Meetings and Minutes

Members present: Dave Harris, Dave Benjamin, Hazel Moran, Ben Johnson, Karen Michalski-Karney, Janet Dorsey, Bill Ward, Lewis Atkins, Doug Nunnally, George Hubbs, Heather Harris

Members absent: Sally Michaels, Bonita Reid, Jenny McKenzie and Alan Schlank

Ex officio:Theresa Preda, Jane Ward-Solomon, and Billy Perkins

Staff: Lisa Grubb

Chair Janet Dorsey opened the meeting at 12:06pm by welcoming all council members, thanking Access Independence for hosting us and thanking site representative, Frederick County Department of Social Services (DSS). Gwen Monroe, Director of DSS welcomed the SILC and encouraged everyone to visit the children's advocacy center. Chair Dorsey asked everyone to keep fellow council member Bonita Reid in your thoughts as she is having some serious health problems. Chair Dorsey asked everyone to please let Staff Lisa Grubb know if you have confirmed to attend and later unable to attend so that the appropriate cancellations could be made on your behalf keeping in mind the tight budget we are experiencing.

Chair Dorsey again thanked our hosting Center for Independent Living (CIL), Access Independence, and welcome Kim Shick, Executive Director to present a scheduled introduction to her CIL. Shick thanked the council for the opportunity to host the SILC meeting and began her presentation by introducing her staff Janet Bixby, Manager of Outreach and Advocacy. Bixby shared that the CIL covers planning district 7, which is a wide and rural area. Some of the upcoming activities for the CIL include: Disability Awareness Week in which workshops will be conducted for teachers and parents of children with disabilities, 2nd Annual Disability Awareness Banquet which is a fundraising event to raise community awareness, Career day will be in the fall and will provide information on assistive technology. Some of the programs she is involved in at the CIL include a payee program in where she assists individuals manage their household income which enable them to live independently. Shick presented Diane Starkey, Manager of Program Services, to discuss additional programs the CIL offers. Starkey shared that she worked as a Personal Assistant Services (PAS) Coordinator, Independent Living (IL) Coordinator and also completed nursing home evaluations. An upcoming event is Roll Your Own, an event in which consumers are invited to complete a 660-yard obstacle course in a wheelchair. The CIL opened the floor for questions from the council. Council member Doug Nunnally questioned if the CIL has a program for the deaf and hard of hearing. The CIL shared that they had a Deaf Outreach Program, which works with providing equipment and education.

Chair Dorsey requested an introduction of council members.

Chair Dorsey opened the floor for public comment.
Tom Vandever, Executive Director of the Endependence Resource Center located in Charlottesville addressed the SILC speaking on behalf of the Virginia Association of Centers for Independent Living (VACIL). Vandever addressed the federal funding item on the agenda and asked the council to consider emphasizing priorities of the underserved area of the Commonwealth and asks that serious consideration is given to the 7 CILs that are severely under funded.
Janet Bixby, Manager of Outreach and Advocacy of Access Independence located in Winchester notified the council that the Olmstead draft would be available on April 15 for public comment. It will be available in alternate formats. Bixby encouraged everyone to review the draft and make recommendations and comments.
Brenda Harris, mother of youth council member David Harris shared an article about David that she was asked to write about him and his life and his challenges. Dorsey shared that David Harris is the SILCs first youth member and we value his input and appreciate the skills he brings to the council.
Jeanne Stiffler of DSS addressed the council stating that she really appreciated Access Independence and the work they do in this community.
Doris Ray reported on the Transportation Team within the Olmstead task force. Some of the issues include what a person needs in an institutional setting, the relationship between housing and statewide funding and lack thereof, access to public transportation, issues to reliability, the role of human services and Medicaid transportation. Ray encouraged the council to look at the Olmstead draft which will be available on the website on April 15.

There being no further public comment, Chair Dorsey welcomed Fritz Knapp, Community Action Specialist (CAS) Coordinator. Fritz updated the council on CAS happenings throughout the state by distributing highlights of the CAS project and asked the council to recognize 2 superstar CAS members. 1 The handout was reviewed and the recent trainings were discussed. Fritz shared that there are 2 new CAS members, Reynolds and Small, and they have hit the ground running. Fritz additionally thanked the SILC for providing Central Virginia Independent Living Council (CVILC) with a support letter for a grant recently submitted.

Chair Dorsey welcomed Department of Rehabilitative Services (DRS) Commissioner Jim Rothrock via telephone to address the council. Commissioner Rothrock welcomed the council and addressed the following topics.
The General Assembly restored some of the cuts for the CILs.
Help is needed in providing the Governor with recommendations for boards and commissions to include the SILC. The following SILC terms are ending this year - Karen Michalski-Karney (CIL Representative), Bill Ward, Heather Harris and Bonita Reid. Recommendation is needed as quickly as possible. The council was requested to submit recommendations by approximately mid April.
The SILC was invited to make the Governor aware of folks that would make good recommendations for the State Rehabilitation Council (SRC) and other such councils.
The CILs were congratulated for the National effort to get approximately $100,000 from Congress. He is looking forward to the award recommendation from the SILC.
A reality check was encourage and cautioned that Virginia (VA) is facing a continued downturn due to the economy not balancing back because of such things as the war. We may be looking at additional budget cuts. He will keep us apprised. As of now there is no hard evidence or directive. VA must have a balanced budget. DRS will work with Lisa and Janet to address the supplementation problem
The floor was opened for questions. Council Member Karen Michalski-Karney announced that Commissioner Wilson had just revealed that new funding is available for youth mentoring. Rothrock responded by saying the idea has developed but it has not made it to pen and paper yet. The premise is that youth disability mentoring will provide other youth with disabilities mentoring based on their personal experience.
HR1261 would allow Governors to take funds that serve people with disabilities (pwd) on a whole latitude and could be used as workforce money with no accountability.
Chair Dorsey thanked Commissioner Rothrock for the updates.

Chair Dorsey present plaques to the previous outgoing board members: Robert Cuffee, Brenda Hundley-Pobol, Don Necessary and Bob Cushmac. None being present she asked that representative from their prospective geographic areas take the plaques and present to them on behalf of the SILC.

Staff Lisa Grubb presented the Secretary's report on behalf of Secretary Bonita Reid and Jenny McKenzie.2 Two corrections were noted: Council member Lewis Atkins' name was misspelled and Guest Eddie Jones as listed twice. Council Member Michalski-Karney moved to approve the minute