NYSILC Full Council Meeting

September 12, 2003

Attendees: Doug Hovey, Vice-Chair; Mike Godino, Treasurer; Amy LaShomb, Secretary; Frieda Zames, Member-at-Large; Judy Avner, Iris Bannister, Randy Black-Schantz, Joe Bravo, Marguerite Haring, Mark Hernandez, Michael Kink, Steve Lovi, Rosemarie McCaffery, Sharon Shapiro-Lacks, Mel Tanzman, Ron Bassman; Sharon Flom; Greg Jones, Brad Williams, Stephanie Slater.

Absent: Maria Dibble, Chair, Dennis Boyd, Michael Burgess, M.G. Power, Alexander Wood, Bob Gumson, Anne Marie Vadney.

Guests: Fred Ayers (for Bob Gumson), Denise Figueroa, Paul Kampfer (Greg Jones’ Intern-NYSOAPWD), Bob Shepherd, Todd Vaarwerk.

Open Forum: Rosemarie McCaffery announced that she is now on a new advisory board in the Bronx regarding Child Abuse amongst Children with Disabilities. If anyone is interested in receiving information disseminated, please give Rosemarie your email address. Todd Vaarwerk spoke about the Advisory Committee for the draft production of the DHCR update to the housing plan. The plan was reviewed and a follow-up meeting was had with Deputy Commission Lorrie Pizzola. Enforcement of accessible housing provisions will be DCHR’s #1 priority. Confusion still exists as to what is or isn’t accessible housing. Input will be given by the NYSILC Housing sub-committee as to what an accessible apartment should be. Consider inviting Deputy Commissioner Pizzola to do a brief presentation to NYSILC Full Council. MiCASSA rally in DC on 9/17/03 to encourage passage of the MiCASSA legislation.

Minutes: Motion by Mel Tanzman, second by Mike Godino, to approve the May 16, 2002 minutes as presented. Motion passed unanimously.

Executive Director’s Report: Brad Williams reporting.

• Activity reports are in the packet. June had a lot of HAVA activity; this continues to be an ongoing sage. HAVA will not be implemented by the 2004 Presidential Election.
• Presentation was made to the NYS Election Commissioners at their Annual meeting.
• NYSILC participated in the NYS Assembly Disability Awareness Day, setting up an informational table display, selling "Advocacy Now" T-shirts, and producing materials in accessible formats. On Senate Disability Awareness Day, advocacy awards were given and alternate formats were not available.
• Brad presented at the NCIL Region VI teleconference on the SILC’s role as a Change Agent as they look at their next 3-year SPIL.
• Brad presented at a Region II conference in Philadelphia on "Using the SPIL to Create Unity."
• NYSILC is collaborating with CDR and CIDNY to produce a paper regarding the recent negative decision of the U.S. Supreme Court from the advocacy perspective, "Rollback on Civil Rights."

Treasurer’s Report: Mike Godino reporting. All quarterly vouchers have been received, the full amount of the $100,000 Revolving Line of Credit is available, all payables are up to date, and the current bank balance is approximately $65,000. Equipment expense in June represents the required purchase of a desktop computer for the IL NET Region I and II Coordinator. July subcommittees held many conference calls on priority agenda items. Printing expense is due to the production of the "Back to Our Roots" Conference brochures and posters for the Assembly Disability Awareness Day. Currently under budget, however the conference and Executive Committee approved equipment purchases are expected to bring us in line.

Motion by Joe Bravo, second by Mel Tanzman, to accept the Treasurer’s report as presented. Motion passed unanimously.

Executive Committee Report – D. Hovey reporting.

• SSAN – Brad will be extremely involved in the SPIL process and therefore unable to devote time to the Regional Coordinators, Action Alerts, etc., associated with the SSAN. NYSAIL (Denise Figueroa) will work with the Regional Coordinators (Barbara Knowlen, T.K. Small and Todd Vaarwerk) to provide oversight and support.
• Federal Funding formula for ILC’s is changing, the new formula is for future Title VII, Part C money to be split 50-50 with the first 50% being distributed via the old formula (population based) and the remaining 50% to be split equally between the 56 parties, 50 states and 6 territories. This information, the complete explanation, will be disseminated to the ILC for their input.

Motion by Joe Bravo, second by Mike Godino, to accept the new funding formula for ILC’s. Motion passed unanimously.

Committee Reports:

• Public Policy Committee: Mel Tanzman reporting. This committee is made up of the chairs of the sub-committees. This committee is working to identify items for the Disability Action Agenda that will then be able to be prioritized at the Caucus. The next meeting will be next Friday at 10:00 AM. Policy papers must be gotten to Randy Black-Schantz. Chairs are required to make certain that their committees meet quarterly and providing NYSILC with a copy of minutes.
• ADA Committee: Mel Tanzman reporting for Frank Pennisi. ADAC has been focused on one issue, to have the Title II ADA language into State Law. This has passed in the Assembly, but has never been introduced in the Senate. Senator Larking is being courted for this introduction. Sovereign Immunity is on the back burner at this time.
• CDPAS Committee: Doug Hovey reporting. CDPANNYS statewide conference is November 4 at the Albany Marriott. The Legislation for CDPAS was passed in 1995 and to date the regulations have not been clearly identified. A draft has been developed, public input has been given, and the main theme in the regulations is for CDPAS to be a separate designation for CDPAS from the traditional PCA model. In the CDPAS model PA’s can do a great deal more than in the traditional PCA model.
• Election Reform Committee: Sharon Shapiro-Lacks reporting. Vendors will be present at the "Back to Our Roots" conference for individuals to test the machines. Polling Site Physical Accessibility Survey form has been provided in your packets. Consideration is being given regarding accessible communication requirements. NYPIRG put out a position paper regarding election reform advocacy and requested our support as NYSILC and CILs. We did not sign on to this paper. Focus was on Voter Verifiable Audit Trail (a printout of voting results is verified by the voter for accuracy), once verified, the vote is then counted. AAPD is strongly opposed to this type of audit trail. The proposed verifiable audit trail compromises security. Full Face ballot must be done away with. No movement, split in Assembly. Hearings have been held with compelling evidence given to do away with it. Now, the Senate and Assembly want to do more fact finding on the feasibility of doing away with the full face ballot.
• Housing Committee: Mel Tanzman reporting for Alexander Wood. This committee is getting off to a new start after it’s meeting with Rob Davies. Minutes from that meeting are not yet available. Continuing meetings with DHCR regarding 504 requirements, enforcement of laws, etc. Housing is a vital part of getting people out of nursing homes. DHCR will be taking comments at the "Back to Our Roots" conference, it is important that we get our points across to them. The next Housing committee meeting will be the last day of the conference.
• Inclusive Education: Rosemarie McCaffery reporting. This committee has had a bumpy start, committee meeting scheduled for September 29 or 30. Reauthorization of IDEA will be a priority. Working with Stephanie Sands at Schumer’s office and Katherine Brown at Clinton’s office. Consortium of Citizens with Disabilities (CCD), American Federation of the Blind (AFB), DREDF to get the full version of what is required for children with disabilities. IEP’s in NY are difficult to get. Advocacy training for parents is needed in NYS. Higher Education Act is a top priority when sessions resume.
• Most Integrated Setting: Mel Tanzman reporting. The MIS Committee is probably one of the most active committee. Main Issues: Public Policy paper was released by CTIONY which we signed on to and is available on the Coalition for Aging website, www.coalitionforaging.org. The MISCC had its first meeting last week without the appointees by the State Assembly. Need to Assembly members to name appointees to MISCC. Joe Bravo, Mel Tanzman and Bruce Darling attended last weeks meeting, introductory in nature. Committee is going to be critical in terms of coming up with policy directions for the State. Feeling at this point is that this committee is going to be ineffective; no IL person has been appointed. Meeting has been held with DOH regarding waiver program.
• State Plan Committee Report – J. Bravo reporting. A number of conference calls have been had around the SPIL and getting ready for, regional forums have been discussed and four locations have been chosen, dates are not definite yet. First meeting/kick-off for the next SPIL will begin at the fall "Back to Our Roots" conference. Questions have been drafted and will be circulated. ILC’s are being asked to conduct their own public forum and get input back to NYSILC. The process is well under way and everyone is gearing up for the process.
• Transportation Committee: Frieda Zames reporting. Politicians have begun to pay a bit of attention to transportation issues. Transportation priority items are ADA required, but not provided/enforced in NYS.
• CBVH SRC Report – Todd Eggert reporting. No report available.

VESID Report – Fred Ayers reporting for Bob Gumson. Renewal 2003-2004 contract process is underway, 15 completed, 14 underway and 7 ILC’s have not sent in any materials as yet. Deadline was late June. SED may hold up contract advance payments. On-site reviews, Suffolk has already been completed, Jamestown and Harlem are being planned. Larry Gloeckler has announced his retirement, effective 10/31/03. Rebecca Court has been named as interim replacement. Richard Kate is considering an out of state position and may be departing.

Consumer Satisfaction Survey – Bob Shepherd gave update. 7 questions survey, sent out to 12,716 consumers, received 14% responses, overall level of satisfaction is 90%, minimum acceptable satisfaction level is 80%. Some CILs could not determine who had CSRs when, perhaps this needs to be addressed by VESID or NYSILC. Two CILs had below 8% response rates and their approval ratings were below the 80% cut-off, they have been redone (SILO and Massena) and the new results showed better response rates and approval ratings. One CIL (WDOM) had good response rate but the approval ratings were "done over" because the results were contradictory to what was true about the CIL. The "do-over" resulted in acceptable satisfaction ratings, up to 100% in some areas. Each survey questions was reviewed individually.

Election of Executive Committee – At the May 16^th meeting, nominations were accepted for the positions of Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, Treasurer and Member-at-Large. No additional nominations were put forth. Proposed slate is Doug Hovey for Chair, Mel Tanzman for Vice Chair, Mike Godino for Treasurer, Alexander Wood for Secretary and Sharon Shapiro-Lacks for Member-at-Large.

Motion by Mike Godino, second by Joe Bravo, that nominations be closed. Motion passed unanimously.

Motion by Mike Godino, second by Joe Bravo, to have the secretary cast one ballot for the slate of officers as presented. Motion passed unanimously.

[Present and voting: Iris Bannister, Marguerite Haring, Sharon Shapiro-Lacks, Mike Godino, Doug Hovey, Randy Black-Schantz, Mel Tanzman, Amy LaShomb, Joe Bravo, Steve Lovi, Mark Hernandez, Mike Kink.]

Amy LaShomb, Secretary cast one ballot for the slate of officers as presented.

Motion by Mel Tanzman, second by Joe Bravo, directing Doug Hovey to send a letter to MG Power requesting her resignation for failure to attend the required Council meetings. Motion passed unanimously.

CBVH Report – Sharon Flom reporting. CBVH will be holding Town Meetings on the State Plan for Vocational Rehabilitation Services. Council members will receive a notice with the dates and locations. CBVH has two active grants, one with AIM (Corning) and the other with ILCHV (Troy), to provide vocational work experience type services for teens and young adults. They are in year 2 of a 3 year cycle and working well. Question was posed as to whether VR services are available to Nursing Homes to transition? Answer to be provided to Stephanie for dissemination.

Motion by Marguerite Haring, second by Mike Godino, to adjourn. Motion passed unanimously.