WASHINGTON State Independent Living Council

Transcription

1 WASHINGTON State Independent Living Council P.O. Box 45343, Olympia, WA ; Fax: Washington SILC Quarterly Meeting Minutes July 8, 2011 Community Services Office/ DSHS Port Angeles, WA The meeting was called to order at 9:05 AM by Jana Finkbonner, SILC Vice Chairperson. Members Present: Romel Mackelprang (via phone) Cheney Sandra Carr, Spokane Valley Trina Forest, Lakewood Al Neely, Yakima Devin Beach, Ellensburg Linda McClain, Spokane Andres Aguirre, Olympia Debbie Cook, Seattle Members excused absent: Charity Drummond Staff: Rob Honan, Olympia Gilbert Garza Barbara Hathaway, Lacey Visitors Paul Vertrees Liz Miller (July 7, 2011 Public Forum) Marcia Farrel (July 7, 2011 Public Forum) Lu Walls Von Elison Service Providers: Darlene Pickard, CART provider Verna Siegal, ASL Interpreter Mike Kosanovich, ASL Interpreter

2 In the physical absence of Chair Romel Mackelprang, Jana Finkbonner chaired the meeting in her role as Vice Chair. She called the meeting to order at 9:05. Vice Chair Finkbonner asked if anyone wanted to make public comments. Seeing that no one did, she then segued into the first order of business. The first order of business after introductions of guests Paul Vertrees, supervisor of Port Townsend and Silverdale DVR offices, Lu Walls and Von Elison was roll call. April meeting minutes. After introductions and attendance, Linda McClain made a motion to approve the April meeting minutes. Devin Beach seconded the motion. It passed unanimously. Approval of Agenda. Linda McClain made a motion to approve the agenda and Trina Forest seconded the motion. All voted in favor. darsw closure Report. Debbie Cook, chair of this subcommittee, provided the report. Here are some highlights: The darsw closure task force consisted of Debbie Cook (chair), Romel Mackelprang, Jana Finkbonner, Trina Forest, and Rob Honan. There were two conference calls. The first took place on April 20 th and the second on April 26 th. Cook reported that part of the charge of the committee was to see how a review actually works. To this end, Andres Aguirre and Sean Barrett of RSA both answered questions regarding the process of reviews of Centers for Independent Living. Cook reiterated that her role is really to help collect information, while the SILC needs to decide on how to use the information. One of the issues discussed in the darsw closure committee was whether to pursue the opening of a new CIL in SW (Vancouver) at this time or in the near future. This would entail public forums and re-opening the SPIL. No clear direction on this issue was taken. The SILC decided to continue with the SPIL as is, meaning that the next CIL to open with new funding would be NW WA. Cook suggested coming up with a fallback plan in the SPIL or the next SPIL in case there are no applicants in the process. Either shifting priorities or coming up with a fallback plan. Linda McClain interjected that she believes that RSA needs to take a stronger role in working with troublesome CILs in order to ensure that CILs do not fold in the future. Along these lines, McClain suggests more active technical assistance to CILs who need it. There was continued discussion on the issue with a variety of viewpoints. A short break was taken at 10:30 am. The meeting resumed at 10:45 am. Committee Reports. Honan stated that he received Cook s DSB, Aguirre s DVR, Linda McClain s Rehab Council for the Blind, Finkbonner/ Carr s WSRC (Washington State Rehabilitation Council), . He sent them out, along with the Budget/ Expense Report and Executive Director Report, to Council members to expedite the meeting. He asked for any questions relating to the reports.

3 The ACIL-WA report was not sent out by and McClain gave the report at the meeting. Highlights are below. There were no follow up questions regarding the DSB report (Debbie Cook) Sandi Carr had a question regarding staffing at the Spokane office which Aguirre answered. Aguirre added to his answer that the Kennewick office had some personnel changes. For the WSRC report, Honan asked about motivational interviewing, which Aguirre and Paul Vertrees provided in depth information on. There were no follow up questions for Honan s Budget/ Expense report. ACIL-WA report. McClain stated that the four CIL directors met the day before. - WA CILs and the SILC will be sending approximately 15 board members, staff and consumers to the upcoming NCIL conference. - ACIL-WA members had a very good discussion on some of the transportation problems that are going on in the state. McClain mentioned the cutting of services in Spokane as did Forest in Pierce County. - The CILs and SILC (Honan) will be engaging in ADRC training at four sites in September. - NW WA RFP was released just two weeks ago (late June) - There were some other updates on this report relating specifically to activities of the Centers There were no comments on the executive director report provided by Honan. Von Elison added a suggestion relating to the monitoring and review. She suggested SILC members (at least one) coming along for future monitoring and review visits. Honan liked this idea. A break was taken. After the break, the two presenters, Don Brandon and Sara Woody, presented on the Blue Path program. The highlights of the presentation Brandon mentioned the name change of their agency from DBTAC (Disability Business and Technical Assistance Center) to Northwest ADA Center. Blue Path is a project designed to get businesses to be more accessible under title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The program is an educational program geared to use successful businesses (those that are accessible) teach other businesses how they became accessible under the law. The project was originally called the Blue Star program. There is a city search engine which allows you to look at select businesses that are part of Blue Path (the profile ). Blue Path provides a disability/ accessibility checklists to businesses.

4 Blue Path provides a great deal many good recommendations on improving accessibility to both participating and non-participating businesses. One message is that there is an excellent return on investment even if small changes are made. To date, there are about 75+ members of Blue Path 501 (c) (3) Report. At the April meeting, Chair Mackelprang commissioned Honan and Al Neely to do further research on the viability of the SILC becoming its own non-profit (501 c3) agency. Honan stated that there are 55 SILCs in the country (includes some territories), and about 45% or 25 of the total are non-profits. He stated that he sent out a survey to 501 c 3 SILCs two years ago asking several questions surrounding how much funding they get, how did they establish themselves as non-profits, how appoints their members, etc. to get a sense of how they operate. He then sent the same survey to those that responded two years ago to see if there were any updates. He reported that some SILCs had their funding cut (as ours has) but for the most part the operational aspect of those responding has essentially remained the same. There are other pros and cons, Al Neely suggested and he Honan will be bring additional information before a final recommendation could be made. Lucille Walls suggested that looking at states that have both a CIL association such as ACIL-WA and non-profit SILCs to see if there is competition for funding between the two groups. She used California as an example. There was a brief discussion on the exception process of reserving meeting rooms. Last year, there was legislation that made it mandatory that state agencies (SILC is a state agency under the law) use state offices as meeting rooms or get an exemption from to have meetings in an alternative location. Andres Aguirre stated the exemption policy is no longer in place, and the SILC (and other agencies) can revert back to the policy prior to July 1, The context of this discussion was that SILC member Linda McClain suggested that holding public forums in the community at places such as community centers will draw more people than if they are held in state office buildings. Position Papers taskforce update. Honan stated that he ed out the report from Sandi Carr, Gilbert Garza, Devin Beach, and himself regarding possible updates on the nine position papers. Beach took the following papers: LGBTQI, Veteran s issues, and Youth Transition Garza examined the Migrant Farm Worker and Native American papers Sandi Carr looked at the Voting/Elections and Long-Term Care papers. Honan examined the 24-month waiting period, Housing, and LGBTQI (along with Devin Beach). While all made one or two suggestions regarding the Position Papers as currently written, the recommendation is for the full Council to review the suggestions from the taskforce and make possible changes as a full Council in the future. Finkbonner suggested working on the three highest priority papers for the October meeting.

5 At the April meeting in Cheney, it was also suggested added a paper on the impact of the cuts from the Disability Lifeline program. Honan will work on a draft for presentation at the October meeting. (action). New Business. Linda McClain made a motion to work on five new position papers between now and the October meeting: (1) People First Language/ Appropriate Language, (2) Transportation, (3) Emergency Preparedness, (4) Employment, and (5) the aforementioned cuts in Disability Lifeline Program. Al Neely seconded the motion. There was some discussion around People First language on to make sure that it is situational, depending on the group. It is basically about self-determination. The vote was unanimous to proceed with the five new position papers. NCIL Report: Rob Honan and Linda McClain gave a brief report on attending the upcoming NCIL conference. There will be approximately 15 individuals from WA attending. To date, about half of the legislative visits have been set up. Linda McClain announced that she nominated Rob Honan for the Region X Advocacy Award (NCIL). ACIL-WA (continued from earlier). Linda added to this report that Trina, Rob, Von (by phone), and herself met with RSA Commissioner Lynnae Ruttledge in April to discuss current legislation (the President s Budget Proposal as well as other happenings on the federal level, primarily concerning funding. October Meeting: It was announced that the October meeting will be held in Pullman on October 13 th and 14 th. The meeting was adjourned at 2:13 PM. Respectfully submitted by Rob Honan