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Commission on Disability & Employment
July 17, 2019: 9:00 AM45 Commerce Dr, Augusta Frances Perkins Room
State Workforce Board COMMISSION ON DISABILITY AND EMPLOYMENT July 17, 2019 9:00 AM - 11:30 PM Central Maine Commerce Center 45 Commerce Drive, Augusta Frances Perkins Room Call in: 877-455-0244, Conference code: 9218175360 AGENDA 9:00 Welcome, Introductions, approve May meeting minutes 9:15 Membership Vote: Amie Parker Membership discussion 9:30 State & Legislative Updates Discussion about CDE strategy 10:30 Break 10:45 Report out from Renee on WEIC meeting 11:00 New / Future Business Business Leadership Network Excellence in Disability Inclusion award (federal) 11:30 Adjourn Next Meeting: September 11, 2019 9:00 12:00 Central Maine Commerce Center Frances Perkins Room
COMMISSION ON DISABILITY & EMPLOYMENT MEETING MINUTES
07/17/2019
Present: Jennifer Kimble (Chair), Gayla Dwyer, Peaches Bass, Jeanie Coltart (Phone), Don Rice (Phone), Renee Doble (Phone), Amie Parker (Phone)
Guest: Isaac Gingras
Absent: Mel Clarrage, Rachel Dyer, Karen Fraser
Staff: Christopher Quint, Joshua Howe, Cheryl Moran
Welcome, Introductions, approve May meeting minutes- Jennifer Kimble opened the regular meeting at 9:05am with introductions and a reminder that they are using CART Services; she asked everyone to speak loudly, one at a time, and identify who they are when they speak. She stated Marsha Swain (CART Services) knows a lot of the members fairly well but might not recognize all the voices, especially remotely.
Jennifer then asked whether everyone had a chance to read the minutes from the May meeting and if there were necessary edits or concerns. Peaches noted one line in the minutes on page three that she does not understand, and it was attributed to her. She suggested deleting it, as it does not affect the record. Jennifer requested a motion to approve with that deletion; Peaches Bass motioned. Gayla Dwyer seconded. Minutes approved after correction.
Jennifer stated she believes they have a quorum including everyone on the phone.
Membership Discussion, Vote: Amie Parker Jennifer stated they have already voted to add Renee as a member, but is awaiting approval from the SWB Chair; Josh confirmed. Jennifer then stated at this point, she like to be able to vote regarding Amie to have her join them as a member. Don Rice motioned. Peaches Bass seconded. Motion passed pending official approval by the SWB Chair.
State & Legislative Updates
Isaac Gingras, Legislative Liaison, Maine Department of Labor stated it is actually his first session with the Department.
Looking at the legislation this past session, several bills have passed with the Governor's signature including LD38, which is an Act to require coverage for hearing aids for adults and provide coverage for hearing aids at a minimum of $3000 per hearing aids to all individuals with documented hearing loss.
This requires all insurance companies to cover $3000 per hearing aid every three years.
Josh stated one of his concerns is how is it going to be implemented by insurance companies and working with the division of the deaf and hard-of-hearing?
Josh also mentioned that some insurance companies in other states have put an $18,000 co-pay on it.
Don asked Isaac, is this going to apply to the State of Maine where theyre self-insured? Isaac responded, yes.
Josh stated he attended the State Employees Health Commission last week, there was limited discussion about it however; it was mentioned that the bill will likely take effect in July of next year because the bill doesnt require until January 2020 for all contracts to be renewed after that point. Theirs gets renewed July 1.
Jennifer asked will it apply to MaineCare? Peaches mentioned that they asked about that at the last meeting and they did not know. Isaac stated hes not sure, but he can check and get back to them.
Isaac reported on other bills that passed such as:
LD642 - An Act regarding kindergarten readiness for children who are deaf and hard-of-hearing. Helps track where children are on their language acquisition process and journey and whether theyre on track to meeting goals that are set, making sure students that use American Sign Language and English learning are being treated equally and have the same access.
LD1160 An Act to Transfer the Kim Wallace Adaptive Equipment Loan Program Fund to the Office of the Treasurer of State.
Peaches asked what was behind that transfer?
Isaac stated hes not entirely sure what the catalyst was to the change, but he thinks they felt by putting it in the treasurers office, that it was disbursing the money easier for them to hold the program in the treasurers office. It helped put those loans out and helped businesses apply for them and use the loans to purchase adaptive equipment and become more accessible to clients and customer.
LD1751 An Act to amend and clarify the laws concerning American Sign Language Interpreters. Isaac stated this bill came through last year and it was updating professional licensing requirements and creates conditional license and category for people coming into the profession.
Isaac stated he wanted to make a few comments on some of the bills that have come up, especially this past session, centered around equity access and fairness through the workforce especially persons with disabilities and been a key focus he thinks for the legislature right now. Also, trying to find where those barriers are and how they can use their positioning to help people overcome any barriers that might be there.
Isaac stated he thinks this is a huge focus of the current legislature. Theres definitely a concern with the barriers that exist to the workforce and how they can overcome those. Jennifer stated specifically for people with disabilities or just in general to make sure we have a workforce.
LD1258 this bill is currently on the special appropriations table trying to improve access to transportation.
Josh asked Isaac if he knows what the bill was attempting to do with transportation?
Isaac responded by stating it was trying to increase funding to transportation transit services as well as creating a pilot program in both rural and urban areas to increase access to.
Jennifer stated that was what they talked about at the last meeting but its sitting with appropriations?
Isaac stated yes, thats always a tricky thing.
Josh stated thats a critical one because we see it in low income populations around the state; transportation does not run on the weekends, at night, or every day. Josh went on to say, so you have this group that not only is low income, but they also have a disability which may make it very difficult for them to even walk to work or navigate on their own outside of public transport. And, the MaineCare funded transportation doesnt often run. Does this mean this bill will be carried over to the next session? Isaac responded yes and including quite a few bills.
Jennifer stated there were mental health bills on the DHHS side that got stuck at appropriations and are getting carried over into the next session as well.
Jennifer asked when will the department start identifying bills to put forward for the next session?
Isaac stated they currently are in the process of seeking input from directors and talking about the next steps for department bills that they will be chatting about in the next couple months he believes.
Closure this year is September 27 for the second session and they will be coming back in January and probably ramp up in February, March, trying to wind down by mid-April.
Isaac stated he believes the entire bill closure process will be by September between the work thats done with the office and getting everything drafted and ideas set.
Jennifer thanked Isaac for coming and asked if anyone had any questions.
Isaac stated if anyone has any questions, feel free to reach out by email.
Discussion about CDE strategy Jennifer asked Chris Quint, the new Director of the Maine State Workforce Board to introduce himself and how he ended up here and what his plans are. Chris stated he has been on the job since the end of April and came here after spending 8 months or so out of the workforce, a stay at home dad. Prior to that, he had several jobs in Augusta, had his own consulting business doing communications and lobbying. He was an executive director for public affairs, communication, and marketing. He spent four years as the executive director of the Maine State Employees Association. He stated he has done a number of things in and around government politics, communications, and then got in touch with the commissioner and this job was open and brought him on board at the end of April. Up to this point, he stated they have been immersed in kind of issues around the minimum training expenditure policy. Now that they are beyond that with the Board in a variety of ways, they have the new four-year plan that will be due next year. So, they are going to be getting going on that as well as working just to revitalize, repurpose the whole State Workforce Board to put it on a focus around workforce. They will be identifying new appointed board members in August, coming in September. So, a lot of work to do this summer around just refocusing the board for the long-term and pointing it towards the challenges that we have in the state with regards to workforce and aligning it with what our new Governors priorities are around economic development and the work that the committees are doing.
Jennifer then stated she wanted to take the opportunity to share with Chris where she thinks this commission is and where they have been. She stated they are strictly a volunteer and basically unfunded group that has kind of struggled to figure out where they could really make an impact. They meet maybe 5 times a year and discuss issues that they know are a problem, barriers that need to get addressed. They bring in speakers to talk about them, inform the Commission, and that their single repeated activity is their annual report to the legislature with recommendations.
When the WIOA plan was submitted, committees put together recommendations that were part of the plan. And the CDE is in a place right now where they are really ready with their plan to do more than just talk in this room. Its been slightly painful for the past year and a half because of all the transition, which she recognized is understandable. The 70/30 issue was a symptom of that problem, theres been such uncertainty.
Jennifer stated she is happy that theres a chair, new director and hopeful that they can really move related to what Isaac was talking about. Theres a broad understanding at this point from anybody who ever hires anybody, that we are in the workforce crisis that was projected. It is here. And weve been saying for years that people with disabilities can be part of the solution.
She asked are there issues to deal with? Yes. But theres a lot of attention around people who speak different languages, people from foreign countries, about young people, getting them to stay in the state, luring and enticing people to stay in the state. She stated she thinks people with disabilities are in a different category because in some cases, they think they cant work for one of many reasons, are assumed not to be able to work by the public at large, and theres that additional legal concern that employers are a little bit afraid regarding the ADA and doing what theyre supposed to do. So, its a complex issue. We dont want that complexity to impact the view that employers have around people with disabilities being a true resource, a human resource for them. So, to that end, they have written this report every year. She hopes people are reading it but cannot guarantee that they are because they never had any questions from anybody. The annual report is required but not useful to the Commission absent other communication.
Jennifer continued outlining what happened over the last 2 years: The Employment First Maine Act was passed in 2013 this law required that employment be the first and preferred service option for any individual served by DHHS, DOL, and DOE. Also created was a group called Employment First Maine Coalition which was a time-limited group of about 30 people from lots of different places related to disability and employment. This group met approximately 3 years, with its final product a report with 27 recommendations about improving employment outcomes for Mainers with disabilities in addition to the recommendations the Commission has been giving for years. The report did not get presented to the legislature until January 2017, after the Coalition had officially ended; literally Jennifer and 4 other people that went to the legislature, to the LCRED committee at the time, to present the report. Now that there is a new Legislature, a lot of those people on LCRED are gone or are in different positions and the committee itself has kind of evaporated. The Commission invited all of the affected agencies to report out to them about their actions related to Employment First recommendations (DHHS, DOE, and DOL). The Commission has discussed what they think is missing and they are ready to give this information to somebody. To that end, a draft memo was written after last commission meeting. The question right now is where do they go, what is their next step, and how do they move this forward. Now is the time to really figure out what they can do and whats appropriate for them to do. Concern: this commission does not want to start all over again by going through another legislative session, an election, and subcommittee.
Josh stated are there agencies that really should be at the table who arent and asked how do we leverage the state board, department, draw people to the table, whether its agencies, state agencies or other community partners. That may be the other thing to think about as we build some of this. Jeanie pointed out that for many years they have talked about the low unemployment rate of people with disabilities and how government and state government jobs are limited to state employees. She said she would like to meet with both Chris and Josh at the same time to discuss this issue in more depth, and again she will also bring documentation she has as proof of discriminatory practices of state government hiring.
Chris stated theres really no connection back to the State Workforce Board with virtually any of the subcommittees. And there are some Board members who are not aware that there are in fact committees of the State Workforce Board. Chris stated that is a charge Josh, Cheryl, and himself have over the summer is to reconstitute that and create a direct link back to the Board. He cannot tell how they are going to do that yet but its part of the conversation and planning. You have committees that meet for the sake of meeting and thats a waste of time and resources and they do not want that. A highly effective functioning board has highly effective functioning committees that all move in lock step with each other. Chris thinks once they identify a way to align the committee with the board, then the board can highlight in a much more public and purposeful way the issues that Jeanie addressed and develop strategies that will break down some of the barriers with employers and with state government.
Amie stated people that have diversity is really challenging for employers simply because they are not informed about different conditions they have or different diagnosis, how that presents itself and what to do with that. She thinks we have done a disservice as a community by not providing education to people about the different disabilities and how they may enhance, they may provide and attract a wider customer base. She does not think this is resonating with employers at this point particularly smaller employers in Maine. She does not know what the magic answer is, but she wished she did.
Peaches stated social change is what were talking about, happens very slowly, and so we just must keep at it.
Chris stated with regards to the report, he stated hell read it and if there are things in it that they can move legislatively. Jennifer stated she thinks this is what they have been doing for years, recommendations and more recommendations. There were other groups prior to them that were doing this also, and right now we have this law, this Employment First Maine law. How can we make sure that the state complies with the law and what is necessary to make that happen?
Report out from Renee Doble on WEC meeting Renee Doble attended the Womens Employment Committees meeting on May 20. The guest speaker was Kathy Patrick, Strategic Sense Consulting. She talked about WIOA and how that specifically affects women. One of the things she said was when WIA changed to WIOA a little more than 3 years ago, it became more supportive of helping people with barriers. She talked about some of the specific barriers that women face such as child care and transportation. If women do not have health care or they do not have family planning, its very difficult to complete any kind of training or employment. She also focused a lot on not just getting a job but getting a job thats self-sustaining and theres different definitions of what self-sustaining means. Different parts of the state are going to have a different income that would make you self-sustaining. Its a big significance in what you need to make to be self-sustaining, meaning youre not on any kind of state aid or anything like that. Renee stated she noticed is its more about poverty than disability or being a female.
New/Future Business Members discussed about committee attendance. They felt perhaps it would be better to remove a member if they chronically do not attend. Jennifer stated she believes in their bylaws, it mentions about lack of attendance. Peaches suggested that we should indicate in the minutes who attends and not attends.
Josh stated one of the things the SWB is going to be going through is the process of evaluating their bylaws, whether they become rules within rules. He stated he will keep them informed as they get into the process. Josh then stated they have not started, but over the last few months with the voting pieces and seats, they knew they needed to update their bylaws. They kept asking questions of the AGs office and the AG stated they should be rules because none of them were ever vetted through the AG and some of this stuff is not consistent with her recommendations. Such as phone participation for the SWB meetings. Josh stated he does not know what that means for the subcommittees but the state level, it could open them up to an appeal.
Not being able to participate by phone is an accessibility issue. Josh stated theres certainly nothing written in WIOA that stated the SWBs and boards cannot have electronic communication. So that does not mean that SWB meetings would not have the availability to stream it by web or listen on the phone but voting members may not be allowed to cast votes by being on the phone. And its verifying an individual on the other end of the line he thinks is the concern. Legislative committees and other committees do not allow it. Theres no mechanism in state law that allows it. So, this would bring the state board in alignment with other committees. Recent legislation that passed, which he stated he completely forgot about was that the State Workforce Board members or some of the State Workforce Board members are now going to go through confirmation hearing with the legislature. That was passed in the last session. Peaches stated she is shaking her head in frustration over this because she understands the reason for it but its unnecessary and political. Josh stated there was also part of the early legislation that would have required them to have their state plan approved by the legislature committee before being submitted to their federal partners. Given their narrow time frames, they are going to provide it to them as they provide it to the public for comment. Its not a formal approval by the legislative committee because the federal plan had 45 days from the time they received their guidance to the time it was due. Also, its the Governors plan not the Legislatures.
Business Leadership Network Jennifer stated as far as the Business Leadership Network, she stated she did reach out to Lisa Sturtevant about having them come to this meeting and they were not ready, but they are scheduled to attend the September meeting. So, theyre on the agenda.
Excellence in Disability Inclusion award (federal) Jennifer We have talked about the Silver Collar Award and ways to recognize employers who do a good job in the past. There is a new award the feds are putting out, Excellence in Disability Inclusion Award which is specifically for employers who are mandated to hire a certain percentage of people with disabilities because they are federal contractors. She asked members to look at it and think about modeling something like that for Maine in the future. She also reminded members that October is National Disability Awareness month which is every year and is recognized for the whole month.
Meeting adjourned Peaches Bass motioned. Gayla Dwyer seconded.
Next Meeting: September 11, 2019 9:00 12:00 Central Maine Commerce Center, Frances Perkins room Respectfully submitted by Cheryl Moran
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