Diversity & Community Relations Committee - Regular Meeting

Alright. You can go right ahead. Alright. It is Tuesday, May 20, 1PM in the City Hall Council Chambers, and we'll begin the committee on citizens with Disabilities. I'll begin with roll call. Committee member Pam Heavens? Yeah. Committee member Billy Joe Adams?

Absent.

Committee member Kim head Hutchins? Present. Sorry. I'll continue with roll call. Committee member John Gemantis.

Here.

Committee member Gary Jones.

Here.

Committee member Veronica Pollard.

Absent.

Okay. Committee member Riley Spreadbury. Here. Committee member Sherry Voigt.

Absent.

And committee member Steven Voigt. Absent. Thank you. Alright. We can start with the approval of minutes. We have the minutes from March 18 as well as the minutes from April 15 to review.

Okay. I'd rather approve them one at a time, if that's okay. The I need a motion for the March minutes if there's anyone that needs time to look them over.

I can make a motion, Mrs. O'Reilly.

I'll second.

I'll second for March.

All in favor? Aye. Motion passes. April, same procedure. Anybody that wants the chance to look at them?

When you're ready, I need a motion.

I'll motion.

Okay. I'll second. Motion and second. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion carries.

All

right. Thank you. And next is citizens to be heard on agenda items. If there's any citizens that would like to speak on any of the items listed on the agenda, you're welcome to come up to the podium. Seeing none, we can go to the new or old business with the discussion with John Lecansick joining us from City of Joliet to speak about emergency procedures.

John, glad to have you. I'm sure we won't come up with all the questions that this is something we want people to start thinking about. As I was mentioning, the National Weather Service is being depleted. The storms are getting worse in so many ways. And the need to take care of people with disabilities is greater than it has been in the past.

So we need to look at all the factors involved. What we have now is what we're going to look at. And recommendations for making it better will be forthcoming once we look at all the things that we have today. So John? Well, thank you very much for having me.

One of actually primary themes of my emergency management discussions this year is that individual and group preparedness is critical. Because we cannot rely on government agencies, whether it's the National Weather Service, whether it's FEMA, whether it's the state or county government, or even Joliet government to protect us. We have to be prepared individually. So that's going to be one of the things that I discussed today. So thank you for leading me right into it, I appreciate it.

So my name is John Lukansic. I am the director of the Office of Emergency and Disaster Management for the city of Joliet. Almost at seven months in this position. So, I'm still pretty new to this position, but I was a firefighter in Joliet for twenty two years before that. So I'm not exactly new to the city. I grew up here, born and raised here. If anybody ever needs to get a hold of me for anything, my office is out at Station 10, the far west reaches of the city at 1599 John D Page Drive. Most people don't know where that is. It's all the way out of Ridge and Theodore. So if anybody ever comes to want wants to visit, I'm there.

And if anybody ever needs to call me, my number is (815) 724-3563. And my email is, emergencymanagementjoliet dot gov. So I couldn't have made it simpler. Simple is good for me. So if anybody needs to get a hold of me about anything, you can do that pretty easily.

So I'm just going to talk about a couple of things today. The first thing I'm going to talk about is what the Office of Emergency and Disaster Management is all about. There are a lot of people in the city who don't even know that this position exists. So I'm gonna tell you a little bit about the position, where it sits within the city government, A little bit about what I do. How it ties with with your group.

And I'll talk about some ways for us to to all get involved together as we as we go here. So a couple couple things. So the first thing is the official name for my office is the Office of Emergency and Disaster Management. I am a city department of one. So I'm a single person department.

I always joke with chief Carey, who's the fire chief. I say, fire chief, you've got 220 people. I've got one. So where I sit in in this whole thing is I'm directly subordinate to the city manager. So I report directly to the city manager, but I have to interact with all city departments because we have emergency and disaster management issues that apply to every department in the city.

Whether it's police, whether it's fire, public works, we we we need to make sure that that everybody is within that in the scope of emergency management. Okay? So we do have several values, missions, vision statements. The thing I want to impart mostly with my group here, and I keep saying a group, but I'm one person, me, I guess. Community is very important to me, and us working together for the benefit of all is really important to me.

I believe that as the Joliet Emergency Management Director, that I have responsibility to look out. I I I consider everybody in Joliet my extended family. And I always have. When I was a firefighter, I did. And as in this position, I do. And I I feel a a need to be able to to help people in this community no matter no matter what part of town they live in, no matter what. So that's my goal here. And the the the overreach overarching goal is to create a resilient community. And we need people to be ready in case something happens so that we're ready individually. And if we're ready individually, we'll be ready as a group, and we can help each other.

So that's kinda where I where I stand on all this stuff. Now, most people don't know the difference between emergencies, disasters, and catastrophic events. If you do, this is a repeat. I apologize. If you don't, this is just a little bit so so you kinda understand where we're at. An emergency is something that might be a threat to life or property. But the the the trick to remember with an emergency is that we have a rapid response in Joliet to emergencies. We officer Masculino's here. We've got a great police department. We've got a great fire department.

Public works is great. Public utilities is great. Everybody does very well. Everybody's highly trained. Usually, we will get to an emergency in about six minutes, and no matter what department we're talking about.

Okay? If we move up the scale to a disaster level event, it gets a little more complex. Because in a disaster, it's more severe in its damage and its effects, and the response is now going to be slower because more people are impacted. So in a disaster, we may be waiting for help a significant amount of time. It could be hours or days to wait for help.

The last category is the catastrophic event. And a catastrophic event is something that is so large scale that even regional or state resources, maybe even federal resources aren't enough to manage it. In this instance, we could have a very slow or even no response to the event. So if it's bad enough, we may be on our own. Which is why I I I keep touting the the the individual and group preparedness Because there may be something that happens that's bad enough that we don't have help coming.

Okay? So those are our three categories. And the key really to get through these is to, trying not to rely on these government agencies to save us. We need to be prepared as individuals and groups, if we're going to get through these things. And I'll give you an example. Does anybody know, does anybody remember the Plainfield tornado back in 1990? Does anybody know the distance that that tornado was on the ground? That f five tornado? Does anybody know the distance that it traveled? 16 miles.

Okay? It traveled 16 miles. So compare that to today's EF five tornadoes. The average EF five tornado today stays on the ground for 44 miles. So that is Arbiter Road at the far west reaches of Joliet to Munster, Indiana, a half a mile to a mile wide of pure devastation. Who's gonna come help us? Nobody. The state's not gonna be able to help. The county's not gonna be helped. City's not gonna be able to help.

We are on our own for a while. We need to be ready. That's what the remainder of this is going to be about. It's how to be ready. We don't need to be afraid if we're prepared. So we need to be prepared. Now, we talked about those emergencies, disasters, and catastrophic events. Now there are several causes for those events. The first cause is natural, and we see this all the time. We see tornadoes.

Last year, we had a tornado. East Joliet just had a tornado a couple of months ago. We've got everything from epidemics. We just had the COVID nineteen pandemic, winter storms, severe thunderstorms, floods, all of those things have happened and do happen in Joliet. Another cause for emergencies, disasters, and catastrophic events are technological causes.

And Joliet is rife with technological causes for these adverse events. We have thousands of gallons of hazardous materials coming through Joliet every single day. We've got waterways, we have rail railroads. We have utility potential disruptions. So we have a lot of things that can impact us that we need to make sure that we are are trying to prepare for.

The last one, unfortunately, is the human caused events. And wherever there are people, there can be human caused events. Everything from cyber attacks to to terrorism to active shooter events are all all possible wherever there are people. So these are the causes for adverse events that we need to be thinking about. And when we think about these things, helps us prepare for them.

So this sort of goes into what this office is all about. What this office does. And a lot of people, like I said, don't know what emergency management does. The biggest question I get is, how are you different from the police and fire departments? What do you do that they don't do? And the answer is pretty simple. Usually, during an emergency, the police and fire departments are spot on. They are there, and they can do whatever needs to be done. My position doesn't really take effect until we get to the top end of an emergency and into the bottom end of a disaster. That's where I start to go to work.

My job is to make sure that resources are put together and facilitated between all of these groups, to make sure that objectives are being met. So we'll talk a little bit more about that as we go here, but that's basically my job. So I look for vulnerabilities and threats and hazards. I help people cope when these threats and hazards come to fruition. But my main purpose is to create unity of effort.

So I'm trying to get everybody together just like I'm here today with with with your group. I need to get everybody together in all facets of Joliet. Whether it's public sector, private sector, whatever we're talking about, we need to all be together to act as a community. And if we do that, we can get through these these events far better than if we don't have that unity of effort. So one of my main goals is to make sure that in most decisions that are made in the city, I try to insert the emergency and disaster mentality into them.

I know it's a terrible way to think about things, but that's my job. I have to think about what could potentially go wrong, and how we can deal with it, and how we can be prepared for it. So, I just look for threats, I try to make a plan for them, and make sure that Joliet residents are ready. That's my goal. Other goal is to create relationships, like I'm trying to do here today, and like I've been trying to do since I got here. We all have to talk to each other. And we all have to get to know each other. And we all have to work together. And the last thing I do is I manage the emergency center. So, if we do have a large event, we activate the emergency operations center.

And when we activate that center, all of these city departments get together in one room. So the fire chief and the police chief and the public works director and public utilities director, we all get together in this room, and we decide how we are going to respond in the field to what's going on. So this is actually one of the shortcomings of our process, is the fact that citizens with disabilities aren't involved in that emergency operations center. And you need to be. Because you need to bring this to us to make sure we are doing the right thing by all of our residents.

Okay? So that's kind of in a nutshell what I do. So I I I also wanna tell you what I don't do. What I don't do is I don't plan responses for what we call routine emergencies. So if I fall down and break my ankle, that's not an emergency management issue. That's an EMS issue, which is a fire department. Somebody's breaking into my house, that's not an emergency management issue. That's a police department's issue. They're going to come respond, catch the person breaking in, and everything will be okay. Alright?

So I don't do those things. What I what I also don't do is I don't do detailed planning every potential event that could happen. Because we saw that list of how detailed that list was. Right? Just about anything on that list of human caused, natural, and technological disasters, everything on that list can actually happen here.

So I can't plan for everything, but what I can do is create a fluid and adaptable plan that applies to most things. So that's what I do. I create a basic fluid emergency operations plan that applies to most disasters. So that's what I do for them. Now, my priorities right now, and since I've only started here a short time ago, I'm still working on getting a lot of these going.

But first is community involvement and volunteer management. And I'm gonna talk to you guys about volunteer management when I'm before I'm done here, because we do have a new volunteer group in the city of Joliet called the Community Emergency Response Team, or CERT, which you are all invited to participate in. Everybody has a spot on CERT. If anybody's going to be at the council meeting tonight, we are going to present our first 28 graduates of the CERT program, to average an age from about 19 to 93, and there's a spot for everybody. The other thing I work on is training and exercises.

Getting our responders prepared for things that are going to be happening. Planning and organizing, and I'm actually going to ask you guys for help with part of this as we go here. And community education and preparedness, which is one of the things that I'm doing right now. So I'm trying to get people to understand that there are circumstances where we could be on our own, and we need to be ready at an individual level. So how does this relate to you, and your committee?

Well, primarily, it revolves around planning. And I will tell you straight up and honestly, our plan for citizens with disabilities in the city of Joliet is abysmal. And it needs work. And I need help from a group like yours to help me rewrite the disabilities annex. Because in our EOC, it's about or in our EOP, we call the emergency operations plan, it's about a 700 page document that doesn't say anything.

You're aware of the government documents, right? So, but there is an annex, a section for citizens with disabilities. And most of what that annex does is defer responsibilities to other people, which I can't stand. As a person who considers everybody in Joliet, my extended family, we have to take care of our We have to make sure we're taken care of. We have to take care of our neighbors. We have to take care of ourselves. We have to take care of our city. This annex needs to be rewritten, and it will be rewritten. And we need to take responsibility for our for training our citizens and protecting our citizens. We cannot rely on the Red Cross to take care of us.

We cannot rely on county government to take care of us. We gotta take care of each other at a personal level, and that's what I'm trying to train people to do. So what can you do now? It's important, right? What can we do now to help us be better prepared? First, get informed, which is what we're all doing right now. We're getting informed. Next, make a plan. Third, and most importantly for me, is building a kit for home, for work, for your car, for whatever. And the last one is getting involved.

Because that's going be one of the things that saves us, if we all can stay together as a community. That's what's going to save us. So, when we talk about getting informed, what I'm doing now is just that. We're talking about what the potential risks are in Joliet. We all saw that big list, that everything that's on that list could happen here. So we have to make sure that individually, in our own homes, that we start planning for the most likely events that are going to happen. We know what those are. Wherever we live, we know we know. I know where I live out far west. I know that wind is a problem.

Severe thunderstorm is a problem. That's what's gonna damage my house. That's what's gonna cause me an issue. Right? I'm not so much worried about the tornado, because the tornado that's gonna hit is gonna be about eight feet wide. It's gonna be an e f zero, and it's probably not gonna do much. But those straight line winds that are coming out of the West with nothing to block them, those are the things that are going to cause me a problem. I know that that's what I have to plan for. So for every individual place, every individual home, every individual group, we need to figure out what the most likely threats are for us. And that's a personal decision.

You know, the county identifies the major threat in this county is actually cyber security. So cyber security is a big deal. And we need to make sure we're taking care of our computers and not clicking on things we shouldn't be clicking on, and all that other stuff. So we have to think about that and plan for our risks. So when we're planning, there are a few things we need to do, and a few things that anybody within the sound of my voice needs to do today.

The first thing is you need to build up your support network, whoever that is. Whether it's friends, family, church, neighborhood, it doesn't matter who it is. But we have got to we we've spent a lot of time growing apart, we need to get back together. And we need to get back together as a community. K? So the support network is critical. So start building your support network now. If you've let it lapse, get back to rebuilding it, because it's one of the most important things you can do. The next thing is secondary means of transportation. A lot of folks in Joliet don't have primary means of transportation, or secondary means of transportation.

We need to start working on getting our folks the transportation that they need. And you know what, that may be something that we need to do better in the city, or in the township, or in the county, or however we're going to do it. But we need to make sure that we have transportation arrangements for us if we need to get out of here in timely manner. So start thinking about that, and start thinking about options. Again, I'm calling my brother if I gotta get somewhere and my car doesn't Right?

I got I got a family member who can do that. You know, so so or he better do it, as well we'll say. But the thing is, we've gotta make sure that we've got plans for these sorts of things. One one concrete thing you can do, is you can register with the Will County. Will County has a register for folks with disabilities, where you can actually put yourself on the list of folks that are affected.

This is all through the the since we're in a radiological impact area, this is something that they're mandated to do in Will and Kendall County. So you guys can get on that list. And when I have a disaster and I pull up our disaster management program, which is called D four h, it tells me everyone with special needs in that area if you're registered. Okay? So there's actually a QR code on the screen if you take a photograph of it with your phone or have someone do it for you.

I can get Jackie and she can get it out to you. It will take you directly to it, and you actually sign up just by scanning that QR code. The other QR code on the right hand side of your screen, is just a planning web site. So this is ready.gov, citizens with disability planning website. So it will give you advice based on your needs, what you should do to plan specifically for a disaster. So I encourage you both to look at that, Jackie. I'll get the information to you. And if you can send that out to whoever wants it, we can help with that. So it is critical that you build a kit. Start building a kit today, please.

When we're talking about when we're talking about disability, we need to make sure that we're packing in the kit the items that are most used. Okay? So for all of us, we have different needs. We have different issues. You know what you need. So if you're going to make a disaster kit, put what you know you're going to need in that disaster kit. And it could be different for everybody depending upon what particular challenges you have. So think about that, talk about that, and start making plans for putting together a kit. Okay? If you look again, you'll see another QR code.

I love QR codes. But this is how to build a seventy two hour three day kit. What we recommend in emergency management is that everybody strive to put together a kit that'll help you survive for three days. The reason we use three days is because it's it's pretty simple. Water. That's why we use three days. Because you can't you can't live very long without water. So the entire premise of the three day kit is to make sure you have a gallon of water per person per day. So we could go to Walmart for a buck and buck and a half. You can get a gallon of water, and that's all I recommend you start with.

Next time you go grocery shopping or someone goes grocery shopping for you, pick up a gallon of water. And then next time after that, pick up another gallon of water on top of what you're normally getting. K? That's the way we build. So I don't recommend you build this all today. Just pick up a gallon of water and and and do that. And then the rest of the kit, here's what you need. Okay? And I'll Jackie a list of this as well. Unscented household bleach is a great disinfectant.

Defect disinfectant. Bottle of Clorox. If you have special dietary needs, or if you have young ones at home, or grandkids, make sure you have formula for them. In disasters, we recommend pre mixed formula, not powdered formula, if you have kids or grandkids. So we want pre mixed formula so it can't get contaminated if the water is contaminated.

For those of you on medications, make sure you pack away a few days worth of medications. Maybe ask your doctor to give you a little extra so you can put it in your protective case. But, make sure you use that medication before it expires, okay? If you need some sort of assistive devices like glasses or anything like that, make sure there's some glasses or a copy of your prescription or even an old prescription in your case that you can use. So there are feminine supplies, if those are needed, make sure you pack those.

Hand sanitizer is always good. Paper towels are always good. One of the things I recommend most is a good hand crank radio. You can get them on Amazon for about $20 or so. Most of them have an AMFM radio and a weather radio built in.

A lot of them have flashlights built in too. Please make sure you have a first aid kit, a whistle, which is a very serious thing if you need to be found, a whistle will help emergency responders locate you. And then plastic sheeting and duct tape, since some of Joliet actually is in the Dresden Nuclear Area, we can actually cover up our windows and vents with that to help protect us from radiation. So these are all important things and whatever is in this kit can help you. So pliers or channel locks, or a wrench of some sort, in case you have to shut off the gas to your house.

Trash bags, please, a fire extinguisher, please, please, please. I was a firefighter for twenty two years, please put a fire extinguisher in there. A warm blanket and clothing, and most importantly, copies of your important documents. A copy of your birth certificate, a copy of insurance documents, a copy of your identification card, Your bank account information. Put it all in a waterproof container.

Mine are just in a zip lock bag. It's waterproof enough for me, right? Zip lock bag and I put it right in the disaster kit and it just sits there, okay? The reason for that is if you do need aid from FEMA or from IEMO or some other organization, they're going to ask you for these things. They're going say, do you have a copy of your birth certificate? Or do you have a copy of your ID? Or your insurance documents. We need to make sure we have those. So please put those in a container. A little bit of cash never hurts.

For me, I don't have a lot of cash sitting around, so $510 every paycheck I can put in there. So if I get about $200 in there, I'm very happy. And that's going be enough for me. If you have a credit card, throw an old credit card in there. Please make sure you have a battery for your cell phone. Something to write on and write with. Games and puzzles, that's not a joke. It's actually, when you're in a disaster, it's gonna it will help you keep your mind off what's going on. And matches are always important in waterproof container, in case you have to do something with those. Okay?

So the last thing I wanted to talk about was getting involved in the community. You know, kind of the crux of my conversation has been how we all need to come together. Well, the City of Joliet, we've got a new program that's through my office called the CERT program, which is a Community Emergency Response Team. Like I said, we're graduating 28 members at the council meeting tonight, our first group. We've already got a class of 15 signed up for starting in June.

And everyone here, and anybody within the sound of my voice who's a resident of Joliet, is welcome to be on this team. One of the things we learn in the SIR class is we we actually work together to put together kits for our members. We make sure everybody is prepared. We make sure everybody knows how to put out fires. Everybody can turn off the gas at their house.

Everybody can do medical care. This is all stuff we train on when we do our CERT training. So CERT is a community program that is members of the community helping other members of the community. And it's evolved volunteers, so we recruit and train volunteers. It began in the 1980s, actually after the Mexico City earthquake in 1985. But then later in the next year, adopted by the Los Angeles Fire Department, and quickly moved to FEMA where it's an official program. So we run the official program in Joliet. So it's nine weeks, three hours a week. It's a tough program, but it's a lot of fun. You make a lot of new friends.

And there is a place for everyone on our team. There's a place for everyone on our team. So we encourage everybody you know, every everybody in this room, everybody you know can all be part of our team. Okay? And we encourage it. So we do lots of stuff, but primarily we can help prepare ourselves, our neighbors, and our community for disasters. But on top of that, we can do a lot of other fun stuff in community too. We can go to block parties. We can help with neighborhood cleanups, which we've done. We can do a lot of things to help the community.

So our group is very good. They're very involved, and I encourage you guys to participate. If a disaster does happen, they can help with a lot of different things that happen at that disaster. We teach them everything from medical care, to search and rescue, to anything you can imagine. And everybody does a great job. And we never encourage people to act outside of their abilities. Whatever you can do, you can do. Whatever you can't do, it's fine. We'll find a place for you in this team. Okay?

So, we have a CERT team in every council district. So we've got members in all five council districts. And like I said, 28, and we're continuing to go. But getting involved with the community is one of the prime things we can Because once these cert graduates go out into the community, guess what? They can train everybody on how to put together kits. They can train everybody on medical care. They can train everybody on gas shut off. They can train everybody on all the stuff that they learned. And the next thing that happens is we actually have a resilient community. And we can actually take care of ourselves and each other.

And that's my goal. So if you want to enroll, you can get ahold of me. I gave you the information at the beginning. If you want to ask Jackie, she can get me the information also. But it's easy to enroll, and we can take care of it if you want to get on. We're going to be starting June 10. And you're all welcome. And I hope you guys participate. And does anybody have any questions?

I think we've gotten an awful lot of information. And you're right. The whole program starts with the individual, making sure that they're informed. What I would like to have is, do you have any written copies of what you just gave us that we can analyze and see how we can augment it? And secondly, getting the information out is so important because I didn't know anything about it, and I feel like I should.

Is there any way to get this distributed, such as with the water bills, that this program exists, and people are welcome to sign up for it.

That's a great idea.

It's I like such an important program.

I like it. I'm gonna bring that up to utilities today. But, yeah, it's we we find it difficult. It's with technology today, it's difficult to advertise for anything. Because everybody's on a different platform. Everybody's on a different technological whatever. Some people are on Facebook. Some people are on something else. So it's hard to actually get a hold of any one group of people in the city because everybody's so spread out. Used to be you got you went to the newspaper and everybody read it.

And that's not the way it is anymore, unfortunately. So, yeah. Any any ideas as to how to put it out? I think that's a great idea with the water bills. I I I know for the mental health program that we did, the Joliet a couple years ago, that's how we got the word out for that was through the water bill. So but I appreciate that advice. I'll follow-up on it. And I will get Jackie copies of all this stuff. But I would like to come back and discuss how I can I can I can also get you copies of the emergency operations annex that I talked about that is substandard that I that I'd like to fix? And I and I'd love to sit down with you and talk about ways we can make it better.

If you guys are open to that. Absolutely. So what I will do is I will get I will get Jackie all the information. Can you get it to everyone on the board, Jackie?

Absolutely. I'm happy to forward it along.

So I'll send it all to her, and I'll actually probably just send you a PDF of this.

That'd be great.

So you'll get the whole presentation again. And if you guys ever have any questions, feel free to call me. But I would like to schedule time with Jackie and this group once you guys get ahold of all this stuff to help me figure out how to help you better. That's what I'm trying to do here.

I have two questions. First off, I want to apologize for coming in late. I did notice the time, started to come in late, and sorry for walking in, middle of your presentation.

No problem.

Please step in and For

the record, we'll just state that Veronica Pollard has joined the committee. Thank you.

So I'm from Senior Services of Weir County and one of the things I know about our seniors is that they're always the last one know, besides with people with disabilities, they're always the last one to know what's going on or how respond to certain emergency situations because most of the time they're by themselves. They don't have family. There's some cases where families are all over the place or they're not in the same state. And so one of the ideas, one question was, you said that there's a website for Will County website where people with disabilities can sign up. Is this the same Casey for seniors or is this only for people with disabilities?

Every everybody.

See, everybody? Because I know that we have a lot of seniors.

I don't know the answer to that. I also know that in Joliet, starting on June 1, the fire department is going to be great gathering that information as well. Perfect. And they're going to be putting it into the computer aided dispatch center. So what'll be what'll happen is you can you'll be able to fill out a form, send it to the fire department, and they will actually input it into the computer aided dispatch.

So if something happens at your address, it will populate with all that information. So that might help out for that. But I don't think it's for seniors.

Think I it's for

don't think it's for seniors.

But I do know I have clients that do have a disability, maybe we can target that group with seniors that also have a disability and encourage them to sign up as well. Because a lot of our seniors, they're very prideful. And we have a lot of love, We have a lot of like low vision. And they're always like, No, I can see. I can hear just fine. I don't have a disability. What are you talking about? So it would be like a nice way to like encourage them to like maintain their independence. That's why I'm wondering if that applies to But then I can imagine we have thousands and thousands of Chinos in Joliet and Willow County. But would the fire department be involved, that would be great.

That might be more the fire department might be more inclined or able to input that into their system. Perfect. I'll talk to the fire chief and see if I'll see if he's if chief Carey is, if that's something that their group will be able to do. If it's not just the disability aspect, but also the older

The older adult.

We would have to come up with parameters for that. But I'll talk to him today, I'll see him today and I'll ask him.

That'd be awesome. And then secondly, is there any way you can come and talk to us at Senior Services? Because I feel like that would be very, very useful. Because I'm technically a case manager. So that would be great if it's okay if you guys would be able to, if you can come out and talk to us. I can like maybe connect you with my director and that way you can talk to us about what other options out there. That way we are aware and that we can go out and encounter our clients. Because we have a lot of case managers covering all over Will County. So that would good for us to kind of go out and have that conversation with our clients and say, Hey, so it is okay. I might bother you and have you come out to see an

S- He might, for sure, for sure, absolutely. You know what, however I can be a benefit to anyone, that's what I'm here for.

Perfect, thank you.

I have two questions. Yes. So you were saying the CERT training, the next one starts June 10. Right? What times do the trainings take place?

I'm glad you mentioned that because I forgot to say that they're going to be on Tuesdays and Saturdays. So we're having two. We did three this this trip. We did Monday morning and Tuesday and Thursday evenings, this last group. Next group, we're going to be doing Tuesday evenings from six to 9PM. And Saturday mornings from 08:30 to 11:30AM.

And so would you do those people have to attend both, or like you do one?

Just one. Okay. So as a matter of fact, you won't even you won't even be assigned to a class. Just come to either one of them you want to, it's the same material each day. So every week, we do a fresh lesson, the same lesson on both days, and then we go through nine weeks of that, and then graduation.

Awesome.

It's a it's it's you know what? It's long, but you know what? I I have not gotten in I just read the the reviews from the class, and I had I haven't gotten a single negative response out of the 28 people who graduated. Not one negative response.

I mean, sounds awesome.

Definitely And can't you know what? And I tell people, you know what? We started out with 28 enrollees. We wound up with a team. And I wound up with 28 new friends. So this is a great community builder, and I can't say enough about it, and I cannot say enough about our volunteers. They are awesome.

Awesome. So for the cert, is it for Joliet residents only to participate, or can somebody from Plainfield or Sherwood or Rockdale

now, it is for Joliet residents. And if you're an employee of the city of Joliet and you want to participate, we're letting employees participate too. But right now, it's just for residents. I want to get as many Joliet residents trained as want to be trained, then we'll open it up to other other communities. So my goal is to have a 100 CERT members by the end of this calendar year. And by the end of next calendar year, this is gonna kill me, but it's okay. I want 200 members by by next year, by the end of next year. So we're gonna keep I'm gonna keep holding classes until until as long as people wanna learn.

So you said if someone's an employee of, like, literally the city of Joliet or an employee in the city of Joliet?

Of the city of Joliet. Now.

Okay. Gotcha.

Any other questions?

Thank you so much, John. I appreciate it.

Sorry I was so long,

but I'm very passionate

about this. I think it's a

No.

It was so informative. Thank you so much.

Whatever more information I can give you, just let me know, and I'll be happy to help.

Yeah. And I'll be happy to email the entire committee the information that you

sent her. Hopefully, I'll get it to you today, and we'll we'll you'll have it you'll have it as soon as I can get it to you.

No problem. Thank you.

Alright. Splendid. Thank you all very much. Thank you, Thank you for your time, and thank you for letting me join you today. Thanks.

Next on the agenda, we do have the discussion regarding the communications department pamphlet and any input or updates from the committee. Okay.

I thought it looked very good. Have a copy of it. The only thing that we had, somebody made a comment about the deaf community or Yes.

Yes. So sorry I didn't get back to you on it because I was just recovering from my implant and trying to hit the ground running with work. So the deaf community, so that symbol that you sent, it does represent the deaf community, the typical, famous blue box with the ear slash. We don't associate with that because that's more of a medical term and that gives off the negative impression that, Oh, deaf people are deaf people. They can't do anything.

We have to So we don't identify that. So what my encounter was, in the deaf community, we focus on ourselves on more of a culture than a medical thing. So that's why I recommend having someone shiny, like a picture of someone shiny and then a picture of someone with a hearing device like a hearing aid or cochlear implant. I want to have both and that's why we're representing the deaf community Because if you just have someone that has hearing devices like me, it doesn't reflect the rest of the deaf community that just uses strictly sound language and doesn't use hearing devices. So I want to be able to have at least two just to kind of like reflect.

Yes, we have those, like me, that can hear and talk, but we also have those, like me, that sound. So we want to make sure we kind of like covered. So I want to shy away from the symbols that represent the deaf community but it doesn't. Maybe it represents back in the eighties and the nineties but not today. Maybe with technology, we're moving away from the medical view and moving to our culture.

So if I can just we can just have like a picture of deaf people signing in and then the person with the hearing aids, that would be wonderful. That way we can put out there that there are deaf people. There are different types of deaf people and that there's no typical deaf earthing. So that's something that we are just shy away from. So I would recommend to be on the safe side photos of deaf people signing and then photos with the hearing devices. Sure.

So this pamphlet was a draft through the communications department and any input is so welcome. So not just that interpretation but if you have any other images that you feel would be a better representation not just of the community but of the committee feel free to send us examples, free to send us any input or specific suggestions. It's absolutely open to as much input as you'd like to have on it. But specific images may be helpful just because my interpretation of what you're suggesting may be different than

Fuck you. No.

That'd be awesome. You. There any other input regarding the pamphlet at this time? No. Okay. We can move on to the discussion regarding the July disability fair updates.

For this one, asked Riley, who has been so involved in it, or Pam make the presentation.

Okay. So we met yesterday briefly, a few of us, just to discuss the some different things that we were kind of talking about. And as of right now, like, our idea is that it would be 07/26/2025, so this summer, celebrating and commemorating the thirty fifth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act and it would be titled the Disability Pride Fair. And we have about 40 vendors that we plan on sending, like, invitations to. But just based on, like, some feelers that we put out, we're guessing about 25 of them will actually be able to attend.

And with their, you know, constituents or participants that they serve. We'll probably be able to pull about 300 participants, maybe more, hopefully. That would be cool. And our goal is two food trucks and then I am in the process of working on a free DJ. So we'll still waiting for updates there.

And right now, like, the only thing that we're really stuck on is the location. We really want Bicentennial Park, but we're worried about the chairs and tables not be not having access to that would be a big deterrence Mhmm. For vendors to come. I personally know that, like, almost or every single outreach event that I've gone to representing either the Disability Resource Center or previous employers, like tables and chairs were already set up. And if there was a need for us to set up chairs, I don't know if we would have attended just because, like, it's just hard for a lot of times, it's one person going to an outreach fair. That's a lot to set up. So that's kind of where we're at now. Pam, do you wanna

We we can help. Can make a request that the city a rep table can share for that day, and we're just waiting to hear what the city decides.

Yes. So the request has been forwarded to our city managers and our city mayor's office. I'm not the one that responds to those requests, so I don't have a decision or a response from either of those offices just yet. They are inquiring more information around the request because they'd like to know more about the fair, exactly what to expect. If they are going to be supplying the tables and chairs, they want as much information around the event as possible.

So thank you both for being able to provide a lot of that information to me. I will go ahead and follow-up with them again to see if I could get a response for you quickly. I know, as Riley mentioned, it's a large deciding factor. And Bicentennial will likely be the most accessible location. So I will try to get a decision from those offices as quickly as possible.

We believe that, you know, being with committee is Juliet. Right.

So the committee meetings that are held here are representation of, you know, this city, the mayor's office, and, you know, as an advisory committee. But any event that's hosted outside of, you know, the specific city hall or specific chambers grounds, you know, I'm I'm not really sure how much resources the city can actually put into that. So there were several several questions that were asked so that way I could follow-up. And if we don't have the answers now, that's fine. But maybe some questions that we can look into that are being asked is, are there any anticipated expenses associated with the event?

And if so, who's expected to pay them? Or are all the resources being donated at this time?

Well, right now, the expenses, I believe, would be that the rental fee for the institution.

Yeah. Sorry. Repeat that one more time. This thing was coming right above me.

It it it would be the rental fee. Rental fee. Okay.

For, like, the tables and chairs.

And chairs.

Oh, the rental fee specific to tables and chairs only? Oh. Yeah.

We would need two interpreters. Veronica, that's correct. Right? Yeah. Two.

She said at least two. I mean, depending on how the event is laid out. So maybe two. Yeah, we can definitely talk more about it. That way I can advise you guys. We Like if it gets inappropriate to have an interpreter there or not. We

are asking it's anyone. Was we are inviting some elected officials. We've been telling them that the time to speak will be between twelve and one.

I just want to go back into things that we have done. The city has always given us $1,000 for expenses for things that we have done in the past, such as the annual picnic that we had. So it's in the scope of what the city can do for us. And we really need to have something that we can spend so that we can put this event on.

Yeah. I myself am not aware of anything specifically within the budget committed

Probably it's not in the budget now.

Yeah. So obviously with the new staff, the new administration, if it wasn't requested in the budget, that would need to be a new request. I'm not sure if there's enough time to make that request successful in time for this event. But it's absolutely something that I can follow on. And then just to clarify, you said the city itself provided that expense. Was it the city or was it somebody within the city administration that donated?

It was the city. We went through the city manager.

Okay. Thank you for clarifying. I will go ahead and follow-up with that. The second question that was asked was oh, there was a request for interpreters to be provided at the event, much like our interpreters that join us for the committee meetings. I can also look into that request. It is seen as a reasonable accommodations for like our committee meetings and council meetings. I'm not sure if, again, off property or off premises outside of council chambers, if that's something that can be provided. But that's another request that I have extended.

Appropriate Is that we are calling this no. The committee is hosting this path.

Yeah. In technically, it's city property, you

know, over there. It's the sponsorship Should we say it's sponsored by the the committee?

Yeah. Because that's what we have right now. Like, it's the bottom of the, like, kind of the workshopping flyer that we have, like, at the bottom, it says, like, hosted by the City Of Joliet's Committee on Citizens with Disabilities. And so yeah. Is that Yeah, is that appropriate?

Is that appropriate?

I can double check just to be certain. I'm sure there's a difference and a different factor in hosted by, sponsored by, you know resources provided by. So I will clarify you know as I'm sure many of you guys know this is my first time liaisoning any So I will double check and triple check all the information make sure I get you the correct info and we can go forward from there.

Yeah. Because I think like honestly, what I'm thinking is like the main cost would really be one, if we can't get tables and chairs and then two, the interpreters and then everything else like food trucks for example, that's typically donated because they just go there because that's where people are going to be and so the food wouldn't be an issue. I mean, I guess maybe like printing out for like fires, like printouts might be something that we could potentially get assistance with just because ink and paper are expensive. But other than that and then also like as as Pam was saying, like, there we're, like, inviting elected, like, officials, and a few have already, like, responded with interest to attending, including, you said, Lauren Underwood. Right?

Lauren Underwood and then Rachel Ventura and oh, there's

one more. That's Larry Walsh.

Oh, okay. Larry Walsh as well.

And, of course, we we aren't the mayor this week. Yeah.

Okay. And has the request to mayor Darcy already been made?

Not officially. No. Okay.

Okay. And then the last question that was asked that I follow-up on or not really so much a question, so much as a request. If there's any contracts involved or if there's any official agreements that are made, whether it's between your food truck providers or DJs, because it is being hosted with the committee that is representation of City of Joliet, that the city manager's office get to review those prior to entering in any of those agreements just to make sure that, you know, again, as a representation of the city of Joliet, that the important offices are aware of everything going on.

Okay. Thank

you. That was the last updates I had on it.

Okay. Anything else from the committee?

Should we reach out to the mayor now? Should we invite the mayor now?

Should we reach out to the mayor now? Wait. Oh, wait till I think we should do it now.

So I'm not sure if He he's

he has a full schedule. I know the mayor. And in order for him to actually be there would be he would have to get it on his schedule. And the farther out we ask, the better to.

Right. I would suggest if if it's your request to have him speak, I can either, make that request. Or if you would like to similarly to the request for the tables and chairs, if you wanted to write out in a document, and then I'm happy to provide that to his office just so that way they have it both in writing and Yeah. I could verbalize it as well.

Okay. Well, John, we certainly thank you. The city of Joliet Police Department Mhmm. Welcome you're welcome to we appreciate having you is what I'm trying to say. Anything happening with I I take a walk every morning, and, you know, what I'm starting to see as the weather warms up is is so many people out there sleeping all over the place with hardly any covers.

And you hate to go and bother them, but sometimes I think they need looking after. Because the statistics say that over seventy percent of those that are sleeping out there have some sort of mental illness. So it's something that I have to ask, what are we doing for them?

We have a unit, fire department started it called the Community Cares Program that focuses on mental health and homeless issues all around the city and the surrounding cities. We meet twice a month. We actually met this morning, and we bring new clients into it. I know I'm gonna get the numbers wrong, but I know deputy chief John Cook has said that we've probably

probably helped out over

a 100 people this year already. It's probably around a 100 people. And it goes from everything from, like you said, giving out blankets to people to actually getting them into hospitals to get help or getting them in some programs to help them.

Yeah. We're not as prosperous a city as many others, but I think we should have enough to to care for those that

really need to to help. We're able to help a lot of people. Jackie's at the meetings. She sees. So, yeah, there's there's a lot going on. So even as may as much as you may not see it while you're out taking your walks

Yeah.

There's still a lot of stuff going on that we're actually helping a lot of people.

Okay. I appreciate knowing that because, you know, I wanna tell them that there's help out there. If you know, I I don't wanna wake them up, but if if there's somebody I can talk to, least tell them.

Yeah. I know, like, deputy chief Cook and paramedic Brian Hertzman, they actually drive around a lot and look for people. When they come across them, they'll get out and talk to them, see if there's any services they need, tell them what they can offer, and get them some help.

I certainly appreciate that. Thank you.

I know last meeting you asked me to look into the handicapped tickets that were written this year.

Yeah. I'd like to know on that too.

Was in as many as I thought or probably in the 10 to 15 range for handicapped tickets for the year so far. But that could also be a good thing. That could also show that there's not a lot of people parking in those spots. I'm sure you see it, and I see it every now and again too. Now when I'm working, I don't see it. Usually when I'm off duty driving to places, Walgreens or whatever, I see people parked in those spots. So it is something that I feel we can improve upon.

I used to be part of these people that went out with the police department, and they called us spotters. And we would always find people. So I can't see that it's lessening any. One of the reasons we made a $500 fine that came through this committee was to inspire people to think about parking there because of the steepness of the fine. And for a while, it had a very good effect. People just weren't parking there.

Mhmm.

But I think that starts to erode as they see that people aren't getting a ticket for it. So that doesn't sound like an awful lot of tickets to me.

It doesn't. I know that. I know we're pretty busy with calls, so our patrol officers don't have time to really drive through the parking lots as much as they have to. I I feel like this is something we can we'll try to improve on, and I will try to get the word out to to hit some parking lots and try to rate some tickets.

Appreciate that. Thank you.

I do want to have two comments with the whole mental health thing. So I screen at St. Joseph Hospital, and I see quite a few screens requesting for mental health services, and I scan the senior facility services. So rest assured that they're doing their job and that the emergency responders are doing their job. It's just unfortunately people have resorted to either accept the services being provided to them or reject it. I can see in the paperwork, I'm not going to name names, I can see on paper where there's a lot of people that rejected services, but they're aware that there's services out there. So just we are so that these guys are doing their best to you.

I guess the biggest problem is that a lot of people don't want the help. A lot of people are perfectly content

Yes.

And they don't want the help.

Yeah. That's unfortunate. Yeah. But you guys are doing everything you can, so I wanted to say thank you for that. Because I see it at the hospital, and I hear with the social workers and everything. So Thank you. You guys.

Thank you. You. CVS contacted me. I just wanted to give you a copy of Wait.

Who?

Yeah.

For me or Pam?

Me. Okay. That's all we have. Unless anybody else has something they would like to make a comment on, inform us on. Did you have any questions on the beepers? You get those answered from the stoplights?

I'm going to reach out for an IDOT contact so that way we can discuss the night mode that is set on there. Two previous committees, he brought it to our attention that the chirping sounds at the intersections stopped at a certain point throughout the evening. We were able to find information that it was IDOT's jurisdiction for those intersections and that they had it on a night mode that eliminated that noise at night. But as he mentioned, it's more of a safety concern, safety security issue. So I will reach out for an IDOT contact to discuss that.

Yeah. Has anybody else encountered those lights that tell you when to go? Maybe we can just experience it ourselves to see what it looks like. I've been to Peoria several times, they have a great system of street lights that make a noise and tell you when to go. And it's very useful down there. So I'm glad that they brought it up here. And if there's any bugs on it, we really need to know about it.

As well as get more on them.

Yeah. I don't know what it is on other cities, but it seems like very limited here. Jefferson Street has them. And you say there's other streets that have them as well?

I haven't found any. Just those three intersections.

Three intersections on Jefferson Street. Okay. So it's it's rather limited, and the it's to restrict them to just daytime use is is really not as beneficial as it should be because it limits nighttime traffic. And I I'm sure you you go out in the nighttime sometimes

I'm going.

Coming back from Chicago. He does an awful lot of traveling in the area.

Okay. That's a conversation that I could bring up with our public works department

Okay.

To see if that is something that is already being looked into to have it at more intersections aside from the ones that are under IDOT jurisdiction.

And if I may add, there's a few other intersections that where they the red hand was not working. You know, like, up there at Jackson and I forget what the other intersection will. Okay. You know, if they if they, if they're not really working right, that could be an opportunity to replace them with the chirping lights. Okay. Absolutely.

And you said that was at Jackson. And do you happen to know the intersection?

Jackson and I'm thinking center, but I could be wrong on

that.

No problem. If you ever wanted to contact me or let me know at the next committee meeting any other specific inter intersections, we can absolutely look into it.

Okay. Anything

else? Okay. Motion to adjourn.

Actually I'm sorry. Just for the agenda reasons, do have to open it up for public comment. Oh, okay. If there is anybody here from the public that would like to comment on items either on or off the agenda, you're welcome to come up. Seeing none, and then do we have a motion for adjournment?

I can motion Ms. Riley.

Second? I'll second it.

Okay. All in favor?

Aye. All opposed? Motion carries.

Thank you all.

Thank you, everybody.

What? Thank you

very much.