Date: Fri 22-Nov-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

ADA-grievance-Beres

Full Text:

ADA Panel Drops Grievance Against The Town

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

The Persons With Disabilities Committee this week dropped a grievance which it

had filed against the town last June to protest the scheduling of public

meetings in locations that aren't accessible to disabled persons.

The committee's vote was taken after Chairman Wendy Beres said she recently

received copies of memos which First Selectman Bob Cascella sent to town

departments and agencies recommending that all public meetings be moved to

accessible locations.

Mr Cascella also directed Fred Hurley, the town's Americans With Disabilities

Act (ADA) coordinator, to complete by January 1, 1997, a transition plan which

will outline how, and when, the town will comply with provisions of the act by

making all town-owned buildings and programs accessible to both disabled

employees and the public.

Mrs Beres said the names of the committee members also will be included in the

"Who's Who" of town government, which is published annually by the town

clerk's office, and future voter registration sessions will be held in a

handicapped accessible location.

"I believe all of our suggestions have been addressed," Mrs Beres said. "The

town's legal notice language still has to be changed, but Mr Cascella told me

that will be addressed at the beginning of the year."

"This has taken five months but I'm a very patient person," Mrs Beres said.

"We needed to push it just a little bit to get the job done."

Several meetings of town boards, such as the Newtown Local Housing Partnership

and the Charter Revision Commission, still were scheduled to be held this week

in Edmond Town Hall, a building the committee considers to be inaccessible to

the disabled. But the committee members said they will wait to see what the

town plans to do now that the future use of Town Hall South is in question. A

recently formed advisory committee, chaired by Selectman James Mooney, is

investigating possible sites for the relocation of town employees and

services.

Nancy Markey, the town's new personnel director, came to Tuesday's

disabilities committee meeting to answer questions about the town's efforts to

accommodate the disabled. She said an ADA policy has been written and posted

in town offices. Eventually it will be distributed to all town employees every

year, she said, and until then it can be revised.

"If anything was omitted it's not too late to make corrections," she said.

Mrs Beres and committee member Art Bennett both said the language of the

policy seemed to be directly at town employees only. If the policy is meant to

apply to the general public as well, it should be made clear by inserting

words such as "residents" into the written policy, Mr Bennett said.

Mrs Markey said a focus of her work since she was hired for the newly created

position of human resources director in July has been to make sure that ADA

language is in all contracts which will be renegotiated with town employees.

She also would like town employees to undergo training next spring on

procedures that are necessary to comply with the 1990 ADA legislation, such as

what questions legally can be asked in employment interviews.

"There are no-no questions that shouldn't be asked - that are illegal," she

said. "There are also questions that may be asked in certain circumstances."

Mrs Markey said a Housatonic Valley ADA Coalition is being formed and she will

be the contact person for Newtown. Despite longstanding complaints by the

local ADA committee that the town has been slow in complying with the federal

law, Mrs Markey said Newtown is considered by many in the region to be a front

runner..

"Newtown is doing very well," she said. "Your committee has been very active

and a great deal has been accomplished."

Committee members Bruce and Rosine Mims said they have been unsuccessful in

getting such federal offices as the Internal Revenue Service and Social

Security in Danbury, and the district office of the Postal Service to make

accommodations for the hearing impaired. Committee member Patti Clay said the

committee should write a letter to Newtown's postmaster, Richard McGuire,

about their concerns.

Mr Mims said hearing impaired persons should not be required to give 48-hour

notice that they intend to attend town meetings and need assistance. The town

has enough hearing assistance devices that they should be made available for

all meetings, he said.

Mr Bennett said he spoke with Pierre Rochman, chairman of the Legislative

Council's ordinance committee, about the ADA committee's request for an

ordinance allowing tax exemption for one motor vehicle for residents whose

vehicles have been modified for handicapped controls. "Mr Rochman told me the

ordinance committee is very involved working on three proposed ordinances and

would not be able to address this yet," Mr Bennett said.

The disabilities committee approved a calendar of meeting dates for next year.

They agreed to request that meetings be moved to a classroom at the Middle

School, near an exit with handicapped parking available, because it is likely

that the lower level of Town Hall South, where the committee normally meets,

will be closed by the end of the year.