Easy Does It Disability Assistance Services
Emergency Board Meeting Minutes for Thursday, February 26th, 2004

ROLL CALL:
Charles Pappas, Chris Hess – Treasurer, Dina Valicenti, Hale Zukas – President, Jonah Markowitz – Secretary, Karyn Hernandez , Peter Trier, Winston Ching

Public: Jeffrey Stevens – Insurance Broker and Natasha - Assistant
Susan Brown – note taker, Karla Thompson - interpreter

Executive Directors: Rose Acampora, Gina Sasso

EXECUTIVE REPORT

ROSE: I spoke with Jeff and Natasha of Jeffrey Stevens Insurance Company a week ago. They have suggestions regarding lowering our worker’s comp and other insurance expenses. See email circulating…

Jeffrey Stevens: I would recommend getting rid of Lloyd’s. EDI is covered for straight and prof. liability but EDI as I understand has no professional liability. So you are double-double covered here.
Also, Lloyd’s is in financial trouble (some syndicates have gone bankrupt, and payments out are delayed). In addition, they use a Claims Made vs. an Occurance form. The difference is that the former must be filed while the policy is active – which isn’t always possible – and the latter can be filed anytime even after a change of coverage.

HALE: Explained History of Insurance Problems. I talked with our broker a month ago and she had not gotten a quote (trying since October).

JEFF: I know just about everybody in the non-profit world and I’ve never heard of Suhrisk. I think somebody needs to talk/push NAIC – they work with 501c3 – and try to renegotiate, if not, go somewhere else. I think I can find a solution. A broker represents the client – not all brokers deal with all carriers. I deal with almost all non-profit insurance companies. I can give you (five) references.

The other problem is that with this double coverage, if there is a claim both contracts make the other company the primary carrier, and they will fight over who has to pay the claim.

The State Fund used to be a last resort, then they drove away all the competitors, now they don’t have enough $$ to cover all the claims made. So for every claim filed the premiums go up. Some of these claims are old open claims which should be closed. The full amount of the claim stays on (the record) otherwise. Someone needs to deal with them directly and get these closed and re-negotiate the premiums on EDI’s behalf. This is VERY important and has been neglected. I’d like to emphasize that the workers comp issue and the one carrier will mean a lot of $$. There will be no reduction until the next cycle however.

ROSE: Our premium was 112,000 this year, and will go up next year.

JEFF: I’m willing to take over the account and handle it for nothing until it expires. (There are 3 different dates.) But you would have to make me your broker and get rid of the other ones. I’ve lost only one client in ten years and had 65-70 non-profit clients – will send references. Thanks for your time.

PUBLIC COMMENT

???: Hancock has introduced legislation with new language and wants us to give more support. We have a new contract manager and things are moving along.

MINUTES
(January 29th 2004)

Changes: ED’s Report (gained Amber and lost Stephanie May) Spelling of Grahm and CHRIS to ROSE spoke regarding Case Managers ---Marla OCT 2002 over-use to high-use

GINA: The minutes need to be ready to send out at least a week before the next meeting.

JONAH: MOTION: to approve minutes
CHRIS: SECONDS
Motion Passes.

DINA: MOTION: to approve agenda
KARYN: SECONDS
Motion Passes.

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

HALE: What action needs to be taken to change insurance brokers? Who is required to act on this?

PETER: The Ex. Comm. could approve it.

ROSE: Peter and I can split calling the references.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS’ REPORT

ROSE: Gina and I attended a contractors meeting with the City, and EDI will not be under the 20% reduction (budget) due to Measure E funding. I have a hard copy of the RFP and I will send copies to the Board. It needs to be completed by April 1st and we have oral presentations the day before that. I have found stuff from previous RFPs and some new things.

We have one new female attendant; her name is Karen Davis; she has great references and 25 years of experience.

ROSE: We have had 3 staff complaints about one client. The 3 staff put this person on their refusal list. This makes it difficult to serve this person.

GINA: I had a mtg. with McKay Freeman and she suggested conflict resolution with attendants to at least bring issues to the table. This is my suggestion to the Board.

PETER: We need to respect the attendants’ wishes in regard to their refusal. We can address the client, “What can we do to keep this from getting worse?”

HALE: Berkeley Dispute Resolution Services?

ROSE/GINA: So our understanding is that this will be between the org. and the client, not involving the attendants, unless they so wish.

We have a staff mtg. on March 15th and will have a guest speaker on Managing Stress and Taking Care of Yourself. His name is Bill, he is the Education Specialist at Family Caregivers Alliance in SF. It is easy to get burnt out; the talk will address stress and also depression picked up from environments/situations with clients.

EXECUTIVE SEARCH COMMITTEE

JONAH: MOTION: to authorize the President to pay up to 6,000 in salary to Rose and Gina while the Board is finalizing a contract.
PETER: SECONDS
Motion Passes.

ROSE/GINA: We took all the job duties from Felix’s contract and divided those up.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORT

PETER: We need to have a meeting this month to talk about the contract.

ROSE: As far as fingerprinting, the compliance date for NAIC is April 4th, should be done by then. It is a pretty extensive criminal history. Jeff and Natasha say that this may be negotiated. Dep. of Justice will review: serious crimes, theft, drugs, violent/sexual crimes. It means we’ll need to terminate someone if anything shows up.

JONAH: Doug felt we should have this coverage.

PETER: Staff should be kept informed.

ROSE: It is also ongoing, anything new will be reported and you have to send a specific termination form to discontinue the info.

PETER: Let’s have an Executive Committee mtg. on Tues. March 16th, day before St. Patrick’s Day.

SUS REPORT

GINA: One problem – Ayanna –client had financial and mental difficulty – some bounced checks…it was resolved with her sending 10$ a month til paid off. One person had extra calls this month, approved by SUS. I will continue to call before a client reaches their limit to see if they want to go before SUS.

PETER: As a committee we don’t like to refuse clients – but as an agency we have to maintain staff and this means they need a certain level of freedom to refuse to work with a client. (see earlier conversation)

GINA: When we notice a pattern we try to say – is there a problem here – to prevent staff burnout on the client.

INVASIVE CARE COMMITTEE

JONAH: We have worked hard to get this bill reintroduced on Lonnie’s agenda. I feel we were made to jump through a lot of red tape. No guarantees, but the struggle continues.

PETER: Make clear the support we have from the city is very helpful. Part of the language makes me cringe – “paramedical service” - I don’t think attendants are. We need to explain that our interests are for all CA disabled, not just for EDI. Trying to amend a law vs. new legislation is a dilemma. It will specify training Employment Opportunities and perhaps that will satisfy insurance.

BOARD RECRUITMENT

PETER: The Pres. Can appoint somebody to work on this.

JONAH: We need at least one or two more members, we are down to nine.

PETER: Up to two staff members can be on the board with votes, or one staff representative without voting rights. Clients are welcome as well. Pls. talk to Hale before taking action.

EDI NEWSLETTER

GINA: I think it should be quarterly

Committee: Charlie will be the chair, Dina lay-out, Susan editor, Karyn and Jonah.

DINA: MOTION: to adjourn
JONAH: SECONDS
Motion Passes.