Mayor’s Advisory Committee for Community Members with Disabilities

CITY OF PEORIA Mayor’s Advisory Committee for Citizens with Disabilities MINUTES November 14th 2023, at 4:00 PM Call to Order Staff Liaison Green called the meeting to order at 4:04 PM. Roll Call Present: Vice Chair Berry; Commissioner English; Commissioner Muehlbauer (by zoom per OMA); Commissioner Gathers; Commissioner Hogeboom; Commissioner Peterson; Staff Liaison Green. Not Present: Commissioner Srivnivas; Chair Hayes. Quorum Established. Remote Attendance Vote for Committee Member Muehlbauer: Motion By Committee Member English; Seconded by Committee Member Gather. All in favor, the motion carries. Approval of Meeting Minutes Motion to Approve September Meeting Minutes made by Committee Member Gathers and seconded by Committee Member English. All in favor, motion carries. The October meeting was cancelled. New Business I. Website Updates/ Additions/ Questions: Strategic Communications Director Stacy Peterson appeared and addressed the Committee. Director Peterson stated that we as an organization are limited on what we can do to our website because government websites are graded differently than private organizations. Uniformity for all Boards and Commissions is important, and they are constantly being improved. We have a section on the website that breaks down all departments and points out government officials. The living and working section may be the appropriate section for resources for people with disabilities. Committee Member Gathers: had trouble locating this Committee but does not want to create more links. Committee Member English: Users would come to the website to receive information and file grievances. Member English circulated a document that will be included for the record. The Committee does not currently have a grievance process in place. Director Peterson: a grievance process could be handled similarly to the police community relations complaint process which has been worked on for years. It is well utilized and manned by the police department, but some issues become internal, and transparency is questioned. Because this involved the Equal Opportunity Issues, this would likely be placed on the EOO page as a grievance tab. We may not have the capability for a report button, but an auto-fillable form may be doable. Committee Member Gathers: can we establish a queue and filter the information down? Committee Member English: We need to be able to assimilate grievances and make sure that they are routed to the proper people. Director Peterson: Looking at low urgency, moderate, high and critical, we (per the documents circulated by Member English). You would need to determine who would be handling these complaints. Security measures do not allow for non-employees to handle the complaint process. This would possibly be located on the Equal Opportunity Office page. Director Peterso walked through the navigation steps on the EOO page. A hyperlink would likely be the best route to keep with consistency. Committee Member Peterson: Concerned with how people would know to go to the EOO page and follow the path to the complaint process with the least amount of barrier. Director Peterson: The majority of our page has to look like the other pages and people are likely not wanting to see a listing of names when they are looking to file grievances. We could likely get a link that says click here to see the grievance process. We do not allow third party websites. Member Gathers: There should be quite a bit of space that would allow us to put something in place. Do we have flexibility with the mission. Member English: What advice do you have for us handling grievances? Once the process is in place, we would like for it to be transparent. Director Peterson: Be ready for this to take time. The process will be a challenge. Public Works would be a great starting place. Formalizing the process is a great way to make your voice heard. PeoriaCares is a customer service ticketing app and it allows for people to contact and report their concerns. There used to be service contracts embedded in the process. There can also be anonymous complaints. Some grievances will require other people who are outside of the room and a network of people. We do not have a ticketing system but starting off basic with a form may be the best way to begin. Consider the brand guidelines as well when deciding how a page needs to look as well. Relationship building is a way to bolster the committee. Member Berry: Public Works will only do so many sidewalks per year, and she has been unable to get through to the person who answers the telephones. Since a lot of people do not know that we are here, we need to get out to the public. There have been people who complain but she does not know where to send them to. Director Peterson: Develop an elevator speech to determine what the committee does and consider placing them under the living section of the website. If someone says they need help, we direct to 211 to connect to the United Way. Director Peterson to Kaye Berry: what success has the group seen as the longest standing member? Community relations and the premise alert program. The group used to feed off of  Mike Van Cleve who used to be a member. Commissioner Berry: We need to find out what other programs are going on and how we can participate. Member English: Because of the expansive nature of our purpose, she created a quality assurance plan and a public best interest challenge that is designed to make the public aware of what is an accountable decision. If the public were aware, the administration would have more incentive to be transparent. Director Peterson: a quality assurance plan would likely have to come from the city, in order to be executed thoroughly as we continue to work on our strategic planning. Member Gathers: Do we have enough for one more link for Premise Alert? Premise alert would likely be handled like a hyperlink. The premise alert program came about from the police department. Liaison Green: Brandon Blayney informed me that the ECC is handling Premise Alert along with OSF. There is some process taking place that this committee may not be involved in. Member Berry: David Watkins was very helpful at knowing the details ADA accommodations. Patti Polk indicated that she wanted to speak to the group however she was not present at this time so Committee Member Berry will reach out to Patti Polk. Member Hogeboom: She is a member of the ADA WOW Committee. She is attempting to figure out what that committee aims to do as well. There is a resource fair in the spring. Usually at the meetings, the group represents several organizations that advocate for community members with disabilities. Patti is a very fierce advocate, and she would be a good person to speak with the group about transportation. Liaison Green: This committee did not meet for quite some time during covid and in the meantime all except for Members Berry and Hayes are new to the Committee so we are in the building phase. II. Premise Alert Updates: Committee Member Berry distributed a 911 sheet. She also distributed copies of the premise alert program. Member Berry stated that she will be turning this into a brochure. The form was last updated 60 days ago. Member Peterson: this form has a lot of information that appears to be sensitive in nature and Member Hogeboom excused herself from the meeting as she had another presentation to attend. Member Peterson: the absence of the Chair is an issue. We are all busy, but we need to have a Chair present in order to keep us on track. Liaison Green spoke with Chair Hayes and she was supposed to be here but she is not. Liaison Green indicated that the Chair needs to guide this Committee. Chair Hayes met with Mayor Ali to discuss goals for the committee however she had not been to a meeting since that time. Liaison Green will forward the concerns to the Mayor’s Office. Member Gathers: We need to go a direction and have a vote for a new Chair if necessary. Motion to Follow up on removal from the Committee for the Chair Position and the position of  Srivnivas made by Commissioner Peterson, and seconded by Member Gathers. Member Muehlbauer: the Commission needs to move in a direction of substantive actions. She likes the idea of bringing in other representatives. Unfinished Business N/A Community Input N/A Adjournment: Motion to Adjourn made by Commissioner Berry and seconded by Commissioner Peterson All in favor, the motion carries. Meeting adjourned at 5:13 PM. 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