[Frances Nwajei]: Hi everyone, welcome back to another month of the commission with on persons with disabilities meeting, October 26 2022, and it's 537pm. It's nice to see you all. And I do hope you're doing well. Now I'm going to kick it off to you, Tom I think you're up next.
[Unidentified]: Oh, Tom, I think you're on mute.
[Tom Hamel]: You are correct, because nobody can hear me. So thank you, Frances. It looks like the first item we have is introductions. And I think we have a few new folks on here. So we can just go around. And I'll start. We'll just say our name. how long we've been on the commission. And if you want to add something, you're welcome to do that. So Tom Hamill, I've been on the commission, I think for two and a half years, and I've been a resident of Medford for 15 years. And I have a disability myself, as well as kids. I have two of my kids have disabilities.
[Unidentified]: Who would like to go next? Linda, I'll pick you.
[Smith]: I saw you raise your hand. Oh, sorry. You're more than welcome to go if you want.
[Evangelista]: No, no, go ahead, Linda. I'll go after you.
[Smith]: Cool. I'm Linda Braden. I am currently the vice chair of the commission, and I have been on the commission, I believe this is my second year being on the commission. I am a resident of Medford and I've lived in Medford for six years now. It was just six years in August. And I look forward to meeting new folks, hearing ideas and thoughts. And my background is mainly in digital accessibility. So I am looking to improve anything I can in that realm. I will pass it on to you, you bet.
[Evangelista]: Hello everyone. This is, I think I've been on the commission two months, but this is my first meeting. I messed up on the time last year, uh, last month. Um, I am here because I am in the media production and I work with, um, a few individuals that have disabilities. Some live in Somerville, some live in, um, Medford and I am working to make sure that they have a voice.
[Frances Nwajei]: Okay, this Marshall. Susan ever want to go. All right.
[Marcia Kirssen]: I'm Marcia Pearson. I. have been struggling with the question of whether I'm really disabled or not, but I think I am because my arthritis is very progressive. I've been a commissioner for I think a year and a half. I lose track of time easily, so anyone can correct me if that's not right.
[Unidentified]: Thank you, Marsha.
[Susan Bibbins]: I'll go next. I'm Susan Bibbins. I'm the past chair of the commission. And I have been on the commission longer than anybody. I forget how many years. But I go back before Francis, before Neil, way back to Diane. And I live in Medford. I am disabled. I consider myself a person with disabilities and I have two adult children. that consider themselves persons with disabilities. And my pronouns are she, her, hers. Thank you.
[8kUnsaXIsWQ_SPEAKER_06]: Thank you, Susan. Heather. Hi, I'm Heather McKinnon. I've been on the commission for just over a year. I am a resident of Medford. I have a son with autism. And he brings me here mostly. And my pronouns are she, her, and hers. Thank you, Heather.
[Frances Nwajei]: And for the record, we have Sue Fowler-Finn that's sitting in. Sue is one of the prospective commissioner candidates that applied. And I explained that I didn't send the invites out today, but prospective candidates were more than welcome to join us. And then for the record as well, we have a Ryan Fairfield on here. Ryan, do you mind just introducing yourself and your role so that I can determine if you're a prospective candidate or a resident? Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so I'm just a resident and a guest, I would say. I'm just here to observe, honestly. Yay!
[Frances Nwajei]: Thank you for doing this. Welcome, Ryan. Thank you so much for joining us. So now I'm going to send it back over to the chair, Tom.
[Tom Hamel]: Great, so our next agenda item is to, I guess can finish up our September meeting minutes. So we still need to elect a secretary. So I don't know if anybody is willing to take notes for today's meeting. Any volunteers? because I didn't do a great job last time.
[Frances Nwajei]: I think that we can all help each other.
[Unidentified]: Okay, we'll try that again.
[Frances Nwajei]: Note taking is not something that we're all jumping for, but maybe if we can just all help each other and capture a little bit of something and know that next month we'll probably be asking, hey, did we miss anything? That would be helpful.
[Tom Hamel]: So I know that I missed the who participated in the motion. So I don't know if anybody had that in their notes from last time. I'm going to try to pull up the notes while I'm waiting.
[Frances Nwajei]: Would you like to screen share, Tom? Are you able to screen share and we can plug that in?
[Tom Hamel]: Sure. Do you want me to share my screen if I find them?
[Frances Nwajei]: With the notes or should I? It's up to you.
[Tom Hamel]: Sure, I can do that.
[Evangelista]: I have a quick question. With the note-taking, do you record all of the meetings and are we able just to listen to the meeting afterwards to record the notes?
[Smith]: That's a good question.
[Frances Nwajei]: Francis, do you know if they're posted online somewhere? They will be posted, but we prefer that the notes are taken during the meeting. Because sometimes people, you know, hop on and off. For example, we sometimes have guests that come through, and we need to actually go through the process of making sure that we review all the candidates that attended. We make a decision on who the confirmed commissioners will be. so that we can send that up to the mayor for the appointments. And then we'll be able to elect a secretary at that point. I think that now we all have different roles and note taking may not necessarily be all of our best forte. So we're gonna just try to support each other during this process.
[Smith]: One other thought I had was that on each video, if I go to show caption, there's a little up arrow, up caret, and there's a view full transcript. I'm wondering if there's a way we could get that from the previous recording or where we could get that from and if we might be able to use that for our kind of as like an automatic note taking that we could, I don't know, what do you think about that?
[Marcia Kirssen]: I might have it, I haven't tried it. I asked someone I know and who found it for me, but I didn't have, I don't have, I'm not 100% yet and I don't have energy. So, view it.
[Susan Bibbins]: Okay, the one caveat is that we have to generate notes, written notes after the meetings because they have to go in a notebook, in a loose leaf notebook that is supposed to live in the liaisons office.
[Smith]: Yeah, is there a way to, yeah, is there a way to use the transcript from Zoom as a document to start from that we could then all, like, is that a possibility? I'm not even sure I know what the transcript document looks like. We can try.
[Frances Nwajei]: I mean, maybe what you and I could do, Linda, is we could set up a time to get together and I could do a screen share and you can see how it breaks it down.
[Smith]: And I was thinking we could maybe make notes out of that. Yeah, we can try. Like as a starting point. Yeah. Oh, yes, Gabby. Whatever is easier for us to jot down some things and put them together, or if it's easier to hunt and pack through the transcript from Zoom. It was just an idea that I wanted to offer in case it was more appealing than taking notes
[Frances Nwajei]: Thank you. Well, Gabby, hi Gabby, how are you? Hi, I'm good, how are you? I'm well, thank you. We just finished doing introductions and we were on that, oh, who wants to take notes for this meeting, me please, me please routine. You arrived at the perfect time.
[Evangelista]: Oh, great. I'm happy to take notes. Um, I just am still I'm wrapping up at school. So as soon as I get out, I'll like turn on my camera and get settled, but I can still take notes.
[Frances Nwajei]: Okay, fabulous. Thank you so so much.
[Smith]: No, I've also got a document started and I can I can take some rough notes as well. And I can send mine over to you, Gabby to add. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
[Frances Nwajei]: You are both amazing. Everybody else is amazing, but right now, just both of you are amazing. Tom, we are off the hook.
[Tom Hamel]: This is good. Yes, exactly. Thank you.
[Frances Nwajei]: I get the relief. Thank you.
[Tom Hamel]: So I cannot share my screen. I'm disabled. Good choice of words there, huh? I get the screen sharing is disabled message.
[Frances Nwajei]: Try now, Tom. I don't know. I have to go back in and make sure that I was not playing around in Zoom and clicking something. It put all of you in the waiting room, which is appropriate for non-typical meetings, but this is a typical meeting. Thank you, Tom, for sharing your screen.
[Tom Hamel]: Oh, good. Thank you for enabling it. All right. The spots that I need a little bit of help on are the review of the meeting minutes, who proposed a motion and then who seconded it. And then I think they need the same thing for later on for choosing to elect a secretary. And then as you can see, my notes are kind of, simple. There's not much here. I don't know if there's more that folks wanted to add. So does anybody get a chance to review them and have feedback?
[Frances Nwajei]: I did review them Tom, and I added in the last names of the prospective commissioners that attended. And then I just have like little bullets that I can keep track. I didn't see anything on my bullets that was different from what you had already incorporated. Unfortunately I didn't have the who made the actual motions and who seconded the motions.
[Tom Hamel]: Does anybody else get a chance to check their notes?
[Smith]: What I remember is that, um, I, I know I specifically did not make, we know I, did I make the motion or did I specifically not make the motion? Because it was like the link. I created the link, but like, I couldn't make the motion or maybe I did make the motion. I could say that I made the motion. I remember the motion was made and it was seconded by someone and that we all unanimously did it. It passed unanimously.
[Frances Nwajei]: I was just about to say, if we don't have the names, does that matter?
[Smith]: It definitely passed unanimously. The motion was raised, it was seconded, it passed unanimously, as well as the other the motion below here. So this motion was about the secretary and about the nominations for the secretary. And we, yes, yes, to elect the secretary of the October meeting or to, I think we were nominating
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[Smith]: In the October meeting to nominate that we were going to hold off, that we were going to have the new commissioner, new perspective commissioners have a chance to decide if they, if they wanted to be part of the commission and then we would kind of carry the discussion forward in October and see if we had any nominations. that we'd want to put forth for secretary from our new perspective pool. That was a lot.
[Frances Nwajei]: If you just leave it as past unanimously, Tom, if nobody minds, I will go in now into the original one that Tom had sent me. I will make that change to the language to say the motion was raised and seconded and it was passed. I almost said anonymously, I mean, unanimously. Oh, yeah, yeah, there's wordplay going on today.
[Tom Hamel]: OK, I don't know. I don't know if we need them. I don't know if we need to record that information or not. So I'll leave it up to you to figure out if we have to.
[Frances Nwajei]: I don't know if we need to, but even if we needed to, I really can't recall. I think I'll have to, you know, we could probably get it by going and watching the video. The video is there. Heather will know. Heather keeps us in check with the rules, the Roberts rules, and Heather has a book, and Sue might know.
[Susan Bibbins]: Somebody help her. If we don't, if we can't remember, it's better to just say it was passed and motion was approved, you know, motion was made and seconded and, you know, and not say anything about the names rather than make them up.
[Tom Hamel]: Perfect. Thank you. Okay. Any other edits to the other notes? All right, so do we have, do we, so can I take a, can we, can I ask for a motion to approve the minutes as amended?
[Susan Bibbins]: I'll make a motion to approve the minutes as amended.
[Tom Hamel]: Sue, was that you?
[Susan Bibbins]: Yeah.
[Tom Hamel]: Okay, I'm going to get down.
[Smith]: And I, do I have a second?
[Tom Hamel]: Thank you. The motion stops sharing so I can see everybody.
[Frances Nwajei]: And I Francis was a. All right.
[Tom Hamel]: So I have a I have a, I have a motion and I have a second. Raise your hand. I can't remember the language but raise your hand if you are voting yes. Fantastic. Any, yeah, Gabby, any news? And no abstentions. Great. Thank you. Passed unanimously.
[Frances Nwajei]: Thank you all so much for that. Thank you, Tom. As you know, at the last meeting, the prospective commissioners were invited and participated in the meeting. It was nice because at that time we had more than we had opportunities. I do want to share that prospective Commissioner, Linda, who we met, is not able to follow through on that on the commitment at this time, given some family issues. So that was shared by email to myself and I sent it to Tom. and a couple of days after our meeting. So we will proceed with making our selection from those that attended. And I will defer to the commissioners to apprise me of their decisions so that I can forward the recommendation to the mayor for the appointment, for the official appointment.
[Tom Hamel]: Have we received any other applications or okay.
[Frances Nwajei]: We, the, everybody was contacted from everybody from 2022 was contacted received phone calls received the information to show up for that meeting.
[Tom Hamel]: So one of the thoughts that I had as I was riding the bus here. Is there, is there anything in the bylaws about how many people with disabilities need to be on the commission?
[Unidentified]: It says most.
[Tom Hamel]: Right. So that's, that would be a majority, right?
[Susan Bibbins]: It says most of the, uh, commissioners need to be caring for family, caring for people, or people with disabilities.
[Tom Hamel]: So it's most is not just people with disabilities, but people with disabilities and caring for people with disabilities.
[Frances Nwajei]: Right. And also please remember that not all disabilities are visible. So someone may not may consider themselves as having a disability, but not necessarily feel comfortable to disclose that during the meeting that they attended.
[Tom Hamel]: Agreed. Yeah, I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't like, and right, I don't know, but I wanted to make sure that we presented and we were following the bylaws if that was the case. So it feels like we are, I don't know, I guess, are we meeting the bylaws? Do we need to look at that and then decide that?
[Susan Bibbins]: Do we know where the bylaws are? I have a copy.
[Marcia Kirssen]: I have it somewhere. If I can find it.
[Susan Bibbins]: Yes. I have the notebook that the commissioners got, the loose leaf notebook that the commissioners got way long ago when they signed on.
[Smith]: Yeah, I seem to remember within the past and I don't want to go down too far this rabbit hole by what I just wanted to make sure that if there's a way that the commissioners can have access to to the bylaws. I know you're saying it was in like a binder, is it like a, is it a document?
[Susan Bibbins]: Yes, there's a document.
[Smith]: I know this.
[Susan Bibbins]: I know this. I will look for it in my files. I know we sent it around last year.
[Smith]: Yeah, was there? Okay, so we have a digital copy, we definitely have a physical copy, but we have a digital copy that we can, okay, cool.
[Susan Bibbins]: I will look for it in my files. No, well, Neil used to have it, but I'm not, it might be archived. So I don't know where that archive would be. So I will try and look in my files if I have it and then get it to you all.
[Tom Hamel]: I did, I did find it in my Google Docs.
[Susan Bibbins]: Yeah.
[Tom Hamel]: I just don't know if it is the, it's not the final version because there's a question on it that says amended and accepted question mark. So that's not the final one, but we should have a digital copy somewhere.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[Tom Hamel]: Yeah.
[Susan Bibbins]: And I think that I have, the original original before it was amended.
[Tom Hamel]: Okay, great. Alright, so let's see, I'm just looking at my agenda. So I think, I think we need to determine like how many open spots, how many open spots we have. And and then we review the bylaws just to make sure that we are following them. I think we are, but I think we should double check that and make sure. Did anybody have any questions about our process? So what we're gonna do as a commission is to recommend to the mayor how to fill our empty slots and then it's the mayor's decision.
[Marcia Kirssen]: I'm a little confused about Yvette's welcome to you, but I don't know her status really.
[Frances Nwajei]: So again, it was the people who applied were invited to attend the meeting, and they attended the meeting, and then the commissioners had an opportunity to meet with them. And then the commissioners will provide me with the decision because I don't feel that I should be the person deciding. I think that this really should be a team approach. And then that decision will be supported by myself and presented to the mayor. So I want to say that there were 11 people that had applied. since 2022. I did not go prior to 2022, because if I started in March, there was no sense me looking at 2020 applicants. Over a period of two months, contact was made with those that were interested, tracked contact, phone calls, and an email, and the invitations went out. invitations went out in a group attended, not a hand selected group, but a group that chose to be present attended the last meeting for you to meet, for you to meet them and for them to share why they were interested. And those were the four members that were on the meeting minutes. So there were three vacancies, four people attended, one person is not able to follow through at this time. So there are still three vacancies and the three people that attended.
[Unidentified]: And what is the vet's role? I don't mean, I'm confused, that's all.
[Frances Nwajei]: In fact, you introduced yourself as a commissioner, so that threw the commissioners off.
[Evangelista]: I just said that this was my first meeting. I missed the last meeting and I've only been involved for two months.
[Frances Nwajei]: Okay. You're a prospective commissioner. So you had applied to be a commissioner and you were contacted by George and the prospective commissioners attended the last meeting in September. So that's what the current commissioners are doing. They were trying to figure out, because you had mentioned that you were a commissioner, they were trying to figure out who created the appointment.
[Evangelista]: Oh, yeah, no, I'm, I'm just interested in being involved.
[Marcia Kirssen]: Yeah. I just wasn't sure you did. I wasn't sure if you were somehow a commissioner. I missed the last meeting. Oh, okay. Now that's why. So that's correct here. I totally missed. So welcome.
[Tom Hamel]: So Marcia, thank you for, um, for. PB, David Ensign — He-Him, He-Him. PB, David Ensign — He-Him. PB, David Ensign — He-Him.
[Evangelista]: I lived in Medford. I've been here maybe five or six years and I moved over here from Somerville, where I raised my kids and lived there after I moved from San Antonio, Texas. But in the Somerville area, I started volunteering at the Somerville Media Center. And we developed the television shows and radio shows. And I also produce a hip hop festival. And in this, my co-host has a disability. It's not visible to everyone, but it's a disability, right? And the two other gentlemen that were going to work on the show, they live in Bedford. And they also have disabilities, right? And they're in wheelchairs. They have MS. Another fourth person has polio. He's in a wheelchair as well. So I'm just trying to be that supportive person of being involved with the community. with the commission to make sure that I can help bring that voice out to the community. Because, you know, not everybody that has a disability or has a family member with a disability has the opportunity to be at this table. And I know individuals that are in there. I want to make sure, you know, when I hear them talking amongst themselves, like we were doing a show, you know, they called themselves second-class citizens. You know that that's it's not 100% up to them to speak up for themselves because they're doing what they can, but if I am part of them, then I'm going to be that I have 25 year old twins. They're both teachers and I've always taught them to be very mindful and respectful of everyone that's an individual, a human, regardless of what's going on. So I think it's very important that anybody tries to be mindful of what's going on in the community, the sidewalks, how you get on a bus, how you get off a bus, the ride. There are so many issues with the ride, and it becomes frustrating for some people. So how do I be helpful? The opportunity came up. I'm currently on the Medford Solid Waste Task Force. I used to work at a wastewater facility in San Antonio, Texas. And so that's what drew my interest to that one. But also within the disabilities, I understand about the sidewalks. I had a mother, father that had their own special, not special needs, but as you get older, as you become an elder, you may not be disabled, but you may need special things. And I'm right in that space as well. So that's why I applied to be part of this, this team, this commission, so that we can make sure that we all have the opportunity to enjoy outside in a space where we want to earn, where we can just be where we can teach people how to be more mindful, you know. So Is that enough or you want some more.
[Tom Hamel]: That's, that's great. Thank you. I much appreciate it. We much appreciate it.
[Evangelista]: No problem.
[Tom Hamel]: So, I think, I think Francis the next steps. What are our next steps.
[Frances Nwajei]: The next steps. You can all email me your choices, decisions. And then I will submit that to the man, man does the appointments.
[Tom Hamel]: Sounds good.
[Frances Nwajei]: OK, thank you. Thank you so much, Tom. You're up next again. I know you didn't catch it when I kept putting your name back to back to back.
[Tom Hamel]: I know it won't just be me. So on the 15th, I think. I think it was the 15th. We had a number of us that went to the Harvest Your Energy Festival. I know Sue was there, and Linda was there, and Francis was there, and I went too. And so I ended up on the late end. I don't know if anybody wanted to talk about their experience and anything that they wanted to share from attending the festival.
[Frances Nwajei]: Well, I'll say that it was exciting for me because I got to meet you all as well. I got to meet Sue and Linda in person. I mean, well, Tom, it was nice to see you, but I already met you in person before. So that was just, you know, that was really exciting. It was, you know, it was very, very different and it made it all real. And I was very, you know, I was grateful. for that. Mayland was also there to support us. And that was, you know, that was nice to see as well. However, you know, there's a however coming. Our little dollar 25 tablecloth could not, you know, it couldn't hold up to the wind. And, you know, it got me back on my soapbox again, thinking about, all right, you know, these are the things that we need. So I've, you know, I've left myself for the last couple of bits, because they all sort of tie into each other, because I wanted your input, your ideas and your suggestions, because the clock is ticking in terms of the timeline.
[Tom Hamel]: That's a good idea.
[Frances Nwajei]: You know, I, you know, talking about You know, things such as having our own identity, having a proper table skirt, having, you know, formal imaging, whether it is, you know, whether we have it in our Google folder where we can make actual copies so that we have something, you know, to give out, having a, you know, our portable conference table, whether it lives here, whether it lives, you know, somewhere else, at least it is accessible so that when these opportunities come up, we don't have to worry about, are we going to get a table? Are we not going to get a table? Because it gets confusing, making sure that we have at least two portable conference chairs that we can take with us, you know, understanding like, okay, does this event that we're at, does it relate to our mission, our vision, and our goals? Like, how does this How does this help what this is what this event showed me is that there needs to be better connection of people planning events with the commissioners to a say hey listen we're planning this event. Do you think that this location will be accessible, because I think I commented to Susan Wow, you know, it's a great space, but the place from where you check in. to where our actual table was. And I was sashaying in my clogs that day. It was a bit, there was some distance, right? And it's all about getting better. So when I'm out in these spaces, I'm looking at those things, not to be critical, but to be better so that we can really say that we're inclusive, we're an inclusive community. So I wanted to put on the table, table skirt, proper conference table, a banner, anything else that you guys can think of that I should add to my wishlist on behalf of the commission. It's not about what we had before, it's about like, okay, what do we need moving forward? Signs. Signs?
[Susan Bibbins]: signs, signage, and brochures.
[Tom Hamel]: Yeah, some type of handout.
[Smith]: Yeah, there was a really neat, reusable, it looked like a trifold whiteboard. I don't care if it's a whiteboard. Whiteboard would be cool. My thought was I've also seen cardboard trifolds. But what I liked about the whiteboard one was that it was reusable. So you could tape things to it. And just like our pamphlet, like it's not a one and done situation. It's something like we could tape our pamphlet to it. And then when we update our pamphlet, we could take it off. It wouldn't do any damage. We could tape a new one on. Or whatever signage we want, it would be taped to it or affixed however we wanted to. Temporarily, and so we could swap out things, it would give us more flexibility for that. I have no idea what it would be called is the problem, but it's definitely a trifold, and I'm calling it a whiteboard because you probably could write on it, but that kind of surface where you can attach, affix something and then take it off.
[Frances Nwajei]: Susan, didn't we see it?
[Smith]: It was like right across the way. OK, good. I'm glad you know what I'm talking about.
[Frances Nwajei]: Yes. As soon as you started describing it and you said, you know, affix the brochure, I was like, wait a minute. I think we saw something and it sat on the table. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. OK. So what else did the current commissioners feel that they need moving forward? Marsha, I'm so sorry.
[Marcia Kirssen]: Well, a couple of things that we had last year that I thought were helpful in whatever form they wanted, we needed to put them. But we did have a sign up sheet for people who wanted to be on our mailing list. We got four of them. Gabby added them. And also we had a Another form, which I think I got there this year, but you may have, it's not superfluous, it was asking for volunteers and vendors. And there were a couple of responses to that. And I have not followed through and that's on me.
[Frances Nwajei]: And we got you, Marsha, if you volunteer form that would be great when you have a chance. I send it to some, but I have it somewhere.
[Marcia Kirssen]: There were some comments to that, one of which I recall vividly which was about accessibility at the junior high school. working on that. Yes, I know you are. But I'm just mentioning that sometimes there are comments people aren't willing to write down that we need to record because that was important. I hope I mentioned it in a much earlier meeting, but maybe, maybe not. And so I think the kind of materials that we can use to to make sure we don't lose the valuable help we get, really important.
[Frances Nwajei]: Can we go back to the signup sheet for volunteers, please? Are these volunteers, are you talking about us when we decide that we're gonna go to an event, or is this for the public, right? Who wants to volunteer to help the commission?
[Marcia Kirssen]: It, it, it, it should be for the public I just created something very simple, because I went, went to the second event and I thought I had talked to someone interesting at the first one and I said oh gee, you know, you should do this.
[Frances Nwajei]: I am open to the cyber somewhere. I am open to anything that anyone has that can be added to our Google Drive, you know, so that we can, you know, have some sort of original format to do, you know, proper print offs on, you know, if we're going somewhere, we can actually grab it ourselves and print it, you know, print it off and take it with us. So if anybody has any of that historical information, that's great. And if nobody does, and, you know, want to sit down and create something very quickly, I'm open to that as well. Okay. Yvette, can I put you at the public participation, please?
[Evangelista]: Oh, sure, sure. I can just send it in. That's okay.
[Frances Nwajei]: Yeah, they've got... So, I'm going to put this together. I'm going to put it together under the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and putting it together for this committee and the other committee as well. And it is, it's my hope that we will get some seed funds. Additionally, I was alerted about a grant just today. That's why it's not on the agenda from the being distributed by the Mass Office of Public Health Association. It's like $12,000 that one can apply for. So I have to look at the website, but I glanced at it really quickly with the person that told me about it, and it can be used towards like what's already built, built structures. So Susan, I'm thinking of, You know, it's $12,000, it's not huge amounts of money, but maybe that can help for some of the issues that we're trying to address at the high school. Marsha, I'm really sorry, you said junior high, and I just changed that to high school. We're working on issues at the high school, but I'm sure that there are issues at the junior high as well.
[Marcia Kirssen]: They're relatively new.
[Frances Nwajei]: Yeah, so. I just wanted to share that. So Susan I'm gonna, I'm gonna kick it back to you if you want to chat about where we are with the, I don't even know what we call that group but ADA accessibility. Oh, Tom's got a question.
[Tom Hamel]: Sorry, I just wanted to add one more thing or two things that came up at the Harvest Your Energy Festival before we move on. I someone I talked to someone for a little while and Susan was help was helpful in resolving or at least understanding her situation better in terms of she was having issues with with public housing and she uses a wheelchair and have been forced to move to different different locations. and Susan helped me understand the lay of the land in section eight and how that works. I don't know if we necessarily need to do any follow-up. I think she was just thankful for an ear for someone to listen. The other thing that came up, and a couple of people have mentioned this to me, once at the festival, once also outside, is the sidewalks on the Fells Way West, which are, for months now, they've been working on repaving them.
[Frances Nwajei]: And sorry, Tom Fellsway West, give me a landmark, please.
[Tom Hamel]: Oh, so it is the the the road that the shop. What's that?
[Frances Nwajei]: Stop and shop that plaza.
[Tom Hamel]: Yes. So it goes all the way down there and extends all the way up to ninety three past the street and the target. It's it runs right along the border with.
[Frances Nwajei]: OK, I'm with I know exactly.
[Tom Hamel]: So they've been working on this project for a while. It's still not repaved. And so it's not, if someone uses a wheel, even if you use a stroller, like it's not navigable in certain parts. And so I did contact, I called Todd Blake over at the city, the traffic engineer, and DCR is doing this project and they are, I've heard different deadlines. Thanksgiving is one I heard that they'll be done. It may be done before that. But I do think we need to probably stay on top of it. Obviously, Halloween is coming up, and there are going to be people out and about. And then if it snows before then, it's going to create more issues. So I'm glad people raised that. I live right near the Bellsway, and it's been
[Frances Nwajei]: Thank you for raising that, Tom. I'm actually going to add it to my list because I thought it was me. When I leave work, I go down Riverside. And that's why I asked you for the landmark, because Riverside intersects with Fellsway and there is a gas station in one side. And I don't know what they've done, but it feels like there's at that intersection with the light. you almost have to swing your car into the other lane to be able to make that right turn. And I can't catch it in the daytime, but today I will make note. I'm trying to figure out where the curb cut is if somebody was using a mobility device.
[Susan Bibbins]: So there is no curb cut.
[Frances Nwajei]: Okay. That's what I thought. And it stood out for me yesterday because when I left, it was sort of that horrible drizzling. It was dark and all of a sudden the bump was right there. And I was like, but wait a second, the bus stop is over here. So thank you for bringing that up. Um, because like you said, it's getting colder. Snow's coming. We need safety measures.
[Tom Hamel]: Right. So do you have someone, you have, I assume you have channels that you can talk to, but we need someone to identify all of the spots that have not been done correctly. Like there's other spots where there's, I assume where there's not curb cuts or, you know, I don't know who is going to identify that.
[Frances Nwajei]: Yeah, I, you know, I don't, I can't say that I have somebody that I can identify to look at that but what I can say is I could waterlog serious tomorrow morning and schedule a meeting and say hey, who wants to take a run with me, you know, because I think that sometimes it's not enough to put it on paper. But, you know, people don't, you can't put it on paper, you put it on paper, the response will be the specifics. Sometimes the specifics and what we've written actually don't make sense in actuality and in reality. You know, so I prefer to do this as I come, let's take a run. Do you see anything wrong? That's, I feel, a more teachable approach. It doesn't mean that, oh, you know, our city engineers are going to be able to fix it, but then they'll have a better idea. and a better understanding.
[Tom Hamel]: I will. Somebody sent me pictures so I can send those to you too.
[Frances Nwajei]: Oh, perfect. Thank you.
[Susan Bibbins]: And if you say it's out of compliance with the ADA in those words, their ears perk up.
[Frances Nwajei]: I love it. Thank you.
[Susan Bibbins]: And the city could get sued. That's, that's sort of what the phrasing that makes their ears and their short hairs stand up.
[Frances Nwajei]: Thank you. Thank you, Susan. Thank you, Tom. Please send that forward. So we are at 628. Anything else, Tom, from Harvest Your Energy?
[Tom Hamel]: I don't have anything else. Okay.
[Frances Nwajei]: All right, so I think it's over to you now, Susan, if you want to talk a little, a big, little bit.
[Susan Bibbins]: The high school is undergoing repaving of the parking lots. However, they're making, they're putting in speed bumps that are making, that are going in sort of willy nilly and making it very hard to access the curb cuts. the accessible spaces. They put a speed bump in front of a curb cut and in front of an accessible space. So, It's kind of, they made the space safer, however, less accessible. So that's the high school. So we're only looking at the high school for this ADA priorities. meetings. However, I assume maybe that's an assumption that's wrong on my part, but I hope that we'll begin looking, going down at the other schools after the high school has begun to up their compliance. at least that's what I want. Now, the parking lot, while it's good that they're repaving and looking at this, they're doing, somebody's not talking to the other people. Um, because it's, it's going across purposes. Um, so we talked about how that can. Keep moving along in progression and not have them making it worse. Um, So we figured that one of the parties at the high school was going to have it all go through, run through her and they think that'll work. So, and we spent a lot of time talking about the people and how we didn't want things like that to happen and that kind of thing. And we also spent a lot of time sort of looking at what has still to be done. And there's this nice spreadsheet with things that are still to be done and the timeline and what we need to happen before things get done. how much money it'll cost and Francis applied for and received a nice ARPA grant to get signage for the new updated icons for parking spaces and other
[Frances Nwajei]: The buildings.
[Susan Bibbins]: Yeah, the buildings. And I don't understand quite how that's going to work in City Hall but it's going for.
[Frances Nwajei]: So the nice thing is that I am meeting with the mayor. Thus, at that point the signage will be ordered, and I will be able to present to the mayor, the committee, I'm just calling us a committee because I actually the group, I should call us a group, the group's findings about moving those spaces. Because you can't have accessible spaces and have speed bumps. And for me, just visually, I don't feel that you need to be an ADA expert to recognize that, wait, that's not quite going to work. So once that's been presented to the mayor, somebody else in our group that is from the school will be making the same presentation to the superintendent so that they can get together and come up with communications about moving slash changing where the accessible parking is, which will have an impact on where the administrators park. But the concern's not about the administrators parking, the concern's about ensuring that there is accessibility for those who need it. I am excited about the signage. It's a very, very small piece of the puzzle. It's a minute piece of the puzzle. But I'm just super excited because it allows us to be able to cross something off our list that we did with intent. And we're not behind the game. We're actually using what is preferred, what is modern, what is in the moment. you know, and that's important. And I think that this would be well-embraced, especially by younger people. You know, I mean, it speaks to them, and it was designed by individuals that identify as having a disability, and it is created, sold, and launched by Triangle. You know, Triangle is like their conduit to get the signage out. That's meaningful to me. It's extremely, extremely meaningful to me. So that's the small potatoes thing. And then there are much, much bigger things that need to be fixed. Curb cuts, a major one. I saw a city engineer today, and I cheekily said, so when are we going to take care of those curb cuts to nowhere? You know, but I do those things because it is important for them to know that yes I know that there are 6 million other things that have to get done, but I'm the voice here in City Hall so I'm going to add, I'm going to keep adding it so that it doesn't get forgotten. So I think that's it. The group, it's not a formal group per se. I was invited by Melanie McLaughlin. The superintendent is invited, principal, the OT, but it is a group of people that are passionate about making the necessary changes. And the OT has lots and lots of pictures. I mean, when I first started, I went on a walking tour to see all these things. So it's not folks just sitting behind a computer making a decision. So thank you, Susan, for sharing about that with me. We've got to discuss our proposed next steps for the commission, website updates. Linda, you asked me about that.
[Smith]: Yes. And I can, what I can do is, I guess my question is, what's the process for that? And who, who, who's, who does, is that something that we need to like review as a commission? Or is that some like, as far as like edits we want to make to it? Or is there someone that updates it automatically when there's changes like when there's changes to the to the like with these changes to the the commission membership do those automatically get made by someone at city hall or how does that work?
[Frances Nwajei]: So those would automatically get made by somebody at City Hall, but I think that it would also be great if the commission right if the commission notices something and sees that something needs to be changed, then the commission should share that, because otherwise the person will not know necessarily that these changes need to be made. And when I say changes, I'm even talking about the language that is used on there. If the commission reviews the website and feels like some of that language is not appropriate, then provide what the appropriate language is, because that's part of the commission's charge in educating. I would be really, you know, leaning to you, Linda, for like the digital piece of it. Like if it's really, if, you know, if there are digital accessibility issues with it and it is not working, then we need to know that right away because maybe we just drop a link and that somebody clicks on that link and it takes them to a space that's more accessible.
[Smith]: Right, yes, yeah, and that was part of what I was thinking of looking at it towards the eye of, and I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't duplicating efforts if there was already something in place as far as some of the information that I'm seeing.
[Frances Nwajei]: But I would love to put you in contact. If you are open to being put in contact with the person that does the website update, I would love, I would be more than happy to do that as well.
[Smith]: Yeah, yeah, I think that would be that would be great. I'm happy like if if that works if me. I guess that's also what I'm trying to make sure I go through the appropriate channels. As far as like the changes that I would be making that they wouldn't they would be for accuracy. and they would be for digital accessibility. Any sort of like content or language changes, like you were mentioning of like making sure messaging was what we wanted it to be, would be something that I would want more of the commission to weigh in or would want the commission to create and then pass along. So I'm definitely not interested in rewriting I don't have any, any language myself without, you know, just willy nilly going in there and changing all of the language about the commission, but I, the things I'm noticing on the page are like, like, Nila still listed as the contact and.
[Frances Nwajei]: It looks like, why don't I will email you CC Lisa, see if we can all get together. And, you know, we'll take care of that. But the caveat being that we will leave it to all our other commissioners to chime in, you know, about language and things of that nature, as they go along. The other thing, commission, you know, again, that goes, that segues right in, commission image. And then, oh, Tom, why are you letting me speak? This was your section. I just saw your name over at the side.
[Tom Hamel]: I was just gonna jump in. So, yeah, so I know I had asked to add this and I really, purpose is more of a primer set up for our next meeting, where hopefully we'll have a full commission. And then we can decide. We talked a couple months ago, Francis talked about kind of, you know, trying to tackle maybe some low hanging fruits and, you know, accomplish some things, go deep on a few goals rather than trying to do a lot of different things. And so I think picking a goal or two at the next meeting, I would love to be able to do that so we can start moving forward. And I think one of those things is, you know, updating the website, as you just talked about, which is definitely important. So I just wanted to kind of throw it out there to everybody to be thinking about what you would choose. And we can do that in the next meeting.
[Frances Nwajei]: And Tom, do you think the grant thing that I got fits in there as well? Would you, would every, you know, would people like to, you know, would people like me to send them the information about that grant? And maybe it can, you know, okay, I'll do that and then I'll do it as yeah I think I think it's with Okay, sorry. No, that's fine. I'll do that. And then I'll, you know, I'll approach it as the Office of diversity, equity and inclusion in support with the commission and persons. But because I do think that it's important, right, that the commission has a presence. you know, and I really shouldn't be requesting a grant or, you know, attempting to request a grant for people with disabilities without informing the commission, even if the commission only meets once a month, I should share that information. So I will, once I pull it up and everything, I will share it with all of you because you probably have some, you know, I'm sure you all have your own great ideas. And even if it's like six different ideas, who cares, we'll just, put them together somehow, make it work.
[Tom Hamel]: And as you know, like we have that goals, that Google goals document that we worked on. And I don't know if the grants, I think the grants thing is on there, but if it's not, we can elaborate on there. And then that way it's, you know, a formal part of the discussion.
[Unidentified]: Thank you.
[Tom Hamel]: Yeah. Do we, do we want to move on to Correspondence and announcements.
[Frances Nwajei]: Yes. So the disability summit is tomorrow, and it's, I love attending these summits, you know, from the Mass Office of Disabilities. I'm saddened though because many of the trainings and summits that they have are always in the daytime. So even, you know, I just want to make sure that commissioners know that even though I share this information with you, I'm not expecting you to like, leave your jobs and leave your schools, it's just part of, you know, letting you know what's coming up. So that is tomorrow, I am not going to assembly roll for it, I'm going to be one of the people attending. virtually. Are you attending still? And Susan's attending too.
[Susan Bibbins]: I'm attending virtually.
[Frances Nwajei]: Yeah, so we're both attending virtually. Great. And then the following week, though, I have a two-day, the CAM training, the Community Accessibility Monitoring training that's hosted by the Mass Office of Disability and the Pittsfield office and a few other people. And it's two days virtual and it is long. It is from 9.30 till 2.30. Yeah. So, but I will, I have signed up for that and I will be here. Thankfully, I have my desk that I can raise and sit down and raise again if I need to, but I will be here and I will Um, I will be attending that. So Susan, are you attending that one too, or no, you're leaving.
[Susan Bibbins]: I already, I took it, uh, with Neil, um, two, three years ago. I have my certificate.
[Frances Nwajei]: That's right. That's right. So I'll be attending that as well. Um, and if anything else, if I'm sent anything else as always, I will make sure that I share. information. So that's all my correspondence and announcements and I don't know if anyone else has correspondence and announcements.
[Susan Bibbins]: The next RTAG meeting is tomorrow. And I can't remember the link, but I'm sure if you look it up under MBTA accessibility, you'll find it. And that's it. That's the only thing I have.
[Tom Hamel]: Thank you, Susan. I'll put a link to the meeting in the comments.
[Frances Nwajei]: Thank you. I'm waiting for one of the commissioners to address the next meeting date. Oh, Marcia, are you putting your hand up.
[Marcia Kirssen]: Yes, well I had a couple of things that I've seen that I just want to mention. I wanted to get a better hand on a broader view of disability than the ADA, because I believe the ADA is so outmoded and it's good to pursue it. But I think at some point, I probably won't be here, but I want you all to think about what the future might be. And so I found a couple of different definitions of disability, which in a couple of communications from France, or other places, it was mentioned that 25% of the population has some kind of disability, which I thought, oh my goodness, what does that mean? Because I've been thinking of it much more narrowly. So I sent you two different articles, one from the CDC, which looks at that as a health perspective. The other from a magazine that I've never heard of, but it had a different, somewhat different take on it. But both of them arrived at the 25% idea. And I just think it's food for thought. I appreciate it if you would give it a small amount, teeny amount of time. And the other thing that pertains to that is a public health conference from BU at the end of November, which I will send reminders for, that it's from the public health department there. And it is about disability and public health, which I also think will be a somewhat broader view than the ADA.
[Tom Hamel]: That's all I have. Thank you, Marcia.
[Frances Nwajei]: Thank you, Marcia.
[Tom Hamel]: So I think public participation is next.
[Frances Nwajei]: Oh, Gabby. Go ahead, Gabby.
[Evangelista]: Hi, sorry, I just wanted to add, I am kicking myself in the foot because I'm late to the game on this, but I guess it can also be saved for our website updates, but the accessible voting request can be done online now through November 1st. And I was just wondering, do you know if there's any way we could get the link maybe possibly posted to our, like, I know it's on like the mass.gov website, but, um, perhaps maybe getting that on the city website. I looked around and if it's there, hold on one second.
[Frances Nwajei]: I'm going to go next door to register votes right now and ask if that's even a possibility. And thank you so much. Yeah. Just send it to me. Hold on. I'm here, but I'll be right.
[Tom Hamel]: We'll start on the public participation. So Ryan and Yvette, did you guys have anything that you wanted to add?
[Evangelista]: So based on the conversation earlier about, I guess when you were talking about the Harvest Fest, I made a note that I wonder if you all are able to think about how to have some equipment where it could be hands-free. If someone comes up to your table, they're able to speak into a mic and the information can be captured. I don't know if that's a possibility, but I just threw that out, especially since you're looking at ARPA money and then ADA money. I guess I just sympathize with what's going on. As you mentioned, the speed bumps and in the different areas and I don't know if that's what this group, this commission would be doing or would they be the ones that would be taking comments from the public about things they see in the community that are a hazard and is that what this group is about or is that another department? Thank you.
[Frances Nwajei]: This group is a little broader, right? This group is about accessibility. It's about people with disabilities living a quality of life. So as the commission, we're almost, well, when I say we, remember, I'm not a commissioner, I can't be a commissioner. The commissioners are the advocates of that. What Marsha has raised is that we need to broaden, we shouldn't just rely on the scope of the ADA to define what a disability is because that threshold is very, very low. So we need to expand. our thought process about disabilities. So as the city's commission, when commissioners and, you know, volunteers are at events, people will approach about a variety of different issues. And we become the conduit to guide that information to the right source. So for example, Commissioner Gabrielle has just told me about the accessible voting link needing to go on the website. Because I'm right next door, I went over, I just asked the elections manager. Elections manager said the link will be sent to a communication person tomorrow, with the request to ensure that it's on our city's website. So those are the types of things that we do. We are not civil engineers, we're not. We're not. experts, we're more advocates, we're more, you know, we have the ability to push things forward to the best of our abilities. We don't, you know, we don't get into the weeds of, you know, highway safety and things of that nature. Those laws and those Those things are not things that we can impact, but if I'm here at City Hall, I can walk up to the third floor and say, hey, we have a question. Somebody got off the bus and had to basically ride in the road because there was no longer a sidewalk because of this, that and the other. Are you aware, because remember, cities are big, what you see today, you may not see tomorrow. I don't know why it stood out for me that there was something wrong. Yesterday, on my way home when that's the way I go home every day. They didn't just make that. curve yesterday, you know, so we are sort of, when I say the voice, it's not to take away, but we are the voice of push towards change to the extent possible. You know, if, and that it also includes like if somebody says to me and I've had this before. I don't like being referred. I use the term differently able because I see we are all differently able. There are so many things that I can do. But there are also so many things that I can't do right. But somebody said to me, a community member that I met with said, no, I don't like that term. I consider myself disabled. So I said to the community member, well, when I speak with you, since that's what you prefer, I will refer to you in that manner. When I'm speaking broadly, I say people that identify as having a disability. I feel like it's a choice. You know? So we are We are many things, we're not one thing if that. So I don't know if my response has helped you, confused you or yeah, we are many things. Hi Marsha, go ahead please.
[Marcia Kirssen]: I have another question. I am confused about how the commissioners to fill the commission are going to be chosen. Is there a clear thing that's going to happen?
[Frances Nwajei]: In the next meeting, and Tom, you're going to figure it out? I think that Tom's concern was about whether or not there was a quota, right? Because sometimes some bylaws are extremely specific, and they say, thank you, Heather. Take care. Lovely to see you. Some bylaws are very specific. and they do say that you need to have X percentage of this, X percentage of that, at least one person has to be a nurse. So I do believe that we have to go back to our bylaws to first of all, make sure that we're in compliance and then move from there.
[Tom Hamel]: And we're making, Marsha, we're just making recommendations, right? The mayor is the one.
[Marcia Kirssen]: I understand.
[Frances Nwajei]: But I'm not sure how we're doing that and and I'm, you just let me, you let me know that email to you know, because I can't. I can't send it to the mayor, I can't make the recommendations to the mayor because then it will, it will be as if Francis is choosing why should Francis be choosing. This is a decision. So you let me know and I say, dear mayor, blah, blah, blah, X number of people. I mean, it's all trackable and I have to run the forms upstairs anyway. And, you know, the commission would like to recommend and I support this recommendation. That's how I did it with the human rights.
[Tom Hamel]: We're just sending emails to Francis with our recommendation.
[Frances Nwajei]: Marsha, it looks like you and I are going to have another late night evening chat. Marsha and I do prefer chatting late in the evening. There's less distraction.
[Marcia Kirssen]: Anyone is welcome.
[Frances Nwajei]: Anyone is welcome. And it was just, it was to fix like a Zoom, a strange Zoom thing, but anyone is welcome.
[Unidentified]: It's the best time to get me.
[Marcia Kirssen]: Yeah, it's because I missed the last meeting. And so I didn't talk to, The people, I didn't hear what the people that were there said. So I'm, I'm not even sure that I should have any input whatsoever.
[Frances Nwajei]: I don't, I would say that I don't think that it's something that you should be concerned about right now because I, I don't know what the commission first of all that's going to do in regards to the November meeting. which actually falls right on the eve of Thanksgiving. So you may have time to watch the recording and then provide input from watching the recording. It's not a decision that you- I'll try. I'll see if I can make it work. Yeah.
[Tom Hamel]: PB, David Ensign --"So that's a good segue. Should we look at the next meeting date?"
[Frances Nwajei]: So the next meeting date is November 23rd at 530.
[Tom Hamel]: I assume most of us can't make that.
[Frances Nwajei]: I throw it out to the commission. I am at your mercy. Whatever you choose to do, I will support you. I can't make it.
[Evangelista]: I should be available, but I'm also happy to do. Are we able to do the week before or the week after? Are we allowed to pick or do we just have to? We can reschedule as we will.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[Evangelista]: Okay. I'm fine with any Wednesday.
[Frances Nwajei]: The week after is December 7th, and that would put us in two meetings in December, right? Oh no, wait a second. Wait, sorry.
[Smith]: It looks like the following Wednesday would be the November 30th.
[Frances Nwajei]: Yes, sorry, you have to, I always have to do finger counting.
[Smith]: That might, I mean, I'm up for, I checked my calendar, I'm up for either date, but it seems like maybe pushing it toward the, week after still holds it in November, but gives us maybe a little bit more time before the next meeting. So it's not in like a couple of weeks, if that rationale works for, if we needed some sort of rationale or justification for one side over the other for helpful decision-making.
[Frances Nwajei]: And from an equity standpoint too, you know, It's, I have to think about parents who are commissioners and how the night before, the day before Thanksgiving day can be hectic, parents running around, children in a more excitable space. Like, seriously? So I'm fine with moving it. If you say, Frances, we want November 30th, instead, I will make myself available on November 30th and switch the date. But those are the types of things that go through my mind.
[Tom Hamel]: So the 30th works for me too. Is there anybody that objects to the 30th?
[Frances Nwajei]: I'll email Heather. Okay. She had to jump off, so I'll email her and let her know November 30th.
[Tom Hamel]: Thank you.
[Frances Nwajei]: Same time.
[Tom Hamel]: All right, I have to jump off too. Is there anything else? Do I need a motion to adjourn?
[Smith]: I can give you a motion to adjourn.
[Tom Hamel]: And a second? Is that a second, Susan, or motion?
[Evangelista]: I'll second it.
[Tom Hamel]: Gabby, you're going to need a second to write yourself down. All in favor?
[Tom Hamel]: Thank you, everybody.
[Unidentified]: Thank you.