Easy Does It Board Meeting Minutes
June 26th, 2003
Present: Todd Groves, Leslie Gordon, Dina Valicenti, Hale Zukas, Winston Ching, Jesse Townley, Jonah Markowitz, Peter Trier, and by phone: Jonathan Gold and Karyn Hernandez
Staff: Rose Acampora, Felix Knauth, Gina Sasso, and James Brown
Public: Willard Harris, Scott Leubking
6:45 Public Comment
Willard: There are several issues. BYLWD, Berkeley Youth Living with Disabilities, QMRP just hired an Executive Director pretty easily and that we do not have to be stuck with Mr. Knauth. There are a lot of qualified people out there. I urge you to turn the direction in which EDI is going. I am speaking for about 18-22 staff members that feel unseen and unheard that are working for clients on a daily basis. They deserved to be recognized on how they are being treated. Consider the whole perspective and what kind of legacy do you want to leave in a few years. I will also answer any questions to the letter I wrote.
Scott: The Board has an interesting opportunity to the City and the community to prove to the city. I have spent a lot less time in Phil Kamalarz's office. This Board is starting to show maturity, but it needs to give feedback and direction to the ED. Felix can be abrupt and he needs to learn how to say please to staff. He also needs to ask for permission. Felix has some positive aspects as well. If I were on the Board I would sit down with Felix and let him know what to do and give him a year to do it. Working with employees is a good sign of management.
Jonah: I was at the Public Outreach meeting about Paratransit; they are talking about having trip-by-trip eligibility. For example, a weather condition can make you eligible for one particular ride. This could take up to a year and EDI needs to be become more valuable in transportation. Call the office at 893-5949 if you have any questions.
Gina: I am happy to see all the board members. Workers are human beings and you the Board have the responsibility for the workers.
James: I have been an attendant for about 3 years and I owe EDI. I have been seeing that EDI is going down hill. We use to be a family, not an animal, and people could say anything to you. Clients are being spoken down to and EDI is looking bad. We need to tighten up the rings.
Rose: Thank you for letting me speak. Difficult decisions have been made over the last few months and all the players have evaluated the decisions and have been made as a collective. You have to take personal feelings out of it because people's feelings have been hurt. There is a fine line to draw and this ED has been able to step up to it. I also back up what Scott and Gina said. First Felix had to learn a job. On a personal level, it has been a pleasure to work day to day with Felix and Gina.
Minutes from May:
Dina: Motion to table to July
Jesse seconds.
Motion passes.
Consent Calendar: none
Peter: I would like to go to Executive Session by 8:15. I would also like to accept the evaluation of ED.
Jonah: Motion to go to Executive Session by 8:30.
Jesse seconds.
Motion passes.
Agenda:
Jonah: Motion- would like to put a responsibility statement on the
Board. Be sure to put it on next month high up. Move to 11a.
Jesse seconds.
Motion passes.
Jonah: Motion to accept agenda
Leslie seconds.
Motion passes.
President Report:
Peter: Chris Hess an attendant wants to be on the Board for the rest
of this year.
Jonah: Motion to invite Chris to July Meeting
Dina seconds.
Motion passes.
Peter: I have been told a number of times by Felix that transportation is going to be hard. The problems are going to involve the cost for rides. I would like to continue for now until July 1st. There is not enough time to deal with it tonight. I would like a special Board meeting dealing only with transportation. It will be June 30th at my house. We also need to pass a budget for next year. I would like the board to make a decision.
Jesse: What is the crisis; there is a transportation budget that will last through July.
Peter: Measure B will give Monday -Friday 9am to 5pm transportation costs. I would like to talk and brainstorm with Pres, ED and the Executive Committee.
Jesse: As someone who helped write the budget, there are questions to ask, we have funds in the budget.
Peter: If Measure B doesn't happen we will use our funds, and if we do, we will run out of money, I would rather have the meeting about it.
Jonah: For peace, I would rather have the brainstorming session.
Rose: Things in the budget for rate of pay and worker's comp for drivers are not in the budget.
Jesse: Can I have some time to confirm this? Drivers are already trained as attendants, so they already have rate of pay.
Peter: I will talk to Felix; I would really like this to happen in the meeting on Monday.
Rose: For Tuesday, I need a schedule and the number of hours. I don't want to bump someone but right now there are 5 attendants and 1 driver and in the new budget there are 4 attendants and 1 driver.
Felix: There are no lines in the budget to pay a driver exclusively. We need the Board to tell us what to do.
Jonah: Motion to call emergency meeting at Peter's at 6:30.
Winston seconds.
Jonathan and Leslie abstain.
Motion passes.
Peter: July 27th has been declared CeCe Weeks day by the City Council.
Executive Director Report:
Felix: I would like the FY04 budget to include 16,000 from 03. We don't
have the carpet in the office yet; we want to see what we can squeeze
out of the budget. I will put any complaints of people in each month's
packet.
Jonah: I would like to see the attendant of the month on the Website.
Felix: It is hard to pick just one.
Secretary Report:
Jonah: Sorry that my e-mail has just come back up.
Peter: I would like the Secretary to send things to me first before writing the agenda.
Dina's Evaluation:
Jonah: Every three months we had Dina and Jesse doing the minutes.
Motion to continue Dina as our notetaker until September.
Leslie seconds.
Dina and Jonathan abstain.
Motion passes.
Executive Committee Report:
Peter: I have a client that has been some trouble. I am working on
a response, after I finish it, I would like the Board to deal with
it. We have to be responsible for people's lives.
Jesse: We decided to respond to factual statements but we will not go into complete detail.
Felix: I would like to be part of that draft.
Jesse: We have already put together a short response saying that we will respond.
Hale: I want to make sure, I am clear about what Peter said about slander.
Peter: Peter, Leslie and Jesse wrote an evaluation and got a letter that said Peter glorified Felix and wants to make sure there isn't any slander.
Jonathan: It doesn't sound like that is slander.
Hale: What was that about our insurance?
Peter: Board has insurance, we will find out if he has to cover expenses as a result of EDI.
Fundraising Committee:
Felix: We took the priorities of Executive Committee and turned them
around. We thought that it would be easier to fundraise for the actual
client, then outreach, and then either restoring service or unrestricted
gifts.
Hale: How in the world is the client support fund analogous to scholarship?
Felix: Because it is people requesting a service like people requesting an education.
Peter: I have 2 concerns. I have a dreadful thought that we find someone that wants to contribute, and from the list, I want to make sure that in our letter we include all 4 things from the list.
Karyn: I looked into doing a video for a promotional idea, but I am waiting for the media center to get back to me.
Jesse: I urge the Fundraising Committee to concentrate on the priorities the way they are listed. The priority list is for a reason. EDI said majority of fundraising comes from individuals.
Winston: CIL's e-mail was down for a while but will e-mail them to see how they determine low-income. As for us, I know we don not have a way to start.
Peter: Would like to move in the next month.
Felix: There is a meeting on July 8th; we could get into more detail then.
Leslie: We need to write an urgent letter of appeal to say that all of our services are reduced and it will greatly help. We should say hoe fragile and vital our services are.
Hale: And say hoe clients are being hurt. I don't want to say cry wolf.
Peter: We will make sure everyone sees the letter draft before it goes out.
Handbook:
Leslie: Motion to approve the current employee handbook and can amended.
Jonah seconds.
Jesse: Friendly amendment, to not include the refusal policy.
Hale: No Leslie: Yes Karyn: Yes Jesse: Yes
Jonah: Yes Jonathan: Yes Todd: Abstain Peter: No
Dina: Yes Winston: No
Motion passes.
Dina: Motion to go into Executive Session.
Jonah seconds.
Motion passes.
Jonah: Motion to adjourn.
Jonathan seconds.
Motion passes.
10:15pm