Date: Fri 26-Sep-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

Disabilities-ADA-Beres

Full Text:

Disabilities Panel Puts Off Complaint Against Town

BY KAAREN VALENTA

The Persons With Disabilities Committee has decided to give the town another

chance to comply with the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) instead

of filing a civil rights discrimination complaint with the US Department of

Justice.

At a meeting Wednesday in the public works garage, the committee voted to send

a letter to all local boards and commissions asking them not to hold meetings

in locations that are inaccessible to persons with disabilities.

Only committee chairperson Wendy Beres voted against the motion, urging the

other committee members to file the complaint instead.

"I wrote a letter to (First Selectman) Bob Cascella on September 9 telling him

that the complaint will be filed by September 17 unless immediate action is

taken," Mrs Beres said.

But some of the other committee members said the town had made a great deal of

progress in many areas of ADA, and they were reluctant to create what could

become an adversarial relationship.

"I believe [our] committee has served a good purpose and am concerned all that

would go down the drain if we take precipitous, immediate action," said

committee member Bruce Mims. "With a new administration coming in we might

find a more receptive ear."

"I still haven't ruled out a lawsuit but the real issue is with understanding

and sensitivity to the problems of persons with disabilities," said committee

member Patti Clay. "The [discrimination complaint] does put them on notice

that this committee has been ignored, bypassed, looked over. They've even said

we didn't exist."

Fred Hurley, the town's ADA coordinator, said that despite letters sent by Mr

Cascella advising each board and commission to meet only in accessible rooms,

meetings continue to be held in non-accessible locations because "a lot of

these people think they are in compliance."

"They think that Edmond Town Hall is accessible because it has an elevator,"

Mr Hurley said. "It is only when I explain that, first of all, the elevator

doesn't stop level with the floor and, secondly, the controls can't be reached

by someone in a wheelchair, that they understand.

"We have to tell them why it is a physical barrier," he said.

The committee decided to send a certified letter to the chairperson of each

board and commission, and to Mr Cascella, explaining why certain buildings are

not accessible to disabled persons. The letter will include a list of

accessible rooms, a request that hearing amplification devices should be made

available at every meeting - not only when requested 48 hours in advance - and

that meeting notices should be changed to reflect this. The letter will impose

a deadline of "two weeks or the next scheduled meeting" for each recipient to

comply, the committee said.

The committee also voted unanimously to bring in professionals to hold an ADA

training session for all department heads, commissions, the Board of Education

and the Board of Selectmen. The session would be held after the November

election when the new administration takes office.

Mr Cascella is not running for reelection.

The ADA committee members agreed that much of the problem could be solved if

one town employee had the responsibility of making sure that all meetings are

scheduled in accessible locations, that hearing amplification devices are

available and other ADA-related issues are handled.

Earlier Wednesday, Mr Cascella told The Bee that the ADA committee was created

by the Board of Selectmen as an ad hoc committee under the town charter. "It

is an advisory board," he emphasized. "They are supposed to come to the Board

of Selectmen in a professional, businesslike manner with their concerns.

"What has happened to [the procedure of] asking to be on an agenda?" he asked.

"It has been a good long time - perhaps 18 or 20 months - since [the

committee] has come before the Board of Selectmen."

Mr Cascella said the Board of Selectmen certainly would do anything within its

powers to see that all meetings are held in accessible places and that most

boards do, in fact, meet in such locations.

"[But] how do I tell a [state] statutorily or charter-empowered board or

commission that they have to do this?" he asked. "Do I have them arrested if

they don't? Do I stand in the doorway and not let them meet? I talked to them

and told them they need to do it under ADA requirements."

Mr Hurley said meetings also were held earlier Wednesday with architects who

are interested in submitting proposals to address the town's office space

needs, and that ADA was "a critical component of these proposals."

"Government is slow to act but at least the intent is to go in the right

direction," he said.