Diversity & Community Relations Committee - Regular Meeting

There we go. Tuesday, March 18, 1PM in council chambers. I'll begin with roll call. Committee member, Pam Heavens. Yes. Committee member, Billy Joe Adams. Hello. Hello. Committee member, Kim Hudgens. Here. Committee member John Jamontas.

Here.

Committee member Gary Jones. Here. Committee member Veronica Pollard. Here. Committee member Riley Spreadbury. Here. Committee member Sherry Voigt. Here. Committee member Steven Voigt? Here. And Chairman Anthony Ariano?

Present. Okay.

Thank you for roll call. We'll go ahead and go to the approval of prior minutes.

Far as prior minutes are concerned, I would kind of appreciate everybody making a binder and putting your prior minutes in there so that you would keep a record of what has been transpiring and what the decisions made. Because as human memory tends to happen, we forget about a lot of things. And you can look these things up. As far as today is concerned, does anybody have any changes, deletions, additions? If not, looking for a motion to approve.

Motion. Do

we have a motion?

Second.

And a second.

Okay, thank you.

All in favor?

Aye. Aye.

All opposed? Motion carries.

Thank you. We'll move on to citizens to be heard on agenda items. Are there any citizens to be heard on agenda items today? Seeing none, we can move on to new or old business, not for final action.

As far as old business are concerned, I wanted to ask Veronica what would be her best time for the meeting.

She won't have time

for the what is available for change? We could vote on it the next time. But I need the proposal now.

Well, afternoon is not the best time for me. Late mornings, it's okay. Because I know not all of us are morning people. Do you remember me in the morning, early in the morning? So I'm okay with late mornings. But any afternoon, I can't make it, unfortunately.

Is is 11:00 in the morning available?

I believe the last time I looked at the calendar, 11AM was available. I can double check, and then we can place that item on the agenda if everybody's in agreement to vote on it at a later date.

All right. Let's place that on the agenda, and we can vote on it next time. Is anybody opposed to 11:00?

Would that be on a Tuesday?

Tuesday. Yeah.

So typically, I I teach in the mornings. So, like, I'm like, my class ends at 12:30, and then I come over here. So I I don't know if I'd be able to make it

for Okay.

Any anything earlier?

Time? The I'm trying to think. The class I can talk to my manager to see, like because right now, the technically, the last class is in April and then the summer kind of opens up. But then, you know, if we get to the fall semester, then, you know, it'll reopen. So, typically, it kind of like, I I just don't know until right beforehand, but it's typically the mornings. But I can talk to

her.

Yeah. If you would. Yeah. Because we we would hate to lose you, and you you you put so much input into the committee. Okay. But it's to be But right now, on the agenda, it would be for 11:00.

Okay. We will make sure that that is an agenda item for the next meeting to consider the change of time for the committee meeting to be moved to 11AM. If there's any other new or old business? We can move on to the discussion item recommendations for the consolidated plan, CDPG, from 2025 to 2029.

Okay. As far as I understand consolidated plans, it's a lot like the transition plan. We make a total evaluation of what is out there and what should be changed. And it encompasses everything you can think of because this is how a city operates. One, housing is really at the top of the list.

One of the things that's happening is we're not getting younger people. The number of births has been declining for the last twenty years. On the other hand, the number of elderly has been dramatically increasing. In the last ten years, it's gone up 39%. So one out of six is 65 now.

So it's something that we have to look forward to because being old doesn't necessarily make you disabled, but you have the propensity to be disabled. And we have to make sure that they're accommodated for in terms of housing and that can accommodate their needs. So there are so many things to look at when we're talking about a consolidated plan. Does the city have anything that any kind of preplan that they we can understand what they're looking for? Okay. Good.

So the CDPG consolidated plan and I'm actually the program manager for this. I am in the midst of drafting this consolidated plan. We are asking for outreach and input to all of our local organizations and committees to input information as to what they would like to prioritize as the city's future goals. In order to receive HUD funding, we need to draft this five year plan in order to receive funding each individual year. The plan will draft the goals that we have to meet through those funding dollars.

So as a broad spectrum, the goals have been detected as improving neighborhood infrastructure and facilities, improving public services, condition of housing stock, eliminating blighted conditions, and increasing economic opportunities. So that is the overall broader spectrum. But as you mentioned, you can delve deeper into details of those. The consultant that I'm working with on this draft, we are happy to schedule one on one meetings or input from all of the different organizations. The only thing we do have to be cautious of is because this is a committee, we have to be cautious of an open meetings act.

We're not able to host this committee as a consultation group. But we can certainly meet with each individual organ organization or agency that's represented here to gather the community input or schedule one on ones to gather your individual input. We also have public surveys available on our website for not just the members of this committee, but any Joliet resident to go ahead and give us their survey information. The public surveys are available in English and in Spanish on the city's website.

Is any provision for the committee to send notices to all the different nonprofits Asking them to start considering what they need and try to give input to the city because

Survey information.

Like so often happens, they ignore something like this if they don't know the importance of it. To me, it's extremely important. To the committee, it should be extremely important because it really means all of these things that are listed here. And there's different branches of it, like under increased economic opportunities. Will it look into the employment needs of the people with a disability?

In terms of recreation, we'll look into the parks and make sure that it's accommodating senior citizens and people with disabilities. Like I said, there's so much to look at here. I would like to, you know, as much as I can, get a comprehensive idea of what we want them to look at, run it past you, and and see if we can send it out.

So what I will say in terms of the community development block grant funding, is the CDBG source that this consolidated plan is based on, is that the funds that come down are specific to low to moderate area income individuals and low to moderate area locations and places or organizations that serve low to moderate area persons. We're not able to specifically hone in just on those with disabilities, but a lot of our infrastructure projects or improving facilities, we do follow the ADA transition mandates. We do follow all of the regulations to make them ADA accessible. Some of the projects that are being worked on right now just to give you an example of the CDBG funds, a stairlift is being put in at Spanish Community Center. We had an ADA accessible bathroom placed in quite a few facilities in the area.

I believe Catholic Charities was one of them. Spanish Community Center did a bathroom last year. We have driveway improvements at Will County Center for Community Concerns. And we're also funding the ADA walkway at the Route 66 Park. So those are the types of things that we can still fund that are specific to the ADA needs of the community, but we're not able to specifically say these funds service those with a disability as far as a service goes.

Yeah, but I still think it's important to bring these forth,

to

at least put them on the radar and say that this is a need. One of them that I see almost on a daily basis, I take a walk down Jefferson Street, is the homeless. And statistically, I looked on the computer and it said we have about 800 homeless in the city of Joliet. And is there going to be a need to house the homeless above and beyond the capacity that's here now? Because it seems like it's necessary, that type of thing.

I think a lot of people would stand in agreement with that. Because the CDBG funds are limited to this broader spectrum of services, we tend to rely on other funding sources to respond to the homeless needs. You know, the county has the home dollars that are specific to funding housing. We also have ESG funds and the COC funds that kind of are the homeless response portion of the funding sources. So although it's not ineligible for CDBG, that is something that we'll have to consider in the requirements.

We get a small pot of money and a lot of agencies applying for these funds. So we have to consider, you know, the resources and where other sources may be able to fill in better when we cannot.

A small part of large needs.

Very much so, yes.

I would like some input from the committee on things that they might need with their organization. It doesn't necessarily have to be right now. But I think one of the really important ones is senior citizens, what the needs for the consolidated plan. You know, the Center for Independent Living or

Disability Resource Center. I mean, you were correct. It is the Center for Independent Living,

so you're good. These type of things that we really need to get out in front of the whole thing so that we don't get left behind. Anybody else have any further comment on this topic? Okay. I know it's a small package today, but I really wanted to spend some time on the disability fair that's coming up and what sort of things we can have with it.

One last thing on the last one, the employment part of it. Have been working with Joliet Junior College, and they're looking for opportunities for their people with disabilities that are in classes there to get some sort of exposure, and they want to get volunteer time at different organizations. And I know one of the things when I was working with the state is that they have a lot of opportunities for people with disabilities to get involved. And I was hoping the city would be one of the leaders in getting this accomplished. Is there any chance for students to do some volunteer work or some internships with the City of Joliet?

I know we've discussed this before, but it's something that's really important because it makes it so much easier for them to get a job if they had some sort of experience.

Absolutely. So one opportunity that is available at the city right now is the fire department is hosting a CERT training, the Community Emergency Response Team. They are training individuals themselves through this course. It is a FEMA related course, so they'll get FEMA certificates for it. That sign up for that is also on the City of Joliet's website.

If you go straight to the website, it should be right on the banner, one of the first things to come up. If not, I'm happy to email the link for the sign up for that. It's a really great opportunity not just for individuals interested in getting volunteer hours or getting FEMA certificates, but also a really great opportunity for the community itself to have a team that's built in if there's an emergency to respond to.

Is there any site that you know of that people can go to learn what volunteer opportunities are available in Joliet?

I do not know of any off the top of my head, but I'll be happy to look into it and see if there is a website built specifically for volunteer opportunities.

The only one that I could find was Habitat for Humanity. They have a website Habitat for Humanity Weld County. And they have a lot of volunteer opportunities there.

I'll be happy to look

into it. You and you will look into it to see if there's any others.

Volunteer opportunities. Yes.

Okay. I appreciate that.

Of course. Did you wanna move on to the discussion for the resources to understanding reasonable accommodations and effectively communicating with citizens with disabilities?

Yes. This part of it was actually interacting with the community to get them to learn more about the needs of people with disabilities and communicating with various nonprofits and civic organizations, such as like the Kiwanis or Rotary, to get them to understand how to communicate with people with disabilities, the infrastructure needs. You really need to get the community behind you on so many things in order to get something accomplished. But we need a groundswell of support from the community to get these things like the volunteer hours so that they're aware that this need is there. So this is more of what I was talking about, is communicating with the community on the needs of people with disabilities so that we, in the long run, can get more people transitioned to working.

This is the idea behind all the rules and regulations that were made under the employment opportunities was to make sure that the person who is getting the job can do the job. And in order to have that happen, we need to demonstrate that they've had some sort of experience, and the experience has been worthwhile for them to get the employment. So it's things that work together.

Tony? Yes. Billy, I wanna tell you something.

What about the the old folks on the the

Sunny Hill. Sunny Hill. Oh, she went and volunteered.

Yes. Sunny Hill.

Volunteered. And to help the, like, people get dressed and do the whole activities.

There's always need that is one of the things that, you know, is so necessary.

Because they don't have enough help at all.

Yeah. And and one of one of the things that's happening is not enough people are applying for it because of the low salary. Right.

Yeah. And also the Oakleaf the pantry on Oakleaf behind the post office on McDonough

Yeah.

They have volunteers too.

Mhmm. Okay. So there's volunteers needed all over the place. These are the kind of things I need to get back to JJC on and say, hey. This they can use you here. They can use you there. Mhmm. And there's so much benefit on either side, both sides that to get the job done and the experience of doing it. Okay, so that's what we had in mind with that discussion, resources to understanding. Now we're going to discuss the disability fair that's coming up.

First question, does the city have any funds for it?

So if I can just go back to the previous discussion just for a second, I did just want to remind the community and the committee as well and get some input. For now, in terms of being able to provide resources and accommodations to those with disabilities, I know, obviously, we have our translator services that are available for any committee or council meeting. On every single agenda that's posted, we do have the statement that, you know, if there's any need for translator services to contact the city clerk's office in almost any language, including ASL available. We do also have both audio and visual options of the minutes available online and audio recordings of each of the committee and council meetings online. And actually, a good portion of our staff is being trained for making our websites and apps completely accessible to the greatest extent we possibly can and we're working with an outside company with that as well.

But if there are any gaps in what the community needs versus what we're currently supplying, you know, we are open to having discussion on where we can fill those gaps for reasonable accommodations within City Hall. We're making our websites and apps completely accessible to the greatest extent we possibly can. And we're working with an outside company with that as well.

The proposed disability fair coming up. Talked with bicentennial people. And they told me the date, July 26, is open. It's a Saturday. And it's the actual anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

So it would be ideal from eleven to four in the afternoon. And they are 100% behind us in getting this all put together. If any expenses come up, is there anything we can apply to the city for? So

because the city budgets are set at the beginning of the year, that's more a discussion to have directly with the mayor's office or the city manager's office. I would not be able to let you know what may or may not be available in the budget. What I can say is that we can have a proclamation set up for one of the council meetings in July to present a proclamation declaring either a specific day or week or month to celebrate this. So we could have that arranged for the month of July.

That would be very much appreciated because this is a significant thirty fifth anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act. And at this point in time, it's slipping backwards because there has been, for many years, a push by several individuals to take back a lot of the provisions with the Americans with Disabilities Act from the standpoint that it costs too much for a city to make all the changes necessary for somebody to hire somebody that they consider not able to do the job. And again, that's not the objective of the Americans with Disabilities Act. It's to consider hiring somebody with a disability because they can do the job. So that's part of reaching out and getting people to understand what a person with disabilities goes through.

You can't have the perspectives of a person with a disability unless you've gone through it. And so many people think they understand a person with a disability because they have the empathy to try to understand, but they can't really understand everything that that they go through.

Right. So as of right now, for a possible proclamation for July, my suggestion would be to have it presented or requested for counsel to present it on July 1, which is the first Tuesday of the month. And it would also be a great opportunity to engage the community and to advocate for the fair that we would hope would be prepared for July 26 to get some community information out

there. Okay.

And this is something I would ask every member of the committee that is able to attend the city hall meeting. It's important that we be there to support this proclamation because it's a chance to get on television and say your piece. Communication is so important to get the word out. But, yeah, I would do we have to put it together? I I I that's a dumb question. Yes. We have to put it together.

So I could actually I I could actually arrange for the proclamation to be drafted

Mhmm.

And reviewed, and then I can arrange to have it placed on the council agenda for July 1.

We would appreciate that. Absolutely.

I do have a question. Is the event being hosted by the city of Joannad or just we are coming together as a community? So

that would not be considered a city of Joliet event. That would be considered like a committee event.

Okay. So that means it opens up opportunity for us get sponsorship if we can't get funding from the city?

I would assume so. I don't believe there's anything against it in Do like the open

need to double check

on that? I could double check and

I could look into it to make sure. If we can't get funding from the city itself, we can reach out to the sponsors and the community. That way they can pitch in to help out with the calls as well. So I think that would be a good idea.

But I

just want to double check that way. We have our best in the world.

Mhmm. So Yeah. I'm I'm still with the University of Saint Francis, and they jumped at the chance to be a part of the talk

and I got the event

that's coming up, as well as a few other colleges have shown interest in it. And what we have to do as a committee is reach out to the organizations that we consider important to have at the event to make sure that the whole spectrum of disability services gets represented. Not only that, but people that sell the equipment or anything that's needed, transportation. We just need to put a list together of all the things that we think are important to have at the event. And if you would, send it to me, and I will redistribute it back to all of you, including you, that this is what we're considering inviting.

Did you draft that invitation to send out to the organizations that we had discussed that we think might be good?

Yeah.

Okay.

But we we

And did you send them to us, or did you already invite people?

No. I didn't invite people. I wanted everybody to review it.

Okay.

But I I wanted to get the the the poster put together so that, you know, I could send a sample of that as well.

Okay. Sounds good. And do you send them

You know, one thing I

was considering after our last meeting at Cornerstone is would it be possible or

Okay.

Any interest in having an art display of the

people people from there? An

art display? An exhibit of their artwork?

Oh, you guys have artwork, don't you? At Cornerstone, they have tremendous amount of artistic endeavors, and that would be nice to have the artwork there. So

it gave me the ideas. It's okay.

And the people that are

looking at Yeah.

No. They're at at Cornerstone.

The artwork. Is it

a special room? Yeah. Those are those rooms.

Yeah. We have a whole

program of program called the art studio where we have about thirty, forty people every day come in and go and go crazy with their artwork. So we paint and weave and do pottery and do all sorts

of things. Jewelry in on that one later on.

Yeah. I I did that I did that with an organization in Chicago that served citizens with And it just took off. They got so interested in it that they actually had art displays where they sold the artwork. And the people were able to make some money off of it. But given the opportunity, some people can be so artistic and really come up with works of art.

Kim, do you think that either A, do you think that some of the, like, artists at Cornerstone that, like, did it would either a, wanna display, or do you think sell the stuff at the fair?

Like We could set up a sale because we do farmer's markets throughout

the fair.

So it'd be probably easy to get that together.

I mean, quite frankly, there were stuff I saw from that tour that I wanna buy, so

I'm free my money.

Yeah. We take our stuff on the roads.

Yeah. Very cool. It was anyone has a chance to go see it. It was really cool. Very cool studio.

Yeah. Think it's a good way

to highlight the Yeah. Abilities.

Yeah. The abilities of people who, you know, I think otherwise are often overlooked, the art is really good. So that's awesome. And quite frankly, there were stuff I

thought The more we can put on display their abilities, the better. I had at first proposed that we have not a disability fair, but an ability fair. And I was rejected because people want to make sure that we are having a disability fair, what disability is all about. And I don't mind being overruled or

visible. It

it was just

They objected because of the title. The there was no d I s in front of

the Yeah.

Were There was no Hi.

I I was not dissed. No. Dissed, honey.

Well, Well, we we wanted weren't a to d get I more s. Pride.

Yeah. Specifically, disability pride because it's often overlooked. I mean, I think I think we all kinda had the same idea, the same, like, thought of the fair, but I think kind of I think the reason that I was so strong on it is just because I think oftentimes disability is looked at really negatively or like there's like negative connotations attached to the word disability and personally for me, if I was younger and newly disabled and I saw fair called the Disability Pride Fair, I don't know, I feel like that would make me rethink the framework of how I look at my own disability and see like, oh, there's some stuff to be proud about. There's a whole culture behind it. Mean, even within disability communities, there's so much culture within it.

So I don't know. I just think it is something to be really proud of.

Part of the DEI. Right. No. Unfashionable these days.

A merit. Yeah. Disability.

And and it and it shouldn't be because, like like I said before, it it just doesn't mean that they have to hire and this if you talk to a guy at a bar, that's what their concept of DEI is. You have to hire somebody that's not qualified. And it's just completely the opposite. It just makes you consider somebody that you might not have considered before and forces you to look at their assets. And that's why I wanted to make it ability just to put forth the abilities of people.

But disability is something that you have to look at as being something that you are proud of, that you have this disability and are still able to do everything that you possibly can and to succeed. So this type of fair, I don't know if we've had any in Joliet in the past, but it's so important to have something like this every now and then to remind the community of who we are and what we can accomplish.

Oh, if I could point out the D in DEI actually is diversity, just for the record. Diversity, equity, and inclusion. And I think people should be forced to say those words if they're against it. Know? What exactly are you against? Diversity?

Including people? Yeah, including

want exclude everybody, you know?

Do you mean? Foreign concept. Make

them spell it out.

That's true so far.

Okay. I would like the comments that the committee sent to me on what we need to include in this fair so that I can put together an invitation that Paim has already written a copy of. But I want to make sure we have everything included so that once we get everything all the ideas put together, we can forward it to all the nonprofits in the area. In order to to do the mailing, I need some envelopes. I've got a lot of stationary that the previous mayor had had given me with a committee on it, you know, all the members of the committee.

So all I need is some envelopes so I could mail those out.

If you I I'm not sure if we have any You you can mail it. I was gonna say I'm happy to do the mailing here through city hall. Yeah. I'm not sure if we have any envelopes specific to the committee left over from previous years. Mhmm. But I could look into it if you'll be needing more.

Yeah. Well, they they just gave me regular envelopes too.

Oh, okay. No problem.

The the original idea was for me to have stationary that I could write to to different nonprofits with to give them updates on what we were

doing. Previous

And so that we would have something to communicate with.

Sure.

Whether it was to the mayor or to anybody else.

Oh, okay. Sure. No problem. I don't think envelopes will be a problem, and I don't think mailing them out when they're prepared will be a problem at all.

Great. All right. That was all that was on the agenda. And like I say, I tried to keep it short today because these are two important topics. Well, actually three.

Communicating with the city as far as the different organizations are concerned, this is of great importance because once we get started on this, it would be like one a month to communicate with. I think that should be plenty because this will be kind of like an ongoing thing. And I would like some volunteers. I know public speaking is one of the hardest things to do, but the more you do it, the more you get used to it. The disability fair is an important topic.

Really So the most important topic that we've discussed today is the community event that we're having of evaluating what the needs of the city are. And this is something, again, that if you would send me your ideas of what what is needed. And then when I put that together, I will feed it back to you and see if if you can spot something that has been omitted or something that you feel shouldn't be there. And it's always a pleasure working with the police department. Is there anything we should know about the city?

Okay. What shift do you work? I'm a patient. Okay. I get to meet some of the night shift because I walk down Jefferson Street, and they always stop and ask, are you okay? And I yeah. I'm fine. I just one of those goofy guys that walks early.

And Luca, who's lost. Alright. Tony? Nothing matters if you send him out with the prep prior mayor? His name ain't on it, is it? No. Oh, okay.

No. My my my name is on there.

Okay. Okay. Thank you. Just making sure.

Alright. Mhmm.

Alright. Is that that's all I have. Do we have a motion to adjourn?

So if we could just prosperity reasons, if we could just open for if there's any public comment. If anybody would like to come up and speak for public comment, Floor is open.

Comment if I might. When are when are the those chirping traffic lights? You know? Or I should ask, why are they turned off at night?

You know what? Thank you for reminding me. I meant to look into that. I don't believe they are. I

don't believe they are

because I've come through there many times at night.

I remember you mentioning at the last committee meeting, I believe that might be a

Unless they were turned on

recently. The right department to ask for you. Thanks. I wouldn't imagine that they're turned off at night, but I'll I can definitely inquire.

And

it seems to me that's

a What?

Great time for them to be on. It's totally quiet now. Sometimes there's no vehicles available.

People that with sight

Smart.

Might might might need to use them.

Smart kid. Alright.

Because the older you get, the harder it is to see things. Well, you got those battery operated cars too. Yeah. You can't hear them.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Coming behind you. I

will absolutely look into that. If there's any other public comments.

I do wanna make a comment that I will not be here next month because of my cochlear implant surgery. Some of you will be recovering. So as you guys know, that will not be pleasant. So if you need to vote on the time change, please I trust your judgment. And I know we're do what's best for the community, but I just want everybody to be aware that will not be present next month because I'll be recovering. Thank you.

All right.

Good luck on your surgery.

It be in the committee's best interest to table that vote for the following month instead?

It's up to you. I mean, I have my full faith in everybody. I trust everybody. So whatever that you guys want to vote, it's entirely up to you. It's up to anybody, really.

I I would rather have it when when she's here, you know

Okay.

To to have your input.

Yes. I'll be here in May for sure. Alright.

So I will just put that as a reminder for the May agenda then.

April 3 at 03:30, we're gonna meet at Cornerstone again for a planning meeting for the event.

Okay. Make a note of that. The committee will be meeting at Cornerstone May 3.

April 3.

I'm sorry, April 3.

At 03:30.

Got seven seven seven. Yes.

I know. Heard you. Now

I will look into if that has to be posted as, like, a committee because if if there's a quorum of more than, I believe, five committee six committee members?

Six.

Right. If there's a quorum of more than six committee members attending, I'll likely have to post it as, like, a almost like a committee event I

will let you know.

Or open for the public. Attending. Okay. Thank you. We've waiting

for next week meeting. I thank everybody.

Is there a motion to adjourn?

Yes. There's a motion and a second to adjourn. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Anybody wanna stay?