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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes Committee For Persons With Disabilities - 10/06/2004 V COMMITTEE FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES Summary Minutes for the Regular Meeting of October 6, 2004 The meeting was called to order by the Chairperson, Ms. Linda Fallwell-Stover A. Roll Call: Quorum Meeting at Rol! call. Present at Meeting: Ms. Fallwell-Stover, Ms. Padilla, Ms. Lyons, Ms Saenz, Mr. Soza, Mr. Torno and Mr. Watson. Staff in attendance: Ms. Butler, Mr. Sosa, Mr. Ondrias and sifting in for Mr. Harney— Mr. Andy Quitner. Absent Committee members: Mr. Flores, Mr. Sayles, and Mr. Harney. Public: Abel Alonzo B. Excused Absences n- September 2004 Meeting changed from the 1st to the 8th. Member Motion By Second By Action Ms. Lyons Mr. Soza Ms. Padilla Passed Ms. Saenz Mr. Torno Mr. Soza Passed II Approval of Minutes: Upon review of the minutes by the Committee, Motion was made by Mr. Soza to accept the minutes as written, with a Second by Mr. Watson. A vote was taken the Motion was passed. III Presentation and Public Comments — A. Presentation by Waters Consulting Group (WCG) and the City's Human Resources Department on the ADA Title I Employment Comprehensive Self-Evaluation Report by: Ruth Ann Ellidge, Consultant with Waters Consulting Group, Inc. (WCG) Cynthia Garcia, Director of Human Resources Emily Martinez, Human Resources Manager Ms. Garcia explained that the Human Resources department had hired a consultant to conduct the City's self-evaluation under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Ms. Ellidge provided an overview of the areas that the City is doing well and others that the City could do things a little different. The consulting group used ADA Title I guidelines for reviewing the city's policy, procedures and practices, and relied heavily on the ADA technical assistance manual because it is more description, commenting that it is a good guide for reviewing the activities with the City of Corpus Christi. Ms. Ellidge commented that the intent of the ADA Title I is that employment decisions should be based on individual abilities and that there is a responsibility to provide assistance through reasonable accommodations to those individuals that may need this to be able to perform essential functions of the job. The scope of the study was to look at the SCANNED 4110 1111110 documentation of policies, procedures, practices and some City products, particularly job description, that relate to the employment and see if they comply with the ADA. WOG met with Human Resources staff, gathered policies/procedures and samplings of job specifications, approximately 10%, total of 64 looked at; to summarize policy and procedure on how jobs are documented. Ms. Ellidge commented that she had been the HR Director in the City of Austin and had implemented ADA compliance with strong documentation. WCG had reviewed the City's documentation. In general summary, WCG found a strong intent by the City to comply with the ADA and to ensure ADA compliance citywide. Some areas were going beyond requirements such as in posting and assistance to potential applicants and the availability of the application on-line, & general dissemination of information. Mr. Soza asked that we go to Appendix A for review of current job specifications. Ms. Fallwell-Stover: Recommend that we finish the planned presentation and hopefully that it will help answer any and all questions. Regarding areas for improvement, Ms. Ellidge discussed: 1. Documentation of job specifications (not descriptions) had errors, omissions or lack of detailed documentation in the job specifications. These need to be updated and make in line with the City's Job Description Questionnaires (JDQs) and to present in a way that is ADA compliant and better reflect the job in the specifications. 2. Training must be updated and is an area that continuously is paid attention to. There is always turnover of employees. The City must have a consistent application of training given to supervisors and managers on a regular basis; having a well trained supervisor is really important. Continue to be a focus for the city in the future that it does need to be recognized. 3. Also, WCG is recommending adjustments in the wording/language used. Overall, the City of Corpus Christi is in pretty good shape regarding policy and procedure (administrative manual). Ms. Ellidge indicated that if she were grading the City, she would give an "A" grade. Members had questions and comments. Ms. Saenz asked about WCG's qualifications, and asked for a list of City staff in the recruitment area so that she could make contact. Ms. Garcia indicated yes. Regarding mention of on-line application, Ms. Ellidge suggested that radio and TV are options in promoting jobs since not everyone had a computer for on-line applications. 2 V Ms. Padilla asked if the City could send emails on updated job postings like some other public entities have done. Ms. Garcia indicated that the department can look into the possibility of doing this electronically. With respect to active recruiting of individuals with disabilities, Ms. Ellidge clarified that the finding of the City going beyond the minimum requirements that this is with iea Neu to dissemination of information to organizations. Ms. Garcia added that Human Resources notified organizations of the job listings via the City's web and that hardcopy versions are provided upon request. Ms. Saenz asked question regarding the grade level of the city. Mr. Soza asked about Appendix A regarding review of current job specifications. Ms. Saenz asked question of qualification of consulting group and accreditation. The job description questionnaire is the initiator of the advertising process. There is a back up for each individual posting. Assistance is provided services for individuals with disabilities when completing the questionnaire or applying for position. Recommendation is there is a question on the questionnaire that needs to be reviewed by the legal department and is not considered applicable for those individuals who have been reformed. The City of Corpus Christi employs approximately 3,000 employees and 400 seasonal employees. How many are identified with disabilities? Numbers not available at this time but will gather information to supply Emily Martinez. Mr. Watson asked question on illegal drug use. Difficult question to eliminate, must ask of applicant and of past employers. Some applicants are rehabilitated. Legal looking into that issue. Ms. Saenz asked the question if the city hires felons. Depends on job and on the crime committed and when it took place. Police and fire, handling money, work with children —those position the city does not hire felons. For yard work with supervisor then yes; depends where the yard work would take place. There is the question of "have they been convicted of a crime?" that is asked. There is not a way to see on the computer if employee is a felon. Possibly these new applications in the computer we can query the information about possible employees with felony backgrounds. Ms. Fallwell-Stover asked the question about quantify about hiring people with disabilities equaling to those who do not have disabilities. We have sent surveys asking the question if employees do have disabilities, a lot of people either did not answer, gave false information, or did not answer properly in order for our office to get the statistical numbers. The question "can you perform the functions of the job without an accommodation?" If they say no, we ask what accommodation would be needed. HR does not keep track of the "no's" of applicants. 3 • V The reason for this review is look for the requirements of ADA and to make sure that the City of Corpus Christi was in compliance. Is the city exhibiting the best practices to provide additional services and to make it welcoming environment. Some areas are but that was not the scope of this audit. There is job pre-employment testing. There are procedures in place for testing applicants to meet the requirements. The city is in compliance with this. There are structured questions from departments to HR representative and approved by HR before administered. Procedures are in place for accommodations for those with disabilities. MOTION to table the remaining agenda, except the Arena Parking issue, was made by Ms. Lyons, with a Second by Mr. Soza. Upon Committee vote, the Motion passed. VIII D. Recommendation on Arena Parking Discussion on upcoming venues at the arena and what would be the best type of parking for persons with disabilities. Choices would be parking close to arena, under American Bank Center, or taking the Park and Ride bus system. Park and Ride works better without the few specialized boarder. There will be accessible parking on the west side of the arena. One recommendation would be to the Police to be more aggressive in ticketing. There will be parking areas are scattered and may be on a route but they may not have curb cuts and it may be difficult for some persons with wheel chairs or walkers. We are trying to find the shortest distance to the arena to assist these persons. Police need to have aggressive enforcement for those people to borrow a vehicle or placard to use in a vehicle in order to park in the accessible parking. After a few heavy tickets at the Reliant Park in Houston, TX did accessible parking problem stop. This is a possibility for City of Corpus Christi to set the tone. There will be multiple venues in this location. There will be limited spaces for this parking situation. This is an idea to pass along to Chief Alvarez. The discussion is to do a study on the parking situation; to monitor it from the beginning. From a practical experience standpoint, City of Corpus Christi has a new major facility, we have met the requirements; the recommendation is to monitor and document events one at a time and multiple on the parking situation and if Park and Ride would be a better way to utilize for this new facility. If there is not a sufficient supply of parking spaces, then we need to document that and possibly create new spaces. The Committee discussed possibly recommending that the CCPD to be more aggressive in ticketing to start sending a message that violating accessible 4 • 4 'S parking spaces will not be tolerated. Members commented that this would be a great deterrent of having fines ant that it is a great first step. MOTION to recommend that the Police Department aggressively ticket et for accessible parking violations, and then we . ill gather more information on additional parking by Ms. Lyons. Seconded by Mr. Soza, motion carried. No announcements. Move to adjourn by Mr. Soza, seconded by Mr. Watson. 5