NYSILC Full Council Meeting

September 13, 2002

Attendees: Doug Hovey, Vice-Chair; Amy LaShomb, Secretary; Frieda Zames, Member-at-Large; Judy Avner, Iris Banister, Joe Bravo, Michael Burgess, Marguerite Haring, Rosemarie McCaffery, Sharon Shapiro-Lacks, Bob Shepherd, Mel Tanzman, Ron Bassman; Sharon Flom; Bob Gumson; Greg Jones; Brad Williams, Stephanie Lawton.

Absent: Maria Dibble, Chair; Regina Estela [resigned], Steve Lovi, Victor Pagano, M.G. Power, Anne Marie Vadney.

Guests: Cheryl Connelly, Tracie Crandell, Joanne Hargabus, Rachel Pappas.

Open Forum: NYS DOH presentation on "Living Well with a Disability" by Fran Stevens.

Comments were made to clarify aspects of the Medicaid Buy-In and the "Ticket to Work" programs. Joe Bravo mentioned he’s the Region II Rep for NCIL. NCIL is trying to improve communications/information dissemination with ILCs in each state. RoseMarie McCaffery reminded the Council that 10/16 is Disability Mentoring Day. Regents will be conducting a public policy forum regarding specific issues to the disability community; panel discussion to gain input. CDPANY First Annual Conference at Marriott Hotel on October 2, 2002. Betty Rice will be the keynote speaker. CTIONY will be meeting on Tuesday, October 1, 2002 at the Albany Marriott Hotel from 10am-3pm. Bob Gumson attended DOH’s Long Term Care meeting (Olmstead Planning). On the DOH website there’s a section for general information memoranda, the one issued on September 3 was to Counties describing what CDPA has to offer and clarifying misconceptions about it.

Minutes of May 24, 2002 presented. Motion by Joe Bravo, seconded by Iris Banister to accept the minutes with one change, the date at the top of the page should read "May 24, 2002" not "March 15, 2002." Motion passed unanimously.

Executive Director’s Report: Brad Williams reporting.

• Reported on summer activities. In June, started with two site reviews in Rochester [RCIL and CDR], attended the NCIL Annual Conference, then filled-in for Joe Bravo for the site review in the Virgin Islands.
• July was full of systems advocacy work on various issues.
• The Federal CIL appropriation is projected to include a $7-$10 Million increase for the upcoming year. Budget negotiations begin around October.
• In August, Olmstead issues were the focus.
• Systems Advocacy meeting here in Albany, focus was on vote issues (registrations, candidate forums, accessibility of polling places, etc.) and sharing ideas on recruiting, etc.

Treasurer’s Report: Stephanie Lawton reporting. Presented the financial reports; items of note purchased two new computers and extra virus and firewall protections. At this point, we are $8,000 under budget; will be meeting with Executive Committee to discuss expenditures. This year NYSILC is subject to an A133 audit. Marvin and Company has been contacted to do this audit. New banking relationship is still being looked into. Interviews are scheduled for next week.

Joe Bravo moved to have Executive Committee appoint a new Treasurer at the next meeting. No action taken on this motion.

Motion by Mel Tanzman, seconded by Amy LaShomb, to accept the Treasurer’s report as presented. Motion passed unanimously.

Executive Committee Report – D. Hovey reporting.

• Conference call held on August 16, 2002, topics discussed included (1) the new accounting firm, (2) the term limit issues as relates to the interpretation of the By-Laws [individual extensions needed to take members to 6 years were reviewed], and (3) council vacancies were mentioned and members encouraged to nominate appropriate candidates. Openings were in: Advocate-1 needed; Organizations that Service Individuals with Disabilities-2 needed; Other-3 needed.
• Proposed candidates, Mike Godino; Dennis Boyd; Alexander Wood, Chris Rosa, a grad student, doctor from the Catskill area.
• Executive Committee went into Executive Session to discuss staff compensation. A 4% contribution to the retirement plan for staff members and a one-time salary adjustment that was equal to one payroll. A more formal way of handling these contributions will be looked into for the next fiscal year.

VESID Report – Bob Gumson reporting.

• Moving into the next cycle of Customer Satisfaction Surveys. The workgroup from 2 years ago was reassembled and has decided to use the same type of product, with minor changes to the methods. CSR records from 10/01/2001 to 03/31/2002 will be used for this survey.
• Center for Medicaid Services gave DOH approximately $50,000 for a start-up grant for Olmstead Implementation; these funds were matched by DDPC; however, the money is primarily unused. DOH and DDPC have asked for SED’s assistance on this matter. RFA should be out early this fall.
• The last set of standards, performance measure and data collection was released by VESID 5 years. VESID has made language changes to these standards, performance measures, etc. and will be releasing them in draft until and unless changes are made at a later date.
• VESID released a formula used to calculate the cost of people leaving institutions to live in the community or prevent people from entering a nursing home. Software development for use with this formula, etc., has yet to be developed. Only 4 or 5 CILs have responded to a request to manually track this information.
• VESID has already done a site review at the Niagara Falls ILC, and will be reviewing Brooklyn and Newburgh in October.
• VESID is processing new 5-year contracts with 26 of the ILCs. Advance payments will not go to ILCs who have not submitted the necessary contracts and supporting documentation.
• ARISE Syracuse is now under new management, Tom KcKeown, formerly with the Institute for Community Living in NYC. The RSA site review did not resolve all the issues VESID had with prior fiscal expenditures, therefore, SED will be conducting a full scale audit of ARISE that will begin next week.
• New Director Orientation is scheduled for November 1, 2002.

Joe Bravo moved, seconded by Mel Tanzman, that NYSILC submit a letter to Larry Gloeckler addressing concerns about the reduction in funding and encouraging on-going funding for these IDEA programs. Motion passed unanimously.

Doug Hovey directed Joe Bravo and Mel Tanzman to work together on writing this letter on behalf of NYSILC.

SED/VESID Presentation - Public Input on Employment Outcome, Social Security and College. Presenting: Frank Coco, Jeri Malone, Kathy Mario and Sharon LeJoy. [Not recorded.]

CBVH Report – Sharon Flom reporting. ILCHV and AIM-Corning are up and running on the "Mentoring" grants received this year. Craig Hedgecock is the Program Manager. CBVH’s Strategic Plan – Todd Eggert attended on behalf of NYSILC. This Strategic Plan will be incorporated into the State Plan as the "Goals" segment. CBVH’s Town Meeting for public comment will be Buffalo on 10/22; Syracuse on 10/23; and NYC on 11/4.

Committee Reports:

• Public Policy Committee: Mel Tanzman reporting. Three very active committees at present, 2 getting started and 1 in active, Housing. Mel Tanzman has asked MG Power to chair this sub-Committee. Reviewed the roll of the committee, use of ADAC as a subcommittee of the Public Policy Committee. Attendance and participation has been impressive.
• Inclusive Education: Amy LaShomb reporting. No formal meeting has been held. Former members have been identified and contacted for continued interest.
• Most Integrated Setting: Mel Tanzman reporting. Trying to work with CTIONY Steering Committee. Two focuses at this time. First, Federal Systems Change Grant to NYS. Many discussions have been had with DOH. $1.3 million over 3 years is the funding for these grants. Second, Most Integrated Setting bill passed unanimously by the Assembly in June and the Senate during the summer. Finally, it went to the Governor’s office on September 5^th. Negotiations are still happening on this issue. Anticipate a positive outcome.
• CDPANY: Doug Hovey reporting. Conference on 10/2. Formal organization has been setup and paid membership is encouraged. Main focus is to get NYS DOH to encourage consistency throughout the state.
• Housing Committee: Mel Tanzman reporting. Something to look at is EPVA’s paper on housing issues, i.e. Section 8 housing, elderly housing, setting up a statewide registry for accessible affordable housing, and SCRIE.
• Election Reform Committee: Sharon Shapiro-Lacks reporting. Jim Dickson participated on the July conference call meeting. The Photo ID issue was discussed and Jim brought the committee up-to-date on attempts to remove this from the proposed bill. Westchester County collaborated with WDOM and WILC on accessibility of polling places. Trying to coordinate with the SSAN to do surveys of polling places on Election Day.
• Transportation Committee: Frieda Zames reporting. The committee has met and is expanding the committee. Minutes were not submitted to NYSILC. Topics discussed included: (1) Night and weekend transportation; (2) rural transportation; and (3) the need for a state bill requiring "open" committee reviews. Discussion was begun regarding accessible ferries as well.

Meeting adjourned.