Loading...
Minutes_Human Rights Commission 3 10 11Roll Call: Present: Absent: Staff: Anthony Allen, Chair Andrea Beacham Megan Gloss Lori Apel Mike Elliott Kelly Larson Reports Caseload Report A written report for February was submitted. Chairperson's Report A written report for February was submitted. Director's Report A written report for February was submitted. CITY OF DUBUQUE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES OF March 10, 2011 Commissioner Allen called the meeting of the Dubuque Human Rights Commission to order at 4:07 p.m. on Thursday, March 10, 2011, at the Historic Federal Building, Room 223, Dubuque, Iowa. Kurt Hansen R.R.S. Stewart Lynn Sutton, Vice -Chair Fred Davis Carol Spinoso Approval of Minutes Commissioner Stewart clarified that the joint meeting with the Housing Commission will now be held at the City Hall Annex in conference room 2. She also clarified that newly appointed Commissioners serving as liaisons to the DDRC can both attend meetings. Commissioner Hansen moved to approve the minutes as amended. Commissioner Stewart seconded. All in favor of approving the meeting minutes as amended. Old Business Commissioner Allen distributed a confirmed list of upcoming meeting dates. Kelly asked if staff was needed to facilitate any of the meetings. He thought that staff facilitation would be necessary for the joint Housing Commission goal setting, the July meeting with the Neighborhood Associations and the DCAP and DDRC meeting in October. Review and Discuss Goals and Collaborations: Goal #1: Fair Housing Commissioner Sutton was named chairperson. Commissioner Sutton stated that she wanted to look into Project Concern programs as part of this venture. She was assigned the task of putting a study group together. Commissioner Gloss will address the testing data received from the ICRC, and Commissioner Elliott will work on planning a second housing forum. The next committee meeting is scheduled for April 13, 2011 at 1:30 p.m. in Conference Room II at the City Hall Annex. Goal #2: Improve Commission Performance Commissioner Beacham will chair this group, and will work with faces & voices in planning the 2012 Equity Conference. Commissioner Allen is preparing a list of diversity contacts within the city. Goal #3: Establish a Working Group to Facilitate Transportation Goals Commissioner Stewart stated that the committee will meet following the joint session that is scheduled for later today. Goal #4: Establish a Tenant Association Commissioner Apel was appointed Chair. Commissioner Allen said that they will collaborate with both the Landlord and Neighborhood Associations in attempting to establish a Tenant Association. Commissioner Stewart asked to include an agenda item on next month's agenda for discussion on Commissioner assignment to lead meetings. Adjournment Motion to adjourn by Commissioner Stewart. Second by Commissioner Hansen. All in favor. Meeting adjourned at 4:35 p.m. New Business Joint meeting with the Transit Board of Trustees. Commissioner Stewart moved to convene the joint meeting of the Human Rights Commission and the Transit Board of Trustees at 4:40 p.m. Commissioner Beacham seconded. All in favor. Roll Call (HRC): Anthony Allen Andrea Beacham Megan Gloss Staff: (HRC) Kelly Larson CITY OF DUBUQUE Human Rights Commission 8 Transit Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes of March 10, 2011 Kurt Hansen R.R.S. Stewart, Presiding Chair Lynn Sutton Roll Call (TBT): Rhonda Knight R.R.S. Stewart Matt Esser [Absent (TBT): George Enderson Joel Lightcap Staff (TBT): Gail Kuhle, Barbara Morck Candace Eudaley Commissioner Allen recognized Commissioner Stewart as Presiding Chair for the Joint Meeting. Commissioner Stewart apologized for not sending out the ADA Anniversary Activity Summary Report to the Transit Board of Trustees prior to the joint meeting and would e-mail it immediately. So that each board would know where the other was coming from, she read the questions asked in the Americans with Disabilities Act / Fair Housing Act / Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Online Survey done by DHRC throughout June and July 2010: Q1: What are the challenges with transportation you see facing people with disabilities? Q2: What are the challenges with education you see facing people with disabilities? Q3: What are the challenges with housing you see facing people with disabilities? Q4: What are the challenges with employment you see facing people with disabilities? Q5: The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) strives to ensure that people with disabilities have equal opportunity to participate in employment, government, and places of public accommodation. Other laws similarly address equality of opportunity in housing and education. What progress do you think Dubuque has made with equal opportunity in last 20 years? Q6: Centers for Independent Living (CILs) are non - profit organizations run BY people with disabilities FOR people with disabilities. CILs provide four core services to consumer partners: information and referral, peer support, independent living skills training and individual and systems advocacy. Would you like to see such a Center in Dubuque? The Summary of Main Ideas from Q &A/Discussion at the ADA Anniversary Roundtable: • For many changes to occur, individuals with disabilities must speak up. This is intimidating but necessary for services to be tailored to their needs. • Navigating the system and finding out about the resources available is crucial. Perhaps a sort of one - stop -shop should be created to serve as a resource center. There are currently a few such centers in the Dubuque area but they are primarily geared towards specific disabilities (i.e. Tri -State Independent Blind). There should be a more consistent cooperative effort to coordinate between all organizations. • Universal design efforts should be supported and promoted to encourage greater accessibility. Can Dubuque go beyond state - mandated building code requirements? • Transportation needs are not being met, especially on nights and weekends. • Creating a more cooperative attitude with business is important. We must get businesses on board and demonstrate how compliance and support of individuals with disabilities is in their best interest. Perhaps offer more sensitivity training to encourage this." The Recommendations from Chapter 5 if the East Central Intergovernmental Association Passenger Transportation Plan FY 2010 -2014: "Job Access Reverse Commute (Continuation Project) ... The Regional Transit Authority partners with the urban public transit system, Keyline Transit and dozens of area human service organizations including the Area Residential Care, Hills and Dales Child Development, Department of human Services, Iowa Workforce Development, Delaware / Dubuque / Jackson County CPC's, the Metropolitan Planning Organization and the Regional Planning Affiliate to coordinate employment and job readiness training transportation in RTA service area. The JARC project in 2011 is a continuation project for employment transportation and will provide approximately 32,000 rides, 149,000 revenue miles and 9,100 revenue hours of service. RTA operates eight 16- passenger buses Monday through Friday on split shifts from 7 -9am and from 2:30- 4:30pm, transporting 110 passengers to the following job sites within the city limits of Dubuque: Vocational Services Center, McGraw Hill Publishing, Can Redemption Center, Dittmer Recycling, Pepsi, Finnin Fords, Colonial Terrace, Goodwill Super Center, HyVee, Burger King, Crescent Community Center and Stonehill Care Center. RTA also operates one 16- passenger bus Monday through Sunday from 8 -10pm transporting 7 -10 passengers to the following jobs sites within the city limits of Dubuque: Crescent Community Center, Stonehill Care Center and Goodwill Super Center. Service is a subscription service and was implemented by the Regional Transit Authority January 1, 2007. Service is open to the general public and predominantly utilized by passengers with disabilities who are living below the poverty level." And the Recommendations for Keyline (now the Jule): Expanded Hours and Days of Service - Maintain a consistent schedule Expand services within Dubuque and to Dubuque West End - Educate Community route information and widely market services - Provide a greater accessibility to services" Discussion followed of potential ways to collaborate with particular focus on transportation issues raised at the ADA Forum, many of which have also been raised to the Transit Board already by others. Ms. Morck stated that the 2009 Transit Study done for the City of Dubuque by LSC Transportation Consultants was only over three weeks. Idea: Creative strategies perhaps some collaborations between public and private partnerships to help bridge some of the gaps in services and expand services. To keep Transit needs in awareness if opportunities for funding would become available. The new buses will be arriving sometime between May and July if things remain on schedule. They will have a ribbon cutting ceremony in August. Idea: Use the August 15th Summit with the Housing and Transit Boards at the Comiskey Park Field House as a way to collaborate on getting public input and introducing the community to the new buses. Idea: Use something like the Envision 2010 process to envision transportation needs in Dubuque for the future (i.e. 2020). Entice participation through a contest of some sort to help gather input/ideas and select a winner and proceed with it. Need a way to keep people engaged to carry it out and collect demographics as they go. Possible Slogans: Help us drive the Jule, What do you see in 2015. Perhaps use the rebranding contest as a model. Perhaps a simulation of some sort; "If you couldn't afford gas what would you do for transportation ?" Since 25% of Iowans do not have Internet, we could possibly go through DCSD including contest information / transit surveys in the school information packet sent out at beginning of school year. Ms. Kuhle stated Transit did that with a questionnaire on safe ways to get to and from school and will find out when we would need to have those to DSCD by to be included in the packets. Discussed advertising with churches and collaborating with UD or UW -P to get college students to assist with study. Ms. Eudaley is working with Clarke / Loras / UD to see if there are any student groups willing to sponsor a referendum to put part of student fees towards City transportation. Then all students (high school and college) could ride for free just by showing ID. It costs about $900 to make 9,000 copies needed for DCSD packets. Sending contest information / transit surveys out with utility bills may also be an option, but again there will be a printing cost. We may need to investigate available grants in order to proceed with this. Ms. Kuhle will check on the Transit side to see if there is anything available. Ms. Larson stated that the Community Foundation has a grants database that we could look into, and Commissioner Stewart said collaborating with the Dubuque Center for Independent Living may also be an option, although their funding is not certain yet. Possibly other groups (i.e. disability groups, Science Valley Agency on Aging, etc.) would be interested in joining in as well and may have funds to assist. The majority of people who ride public transportation in Dubuque are transit dependent. We could ask Housing Department to pass out route information to their constituencies. Commissioners Stewart, Davis and Hansen are serving on the Transit task force and Commissioner Gloss will serve as the liaison between the Commission and the Transit Board. Non - profits can advertise events for free on the inside of the buses. The flyers will need to be 11" high and up 17" long. Transit will hang the prepared flyers. They have 12 buses now; will have a total of 16 big buses by July /August.] Adjournment Motion to adjourn by Commissioner Stewart. Second by Commissioner Hansen. All in favor. Meeting adjourned at 5:45 p.m. The next Human Rights Commission meeting will be a joint meeting with the Housing Commission on Friday March 25, 2011 at 3:00 p.m. at the City Hall Annex Conference Room 2. The next Transit board of Trustees meeting will be Thursday April 14 at 4:15 in the Historic Federal Building. Minutes approved as submitted' Minutes approved as corrected'