Roll Call: Hale Zukas, President – Lewis Stiller, Treasurer – Stephanie May, Secretary and Acting Board Meeting Chair – John Benson – Winston Ching – Charles Gary – Daniel McMullan – Jonah Markowitz

Staff: Rose Acampora and Gina Sasso, Co-Executive Directors

Public: Rick Spittler, BORP – Don Brownell, Minute Taker and voicer to Winston - Karla, voicer to Hale - Darrel Smith – Judy Cant – Albert Schweigher

The meeting was called to order at 6:39

1. Presentation by Rick Spittler

Rick Spittler of BORP spoke to the Board about their potential participation in the Ed Roberts Campus, probably as a renter of surplus space in the facility not taken by the eight formal partners and one non-formal partner of the project. The partners are disability-based organizations. He announced that the project had received its use permit the previous evening, and so was officially a go, barring a failure to raise an additional $15 million to go with $20 million already collected. The project is to be constructed on 1/3rd of the eastern parking lot of the Ashby BART station and is scheduled to be 86,000 square feet. Most of this space will be reserved for the partners in the project, but currently there is about 20,000 sq. ft. available for tenants not directly affiliated with the project, but with a mission similar to BORP. Although potential tenants with a space demand of 40,000 sq. ft. have shown interest in the available space, he encouraged the Board to put in a Letter of Interest to Caleb Dardick if they were interested in becoming a tenant at a currently estimated market rate of $1.50 per sq. ft. The project is estimated to be about 3 ½ years from completion at this point.

It was estimated by the Board that EDIDA had space needs of around 700 square feet and parking needs for the EDIDA van plus one office space. It was also discussed, but not verified, that a Letter of Intent had already been sent in.

2. Public Comment

It was noted that there would be a memorial for Carla Toth, a local disabled individual recently killed by a train, on Sunday, February 27th at the North Berkeley Senior Center, from 1-4.

Jonah Markowitz thanked everyone who participated in his birthday celebrations.

Dan McMullan will be speaking at a symposium on the issue of Disability and Homelessness.

Darrell Smith and Judy Cant informed the Board that Michael Owens, a local disabled individual, had passed away.

3. Minutes of the EDIDA Board meeting of January 27th were unanimously approved.

4. The Consent Calendar remains unused and will be dropped from the Agenda.

The Agenda was approved as amended.

Agenda items were added to elect a Vice-President, discuss the Newsletter, and Winston Ching brought an issue that the new EDIDA pamphlet needed some editing, which, by general agreement, his assistant, Don, showed Gina the edits “on the side” while the meeting continued.

There was no President’s Report

7. Executive Director’s Report

Mike Skahill was hired. Sarah Shroud resigned.

17 green van vouchers were collected in January. 20 had been collected in February as of 2/17.

Rose and Ayanna both required hospitalization in the interim between board meetings while Gina held the fort.

Two temporary workers are filling in until Ayanna’s projected return on February 28th.

$500 from agency funds were approved by motion to pay for a grant writer assisting in the writing of a grant to CalTrans to apply for a new modified van. It is being applied for as a transportation service expansion and not as a replacement to the existing van.

A City of Berkeley police officer spoke at an EDIDA staff meeting to offer suggestions on how to conduct late night and dangerous neighborhood attendant visits, and to increase awareness on the BPD as to EDIDA’s attendants. He suggested that all attendants carry ID’s, and Rose and Gina will get ID’s for those who currently do not have them. Also, Rose and Gina will speak at a police briefing to increase awareness that EDIDA attendants are conducting legitimate business.

The EDIDA brochure was updated and was approved by motion with the edits offered by Winston.

Treasurer’s Report, including the impact of transportation services on EDIDA’s budget.

Discussion took place during the Treasurer’s Report regarding increasing EDIDA funds and disability awareness, and the potential need for EDIDA expansion into surrounding areas.

Regarding the impact of transportation on the budget, Hale stated that since EDIDA’s budget was no longer in as bad a hole he had no further objection to continuing the transportation services.

Gina will speak to the COB contract monitor to attempt to change the rule that COB voucher users must first register with East Bay Paratransit.

Secretary’s Report

Stephanie will be meeting with Peter Trier on revising the bylaws in the next month.

A discussion took place over high and over use issues of the EDIDA services. The discussion revolved around changing the policy regarding the number of calls an EDIDA customer may make to reflect abuse. Hale will work with Rose and Gina to look at options.

There were no Executive Committee, Fundraising Committee, Personnel/Judicial Committee, SUS, or Invasive Care Committee Reports

Actions

Regarding committee assignments for the two new Board members, John agreed to work with the Fundraising Committee. Charles said that he would work on revising the bylaws and on the next COB contract presentation, but that he did not want to add committees. (Rose and the office staff will draft the budget for the next presentation.)

Jonah spoke advocating the continuation of the quarterly newsletter. Stephanie stated that she would like to see a moratorium on the newsletter until the budget is such that paid staff can be hired to oversee publication. No action was taken.

The Board approved by motion the sending of flowers to the Carla Toth memorial.

Regarding expenditure limits on the Executive Directors, after much discussion the following limits were approved by motion. The Executive Directors may spend up to $500 without Board approval. From $500-800 they must get approval from the Board President, (currently Hale,) before proceeding. Any purchase over $800 must be approved by the Board.

There were no nominations for Vice-President so the issue was dropped for this meeting.

The Board motioned to go into Executive Session at 9:20 P.M. The remaining public members in attendance, including Karla and Don, were formally invited to attend.

Board meeting adjourned at 9:33 P.M

Submitted by: Don Brownell, 3/4/05
Approved: Stephanie May, Secretary, 3/6/05
Last Revised: Stephanie May, 3/6/05