Easy Does It
Board of Directors Meeting
Minutes for February 28, 2002

Present: Jonah Markowitz, Leslie Gordon, Hale Zukas, Jonathan Gold, Rose Acampora, Todd Groves, Felix Knauth, Peter Trier, Winston Ching, Daniel Drake, Flor Chuhua-Ortiz; Absent: Dina Valicenti

Meeting Started at: 6:40 pm

Public Comment:

Jonah: Boalt Law School bebos@boalthall.berkeley.edu on disability law free to the community; welcome back to Peter Trier;

Flor: Letters to Board: Peter, Felix, Leslie

Peter: Generally optimistic about Easy Does It; need good communication

Daniel: current staff at EDI get contract; attendant's in community not recognized; help reward attendants; good pay; access to medical insurance; where's the love?

Hal & Jonathan: legislative analyst is recommending that advanced SSI be eliminated. Fed won't pay for advanced pay or relative providers. 475 people advanced pay. Without it takes attendant as much as 6 weeks to get paycheck. With advance pay disabled employer has and can pay right away. HIS gives 20 hours a week to relatives.
e-mails and faxes not effective; call Dianne Aroner's office, she sits on the committee.

Hal: not much point to lobbying Dianne; Assembly Committee Hearing on March 14th;

Daniel: would like to see EDI newsletter go out monthly for good communication

Leslie: get staff to work on it.

Jonah: Erin says not enough time to do once a month.

Jonathan: make it smaller, more like a flyer.

Approval of Minutes from January 24, 2002

Jonathan: approve minutes of 1/24; Winston seconds; all in favor but Peter abstains because he was not at the meeting

Consent Calendar

Anything that Felix sent out needs to be added to agenda. They aren't part of the consent calendar.

Jonah: holiday is under discussion, should be action item

Peter: friendly amendment to the agenda; Winston seconds. Agenda accepted with one change

President's Report:

Jonathan wants it in hardcopy. Thank Todd for helping Leslie while Peter was in the hospital.

Executive Directors Report

Finances: Because of pay raises in Dec, EDI has to find a way to live with it for next 5 months. Reduce the number of on-call hours. Be aware that 100 hours a day at $8.25 is expensive.

Hal: How much was spent on the first 6 months?

Felix: Can't give numbers off top of head. Jolt was felt in January; pay raise was voted on in Dec.

There followed some discussion on what to do, but Felix reminded everyone it was a warning and that he was not asking anyone to do anything yet.

Felix on monitoring answering service: one bad call before midnight; one okay at 3 a.m. tremendous billing issue with them. Takes a huge amount of staff time. Net cost down from $5400 to $4400. Created position for Flor. Midnight on Friday to Midnight on Monday morning/12 a.m. Makes good use of a valuable person.

Leslie: called point of order. Can't create a new position at a board meeting

Daniel: Executive Director has the choice

Felix: not creating a job; changing someone's duties.

Meeting with city next week
1. rate of co-pay; Felix thinks it should be $12.
2. charge $6 for transportation call; conditional on rereading measure E (1/2 of co-pay)
3. case manager from 3 days a week to 5 days a week; $12,000 increase
4. problem with modified duty: if a permanent disability prevents someone from doing two or more duties; offer them dispatcher hours on a probationary basis. (modified duty is suppose to be short term) put in better language and put in the handbook.
5. receivables/monthly 10% with no interest; can't pay; meet with heavy use committee. (volunteer or someone else pays the bill)

6. Comp time for exempt employees: for people who are not otherwise compensated for time beyond hourly rate. Hour for hour accrues 12 hours over 6 months and must use within those 6 months. Maximum 4 a month for fulltime employee. Peter concerned about where money would come from if employee leaves early. Come back in March with numbers. Possibly reduce it to 6 hrs. in 3 months.
7. Managing Home Care: two separate things: emergency services & case management. Case management comes from measure E; create brochure that designates what EDI provides clearly. Revising position and intake form. Look over and get back to Felix regarding this work in progress. Don't like the name: managing home care. Leslie: call it Attendant Management Services instead of Managing Home Care.

Hale: co-pay: I didn't understand why the city did not go along with $11.

Peter: City said we will allow you to use some of the budget from last year, client pays $10, city pays the rest.

Hale: not clear; last year they wouldn't divide a $1, now we want $2?

Peter: we'll have to negotiate.

Jonah: Where's my idea of a 2-year deal with a 1-year option?

Peter: Board has already appointed a committee.

Felix: I need to know what your parameters are because tomorrow I will do a run through for fiscal year 2003. The other aspect is that he'll find out what the deal is with one or 2 year; wants to have the numbers now, by getting boards approval.

Secretary's Report
unavailable

Executive Committee Report

Jonathan wants reports via email and snail mail. Peter moves that secretary makes sure reports go out as email and snail mail; Leslie: it's the officers responsibility to print out an EC report; Amendment: President or secretary send;
Secretary and President will work with staff to make sure all reports go out email and snail mail; Jonathan seconds; Hale abstains. Motion passes.

Action Items
Name change: Jonathan moves that we change the name to EDIDA Easy Does It Disability Assistance; Motion passes

Mission Statement: Table it. Jonathan says 25 words or less; Felix will bring in March.

Passover: Peter moves that March meeting moved to Tuesday, March 26; Jonathan seconds. Motion passes.
Will be put on website and on Berkeley disabled list.

Charity Box: what to do with money that is collected; board has to make decision; Jonah's idea: the Ken Croll Fund, and the Low Income Subsidy Fund; encourage people in newsletter to contribute. Peter: Propose that money goes to Ken Kroll Fund and Low Income Subsidy Fund. Divide it equally as possible with suitable publicity. Motion Passes.

Supervisor/Dispatch review: Peter is concerned conflict of interest between supervisor and dispatcher. Example: if attendant needs to make a complaint and dispatcher is same as supervisor; make lines of complaint clear, go to Rose, Felix

Renewal Measure E Funding: Peter: someone needs to maintain communication with community on Measure E.

Daniel: is there a strategy committee?

Felix: I hope not.

Hale: It's not that tricky as long as you don't spend more than 25% of your budget.

Felix: Measure E is not coming up; Measure E's limit is coming up.

Jonah: I know that Charlie Betcher is interested in working with us on Measure E.

Leslie: I'd like someone to take responsibility for contacting commissions about Measure E.

Peter: off the record I'll be happy to make sure that it gets done.

Dina is back from Scottsdale and in good health. Peter will talk to her.

Felix: appreciate your support and listening. I do have a different style and I appreciate that you understand it. Thank you for moving business along.

Adjournment: Jonathan moves that we adjourn; Peter seconds. Approved. Meeting Adjourned at 8:30 pm.

Minutes submitted 3/19/02 by Susan Parker.