Disability Commission Advisory Board - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. My name is Andrea Patton. The open meeting law requires that I notify the public that this meeting is recorded. Therefore, please be aware that an audio and visual recording of this meeting is being made by Boston City TV, part of the City of Boston office of cable communications, and is being broadcast on Xfinity channel 26, RCN channel 13, and Fios channel nine six two, as well as live streamed on YouTube where a recording of the meeting will remain for later viewing. With that, I will hand the meeting to our board chair, Jerry Boyd.

Okay. Thank you, Andrea, and thank you everyone for joining today. We will start out with introductions. Let me get on a better view so I can see everyone who's here from the board and everyone else. Can we start with, can we start with Paulette, please? You wanna introduce yourself.

Good evening. I'm Paula Durette. I live in the Mattapan area of Boston. I've been on the board for I think I'm going into my third year. I'm a black female with salt and pepper hair and glasses, and I have on a gray sweater.

Great. Thank you so much. And, yes, if you could, just give a a little bit of a description of yourself when you're doing your introduction that would be helpful for communication, access purposes. The next person I see is, Zari. Could you introduce yourself, please?

Thank you. I'm Zari Amir Hasemi. I'm from South Boston. I am a female with short dark hair. I wear a tree user. I'm wearing a gray sweater. Thank you.

Great. Richard, could you please introduce yourself?

Happy to. Thanks, Jerry. Richard Glesky. I live

in Back

Bay. Been a member of the commission for a few years now. I have a gray jacket on, which hopefully accents my gray hair. And, I'm I have a particular interest in kids' mental health.

Great. Tara, can you introduce yourself, please?

Hi, everyone. I am Tara. I'm in the JP Roxbury area. I am the board secretary. I am wearing a pink top with glasses, and I use a wheelchair.

Great. Thank you. Olivia, could you introduce yourself, please?

Hi. I'm Olivia Richard. I live in Brighton. I am a white female with, clothes cropped hair, and I'm currently wearing a checkered shirt.

Great. Thank you. And, Paul, could you introduce yourself, please?

Hi. My name is Paul Karen. I live in the West End section of Boston, and I'm wearing a blue top. I have short braiding hair, and serve as a mental health advocate on the executive committee of the board. Thank you. Great.

Thank you. I will go next. My name is Jerry Boyd. I have the distinct honor and pleasure to help lead, this group of hardworking advisory board members, that have been introduced to you tonight. And it is my distinct honor and pleasure, as I said.

I am from West Roxbury, very happily happy to represent that neighborhood as well, and I am wearing a I think it's a royal blue, actually, city of Boston, t shirt from one of our past, ADA events, and you'll hear more about this this year's upcoming event shortly. Have I missed anyone from, the board right now that's, that's online? I don't think so, Andrea, but, sometimes your eyes are better than mine.

We've had a new member or a member join us, Elizabeth.

Oh, I see that. Yes. I I see Elizabeth. Elizabeth, could you introduce yourself, please? Elizabeth, is it possible for you to unmute at at this time? If not, that's okay. We'll try to make time for you to introduce yourself later. Oh, there you are,

Elizabeth. Okay.

Go ahead. I'm Elizabeth Dean Clower

from Dorchester. I am I'm a board member, and I'm glad to be here too.

Great. And I see that Wes has joined us as well. Wes, could you introduce yourself, please?

Hi there, everybody. This is Wes Ireland speaking.

I'm sorry.

I am a board member, an advisory board member, and I live in the North End, and I am using sign language to communicate. I will be doing that throughout the meeting. So you'll be hearing the sound of two female sign language interpreters. Visually, I am wearing a light blue shirt, and I have excuse me. I have a beard, and I'm a white man. Thank you very much. Great.

And commissioner, I don't know if you wanna take this time to introduce yourself as well.

Thanks, Jerry. Welcome, everybody. My name is Krista Makosh. I'm the ADA title two coordinator and disability commissioner for the city of Boston. Glad to see so many board members here and also welcome members of the public. Oh, sorry. I am a white female at a desk wearing headphones with the background of city hall on my screen.

Great. Thank you. I think that's all the board members at at present. Again, if if I've missed anyone, please please feel free to alert me, Andrea. I don't think so for now. Though, I think we're good to move on to our next agenda item, which is, the approval of April's minutes. Do I have a motion to approve?

Make the motion to approve the minutes.

Paul I second the motion. Paulette approves, and and Paul seconds. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying aye or raising your hand.

Aye from Wes. Aye.

Looks like the ayes have it. Any I don't see anyone opposed. So that motion passes. Great. The next thing on our agenda would be a present presentation from the office of food justice, by, Melissa Honeywood. Is did I get the the pronunciation of your name correct?

Not able to hear you, Melissa. Really? Nope. There you are.

There you Okay.

Yes. Honeywood is correct. Great.

Alright. So feel free to feel free to the floor is yours.

Alright. First, I'll check with Andrea. Do you want me to share my screen, or will you be pulling up the slides and

Either works for me. Whatever you prefer. Yeah. If you have them,

might as well pull them up.

Alright. Because I

have notes here on the side.

Yeah. Give me one second. I will have that up.

Certainly. While you're doing that, I'll introduce myself. As Jerry indicated, I am Melissa Honeywood. I'm the deputy for the mayor's office of food justice here in the city of Boston. I am a white female with dark hair, currently wearing a green sweater.

And my hope is to review a little bit with you all about the work that our office does. I anticipate it should take roughly ten minutes, and we'll have time at the end for questions. However, if there is anything pressing, I'll I'll trust the board to decide whether or not it's worth asking them sooner rather than later. So on the screen, I'm showing a visual of some produce being sold at Haymarket. It's a and we can advance on to the next slide to go through some of the agenda for today.

So some of the topics that I want to review is to go over the mission of the Office of Food Justice, some of the strategic goals that we have designed based off of that mission, as well as reviewing some resources for residents. On the screen I have the Office of Food Justice's logo, which is a fruit that is in the shape of a heart. We have some division in our office, whether it's an apple or a peach or some other such delicacy.

And we can

go to the next slide. To provide a little bit of history on the screen, I have a timeline of the transition of our office. For those who've been in the city Of Boston for a while, you may know that prior to 2016, there was an Office of Food Initiatives. At that time, the mission of the office was primarily focused on food related businesses. Then after 2016, the office had changed to become the Office of Food Access, which then transitioned the focus on connecting residents to emergency based food resources.

And then, as everyone remembers, in March 2020, we really had to pivot our operations to respond to the COVID nineteen response and really just threw into motion the type of emergency food response that we were convening and collaborating with city partners. And then in February 2022, we transitioned to the Office of Food Justice as opposed to just being seen as an office that deals with food access and assisting residents when they are in an emergency food situation. We wanted to be proactive and thinking about the root causes that lead to hunger in the first place, rather than applying a Band Aid to hunger, really thinking about the root causes and what we as a city can do prevent hunger. We can advance to the next slide. The vision of the Office of Food Justice is to build a food system that is equitable, resilient, sustainable, and just.

It is our mission to make sure that we are expanding equitable access to nutritious food with respect to affordability, physical accessibility, and cultural connectedness. And we do this because we want to support the food economy in Boston as well as in the region as a whole. And thinking beyond that as far as the impact that it has on environmental sustainability and a resilient food system. On my screen, I have images of some various food scenes in Boston, including a local market, an outdoor farmer's market, a food packing station for food distribution, as well as another outdoor market emphasizing our farmer's market coupon program. We can advance to the next slide.

Some of the strategic goals for the mayor's office of food justice have been broken down to four specific categories. And the photo on the screen is when the when mayor Michelle Wu announced her food justice agenda. And these goals were built out of that agenda, and I'm going to take some time to focus on each one and provide a little bit of context for what that actually means in the work that we do. We can advance to the next slide. So the first goal of our strategic goals is to build equitable access and distribution systems for fresh, culturally relevant, and or regionally grown food citywide for food insecure communities.

Now, we developed a sustainable model for food, for accessible food access in order to make sure that not only is food available for residents within the community, but that they actually want to consume it. Some of the programs that OFJ operates in order to support this work include our Double Up Food Box program, which for residents who participate in SNAP, if they go to participating Double Up Food Bucks stores, they get an additional 50% off discount for any fresh fruits and vegetables that they purchase at that store. It's currently operating in six locations throughout the city. Another program that fits that helps support the goal our first goal is our Boston Summer Eats program where we partner with the Boston Public Schools and the greater the YMCA of Greater Boston to provide meals at no cost to youth 18 and under throughout the city at various open sites. And we do this because we know that there is a gap in service for families who rely on the meals that are provided to students during the academic year and this is a way for us to ensure that they have access to healthy free meals when school is out of session.

Another program that we operate is our Farmers Market Coupon Program in which we, you have in the past used federal operating dollars to essentially create coupons that residents who are not necessarily eligible or participate in SNAP or HIP to encourage them to buy from their local farmers market. We do that by issuing coupons. We partner with local community based organizations to distribute coupons to our targeted communities and that those targeted communities include folks who are facing food insecurity but for multiple reasons may not qualify or want to apply for SNAP or HIP. Some of the reasons that folks may not choose to apply for SNAP or EBT cards is they may have mixed documentation status and they are concerned about applying for a federal program. Another program that our office operates that supports building equitable access is the Community Outreach Leaders Program, in which we actually offer grants to community based organizations to leverage the leadership that already exists in their communities to essentially use them as liaisons sharing information about different food benefit programs because we realize that they already have established trust and they have good rapport with folks in their neighborhood.

And so if we can build up their knowledge base on different food benefit programs, it's more likely that they are going to be able to reach their peers in their community and get them to participate and kind of work as myth busters on our behalf. We can advance to the next slide. The second strategic goal that our office has is to leverage city food procurement to increase city department food purchases from regional producers and BIPOC producers. Some of the ways that we the main way that we operate under this goal is the participation in the good food purchasing program. The city has an ordinance that encourages city agencies to use values based procurement in purchasing purchasing food food for for their department.

Now right current at current, the Boston Public Schools Food Nutrition Services Program is far and away the largest purchaser of food for the city of Boston and they have been in compliance with this ordinance and are what that means for them is that they assess where they are buying food and making sure that it meets certain quality thresholds to ensure that it is supporting a sustainable environment, that it supporting is workers' rights, that it is culturally affirming, and that it is nutritious for the students who are consuming the meals. There are plans to expand this to other city departments, and this is a means of how we do that. On the screen there is a picture of mayor Michelle Wu visiting Joe Psychowski Farms, which is a farm based in Massachusetts where she actually got to harvest sweet potatoes that were being used in the Boston Public School meals. There's also an image of an actual Boston Public Schools lunch featuring an empanada made from Del Sur empanadas, which is another local local business within the city of Boston. That meal also featured locally grown black beans, corn, and carrots as well as an image showing the logos for the Good Food Purchasing Program.

We can advance to the next slide. The third goal for strategic goal for the Office of Food Justice is to increase food recovery from public and private institutions and strengthen pathways to connect food and secure residents with fresh, healthy, recovered food. All of J projects that support this goal include our food recovery assessment. This past November we recently published our food recovery assessment which essentially interviewed folks all across the spectrum of the food recovery landscape within the city of Boston. That means folks who are consuming recovered food.

That means last mile organizations who are receiving donated foods to give them to residents, to the institutions that are actually donating foods. And what we have found is that this is going to be our foundational level of information that we will then build programs and ideas of how we can make improvements in the city. Some of the ways that we have already put that into action include our healthy access through food storage grant in which we have partnered with the YMCA of Greater Boston for them to purchase a large cold storage facility on 30 North Hampton Street that will be used as essentially a food hub to support some of our other food recovery organizations. We also know that the last mile organizations that are small and in neighborhoods needed actual infrastructure to receive additional fresh food items and so we offered another grant to 12 different organizations allowing them to build up that infrastructure. We can advance to the final goal, which is on the next slide.

The next our final goal is to increase food production in neighborhoods including public spaces like parks, housing developments, schools, and community centers. The way that we do this is through partnership with the our office of urban agriculture or better known as GROW Boston. They really lead the work on urban agriculture and some of the programs in which we get to partner with them include the raised garden bed program in which eligible residents are able to receive a raised garden bed at no cost. This has included raised garden beds to accessible heights that are installed to for residents based off of their mobility needs. And this also relates back to our first and second goal of increasing BIPOC producers at farmers' markets, increasing seed purchases from BIPOC farmers because if we address making food production more accessible within the city of Boston, we will make that more accessible.

We'll make the make it accessible for all residents as well. Alright. We can advance to the next slide. And how this translates into the resources that we have for residents is that we cover a lot in Office of Food Justice. It's not just where you can get food when you're in an emergency situation.

We're thinking about all the the background and systems that exist that lead people to needing food in the first place. That being said, we know that that doesn't fix the issue where folks need access to food in a pinch. And so on the screen is a shot a screenshot of one of our more recent food resources guides where we break down available food resources throughout the city of Boston for those who are on SNAP or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as EBT, and non SNAP resources. We make sure that we partner with these organizations to make sure that the information is up to date so that way when residents are trying to get access to food in the short term, they are finding reliable information. Now some, I know that there had been a question about resources for residents who may want pre prepared meals.

As some of you may know, SNAP does not allow for folks to go to a grocery store and buy prepared meals such as something that would be at a salad bar or sorry, salad bar is a bad example, at like a meal bar or a rotisserie chicken. The exception to that is that there is restaurant meals program in which there are certain approved restaurants and food trucks that will allow folks to purchase pre made meals if they meet certain qualifications, whether that is they are currently experiencing homelessness or have mobility issues that prevent them from being able to prepare food independently. At current, there are six Boston restaurants that are participating. There's another agency that we partner with that also delivers medically tailored meals through community servings. However, I will say that upon recent communication with them there is their wait list for new participants is almost twelve months long at this point.

So we know that a need exists, and we're trying to do our best to be a convener and find out from different partners what resources are available and identify where we may be able to expand on that. I realize I've thrown a lot of information out there, but the good news is that is the conclusion of what I have to say and we'll open it up to questions.

My pesky mute button again. There. You think after five years of remote meetings, I I would be better at that, but alas. Anyway, thank you, Melissa, for your presentation. Does anyone from the board have any, any questions?

This is Wes. I do.

I go ahead, Wes.

Hi, Melissa. Thank you so much for your time and your presentation. Just one simple question actually for you, if I may. At the very end, you just said that there's that twelve month waiting list for that program, that it could take up to twelve months for folks to be served. What is the reason that that waiting list is so long? And I don't know. I guess that's my question. That that's my question. Why is it so long? Do we know?

Well, in all I will say this as I can speak in general terms when it comes to food access programs, not just in Boston but nationally, is that the need far outstrips the supply as far as the programs that are able to provide emergency food, whether that is through fresh programs or through prepared meal programs. We just know that there are more people who are struggling with food insecurity than there are resources to account for those needs. And community servings is particular demand because they do medically tailored meals. So in order for someone to be eligible, they need to have physician submit a medical note saying that they are not able to prepare meals independently for a variety of reasons and because they may be experiencing some acute medical condition that makes it difficult for them to do so. Would you think that would be restrictive as far as the number of folks that would have that need, but unfortunately, the demand just far exceeds their capacity.

I see. Gotcha. Okay. Thanks so much. You're welcome.

Do we have any other questions from any members of the board? Not seeing any. I guess I will ask a question. Melissa, I know you said there are six. For example, in your presentation, you listed a number of resources, but you didn't necessarily on the slide, you didn't list the names, like like, of the of the restaurant participating or whatnot. Is there a way that we can or the public can get access to to the names of those, like the restaurants, for example?

Absolutely. So that exists actually through the DTA website, the Department of Transitional Assistance. Honestly, the fastest way is probably just to do a Google search or an internet search for SNAP restaurant program. That will get you there the fastest. I can also more than happy to share at the conclusion of this meeting, share with Andrea that can then be added on. But I will say it'd be good to check that website because it not only lists restaurants in Boston but throughout the state. So if there are folks who may be on the cusp of neighborhoods, you can find out about resources that are outside municipal boundaries.

Sure. And another question that I had, Melissa, was the food pantries. Do you know if if Do you know Is there any resource that that discusses the accessibility of those locations? Is there a list of the locations? You know, when I say accessibility, I mean I mean physical access for persons with disabilities. I know, or at least I've heard in the past that some are in churches and and whatnot. Is there a requirement that they be physically accessible as well?

That's a great question. I'm not currently aware of any sort of list that would have that level of specificity. There is any food pantry that exists within the city of Boston, they do have to get a permit through ISD. I'm just not personally familiar if there is a designation about the accessibility requirements

at a

pantry at the ISD level. But we do keep a current list of food pantry resources that we are aware of within the city of Boston. The Greater Boston Food Bank also has a food pantry finder for those who are trying to figure out where they exist within the city and beyond as far as the recipients of food donations from the Greater Boston Food Bank.

Sure. So in terms of finding out the accessibility of their location, the physical access of the of the individual locations, I guess the the best advice we could give anyone in our neighborhood would be to contact the locations, or or what would you suggest?

What I would suggest is, yes, to definitely call ahead in advance because some of these organizations may have may be able to provide accommodations that we may not be aware of as an office. So what we do have is through our food resource guide and in particular the resource that we partner with NFAC through slash Vital Connections or an organization where they are making monthly calls to make sure that food pantry dates, times, locations are up to date and accurate, they would be accessing that resource in order to not only find out their location, but we also include a phone number so folks can call in advance in case they have any questions.

Sure. And one final question from me is what can we do as a board to support your work and to maybe to think about you know, I know you said you're trying, you know, because of the the demand far outweighs the supply in terms of in terms of just food access in general. What what can we do as a board to support to support your work and to to maybe, you know, develop or or investigate some resources as to, you know, folks with disabilities who may need, you know, prepared meals or who who may benefit from prepared meals, say.

Sure. That's an excellent question. I feel like there is always room to have a voice at the table for the experience of anyone trying to receive food resources. Right now, the main or a food a resource that really opens up a person's eligibility to participate in food benefit programs is receiving SNAP or being part of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as EBT. The Department of Transitional Assistance is the state organization that runs that program, that determines eligibility of individuals, and they do have a disability coordinator at DTA.

However, it is always helpful to have them hear firsthand experience about what the challenges might be for somebody trying to enroll in the SNAP program and to advocate for greater expansion of the prepared meals program and why that is important for folks with disabilities and just getting a little more context into how that is an unnecessary barrier for folks who are experiencing food insecurity. We typically partner with the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute. They are a great agency that holds DTA accountable for the services that they are meant to provide. And so if this board is ever interested in hearing more about the work that is being done to make sure that DTA is providing for all eligible residents of the city and for the state as a whole, I think that there could be room for great conversation there.

Great. Thank you so much. Any other questions before we move move on to the next part of our agenda?

Jerry, this is Andrea. I don't see any other board members, but if you'll allow me a a quick question. How do more restaurants become part of that prepared food snack program? Is there a plan to do outreach to more restaurants? Is there maybe information that our board members could share when they're at their favorite neighborhood restaurant about why it might benefit them to join that SNAP program?

Yeah. That's a great question. I don't know the short answer to that off the top of my head, but I can try to connect you with folks either at DTA about there is information on their website about the process, but again, not as a as a rest as not being a current restaurateur, I'm sure that there is more to the process that it would be helpful for to be able to advocate and be able to speak in real time. This is what the terms would mean as a restaurant to be able to participate in this program.

So

I can collect that information and share

it. Thanks. Sounds like some follow-up conversations the board might have with DTA or Mass Law Reform Institute or the others you've mentioned. Thanks.

Great. Thank you again, Melissa, and we and we, look forward to an ongoing, ongoing dialogue. As Adrian just said, I and as just from our our our conversation here, I I think there's some work that and advocacy that we can do together. So to to continue to improve food access for for our residents, but but particularly residents with disabilities. So thank you.

Yep. Thank you. And I will point out for the record that I'm also a resident of West Roxbury, so it's always nice

to talk to a neighbor. Of course. Great.

Thank you all.

Thank you. Next on the agenda is my report, which will be which will be brief, but I wanted to I wanted to to thank the those board members and community members who who took the time either in person or online, took the time to come to the disability commune commission's annual community forum that that took place on the eighth. We had we had a lot of participation in the room and online. Andrew, commissioner, can you can you remind us how many people were were able to attend?

Jerry, I have that information in my report. If you wanna just wait, I have a slide

on Oh, sure. Sure. Sure. No problem. Thank you.

Yes. You know, like I said, it was very active active discussions. The mayor came again, and she took questions and posed for for photos with with residents, and it was a really, really good event. I would I would encourage I know it's difficult for board members who who work to take time out of their their busy schedules to, to attend, but I think if if at all possible, you know, in future years, if if we could if we could have more and more of us, you know, at the event or participate in the event, that that would be that would be great. It's a great way to hear from, you know, constituents directly and to hear some of the ongoing concerns, and also for for us to be able to highlight, through the commission's report, highlight, the work that the work that the commission does and that we do as as a as a board.

You know, many many of the participants were very impressed by the work that that, that we've been able to accomplish, and and, you know, you should be there to to, to hear those, those words and to take take credit for that. But it's it was a great event. I think that the commissioner and and her staff, and you'll and you'll hear more of, you know, in her in the commissioner's report upcoming. The next thing I wanted to highlight was another opportunity for for community engagement, which I'm sure the commissioner will talk about a little bit too, but I wanted to highlight is the the Boston Public Library drop ins that that Colleen Colleen is doing. I know she has a couple couple of them upcoming next week in Rossendale and JP, Tuesday and Thursday.

I think they're from three to five. But, again, it would be a great opportunity to have a board member or two, if if you can, you know, stop by and and kinda sit with, sit with Colleen and, and meet meet, residents right in their neighborhoods and and to and to talk with talk with residents directly and hear their and and, again, hear their their concerns. And the last thing in in my report is that that one of our board members is is stepping down and has submitted their resignation. Charlie Kim Charlie Kim has decided, you know, due to other commitments that he is that he is stepping down. I wanted to I wanted to thank thank him for all his work, and and he'll be sorely missed.

He'll be sorely missed on the board, and I hope that that we can continue to hear hear from Boston Public School parents on issues concerning serving them and and students with disabilities. I think Charlie played a vital vital vital vital role in that, and he will be slowly missed. I will let there was one other thing, but I will let the the commissioner talk about. She emailed earlier this week to all of us about the letter saying that the that the Disability Convention Expo wants to come back and is willing to work with us. I'm coming back to the city, but I'll let the commissioner expand on that in her report.

So without further ado, we'll hear from, commissioner Akash.

Thank you, Jerry. Thanks for that great lead in. Yes. I did wanna share with the board the exciting news that the Abilities Expo has new owners. And since they received your letter of interest in coming back to Boston, they are very interested in working with you all to see if that could happen.

So I didn't do a slide on this, but I'll just talk about it for a minute and then we'll go to my slides. So as many of you know, the Abilities Expo is a group that comes to different cities across the country and it's kind of like a one stop shop for disability. They have tables and vendors and it's everything from wheelchairs to, resources for people who are blind or neurodivergent. It was a very successful event and a lot of people in the community looked forward to it. And then they stopped coming to Boston a few years ago and the reason that they cited was the, cost of hotels and transportation.

And Boston is a very expensive city. We know that. But, when they received your letter, they emailed us right back and said that they were interested in working with us. They were actually looking at Connecticut as a potential option. So we wanna try to convince them not to go to Connecticut but to come to Boston. So they're planning for 2027 right now. So I'm gonna huddle internally with my cabinet chiefs and see if there's any way we could steer them in the right direction or make partnerships maybe with the convention center or other hotels to see if there's any way that we can support them coming back to Boston. We don't necessarily have funding to offer, but maybe if they make the right connections and we talk about the outreach that we'll do. And we know

that Boston was one of

the most well attended venues that they had. So we're really gonna make a push over the next few months to see if we can make that happen. And if we do, I'm gonna give a big credit to the advisory board for staying on top of it and for writing the letter. So this is a great example of the impact that your work can have. So congratulations to all the board members on that.

Commencement Any questions on

The only thing I'll

note is it's 2027

that they're looking, and they already

have their 2026 schedule planned,

it seems. So just FYI, little still kind of a medium way out, but very exciting. Sorry to interrupt.

Yep. No. I think I said 2027, but yep. That's great. Any questions on that before I go to my slides? Okay. Andrea can share my slides. Alrighty. So we'll start with some general city of Boston updates, I believe. Okay.

So as many of you know, every spring, Mayor Wu does neighborhood coffee hours, and these are a great opportunity to meet the mayor in person, meet cabinet chiefs, meet, city staff from various departments. And, it's you know, they're really accessible to the public, so we always promote them if you wanna ask a question or get the latest information. There are still several dates throughout the rest of May and June. So if you after the meeting, if you click on this link, that will be a list of all the neighborhoods that the mayor is still planning to attend coffee hours in. Also this year, we are having open streets again.

Open street events take place from 10:30 to 03:00, and the dates and locations we have this year are Saturdays and Sundays. They are July 12 in Roxbury, August 10 in Hyde Park, September 14 in Dorchester, October 18 in Matapan, and November 2 in Jamaica Plain. We're also doing outdoor sorry, open streets on Newbury. So that will happen later on in the season, and I will maybe we can put that link in the chat for when those dates are coming up. And then also want to let you know that outdoor dining season is back.

So outdoor dining began in 2020 during the pandemic as a way to keep businesses open and also let people do something socially because nobody could gather inside in any type of group or cluster or anything like that. So the city made a big push to get restaurants to help them, you know, give them resources, and we gave out ramps to make sure that there was access. So now five years later, outdoor dining has become a staple in the city of Boston and many cities across the country. So our staff works very closely with multiple city departments to ensure that all outdoor dining is accessible. But we know the challenges remain, and we want you to help us as the eyes and ears of the neighborhood.

We would love to have you let us know if you see any accessibility barriers. You can report them to 311 or email them to ADA@Boston.gov. And, you know, I'm talking about food justice. We also see this as another area where people are able to, you know, have the same experience that other people who aren't disabled have as far as outdoor dining. So please help us. This is one way that Boyd can be very helpful to us as a department by letting us know if you do see any accessibility barriers in any outdoor dining setups across the city. And outdoor dining is in most neighborhoods. It's not in the North End as you may know, but it is in a lot of other neighborhoods. So we'll go to the next slide. Okay.

So a couple of other department updates now. To recap the Disability Community Forum, again, as Jerry expressed, I want to thank our advisory board members who attended in person and virtually. The community always likes to meet the board members and hear about their interests and expertise. So thank you all for taking the time to attend. We did have about a 125 to a 150 people who attended, plus mayor Wu and other city officials.

Again, I personally think that this mayor is very accessible to the public. A lot of other cities, mayors don't really give up their time like this to meet and greet neighborhood residents. So we're always thrilled that the mayor makes an effort to attend our events, and we also have her penciled in for ADA 35, which I'll talk about in a few minutes. But we also during the forum, we answered a lot of questions, presubmitted those on Zoom, and then people live in the room. So we didn't get to answer all the questions.

So we do have a document that we kept track of questions and we are in the process of just filling out all the answers to the questions that people asked and we will send that out to all the registered attendees very soon. We'll also post it on our web page, cityofboston.gov/disability. So speaking of ADA, as you know, we celebrate ADA Day every July with a celebration on City Hall Plaza that includes a resource fair and food and music and a speaking program. So this year, we are gonna do a little bit differently. We are gonna do a collaborative in person event with multiple disability agencies we're calling ADA thirty five.

And it's similar to the other big anniversaries like the twentieth, the twenty fifth and the thirtieth. So this is the thirty fifth anniversary. So we really wanna instead of doing a resource fair and a celebration, we really wanna do a march and rally to stand up for disability rights because we know the way things are going over the last few months that some rights have been looked at by different federal agencies, and we wanna make sure that they are not compromised or scaled back in any way. So ADA 35 is gonna start with a flag raising. It's our first flag raising ever.

So we have a disability flag that we're gonna raise on City Hall Plaza. We've invited the mayor to say a few words. And then BCIL is gonna rally the troops and have everybody march up to Boston Common to do a rally at the Embrace Memorial. We're not gonna have a formal speaking program, so we don't wanna have, like, a host of elected officials. We really wanna hear from community members and advocates about what the ADA means to them, about disability rights, and how we really need to to fight for our rights and make sure that they're not compromised.

So we really want you to help us spread the word. This is another way you can be very helpful because the more people who come, the more power we will have. We are not gonna be doing a virtual event. This type of event doesn't really lend itself to a virtual platform. So it's gonna be in person, rain or shine. We'd love to have a big crowd. I know for the twenty fifth, we had over 2,000 people on the Boston Common. On the thirtieth, we had also planned a march and rally, but COVID struck, so we had to shift to a virtual march and rally. So we actually did a good job. We had over 2,000 people attend that event virtually.

But this year, we would love to get different groups from across the state and really throughout New England to come to Boston for the afternoon and help us fight for disability rights. So the flag raising will be at twelve noon, and then around 12:30, we'll start the march to the common and start the rally around 1PM on Boston Common. So we hope you will all join us and also spread the word. Next slide. Okay.

So being at the Disability Community Forum made me think that maybe everybody doesn't know exactly what our does and what type of work that we really try to focus on. So I wanted to take a minute just to go over this so everybody you know, we have some new board members and we have members of the public if they're interested in what we do. So our mission is to make sure that residents and visitors with disabilities have access to everything that Boston has to offer, including employment, education, transportation, and civic activities. Our actual responsibility is to lead the city's collaborative efforts to ensure that all city services, programs, policies, and infrastructure infrastructure is accessible to people with disabilities. And this is a huge lift.

Everything from every program that's put on, every meeting, to every piece of property or facility that the city owns, buildings, parks, recreation centers, pools, everything the city owns and operates has to be accessible for people with disabilities. So we can't do that on our own because we don't plow the streets, and we don't build sidewalks, and we don't run programming at BCYF centers. So what we do is we work systemically with all city departments to ensure that everything they do is accessible. And just to give you a quick example of the way we do this for the most impact is one way we do it is through trainings, which Kai leads, and they've done a great job with that. And then me and my staff, we all hope have participated in meetings with different departments to go over different issues we've heard since our last meeting or to talk about policies and upcoming work that they're working on to see how we can ensure that it's it's accessible.

So just as as an example, I put down some of our meetings that we have on a regular basis. So biweekly, we meet with equity and inclusion, Boston Parks and Rec, the press team, and I meet with the mayor's office of housing to look at the lottery applications for the ADA built housing units to make sure that the housing units are going to people with disabilities who actually need those features. So those are some of the things that we do on a biweekly scale. Monthly meetings internally, we work with public works, BTD, the libraries. The elections has an advisory committee that Colleen sits on.

I meet with H. Strong. Andrew meets with human resources, and we meet with language and communications access, all in an effort to talk about any issues of accessibility that would have come up or to look forward in policies and programs that they're planning to make sure that they consider access and inclusion of people with disabilities. We also meet with external agencies on a monthly basis, including system wide access at the MBTA, the Mass Office on Disability, our national group, which is the municipal offices of people with disabilities, the PCA Workforce Council, which I sit on. And these meetings are really intended to talk about things we have in common, things that we work on, things that we can problem solve or brainstorm on, and we really get a lot of work done in these meetings.

And it also keeps us involved in the work that they're going on. It keeps us updated in what they're doing, and it reminds these other offices to always think about access when they're planning any initiatives, programs, or policies. And then we have quarterly meetings with the streets cabinet. That's writ large includes things like public works and BTD, everything from parking to bike lanes to sidewalks and things like that. And I also sit on the Commonwealth Care Alliance board, so I have quarterly meetings with those.

And as any of you who are on that program know, it recently came under new ownership. So that's a concern that many of us have, but I am involved in monthly quarterly meetings to make sure that they also consider the perspective of patients with disabilities. Next slide. And then I just wanna share a few updates and opportunities for board members. So advisory board membership, as you heard Jerry say, Charlie will be stepping down, and we know Dussia has stepped down.

So we are working to fill these seats within the next few months. There's a lot going on in the city, so it hasn't been we haven't been able to prioritize it with the administration as much as we'd like to, but we are working on that. And we do wanna let you know how much we appreciate all of your hard work and dedication, and we really look forward to you sharing updates on your areas of interest and expertise that you've expressed and hope that that can become a really important part of our board meetings every month. And I also I know I've mentioned this before, but I do wanna encourage any board member members who may have time to join the Massachusetts Commissions on Disability Alliance meetings. They used to be weekly, but they've have now switched to monthly.

And that's a group of members from different disability commissions across the state. And, again, similar to our monthly meetings that we have with different departments, they share advice. They do mentorship, commiserate on things that aren't going well, and talk about things that they need to do better. So we know that all cities and towns are facing the same issues. So it's a primary goal of the group to make sure no one has to reinvent the wheel as far as problem solving things that have already been solved. So it's a great a great meeting. Some of my staff attends every month, and it's certainly open to board members to attend if you're interested. And I think that's the end of my report, but I'm happy to answer any questions anyone may have.

Thank you, commissioner, for highlighting the the very hard work and the wonderful work and important work that the Disability Commission does, and also thank you for supporting this board and and helping us be, you know, a valuable resource for residents of the city and nonresidents as well. I really, really appreciate all all the resources and and time you devote to, to us as well. So thank you. Do we have any questions from members of the board? I see, a couple of hands raised. Why don't we start with, Paulette's, question for the commissioner?

Hi, commissioner. I was wondering when does the Makoto, committee meet monthly?

They are Wednesdays at noon, and, we can put information. If we can't do it in the chat, we will send it out to the board. And there's a link on the slide deck. So once you get the slide deck, you can click on that link.

Thank you.

Commissioner, this is Jerry. Do you know how about how long those meetings are usually? Is it an hour?

I believe it's an hour.

Okay. Great. Thank you. Wes, you have a question for the commissioner? This

is Wes. Sure. Hang on one second. Just need to rearrange my screen.

Hold on. Hold on. Hold on.

Oh, here we go. Okay. Yes. Commissioner Mikosh, thank you so much for your presentation, for your report. I just wanted to add one comment, if I may.

The Disability Commission is helping people find employment throughout the city of Boston and I just sort of wanted to let you know that the deaf community in Washington DC in particular is getting much smaller. In real time, we're finding not only because of the Gallaudet University, but also because there are many deaf and hard of hearing folks, individuals who have lost their job as a result of what's going on at the federal level. And I am sure that many deaf folks are thinking about moving out of Washington DC and in that relocation effort, especially folks who are are deaf who work in federal government. And I'm thinking that it would be nice if there were some sort of a link to the city of Boston if we offered ourselves as a relocation locale. Maybe we collected resumes or what have you be a source of opportunities for folks.

The same way that Governor Healy did posted. I can send a link. I can put it in the chat actually. Governor Healy has just made some efforts in that way to try to recruit folks from other states to move to Massachusetts. I think we could attract some of these deaf folks, people with disabilities who are moving out of DC, and potentially they could become a resource for us here. So that is what I wanted to share. Just put that in the chat. And that's it.

Thanks for us. Yeah, so we usually make a push for employment in October during National Disability Employment Awareness Month. We have a series of webinars that we do, four different webinars that promote employment. And last year we did our first pilot interview day where we had people pre screened applicants who were interested in jobs, came into the city, applied for jobs and they were able to be granted a first round interview if they met the minimum qualifications. So we're hoping to do that again this year. We'd love to expand it, but it just depends on our capacity. But I do think that's an interesting idea that we could definitely, like, make a dedicated spot on our web page for employment and take a look at what the state's doing. So that's something we can look into.

Kamish, this Yeah. Is I just wanted to say I do happen to know through HR I'm I'm the personnel officer for the department, so sometimes I get some HR information. The city has joined a new website. It's a recruiting website sort of like Indeed or idealist.com. That's a it's called like Fedmatch or something like that, specifically for federal workers who might be looking for new jobs and for employers who would wanna hire them to recruit.

So there is that sort of back end rate. We are advertising jobs on that platform and recruiting folks from that platform. We also have, as commissioner mentioned, that work from last fall, a sort of evergreen, if you will, a video on our YouTube that aims to demystify how to apply for jobs with the city of Boston. We did have ASL when we recorded it live. It did not make it onto the Zoom recording, unfortunately, so it is on our list to get that rerecorded now, which also gives us the opportunity to maybe have a CDI do it.

So it's a good call that we should prioritize that, and then you can share that with anyone you know who might be leaving DC.

Great. Thank you. Great. And then I also noticed that Wes put in the chat that the North End neighborhood coffee hour is postponed tomorrow due to the Norris storm we're getting. So and Tara put in that she highly recommends the coffee hours. So thank you.

Yes. This is Jerry. I would second that. I'm sorry that I missed the the West Roxbury coffee hour this year. I have, you know, friends who who try to go every year and actually who try to go to go to multiples coffee hours.

It is a good it is a good opportunity to to connect with not only city leaders, but also typically the state reps from that particular neighborhood or who who cover that particular neighborhood will will come and stuff. So it they they are they are good resources. So I would encourage, just like commissioner did in her report to for anyone to attend those events. So but again, thank you commissioner for your report and thank you for all the hard work that you and and your staff do. We really, really do appreciate it.

So next on the agenda is another hardworking member of the Disability Commission, the Architectural Act Access Report with Patricia Mendez.

This is Andrea. Apologies. I may not have made her a cohost. There she is. Sorry about that, Patricia. You can unmute yourself now.

Hi, Jerry. Jerry. I I don't have a report this month, but it's great to be here. Hi, everyone. Thank you.

Great. Okay. That's okay. You know, we we do know that you work very hard attending the architectural access board meetings every month and and whatnot. So and I know that if something comes up between meetings, you'll you'll let us know anything that comes up or that we can we can help with. We appreciate, we appreciate your hard work. Thank you, Christian.

I should've put the AAB on our systemic meetings. I'll add that. Patricia's there every other week.

Yes. And so moving right along on the on the agenda, it's a time for individual board members to highlight the the important work that that they've been doing over the past month or so.

Jerry, I see Olivia has a hand up.

Yes. Olivia, was it in regards to this topic or another topic?

It's in regards to Patricia, actually. Okay. I wanted to ask her a question about the APS system in Boston and whether she's aware of the fact that Seattle and a couple of other locations in in the country have had issues with people hacking the audio on APS and adding extraneous things to them. I can send a video that I came across just in my YouTubing, but people are are adding political messaging and all kinds of other nonsense to them, and I'm wondering whether Boston has had any issues. Hi, Olivia.

I I've heard

of that issue in the news, but we haven't I haven't heard that we in Boston have had the issue of somebody hacking the APSs. APS stands for audible pedestrian signals, and those are the the crosswalk sound, signals. So, if if you would like to send me information, I'll I'll be happy to look at it, but we I have not heard that we have suffered those kind of, hacks. Okay. Good.

Thank you.

Patricia, just following up on that.

Yes. Do

you know if there's something that the municipalities can do to to help prevent or guard themselves against possible hacking?

That technology is over my head. Don't know, Jerry. I I don't know how that works. Okay.

Well, let's let's let's keep on, and and thank you, Olivia, for for bringing up the that issue or highlighting the issue. It's important. We wouldn't want that to happen here, in the city if at all possible. I mean, there there have been times when this very meeting's been been hacked as well. So so, we do know that it happens, but we wanna try to try to be as safe as possible, you know, around that.

So, but again, next on the agenda was opportunity for board member board member shout outs. Feel free, feel free to to highlight, any and all important activities that you've been up to or your communities have been been up to over the past little bit or or upcoming, and, now is the opportunity. I see a couple of hands. Why don't we go with Zari first?

Thank you, Jerry. So I just wanted to highlight a program that's happening at Mass Eye and Ear. It's a program called Employment Now Initiative. And basically, it's a program that provides career opportunities for people who are blind with low vision. The program offers comprehensive training including assistive technology, transferable skills, resume writing.

They've had a lot of success stories of placement for people who are blind and low vision. I put the name in case people are interested in working in health care. So I actually do not work in the office, but I just want to share a resource.

Great. Thank you so much, Zari, for highlighting that. Next up, we will go with Paul.

Hey, everyone, and thanks again for a great forum, commissioner. That was outstanding. A lot of great reviews. May is Mental Health Awareness Month, as you all know, and as an advocate for mental health. My line is always open at paul.karen@boston.gov, and as we spoke at the forum, West brought to my attention the Van Gogh exhibit at the MFA.

It goes until September 30, and Van Gogh was a great artist with both physical and mental mental health. He reaches out to a lot of the community through his artwork, and there is subsidized passes through the Boston Public Library. If you go on the website and go on to services, museum passes to register for the event. It goes until September. And just a quick shout out to Mayor Wu and Councilor Durkin. During these times about their great advocacy for mental health, they're always accountable and available to us. Thank you.

Thank you, Paul. And just to piggyback back on that, the museum also has a has a wonderful access program where where, particularly for folk for visitors who are blind and and and low vision, if you call ahead or email access@atmfa.org, you can get a you can get a tour of either, you know, of specific exhibit or a specific area of the museum that you're interested in. You can get basically an audio described tour. They have actual trained guides who go around with staff I mean, with patrons to to provide that service for them and and to make the arts more accessible, for all. And we're hoping to have at a future, advisory board meeting, we're hoping to have, the director of the of the access department at the MFA, our own Jessica Dunin, come and and speak about about the access services that they have to make make art accessible to to all.

So so we're looking forward to that.

I see Richard had his hand has in his hand up as well. Yeah. Thanks, Jerry. So I just finished being very involved. I mentioned earlier today that, you know, my focus a lot of my focus aside from that which I get paid for is about kids' mental health.

And I may have mentioned at a previous meeting, for those of the commission and the public who aren't aware of it, the Baker Center for Children and Families, which was previously known as the Judge Baker Children's Center, which was founded on Mission Hill. It was founded well over a hundred years ago, by friends of the first juvenile, court justice in Massachusetts who was, disturbed by the fact that back then, children could be arrested and imprisoned effectively and was looking for alternatives for children who had serious mental health problems and really didn't deserve to be imprisoned. They really needed help with their, challenge mental health challenges. So his, friends of his founded, the Baker Center on Mission Hill, and it's become the premier entity in Massachusetts, in Boston in particular, to help children and families who find the school systems in which they're in the public school systems inadequate to deal with the kids. So they have a school.

They have a unique and incredibly effective back based treatment program for children and families, and they do first rate research as well. So last week, we had an event at the Park Plaza, which I guess now is owned by the Hilton, and had several 100 people there. The primary guest of honor was General Dunford, maybe you've heard of. He was the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff recently and has been a focus of his has been, you know, the mental health of veterans, especially those who served abroad and were in combat. And

it was quite

an event. And for those of you who aren't familiar with the Baker Center, I urge you to just look at the website and and get familiar with it because it's a tremendous resource for, you know, children who are disabled with their mental health challenges. And they have all kinds of ways for people to afford to go there, including free services when necessary. So, you know, if if if if called upon again at these meetings, I may talk about it a little bit more. But I I urge everyone to take a look, and if you have know of any family that's got a problem of this nature, you might tell them to consider contacting the Baker Center because the stories of its successes are quite incredible.

Thanks, Jared.

Thank you. Thanks for highlighting that that Richard. You know, I actually know some staff of and some former staff at the at the school, and I they were very, very dedicated staff members. And love their work, so so it's it's important it's good to hear that that that their their work is appreciated throughout the out the city and it and it is a good resource. I I noticed that another board member slipped in earlier in the meeting and I haven't we haven't had a chance to to have that person, introduce themselves and say hello.

So Juan Carlos, if you could, take a minute to introduce yourself. Not not to put you on the spot, I don't know if you you wanna highlight highlight anything that you've been doing over the past past month, but I did I did see you myself at at an event recently that you might wanna alert

to to discuss. Yes. Certainly. Hello, everyone. Apologies for joining in the meeting. And this is Juan Carlos Ramirez. I live in Boston South End. I'm also a commission member. Yes. Santaree, Jerry, was great seeing you after so long in person.

It's always different, and always glad to see you. Over the past month, as you know, I'm involved a lot in adaptive sports, so I continue bringing awareness about all the opportunities that people with disabilities have for participating in adaptive sport. As a matter of fact, next week, there will be a meeting Tuesday twenty seventh, Kailbrush Foundation through Ann, because she's gonna be leading a conversation about opportunities in adaptive sport through Kailbrush Foundation. So this is a meeting that is gonna occur around 05:30 next Tuesday. So I wanted to share that with the group.

I'm happy to share additional details as I learn more with the board. Another great event that was led by our common friend Jerry, his name is Jim Weiss, as you some of you may know. He was basically writing play related to a disability on trial. He brought a lot of folks to participate in this two

day

event in the art centers in South End as well or South South Boston. I I am not very familiar with the area, but the topic was very important for a lot of people who want to discuss the importance of the terminology whether we should be we should we should use we should continue using the term disability or other. And he was trying to bring up both arguments to a play. And I guess it was a great event for an opportunity for discussion in the community, and I was surprisingly glad that a lot of people without disabilities showed up to the event.

Great. Yeah. Just to piggyback on that, this is Jerry. Yeah. It was it was a it was a great event.

Jim Weiss, a great friend of of of this board and of the commission, actually has has, written a play, has tapped into his creative side, in his retirement, and he wrote a play. Basically, it's kinda like a disability one zero one, but through the lens of of, you know, a trial setting, putting the actual word disability on trial. And it was it was very well received, and it was very provocative, and he's and he's hoping to, refine it and maybe, you know, maybe have it be part of, you know, school curriculums, go to schools anywhere from middle school to to college age, and it it was great, and it just highlights how how people with disabilities, yeah, you know, are are creative, you know, as well. We're not just people that that, you know, sit on the sidelines, but but we like to participate and we are creative and we are are tapping into our creative creative veins and genes. So it was great.

And like Juan said, it's always great to see each other in person, you know, in this age of of Zoom and everything. So but anyway, so thanks for everybody for participating and highlighting just a little bit of what you've what you the great work that

you

do. And next on the agenda is Jerry, I think

we have a few hands from the board.

Oh, I'm sorry. I am I'm I'm still having to refine my my cell phone when we get to this topic here. Hang on one second.

I see Wes and Paulette both have a hand up.

Oh, Paulette. Yes. Paulette, please.

Wes had his hand up first.

Okay. Go ahead again, Wes, please.

Thank you, Jerry. I was waiting for my turn, and thank you, Paulette, for identifying that. One short share out, I received the business cards from the city of Boston for the closed captioning for individuals to turn on their TV in the restaurants. So I am showing them to you all through the computer screen. It says that required by law, the city of Boston requires that you turn on your captioning to your televisions in public settings.

And this is phenomenal. I finally have a stack of them, and I gave them to one of the newer restaurants. They make awesome chicken cutlets. There's this new place that I go to. And when I gave them the card, they immediately turned on the caption for me. It was an Italian related movie, but it was on TV, and it was repeating itself over and over. So it was great. That's outstanding. Immediately, and I didn't have an issue.

That's outstanding. That's outstanding. What a what a good success story. And, Paula, again, I apologize. I thought I had looked at all pages, all all three pages on my screen here of folks, but I had forgotten the first page. I apologize. Go right ahead, please. That's okay. I have

I have two things. One is kinda related to what Wes was talking about in terms of the business cards. Do we have any business cards that we could use if we see a situation and we wanna pass them out to somebody in the community or stickers. For instance, I noticed that during the winter, the tendency for snow clouds to put leftover snow in the handicapped parking spots still happens in some places. And so I mentioned it to a couple of public places, and they said that they would take care of it because I said, basically, we have two parking spaces for people with with disabilities that they can't use because it's full of stuff.

So I was just wondering if the commission has stickers that alert the public that if you have an issue with this parking space or it's not accessible or whatever, that they could call such and such a number. So that was my first question. And my my share out is that I attended the older Americans day at the State House, and the PCA, a group organ a group representing the PCAs spoke very emotionally about some of the proposed cutbacks that being proposed in the budget for them. And so, I just wanted to alert people that that that whole issue of them cutting PCA's salaries in hours hasn't been resolved yet. So those are the two issues that I had.

Thank you for

highlighting, the PCA issue. And, again, that's something that the board may, wanna follow closely and and do some advocacy work on it or as needed. And, does anybody from the commissioner's office have have any comp can respond to Paula's first issue or question?

Hi, Jerry. This is Andrea. We don't to the direct question of business cards, we don't have ones for the board. We do have what we call our generic office cards that say disabilities commission and that you can call the disabilities commission. To the specific example of snowplows pushing into the accessible parking spaces, if it's in a private lot, it's a little bit complicated.

That wouldn't necessarily be the city. It would be potentially a complaint to it might be. It's a little complicated. So let me follow-up with you on that one specifically because I'd hate to give them the wrong information to give you the wrong information to give to them, but we can absolutely talk about it.

Okay. Thank you.

And I can respond to the PCA rally issues. So thank you for raising that. Yeah. There's always concern that PCA services will be cut or scaled back. And I do serve on the PCA Workforce Council. At this time, they're not talking about cutting any services and definitely not cutting PCA pay because that's all bargained through a collective bargaining. They're in a union. So their pay pay is actually increasing. The thing that they're they're looking at is ways to make the program sustainable. It has a the PCA program has a large rate of growth that MassHealth thinks is not sustainable.

So they're at this point, they're not looking at cutting anything, but they are looking at containing it. Meaning, next year is fine. The budget will be fine. There are cuts proposed. Moving forward, we're worried that they may, like, cap the program or, you know, take away some nonvital services. But at this point, there there's nothing being cut, so you can be rest assured of that. And the PCA wages are also not being cut there in the union, and they have, collectively bargained, for raises through 2026.

Thank you.

Great. And thanks for everybody again for those shout shout outs, and I will continue to to work on making sure everybody gets gets heard. I appreciate your patience on that. So next on the agenda is old business, and I see that we we have the, Boston Center for Independent Living, as a possible, help, help, working with the members of the advisory board on a mayoral candidate survey for for the upcoming Boston mayoral election. So, I know, Wes, you were, you were gracious enough to try to take the lead on this issue.

So is there anything you'd like to discuss?

Hi. Yes. This is Wes. There's a couple of things. Let me scroll for a moment.

I'm just catching up on something. I sent an email to Bill for the initial meeting, and I have not heard back. And I'm hoping to hear from them soon from BCIL. And thinking about the survey, the board did that last year, and where do we wanna prioritize the focus? I'm thinking some of the priorities could be shifted and turn them into possible questions for the mayoral candidates.

I'm just wondering if anybody here has thoughts on that.

This is Andrea. The only reason I'm chiming in on thoughts is as reminder to the board, you are all special employees of the city subject to some of the political activities restrictions. So I just wanna note that because we may need to get some more specific direction on what you all can produce. If it's a so generally speaking, for example, in our office, we can encourage people to vote and that's really the extent of what we can do as public servants. We can't engage in a lot of really any political activity.

So I just if you're looking to produce the survey, we may need to get more guidance on what that survey can can look like if you're producing it. Does that make sense?

Yeah. So I I guess He said that. I this is Jerry too. I'm sorry to to talk over you, Wes. So I guess, from your guidance last month, Andrea, you said that we as a board could work with an organization on crafting some sort of disability access survey or something like that. We we we can't necessarily produce it ourselves, so what we would need if we wanted to produce it, we we would have to get further guidance from the city on that. Is that correct?

My my understanding, and I'm not a

lawyer, is that you could, you know, promote and and help educate the disability community about this survey that's out there and then it might be, you know, something people want to look at, review, see the results of. But I do not believe you all as a board can actively like contact candidates to to take the survey or things like that.

Okay. Alright. So with that said, how how do how should we proceed, do you think? And I'm looking for input from the from the advisory board.

This is

Wes. Okay. Go ahead, Wes.

I do have another comment and a suggestion. I know the disability community in Boston may have some disability related questions for the mayoral candidates, and I'm wondering if there's a way for them to share their questions and if we could take some shit if we could collect some of those questions for them.

Andrea, again, hate to put you on the spot, but

It's a great question. I am not as familiar. Let me take that to legal counsel.

I just wanna protect you all.

Thank you. So it sounds like we have some more clarification needed from the from the city in addition to trying to find an organization that may may wanna work with the advisory board on on this. I do think it's very important for the disability community to to have our voices heard, you know, during the election, and and and I want I want the candidates to to to to be able to hear our our questions and concerns, but it sounds like we may be limited as a board as to how we can do that. So we may need to need to, again, research with with legal and get some more input from the commission. I I can't commit to, you know, taking this back to the executive committee and trying to trying to find out the information from from legal and and go go from there and maybe put this again on next month's agenda?

Richard, do you have a question or comment?

Yeah. Jerry, think Andrea's point is very wise. I've had issues like this before in other contexts and among other things, we were all we were all appointed by the mayor, and and I believe we're considered, to some extent, employees of the of the city. Yeah.

That's my understanding as well. Yeah. So we have

to tread very lightly on this until counsel for the city tells us we can. And even then, I think we should talk about it because how what's our comfort level in the mayor's race with, you know, the mayor who appointed us. You know, I just I think it's a lot to think about Sure. Even if we even if we get past the legal issue. So that's what I had to say. Sure.

Wes, do you have any final comment before we move on to old business?

Yeah. Actually, I think this has actually been really helpful. I think it's a really important conversation that we have to Richard's point, to decide where we stand in addition to the legal piece.

Great. Alright. So, you know, we will try to we will try to connect with with legal to see what we're able to do as a board, and and we'll put this on we'll put this under old business for next meeting. So thank you again for taking the lead on it, Wes, and and we'll we'll try to get further clarification. And I and I I too echo Wes' comments that this is always you know, it's fruitful for us to have these types of discussions.

So moving on. Let's see. Under new business, I see that that we have the cord captioning captioning bill. Andrea, would you mind would you mind, know, kind of summarizing again that issue?

Absolutely. Thank you, Jerry. So this was a bill that we brought to your attention in commissioner's board report. It's a newer version of a bill that has been brought up in the state legislature a number of times. It is a bill that among other things would increase the the established payment rate for stenographers, court reporters.

So at that meetings were live in the last meeting And since then, I have been contacted by the president of the Massachusetts Court Reporters Association who has some additional information they wanted to to share with you, which includes that they are not opposed to a rate increase. I think that doesn't surprise anyone. But the legislation in question eliminates the word stenographer and this concerns the Court Reporters Association because it opens the door for AI and speech recognition, other non human software to replace the use of human's genographers. They have sent me quite a long amount of description of their concerns and what's come up related to that which I can read out or email out to the board if you are interested in hearing that perspective as you consider any action related to supporting or not supporting this bill or partially supporting it or doing nothing.

Andrea, why don't you email it if you if you can so that folks can can kind of at their leisure take a look at it and digest it, if that's okay.

I'm happy to do that.

Great. And thanks for your further research further research on it. So so I guess we will also put this under under old business for for next meeting. Unless anyone has any questions or comments now or clarification that that they'd like from before we review the the document that Andrew is gonna share.

This is Andrea. I will just note that Wes has put in the chat that he's interested in seeing this email. He says, I have always found AI and speech recognition tools to be positive, but would be interested in seeing other views against it.

So I will forward.

Thanks for voicing that voicing that chat message, Andrea. I appreciate that. But moving on, the agenda, is now is the time for public public comment, public input. And, Andrea, there's a we asked folks to raise their hand, and and there's a two minute two minute time limit that we try to hold people to. Is that correct?

That is correct. If you have a question or comment for the board, please use the raise hand function on Zoom. Raise your hand your own hand on camera. I'll click through to to look for you or indicate in the chat that you have a question. We do ask you to limit your public input to two minutes whether it's a question or a comment. If you would like to sign your question, please also let me know that in the chat or by signing for an interpreter and I will ensure that you have multi pin access to work with the interpreters.

So now is the time for public input. And just to be another set of eyes, Andrea, do do does it look like we have have any anyone eager to to share any any public input at this point?

I currently do not see a hand raise function nor do I see a hand being raised around someone's, you know, head or face nor do I see a chat.

We'll give it another few seconds. But seeing none, I would say that, we need a motion, to adjourn the meeting. Who would like to make that motion?

I'll make that motion. Awesome.

You, Zari. And Paulette seconds the motion. All in favor, say aye or raise raise your hands. Aye. Aye. Aye. I would doubt that anyone would be able to oppose or need to discuss that. So, seeing that the motion, passes unanimously, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you everyone for a great discussion and a great meeting and and all all the fine work that you do, and and thanks for, you know, shouting out some of that good work. And and we look forward to, next month's meeting as well.

And please, everyone, be safe and and, and have a good evening. Take care.