EASY DOES IT Disability Services
Board Meeting Minutes
September 23, 2004

PRESENT: Charles, Hale, Peter, Jonah, Chris, Louis, Stephanie May, and Winston
Executive Directors: Rose Acampora, Gina Sasso

PUBLIC COMMENT:

Steve Mantz Call: He will send a letter further explaining his issues, as he was difficult to hear over the Polycom, but his complaints “he suspended his original concerns and instead voiced more immediate complaints about a particular incident”,.
ROSE: Every single service request with Steve has some complication/complaint.

STEPHANIE: He doesn’t understand the refusal list and wants mediations to get off the list.

JONAH: Thank you for your contributions to all the outgoing board members Karyn, Dina and Peter. We hope Peter will be an emeritus and stay in touch.

PETER: Been on the Board since 1998 and need to take a break.

CHRIS: Thank you for your dedication – I remember you directing a meeting from your bed. I’ve learned a lot from you.

LOUIS: It’s a grave loss to EDI.

PETER: If I can be of help just let me know.

STEPHANIE: I’ve been working for EDI for four months and I think it is a gem. It functions democratically. I feel privileged to be involved.

MINUTES from August:

SUSAN: Deep apologies I have lost the August minutes and I would like to resign as your minute taker.

GINA: Joel, a clerk at EDI has offered his help with minutes.

CONSENT CALENDAR DISCUSSION

AGENDA:

CHARLES: I’ll have the newsletter by Halloween. It will contain an interview with Jesse Townley.

JONAH: Motion to approve Agenda.
CHRIS: 2nds
Motion Passes

PRESIDENT’S REPORT:

HALE: I signed the contract today for Measure E. It will be final in about four days.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT:

ROSE: We hired two attendants, one male, one female. One male left due to personal reasons. We would gladly hire him back again. One client complaint – ongoing issues we’re trying to resolve.

Measure E is in the works. In 5-10 days we’ll have the contract in the office.

Started on Sept. 1st collecting vouchers from Berkeley Paratransit. The contract monitor will help get word out. Press release to Berkeley Daily Planet. Their application is not user friendly – I filled it out incorrectly and it wasn’t being processed. We are trying to use the driver as efficiently as possible. We’ll have #’s for the end of the quarter available by the first week of October. Red or 12$ for an emergency ride and green ones thru Berkeley Paratransit.

LOUIS: Availability of wheelchair cabs may affect us.

ROSE: They can get taxi-scripts – subsidized – it may affect us.

CHRIS: Concerned about financial viability – my concerns not being addressed.

ROSE: Yes, in Ex. Committee we decided to give it a shot for six months.

HALE: Two issues – whether it makes sense fiscally to do Measure E transportation – it made sense if we provided three rides a day (based on a year’s funding)

PETER: We need to advertise rides til 4:30 they are a plus now, we hope to increase ridership.

CHRIS: 35$ per voucher at an estimated cost of 120$ would be 4.5 rides per 8 hour shift. How do E and B work together.

PETER: Emergency calls always have priority.

CHRIS: Well I wasn’t involved and I had concerns, which were not addressed. Six weeks passed – so I’m surprised.

PETER: The process was legitimate but may have been a mistake.

HALE: The reason we went after the Measure B funding is that there was a hole in our Measure E budget. There was a budget shortfall and we were hoping to fill it.

CHRIS: The last budget I saw was a tightly balanced one.

HALE: My recollection is 24K short without B income projection.

ROSE: The budget had minimal transportation in order to balance. I’ve been trying not to schedule a van driver when unnecessary.

PETER: We hope it pulls thru, right now we don’t know if we’ll be able to provide as much transportation as we want to.

CHRIS: We want more than bare bones, but I don’t recall a 24K shortfall. If we are attempting to close that big a gap – there is no way to fill that from six months worth of vouchers.

HALE: It was calculated for one year, and that works out to six rides a day.

CHRIS: Is it a year or six month contract?

HALE: We have the option to cancel after six months or 30 day notice.

CHRIS: We needed clarification on if we could pay the driver with Measure E funds and accept Measure B vouchers.

ROSE: The City wasn’t concerned.

CHRIS: Well, I feel disenfranchised as Treasurer.

ROSE: Someone should be an informant for missing board members. We decided to go ahead with it at the last mtg. Dispatchers are up to speed and we’re getting the word out.
EDI is now a choice when Angelique’s clients are scheduling rides. We should have a financial mtg.

JONAH: EDI is the only one that provides same day transport.

PETER: This discussion was fruitful I think.

ROSE: N Berkeley Senior Center dates are confirmed. Classrooms A and B; they look fine. (They love EDI, we are their favorite social service org.) It is 20$ per hour – 60$ or less per mtg. It is more conveniently located.

All our insurance policies expire Oct. 18th. NAIC seems the best way to go again. We have the whole packet sans workers comp from 8-9K, less than we budgeted for.

Fundraising committee is torn between grants and event planning, unless we get more participation we’ll need to choose one or the other.

Van is finally in the shop for a fender bender. Parts are ordered – it will take 3-4 days. We are trying to find another org. with a van to loan us, or as last resort will rent one at around 100$ a day. We have a small amount of emergency funds available – a few thousand dollars.

JONAH: Motion to rent a van if necessary out of some part of the budget other than maintenance – under 800$.
HALE: 2nds
Motion Passes.

SECRETARY’S REPORT:

JONAH: We’ll have an ad in the East Bay Express for October for a minute taker. My email has been down, but is now fixed. If re-elected I’ll do better, this was a challenging year for me as Secretary.

HALE: Dina is going to school in Santa Barbara. After 9 years she is taking a break from the Board.

PETER: The new board should discuss future meeting dates.

CHARLES: John Benson is interested and will be back to work on the 18th.

GINA: Ayanna is also interested.

STEPHANIE: We’ve been pressuring Phil Chavez and Carol Kresman to apply.

PETER: If a decision affects one, economically or otherwise, you can’t vote on the issue. (They’ll be) reused from items involving the Executive Director on their own best judgment. We can address it on next month’s agenda.

CHARLES: Motion to put discussion of what employee board members should vote on, on the agenda next month.
WINSTON: 2nds.
Motion passes.

CHRIS: At retreat let’s talk about further board recruitment to get some of our needs met: fundraising, business experience, etc. There are five seats open.

PETER: We need seven people to have a board. Six are running for re-election.

NEW BOARD MEMBERS APPROVED:
Stephanie May
Daniel McMullen

CHARLES: Motion to adjourn.
CHRIS: 2nds
Motion passes.