Minutes of the EDIDA Board Meeting
3/23/06 (March)

Board Attendees: Hale, Jonah, Winston, Leslie, John, Charles, Aydan, Mark

Other Attendees: Rose, EDIDA Co-Executive Director, Karla (Voicer for Hale), Don (Voicer for Winston and Minute taker), Emily (assistant to Leslie)

The meeting came to order at 6:55 P.M.

Public Comment

Jonah noted that it had been one year since Peter Trier had passed and encouraged the Board to continue to incorporate his values.

Leslie introduced her assistant, Emily.

Approval of Minutes from January 26 and February 23

Jonah moved to approve, John seconded, and the January 26 minutes were unanimously approved.

Jonah moved to approve, Aydan seconded, and the February 23 minutes were approved unanimously as amended by Aydan to correct that the SUS committee had met.

Approval of Agenda

An item was added to the beginning of the Action & Discussion items to vote on Blane Beckwith's election to the Board.

An item was added to the end of the Action & Discussion items for an update from Charles regarding his speaking to Sabrina Klein and Patti Byrne about workshops for EDI.

Jonah moved to accept the agenda as modified, Charles seconded, and the agenda was unanimously approved.

President's Report

Leslie noted that she had e-mailed her report and that the Executive Directors were in support of the list of ED duties she had negotiated with them.

Executive Directors' Report

Two new female attendants were hired and let go short term. One female attendant was terminated and a dispatcher was suspended for three days for missing their third shift. Another attendant lost their pay increase because of continued late shift check-ins.

In February, there were 369 attendant calls, 82 transportation calls, 10 repair calls, and 17 on-the-go calls.

There was one client complaint from someone who chronically complains about EDI.

An RN went over universal precautions and sanitation in client's homes at the staff meeting.

About a $20,000 surplus to budget is currently anticipated for this fiscal year. Additionally, a financial report was made available.

Two of three certification forms were completed to register EDI for possible donations through the United Way. The third requires a current professional audit, which the ED's are considering.

The ED's met with Councilmember Dona Spring.

As had earlier been discussed and approved by the Board, the ED's mailed a letter to the City Manager, cc'd to the head of the Housing Department and to EDI's Contract Manager, explaining why a four-year contract would be of better advantage to the city and to EDI and asking that the upcoming RFP be extended by two years.

A draft habitual user policy was distributed for the Board to review and will be included on the agenda next month for possible Board approval.

It has come to the attention of the ED's that one of the dispatchers lives in LA, and the ED's will draft a dispatcher policy for discussion at the next Board meeting.

Vote on Electing Blane Beckwith to the EDI Board

Leslie moved, Jonah seconded, and it was unanimously approved that Blane Beckwith be added to the EDI Board.

Update on Transportation Policy

There was no immediate update and the item was to remain on the agenda. Rose said that she would look at the budget and see if it was possible to charge a $6.00 co-pay for rides instead of $12.00.

Expanding the Case Manager position

The Case Manager position was recently increased from eight to 12 hours per month. Rose will explore what hours might be needed and report back to the Board.

Community Elections

Leslie said that she wanted the opinions of the Board and how EDI would go about community elections if the Board wanted them. Rose suggested that EDI fix its problems first and consider community elections in a year. Hale said that he was against them and that he saw no way of having an informed electorate. Charles noted that the Board had swung from one extreme to another and suggested that there could be community elections for one or two Board members. Rose offered that having term limits on being a Board member might help, and Charles said that he could bring something to the Board on the term limit idea. John said that Scott Luebking had advocated community elections but had not followed through. Don said he thought it might be difficult to distinguish the candidates to the electorate. Hale said that a mailing could include biographies. There was general agreement that it was possible and could be a positive step.

Co-Executive Directors' Duty Lists

Hale and Leslie both said that their respective version was better than the other.

Winston moved that the issue be postponed and that both proposals be included in the next Board packet. There was no second. There was discussion back and forth over whether to accept a postponement, do it now, or something else.

Charles moved to accept Leslie's version, and Leslie seconded. Winston added a friendly amendment, which was accepted, that Hale should clean up the grammar.

Hale said he felt everyone should have one supervisor, but it did not have to be the same supervisor, and Leslie said that her version dealt with that. Hale suggested that it say that each ED was responsible for supervising half the staff.

Hale moved to amend that the lists say that Gina and Rose were each responsible for hiring, training, supervising, and, when necessary terminating half of the staff each. Leslie seconded and the vote was unanimously in favor except that John is not allowed to vote on issues concerning the ED's.

The motion to accept Leslie's version, have Hale clean up the grammar, and note that each co-ED was responsible to supervise half of the staff was voted on and approved unanimously except that John was not allowed to vote.

Charles' Report on Speaking with Sabrina Klein and Patti Byrne

Charles outlined the steps of what he had planned from his discussions:

1. An all-day Board workshop. The assumption would be that the Board is interested in doing better and that work would be done at deciding what "better" means and soliciting commitment to the process. A two-person subcommittee would establish the agenda and set up the steps leading to the strategic plan meeting.

2. Two ½ day trainings with the ED's.

3 and 4. The Board and the Co-ED's would have two 1-day meetings with Patti Byrne and Mordecai to discuss the group process and how to work well in contentious situations.

5. The strategic plan workshop details were still unknown.

Charles estimated the total cost to be $3500. The timeline was that Sabrina Klein would speak to the Board at its next meeting for 10-15 minutes and that Patti and Mordecai would speak to the Board in May. The processes would then start in late May or the beginning of June.

Winston moved to approve this plan, Leslie seconded, and it was unanimously approved.

Charles moved to adjourn, Leslie seconded, and it was unanimously approved.

Meeting was adjourned at 9:28 P.M.