13:16:13 Live captions provided by Rev.com. For 99% accurate post-meeting transcripts and captions, visit Rev.com.
114:01:21 >> LAURA PERNA: Well, it''s 2:01.
14:01:29 So I think that means it''s time for us to go ahead and get the show on the road.  So hi, everyone.
14:01:35 Welcome back to those of y''all that are joining us for yet another Raise Your Voice!
14:01:45 adventure.  My name is Laura Perna.  I''m the Communications Director at CTD.  I''m a white woman with black glasses and long brown hair.
14:01:49 I''m wearing a black t-shirt.
14:02:00 And in the background, you can see a wall with, like, white painted boards and then horizontal brown boards placed intermittently.
14:02:15 I''m going to quickly go over the accessibility and Zoom functions for today''s call.  We do have closed captions, which you can toggle on and off with the closed caption button.
14:02:29 For those of y''all that requested CART, we will be using breakouts, and the captioner will be going into your breakout room with you, so you''ll be able to continue to use that in breakouts.
14:02:38 We''ll be doing a little bit of screen sharing today, but we''ll give you a heads up.  We''ll be using the polls.
14:02:46 Right now everybody is muted, but we will ask you to unmute when we go into breakouts.  Same with video.
14:02:57 If you''d like to turn your video off for the presentation portion, we''ll invite you to turn it back on for breakouts.
14:03:12 We''ll be using the chat box toto -- if you have any kind of tech help requests that you need, you can chat those to us.
14:03:26 And we''ll also be watching the info@txdisabilities.org if chat is inaccessible to you.  And let''s see.
14:03:34 For today we''re going to be doing a little bit of drafting.
14:03:46 So if you have a pen and paper handy or another device that you can make some notes on, or just know that you might be making some notes to yourself in your head a little later on,
14:03:54 have those available.  We are recording this meeting.  Just hit record now.
14:04:03 And finally, we''re not highlighting anybody, so whether you want to do speaker view or gallery view, that is up to you.
14:04:14 Now I''m going to turn it over to Marjorie Costello for our sponsor welcome.  Thank you, Marjorie.
14:04:19 >> MARJORIE COSTELLO: Hi.
14:04:33 Sorry.  I had to get myself unmuted there.  I find myself in these meetings starting to talk before anyone can hear me.  My name is Marjorie Costello.  I''m with CDS in Texas.  I''m a white woman with blonde hair.
14:04:42 And behind me is a really old wood wall from 1910.  And on it is a painting of a seashell.
14:04:45 And it happens to be my dining room.
14:04:58 So I''m really excited to be here and express our support for all of you in the Coalition and involved in it.  Advocacy is near and dear to my heart.
14:05:01 It''s a big part of what I do.
14:05:10 And especially on the side of attendant wages, which is what this roundtable is focused on.
14:05:16 That is one of the most important issues, I believe, for people with disabilities in home care right now.
14:05:33 The fact that we don''t have a living wage for our personal care attendants is a travesty, and I have been advocating for that for about is a years now with minimal success.
14:05:44 And I really hope that in light of this recent pandemic that the legislature will finally listen to all of your voices and recognize
14:05:58 how important it is to be able to stay safe at home and that personal care attendants are a big part of that and being able to hire them and pay them a living wage is 100% necessary for that to happen.
14:06:06 So again, I just want to thank all of you guys for wanting your voices heard and making them heard.
14:06:23 And we continue to just support all of you in doing that.  It''s so important from every level of advocacy, grassroots to, you know, shaking hands with your actual legislature.  Thanks, guys.  That''s all.
14:06:36 >> LAURA PERNA: All right, Dennis, I think you''re up next.
14:06:45 >> DENNIS BOREL: I believe we''re going to look at a -- take a poll right now.  If you''ll pop that up for everybody.
14:06:50 >> LAURA PERNA: Who are you and what did you look like?
14:06:58 >> DENNIS BOREL: I''m an Anglo male, gray beard, kind of trimmed.  Got a nice blue shirt on in front of a black screen.
14:07:06 And I''m very glad to be here and see a lot of not only names I recognize but also names I don''t recognize, which is really, really cool.
14:07:15 Thanks for reminding me since we''ve taken up audio description because we do have a number of folk who is are visually impaired.
14:07:22 In fact, I was talking to Ted earlier in the waiting room, who is himself visually impaired.
14:07:23 And he''s not the only one there.
14:07:34 We''re going to start off with a little bit of a poll
14:07:38 I''m going to read this as well.
14:07:47 The question is, you can mark as many as you''d like.  This is the poll.  I''m concerned about community care.
14:07:52 Earlier Ted used the term "provider care."
14:07:58 It is when somebody comes to the individual''s home and helps them with activities of daily living in their own home.
14:08:05 I''m concerned about community care because, and you''re going to mark all that apply.  And these are the options.
14:08:10 High attendant turnover.
14:08:14 Difficult to recruit reliable attendants.
14:08:20 You can look at these and mark them.  Can''t keep attendants due to the low wage.  Marjorie.
14:08:26 Can''t keep attendants due to no benefits, such as paid time off or healthcare.
14:08:35 A potential loss of my independence to live in my own home.  Fear of institutionalization.
14:08:44 Creates hardships for my family and friends.  None of these are something else.  So you can pick as many as you''d like.
14:08:57 And at the bottom there is a submit button.  If you''re looking on your phone or iPad, sometimes you have to scroll down because your screen may not reach as far as the submit button.
14:09:09 So if you''ll take just a minute here and answer that, you''ll see where -- we''ll come back and let you know the results of that.
14:09:26 So I''m going to now kick this over to our advocacy director, Jolene Foster, who has a bit of an overview of CTD and what we''re trying to do here.
14:09:31 >> JOLENE SANDERS-FOSTER: Thank you, Dennis.  Can you guys hear me?
14:09:32 >> DENNIS BOREL: Yes.
14:09:33 >> JOLENE SANDERS-FOSTER: Okay.
14:09:49 My name is Jolene Foster, advocacy director at th glasses and long brown hair pulled up on top of my head. e Coalition of Texans with Disabilities.  I am a white male with dark rimmed
14:10:08 In the background you''ll see things I picked up antiquing and my children''s art.  I''m going to talk about what CTD is for some of those who may not be (audio interference).  Coalition of Texans with Disabilities was established
14:10:19 around 1978.  We''re a cross-disability organization, which means we touch on all issues, all disabilities across all settings, across the lifespan.
14:10:30 So for example today we''re going to talk about community attendant wages.  We''ll also be talking about other issues in subsequent sessions through this series.
14:10:38 Our focus is advocacy, and we''re among the primary advocacy groups that are driving policy change in Texas today.
14:10:50 Two of our core principles in advocacy is always to involve you, those with lived experience, those who care for loved ones, those who navigate the services and support, the day-to-day
14:11:00 challenges, as well as the successes.  We value you as self-advocates.  We value community input, and we will always put your input first.
14:11:05 So what is Raise Your Voice!?
14:11:16 The idea of Raise Your Voice! is to offer an opportunity for us to hear from you and kind of share some of the things that we''re working on moving forward so that we can move forward together.
14:11:34 When we say Raise Your Voice! we really do mean that.  We really want to hear your voice.  Today we''re going to talk about community attendant wages and over the next series 6 -- of Wednesdays, we''ll be targeting issues.
14:11:44 On September 2nd, we''ll be discussing voting for people with disabilities.  On September 9th, we''ll talk about benefits for Medicaid.
14:11:58 We''re going to take the 16th off to recognize the Civil Rights holidays for our Latinx communities and then resume on September 21st and talk about expansion of medical cannabis.
14:12:06 What you can expect today in moving forward or if you''ve participated in previous sessions we''ve had, first of all, we will value you.
14:12:19 We''ll listen to you, we''ll involve you.  We will share information with you on advocacy issues on developments, strategies, the process of legislation, as well as opportunities and more.
14:12:29 You''ll have an opportunity to connect with other self-advocates, family members, interested community members.
14:12:31 Some you may know.  Some may be new.
14:12:37 They will be sharing your ideas, and you''ll exchange your own experiences and ideas as well.
14:12:38 So it''s going to be very interactive.
14:12:46 We have an experienced staff in advocacy, and we''ll be here to collaborate with you and to support you in any way that we can.
14:12:56 Finally, what we''re going to be doing during the 2021 session, that''s a great question, right?
14:13:07 In preparation for 2021, we don''t really have an answer to that.  We don''t have a clear description of what the legislative session will look like, whether there will be in-person hearings,
14:13:16 whether we''ll have to schedule meetings, whether they''ll do things virtually.  We''re still trying to figure all of that out.
14:13:31 But what we do know is CTD will continue to keep you informed on whatever those developments are, whatever guidance is delivered and we''ll make adjustments with you to make sure that we can ensure that you have an opportunity
14:13:41 to raise your voice.  I guess at this point, let''s dig into some issues.  And I''m going to kick it back over to Dennis.
14:13:47 >> DENNIS BOREL: Thanks, Jolene.
14:13:57 If we''re
14:14:05 Ready to share the results of the poll?  Wow.  The overwhelming response -- by the way, none of them are low.
14:14:13 Every single one of these issues had a significant -- is a significant level of concern.
14:14:16 The low wage, can''t keep attendants to low wage is 100%.
14:14:20 That''s amazing.  Not surprising.
14:14:25 But I think it points to the value of our conversation today.
14:14:32 And the next highest one was difficult to recruit.
14:14:36 Recruiting and retention.  No benefits was the next highest.
14:14:46 High attendant turnover is a result of those previous three, low wage, difficult to recruit, no benefits.  Potential loss of independence to live in my own home.
14:14:53 Oh, my gosh.  Cited by 68% of respondents.  That''s scary.
14:15:06 Fear of institutionalization, 52%.  And creates hardship for my family and friends, 56%.  And here''s a telling thing is nobody answered "none."
14:15:22 That means these items we looked at are, in fact, all things you''re concerned about.  And I''m very, very impressed.  So thank you for that poll.
14:15:40 We''ll keep the results of the poll and it will inform our advocacy going forward.  At this time I''m going to introduce a top-notch advocate for the issue of attendant care, provider care in the state of Texas and beyond.
14:15:57 And I''m talking about Cathy Cranston, who is the founder of PACT, the Personal Assistant coalition of Texas.  She''ll correct me if I got the A wrong.
14:16:02 I''ve been shoulder to shoulder with Cathy on so many occasions.
14:16:09 I can''t count them.  And she is quite the expert.  Cathy, I''m going to kick it to you, please.
14:16:23 >> CATHY CRANSTON: Thank you so much, Dennis.  I''m Cathy Cranston, and I am (Indiscernible), brown skin.  I am wearing a yellow t-shirt.  I use the pronouns she and her.
14:16:34 In the background, there''s a sign that says "fund home community services."
14:16:57 And part of home and community services is attendants.  I am part of PACT, Personal Attendant Coalition of Texas.  We''re a grassroots coalition that consists of personal care attendants (Indiscernible), people with disabilities.  And other supporters.  Anybody that is advocating for higher wages, health insurance
14:17:14 paid vacation and time off.  And I am -- (Indiscernible) I don''t know if they''ve left yet.  It''s hard for me to talk and breathe through this mask.
14:17:20 I will take it off when our visitor leaves the house.
14:17:32 So there''s approximately 275,000 personal care attendants that work in Texas under Medicaid.
14:17:37 And PACT was formed in 2005.
14:17:43 And we are the voice of our attendants that work for us and direct support professionals.
14:17:53 And part of the creation was so that there would be an entity that solely focused on the issue of attendants.
14:17:59 Attendant meaning livable wages, health insurance, paid vacation, and time off.
14:18:15 So we created it.  Also I just have to say kudos to CTD, the Arc of Texas.  Many other organizations, as well as I would say Meals on Wheels is present.
14:18:20 Thank you for being here.
14:18:25 (Indiscernible) is present also.
14:18:29 Each of those organizations advocate for increased wages for our personal care attendants.
14:18:36 On a personal note, I''ve been working as a personal care attendant in my community for about 40 years.
14:18:46 So the face of personal care attendants, direct support professionals, is predominantly women.  We''re women of color.
14:18:51 We''re 48 years of age and older.
14:18:58 We also, many of us, live on federal assistance also because our wages are so low.
14:19:02 Let''s see.  What else?
14:19:12 Also, I want to go into a little bit about the history of our wages.  Let me just check and see if Amy has left.
14:19:20 Did anybody see if Ron went out the door?  No.  Yes.  Okay.
14:19:24 Good.  Whew.  Sorry, guys.
14:19:36 And so I was practicing social distancing and safety, and that''s one of the issues that we all are trying to do to stay healthy.
14:19:52 And so in the history of this advocacy that we''ve done -- oh, my gosh, even before 2005.  But there have been so many sessions.  I know in 2006,
14:20:04 we had worked with the health and Human Services Commission to try to start increasing those wages.
14:20:09 The state has known that they basically have dropped the ball.
14:20:16 They won''t acknowledge it and admit it, but they have.  They have dropped the ball since then because even then it was difficult to find attendants.
14:20:33 But it''s even more so now.  So in 2006, we were working with HHSC to create -- actually, to create -- I''m sorry.  I wanted to send this to you guys, but I''ll send it later.
14:20:53 What it is, it''s a part of an advisory council that was formed in 2010 under executive commissioner at that time.  And what we ended up doing was creating recommendations to
14:20:57 our state legislators saying, this is what we need.
14:21:07 And of course, one of the very top recommendation was increased wages.  As well as many other recommendations.
14:21:10 But that was one of the very top ones.
14:21:21 So what the appendix did, it compared the different wages across the spectrum, you know, regardless of who you worked for.
14:21:37 It covered all the different programs and what it also showed was the wage disparity, depending upon where you were receiving your services, whether you worked with somebody with an intellectual developmental disability or somebody that was aging
14:21:44 or with a physical disability, you could see a wage disparity.
14:21:48 And part of that has just been created federally, actually.
14:22:10 But getting back just to the history of the fact that our wages were so low.  Back then I think the wages were about seven and a quarter.  There was a big push by all of these different organizations working in concert to increase the wage.
14:22:21 I think it took a couple of sessions before we were able to increase it from $7.25 to $8 an hour as a base wage.
14:22:27 And Dennis or Nancy, you can chime in if you know the years.
14:22:30 It''s just kind of not in my head right now as far as the years.
14:22:51 And so we got it up to $8 after a couple sessions.  And then not last session, maybe two sessions ago, we were able to get it to $8.11!  Yay!  Right?  I know, I''m preaching to the choir.
14:22:52 It''s so frustrating, guys.
14:23:00 I know it is for all of us.  All of us have been there advocating, making our visits to the legislators.
14:23:03 You know, telling them what we need.
14:23:08 And it''s just very frustrating.
14:23:18 But with that, one of the things that we have looked at also, because we need to keep pushing this issue.  And I''m preaching to the choir again.
14:23:32 We''ve got to keep telling the decisionmakers like Sara Davis, who oversees Article II.  She''s the chair of the subcommittee.
14:23:38 That''s the point person we''re going to ultimately need to send our e-mails, call her office, leave a message.
14:23:49 Telling her we need you to increase those wages under our in-term charge.  Number one.
14:23:56 But one of the alternative things that I think we could also put into that is under the recruitment and retention piece, because
14:24:11 what we''re finding, you know, working with Adaptive Texas 2 and under PACT, we get calls.  I go in once a week to the office.
14:24:19 We''re still getting calls from people out in the community looking for attendants because they can''t find attendants.
14:24:32 Their attendant either got sick and under the pandemic, people are refusing, unfortunately, attendants are human, too, and they''re afraid to go to work.
14:24:44 Or they don''t have -- in the pandemic, they may not have somebody to take care of their children.  So they couldn''t leave them at home, you know, because they''re young.
14:24:48 So they wouldn''t go to work.
14:24:51 And so that would leave who?
14:24:55 The person with disability in alurk, you know?
14:25:04 So things we are looking at, too, is creating alternatives such as internships for nurses and social workers.
14:25:29 And in fact, nationally there''s a pilot that -- and I can''t remember what state.  But I know someone has created a pilot where the OTs and PT people that are off, that aren''t working right now,
14:25:35 are, indeed, filling those slots as personal care attendants.
14:25:38 And so this is good because we need attendants, right?
14:25:50 The other ideas that we have are hiring seniors.  My husband was able to glean an attendant from a program that the city ran.
14:25:54 This was probably 15 years ago.
14:26:06 But it''s a great program where they hire seniors.  They find jobs for seniors, seniors that maybe have a retirement and don''t necessarily need that extra money.
14:26:23 I''m not saying don''t pay them fairly.  I want them, obviously, to be paid their service.  But at the same time, I know as not just as a worker as an attendant, but also as an advocate for an individual with disabilities,
14:26:27 we''ve got to find attendants.
14:26:32 And the other thing is training individuals with disabilities to work as attendants.
14:26:40 I know UT has a program, which is really cool.  E for Texas.
14:26:53 And so these are programs that we''ve been pushing and supporting and so I think it''s good to plant those seeds into our legislators'' minds.
14:27:07 There was one other thing I wanted to mention.  But I guess I don''t remember it, so go ahead, Dennis, and I''ll jump in if it comes back.
14:27:17 >> DENNIS BOREL: Please do.  So I think the clear takeaway you get from Cathy is this really is a money issue.  This is really about pay.
14:27:24 You''ve all heard the statement, "you get what you pay for."
14:27:33 Well, it was bad when Cathy first became active and I first became active, which when I first became active, almost 20 years ago and I think Cathy, more so.
14:27:37 And it hasn''t gotten any better.
14:27:52 So what''s happened now is I call it the perfect storm.  And one of the perfect storms is if you look at the wages as they existed in the start of XHURNT care and where they are now community care and where they are now, and you adjust for
14:28:04 inflation, the wages have gone down, eroded by about 30%, in fact, more than 30%, okay?  So we''ve actually devalued these attendants.
14:28:17 And meanwhile, our state is getting bigger as far as population.  And we know that, for example, the older population is going to increase by 90% by 2030.
14:28:28 Those are high users of attendant care.  We also know that people with disabilities younger than the older adults are also increasing.
14:28:33 So we have a diminishing wage scale and increasing population.
14:28:51 I don''t know, Laura, if, Laura, if you can pop up that one screen share.  This is Texas Fastest-growing Occupations.
14:28:55 The two in bold, number one and three are the same job.
14:29:07 Sometimes the provider, sometimes the caregiver, sometimes the personal assistant, sometimes the attendant.  The personal care aide and the home health aide is the same job.  So basically think of them
14:29:22 as the same job.  So the change, as you can see, they''re expecting, if you add those two numbers together, the 76,000 new jobs needed.
14:29:38 Plus line three, new jobs needed of 25,000.  That''s in excess of 100,000 newspaper attendants that we''re going to need by 2024.  Wow.  Okay?
14:29:43 And we already can''t fill the jobs that we have now.
14:30:02 Now, to give you an idea of how bad this is in the larger view of economics, if you took all the other high-growth occupations and added them all together, the attendant care, the need for attendants, Is higher than the next eight growth occupations combined.
14:30:12 I''ll repeat that.  Higher than the next eight highest growth occupations combined.
14:30:16 You can take that down, Laura.
14:30:28 What we have is a situation with diminishing wages.  We also know the Texas Workforce Commission won''t do anything about it.  Why not?
14:30:42 Under federal law, they can only help people get jobs that pay basically a subsistence wage, which you don''t get as an attendant.  So they''re not even going to help recruit people.
14:30:48 The state''s main workforce recruitment agency is powerless to help in this situation.
14:31:04 Meanwhile, alternative employment, like the fast food industry, like the taco place around the corner from me, which is advertising $15 an hour, the chicken place by CTD starts at $15.  Bucky''s, the service station,
14:31:14 convenience store, starts higher and gives benefits.  Used to be those jobs were fairly close to the bad wages of attendant care.
14:31:23 Not anymore because they respond to market forces.  So why doesn''t the attendant wage respond to market forces?
14:31:37 Because it is set by the legislature.  And they ignore that.  Cathy mentioned COVID is actually making this situation worse.  But one thing that COVID should have taught everyone, better, much better for an individual with a disability or
14:31:48 older adult to be supported to stay in their own home rather than in a nursing home or be forced to go to a hospital or other congregate setting.
14:32:03 So this is an action today.  So Cathy referenced the Appropriations Committee.  They are taking input right now on the attendant care.
14:32:13 We have sent all of you a one-page sheet on how you can send an e-mail in, tell your story, or raise your voice any way you want.
14:32:22 Marjorie, I would hope you would do that from the point of view of an agency trying to hire people to do this work.
14:32:30 So in this document that we sent you, and we will send it again, okay?  It has the e-mail, the due date, the end of September.
14:32:41 It will go to Sara Davis, who is the Chair of the Health and Human Services Appropriation Subcommittee.
14:32:49 Powerful person.  We want her to hear a lot of these.  And believe it or not, if every one of you -- and I''m looking, there''s about 30 people on this.
14:33:00 If every one of you Send that in, it will seem like an avalanche because most people don''t bother.  We''re going to keep doing this as we go along.
14:33:15 So before we do a little bit of work, I want to answer a question that no one has asked but is thinking, and that question is, I''m hearing the Lieutenant Governor and the governor Talk about how they''re going to be broke next session.
14:33:26 Well, I will tell you, don''t buy it.  Number one, as advocates for people with disabilities, we''re going to advocate.  That''s our job.
14:33:37 And number two, the state has a gigantic rainy day fund.  It''s received billions of extra federal dollars that they haven''t spent.  They''ll probably get more.
14:33:46 They can do things to shut down some loopholes that have existed for sometimes decades for certain industries that don''t need it anymore.
14:33:56 And they can create new revenue streams like Medicaid expansion, for example, expansion of medical cannabis.
14:34:00 So don''t believe it if they tell you they''re going to be broke.
14:34:07 The important question is, are they going to serve the needs of the citizens of Texas?  That is the important question.
14:34:17 So our task, so the first thing we''re going to do is we''re going to ask you to think for a few minutes.  Think for a few minutes.
14:34:21 What would you say in your e-mail?  The e-mail can be long.
14:34:25 It can be short.  It can be a few sentences.
14:34:37 I''m afraid I''m going to be in a nursing home because I can''t find anybody to work for $8.11 an hour.  That''s persuasive.  Or it could be longer.  I''ve had years of trying to fight this.
14:34:42 We''re going to give you a few minutes to do some thinking.
14:34:48 You can maybe make some notes if you have something to write with or think about in your heads.
14:34:53 What would you say to Chair Sara Davis?
14:35:00 Then I''m going to ask Laura to describe what we''re going to do next.  We''re going to take a few minutes, Laura, is that right?
14:35:04 And then you''re going to describe?
14:35:09 Okay.  So please start thinking, folks, what you will say, and Raise Your Voice!
14:39:39 >> LAURA PERNA: All right.  So wrap up your notes and thoughts and we''re going to move to the next step of this activity.
14:39:48 We''re going to go into breakouts, where you will get and give feedback about your comments to Sara Davis, et cetera.
14:40:01 We''ve tried to set up each room so that you''ll be interacting with both people who are old hand at this, who have been sending in comments since they could pick up a pen
14:40:13 and people who have never done it before and are bringing a totally fresh perspective.  Of course, I''m talking about Cathy.
14:40:15 (Laughs) So there will be a variety of perspectives
14:40:24 in each room.  And I''m just going to give a couple of tips for smooth functioning in breakouts.
14:40:26 First of all, you''ll be automatically placed in them.
14:40:40 You don''t need to hit a button or do anything.  Do a quick sound check when you get into your breakout to make sure that everybody is able to unmute themselves And nobody is accidentally still muted.  We''ve been audio describing yourself.
14:40:45 Please feel free to try that out in your breakout.
14:40:56 If you are passing the mic to another speaker, it can be helpful to name that person so everybody knows who is going next.
14:40:58 Give everyone a chance to speak.
14:41:08 If you notice that you''ve been talking for 8 or 9 minutes, be quiet and let someone else talk.
14:41:18 And finally, I''ll let y''all know when we have about two minutes left.  Now, those alerts are very small.  They don''t stay up for very long.
14:41:36 And I don''t think screen readers read them.  So if you notice, if you''re used to seeing those alertalerts, and if you notice that come in, Go ahead and read that for your whole room so that everybody knows what''s going on.
14:41:41 All right.  Anybody have any questions or concerns before we go into breakouts?
14:41:53 You''ll be discussing the draft of your comments to House Appropriations.  I''m just looking through gallery view.
14:52:50 >> LAURA PERNA: All right.
14:52:53 Welcome back, everyone.  Sorry for that jarring transition.
14:52:57 From breakouts to main room.
14:53:01 It''s just like that.  I hope y''all were having --
14:53:02 >> Not enough time.
14:53:14 >> LAURA PERNA: Really good feedback.  So Dennis, you are going to walk us through how to submit these comments.
14:53:24 >> DENNIS BOREL: Right, thanks, Laura.  Thank you all for taking a few minutes to talk privately.
14:53:36 I know that we enjoyed the conversation.  Martha was able to listen in.  So we have sent you a little document here about this communication.
14:53:44 Please don''t blow us off.  Do this.  You can send an e-mail.
14:53:55 You know, if you''re from organizations, you know, distribute this.  Distribute this to the people that you''re connected to.
14:54:06 Like I said earlier, if all of the 30, 35 people on this Zoom call did this e-mail, that alone will get their attention.
14:54:14 Now, we can amplify that by getting more people.  I see my friend Marsha Wier is on here.
14:54:26 I hope all your attendants will get to look at this, too.  We''ve got one page.  It says take action.  So the Chair is requesting this information, your input.
14:54:34 What they want to do is respond to what they did in 2019, which is an 11-cent raise, right?
14:54:41 That''s what Cathy told us, and she was right.
14:54:48 11-cents-an-hour raise.  Since 2013, the total raise has been 25 cents, including that 11.
14:55:01 That isn''t going to cut it.  So what they say, when you do your e-mail, you can do it as a Microsoft Word document, a Word document.
14:55:12 It can''t be more than five pages.  It doesn''t mean you have to do the full five pages.  Some of you might.  I might because I''ll throw graphs and stuff in there.
14:55:28 You can tell a story.  I see my friend Nancy there.  I''ve had her tell me how hard it is to get an attendant.  She lives somewhere where it''s hard to get to.
14:55:30 That''s a great personal story.
14:55:47 Maybe if they''re paid $15 an hour -- that''s our goal.  $15 an hour base wage.  It''s not too much to ask.  People say it''s too much to ask?  Say, well, I can make a chicken sandwich and make that much money.
14:55:50 Because it''s true.  No more than five pages.  Can be short.
14:55:57 There''s an e-mail address in this document.  Again, we will resend the document to all of you.  Okay?
14:56:28 And it describes, you have to put ART2, stands for Article II in the subject matter of the e-mail.  In the e-mail, you''ll say your name, if you''re part of an organization, or just yourself, Your personal address, e-mail address.  You put that in the e-mail.  So the attachment is your document where you''re Making your statement.  And in that, you don''t put in your e-mail, address, or phone number in that
14:56:38 because that will be shared with everybody.  What you write is going to get shared on the state of Texas multiple websites.
14:56:41 Think how cool is that?
14:56:52 Tell the Nancy story.  Yeah, it took me three months to find an attendant, to recruit an attendant, and then the turnover, they left in two months after that.
14:57:03 Those kinds of things will be shared to all the members of the committee and the public.  You have until September 30th, but we''re asking you to do that this week.  Can you do that?
14:57:23 Can you shoot an e-mail this week?  Again, you''ll get this instruction, and it will walk you -- and if you have any questions, contact us.  Contact CTD or contact Cathy Cranston at PACT.
14:57:40 You know what?  Let''s not take this lying down.  If they''ve treated people with disabilities poorly and the people who care for them poorly for a very long time.  You know what?  Maybe this COVID crisis wouldn''t have been so bad If they had those jobs filled reliably
14:58:00 for people.  I venture to say I know that to be true.  So what we can do on the chat function, the chat function, would you, you know, make a little comment there and just say, yes, I plan to make that e-mail.
14:58:16 So if you''ll go to the chat function.  I''m going to put mine in right now and send it to everyone.  I''m going to say, "I will send that e-mail. "
14:58:22 So go ahead and chat away.
14:58:38 >> LAURA PERNA: If there''s something else you need to send your comments confidently, chat that also.
14:58:52 >> DENNIS BOREL: Yes, that''s right.  Sean, I intend.  Ivy K.
14:59:12 Cathy Cranston.  Andy Cruz, San Antonio.  Blake Smith, thank you.  Amy, yes.  Chamane Barrow, I will send many e-mails this week.  I love it.  Michelle, I will send that e-mail and more.
14:59:26 Sean.  Gene Rodgers, I will send that e-mail today.  Martha, yes, I will send that e-mail.  Tanya Winters, I will send an e-mail.
14:59:31 S Nair, absolutely.  Melanie Cawthon.
14:59:53 Thanks, Ted, you''re going to send an e-mail.  Laura Marquez, I commit to e-mailing.  Laura Perna says she''s going to e-mail.  Okay.  Amy van Heijningen.  I think that''s a beer, isn''t it?  Thank you.
15:00:16 I will work with our Family Eldercare on e-mails.  Ron and Burrell.  Jolene, 100%.  It''s time to wrap up.  The final wrapup is just me describing the sponsors.  Isn''t that right, Laura, and thanking everybody?
15:00:18 >> LAURA PERNA: Did you want to skip that poll?
15:00:20 >> DENNIS BOREL: Go ahead and do the poll, yes.
15:00:37 >> LAURA PERNA: We ask this at the end of every Raise Your Voice! poll.  How was this today?  How was this session?
15:00:39 You have three options.  Great.
15:00:53 Okay.  I would have done some things differently.  And I didn''t like this format.  Please be honest.  We want these to be productive and worthy of your time.
15:01:08 Oh, I should launch that.  I''ve launched the poll now.  If you are still unable to get to the poll, we will also have a place for you to give us this feedback in the followup survey.
15:01:19 So I''ll keep this up while Dennis reads through his notes and then we''ll wrap up.
15:01:25 >> DENNIS BOREL: Again, if you''re using a phone or iPad, you have to scroll down to hit the submit button, which you may not see.
15:01:45 Okay.  So we''re doing this and our whole series of these.  It''s all free to anyone who wants to participate.  But of course, it''s not -- you know, it does cost us money and staff time and Zoom subscriptions to do all this kind of stuff.
15:02:00 And the reason we''re able to do it is some sponsors have stepped up and said they''re going to cover the costs.  And those are our entry level care source, shield healthcare, MSNA,
15:02:16 on the gold level, Dentaquest, Astrazeneca.  Amerigroup.  On the diamond group, CDS in Texas.
15:02:37 Thank you for your introduction today.  Pharma superior health plan.  Our others are Heartland specific and healthcare.  We couldn't do it without those guys.  Tip of the hat to them for funding this activity.
15:02:46 And we will be doing more starting next week.  What''s the subject next week, Laura?  Is it voting?
15:02:48 >> LAURA PERNA: I don''t know.
15:02:49 >> DENNIS BOREL: I think it is.
15:03:05 I think it''s voting rights next week.  And voting rights and disability rights.  Know that, by the way, Chase Bearden will be leading that, our voting guy.
15:03:27 Is there anything else I need to do, Laura?  I want to thank you, Cathy, for coming.  Thank you, Marjorie, for your opening comments.  Thank you, Jennifer, Ted, I''ll be back in touch with you.
15:03:29 Take care, send those e-mails.
15:03:42 We will be back next week, and we''re going to be back throughout the fall doing this kind of work.  And the more you can help us get this thing done, the more we can get it done.
15:03:54 Because you know what?  It''s not an option to keep going forward at $8.11 base wage.  That will collapse the workforce and people end up in hospitals and nursing homes, and
15:04:01 then the legislators are crying about how expensive Medicaid is when they caused it to collapse.
15:04:09 That''s part of my message to them.  Take care.  Stay healthy, and see you next week, I hope.
15:04:13 Bye.
15:04:24 >> LAURA PERNA: I dropped the survey link in the chat if you want to do that now, but we''ll also send that out by e-mail.