City of Santa Fe Mayor's Committee on Disability met Oct. 21.
Here are the minutes provided by the committee:
1. CALL TO ORDER
10:05 AM
2. ROLL CALL
Members Present:
Member Aurore Bleck
Member Hope Reed
Member Kendra Garcia
Member Victor Hughes
Member Kathlyne Gish
Member Pam Parfitt
Member Jose "Eli" Fresquez Members Excused:
Member Angelique Montoya-Chavez
Member Meriam Jawhar
Others Attending:
Tom Graham, ADA Coordinator
3. APPROVAL OF AGENDA
MOTION: Member Bleck moved, seconded by Member Reed, to approve the Agenda as presented.
VOTE: The motion was approved on the following Roll Call vote:
For: Member Bleck, Member Reed, Member Garcia, Member Hughes, Member Gish, Member Parfitt, Member Fresquez
Against: None
Abstain: None
4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
MAYOR’S COMMITEE ON DISABILITY MEETING
MOTION: Member Reed moved, seconded by Member Garcia, to approve the minutes as presented.
VOTE: The motion was approved on the following Roll Call vote:
For: Member Bleck, Member Reed, Member Garcia, Member Hughes, Member Gish, Member Parfitt, Member Fresquez
Against: None
Abstain: None
5. PUBLIC COMMENTS (15 MINUTES TOTAL)
6. PRESENTATIONS
a. County Clerk's office presentation to discuss the visually impaired absentee ballot and the process the County Clerk's office went through to determine that this was an accessible alternative. (Katharine E. Clark, Santa Fe County Clerk 505.986.6280 clerk@santafecountynm.gov, Juan E. Torres, Santa Fe County Chief Deputy Bureau of Elections 505.995.9571 jetorres@santafecountynm.gov and Robin Garrison, Disability Rights New Mexico – Voting and Assistive Technology Team Lead and Advocate 505.256.3100 Ext. 114 rgarrison@drnm.org)
Member Fresquez provided web link https://civicdesign.org to chat for County staff and DSRN staff. The website is dedicated to providing universal design and application to voting.
Chair Gish discussed her experiences and the inability to, or lack of knowledge about how to, report a non accessible situation during the voting process. Ms. Garrison expressed the desire to immediately contact Disability Rights New Mexico at their office (her contact information is listed in the caption above) about such issues and the effort underway to provide posters at voting sites identifying the information to do so.
County Clerk Clark expressed that ADA issues can also be Emailed to her at clerk@santafecountynm.gov for the County to respond to these sort of issues.She also identified drive-up drop boxes that can be accessed without getting out of vehicle at Eldorado, Edgewood and Southside Library.
All the participants were thanked for the information they provided and the discussion they participated in, it was very helpful.
b. Presentation of AFN Emergency Communication Kits which provide assistive technology in a variety of circumstances including emergency situations. The kits include an iPad with accessibility apps, video relay service, IP Captioned Telephone Service, Portable Loop System, Alternate Augmentative Communication (AAC) apps, translation apps (Spanish), LED Magnifier, etc. These kits can be modified for particular needs of the community. - (Eli Fresquez – NM Children, Youth & Families Department (CYFD) Director, Office of Children’s Rights 505.629.9626 Eli.fresquez@state.nm.us, Loren DeAzevedo – New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH) Access & Functional Needs Coordinator, 505.231.5328 Loren.DeAzevedo@state.nm.us and G. Nathan Gomme – The New Mexico Commission for Deaf & Hard of Hearing (CDHH) Executive Director, 505.383.6530 Nathan.Gomme@state.nm.us)
Member Fresquez spoke about repeated efforts to reach out to City of Santa Fe personnel to discuss the benefits and opportunities these kits can provide to provide access to disabled people in a variety of circumstances, but to his frustration has only received very limited response from City Management.
Vice-Chair Garcia suggested another attempt to provide meeting dates to see when the City Manager or other staff would be able to attend the MCD meeting and then coordinate that date with Mr. DeAzevedo and Mr. Gomme to ensure that they do not have to repeat their presentation unnecessarily.
Mr. DeAzevedo and Member Fresquez pointed out the legal ramifications that the City could be liable for if not properly providing accessible communication to the disabled community.
Mr. Gomme informed the MCD that any meeting needed to authorize a purchase of this sort should happen sooner than later because of the current availability of Federal funding available due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mr.Graham and Member Parfitt identified the possibility of reaching out to the Mayor’s Office and City Manager who had not been contacted previously as the effort was focused on the Department Directors who would benefit from the availability of such kits.
Member Fresquez and Vice-Chair Garcia offered to draft a letter of support from the MCD and Chair Gish offered to assist with the effort. This action would be produced under the established Core Advisory Group Subcommittee and the MCD having heard the content of the letter, during today’s meeting would authorize distribution to the Mayor and all other parties of the City and City Council.
MOTION: Member Bleck moved, seconded by Member Gish, to approve Member Fresquez, Vice-Chair Garcia and Chair Gish draft a letter of support that incorporates the description, advantages, liabilities for lack of action and remedy (which is to use emergency funds available to buy these kits) to be distributed upon completion of the letter in the interest of time urgency to acquire any related funding options.
VOTE: The motion was approved on the following Roll Call vote:
For: Member Bleck, Member Reed, Member Garcia, Member Gish, Member Parfitt, Member Fresquez
Against: None
Abstain: None
7. ACTION ITEMS: DISCUSSION
a. Further discussion of edits to support letter for developing notification system for vehicles carrying people with disabilities/special needs - (Aurore Bleck and Angelique Montoya-Chavez)
Chair Gish identified her concerns for the letter of support to contain more ADA compliant language as in the case of instead using “special needs” or “serious health problems” should be more inline with “medical and behavioral health needs”
Member Bleck encouraged the portability of the proposed system to move with the person with a disability from vehicle to vehicle depending on who the person with medical or behavioral health needs was traveling with.
Chair Gish voiced her appreciation that this system is very inclusive with the ability to be located at different places within the vehicle for better identification of the actual person requiring medical or behavioral health needs.
MOTION: Member Bleck moved, seconded by Member Gish, to approve scheduling an emergency meeting at 10:00 AM on November 18, 2021 to vote on letter of support and finalize item 7a; also to get caught up on backlog items and review items 7b and 7c, as well as revising the the current bi monthly meeting schedule to again revert back to a monthly schedule on the third Thursday of each month during 2022 and forward. Effectively resulting in MCD meetings occurring at 10:00 AM on the third Thursday of each month beginning November 18, 2021.
VOTE: The motion was approved on the following Roll Call vote:
For: Member Bleck, Member Reed, Member Garcia, Member Hughes, Member Gish, Member Parfitt, Member Fresquez
Against: None
Abstain: None
b. Reviewing 2019-2020 MCD Priorities and beginning process to update priorities for 2022 - (Kathlyne Gish)
MOTION: Member Gish moved, seconded by Member Garcia, to table Items 7b and 7c until November 18, 2021 meeting.
VOTE: The motion was tabled on the following Roll Call vote:
For: Member Bleck, Member Reed, Member Garcia, Member Hughes, Member Gish, Member Parfitt, Member Fresquez
Against: None
Abstain: None
c. Mayor’s Committee on Disability (MCD) webpage - review and update content - (Kathlyne Gish)
MOTION: Member Gish moved, seconded by Member Garcia, to table Items 7a and 7b until November 18, 2021 meeting.
VOTE: The motion was tabled on the following Roll Call vote:
For: Member Bleck, Member Reed, Member Garcia, Member Hughes, Member Gish, Member Parfitt, Member Fresquez
Against: None
Abstain: None
d. Approval of 2022 MCD Meeting Schedule - (Kathlyne Gish)
MOTION: Member Garcia moved, seconded by Member Bleck, to approve the action plan as amended to include January, 20, 2022, March 17, 2022, May 19, 2022, July 21, 2022, September 15, 2022 and November 17, 2022 in addition to the dates specified.
VOTE: The motion was approved on the following Roll Call vote:
For: Member Bleck, Member Reed, Member Garcia, Member Hughes, Member Gish, Member Parfitt, Member Fresquez
Against: None
Abstain: None
8. OLD BUSINESS
A. MCD SUB-COMMITTEE REPORTS
Member Reed reported that the Plan Review Subcommittee has reviewed Agua Fria and Cottonwood intersection roundabout, roundabout at new transit center on Camino Entrada, sidewalk improvements on Harrison Road, a really nice trail over by Sweeney Elementary School on the Southside of town, LED streetlights and downtown Water Street accessible public restroom building.
9. MATTERS FROM STAFF
a. A link to the video recording of this meeting will be added to the Meeting Minutes for this meeting.
b. The Governing Body of the City of Santa Fe has adopted the Captions Always On Ordinance under Bill No. 2021-21, Creating a New Section 7.5 SFCC 1987 in the Code of Ordinances to Require Places of Public Accommodation to Activate Closed Captioning on Television Receivers. The changes take effect 5 days after
publication in the newspaper (October 18, 2021). In addition to newspaper notification, the City has notified Hutton Broadcasting, the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce, the New Mexico and Santa Fe Restaurant Associations, as well as sending out notification in the E-commerce Newsletter produced by the Economic Development Department of the City and is Emailed to Santa Fe businesses monthly.
10. MATTERS FROM THE COMMITTEE
None
A video recording can be accessed at the link below:
https://santafenmgov.zoom.us/rec/share/_BLRCFifcXIpPmEFtdyFQxin0cUvQIOoYMNlJMgkS75TFagvxMpgNnMhl8sWTyyn.QORqO4wSQJ8Qmn3E Passcode: B3*OW5#^
11. NEXT MEETING: November 18 2021
12. ADJOURN
MAYOR’S COMMITEE ON DISABILITY MEETING
This venue is equipped with closed captions. Persons with disabilities in need of accommodations, contact the City Clerk’s office at 955-6521, five (5) working days prior to meeting date.
Adjourned at 12:01 PM
13. ADJOURN
Adjourned at 12:01 PM
https://santafe.primegov.com/public/portal
