HomeMy WebLinkAbout2012_0320_Meeting Minutes_APPROVED Meeting Minutes — Approved as circulated 5/15/12
Mayor's Advisory Committee For Equal Access (MACFEA)
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Mo'ikeha Building, Meeting Room 2A/2113
4444 Rice Street, Liliu'e, HI 96766
Members present: Rita Manriquez — State Traumatic Brain Injury Advisory Board
(STBIAB); Linda Nuland-Ames — Director RSVP, COK; Roberta Eiben — Consumer;
Ana Valdez — Family Advocate (exited at 1:08 p.m.); Dr. Lucy Miller— DCAB (Disability
and Communication Access Board) Board member; Dawn Cummings — Family
Advocate; Sharry Glass —Advocate, Teacher/Trainer; Betty Bell — Kaua'i Federation for
the Blind; El Doi — Kaua'i Developmental Disabilities Council (DDC); Elena Costales —
Consumer, KCIL Volunteer; Bev Brody — Guest Presenter
Staff members also present: Christina Pilkington —ADA Coordinator; Amy Esaki —First
Deputy County Attorney; Barbara Davis — Support Clerk; Teresa Tamura, Administrative
Aide. Captioner: Darlene Pickard - Caption First.
Members absent or excused: Kathy English — Hawai'i Disability Rights Center;
Call to Order
Chair Linda Nuland-Ames called the meeting to order at 12:12 p.m. with 10 members
present.
Approval of January 17, 2012 Minutes
Action: Ms. Bell moved to approve the minutes of January 17, 2012, as circulated. Ms.
Manriquez seconded the motion. Motion carried 10:0
Business
o Presentation on Complete Streets by Bev Brody from Get Fit Kaua'i
Ms. Brody's power point presentation started simply with the first slide stating: "All
really needed to know about Complete Streets I learned in kindergarten". What was
learned then was to share everything, to play fair, to not hit people and when you went
out into the world to watch for traffic, hold hands and stick together. Complete Streets
are for everyone and includes pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, transit users, movers of
goods and deliverers of service and persons of all ages and abilities. The State of
Hawai'i adopted Act 54 as a Complete Streets ordinance in May of 2009. The County of
Kaua'i adopted their Complete Streets resolution in September of 2010.
During the slide presentation, Ms. Pilkington provided narration to describe the details
shown in each picture which enabled all members to be able to participate in the
Complete Streets presentation.
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Ms. Brody pointed out that Kaua'i was so very fortunate to have two incredible men from
the Public Works Department as the driving forces behind the Complete Streets. They
are the County Engineer Larry Dill and the Deputy County Engineer Lyle Tabata.
Wrapping up the presentation, Ms. Brody referred back to what was learned in
kindergarten and pointed out that Complete Streets is the opportunity to share the
streets among all users, to make the streets safer for people of all ages and abilities and
to practice sharing the only world we have with one another and thus to make our
society a better one for all of us.
Ms. Glass pointed out that with the aging population, these people may not be able to
drive cars, ride a bike or walk distances and yet they still want to be as independent as
possible. We need to take a serious look at options like mopeds, scooters, electric
wheelchairs and small electric vehicles such as golf carts and to plan paths and routes
for them now. Ms. Glass further urged everyone involved with Complete Streets to
think in terms of the proper mix such as slow speed vehicles with bicycles but not with
automobiles. Even mixing bicycles with pedestrians walking dogs has not been
completely successful.
Asked if the Complete Streets was just for certain portions of Kaua'i or would it be for
the entire island, Ms. Brody said there is a Complete Streets checklist which will be
applied to all new projects and to retrofitting any old projects. There is no intention of
making every street on Kaua'i complete tomorrow but as they retrofit or build new
streets, they will apply the Complete Streets principles to these different projects. Ms.
Brody completed her presentation by pointing out that Complete Streets will
accommodate all users and help to capture and capitalize on fitness. Ms. Brody noted
again how very, very fortunate we were to have people such as the Mayor, Larry Dill,
Lyle Tabata and Michael Dahilig in full support of the Complete Streets and asked the
MACFEA members to tell them how much it is appreciate what they are doing for us.
o Discussion to change meeting time to accommodate paratransit riders (Deferred
to 3/20/12)
Chair Nuland-Ames suggested that to assist with keeping the meeting moving in a
timely manner, members should highlight a few of the details for their announcement or
meeting in writing and forward to the Secretary to include with the meeting packet.
Ms. Bell said that the paratransit ridership is up and to accommodate her schedule that
morning she had to catch a bus at 9:00 am, which came 20 minutes early, in order to be
at the MACFEA meeting at 12:00 p.m. Ms. Bell felt lucky to have the paratransit bus
system and understood that the economics were very significant. She announced that
the Transportation Department had a new phone number which is 246-8110.
Ms. Glass offered to call the Transportation Department to see if there were better
windows of opportunity for the meeting time so that members would not have to spend 3
hours getting there.
MACFEA- March 20, 2012 Page 2
Ms. Bell said the Transportation Department did have statistics of how many riders they
have and from what area, which is significant to the changes made in the times of
pickup.
Chair Nuland-Ames said she would take Ms. Glass up on her offer to work with the
Transportation Department and to bring that data to the next meeting for further
discussion.
Action: Ms. Glass moved to defer discussion of changing the meeting time to the May
meeting. Ms. Bell seconded the motion. Motion carried 10:0
o Election of Vice-chair
Action: Ms. Bell moved to defer the election of a Vice-chair to the May meeting. Ms.
Glass seconded the motion.
Chair Nuland-Ames asked that members who may be interested in serving as the Vice-
chair or wishing to nominate someone to that position to send the information to
Christina or Barbara by May 1.
Motion carried 10:0
Reports
o DCAB reports for February and March, 2012 and Legislative Update as of
2/21/12
Dr. Lucy reported that the U.S. Access Board is updating the electronic and access
standards for Section 508, which DCAB is strongly supporting. When passed, it will
require all States to comply by updating and keeping pace with emerging information
technology to ensure that communication access is available for all disabilities including
deaf, hard of hearing, blind, and deaf-blind. This law would affect all federal agencies,
manufacturers, computer hardware and software. Ms. Pilkington said that Section 508
does not address Wi-Fi and asked if the new law would address Title 2 facilities. Dr.
Lucy said very definitely.
o ADA Coordinator's report
No Report
o Updates / Announcements
Ms. Bell reported that a 5t" year pharmacy student and a clinical pharmacist from the
hospital addressed the National Federation of the Blind. It was helpful to understand
MACFEA- March 20, 2012 Page 3
that a pharmacist is required by law to consult, read labels and answer questions for
everyone and this could be very helpful to persons with other disabilities.
Ms. Manriquez reported her involvement in opening a shelter during the flooding and
the positive responses they received. Ms. Manriquez also attended the Brain Injury
Association Conference which was geared towards the caregivers and family members
and included discussion of traumatic brain injuries experienced by our military and
veterans.
Ms. Doi said the next Developmental Disabilities Committee meeting is scheduled for
Tuesday, April 3 at 12:30 p.m. The Autism Awareness signing is scheduled for
Wednesday, April 4 at 12:00 noon at the Civic Center where the Mayor will be doing a
proclamation. Also the first legislative planning meeting is set for Thursday, April 5 at
10:00 a.m. in the Boards and Commissions' conference room.
Ms. Cummings said she attended the first transition event for high school students put
on by Kaua'i Development Disabilities and the Department of Education and wanted to
encourage more parents to attend because they were provided with excellent
information.
Ms. Costales said the Hawai'i Center for Independent Living would be meeting at the
Parish Hall on March 27, April 10 and April 27 from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
Chair Nuland-Ames reported on the great success of Tropic Care Kaua'i. With National
Volunteer Week coming up in mid-April, her office will be announcing the launch of
Share the Care on Kaua'i which is a community and family support program for people
with short and long-term needs.
Next Meeting
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Adjournment
Action: Ms. Bell moved to adjourn the meeting at 1:23 p.m. Ms. Glass seconded the
motion. Motion carried 9:0
Respectfully submitted by:
Barbara Davis, Staff Support
( ) Approved as circulated ( ) Approved as amended
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