Commission for Persons with Disabilities

Medford Human Rights Commission

September 24, 2014
Present: Henry Milorin, Natalie Breen, Chief Leo Sacco, Lois Bronnenkant, Dale Bryan, David
Harris, Diane McLeod, Muhammad Chowdhury, Joe Norton, Matthew Page-Lieberman, and Ron
Flores
Not present: Charlotte Swartz, Marie Cassidy, and Steve Honeycutt
Introductions
Everyone introduced themselves and touched on their background and interest.
Public Participation
None
May Minutes
Chief Sacco motioned to accept the May minutes, David seconded, all in favor
Old Business
Vote on Merger
In June there was an informal discussion about the merger of the Disability and Human Rights
Commissions ordinances. Do to the technical issue of the Disability Commission being part of
the State umbrella we moved to not meet together on a regular basis, although we will continue
to support each others work. Diane had copies of the Disability Commission ordinance for those
interested and the draft of the merged Human Rights Commission and Fair Housing Commission
she just received for review. We will discuss this at the next HRC meeting. The Solicitor is willing
to come discuss his suggestions.

Summer Update
Diane gave an overview of what she has been working on this summer;

Recruiting new members for our commissions -We have a few more interested
individuals who could not be here tonight.

Service Animal Campaign she worked with Karen Rose of the Health Dept to put
together and send out over 300 brochures to all the food and food related vendors of
the city that explains the allowance of service dogs in their establishments

Diane conducted a Disability and Language Accommodation Training for Boards and
Commission and staff in the Council chambers

As a result of a comment at a Medford Health Matters meeting that more and more
Medford people are signing on to the Mobile Food Pantry in Malden, Karen and Diane
met with Eileen Dern of Hallmark Health who runs the pantry, to explore creating a
Medford Pantry. The second Saturday of each month registered residents get about 30
lbs. of fresh produce, some frozen and canned food. (This is part of our Health
Disparities project on food insecurities) Dale asked if we could get data on Medford
residents participating. Diane will follow up.

Several city departments have been working with the region on emergency
preparedness. We had a two day meeting for a presentation by the Shriver Center on
assisting persons with disabilities.

Nappis two access ramps are complete. This stemmed from a complaint files years ago.

Tufts Spicer field id being rehabilitated and completely accessible.

Diane mentioned meeting with Matthew about Closed captioning for council meetings.
Some communities are trying to make this happen, but it is very expensive. Matthew
stated that he feels after looking into it, that subtitles would be better. He is following
up.

Diane coordinated a fair housing meeting with realtors, bankers, and the MHA. We hope
to focus on Section 8 and landlords to get positive information out to the community.
Diane mentioned that everyone agreed the biggest issue is the cost of housing vs. the
fair market value of the voucher. They can be increased, but not by enough to help
many.

There was discussion about the negative economic impact on affordable housing and disparities
with the Casino Project and the Green Line coming. David asked how other communities handle
the rental voucher cost issue.
Dale mentioned that the graduate project he was hoping to work out with the Energy Office
then bring forward as a conversations project for the HRC did not work out. There was
discussion that any of these issues; disparity, housing, etc. could be pat of a conversations
model.
Dale and David have been working on the Rev. Dr. Bernard Lafayette event, which is part of the
Tracing Our Faces, year long project. He will be at Tufts on October 1st in Cabot Hall at 7PM. On

October 2nd he will be at MHS with the Junior class at 9:50AM, then meeting with an AP History
class.
Dale also mentioned the Joe McGill sleep over event at the Royall House and Slave Quarters.
David and Dale still want to work on a youth project about words. Lois mentioned an article in
Teaching Tolerance magazine.
David asked about the Middlesex Fells project, and Dale said it is moving forward as a
partnership including MHS to create a collaborative learning center that is accessible to all.
New Business
Meet Potential Members
Introductions were done earlier.
Variance Updates
Diane mentioned there are two variance requests that she just received, but hasnt reviewed
yet. One is for elevation cab size at St. Francis and the other is a Tufts dorm in Somerville. She
will review.
Correspondence & Announcements
Meeting adjourned at 6:30PM on a motion from Dale and second from David.
Next meeting date
HRC October 8, 2014
Disability Commission October 22, 2014