NV Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities (NGCDD)Council Meeting Minutes for March 2, 2017

Circus Circus

500 North Sierra Street, Reno, NV 89503

Special Notes

  • Allitems reviewed during this meeting are available for view on the NGCDD website; under the event created for this meeting:
  • Bolded text under a heading indicates an action taken by the NGCDD.

Introductions

NGCDD Members Present: Chair, Jodi Thornley; Vice Chair, Stephen Schumacher; Jacob Arant; Lisa Bonie; Jennifer Casselman; Robin Dunn; Jennifer Frischmann; Ronald Futrell; Aimee Hadleigh; Shelley Hendren; Christi Hines-Coates; Vickie Ives; Kathleen Kingston; Jack Mayes; Kimberly Palma-Ortega; Cara Paoli; Santa Perez; Renee Portnell; Robin Renshaw; Steve Rock; and David Sorensen

NGCDD Members Absent: Russell Lehmann and Brian Patchett

NGCDD Staff Present: Sherry Manning, Executive Director; Kari Horn, Projects Manager; Ellen Marquez, Executive Assistant; Catherine Nielsen, Self-Advocacy Coordinator

Guests Present: John Arant; Julie Bowers; Tim Brown; Victoria Hernandez Armas

Call to Order

Meeting was called to order by Council Chair, Jodi Thornley at 9:01AM.

Sherry Manning verified that the agenda for this meeting was posted to the appropriate locations in compliance with Open Meeting Law.

Ms. Thornley reviewed housekeeping instructions. She requested everyone to introduce themselves and answer one of the following questions from the training on March 1, 2017.

  • What can you do better personally, as a Council member, to help accomplish the five year state plan; or
  • What you feel as the Council as a whole can do to help accomplish the five year state plan; or
  • What do you feel the agencies around the table can do to help accomplish the five year state plan.

Jack Mayes, Executive Director of the Nevada Disabilities Advocacy Law Center. Mr. Mayes would like to see the five year plan more reflective on the agenda.

Lisa Bonie, Executive Director of the Northern Nevada Center for Independent Living. Ms. Bonie feels she can go out to the communities to help connect better and be more effective in using resources.

Kathleen Kingston would like to get the TS Alliance on 211 and the Medical Home lists. Suggested maybe Vocational Rehabilitation could do topic calls. Requested if there is a place that has an event calendar for all organizations.

Cara Paoli feels Aging and Disability Services needs to become proactive with Adaptive Technology and discuss more about Adjusted Diplomas and how it impacts consumers.

Shelley Hendren from Vocational Rehabilitation would like to be more transparent and have better communication with the Council. Ms. Hendren feels the Council can help the agencies with advocacy.

Aimee Hadleigh would like to get parent advocacy groups together and get the support of the Council. She would like to incorporate children into becoming self-advocates and having parent mentors.

Ellen Marquez, Executive Assistant, would like to continue to learn more from the Council to better support the Council.

Vickie Ives sees the need to create stronger linkages with Part C and NEIS to have a better flow of information for our children and youth with special healthcare needs.

Kari Horn, Projects Manager, would like to see more commitment from the Council. The Council sets up resource/vendor fairs throughout the state, but there is often low attendance.She asked the Council members to get the information trickled down to others to make these fairs a better success. Ms. Horn requested the Evaluation Committee look closely at what is being approved for the grantees. She can only follow up on activities the committee approves.

Ron Futrell, Parent Advocate. Mr. Futrell would like to go out and see where and how the finances are being used.

Kimberly Palma-Ortega, Parent Advocate. Ms. Palma-Ortega wants to do more outreach and network with those at this meeting. She would also like to see the parents from the Council possibly bring other parents who might be interested in the Council to provide them with information so they can take it out to their communities. Ms. Palma-Ortega will look more closely at the grants to see better outcomes.

Sherry Manning, Executive Director. Ms. Manning would like to maintain the structure of the Council with the committees. It gives opportunity for the Council to get to the important matters in the committees, so when the Council gets together it makes the meetings more seamless and creates more participation from the Council members. The Council has an 800 number, let’s use it for topic calls. The calendar is a great idea along with the parent connection and expanding our views. The Council needs to be the leaders and take responsibility. If an email is tagged important, a response is needed within the time specified.

Jodi Thornley, Council Chair. Ms. Thornley would like to advocate more for disabilities with some of the current legislative bills. She would like to see trainings/focus groups by referring to them as “Family Fun Night.”

Stephen Schumacher, Council Vice-Chair. As a leader, he will try to go to more events for autism and other programs and get to legislature to testify. Mr. Schumacher would like to have parents that have been advocating for some time get together with newer parents to help them with some processes.

Jennifer Casselman, parent advocate. Ms. Casselman feels she needs to work better with programs to assist with information, link up with resources and get it into the hands of stakeholders. She was able to get the parks to change their website to people first language.

Steve Rock wants to be more transparent with NCED since they can be a resource and help connect people. Mr. Rock needs to be a voice to help support people with the legislature.

Renee Portnell, parent advocate. Ms. Portnell feels that “seasoned” Council members can assist new Council members and see more involvement in bullying advocacy.

Robin Renshaw would like to know what Vocational Rehabilitation and the school districts are doing to implement WIOA.

David Sorensen, person with a developmental disability, would like to work more with his department, welfare and the state agencies with accessibility and to work with Catherine to help promote self-advocacy.

Jennifer Frischmann, Nevada Medicaid, wants to give better updates of what Medicaid is doing. Ms. Frischmann stated consumers typically do not show up for workshops, therefore, she would like assistance getting the information out. She will try to keep the Council informed on structural changes and get a single point of contact.

Christi Hines-Coates, Department of Education, will be more involved in representing the Council, needs to provide more information to the Council and also taking the information from the Council to the parents and children in the schools.

Jacob Arant would like to receive more information to distribute to others in the state as he is the President of People First.

Catherine Nielsen, Self-Advocacy Coordinator, would like more support from the Council with getting correct personal information so emails are correct. Ms. Nielsen needs 10 youth, young adults, for the student first initiative and would like help from the Council to identify people who could attend. She also reminded the Council if you cannot attend legislature, write your representatives if you have concerns.

Santa Perez wants to work on getting information from people to the Council. She feels it is an awesome idea having a parent group, but it should have a parent that has been advocating to assist parents that are new at advocating.

Public Comment

Council Member, David Sorensen read his testimony for AB192.

Council Member, Santa Perez requested when meetings are on the phone, she cannot participate, if there can be accommodations made for her participation. Ms. Manning stated she would check into it.

Council Member, Cara Paoli informed everyone there are brochures available for the ABLE NV account.

Council Member, Kimberly Palma-Ortega expressed her appreciation for the impact of accessibility and user friendly apps.

Council Member, Vickie Ives wanted to make everyone aware that it is Children’s Week at the legislature, March 13th – 16th and it is a good advocacy opportunity.

Council Member, Shelley Hendren requested a release so they can put people on their social media.

Executive Director, Sherry Manning read 2 public comments for Steven Cohen. The comments are attached to the minutes.

Approval of Minutes for the September 3, 2015 Meeting

Council Vice-Chair, Stephen Schumacher opened the floor for discussion. As there were no changes or corrections a motion to approve the minutes from the December 1, 2016 meeting as written was offered by Santa Perez and seconded by David Sorensen. Motion carried; with Robbin Dunn, Lisa Bonie, Robin Renshaw, Christi Hines-Coates and Vickie Ives abstaining.

NGCDD Executive Committee and Chairperson’s Summary

Jodi Thornley, Council Chair and Executive Committee Chair discussed actions and recommendations from their September 2016 Executive Committee Meetings; specific mention was made in regards to the stipends. There was a discussion needing further clarification, therefore, this was tabled until the next Council meeting.

For more information on the activity of the Executive Committee, please see the meeting minutes and handouts from their September 20, 2016 meeting, posted on the NGCDD website:

NGCDD Budget Committee

Executive Director, Sherry Manning facilitated this agenda item.

Ms. Manning presented the budget and referred to pages 1, 2, 3 and 4 stating these areas have remained the same from last meeting. She will evaluate for the next meeting where the grantees are in regards to their draws.

Ms. Manning referred to page 5 as this is the Governor recommended budget for 2018/2019. During the budget hearings, it is a little different this year, legislature is pulling out specific budget accounts. She referred to page 5 revenue account received a 25% match from the state.

Stephen Schumacher made a motion to approve the budget as presented. Jennifer Frischmann and Renee Portnell seconded the motion and the motion passed unanimously.

For more information on the NGCDD budget, please see the Budget Committee meeting minutes and handouts from their November 2, 2016 meeting posted on the NGCDD website:

Project Status Summary

NGCDD Projects Manager, Kari Horn reviewed the Grantee Monitoring Report for the 1stquarter of Federal Fiscal Year 2017 (October 1, 2016 – December 31, 2016), specifically discussing the areas of note in the report.

Ms. Horn also stated she is going out to visit the grantees more and reviewed how she sets up her report for the new Council members.

Ms. Horn discussed issues with SNTC and N4 having difficulty connecting with Uber. Ms. Frischmann will provide an Uber contact to Ms. Horn whom she has had success working with in the past.

Ms. Horn also provided updates on the JUSTin Hope Foundation and United Cerebral Palsy of Nevada since the last Evaluation Committee meeting.

Ms. Horn explained another project not related to grants, is the Public Awareness video series. There are three videos: “Things People with Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities are Tired of Hearing,” “Things People with Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities Want the World to Know,” “How to Act When You Meet a Person with an Intellectual/Developmental Disability.” They are currently being edited.

For more information, you can view the full Project Status Summary in the handouts for this meeting on the NGCDD website:

NGCDD Evaluation Committee

Evaluation Committee Chair, Kimberly Palma-Ortega gave a summary of the Evaluation Committee. The minutes from the August meeting had to be abstained from, due to the fact the current committee members were not at that meeting and has been sent as a draft.For more information on the Evaluation Committee, please see the meeting minutes and handouts from their February 14, 2017 meeting posted on the NGCDD website:

NGCDD Legislative Committee

Legislative Committee Chair, Renee Portnell addressed the Bills the committee is following and opened the floor for discussion.

Jack Mayes shared the list of Bills he created and is following which gives more in depth information on what the Bill is actually in regards to.

For more information on the Legislative Committee, please see the meeting minutes and handouts from their February 8, 2017 meeting posted on the NGCDD website:

Partners Summary

Jack Mayes gave an update of the Nevada Disability Advocacy and Law Center (NDALC).

  • NDALC is working on a project with ACLU in Nevada and the issue with solitary confinement in the prisons. There is a report on their website at NDALC.org.

Mr. Mayes introduced his dog, Forever. He has been doing service animal trainings with the local health department, for restaurants, trying to discourage service animal fraud. He is showing what good service dog training truly is.

Steve Rock discussed the NCED is recruiting for Nevada LEND project. They are recruiting for 14 positions across all disciplines at the graduate level or above. He explained that families and consumers are considered a discipline.

Mr. Rock also discussed the Positive Behavioral Supports project and how it creates positive inclusive support in schools.

Lisa Bonie discussed what the Center for Independent Living does. It is a federally funded center and there must be at least one in every state. Nevada has 2, one in the North and one in the South. Her operating area is everything but Las Vegas. The core services they are mandated to provide are advocacy, information and referral, peer to peer support, life skills training and transition.

Ms. Bonie also discussed the Bell Academy, an immersion program for kids who are 4 – 12, in brail. It is to be held July 24, 2017 through August 2, 2017.

Ms. Bonie encouraged Council members to come out to the Community Based Career Exploration Summer Camp which involves NNCIL, NGCDD, VR, RTC and Washoe County School District.

Director’s Summary

Executive Director, Sherry Manning briefly reviewed the Director’s Summary.To view the Director’s Summary, visit the NGCDD website:

Next Meeting Date

The next NGCDD meeting is a video conference on Thursday, June 8, 2017 and a time will be determined.

Public Comment

Jodi Thornley, Council Chair, asked if there was any Public Comment. None was given.

Adjournment

Meeting adjourned at 2:20 PM

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