Dearborn Commission on Disability Concerns

Ford Performing Arts Center, Studio A
January 16, 2003, 2 PM
Public Meeting Minutes

Commissioners
Christian Mageli, excused
Cheryl Kreger, excused
Jane Thomas
Gary Filiak
Dale Swanson
Kim Hetrick 
Cathy McAdam 
Claudia Damian
Mary Hodak

Staff
Susan Fitzmaurice
Kurt Giberson, Director, DPW
Lola Isiminger, Deputy City Clerk
Cathy Hall, City Clerk's Office
Doug Feldkamp, MIS
Denise Toepfer, Recreation

Guests
Mona Ramouni
Darleen Sykes
Sonya Tishler

Call to Order:
Meeting opened at 2:10 PM by Cathy McAdam
Roll called by Susan Fitzmaurice

Approval of the Agenda
The agenda was approved as amended by Cathy McAdam. Christian would not be joining us by phone. Kim B. Hetrick made the motion, seconded by Dale Swanson unanimous vote,

Approval of the Minutes
The minutes from the meeting November 17, 2002 were approved. Kim B. Hetrick made the motion, seconded by Dale Swanson, unanimous vote.

Voting Accessibility

Issues addressed by commissioners were
Materials needed for accessibility, like magnifying glasses, rulers not visible. Voting booth for wheel chair users used by children to vote for cartoon characters, no chairs available, and entryways not clear. At 3 PM some accessible materials still not set up. Clear professionally done, standardized signage recommended to direct voters to accessible entrances/exits & voting materials. (Details noted in attachment.)

Lola Isiminger noted that all voting precinct workers get training prior to every voting day. There are usually 3 training sessions- 10 AM, 2 PM, and 7 PM Commission members are welcome to help. *She agreed to a follow up meeting to address these and other concerns for future accessibility needs.

Web Site Update

Kim looking at City website as a whole to increase accessibility. Doug Feldkamp said this is of continued concern. Dale asked if hit-rate of site was known - Doug said it was not, but would look into it.

Doug said it was OK to use a consultant to design page-- City can continue to monitor and update. It is OK to have our own domain name (as the PAC has). It is OK to contract with a hosting company. He cautions us to use a host company that will not put banner ads and pop-ups on our site. Doug would like to be informed of our choices.

MOTION. Dale Swanson: I motion that we establish a 4 week deadline for the Public Relations sub-committee and the ADA Coordinator to make a recommendation to the Executive committee regarding the web page Kim seconded, unanimous approval.

Recreation Update

The new exercise equipment the commission recommended has been purchased and is in place. Denise Toepfer thanked us for our recommendation and resolution.

Denise spoke about Very Special Arts grants for theatre, creative dance interactive performance.

Executive Update - TTYS

Susan Fitzmaurice reported that the TTYs have been purchased and have been received. One unexpected complication has been their incompatibility with city voice mail. Uniphones can still be useful, but will not replace existing voice phones and still need to be dedicated TTY lines.

See enclosed report.

Chair Vice-chair report

Cathy discussed Christians continuing health concerns. He will continue to follow the activities of the commission via phone and email. Please copy all info sent to Christian to Cathy and vice versa so that things can run smoothly.

All letters sent by commissioners, as commissioners need to be approved by the Executive committee. Susan does not need to see all drafts of letters (unless she is involved in writing them). All letters sent by the commission will be attached to the minutes. This will help make follow-up more concise.

All email addressed to all the commissioners should be addressed to the Yahoo list. This will give us a semi-public record of all our correspondence. (Only commissioners, Susan & Kurt have access to the site.)

Education Sub-committee

Chamber Expo is on March 12th from 5:30 to 7 PM. The cost for the table is $25.00.

MOTION. Dale Swanson: I make a motion that we spend $25.00 to sponsor a table at the Chamber Business Expo, March 12, 2003. Seconded by Mary. Unanimous vote.

Cathy took Tara and 3 other librarians on a tour of Wayne Countys accessible library. They were most impressed with the computer mice.

See report.

Executive Update, continued Budget

Kurt Giberson explained that there are two budgets: an annual operating budget and a capital improvement budget. The capital improvement budget includes transition funds - including web site design.

Commission budget for July 2003-2004 needs to be to Bob Leinen by February 12th. We can rollover-unspent money if we have specific plans to use the money. It will be approved by the City Council in May after being approved by the Mayor.

The executive committee will meet next week to finalize the budget.

MOTION. Cathy McAdam: I recommend the DPW look at increasing the hours of the ADA coordinator to up to 20 hours and to provide *an allowance for a salary increase per city guidelines. Mary seconded. Vote unanimous.

Plans for Town Meeting

April 11th 1-3 PM at the PAC.
PAC will set-up the room, cover the tables, etc.
Susan needs to create a sign-in sheet.
Cathy needs to update resources list.
Christian will ask Mayor if he will pay for food and beverages for public.
Claudia will continue to look into volunteer sign language interpreters.

There was a discussion regarding transportation - whether the public would provide their own transportation or whether a shuttle might be used to bring seniors to the Town Meeting. Susan agreed to look into the possibilities.

Claudia Damian suggested the following be invited: Jennifer Granholm, Family Independence Agency MDOT, Fire Chief, and Red Cross. She asked that people compile lists of others they think should be invited.

Press releases need to be created for the local papers, including the Detroit News & Free Press. Mary Laundroche needs to be consulted, and, Jane Thomas has much new knowledge about PR we need to utilize.

There was an extensive discussion about the expansion of the Town Meeting to include countywide and statewide issues. Some issues of interest to local residents can only be resolved by the state or county. It was still decided that the primary focus should be on local issues and the needs of local residents

MOTION. Kim B. Hetrick: I motion that the Accessibility Committee plan the Town Hall meeting so the focus remains on the City of Dearborn and allowing time for community input. Seconded by Jane. Unanimous vote.

Next meeting to discuss Town Hall has been suggested for February 3 or 10.

Disability Awareness Day

Dale Swanson 100 letters went out to organizations inviting them to DAD.
Commissioners will callback everyone. Dale will create a callback script. It will cover both town hall & DAD.

Peter Andoni (Shields in the PAC) will offer discount coupons to DAD participants.
Box lunches need to be created for volunteers. Dale will finalize award letter to be available for Chamber Expo.

BREAK - 4:05 PM - 4:20 PM

NCIL Conference - Jane Thomas's report

The conference covered legal and policy issues related to publicity.
Publicity needs to include a combination of print & broadcast media. A hook is needed to interest media.

We need a Media Plan. List of people to contact, preferred method of contact. How much advance notice do they want for an event? Reminders of events. Deadlines - exact times/ preferred method of contact.
Correct terminology - use AP stylebook.

Conference materials are available in the office. Jane handed out a copy of the table of contents - so people would know what was contained within them.

Visitability, Kim Hetrick's report

Kim reminded us of a meeting 1-30-03 at 2 PM Building & Safety

State building code permits nothing more or less than code. 2 options: Make a change a state level, or change this policy.

Jane noted that visitability is also called Aging in Place --seniors who do not want to move to a new home as they age.

Mary Hodak's report

Peg Watson has agreed to put ADA accommodation available & request accessible format on all recreation flyers.
Article in Senior news well received. We will have an article in the March AAUW newsletter.

Education Committee/ Cathy McAdam's report

See enclosed report.

May 8th Living without Limitations Cobo Hall All-Day-Event

Access Committee/ Claudia Damian's report

See enclosed report.

Invite inter-modal train representatives to March meeting.
Gary will bring refreshments for next meeting.
Tara has now joined Redbook - admits it was an oversight on her part.

Information booth needed on Commission at DAD

Are grants available for cable to do close captioning? Cathy is most concerned with emergency transmission.

Emagine Theatre in Novi second theater in state to show close captioned movies.

Gary Filiak's report

Homecoming committee wants a template for TTY signage. What other signage is needed?

Public Relations Report/ Dale Swanson's report

Back Fence article was submitted. Will be distributed end of February, beginning of March.
Chamber of Commerce - an untapped market was published.
.

Watched a video where Dale was interviewed regarding parking. Meet your Council. Aired December 2002

Meeting adjourned 5:20 PM Motion made by Kim, seconded by Dale.


ADA Coordinators Report

Transition Funds:
The TTYs have been received. There are some bugs to work out in how they work, but they are not insurmountable. Claudia and I have been practicing using them. Paul Klink has been contacted and dedicated lines will be established for all the phones.
Renovations to the bathrooms in City Hall have been finalized and will soon be underway. There will be accessible drinking fountains on every floor soon. Plans have been made to lower many of the counters.
Renovation to Snow library has been planned and finalized. Ford Library auditorium has also been plannned and will be started soon. Bryant library will have an accessible drinking fountain soon - now all libraries will have accessible fountains.
A unisex accessible bathroom is going to be built from scratch at DPW. An accessible drinking fountain has been installed. DPW complex is now fully ramped.
The sound engineer who visited the courts has declined to do the work and has suggested the firm that did the original sound work. I have been in contact with this firm and they will revisit the sites to make recommendations for assistive listening.
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An accessible playground developer with links to a Kellogg Foundation grant is making a presentation tomorrow here from 1-3 PM. I had planned to go, but have discovered I cant and hope someone else might.
Any receipts anyone has submitted for reinbursement in the last year - even if they have received reinbursement for them - please give me copies of them. In the future, still give Paula receipts for reinbursement, but also give me copies.
Enclosed is a contact list for commissioners that excludes my home info and can be copied freely for public use. If anyone wants any of their info deleted from the public list, please let me know.
89 letters were sent out to people inviting them to consider serving on the commission. An attached list are the names of those who returned their information for consideration.
The interview scheduled on February 6th on Cable TV has been delayed to March 6th.
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I will be discussing my role as an ADA Coordinator at the Oakland County CIL Steering Committee February 13th. I will be a speaker at the American Association on Mental Retardation at Osage Beach, Missouri on March 13th. I will be a speaker at the Ontario Association for Developmental Disabilites at Toronto on April 2. (These are all expense paid invitations.)