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Oregon NRCS/FSA Civil Rights Committee Minutes
 

SUBJECT:   Meeting Date - August 21, 2008
 

Attendance:

  • Misty Vega Falcon, Chair, Hispanic Emphasis Program Manager
  • Cory Owens, Black Emphasis Program Manager
  • Leslie Kelley, Federal Women Program Manager
  • Kacee Lathrop, Disabilities Emphasis Program Manager
  • Annaliese Pollack, Veterans Emphasis Program Manager
  • Lorraine Vogt, Asian/Pacific Island Emphasis Program Manager
  • Leo Preston, Member at Large
  • Katie McDougall, Member at Large
  • Pedro Ramos, Lead – Field Operations
     

Important Dates

August 27, 2008: Bio of yourself to Misty
August 29, 2008: Performance Plans to Pedro
October 1, 2008: Annual Plans to Pedro
November 5, 2008: Meeting in Redmond at 8:00 am
January 28, 2009: Teleconference at 10:00 am
April 22, 2009: Meeting in Portland at 8:00 am
July 22, 2009: Teleconference at 10:00 am

Announcements

Misty announced that she will be leaving the agency and moving to Minnesota. Next week will be her last week. Anything related to ADA issues, please send to Kacee, everything else can be sent to Pedro. Misty has been a great asset to the team and will be greatly missed.

Cory also announced that she will be on maternity leave in October or November and suggested an at large member could cover her SEPM while she is gone.

There are several new committee members joining the team. Leslie is from Klamath Falls and is the new Federal Women SEPM. Annaliese is from Portland and is the new Veterans SEPM. Lorraine is from John Day and is the new Asian/Pacific Island SEPM. Katie McDougall is from La Grande and is a new Member at Large on the committee.

Annual and Performance Plans

Annual plans for fiscal year 09 need to be sent to Pedro by October 1st. The previous SEPM should send a copy of their previous annual plan to the new SEPM to use as an example. The member at large committee members do not have to complete an annual plan. Performance plans need to be e-mail to Misty and Pedro by August 29th. New SEPM do not have an annual plan for fiscal year 08, so they do not have to complete a performance plan for this fiscal year.

Civil Rights Reviews

Checklist

The set up for the checklists is still a working project. The goal is to have the bugs worked out before FSA comes aboard in the next fiscal year. The checklist is going to be set up as an Adobe fillable form so everything can be done electronically. The paperwork needs to be signed by everyone in the review. It is not necessary to write out the agreed to items when completing the write-up, a statement stating to see check list will work. Any hard copies of items received from the field offices should be sent to Cec for her files at the state office.

Other

Bathrooms that are not classified as accessible do not need to be measured. They can have a walk-through done and the doors measured, but no need to measure other items.
In order for a conference room to be considered accessible, it needs to be centrally located in the same location. A room down the road is not considered accessible. Refer to the ADA manual or ask Kacee on further questions.

Parity and Charts

A discussion was held about how parity should be calculated and measured. Should Oregon measure by quality, quantity, or both? Pedro is going to make changes to the parity spreadsheet which should make the calculations easier to process. Cory volunteered to put together an instruction bulletin on how to compute parity for the field offices.

Pictures

Please take pictures of compliance items and put on a disk or thumb drive to send to Chris Martin for lease negotiations.

Process with Letters and Write Ups

The cover letter, write up and checklist needs to be sent to Pedro with a carbon copy to Kacee and Cec Cullison at the state office for review. After it is approved, the paperwork needs to be sent to the Basin Team Leader, with a carbon copy to the District Conservationist and Chris Martin at the state office.

Share Point

Rita Ramos has created a share point directory for the civil rights team. Misty mentioned the idea of having Rita give a presentation on how to use share point at the next face to face meeting. In the mean time, Misty is looking at getting pamphlets on share point for everyone.

Civil Rights National Review

The National review results were received by Misty and she is in the process of reviewing and preparing a response for the areas that need to be addressed. She might be contacting some people to get further clarification on some items. She will forward the accessibility issues that were found to the committee.

Bio for Bob Graham

Please send Misty a short bio of yourself for the new State Con to use to familiarize themselves the civil rights committee. Misty will send out an example. She needs them by August 27th.

Next Meetings

The dates for the next meetings were discussed. They are tentatively set for:

  • November 5th in Redmond at 8:00 am
  • Teleconference on January 28th at 10:00 am
  • April 22nd in Portland at 8:00 am
  • Teleconference on July 22nd at 10:00 am

Adjourn

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 11:00 am.
 


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