NYSILC Full Council Meeting

September 10, 2001

Attendees: Joe Bravo, Chair; Fran Pizzola, Vice-Chair; Amy LaShomb, Interim Secretary; Sally Johnston, Member-at-Large; Ron Bassman; Sharon Flom; Bob Gumson; Greg Jones; Judy Avner; Regina Estela; May Ewing; Marguerite Haring; Doug Hovey; Steve Lovi; Paul Molloy; Bob Shepherd; Mel Tanzman; Frieda Zames, Brad Williams, Stephanie Lawton.

Absent:Calvin Alderman; William Bird-Forteza; Maria Dibble; Patricio Figueroa; A. Georg Fleischer; Steve Holmes; Harvey Rosenthal; Anne Marie Vadney.

Guests:Jeff Reifensnyder, Denise Figueroa.

Open Forum: : Frieda Zames mentioned that Michael Burgess was interested in meeting with the disability community on SSA/Medicare issues. Loni Sanchez, who works for Michael Burgess would like someone from the disability community as a panel speaker in late October at their Annual Conference. Mel Tanzman reminded everyone about the October 9th and 10th activities on Olmstead and the Disability Action Agenda.

Minutes Motion by Fran Pizzola, second by Mel Tanzman, to accept the minutes of May 14, 2001 with the correction to the absent list to include Amy LaShomb. Motion carried unanimously.

Executive Director’s Report – Brad Williams reporting.

• Brad attended the NCIL conference, in particular a session on the Reauthorization of the Rehab Act.
• Brad participated in a DOH meeting to solicit input for their application to HCFA for a $500,000 a year Medicaid Buy-In infrastructure grant.
• NYSILC has been working hard with NCIL and AT&T Broadband on a corporate relationship. AT&T Broadband donated $20,000 for the Annual Conference and filmed the conference for a promotional video and will be investing $15,000-$20,000 to make the NCIL website interactive, as well as a future nationwide technology project to address the digital divide.
• Brad provided training to the advocacy team at the Westchester ILC.
• Brad and Stephanie attended the Orange County Mental Health Conference in Newburgh. Brad presented on the Medicaid Buy-In.
• NYSILC worked very hard on getting press coverage for the June Buy-In rally.
• Brad was invited and participated in a planning session facilitated by Commission Mills on the future of the University of the State of New York and implications to people with disabilities.
• Brad participated at the final hearing before Federal Judge Kahn in support of the Adirondack access settlement won by Ted Galusha, Teena Willard, and Bill Searles. NYSILC will serve as the court appointed monitor of the compliance plan detailed in the consent decree.
• Brad presented with Patricia Yeager on an IL-Net national teleconference training on Media Relations.
• Brad participated in SILO's tent city event to raise awareness about the lack of affordable accessible housing and gave the keynote address at their ADA celebration.
• Brad participated in the Kansas Caucus and brought back ideas to bolster NYS Caucus.
• Brad gave testimony on the New York State Code Council.
• Brad participated in a meeting with key secretaries from the Governor's office, the Senate and Assembly to address the five issues we have been pushing.
• Brad traveled to Buffalo to review and approve the IL History and Philosophy training product that will be presented on September 24th. This will be a train-the-trainer session to aide in training staff, board member or volunteer and giving them a firm understand of the IL philosophy. Materials will be distributed to every CIL and satellite in all formats (including written, disk, video, and eventually DVD).
• NYSILC received the Spanish speaking versions of the PSA Media kits.

Treasurer's Report: Stephanie Lawton. Financial reports for May, June and July were presented. Last year's final audit was included in the Council packets. Motion by Sally Johnston, second by Amy LaShomb, to accept the Treasurer's Report as presented. Motion passed unanimously.

Executive Committee Report: Fran Pizzola reporting. Minutes of the June/August 2001 Executive Committee report were reviewed. Board nominations and the Statewide Systems Advocacy network were reviewed. The Personnel Committee met and performed Brad's review. Public Policy issues were discussed and will be expanded upon during the Committee Reports.

Committee Reports:

• Public Policy Committee - Fran Pizzola reporting. Currently 6 State and 5 Federal issues are being addressed. The State issues include: Medicaid Buy-In, Sovereign Immunity, Building Codes/Accessible Dwelling Units, SCRIE, the State Appropriation, Olmstead implementation, Election Reform and the State Park Access settlement. On the Federal side, the Sutton nomination, ADA Notification Act, Federal Appropriation/Drive for 75, MiCasa, and the Assistive Technology Act. The Medicaid Buy-In - the Governor has included it in his budget, however there is disagreement on the dollar amount. Political ramifications are being discussed from both sides, timing of passage appears to be the issue. Sovereign Immunity - The coalition building on this issue has been immense. It has passed in the Assembly and has "same as" bill in the Senate, but it went to Rules and has never made it to the Floor. This is a non-fiscal bill and passage its highly unlikely. Building Codes/Accessible Dwelling Units - Brad's letter was included in the Council packets. Sally Johnston and many others submitted testimony as well. The Governor's office wants this issue to "go away," but don't want to go back to what has been in place for the past 18 years, since it hasn't worked so far due to lack of enforcement. SCRIE - Frieda Zames stated that there is still an attempt being made to pass it this year, but we must wait and see what the legislators do. The Assembly has passed it unanimously but prior to a Senate vote, NYC Mayor Guiliani voiced concern over cost. State Appropriation - Marty Luster has stated that he believes the appropriations from last year will be included again, as the Governor also wants this, however the additional $1.7 million is a matter of waiting to see what happens when there is a budget. Olmstead Implementation - Mel Tanzman and Sally Johnston reported that the Federal application for $2-$3 million over 3 years for transitionning people from nursing homes to community living did not entail getting anyone out of nursing homes, it simply was a study of the possibilities. Bruce Darling spoke up loudly and said that it must include actually getting people out and that the policy part of it - barriers, belonged in another part of the application. None of the changes that were suggested to this application were included in the application. After several in-person direct actions, all of the disability community suggestions were incorporated in the final submission. ILCHV is accepting contributions to the Olmstead Implementation fund. DOH has not done anything since the summer on this issue. The coalition has set up a website at www.olmsteadinny.com. The coalition is still seeking a representative from the Aging Community.
• Election Reform Committee - Laura Hagen was absent. Brad Williams reported that the Election Reform Committee has arranged for accessible voting machines to be at the Disability Caucus to be beta tested. NYC has established a coalition on the voting issue. Julie Hyman has been representing CIDNY at the NYC meetings. State Park Access Settlement - Brad Williams stated that this has been a lengthy process where three individuals sued the NYS Governor, DEC, etc. and won. The story has been detailed in the latest NYSILC News Brief.
• Housing Committee - Greg Jones spoke regarding a call from the Governor's office asking for a position on SCRIE. Greg did relate Building Code successes.
• Federal Issues: The Sutton Nomination - Listed in the NYSILC News Brief as a national issue. Sutton is the person who has led the 11th Amendment Rights against the ADA as it is grounded in the 14th Amendment. The controversial Senate hearings have been delayed and Sutton's nomination is in this group of hearings. Senator Clinton and Senator Schumer are both against this nomination. ADA Notification Act - There is now a Senate bill and the House bill is gaining sponsors. This will probably be a battle to the end. Drive for 75 - Representative Sweeney put forth a $20 million appropriation increase. Senator Clinton put in an appropriation increase as well, and Senator Bennett (R-Utah) put in for a $25 million increase. Senator Bennett's staff is setting up meetings with Appropriation Committee members. The recent change in the Senate leadership should work to the benefit of this issue. MiCasa - Was introduced on 8/20/01. Will wait for further input from T.K. Small. Assistive Technology Act - This is what's needed to fund the TRAID projects within NYS. Scheduled to sunset within a year. It requires both a language change so that it does not sunset and then restoration of $5 million in funding to the previous year's level. Senator Clinton put forward this increase. Both houses are working on this issue. Transition - Bob Shepherd has no report at this time. At the state level, the State Improvement Grant to the Department of Education was approved and when that was reviewed by the Federal Government the state was found to be lacking in several areas. The Transition Worksites will be conducting Workdays, ILC's should be present at these Workdays as well. Paul Molloy's area of expertise is transition/special education and has offered his time and services to this issue.
• State Plan Committee - Brad Williams reporting. The SPIL is awaiting final approval from the National Federal RSA office. Brad will be contacting Rick Anderson for an update on the SPIL.

VESID Report – Bob Gumson reporting. The ARISE site review has been conducted and they have received a draft report and responded. Rick Anderson is in the process of putting together the final report. The Long Island State site review was conducted. VESID data collection process/information is being reviewed as this will affect the next 5 year contract period. VESID will be meeting to review the Customer Satisfaction Survey results to identify strengths and weaknesses and the implementation process and see if changes need to be made. The next cycle for this survey will be for the 2002-2003 year. The four CILs that did not demonstrate active participation have been contacted and will either redo the survey or justify their results as compared to the rest of the state. Each of these CILs will pay for this work out of their CIL funds. Bob Gumson will be hiring a new staff member shortly. Currently, the Harlem ILC is flagged as a "center in difficulty/high risk." Help has not been accepted to date from State Education. The Amsterdam center, currently under management with the RCIL/Utica in its second year of a 3 year contract, VESID has reviewed the progress periodically. Consumers, the community, and staff are happy with the changes that have occurred. However, the community has been the biggest drawback, and the media reporting on the legal problems continue to deter community involvement in this center. Joe Bravo asked for a replacement to the State Rehab Council, as he would like to step down.

CBVH ReportSharon Flom/Stephanie Lawton reporting.
Gisela Distel passed away in August. CBVH's RFPs are still in review at the Governor's office. It is aniticpated that the RFPs will be out within the next month. CBVH is working with VESID on a Memorandum of Understanding for the payment of the CBVH portion of the Systems Adovcacy Network. Alan Harris, Director of Field Operations at CBVH, is leaving at the end of this week. A search will be conducted for his replacement. No interim has been named at this point. Todd Eggert has been appointed to the CBVH SRC representing NYSILC.

New Business:

• Executive Committee Elections - The slate was presented as follows:
  • Maria Dibble - Chair
  • Doug Hovey - Vice Chair
  • Amy LaShomb - Secretray
  • Pat Figueroa - Treasurer
  • Frieda Zames - Member-at-Large
    
    As there were no other nominations, Joe Bravo, Chair, directed Amy LaShomb, Secretary, to cast one ballot for the slate as presented. "So cast," said Amy LaShomb. Slate accepted unanimously.
• Customer Satisfaction Survey Results - Bob Shepherd reporting. Out of 10,076 consumer service records who received surveys, 1,499 legitimate responses were received. The goal was a 80% favorable response rate. Bob reviewed each question as stated the percentage approval rates. Overall statewide the 80% goal was met. The average response rate was 15%. The four CILs that had lower than acceptable response rates are working to correct their results. The 18-22 year old age group is the largest unsatisfied group of consumers. Gender and ethnicity did not affect the results.

Open Forum: Ron Bassman mentioned that there will be a 11/1-4/01 National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy Conference in Niagara Falls. Cross-disability connections are being sought for this conference. ILC's were encouraged to attend. The Olmstead and Garrett decisions will be discussed at this conference as well as international issues. Joe Bravo, as outgoing chair, thanked Brad and Stephanie for the work performed during the past two years. The 2001-2002 schedule is included in your packets. Expense reimbursements for the current year are due by 9/20/01. Jeff Reifensnyder questioned the status of the Transition RFPs. Bob Gumson indicated notifications would be mailed this week. RSA should be putting out the IL grant information "any day now."

Motion by Marguerite Haring , second by Bob Shepherd , to adjourn until November 19, 2001. Motion passed unanimously.