many other activities, and their wishes were almost the same as the options that she had developed. The gym, for example, would not only be used for basketball games, but also for spiritual, educational, health and psychological programs. Pat then displayed a diagram of the center which showed the possible uses for each room. Later, she discussed a tentative fee schedule for the fit- ness center only. There would be no charge for persons over 80 years of age, but a drop -in charge would be required for all other persons, according to the following scale: 70-79 year -olds, $1.60; 60-69 year - olds, $1.80; and 18-59, $2.00. The drop -in fee would give the user access to the gym for open and specifically scheduled eventsanduse of the swimming pool track, spas, lockerroom and all other facilities in the fitness center. The fee would be based on the ability to pay, and scholarships would be available. The fee would be good for all day, and Steve added that it is compatible with fees charged at all other city facilities because the fee schedule had been set by the city. No fee would be charged for the use of other parts of the senior center. As yet, no yearly fee for unlimited use has been established, for it had not been discussed. Another way to go, Pam added, would be to develop a punch -card system. A user would be able to buy a card with a specified number, and when- ever the owner of the card would drop into the senior center, one Page 1, SAB Minut December 14, 1994 • number would be punched on the card. The card would have no expiration date, and cards would be discounted; i. e., the more numbers on the card, the cheaper each visit would be. One big advantage of the punch card system, Pat said, is that the card could be used at each of the city's facilities. Cards would be available in either 10 or 30 numbers and sold to the user on a graduated scale according to the age of the user. After the presentation, Pat and Steve were bombarded with many questions about the services in the new senior center, comparisions of cost between the center's fees and health clubs and many other questions about the fitness and wellness areas of the new senior center. OLD BUSINESS Follow -Up on Neighbor to Neighbor Presentation Kay reported that after Rusty Collins' presentation to the SAB, Rusty had written a letter to Kim Ragan and voiced the following concerns: (1) Does the potential for a conflict of interest exist regarding referrals? (2) Does your agency have adequate staffing and space to meet present and future growing needs of the community? (3) Would you be willing to forward updated copies of your housing listings to the Senior Advisory Board on a monthly basis? (4) What are you doing as far as discharge planning is concerned? (5) Does the opportunity exist to assign a liaison position to the SAB? (6) Would you accept a representative from the SAB and/or Neighbor to Neighbor to serve on your personnel committee when selecting counseling staff? and (7) Can you furnish the Board (with a copy to Neighbor to Neighbor) with quarterly figures that describe total client contact, nature of the contact and the outcome of the contact? In the discussion that followed, Jane Davis mentioned that in her position as liaison to HomeBounders, she had attended the meeting in which the letter was discussed and the response was that if the community is against them, they would pull away. She added that a meeting between Neighbor to Neighbor and ARA (Living Centers of America) is scheduled for January 4, and she said she would be attending it. Members of the Board made it clear that they were not opposed to HomeBounders as an organization, but they are con- cerned if it, or any other organization, is able to be accountable and to provide the services needed. Jane added that two meetings will take place in January. One will be between Rusty Collins and Kim Ragan's supervisor and the other will be between Kim and the "head honchos" of Living Centers of America, and she had been invited to attend both of them. The SAB encouraged her to attend both with instructions that she should explain the SAB's concerns: that the service should continue, that the provider hould be accountable, that the community should have involvement in the board of directors, that the organization should have the capability to provide services needed and that the purpose is not to boost a for -profit organization, but to provide a service for the community. Lack of staff and facilities were two great concerns of the SAB. New Senior Center Update Page 4, SAB Minutes,-r)ecember 14, 1994 _ y As of yesterday, Ed reported, the contractor was looking at a Febr- uary completion date. Negotiations are now two levels above the project manager and the owners of the company are involved. The contractor is now in a penalty phase as of Monday. Work has slowed down in the past days and further work depends upon nice weather. Painters are not on the job, finish work needs to be done, and the sheetrock contractor is not on the job because he demands upfront money. The painting contractor had used the wrong kind of paint on the walls of the swimming pool, and it had to be sandblasted off. Concrete recessed areas where wipe -off mats were to be placed had to be replaced twice because of mistakes, steps on the stair- way were not level and had to be removed, the ceiling in the lounge area had been installed and then ripped out because it was not in- stalled properly, the concrete area around the pool was done in two pours, but the first one will have to be replaced because it is faulty and many other "goofs" kept the building behind schedule. This level of incompetence, Ed continued, started about three weeks ago when the on -site superintendent had been criticized, and he quit. Ed concluded his report by saying that only 25 workers are on the project, and that is not enough people for such a large building. The tentative completion date is now February 22. Dial -A -Ride Update Kay reported that upon recommendation of the Transportation Com- mittee, Council had signed a new agreement with Shamrock to pro- vide services for the Dial -A -Ride Program. The city has some concerns, however, about Shamrock taking over the accessible ambulatory portion of the program, and the city now has the options of taking over that part or re -negotiating with Care -A -Van to take over that portion only. One problem, however, is that Care -A -Van had said that it wanted all or nothing. The rural transportation system is still up in the air, and that might be a problem that the SAB might want to address later on, Kay said. Many questions and the voicing of several concerns followed Kay's report. Ed wanted clarification on the ownership of the buses that Care -A -Van operates, and it was not clearly determined who really does own the buses. Several members felt that the city owns the buses outright because it holds title to them, but others felt that since the buses had been acquired through federal match- ing grants for donations that were collected by Care -A -Van, the buses actually belong to that organization. Since the buses could only be owned by a government entity, however, the city agreed to hold the titles of the buses, but they would still be owned by Care -A -Van. Barbara believed that true ownership of the buses will eventually be decided by the courts. Another question raised by Yvonne was why three entities were necessary to take care of senior transportation needs. Marjorie replied that when the services were comtemplated, the city decided to "brokerage" the services, but have one central dispatch. One company was hired to carry non -ambulatory riders and another to carry ambulatory ones. The third organization was a volunteer, and it operated independently. Yvonne also expressed a concern about the drivers if the city decided to operate the non -ambulatory page .5, SAB Minu December 14, 1994 • portion of Dial -A -Ride. She felt that the drivers should not be recruited from Care -A -Van, but that the city should start anew and tra the drivers for the job. Care -A -Van drivers, she continued, had not been trained to take care of senior needs. Many riders had been left stranded or not picked up at the specified time -at her facility, and Elder Haus has experienced the same problems, Yvonne added. Barbara added that the senior center has had many more problems with transportation and abandoned people than ever before. Since Dial -A -Ride started, the senior center staff had to take many patrons home because they had been stranded after the center had closed. When she asked a driver what kind of training he had, his reply was that he had been told to open the door. Marjorie added that part of the problem is that Shamrock considers its drivers independent operators instead of employees and that each driver is responsible for his own training. She was concerned whether or not Shamrock could hire and fire and whether or not the drivers could be held accountable. When she brought up those con- cerns in a past meeting, the Shamrock owner assured her that the drivers participating in Dial -A -Ride have agreed to do so. She later acquired.a definition of independent operators and employees from the Job Training Corps and gave it to the city to have its attorneys look it over. Ed also questioned the efficiency of a thrid, fourth or fifth party operating the dispatch service for Dial -A -Ride. COMSIS is not associated with any of the groups and is not a city department, so it could not possibly understand all the problems that occur. Two other members agreed that having an outside entity operate the dispatch service is not efficient and has actually caused many problems. Three members related specific incidents of breakdowns in the system. Senior Job Match Because Jeff Bridges had been waiting to make a presentation since the beginning of the meeting, Kay asked him to report next. As background information, Kay stated that Jeff wished to present a program called Senior Job Watch, and his purpose for appearing before the SAB was to get its endorsement and support. Basically, the program would match students at Centennial High School with seniors who needed minor repairs or services that the students could provide. Jeff had already appeared before City Council and had obtained a grant from the Office on Aging. The high school students would be paid for their serivices. Kay then introduced Jeff to the SAB. After giving an overview of the program and the rationale for its formation, Jeff stated that he plans to start the program in March if he can "get the adrenalin flowing" and support from boards and other organizations. The funding level now stands at $25,000 with contributions coming from Poudre R1, the county, the state, the city and seniors. The operating level should be between $34,000 and $36,000, and that would constitute one-third of the Job Manage Page 6, SAB Minutes December 14, 1994 Program. The other portions will be directed toward other pop- ulations in other parts of the city. The SAB, Jeff continued, could help in the following areas: client identification and referral, additional funding opportunities, target neighborhood identification, review of proposed services, critique and review of forms, applications and brochures and review of quality assess- ment surveys. He then asked Kay to mention some of the services that would be provided. Kay enumerated some of the services: in -home services would consist of light to medium housekeeping, laundry,seasonal clothing accessi- bility and storage, light furniture moving, light bulb replacement, mail storage, rubbage removal, basement and closet cleanup, appli- ance cleaning, recycling assistance, shopping, window cleaning and many other household chores. Yvonne asked what the budget would be used for, and Jeff replied that the students would be paid from the Youth Employment budget, and what that program is doing is taking the funds from all the programs and maximizing the benefits for the whole general popula- tion. Yvonne next asked if he had already made a presentation to City Council, and Jeff replied that it actually wasn't a presentation, but the Council has seen the proposal because he knew the money was available in the Youth Employment budget, but since the Youth Advisory Board is just being formed, it wasn't possible to get Council's endorsement yet. Stan pointed out that the proposal states that the SAB has committed its support for client identification and referral, additional fund- ing opportunities, targeting neighborhood identification, advisory review of proposed services, critiquing and reviewing forms, appli- cations and brochures and advisory review of quality assessment surveys in Section V of the proposal and other commitments in other parts of the proposal. If this proposal had been submitted to the Office on Aging as a basis for funding, Stan continued, it implied that the SAB had already approved the project and that might have influenced members of the Office on Aging to approve funding. If that were the case, he had obtained funding under false pretentions and that would an unethical practice. Marjorie added that when Jeff addressed the Council, he actually said that the SAB had supported Senior Job Match and he didn't say that just two members supported it as individuals. She also pointed out that the proposal states in the Project Overview that "the City of Fort Collins Senior Advisory Board will be used to assure thorough sensitivity training to issues of older adults." She objected to that statement because she said the SAB wouldn't be qualified and that the Board hadn't been approached for its endorsement. when asked how she would interpret that statement, Barbara said that she had never seen the document before, but she would say that as written, the statement does guarantee that the SAB would oversee and manage sensitivity training to older adults. If we accepted the proposal, we definitely would be taking responsibility for that phase of the training. .Page_7, SAB Minu , December 14, 1994 • Because the proposal is on the Council's agenda for next Tuesday, Marjorie stated that she would like more time to study the document before making a decision. Yvonne, too, said that she would like more time to look over the proposal and to study it before commiting to it. Stan also said he couldn't endorse the proposal at the moment. Kay observed that probably the reason for the Board's hesitation to accept the project is that the members had been "blind -sided" and it states that we have already committed our support. No one, she added, is questioning the value of the project itself, but only the manner in which approval was solicited. Yvonne agreed. Jeff replied that his organization was operating under fund- ing restraints and that the proposal had to be put together in a very short time to meet deadlines. After the discussion, the SAB members agreed that a letter should be written to all persons who had seen the proposal to explain our position. Ed said that he would not agree to anything that had not been thoroughly discussed in a meeting and that the letter should contain a disclaimer to the contents of the proposal that commit the SAB to responsibilities in the program. Yvonne added that we should let the people who saw the proposal know that we are aware of the proposal, but we need more time to review it before making a final decision. Wayne said that we understand the constraints under which the Senior Job Watch is operating, butw.e.have.constraints, too, that we must legitimately observe. Kay was instructed to write the letter and Jill agreed to duplicate the proposal and send a copy to each board member. Volunteer Exchange Update Yvonne suggested that she should invite Diane to give a presentation on the Longmont Volunteer Exchange Program at the February meeting. The members agreed. Liaison Network Barbara stated that she had handed out a list of all the organi- zations that had been working closely with the Senior Center and another list of the organizations that each member had agreed to attend as a liaison to the SAB. She also requested that all mem- bers submit the names of other organizations with which we should be communicating and maintaining a close relationship before the end of the meeting. She concluded by saying that she will have an updated list at the next meeting. 1995 Work Plan A copy of the 1995 Work Plan had been passed around the table when the correspondence was read, and Kay mentioned that it was an updated version of the one that had been presented at the last meeting. She also wanted to know if we should set definite dates for the Outreach Programs. Jill mentioned that Cliff Barber is no longer teaching the gerontology class, and she had tried to contact his successor without any luck. She will get dates for the Outreach as soon as she can contact the instructor. The consensus was that Jill should try to schedule that meeting in May and make other arrangements if that date is not convenient for the professor. Jill agreed to set Page 8, SAB Minutes December 14, 1994 up a meeting with Rangeview in February. Northside will be scheduled for June and the North College Mobile Home Park for August. Update on Trailer Park Kay stated that she didn't have an update on the trailer park because she couldn't get any information. NEW BUSINESS Nomination of Officers According to the bylaws, officers for the SAB shall be elected by a simple majority at the January meeting. Wayne suggested, however, that a willingness to serve should probably be a prerequisite, and candidates should be decided upon at this meeting. Ed Johnson moved that if the present officers would be willing to serve, they should be nominated as a slate. Wayne seconded the motion. The motion carried. The slate that will be presented in January will be Kay Rios, chair; Yvonne Myers, vice chair; and Stan Ulrich, secretary. Nominations will be accepted from the floor before the vote takes place, but persons placed in nomination should have previously agreed to serve. Suggested Program - Alma Morales Since Alma Morales had written a letter to the SAB and asked to become better acquainted with the SAB, the consensus was that she should be invited to one of our meetings to introduce herself. The members agreed that she should give a presentation about:hdr program to the SAB at the July meeting. REPORTS RSVP. Jennifer Klink announced that the RSVP office would be closed from December 23 through January 2. She also mentioned that the Let Happiness Ring and Lights of Life and Memories projects are still open. The VITA site, she added, will open on January 23. Aspen Club Jill announced that the Aspen Club now has over 10,000 members. The club will also sponsor Being Smart about Crime programs. City Council Ed had no report. Office on Aging Stan had no report. Seniors Airborne Page 9,__SAB Minutes,ecember 14, 1994 • Kay had no report. Concerned Seniors Marjorie had no report. Senior Center Council Barbara announced that the Senior Center will be sponsoring a Secret Santa dinner on December 19, and that Christmas dinner will be served on December 20. The Bon Voyage party will be held on December 30, and it will officially close the center. All programs that were normally held in the Senior Center will be cancelled until the new center opens. Friends of the Senior Center Barbara announced that the holiday luncheon will be served tomorrow. It will be free to members, but non-members will be charged $5.00. OTHER BUSINESS No other business was brought before the Board. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS Stan: Pass. Wayne: One club. Jennifer: One diamond. Mary Alice: Pass. Ed: Double! Jane: Redouble! Margaret: Pass. Marjorie: Marjorie suggested that the SAB should look at the bylaws and update them if necessary. Barbara: Two clubs. Jill: Pass. Kay: Somebody must be lying! Pass! ADJOURNMENT Since there was no further business to conduct, the meeting was adjourned at 4:42 P. M.