IN SILC (ICOIL) - June 13, 2007 meeting

Like the May meeting the June 13th meeting was incredibly short. The
council still refused to address my official written request though in
March they told me at the public facilitated training that they would
address my concerns if I put them in writing. 
 
Note there is a reason why the majority of a SILC is supposed to be made
up of people with disabilities not associated with a CIL.  Notice that the
majority of the active council at this meeting (and quite frankly any
meeting) are the center directors who financially directly benifit from
the actions or inactions of this council.  Currently they are involved in
trying to keep my concerns about HB1001 which allocates 2.5 million to IL
funding not to the IL program as a whole, but to their centers directly. 

Anyway, Below you will find a summary of what happened. Videos of ICOIL
meetings can be found at http://everybodycounts.org/icoil.htm you can also
visit the Secretary's Chronicles at http://www.onecandream.com/ICOIL 

June meeting below, but the basic jest of it is that I and people with
disabilities in Indiana were ICOIL'ed again.  I and several other people
asked the council at this meeting how many times must a person make a
request before the council does not ignore it.  I have yet to recieve that
answer, but as of right now I have submitted my written request 6 times
and have requested orally probably at least twice that many times.  I am
hoping that is enough, but I will keep you informed. 

___________________________________________________________

Indiana Statewide Independent Living Council (ICOIL)
June 13, 2007  Meeting
By Ramona Harvey  the People's Secretary

Voting Council members Present:  

Center Directors: Al Tolbert, Tom Cooney, Beth Quarles, Melissa Madill,
Teresa Mager, David Nelson, Pat Stewart (7)

Non-Center Directors: Dee Ann Hart, Richard Simers, Danny Grissom, John
Denny, Kieth Coros, Carol Roe (6)

Prior too the meeting packets in memory of Mark Bair, who recently died in
a nursing home, were placed at every council members seat.  Mark Bair was
a former ICOIL chair, and person with a disability, who tried to get the
council to follow federal law, and as a reward was slandered by the
council and removed from office.  These packets were created by council
member Teresa Torres who was unable to attend this meeting. 

The Meeting Lasting approx 10 min. 

Dee Ann Hart as chair of ICOIL called the meeting to order and asked
Secretary, Al Tolbert, to take the roll call. 

Al Tolbert quickly goes through the list of names declaring whether or not
people are present without waiting for or allowing the council members
themselves to respond indicating that they were present. Al Tolbert
declares that with 13 members present there was a quorum. 

Audience members struggle to hear what is going on and try to communicate
that they are having trouble hearing, but are ignored. 

Approval of the Agenda

Dee Ann Hart notes the next thing on the agenda is the approval of the
agenda. 

Audience member raises her hand and tries to point out that addressing
significant concerns regarding IL funds and HB1001 is not on the agenda. 
Audience member request again orally that the official written request
that had been submitted to the council four times be added to the agenda. 
The May 9 official request can be found at
http://www.onecandream.com/ICOIL/documents/officialrequestHB1001.doc
Audience member lets the council know that she has copies of the request
if they have misplaced their copies. 

While audience member is trying to get the official request added to the
agenda, the council continues, ignoring the audience. 

Teresa Mager seconds the motion that Melissa Madill made to approve the
agenda. (The People's Secretary note: Melissa Madill did not speak into
the microphone and as an audience member it sounded like Teresa Mager
seconded a motion that was not made.)

Dee Ann Hart asked if there was any discussion from council members. She
ignores requests coming from the audience completely stating that she
hears no discussion from council members, and she asks for a vote. 

Council members vote unanimously to adopt the agenda, while the audience
member whose official request is being ignored objects. 

Audience members with disabilities tried to communicate to the council
that they were not empowering people with disabilities, but they are
ignored as the council quickly moved on to the next agenda item. 

Approval of May 9th Minutes

Dee Ann Hart asked for a motion to approve the May 9th Minutes. 

Al Tolbert makes the motion to approve the minutes. 

Audience member pointed out that the minutes that the council is about to
pass are not accurate, but she was ignored. 

Danny Grissom seconded the motion to approve the minutes. 

Ramona Harvey tried again to get her concerns about the agenda addressed,
but was ignored. 

May 9th minutes passed by unanimous vote. 

Approval of State Plan (Which was not developed at public meetings)

Council continues to ignore the public and moves on to approval of the
state plan. 

Audience members try to communicate to the council that they are having
difficulty hearing, and requests that the council please use the
microphone because of an inability to hear what is going on.  But the
council continues to ignore the public who is not able to hear while the
council tried to quickly approve the state plan, before the public really
has an opportunity to understand what is going on.  Council members refuse
to repeat what they are saying into the microphone. 

Pat Stewart moved to adopt the State Plan Dave Nelson Seconds.  Motion
carried by unanimous vote. 

Audience members try to point out that the state plan that was just passed
is not legal.  Audience members ask when the state plan committee meetings
were.  Audience was ignored. 

While this is going on Council members move on to the next item on the
agenda which was considering an amendment to article II of the bylaws.
Audience member try to point out that they don't currently have a copy of
the bylaws with them so they cannot look at what is being amended. 
Amendments to the bylaws include changing a couple of titles including the
title of section 1, and deleting the first paragraph of section one and
inserting the mission statement the council voted to adopt in May. 

Audience members again indicate that they are not feeling empowered and
are ignored. 

Teresa Mager made a motion to modify the bylaws, and Pat Stewart Seconded. 
Council votes to approve bylaw modifications while audience members try to
get clarification as to when the state plan committee meetings were. 
Members of the public note these meetings were not open to the public, but
the council ignored them.  Members of the public noted that the Feds would
be hearing about how the state plan was not developed at open meetings,
but the council ignored them and moved on to committee reports. 

While council members began committee reports while intentionally ignoring
and disregarding members of the public with disabilities.  Ramona Harvey
who sat in the back of the room with her hand raised tried again to work
with the council hoping to at least have the council at least acknowledge
the official written request regarding IL funding concerns which was
submitted to the council on May 9, 2007.  She was ignored. 

Finally members of the public resorted to trying to communicate with the
council through song.  Lyrics available online at the Secretary's
Chronicles. The direct link is:
http://www.onecandream.com/ICOIL/theanswertheyarenotgonnasend.doc

The council continued to ignore the audience, and adjourned the meeting
walking out before they were finished singing. 

Total meeting lasted approximately 10 minutes.