PORTLAND COMMISSION ON DISABILITIES
Summary Commission
1221 SW 4th Ave
Portland, OR 97204
The Summary Commission meeting was held on
Monday, August 31, 2009 in the Rose Room at City Hall.
Commissioners Present: Ann Balzell, Jan Campbell, Julie Bergstrom, Sara Beth Weiner-Collier, Joan Hansen, Veronica Valenzuela, Joe VanderVeer, Carrie Jo Stairs, D’Norgia Price
Commissioners Absent: Polly Livingston (excused), Denise Spielman (excused), Jackie Mercer (excused)
City of Portland Staff: Nickole Cheron, Disability Program Coordinator and Teckla Anderson, Staff Support to the Commission
Bureau Liaisons: April Bertelsen, Portland Bureau of Transportation
The meeting began at 3:03pm.
The meeting began with everyone introducing themselves.
Agenda discussion and approval: Nickole mentioned that she wanted to add discussion regarding how to deal with incomplete applications under the “update on applications” section. This item was added to the agenda. With this change, Sara Beth made a motion to approve the agenda. Carrie Jo seconded the motion. The agenda was approved.
Meeting Minutes discussion and approval: Jan made a motion to approve the May Commission meeting minutes. Julie seconded the motion. Joe abstained since he wasn’t at the last meeting. The minutes were approved.
Bylaws
Nickole led discussion regarding the changes suggested by the City Attorney’s office to the Bylaws draft. Copies of these suggested changes had been e-mailed to all the Commissioners prior to the meeting.
The following areas were discussed and suggested changes made:
Under Article VIII, Section 2, “Standing Committees” the Commissioners felt that the second paragraph was confusing. They asked that it be reworded so that it was clearer.
Under Article IX, Section 6, “Public Comment” the Commissioners, after much discussion, decided that they would like to provide an opportunity for public comment on non-agenda items at the beginning of the meeting. They also wanted to provide for time to be requested at the end of the meeting to accommodate those who cannot testify at the beginning of the meeting.
(D’Norgia Price arrived.)
Jan made a motion to accept the Bylaws with the changes noted above unless the City Attorney has additional changes. Joe 2nd the motion. Bylaws were approved with the changes noted above.
Action Sub-Committee
Carrie Jo reported that the Action Sub-Committee had not met yet since the surveys had come in. She has input all of the data into the computer. However, the qualitative piece of the surveys has not been looked at yet.
Carrie Jo would like to invite any of the Commissioners that are interested to come to their next meeting.
The Commission needs to decide if the Summary Commission wants to look at the data and present a work plan to the full Commission or if they should just pass on the data to the full Commission to come up with their own plan.
The total number of surveys received was 75. They looked at 2 demographic items: age and ethnicity. 89.9% of the respondents were Caucasian.
In regard to age range, the following were the highest percentages:
27.4% 51-60 years old
19.2% 31-40 years old
16.4% 61-70 years old
9.6% under 20 years old
Ann asked if we wanted to keep the survey out there as a “living document” to see how things are going in the future. Julie wondered if Commissioner Fritz could put it on her website.
Julie mentioned that it is really difficult to get randomized studies. The people who tend to respond to non-randomized studies tend to be very happy or very unhappy and not the 80% that are in the middle.
Sara Beth felt that it would be good to keep using the survey with the new Commission and their contacts. D’Norgia suggested using the 95 Neighborhood Associations as an outreach option.
Julie wondered what kind of feedback Disability Rights Oregon (DRO) had gotten on their survey and whether it would help the Commission.
Nickole wondered about somehow including the survey with the Census information.
Ann suggested looking at the complaints that each Bureau gets and have the people that are filing the complaints fill out the survey.
Carrie Jo said that she will come up with the general issues listed and convene a group to look at the top 3 issues.
She said that all of the data can be accessed on Survey Monkey. She provided the Commissioners with the user name and password to access that information.
Carrie Jo asked for volunteers to look at the report. Joe, Jan, D’Norgia, and Ann are willing to meeting with Carrie Jo.
They will meet on Tuesday, September 15th at 5:30pm at Resolutions Northwest.
Update on Applications for the Commission and Selection Committee
42 applications will be reviewed by the Selection Committee. Most of the applications that were received were missing at least part of the application packet.
Nickole spoke to ONI management in regard to how to deal with late applications. The general consensus was that because applications will continue to be accepted for openings that are not filled in this first round of nominations that it would be advantageous, at this point, to only accept applicants who had at least some portion of the application in on or before the deadline of August 24, 2009, to be considered in the current selection process.
There were questions from the Commissioners in regard to any potential conflicts of interest since some of the people on the Selection Committee wrote letters of recommendation for people applying to the Commission.
Nickole stated that she did not feel that there was a conflict of interest due to the fact that this does not involve any monetary exchange.
The Selection Committee will meet on Thursday, September 17, 2009 from 10:00am – 1:00pm to make their selections for the Commission. The selections will then go before the full Summary Commission at the next meeting. They will then send their recommendations to Commissioner Amanda Fritz who will bring it before the City Council.
Joan asked if she could still be involved in the Selection Committee meeting even though she wouldn’t be able to review the applications. Everyone agreed that they would be happy to have her attend.
There was discussion about other opportunities available to those who are not chosen for the Commission such as the Multnomah County Disability Services Advisory Committee (DSAC), the grassroots group, the City of Portland Public Involvement Advisory Council (PIAC) (they are looking for someone to represent the people with disability population), and other opportunities within the City as a whole.
Teckla said that when she sends out letters to those who were not chosen that she will include information regarding these other opportunities and encourage people to be involved wherever they can.
Additional discussion regarding Bylaws
Ann and Jan brought up that the Bylaws were missing the statement that 51% of the Commissioners must be people with disabilities. This needs to be added under Article III, Section 2, “Membership Requirements”.
The Commissioners also expressed the desire to be more inclusive in the membership requirements to include people with disabilities that participate in life (such as cultural, social, or religious activities or receive services) in Portland. They felt that only including people who live, work, or go to school would limit people that cannot afford to actually live in the city or could not find accessible housing.
After discussion, Joe made a motion to strike the previous motion regarding the Bylaws. Julie seconded the motion. Motion was approved.
Jan made a motion that after Teckla makes the noted changes to the Bylaws, the Summary Commission will vote on the Bylaws (with those changes) at the next meeting. Julie seconded the motion. Motion was approved.
Next Steps
The Action Committee will meet on September 15th to compile a report that will be presented at the next Commission meeting.
The Selection Committee will meet on September 17th to choose their recommendations for the full Commission.
The next scheduled meeting for the Commission is September 24th. Teckla will send out an e-mail to see if this date works for everyone or if there is a better date where we can have more full participation from all of the Summary Commissioners.
Teckla mentioned that the Disability Department often gets requests for tabling opportunities, particularly in regard to the Voluntary Emergency Registry Program (VER). Quite often we are not able to fulfill these requests. The Commissioners were asked if any of them might be willing to help table at some of these events. D’Norgia indicated she would be willing to help.
It was suggested that we invite Commissioner Fritz to the last Commission meeting. Nickole said that she would do that.
The meeting was adjourned.
