##VIDEO ID:QnW4aLv0tSk## good evening everyone Welcome to our August 13th Commission on disabilities uh monthly meeting if we could U salute the flag of the trusty little flag here I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America Republic which stands one nation nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you um Vice chair perno if you could do a roll call of the members I seen Jason must have lost his uh signal for a second he was on here yeah I'm still here we're together perfect Ralph too presid paen perno is President Jason Baron yep right present Mario ganis present Ellie Vargas present okay there you go Amory fiori present great thank you very much okay um item number one uh is a motion to approve the meeting minutes from the June 11th 2024 meeting because we had no meeting in July I sent the meeting minutes to everyone and Marie hopefully you got them again today because I saw your email thank you I did motion to approve second no discussion that's good so we got everything in there um so uh we'll go to um item number two is updates next steps from the June 11th uh 2024 meeting updates um I have it in here it's updates from Pauline regarding calendar for future monthly guest speakers it should say update from Pauline and anarie um so I will give the floor to uh to both of you and Marie if you'd like to go first because I knew you had done some Outreach sure so August unfortunately obviously uh they weren't able to come she just reached back out to me today a couple of hours ago she has an elderly mom who is in the hospital so she apologized thoroughly and um it's unfortunate because it's a great program who knows maybe in the future we can secure her to come and speak but for September um I'm reaching out uh I spoke with the woman as of July so I'm finding you know I'm new to this but I'm finding that I'm needing to confirm closer to the date so um I just reached out to her where we're about a month out for September so hopefully I'll hear back she sounded pretty solid on being interested um in joining for September's meeting um and it should be good timing because it's uh mom from Newton who has a disabled child and she created an AI toolkit for for children uh for parents to kind of be guided throughout the school year for all of the forms all to be in one place so um hopefully we'll get get her for September will be good timing I think oh I hope so I've been following her as well so I'm very excited to hear that excellent yes yes so hopefully and then for for October there's a music therapy program that's out of South Boston but they actually have a satellite location on Broadway Riv um conveniently enough so they are supposed to be joining us October I'll wait till we get a little bit closer and reach out to them great perfect excellent thank you Marie and as far as I'm going I've had absolutely no luck but I'm going to reach back out to Lauren Buck to come in for November um to kind of just get everybody in the mode for winter cold flu The Surge of whatever is coming up um and see if we can have her come in on November um do we have a holiday that second week in November I'm not with a calendar so um I will double check before I reach out to her but I'm hoping that she'll be able to join us for November and that will bring us uh closer into the holiday season okay yeah I'll have to double check on that okay great yeah definitely all right okay uh next updates is any any Grant updates regarding save the Hava save the bay beta Beach program and also um a little update on the godfield community school um finally last week uh they finally received the correct parts for the um the the Ada uh accessible chairlift for theol uh and as far as I was told that is operational and now working um it's uh what they told me though they are sending me a remote control too so that it it can also be worked um with the remote so I'm waiting for that but the chair is now operational uh in works I haven't been able to get down there to see it for myself so I'm taking the word of of them that is the right parts came in and it is now operating ation and working um so that's that took forever uh kept getting the wrong pots kept coming in uh back order and whatnot but finally that's done um we are still waiting on the signage to come in um for City Hall um and hopefully that will be getting done within the next few weeks um so that is on that Grant and then I also wanted to remind everyone about our all abilities day out at Riv Beach I'm going to share my screen um please let me know if you do you see um the all abilties Dave flyer and information yes yes um we had a little glitch with the Flyers that went out um I received a few emails and calls last week that uh people are having some trouble uh logging in because it's done through the river Rec Center through um the community paths on.org they had to go in and register on community PA and then it would take them uh to the site to register uh for the event but so what I did is in the um the papers that went out last week and on all social media I'm sure everybody that sees our social medias uh I sent out blasts everywhere with the new long link um that's on the bottom um a the the long direct link to go in and register uh I know it said sign up and pre-register by 88:13 which is today but I extend that for like a day um what it is is just the first 100 people that register uh they'll be getting a free lunch um uh so but everybody it makes it a lot easier if people pre-register so we um we'll have an idea of what we're going to be expecting for for people coming to the event um right now the weather look looks like it's going to be great so thing is the weather is going to be great it should be a fun day uh we're G have we're gonna have a DJ we're gonna have some uh some sand games there's going to be uh some informational tables uh save the base save the harbor will have an informational table DCI universal access group will have a table there um and I believe the city Al Le on Outreach uh will also have a table there uh for some information for for people uh as you also see the from our um from our meetings uh that we had at the beginning the location also changed that I originally was going to have it near the state police barracks it's down by the Oak Island bath house uh which is at 462 River Beach Boulevard uh just as a point of information it is after Kelly's cream uh and dur and before uh the breakers condominium complex which is 474 um River Beach Boulevard so it's across the street from there the breakers um condominium is also before Antonio's Restaurant um so just as a couple of landmarks and a point of reference to where we're at so we we should uh we should have a fun day um triangle Inc who also has been putting on this event uh for several years at Conant tion Beach uh in East Boston uh had their event this past Saturday uh and I did get the opportunity to go down there and spend some time um them for several hours and they they put on a tremendous event down there uh kudos to them they do a great job um and uh I leaned on them for some some recommendations and and uh and they they gave me some corers on um on on how to go about uh putting this together and um just grateful to um to uh to to uh uh save the save the save the harbest save the bay for the grants uh that I apply for and go that will help pay for this event uh hopefully with the success of this event this is something that will be able to be done every year uh in the city of Rivier at at Rivier Beach through the commission on disabilities um I think it's uh very good to be able to uh have people of all abilities special PE especially people that are uh use Mobility uh equipment uh so that they can have access to the beach uh and as it stay in here we will be having the uh Beach s wheelchairs from the universal access group uh in the beach map there so it'll be easy for people to get down to the water uh and enjoy the water if they like I'm sure if anybody has any questions or or anything else that they'd like to discuss on that I'll open it up to the commission members how much how many people have rsvpd or signed up do you have access to that Ralph uh it's done to the rec center and uh Friday I believe there was probably about 40 as of last Friday um and uh I will be checking in with them um this week like I said I know a few people having issues logging logging in um so hopefully that didn't deter them you know just hopefully everybody you know has social media on our commission will be able to share it and get the word out uh I've had a lot of help from Universal uh tci's universal access group helping me share it uh I've also had uh save the bay save the harbor help me promote it um and uh the Mass Department of Public Health has also been sharing it for me uh with the new uh the new links and the uh the new location and new information um like I said it promoted on re TV he's been doing a great job in the local papers excellent okay okay hey R I have a question did you send me the flyer to my email by chance because I try to look it up on it's in the agenda okay yeah it's right in the agenda with the link right in it thank you yeah there's any issues just let me know in case it didn't space out properly Okie doie okay that's why I wanted to put it right into the agenda so that it would go onto the city of riva's website calendar so it was there too and the City of Riv has been promoting it also excellent for our first time we trying okay [Music] um so item number three on the agenda had guest speaker but it was to be determined because as Emar said we weren't sure but so we'll we'll skip over item number three um I'm going to uh stop sharing actually I'm gonna leave my screen shared for a minute um I I'll just stop it for a minute and then I'll come back to it um item number four was the coda Commission on disabilities Alliance the monthly Zoom meeting um I'm going to backtrack to Wednesday July 3D uh they had an informal uh informal meeting not too many attendees uh DPC which is this Disability Policy Consortium who helps poost the Cota meeting announced that they have started their search for new executive director uh DPC also mentioned that there were discussions on various bills that they are hoping to have passed through the legislature that have an impact on people with disabilities before the legislation session ends and uh also at that meeting cood commission members discussed ideas on how cities and towns can come come up with a create an action plan if a resident that uses an electric wheelchair breaks down outside in the community and needs assistance um they were going to be more discussions and ideas and topics and future meetings monthly meetings uh I added you know as a caveat to the almost like there should be like a AAA service uh for people that have that have a trip that have a electric wheelchair that it breaks down in them in the community because if an electric wheelchair uh breaks down yes who do you call who do you call you call the fire department yeah they they can they can assist with you know get trying to get an take the resident home but what do they do with the wheelchair the wheelchair is very expensive and you don't want to leave it there um so you know commissions are G to try and discuss this and uh figure out you know some some ideas and so I you know there really should be almost like a triple A um Ellie I'm really uh would like to hear your thoughts on this if you've ever thought of uh any any anything regarding this um there was one time a couple years ago where I fainted because of little blood pressure and the heat so uh the hospital took me into what is ambulance but they left my chair that government center for like three weeks but they put in the in their like uh what is it the little cabin thing where all the red shirts go in so they that that was the only way if not my chair would have been just abandoned at Government Center so I totally agree we need more um services for that type of stuff because I've been stuck one time at what was it 60 Stanford Street one of the MGH building and um random people have to push me into the back of a uber to get back home yeah and what did they in your chair got how to stay there also yeah I was literally stuck at a crosswalk a police officer have to move me throughout the building cu the security guard cannot help you or assist they're not allowed to right and then I had another group of strangers have to push my chair all the way in the back of a uh Uber and they sent me to the house and then I had to get a couple people get me Ram it was a nightmare yeah right well I'll update you like I said they hopefully we'll be discussing this at Future meetings uh but you know it be great if you you can join those and because you know any input from anyone is greatly appreciated um so that was uh that was the July 3D meeting then there was also a a meeting yeah yes yeah so I actually I'm you know in that boat with LA not that that chair that's happened to me but I have thought about that if I get stuck somewhere my chair is 30 about 350 pounds y it's got six wheels it can go manual but what are you going to do with it if right you know what I mean so it if Mario showed it to you I mean if you saw what I've got it's like a tank it's right yeah it this sucker is not even like most like some people have and they have a small one and you can kind of make do this one I mean it would need a couple people it's it's scary I've thought about that yeah because what do I do where do I go right I can't there's nothing to the main thing too is if you're breaking down you're outside in the city if it's hot out if it's cold out if it's raining what do you call what do you do and I don't even go out in the rain because every says oh everything's fine except you have to still think of the the battery the backpack back the battery side on the back yeah you can call 911 she said but you know my wife said but then they're not gonna take your chair no they're not exactly that's the that's the thing they they'll get you but what happens with your chair right right unless you got a bigger ambulance I mean there are some big ones but one one one of the commissions uh discussed what it was is um the local fire department what a couple of the fire firemen did is they put it on on a emergency response fire truck yep they can do that because they can lift that I mean they they put people they had to have a bunch of guys to do it but not you know not all cities and towns are going to do that but there should be an action plan already set up for if that happens they shouldn't say oh what do we do now so something you know should be should be should be uh disussed in planned and whatnot maybe that's something we could discuss with uh with Lauren Buck if we get to come to uh to a meeting and uh you know there something that we could propose and um I can go back to to cod with some ideas right anyone else okay I'll move on to the August 7th meeting and I'm gonna share my screen again for this um just get the right screen uh um so for the seventh meeting that DPC announced that M Mass dph which is the Mass Department of Public Health is having a zoom listening session tonight for people with disabilities uh it was from 6:00 to 7:30 pm this is the zoom link and the scan code uh what they basically were going to be uh talking about was uh vaccines and different things for people about with people with disabilities uh so that's why I had put it in the agenda even though it was um from 6:00 to 7:30 uh you're more than welcome to uh to join it when we when we leave our meeting um be great if you can get on there for a little bit and and hear the discussion on it um so like I said it is in the agenda you should be able to link right from the agenda uh you can take a screenshot of this that's why I wanted to put it right on the right on the screen during the meeting now um also I I'll leave it up while I continue reading the what else was discussed uh there's also um discussions we had during the meeting regarding web accessibility and the new weag regulations uh various cities and towns are looking for ideas and suggestions along with others sharing information and what they are working on and looking to do um as I believe I might have mentioned before there's there's uh going to be new regulations for for municipalities and states for regulations for uh web accessibilities and web pages uh so there's a whole new criteria and that has to be done and implemented um by 200 uh I believe it's 2026 uh I think it's June or July 2026 the days is escaping me right now uh but all municipalities uh have to be done by that by that time there is a little bit of a grace period if your municipality um doesn't meet the the threshold of the amount of of people in it um but that is very small I think if it's under like 10,000 10 10 10 to 20 have a little bit longer not much to uh to get that done I had sent this information um to Our IT department uh several months ago when I found out about it um so they've been on top of this anyway um so they know all about it um they come about is you know they would hire someone to do an audit of our of our um web uh information make sure that everything is is highly accessible um so that it meets the meets the uh regulations um then there's also a discussion on pcas and regarding to public housing issues a member from a local Cod uh was looking for suggestions on where to get answers on an issue she mentioned that there is a housing that their Housing Authority has now included language regarding items one of which is that pcas need to be paid who are staying in the residence and included on the lease her question and issues is have they spoken to the proper entities because this can cause issues and what if it is a family member where can you go for help and answers so we were trying to get some clarification we think what is happening is uh it's just um something that I I forget what city or town um this bod member was from but they like I it basically said there's some there's some language in their in their their lease um that they have to put some more information on if the P who the PCA that's living in the in the in the home if they're living in the home with them but some pcas uh do not get paid I believe but from what was said at this meeting if there because before if you were a family member you could not get paid but supposedly that legislation changed a while ago so a family member I think could get paid to bbca so that's why they were asking if they talked to uh the independent living centers and the people that that helped run these pcas if they found out if this legally can be put into into the leases I don't know anybody has more information or knows a little bit more on that yeah un mute uh Ralph so I'm of course dealing with a lot of this so I'm doing a lot of research but one of the things I found out so there's a couple different programs and there's one that I'm still not finding so I work with tempus quite a bit now I'm on the cons Consumer Directed side now that side allows you to get the PCI you can hire someone independ you know what whatever person like the one I just terminated and they get paid by Mass health just like anybody else at the at the rate per hour um they don't have to live with you that's the one side then you have what's it called the G uh GFC which is group adult foster care now that can be in facilities or it could be if you in her home like if I if I have my cousin come and live with us and she can get a stipid she will not get a regular s like a per hour salary it would be a stip in so it's not taxed so it's per month um but it cannot be a spouse that and that's the same on the uh PCA side as well you are not allowed to do that for anybody other than and it has to be like your child that's 14 or older or it has to be uncle aunt uh it can be a friend they can yeah they're really strict I don't know what language they're referring to but it does not when you go in those programs they don't allow yeah because it's something that's going into the Housing Authority lease and that's what she was having questions on and yeah no if they're if they're a spouse taking care of somebody they can't they can't even discuss that because they're not even allowed to be paid they are the person's caretaker but they cannot that's that's that's her that's the person's issue is because they have a family because pcas are supposed to get paid but if it's a family member they're not getting paid so unless they're unless they're like somebody else like my wife can't be paid right but if I brought my cousin or or I had a child old enough yes they could be so that it it's depending on what that person's caregiver is so that's those are some things that would have to be worked out so yes they could but they have to follow the state law because the person isn't going to be able to meet the requirements based on you know if it's a spouse the answer is no there's not even a question so that would have to be found out um the side I can't find out now this is the part about Tempest and this is where maybe some others might be able to help me I haven't been able to find it and I need to find out exactly because people I've been bounced around all over the place when I call Tempest so according to what I've been told Tempest also has a section where you can work with an agency that Tempest will pay um and you they help you hire the person or whatever it may be um and if it doesn't work out they'll send another one or if the person doesn't show up they'll send another one but I haven't been able to find that program so that's something that I need to find that side if anyone can help me find that I haven't been able to I'm literally dealing with 50 things at once um including my new uh where I check my blood sugars and I'm trying to get those strips so which are very expensive by the way um to put on your skin so it's 50 things going on at one time so any anybody can provide that part of help but I figured I could provide what I could on the sides that I do know and have been researching quite often so it's it's quite a mess yeah yeah all right anyone else have anything they want to talk on that before I move on to the next part of the me that meeting the the last thing that was brought Cod members from various cities and towns had a discussion on onboarding processes and ideas for new Cod board members they're looking they are looking for a documented process so this basically entails is um when a new uh person comes on to the commission on disabilities what's the process uh in revie what we have is HR um basically uh notifies them then it goes to the city clerk the city clerk would then contact the new board member they have to uh there's some documents they have to sign and they have to do a swearing in then you also be getting a um an email that you have to do an Ethics ethics training uh even though you're not a full-time employee commission and board members also have to do a ethics training um hopefully everybody here has has gotten an email um the issue that we do have is uh we don't have our commissions don't have City emails we did before but people were having issues with them from what I hear at the council meetings they are going to be going back to having all commission board members are going to be having to use uh City email addresses um so we are probably going to be going back to that um and then they'll be contacting everyone so that they will be doing their trainings and everything will be in one place um which makes it you know a lot easier uh to get everything done uh but when you when you do your paperwork you do give you have given them your email address if your email addresses do change it's up your responsibility to let HR know that your email address has changed so that they'll be able to send you uh any trainings that have to be done online so if anybody has any questions about that Ralph one other question you were talking about vaccines for dis for those with disabilities um I was wondering um how did that come up about the vaccines and I I personally am running into some of the things the problem yeah DPC was having a a listening session on that to M ma Mass Department of Public Health is having a listening session for information I see I would like to I wish I could talk to somebody from the D pH because the problem is you know they put things and they they obsess about age a lot of times like I personally live where I live with older folks and so the risk to me forgetting RSV or me giving someone RSV is very high but because I'm not over 60 they want to give me a hard time for it but I need that plus I'm also a compromised I've already been injured and sick so I just I don't know what to do and some maybe that that that's I just thought about that and that's what I was going to ask there's you know because you can reach out to the Mass Department of Public Health or you can reach out to the re Department of Public Health too and talk to them about it okay and so yeah that um item number six is uh any commission members late items uh or any information that they want to share um just want you to year um basically briefly on myself um if everyone noticed my title has just changed to the cood chair um I have uh I'm just I am am staying on as the chair of the commission of disabilities I have uh stepped down and stepped away as the um per the full-time Ada coordinator and volunteer R coordinator I have um I was graciously offered and took taken a job with the mass office and disabilities as an access specialist um so that's uh my full-time job but I am still doing Commission on disabilities uh uh issues and concerns on that at night and on weekends uh so have no fear I'm still here for the residents of R uh still doing everything that I did before I'm just not in um in City Hall on on a daily basis but um phone numberers still the same emails still the same uh and uh I can still be uh people can still get in touch with me um I don't know if anyone else has any question yeah hold on make sure um yeah yeah so I was gonna say um on the news I don't anyone saw it it looks like one of the commer stations is now being updated so uh for those for Disabilities so hopefully things will improve slowly and it's it showed new R uh new uh you know platforms and things being put in so hopefully that'll make a difference but I did happen to see that not too long ago yeah there's a lot on the horizon there's a few um there's a few I think there's a few Orange Line stations um that are getting done there's one that's getting accessible elevator in it that I that I heard of um at a meeting I try to attend the MBTA meetings um the the the r tag meetings when I can I missed the last one because of a of a scheduling conflict that I had so I'm G to go basically go back and try and and watch the recording on it because that's where I find out a lot of that information uh onics um the other thing that um I wanted to mention that a a lot of the um disability um items that were in the budget a few of them had gotten uh vetoed I think Ellie do you know any of them was it the uh was it the wheelchair repair one something it got stuck it got held up in committee yeah I believe so yeah I think that one got held up in committee I was reading something um so I think that got held up in committee um so there there's a few things that got held up I'm not sure um I didn't get to read the whole thing about the I think they another thing that happened is the the remainder of the money that was left from the voucher I think it was was it $10 million left from last year that they wanted to carry over um I'm not showing the exact figure but it was vetoed that they could not carry it over uh the remaining money so it was just the money that was allocated in the budget for this year wow yeah they they're very wasteful you know we're not finding the things that the people that really need the help so I don't know they're just getting way more and more wasteful yeah I just have I don't have the exact number but I heard that you know they wanted to carry that money over that wasn't that's how you spend that's why they waste they throw phones away every year computers I mean it's just I don't know that's you know Boon that station by the way the t is not still not updated so I don't know I don't know Ralph I I wonder sometimes where their heads at the whole state I know um I haven't gotten any residents concerns and issues I did receive one one call yesterday and I just wanted to put it out there uh someone was looking to donate some medical equipment unfortunately we do not take any uh medical equipment in R what I do tell them to do is reach out to the Chelsea solders home or reach out to the hospital equipment Loan program in wurn um to see if they they usually take donations of equipment um so I just wanted to let everybody know that you know a lot of municipalities do not take the equipment um number one for storage number two for liability issues um and what tended to happen is a lot of people would just bring equipment and it wasn't really usable and you know um the Aesthetics of the equipment being able to sanitize it keep it sanitized uh so a lot of CI in town so that's why um several several several years ago um I made the decisions was made in a lot of commissions um try and tell people to send send our contact the hospital equip loans program which was the Masons they used to be in Malden years and years ago but they are in uh they're in Cummings Park in wber um sometimes they take equipment they have a lot of equipment there for free uh if people do need things uh and you can find their link on the R's commission disabilities website so I just wanted to put that out as a point of information um and uh before we move on to to to next steps I hope to see uh my fellow commission members Saturday um at our event it would be great to see you there uh don't worry I won't put you to work there not going to be much to do um I have um I have youth workers from the rec center coming down um and uh everything everything should be all set um so I hope you can come come join us um and show solidarity this way the community sees uh the commission is in full force and uh and and want to support this event for everyone in R um okay so next steps is uh just the usual um calendar updates next month um and we'll do and uh we'll have a recap of um of the all abilities day out at River Beach event and um Paulie would you mind doing item number nine which is the reminder I would love to the commission on disabilities office number is 781 286 8267 residents can also call Rivia 311 directly and speak to their staff Monday through Friday they will answer most questions but if they are unable to or if you want to speak to one of our department directly please ask to be transferred to the disability office please leave a detailed message and someone will get back to you as soon as possible as always please tell us if you want something discussed or added to our monthly meeting agenda you can let us know if you would like to speak on any issue or concern the commission is here to help and assist all the disabled res and families of rier one final note I just have a question um I know that CPAC does not meet over the summer do we have a date for the first CPAC meeting oh did I skip I skipped that on the agenda you did and I knew that there was nothing on their agenda per se but just so that we have the their first uh school year meeting no they haven't they haven't said it yet okay didn't I did I have it on the you just said that CPAC was off of the Su five yeah cpac's not meeting until the school year begins they're always looking for any and all interested parties to join either as board member volunteers or overall support anyone interested in getting more involved in CPAC R can send us an email at CPAC CPAC rier gmail.com or Julie Brown no I haven't gotten anything when they they set a date they're probably waiting till school starts everyone will in I believe they you they last year um it was either towards the end of September or beginning of octob thought it the end of the month that they had their um their meetings but I I didn't know if you had that okay great sorry about that I apologize for missing that nope that's fine thanks for catching that father um before I ask for a motion to adjourn our next meeting is going to be Tuesday September 10th at 6 pm uh can I ask for motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second it okay and thank you and uh hope to see you uh on on Saturday um have a great rest of your night and a great great week thank you night everyone night s