Date: Fri 06-Sep-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

ADA-Beres-Cascella-grievance

Full Text:

Head Of Disabilities Panel Says Town Is Violating Its Own Grievance Procedures

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

The chairman of the Persons with Disabilities Committee of Newtown has sent a

letter to the governor's office, complaining that town officials are ignoring

their responsibility to comply with the American Disabilities Act (ADA).

In a letter to Ed Mambruno of the governor's staff, Wendy G. Beres said town

officials have yet to respond to a grievance which she filed on June 6 when a

town meeting concerning an ADA issue was held in the Alexandria Room at Edmond

Town Hall, a building which Mrs Beres says is not accessible to handicapped

persons.

In the grievance, Mrs Beres said that the town of Newtown was notified of the

inaccessibility of Edmond Town Hall in the committee's ADA Title II

Accessibility Status Report, dated January 17, 1995, and has made no attempt

to revamp the building's elevator to comply with ADA regulations.

Mrs Beres said she wrote a letter on August 15 to Public Works Director Fred

Hurley, who serves as the town's ADA coordinator, in which she said that under

the grievance procedure adopted by the town last year, she was to have met

with Mr Hurley within 15 calendar days of her June 6 letter.

"Within 15 calendar days from that meeting, I was to have a response in

writing," she said. "The response must explain the position of the town and

offer options for substantive resolution of the complaint. If the response by

Fred Hurley doesn't satisfactorily resolve the issue, the next step was to

have been a meeting - within 15 days - with the first selectman."

Mrs Beres said that after she received a response from Mr Hurley on August 27,

she wrote to First Selectman Bob Cascella on August 28 asking for a meeting.

So far there has been no response to her letter, she said.

"I have no comment on anything that Wendy Beres says," Mr Cascella told The

Bee.

"The local disabilities committee is an ad hoc committee formed to report to

the Board of Selectmen, to bring us recommendations. They have no power and no

authority beyond that," he said. "If Mrs Beres is writing to the governor's

office, it is as a private citizen."

Mr Cascella said the ADA committee "did some fine work" and sent the town some

documents to review. Since then, however, the town has hired a professional

human resources director "who will take a hard look at what the town needs to

do to comply with the ADA law."

"We will utilize our professional town staff to get us there," the first

selectman said.

Mr Hurley said he addressed Mrs Beres complaint in June by telling P&Z

officials to hold all public meetings in accessible rooms. He said he arranged

with Dominic Posca, the school district's building and grounds supervisor, for

storage near the Middle School auditorium for devices to assist the hearing

impaired and assumed that public meetings would be held in that room rather

than in the Alexandria Room.

"My complaint is not just in regard to this Planning & Zoning Commission

meeting," Mrs Beres said. "The town has yet to take the steps which are

required as part of the transition plan which is required under ADA law."

Other public meetings have been held in Edmond Town Hall since June 6, Mrs

Beres said. Town offices located in the building are inaccessible because a

person who uses a wheelchair cannot independently operate the building's

elevator.

Mrs Beres said the ADA committee was not allowed to review town personnel

policies nor see a blank employment application to be sure that the town's

employment practices are in line with federal law. In addition, "the grievance

procedure, by law, is to be made public and be posted for employees," she

said. "None of this has been done. And the grievance that I filed has not been

addressed to date, making the time period from the time of complaint to a

response by the town more than 85 days instead of the 15 as stated in the

procedure."

Mrs Beres said that if she doesn't receive a response, she will file a

complaint with the US Department of Justice.