5 8 2024 Commission on Disability

okay this is a meeting of the Fall River Commission on disability for Thursday May 10th 2024 um and I will read the open meeting law statement pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit and or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or

unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible okay so uh next we have attendance chairman Dennis Pauli pres Vice chairwoman Debbie Pico president commissioner Lisa Silva president commissioner Dan robard pres commissioner Ann O'Neal Souza president okay next item is public input M Mr chair y oh go I'm sorry go ahead go ahead go ahead commission motion to take the

agenda out of order and to begin with the proposed mou between the four of the police department and the four of the commission on disability okay and there's there's going to be another item too it's it's a um so do you want to do any any voting items do those at the top correct will you accept that well I don't think the chair should be making friendly amendments motion to take the agenda out

of order and to proceed with all voting items first that's my motion okay do I hear a second to that second okay okay uh R call chairman Dennis pelli yes Vice chairwoman Debbie p yes commissioner Lisa Silva yes commissioner Dan robard yes commissioner an O'Neil Souza yes okay so the next item for discussion um the first item to be voted on is um the issue of the memorandum between

the Fall River Police Department and the commission on disability um I I will entertain any motion for discussion motion to reject theou at this time between the for of the police department and the for of the commission on disability do I hear a second to this motion I'll second that okay so now we'll have discussion are there any questions any question or discussion go ahead I'm sorry Mr

chairman go ahead thank you uh there are other underlying uh issues between the for of the police department and the for of the commission on disability right now I think those should be resolved uh prior to any vote on anyou secondly uh uh if we're going to discuss the contract I I think that this contract in a lot of areas is vague and nonspecific so for those reasons I would I would motion to reject

it are there any other comments and questions okay I just want to double check with everybody are there any other comments or questions okay I think we're ready for a roll call vot chairman wait wait I'm sorry hang on this is a motion to reject the M correct that that is correct chairman Dennis Paul selli now this is the motion to reject right yeah I just want to make sure okay I'm voting yes to reject

do we need somebody to second no the motion's already been made I'm voting I just want to make sure that a yes vote I should have said that originally a yes vote means you are in favor of the motion to reject a no vote means you're not in favor of rejecting the motion I I apologize for that lack of clar uh that boy for that lack of clarification so so go ahead I'm I'm going to vote

Yes okay chairman Dennis pelli yes Vice chairwoman Debbie pachico yes commissioner Lisa Silva yes commissioner Dan robard yes commissioner Ann O'Neal Souza yes okay the next item to be be voted on is and the motion passes by the way the next item to be voted on um is um an email that I received that actually came through Sandy um The Name Escapes me right now because this was so long ago but I've been doing the

reading um on the issue I've been I've been receiving numerous emails because I belong to an organization of the Blind and we're being asked to all being asked commissions on disabilities and organizations around the state are being asked if we could support a bill for um accessible trails in Massachusetts so what they want to do first is a study of exactly what's out there for accessible trails and then

they can come up with um any cost or or or uh budgetary items and stuff like that and so far there are numerous commissions on disabilities that are that have endorsed it they only need from us a letter of endorsement that's all they need and um so far they' have been commissions as as as close by as Westport and New Bedford that have gone on record Boston Framingham um Northampton this is being

spearheaded by the Northampton but there are also disability related organizations so what I'm asking is if the Fall River Commission on disability can add if we can add our um endorsement to this bill that's both in the house and the Senate version um on accessible trails in Massachusetts mo mo motion to authoriz the chair to write a letter of endorsement to the to the state on accessible

Trails do I hear a second to that I'll second it Debbie Pico thank you um is there any are there any questions okay I'll entertain a roll call vote chairman Dennis Pauli uh yes Vice chairwoman Debbie Pico yes commissioner Lisa Silva yes commissioner Dan roard yes commissioner an O'Neil Souza yes okay um those are the voting items I'm going to go back to the beginning of the agenda Mo the regular

order okay do we need to vote on that or or I'm not clear here I need some help do we need to vote to go back to regular I would think so because we voted to come out of okay then um do I hear a second to go back to our regular order of business oh I'll second that Debbie Pico to go back in order of the agenda thank you um I'll Entertainer roll

call chairman Dennis Pauli yes Vice chairwoman Debbie pachico yes commissioner Lisa Silva yes commissioner Dan roard yes commissioner Ann O'Neal Souza public yes okay um back to regular business is there any public input I'll entertain we'll entertain public input so is there any public input

I'm sorry is there any public input and last call is there any public input okay next item is approval of the minutes for the meeting of April uh April 10th 2024 motion will approve the April 10 minutes the the disability commission okay do I hear a second to that I'll second it thank you all right um are there any is there any discussion okay I'll entertain a roll call chairman Dennis Paul sui

yes Vice chairwoman Debbie Pico yes commissioner Lisa Silva yes commissioner Dan roard yes commissioner Ann O'Neal Souza yes okay um updates I don't have any Ada updates right now I except to let you know that beginning May 1st um Ada Improvement Grant applications are opened um and I've been in touch with Al Aliva and uho about getting together the Ada work group to see what what we can go after

um there is no rule that municipalities only should go after grants and then have to wait a while that that that's just doesn't exist there there's no such rule so municipalities can imply apply for these grants as many times as they feel they need them and so the grant period is open and and I believe it's a short window this year of June 14th so that's a rather short window so um so it's it's open

um I think I would suggest that if anybody you know has some ideas that they can either get them to to Al Alo Vera or or Chris perano because that's who we've been working to working with or you can get them to u to myself or to Dan or to Lisa and we can um when we meet with with Mr aloa we can uh you know we can voice those those

ideas um so is there any policy updates Vice chair Deb Pico none at this time okay finance budget report for the month of April has been distributed and under Outreach um once again I I really want to thank Lisa I want to thank um our vice chair I want to thank Dan Dan has really been working very closely with um the McGovern staff because we had another s another very successful scholarship

brunch um and I'm especially indebted to Mayor Paul Coogan um he's attended every one of these events um and it's really an honor and a privilege to to have him as part of our our events um so uh I will be I'll be sending out a thank you email for him but um also Ann if you can convey the commission's appreciation too that would be appreciated absolutely thank you but um

it it it was another great success this year and so I just want to thank everybody here for for making it so and I I did talked to a couple of gu guidance counselors after they kind of they really like the way we do it um they gave me some very positive feedback and um so does anybody else have any comments um Dennis the only thing that um was discussed on Sunday that was a

recommendation was do we consider how having it um hosted at either Diamond at room 251 or at the GR at dery um seeing that it's um scholarship to students that was just a recommendation that came out of Sunday so something that I guess we can talk about moving forward as we planning for next year we we did um because we barely got in this year because we decided to change from June

to May so we barely got into mcgoverns this year so what we did um um uh Madam Vice chair what we did was we did put down a deposit for next year already um might some yeah so it might be you it might be something in years to come but I think that for next year we wanted to make sure that that this was that we were locked in already so we did put

down our deposit for next year um okay and that that was included you on the bill that we the overall bill that we had to pay um and the other thing is and this will be discussed in our Outreach work group is that we are actually getting some more suggestions um there's there's uh I know Bishop Conley closed but there have been other suggestions that we might include um schools where there are residents of

Fall River attending those schools such as Bristol Aggie and such as um a couple of parochial schools in the area where people with disabilities students with disabilities who reside in the city of Fall River should be able to go after those scholarships as well so I I want to Hash this out with our workg group and come back to the commission perhaps in the fall but I think it's really worth something taking under

consideration we also had a suggestion that um dery in particular because there's a larger population there might be more students with disabilities um and they've actually suggested that we might consider one or two more so we really have some things to consider in our work group and to bring back to the full committee for discussion um because I think they're worth talking

about that's great what's that does anyone else have any

feedback okay um hearing none is there any old business is there any new business our next meeting is June 12th so is there any other new business to come before us no okay do I hear a motion to adjourn I hear oh I'm sorry I did hear a second okay uh roll call chairman Dennis Pauli yes Vice chairwoman Debbie Pico yes commissioner Lisa Silva yes commissioner Dan roard yes commissioner an O'Neal Souza

yes okay we are adjourned thank you very much everybody