Colorado Developmental Disabilities Council
Council Meeting Minutes
March 25, 2015
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ISSUE:
1. Welcome
2. Mission Moment
3. Minutes January 28, 2015
4. ED. Report
5. Theme of Change
6. CANDO Report
7. Social Media Update
8. Planning and Grants Update
9. Legislative and Public Policy Update
10. Budget
11. Multicultural Report
12. Adjournment
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DISCUSSION:
1. Council convened at 12:10 pm
2. Mission Moment: Sue Fager spoke about the Council’s Focus Groups and shared a
calendar timeline of what must take place. Council viewed a short Peter
Leidy video.
3. Minutes of January 28, 2014 passed.
4. ED. Report-Marcia Tewell covered the Council’s membership and the openings that will be
available due to term limits and resignations. She reviewed the Voting Item with
the proposed new candidates that will be forwarded to the Governor’s Office.
The recommendations were not a guarantee of appointment.
Marcia reminded Council that there would be vacancies in the Executive
Committee for the: Chair, Vice-Chair, and two at-large positions. She distributed
nomination forms to encourage participation.
Executive committee elections will take place at the May Council meeting, and
Katherine Carol offered to mentor the next chair during the transition.
Marcia talked about the Council having to transition to another overseeing
department with the dissolution of Boards and Commissions.
Under the DD Act, Council cannot be administered by an agency or department
that provides or pays for services.
There are a number of considerations to this decision; eventually a bill must be
entertained by the legislature for the move to become official.
5. Change: Scott LeRoy talked about the new changes at the Department of Vocational Rehab
(DVR); the agency will be under the Department of Labor.
DVR is working hard to eliminate the Wait List and meet clients monthly.
His department is touring the State, having round tables with the citizens and the
information gleaned helps State Employment Leadership Network (SELN) continues
their free online webinars.
Julie Farrar reviewed the Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act. It paves
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the way for people with disabilities to open special accounts where they can save up to
$100,000 without jeopardizing eligibility for Social Security and other government
benefits.
She said it provided real opportunities for the future and was a good first step but the
groups included must be expanded.
Carol Meredith described the staff turnover at the Division as “significant”. Carol
discussed the Katie Beckett Waiver that allows families that earn too much, to take
advantage of the Children’s Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) waiver to
access services.
Lisa Franklin was buoyed by the creativity of rural communities and how they encourage
families that have members with developmental disabilities, to work. Like Julie, Lisa
believed a cultural shift was needed with families, employers and providers to make
employment a reality.
Tim Hudner spoke about the uniqueness of housing in Colorado, because unlike most of
the agencies, it is locally driven to fit the needs of the individual communities.
Colorado will be coming into millions of dollars from a percentage of Fannie Mae funding
starting in 2016.
The glitch is the lack of Section 8 housing; plenty of vouchers available, but no housing.
Another problem is that it is not profitable for builders to create affordable housing.
With the influx of monies, the State is hoping to anchor funding to encourage the
private sector to invest in accessible, affordable and visitable accommodations.
Presently, housing is 100% visitable; only 5% accessible.
Tim also talked about the Regional Center Task Force and how they have found that
their recommendations are the same ones that were proposed years ago!
There is a lack of resources in communities and the Task Force wants to increase
salaries to the direct care staff.
Carol Meredith followed up with a CANDO report and agreed with Tim that people
need access to “Cross System Care Coordination”.
She said the Gaps Analysis report mirrors the findings of the Regional Centers Task
Force.
The Joint Budget Committee (JBC) will fund a utilization actuarial study to determine
costs of meeting the needs for the Gap Analysis recommendations.
6. Social Media: Corey Mineo briefly outlined the policy of guidelines that the committee came
up with, based on the Wisconsin model.
The Committee aims to increase its “likes” by 25% by the end of 2016.
He introduced the Voting Item to accept the Social Media Policy as presented.
7. Planning and Grants Report: Katie Grange reported that the Committee does have funds to
spend and gave some suggestions as to where they could go:
a) local leadership projects-2 or 3 more
b) self-advocacy, around bullying or other issues
c) implement recommendations from the Bullying
report
Grantees will begin delivering reports on their projects at the
May Committee meeting, Valley Life For All will be the first.
Katie asked for Council members to volunteer to help compile
the information from the Comprehensive Report and Analysis,
and later participate in the public forums.
8. Legislative and Public Policy: Ed George reminded the Council that the Legislative Weekend
was almost here, April 17-18.
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Andrew Romanoff is the new Executive Officer of Mental Health
America.
9. Budget: Mackenzie Helton told Council that they must encumber $279,740.15 by September
30, 2015.
10. Multicultural Committee Update: Deon said the Committee is working on a flyer to
help with recruitment. The use of Facebook might be a
way to attract new members.
On Friday, March 27, the Annual Women’s Conference will
be held at Denver University from 8-3:45 pm, which is free.
The Achieve Film Festival will also take place at the Sie
Film Festival on Friday, the 27th.
11. Adjournment at 3:50 PM.
NEXT COUNCIL MEETING: WEDNESDAY, MAY 27, 2015 11:30-4:00 PM at AT Partners
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ACTION / MOTION / CONSENSUS
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1. Jeanette Cordova moved to accept the minutes, Melissa Mannix seconded; the minutes passed.
2. Deon Gillespie moved to accept the Voting Item on approving the new Council Members; Jeanette
Cordova seconded and the Voting Item passed.
3. Jeanette motioned to allow Marcia to explore all options and use due diligence to determine where
the Council should ultimately be administered; Melissa Mannix seconded and the motion passed.
Scott LeRoy abstained from the vote. Marcia will report back to Council in July.
4. Marcia will investigate how other Councils operate as a non-profit entity or move departments.
5. Tim moved to accept the Social Media Policy Manual; Melissa seconded and the Voting Item
passed.
6. Corey will be sending out a letter to various organizations, asking them to visit and like our
Facebook page. Melissa will share the CDDC site on her Facebook.
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Those in attendance: Katherine Carol, Jeanette Cordova, Ed George, Jane Gerberding, Deon Gillespie, Katie
Grange(GTM), Tim Hudner, Scott Leroy, Melissa Mannix, Carol Meredith, Corey Mineo,
Corry Robinson (GTM), Mellisa Umphenour, Josh Winkler (GTM)
Those absent: Senator Irene Aguilar, Mary Dwyer, Mary Anne Harvey, Lisa Kramer, Gina Quintana, Barb
Ramsey, Sarita Reddy, Karen von Phul, Willie Wade, Dana Wedlick,
Staff Present: Sue Fager, Julie Farrar, Mackenzie Helton, Lionel Llewellyn, Marcia Tewell
Guests: Lisa Franklin, Anuska Ullal, Maureen Welch, Shannon Zimmerman
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