Easy Does It Disability Assistance ServicesBoard Meeting Minutes
for Thursday, April 22nd, 2004

ROLL CALL: Chris Hess – Treasurer, Hale Zukas – President, Jonah Markowitz – Secretary, Peter Trier, Winston Ching, Louis Stiller,Public: Susan Brown – note taker, Karla Thompson – interpreterExecutive Directors: Rose Acampora, Gina Sasso PUBLIC COMMENT JONAH: This Sunday is the 35th Anniversary of People’s Park in Berkeley. EDI will have a workshop from 2:20 to 3:30. Peter will be a speaker at the Brown Bag Luncheon of the UC Disabled Community on Monday.PETER: Reminded us to remember that as the world’s environmental problem increases its affect on our planet, worries about those problems will push Disability Issues aside.MINUTES Minutes will be tabled until the next meeting.AGENDA JONAH: MOTION: to change agenda to enter Exec. Session by 8:15WINSTON: SECONDSMotion Passes.PETER: MOTION: to approve agendaJONAH: SECONDSMotion Passes.EXECUTIVE REPORTHALE: We submitted our proposal three weeks ago. It is in your packets and we made our presentation a week ago, and got through it fairly well.PETER: City Manager will state his/her recommendation by the 30th. The City Council votes on June 15th. The Commission on Disability also makes a recommendation. There is another bidder.ROSE: I feel we have the support of Ed Gold and the Commission.PETER: I haven’t heard anything bad.SECRETARY’S REPORTJONAH: Next month the minutes will be done two weeks before the meeting date. My computer will be fixed on Sunday.EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS’ REPORTGINA: We have one pregnant attendant. We had a mandatory training, with 100% attendance, for the dispatchers on EDI procedures and policies.There are no new client complaints and last month’s have been resolved.Proposal, budget and oral presentation went really really well. We gave great answers to difficult questions. We are 21$ in the black according to the budget. Hale caught a lot of mistakes before it was presented. We felt supported by the Commission on Disability and Don Brown was there (a big supporter of EDI).Transportation/ high volume of calls, the msg. is getting out about emergency transportation. Our goal is never to leave anybody stranded. We had a good mtg. with the drivers to discuss the cutback, the oral pres. and changes.Reminded staff about good response time and about being Fragrance Free. We also had disaster preparedness training from the IHSS. We are excited about the People’s Park Workshop and to get out the newsletter. We’re doing well in terms of client satisfaction.JONAH: Can you give us examples of transportation emergencies?GINA: Broken down car or wheelchair – getting to the ER or to wheelchair repair – Same day doctor’s appts. and no usual transportation or stuck waiting for a pick-up somewhere – really bad weather.Also we lost our case manager on April 15th. We’re placing an ad.PETER: Hiring tip – useful to talk with people specifically about dealing with problem clients and how they influence a person’s attitude toward EDI.ROSE: Highlights of the Budget decisions.We cut two hours a day – it will come to 69 hours with a designated transportation attendant. The proposal was done without Measure B funding. We will pick one day a week to have no designated transportation person; 8 of 19 attendants are trained on the van and we’ll get one more. Salaries remain flat; we shaved lots of things ‘a little here and there’ The City is only concerned with City funds- not co pays or fundraising.Jeff has canceled auto and property, sex. Conduct and moved all these over to NAIC so we’ll have one underwriter for everything. NAIC has steady rates. Jeff is still shopping around for Professional Liability insurance. Good news: NIAC covers wheelchair repair. John Benson is certified and on staff. He has the old EDI tools. We are stuck with State Fund for Workers Comp for the time being. Jeff has closed three cases and will close four more. Next policy year our policy will be based on two very low-injury years. The new laws are better for employers, worse for employees. Jeff is also working on the invasive procedure exclusions. He checks in and keeps us up-to-date, doing a good job. He says we should never call the insurance company directly in case of a claim – let his people do it.MEMORIAL DAY DATE CHANGE ISSUE:HALE: The date shouldn’t be changed without a compelling reason, but we should remain flexible. Executive SessionJONAH: MOTION: to adjournPETER: SECONDSMotion Passes.