The Fall River Commission on Disability convened on November 13, 2024. The meeting began with a roll call, confirming the presence of Chairman Dennis Pauli, Vice Chairwoman Deb Pacho, and Commissioners Lisa Silva, Dan Robard, and Ann O'Neal Souza. Following a period for public input, during which no comments were received, the commission addressed the approval of minutes from October 17, 2024. It was noted that the correct date was October 16, 2024, and a motion to approve the minutes with the amended date passed unanimously with a 5-0 roll call vote.
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this is a meeting of the Fall River Commission on disability for Wednesday no November um thir November 13th 2024 um pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may trans MIT the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those
0:43present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible okay I will entertain roll call chairman Dennis Paul s present Vice chairwoman Deb Pacho present commissioner Lisa Silva present commissioner Dan robard presid commissioner Ann O'Neal Souza pres okay I will entertain any public input is there any public input and one more time is there any public in put excuse me okay the next item is approval of the
1:40minutes for the meeting of Wednesday October 17th 2024 motion adop to approve Okay who wants to uh be credited okay it should be October 16th is it 16th yes oh um okay motion to amend the date okay do I hear a second to motion seconded okay you guys can we just can we do we have to vote on the amendment separately or can we just accept it as an amended
2:21minutes I guess we can go way well the minutes are printed correctly I think you just read it wrong okay so let's we'll just we'll just note that the amended date is October 16th uh is that okay with everybody with that we'll do a roll call we'll do the roll call on accepting the admen amended date for the minutes of October 16th 2024 which will be yeah it'll be amended it'll be mentioned when we do the
2:57minutes for this meeting anyway so okay uh chairman Dennis Pauli yes Vice chairwoman Debby pigo yes commissioner Lisa Silva yes commissioner Dan robard yes commissioner Ann O'Neal Souza yes okay next item are updates under Ada um I don't have any real updates at this time there's a couple of things that I am going to check into um according to the architectural access board meeting regarding
3:37Battleship Cove um they were supposed to have by November 2024 um a way that you can do a virtual tour um as they uh as you know they obtained a 2-year variance so I will be checking with the architectural access board and with Battleship Cove to see if there was number one if they met the requirement for the virtual tour which was supposed to be November 20124 and how things are going in terms of
4:12um this is the first year of a 2-year variant and I can report back to everybody at our January meeting um the other thing that I wanted to report to on an ADA level um is um I got a lot of information of new ways for people with disabilities to be voting and to be registering and to be doing and a lot of it is online stuff that you can do that's designed to make
4:42it more easier and accessible unfortunately a lot of this information and training was garnered a week before the election which I think is you know I think with early voting and all of that some of that could have been done much much earlier than it was but that's okay um what I'm going to work on is after the holidays or sometime before the Municipal elections in the fall um I am going to work with the I'm
5:12going to work with the disability Law Center to see if we could do um information on a workshop on elections in Massachusetts as it pertains to accessibility um and I will talk to our vice chair offline um because I'm this will be done virtual but I want to see if we can maybe co-sponsor it with seci with the southeast Center for Independent Living um like I said it will be a virtual training so there's no
5:42money no cost involved um you know uh no expenses and that kind of thing but it will be a lot of information on things that have been you know that have changed in terms of accessible voting um that we should have probably known about earlier in the selection cycle so there any questions about that Mr chairman yep to two things very quickly thank you uh regarding the battleship Cod isue uh just to be clear
6:14this commission went on record opposing that variance correct that is correct yes um and we we we we monitored the hearings um the original the architectural hearings and I can I can try to get those minutes which I will actually I won't even try I'll try I will get them I will resend them to everybody so that you'll know what was decided at that meeting that hearing I think the hearing was in
6:45February I'm not sure I believe you and I attended that virtually as I all yep it was a virtual hearing so I will get those minutes from the hearing and I will resend them to everybody um so that we we can refresh our minds as to exactly what was decided but but you're right um we we were on record as opposing the variance the architectural access board gave them a 2-year variance and they
7:17said that they had to have uh a virtual tour of the battleship in place by November 2024 so I think I think when you and I did a did a tour and met with with the gentleman whose Name Escapes me right now uh as well as the exe uh the executive director I think they had agreed uh when we met with them to the virtual tour uh however uh I don't know
7:52if that's in place so that's a good thing to check uh secondly on the on the voter information on if this Workshop does come to fruition uh could we invite Mr Lian um actually Dan I already I I already mentioned that to him that that's a part that you know when we when we get this together he'd be glad to join us for that because I had shared I already shared with him the information that um
8:23and this was a virtual Workshop that that that disability Law Center did and I immediately for Ed all the information including how to do a a polling um a voting site how to do an accessibility work um accessibility what do you call it um accessibility survey yeah I had uh I had participated in one of those uh with the former weight director uh K Su the young and at that time all of of our polling
9:00places were considered accessible yeah I don't I don't recall at this minute if that's noted in the uh current transition plan which I think is around five years old if um my math is correct um but uh I I would like to see uh I would like to see if all of our polling places of them have been moved uh there's one in particular that I think this commission should continue working
9:37with Mr Lian uh to expel as a loading place in the city of fiva it's probably the least accessible not only is it lousy for a polling place but it's a a very inaccessible building uh and that's the uh the fire station uh of which the street name escaped me at this minute but you know the Poland place I'm speaking of Mr chairman and I think I I think this commission should work
10:11diligently with Mr Lions to insist over time that that is that that is uh uh as soon as possible deactivated as a polling plate because that building is anything but accessible members of the fire department have uh expressed concern about it it's just not a good building uh there was a whole slew of changes made uh uh since the last election um uh prior to the last election and uh this one I was
10:53disappointed was not on that packet but if it should be the next that made it's absolutely necessary uh to ensure that all places are fully accessible as locations and H in terms of voting uh voting equipment and voting boots thank you I you so we'll see if we can get that together but with respect to that particular polling place we now have time before the next election and it's
11:28always been to work on these issues when we're not in the throws of an election process so I think that thanks for reminding me of that Dan um um so thanks thanks for reminding me of that commissioner and we'll see if we can work on it during the election you know yeah we've gotle yeah so that's that's all I had on Ada um next is policies for Vice chair
11:59Deputy Pico do you have at this time yep at this time I have no updates okay and you all received under Finance you all received the um the budget report for the month of October um which is looking very good and um so I'll move on to Old business is there any old business to come before the commission okay hearing none new business um I was contacted by the new executive director
12:37of the Sher Foundation his name is uh Jack Jack dresser um and um he wishes to be introduced to the commission so we we we have corresponded and we talked by phone and after the holidays um I will have uh Mr dresser introduce himself to the full commission the Sher Foundation does serve residents of Fall River and I've been assured that um I did ask him um but Sher has a very very
13:11excellent um reputation of serving the disability Community especially in the area of technology and we all remember Les Corey the founder of the share Foundation he spoke at one of our Ada Awareness Day programs um and they continue to do do good work so after the holidays um I will um I will have them on the agenda to um to to to address us is there any other new business none at this
13:50time okay well hearing none our next meeting will be on Wednesday January 8th we always take the months of December and July off um so I want to wish everybody a very Happy Thanksgiving and whatever holidays you celebrate after that and um I will entertain a motion to adjourn motion to Second roll call chairman Dennis chairman Dennis Paul S yes Vice chairman debie pachico yes commissioner Lisa
14:27Silva yes commissioner Dan roard yes commissioner Ann O'Neal Souza yes this meeting stands adjourned happy holidays everybody happy holiday