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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2010 0615 Minutes Open_APPROVED Meeting Minutes — Approved as Circulated 7/20/10 Mayor's Advisory Committee For Equal Access (MACFEA) Tuesday, June 15, 2010 Mo'ikeha Meeting Room 2A & 2B 4444 Rice Street, Lihu'e, HI 96766 Those present at the meeting were: Rita Manriquez — State Traumatic Brain Injury Advisory Board (STBIAB); Rhoda Rojas — Hawai'i Center for Independent Living-Kaua'i (HCIL); Dr. Lucy Miller — DCAB (Disability and Communication Access Board) member; Dawn Cummings — Family Advocate; Sharry Glass — Advocate, Teacher/Trainer; El Doi — Kaua'i Developmental Disabilities Council (DDC); Betty Bell — Kaua'i Federation for the Blind; Linda Nuland-Ames — ADA Consultant; Elena Costales — Consumer, KCIL Volunteer. Staff members also present: Christiana Pilkington — ADA Coordinator; Barbara Davis — Staff Secretary; Captioner: Heather Theriaque, Caption First. Guests: Roberta Eiben; Rose Costales; Alika Terral with the Boy Scouts Members absent or excused: Julia Hall — American Red Cross; Kathy English — Hawai'i Disability Rights Center; Rev. Richard Chun, Senior Representative; Call to Order The meeting was called to order by Chair Elena Costales at 12:05 pm in the Mo'ikeha Building Meeting Room 2A & 2B at 4444 Rice Street in LThu'e with a quorum of 7 members present with 2 members joining shortly thereafter. Approval of Agenda Ms. Glass moved to approve the agenda as circulated. Ms. Doi seconded the motion. Motion carried 7:0 Approval of May 18, 2010 Minutes Dr. Lucy requested a correction on page 2, DCAB Report: Change "A bill relating to the Facility Access Unit" to "The bill relating to the Facility Access Unit" Ms. Glass moved to approve the minutes as amended. Dr. Lucy seconded the motion. Motion carried 8:0 Business Discussion of a subject for the Mayor's Together We Can show (deferred 4/20/10, 5/18/10) A specific date has not been determined yet for the filming of MACFEA'S segment for the Mayor's show but Ms. Pilkington was hoping to arrange it for the July 20 meeting in order to coincide with the 201h year celebration on July 26 of the signing of the law creating the Americans with Disabilities Act. MACFEA Page 1 A continued subject of interest would be to introduce each committee member, the role they play in the community and/or their disability followed by the Mayor asking questions. It was noted that the show should not be all about the committee but also highlighting how the Americans with Disabilities Act has been applied in Hawai'i over the past 20 years and how it has changed access for groups with disabilities, what still needs to be done and how MACFEA has worked towards making the County compliant. This could include monitoring the removal of access barriers such as making a building accessible with a ramp, curb cuts, traffic lights aimed for those with disabilities, the creation of the paratransit bus system in the 80's to accommodate special programs for seniors and how it was further developed to assist those with disabilities , etc. A further consideration could be to explain what a transition plan is and what it means to be in compliance. Bus Stop Transition Plan Report — Report from the Kaua'i Transportation Agency - Ms. Janine Rapozo, Executive on Transportation After Bruce Clark completed the transition plan to make all the bus stops compliant with ADA, the design work was put out for bid which took longer than expected because the County asked the designer to also obtain all the necessary permits. Because there were so many things to consider, we are finding out today that some permits have either become invalid or were never done. About a year ago, Heron Construction Company from O'ahu was contracted to lay out the bus pads all around the island and for cost efficiency they chose to put in concrete pads thinking that right after that the waiting lanes or the asphalt section of the particular bus stop would be put in. When the economy really slowed down, they were not able to secure the asphalt contractor to provide asphalt just for our project. We are now hearing that they are starting to batch asphalt again so we are hopeful that they will be back on island in a few weeks to finish the rest of the bus stops. Ms. Pilkington explained the bus pad has to be 5 foot by 8 foot for the lift to deploy on to be ADA compliant. Ms. Rapozo said when there is not enough room to accommodate the 5 foot by 8 foot pad, they have applied for a technical infeasibility such as with the Rice Street Shopping Center where the depth was not eight feet so the driver would have to turn into the shopping center when it is necessary to deploy the lift. The bus stop on Kaumuali'i fronting the Harley Davidson store is not accessible right now but with the road widening project, the County will be working closely with the State to see if they can do more upgrades to that particular bus stop. The County has five Arboc busses with the low-floor ramp and there has been mixed reaction to them. Ms. Rapozo stated that anytime someone has problems accessing or disembarking from the bus, they should ask the driver for assistance. Ms. Glass and Ms. Rojas complimented Ms. Rapozo on the excellent job she has done over the years to improve the transportation system to which she attributed to a great team effort. Report on Multimodal Transportation Plan Ms. Rapozo stayed to address questions regarding this plan saying that the State Department of Transportation was doing a long-range update for Kaua'i but 90% of their plan is devoted to highways and looking at which roads are too crowded, where more roads are needed but they are not developing alternatives to the car. The County is looking at long-range plans for transit such as bikes, pedestrians, carpools, vanpools. MACFEA Page 2 Ms. Glass said the Apollo KauaTs concern is that currently there is no consideration for low-speed vehicles such as scooters, motorized wheelchairs, golf cart type small electric vehicles as alternatives to cars and it is time to look at smart street development with lanes or pathways for low-speed vehicles. Ms. Rapozo agreed that this should definitely be included in the County's plan for the consultants to consider. Ms. Rapozo said they had implemented some of the recommendations from Jim Charlier's Koloa- Po'ipu circulation plan but there are some financial constraints. Asked about bus drivers announcing bus stops, Ms. Rapozo said some drivers announce the stop in advance of the destination while others announce the stop upon arrival but anyone needing special consideration should let the bus driver know ahead of time so the driver is aware of their special needs; paratransit drivers, however, do not announce stops since they have specific destinations. Requirements set by the Hawai'i Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals regarding captioning in movie theatres — Dr. Lucy Miller Hawai'i, along with Alaska, California, Washington and Arizona, are under the Ninth Circuit Court which unanimously agreed that movie theatres are required to provide closed captioning of their films for people with hearing impairments. Arizona felt this was an undue burden and it should be optional, not required. As the opinion stands, since the court stated that it is a requirement and it is a law, it affects all of those states in the Ninth Circuit Court district. The theaters can ask for a hearing, which means it would then go to the Supreme Court which will take a long time. Right now they are working on a time line and how it will be put into practice but it will affect us here in Hawai'i. Deliberation and decision-making on changing meeting schedule to a bi- monthly basis Mayor Carvalho told Ms. Pilkington that it was up to the committee if they wished to go to bi-monthly meetings. Ms. Nuland-Ames was not opposed to changing the meeting schedule but stated that the action line from the May minutes indicated this would be a July agenda item to address concerns from the committee members and the public. Action: Place consideration of meeting schedule change for discussion on the July agenda Election of Chair and Vice Chair for July, 2010 — June, 2011 Action: Ms. Glass nominated El Doi to the position of Chair; Ms. Manriquez seconded the motion. Motion carried 9:0 Ms. Glass nominated Elena Costales as Vice Chair; Ms. Doi seconded the motion. Motion carried 9:0 MACFEA Page 3 Reports DCAB's report for June, 2010 Dr. Lucy reported that the Governor did sign both bills into law that DCAB lobbied for at the Legislature. Members' reports Ms. Rojas: Linda Vass from Legal Aid will be the speaker on June 22nd for the self advocacy group from the Center for Independent Living. I will also be attending an employment specialist training at the University of Hawaii, Manoa for five days. I will not be at the July meeting as I will be attending a conference in Las Vegas. Ms. Doi: The Developmental Disabilities Council Committee will be having their legislative forum on Thursday, September 16 at the Convention Hall. We are opening it up to different agencies and are planning a bigger venue. We are hoping that with the Primary Election on September 18th we will get a bigger turnout from our council members and legislators so they can see what our community needs are as far as people with developmental and traumatic brain injuries and all the different types of disabilities. If anyone is interested in participating or has any suggestions please be sure to let Ms. Doi know. Ms. Eiben (proposed new member): I will not be available to attend that forum in September as I will be visiting with family in Ohio. Ms. Bell: On July 1 sc there will be a librarian speaking with the Federation of the Blind about talking books and anyone who has a loved one that could benefit from talking books is welcome to attend. Ms. Manriquez: The Traumatic Brain Injury Advisory Board met on May 21 to discuss the peer mentoring project and the Neurotrauma Advisory Board will meet on the 24th Also as a lead of health services on a volunteer basis for the Red Cross, I attended triage training in Honolulu which was put on by the Red Cross and the Department of Health. Dr. Lucy: On the national level, there is a big task force working on updating the ADA regulations and the one with the most difficulty has been with communication access because the technology keeps changing every week practically, impacting what could be available so we need to change the wording to encompass all of these possible technological advantages that we may have. When the first ADA was passed in 1990 there was TTY which is now passe, then it was computers and now smart phones. This technology which, while exciting, is making it very challenging. Ms. Pilkington: On July 26th at 1 :00 in the Civic Center round building, the Mayor will be reading a proclamation in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the signing of the ADA into law. Also that day we will announce the preview of The Gallery, which is scheduled for Friday, July 30th instead of July 9th. The Gallery, which we hope to open MACFEA Page 4 in the spring of 2011 , will provide work opportunities for people who have disabilities by sharing their artwork and crafts and exercising job opportunities within The Gallery. Ms. Bell exited the meeting at 1 :25 pm Next MACFEA meeting: Tuesday, July 20, 2010, agenda to include discussion of changing to bi-monthly meetings. Adjournment: Ms. Nuland-Ames moved to adjourn the meeting at 1 :32 pm. Dr. Lucy seconded the motion. Motion carried 8:0 Respectfully submitted by: Barbara Davis, Staff Support ( ) Approved as is ( ) Approved with amendments. MACFEA Page 5