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2000-11-29 - Commission for Residents with Disabilities - Minutes Board orCommission: ❑ commission on Residents With Disabilities Document Type: 0 A e g nda 0 Minutes Meeting ate: 11/29/2000 Type of Meeting: ❑ Special Meeting - DRAFT - MINUTES OF THE BUFFALO GROVE COMMISSION FOR RESIDENTS WITH DISABILITIES NOVEMBER 29, 2000 I. Call to Order—The meeting was called to order at 7:35 p.m. The agenda was adjusted to accommodate Carl LaMell. IL Roll Call— Commissioners present included Chairman Kahen, Commissioners Chorney, Gottlieb, Holcombe, Holm, Sussman and Verson. Also present were new Commissioners Slaw, Spallone and Trustee Liaison Johnson and Staff Liaison Versten. III. Approval of Minutes—A motion to approve the minutes of the October 25 meeting was made by Comm. Chorney and seconded by Comm. Holm. Motion carried. IV. Chairman's Report— Chairman Kahen welcomed the new commissioners and asked everyone to introduce themselves and give a little background on their involvement. Chairman Kahen provided some background on the Commission's interest in getting involved with the establishment of group homes. Several Villages' ordinances were distributed. Carl LaMell, President of Clearbrook, was introduced and spoke on the subject. He gave the definition of CILA, Community Integrated Living Arrangement and their goal to provide services in the most normalized arrangement. Maximum capacity is 8 (not counting the staff members),less than 6 is not economical. The trend is toward 6 for the optimum staffing and quality service. When Clearbrook looked into establishing a home in Buffalo Grove, it discovered that the Village ordinance specifies 5 people,plus staff. There is also a state regulation regarding a 1500 foot distance which must exist between group homes, so that they don't become clustered together. Most community resistance is before the home is established. Afterward, there is almost 100% acceptance. There are no set standards for staff to participant ratios, but based on funding and ability level of participants,ratios are determined. There was a discussion about the economics of funding and the state's role.* Carl offered to get some CILA quarterly reports to us via Sue Gottlieb. Group homes are tax exempt (from property taxes). The most likely scenarios for people to be placed in a home are due to emergency situations (parent dies) or political connections. Clearbrook looks for homes with large common areas; usually residents have to double up in bedrooms. Clearbrook has a program whereby they send out an information packet to neighbors surrounding the house they purchase. An open meeting is also offered. A frequent concern is property values, although the statistics do not support any drop in values. The expansion into new homes has been slow, due to staffing and the real estate market. Clearbrook has only opened about 1 home a year over the past couple of years. *The change is that the state funding will change to a reimbursement to agencies after the service was provided, i.e., "fee for service". When the conversion starts in the coming year, many agencies will experience cash flow problems. Carl recommends that the Commission try to get the Buffalo Grove ordinance revised to at least 6 residents (not counting staff) though 8 would be great because it's the state standard. Generally, there are 1-2 staff and they are on shifts. Occasionally there are "sleep" or overnight staff and rarely there are staff who are residents. Carl also offered to get us copies of the information packets that go to the neighbors and also to the families of the new CILA residents. There was discussion about possibly getting Lambs, Glenkirk, Little City to write letters of support. Chairman Kahen reviewed the process for getting a change made to a Village ordinance. Trustee Liaison Johnson offered to speak to Village Manager Balling. Then the Commission would put together a proposal for the Village Board which should include some of the informational items that Carl will be getting to us. Liaison Johnson made a few suggestions about successive steps after that. There was discussion about whether we should ask for the ordinance to be amended to accommodate 8 people, or change the existing wording that includes staff in the maximum of 6 to exclude the staff. Pros and cons for each were posed. Motion was made by Comm. Gottlieb to propose modifying the ordinance by changing the wording to exclude the staff from the maximum of 6. Motion was seconded by Comm Spallone. All commissioners were in favor and the motion carried. There was discussion about the merits of making this action public. Chairman Kahen continued with his report. N.O.D. sent information about the accessible congregations campaign. Clocks for the BG Days vendors are being ordered. The Commission size has been expanded to a minimum of 9 since the Village Ordinance was changed. Chairman Kahen recommends meetings January 3 and 31 in lieu of having a December meeting. VI. Commissioners' Reports —There were no Commissioners' reports. VIL Sub-Committee Reports A. Regional Sub-Committee—No report. Commissioners Slaw and Spallone will be added to this sub-committee. The committee needs to meet again to re-group following the legislative coffees. B. Board/Comm Sub-Committee—No Report C. Public Information Sub-Committee— Comm. Spallone may assist in writing articles D. N.O.D. Sub-Committee—No report, no recent mailings. E. Residents Info & Response Sub-Committee—No activity F. Goal Setting Committee— Comm. Slaw has experience with strategic planning(has probably done over 100 for non-profits) and is willing to assist us with reviewing and revising our goals. We will discuss again next meeting . G. Business/Community Liaison—No Report There was discussion about the handicapped signage at retail checkouts and that people don't know what it means. This area needs some concentration. Liaison Versten suggested that we develop a plan for honoring good implementation with an award and publicity. This idea will be pursued as a possibility of coordination with the Golden Bison Award and/or the Commission for Civic Involvement and Volunteer Recognition. Liaison Versten also suggested that it could be a regular agenda item for our meetings to recognize a business that is doing good things. VIIL Items for Discussion A. BGRA Update— there has been no significant progress since last meeting. IX. Staff Liaison Report—No Report X. Questions from the Audience—There was no audience present. XI. Other Business— there was no other business XIL Adjournment—Motion to adjourn was made by Comm. Sussman and seconded by Comm Verson. Meeting adjourned at 9:55 p.m.