Living Independently

Tim Wheat

Make your voice can be heard in the 2010 Election! If you have not already voted by mail, or visited the Early Voting sites around Colorado, you can still vote on Election Day.

The time-honored election day voting requires you to have some form of identification when you visit your polling site. For a list of acceptable forms of identification, visit the Secretary of State’s website: http://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections/vote/acceptableFormsOfID.html

If you have problems on Election Day, please call:

JUST VOTE COLORADO ELECTION PROTECTION HOTLINE: 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683).  The Just Vote website is www.justvotecolorado.org.

If you believe your rights have been violated or you were not accommodated because of a disability please make a Help America Vote Act (HAVA) complaint. This complaint consists of 4 simple parts:

1. Each polling site should post the Secretary of State’s Complaint Procedures and have the office phone number: 303-894-2200.
2. Complaints must be in writing.
3. Complaints must be signed, sworn and notarized.
4. Deliver this complaint to the Colorado Secretary of State, HAVA Division, 1700 Broadway, STE 270, Denver, CO 80290. Complaints may also be faxed to 303-869-4861.

The Center for People with Disabilities will help you to make this complaint; it is important that you work to get all of the essential information.

Most importantly, it is essential that you vote.

- Tim Wheat

Around Colorado, System Change Vote

Faith Gross to speak at CPWD

Vote

Faith Gross from the Legal Center for People with Disabilities will speak and answer questions today at 10:AM at the Center for People with Disabilities. She is not only an expert on accessible voting systems and on the Secretary of State’s Voter Task Force, but she also will talk about the impact various issues have on people with disabilities in Colorado.

CPWD is working to expand access to the election process and this year more people with disabilities may be at the polls that ever. The Help America Vote Act and the ease of “main-in” ballots have greatly expanded the election turn-out. The Center encourages you to use the new tools to cast your vote this election.

Early Voting for Boulder County
Voters may cast ballots at any Boulder County early-voting location:

· County Clerk’s Office – 1750 33rd St., Boulder

· County Courthouse, East Wing – 2025 14th St., Boulder

· University of Colorado at Boulder, Recreation Center – UCB 355, Boulder

· Lafayette Public Library – 775 W. Baseline Road, Lafayette

· County Clerk’s Office – 529 Coffman St., Longmont

· Twin Peaks Mall (near Sears) – 1250 S. Hover Road, Longmont

Locations are open:

• 8 a.m.-6 p.m., Monday-Friday, Oct. 18-29
• 9 a.m.-3 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 23

ADA-accessible voting will be available at all locations.

Voters are required to present an acceptable form of ID.

Around Colorado, Around the country, System Change Vote

Snowy Mountians in Boulder

I was at the city council meeting that voted 8 to 1 in favor of the snow removal changes this season. It was clear that the council knows there is a problem and that they want feedback from people with disabilities on what would be more efficient and effective for the coming snow seasons.

Listening to the council members concerns it was clear that an “abatement” proposal has a clear following. The concept of abatement is simply that if you fail to clear your sidewalk, the city will get it done and charge the property owner.

The city currently uses abatement in connection with “tickets” to get walkways cleared. Last season CPWD analysis found a city enforcement rate of about 7.4%. Out of about 1000 properties reported, less than 80 were cited and the city removed the snow from about 30 violators’ sidewalks.

CPWD generally applauds the snow removal time-table as opposed to a static 24-hour removal requirement. This is a major point that CPWD needs to provide feedback for the city. The adopted regulations state that of the snowfall ends by 5:AM, property owners need to remove snow by noon that day.

The fact is clear that the city has these regulations to help get people to work and children to school. Some council members liked the 24-hour flexible enforcement cut-off because it sometimes may give residents more opportunity for clearing walks. We don’t shut the city down however; when it snows and the snow enforcement should recognize that people are still using streets and walkways.

At the city council meeting I told about an enforcement dilemma that CPWD had experienced in 2008. I called it the “snow reprieve.” What happened is a large snowfall on Sunday was not cleared by one property owner for the morning commute on Monday. Even though the violator was reported, about an inch of snow fell and gave the scofflaw a pass.

The large snow was not removed, the inch of snow simply extended the time the property owner had to remove the snow. Of course, the one inch additional snowfall was not removed either and although every other home on the block had a clear sidewalk, that single property owner had snow packed ice on the walkway all week and did not receive even a warning.

Finally, today’s paper has a letter to the editor that can be misleading. It is written by the Executive Director of CareConnect here in Boulder and is intended to ask the community to volunteer to assist with the snow removal program that the Center supports. The title of the letter seems to imply that people with disabilities should somehow be excluded from snow removal responsibilities.

CPWD wants to be very clear that our community may disagree and have varying opinions and interests in any public discussion, however; people with disabilities should have the same rights and responsibilities as any other citizen. In this case we believe that all property owners have a civic responsibility to clear the public walkways and are not asking for any additional or special consideration in the enforcement of the city regulation.

System Change Boulder, Snow, snow removal

The Boulder City Council considers changes to the Snow Removal regulations and enforcement.

2 weeks following a snowstorm, sidewalks remail uncleared

One of the changes that the city has developed is using contractors to remove snow where residents have failed to shovel and charging the residents for the removal along with a fine. The benefit to people with disabilities is that this method makes the sidewalk usable. In the past, residents got either warnings or tickets, but often left the snow on the walkway and a barrier to our community.

The Daily Camera reported over the weekend that last year the city used contractors 32 times for snow removal. The city issued 33 tickets for 1,044 complaints made. Snow scofflaws are ignored 97% of the time. With that kind of enforcement rate, people with disabilities cannot be confident that walkways will be clear when there is snow.

The newspaper also mentions that along with greater teeth for snow removal enforcement, there will be a drop in the ability of the city to get eyes out in the community to find the offenders. With 1,044 cases reported, the real problem seems to be the identification and verification of the offense, not the enforcement. The paper also notes that 78 people were “repeat offenders.” That means at least half of the repeat offenders got repeat warnings. The city believes that with the ability to bypass some warnings, they will be able to be more effective with enforcement.

Overall, I expect that the changes the city is looking at will be positive for our community. When members of ADAPT testified two year ago, the city council was surprised to find that many days after a snowfall, sidewalks were still impassable particularly by our community. ADAPT members showed photographs of many sidewalks where treacherous areas of wind-blown snow or packed ice blocked the path.

At the City Council meeting tonight I plan to say that we see a need for more efficient and effective enforcement on snow removal. We also wish to remind citizens that snow-shovel-width path does not effectively help our community. The regulations call to clear the entire width of the sidewalk. If a snow shovel is sixteen or eighteen inches wide, it does not clear a path for a wheelchair or walker that has a 28 inch wheelbase. Likewise, people who use a white cane often need to be able to locate the curb and other landmarks that can be hidden with a narrow path through the snow.

ADAPT, Independent Living, System Change Boulder, Snow, snow removal