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Disabilities Panel To File Complaint Against Town

PAGE ONE

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

The local Persons With Disabilities Committee intends to file a federal

lawsuit against the town for holding meetings in non-accessible locations,

according to Wendy Beres, committee chairperson.

Mrs Beres said a vote will be taken by the committee at a meeting scheduled

for 4:40 pm Thursday, September 18, (after this week's edition of The Bee is

published) to make official the committee's consensus that the lawsuit should

be filed with the US Department of Justice.

The committee's plans were revealed by Mrs Beres at a meeting held late

Tuesday afternoon at the public works garage. Among those attending was Marc

A. Gallucci, executive director of the Greater New Haven Disability Rights

Activists/Center for Independence and Access.

"It sounds to me [that] the only way to deal with this - to get [the town

government's] attention - is through law suits and grievances," Mr Gallucci

agreed.

The complaint alleges that local government and town agencies have denied

equal participation and services to residents by conducting public hearings

and meetings in locations that are inaccessible to persons with disabilities.

It names First Selectman Robert Cascella; Steve Adams, former chairman of the

Planning & Zoning Commission; Charles Anett, chairman of the Zoning Board of

Appeals; and the town tax assessor.

The alleged violation of Title II of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)

of 1990 focuses on a grievance filed with the town in June 1996 after a P&Z

meeting that dealt with the subject of handicapped ramps was held in a

non-accessible room at Edmond Town Hall.

"In order to resolve the grievance, the Town of Newtown was to no longer allow

any future town meetings to be held in inaccessible locations but to utilize

other town buildings. This grievance has never been resolved," Mrs Beres said.

She said among the meetings that have been held in handicap-inaccessible rooms

were: two special town meetings in the Mary Hawley Room at Edmond Town Hall

this year on May 29 and July 31; an August 3, 1997 meeting of the ZBA in

Canaan House on the Fairfield Hills campus; and meetings this week in the tax

assessor's office on motor vehicle assessment appeals.

"The key bone of contention is Edmond Town Hall," said Fred Hurley, who serves

as both the town's public works director and the town's ADA coordinator. "Is

there an elevator there? Yes. Can [disabled] persons use it unassisted? No."

Mr Hurley said that Newtown is "light years ahead of many other towns" in

complying with the ADA law but acknowledged that the committee is frustrated

that a simple issue like the location of meeting rooms apparently cannot be

resolved.

"I'm not a great believer in lawsuits. I prefer to slog it out in the

trenches," Mr Hurley said. He said he is putting together an application for a

Small Cities grant in an attempt to get money to make the elevator at Edmond

Town Hall handicapped accessible.

In the meantime, many problems could be easily avoided, he said. "There are

plenty of spaces that are accessible. Why they choose not to use them, I don't

understand."

Mr Gallucci said small towns, like Newtown, in which some commissions and

agencies are elected and derive their power from the state, often experience

"power struggles" and do not like to be told what to do. But these boards do

have to comply with the ADA law, he said.

Mr Gallucci said creative solutions should be found to solve the problems -

solutions which don't necessarily cost money. "But that doesn't mean the

responsibility for compliance is with persons with disabilities - it is with

the elected officials," he said.

"Newtown is a town in transition like Fairfield was in the 1950s and 60s," he

said. "You need more school space, sewers, roads. You're talking about major

things. Disability issues can get lost."

Issues Not Addressed

Mrs Beres said that after the June 1996 meeting, the ADA committee asked that

a handicap assistance policy be posted on a wall of each floor at Edmond Town

Hall. There should be an adjacent buzzer that could be rung if assistance was

needed, she said.

"Unfortunately, the only buzzer is still on the outside of the building and

there is no signage," she said. "Once you get inside the building and are in

front of the elevator, there's nothing to tell you how to get assistance."

Mrs Beres' latest complaint involved the ZBA meeting in Canaan House. She said

she went to the only handicapped accessible door and discovered that it was

locked so she was unable to attend the meeting.

Ed Mambruno, state ADA director on Gov John Rowland's staff, told The Bee on

Wednesday that he would have preferred to see the accessibility issue resolved

"before it got this far."

"It's a petty issue that should be resolved without bickering back and forth,"

he said. "ADA doesn't mean lawsuits and costs. It doesn't take a brain surgeon

to figure out that you need to use accessible locations."

Mr Mambruno said he has tried to intervene for the Newtown ADA committee in

the past.

"I even called the first selectman. I didn't come out of it with a feeling of

cooperation," he said. "All of our correspondence now is by letter."

Mr Cascella was on vacation this week and could not be reached for comment.

Mr Mambruno said he did not know whether the justice department would consider

the lawsuit frivolous.

"The justice department is very strong on cases where public access is

denied," he said. "I believe [Mrs Beres] does have a case here."

But Mr Mambruno said he also is concerned about whether the state also could

be held accountable because the grievance involved a meeting held in a state

building that was being used by the town. Pinkerton guards, employed by the

state, are responsible for security, including locked doors, on the Fairfield

Hills campus, he said.