Capital Area Transit People with Disabilities Advisory Committee Approves By-Laws, Elects Officers
Capital Area Transit (CAT) People with Disabilities Advisory Committee unanimously elected officers and approved committee By-Laws at the March meeting at the Center for Independent Living of Central Pennsylvania in Camp Hill, according to CAT spokesperson Robert Philbin.
The recently formed advisory committee took organizational steps of approving By-Laws and electing officers.
The committee elected the following officers: Robert Philbin, CAT Director of Public Information & Customer Expereince, will serve as Committee Chairman; Charles Carr, CILCP consumer and person with disability advocate, will serve as Vice Chairperson; and Dauphin County Attorney Guy P. Beneventano was elected to servce as pro bono legal advisor and Committee Secretary.
The CAT People with Disabilities Advisory Committee also established By-Laws which clarify the Committee’s mission as follows:
- to identify the rights of persons with disabilities and/or persons with low incomes to obtain access to local public transportation systems, consistent with Title II of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), Pub. L. No. 101-336, and other applicable legislative requirements;
- to facilitate communications between and collaboration with CAT management, riders with disabilities and those social service organizations that advocate for persons with disabilities, all in an effort to improve transit services for such persons;
- to increase awareness of the existence and availability of all CAT operated and/or affiliated transportation services for persons with disabilities, and to recommend ways in which such persons can more effectively and efficiently utilize these types of services; and
- to identify opportunities to improve the quality of services to persons with disabilities and/or persons with low incomes and/or provide these services at a reduced cost.
- to review and comment upon pending state or federal legislation of interest or concern to persons with disabilities, to the extent that such legislation involves or affects their rights under the ADA to obtain access to local public transportation systems.
- to recommend to CAT, CAT’s administration and governing body, as well as its incorporating municipalities, changes to any and all policies or procedures regarding local public transportation systems that this Committee deems injurious to the safety, dignity or individual well-being of persons with disabilities.
The structure of the committee includes: four voting members representing CAT; four members representing social service agencies; and seven riders, “each of whom shall be persons with disabilities” and “regular users of paratransit and fixed route services.”
The Committee includes:
Seth Ambrose
(Center For Independent Living of Central PA)
Michael Begler
(Business Resilience Plan Consultant)
Charles Carr
(rider with disability,
representing Harrisburg city’s shared ride & fixed route)
Howard DeHart
(rider with disability,
representing Dauphin County’s shared ride)
Iris Hetrick
(rider with disability)
Cathy Long
(rider with disability,
representing Cumberland County’s shared ride)
Chris Martinelli
(rider with disability,
representing Dauphin County’s shared ride)
Sherry Marks
Capital Area Transit
Carolyn O’Brien
(rider with disability,
representing Cumberland County’s shared ride)
Elizabeth Pabon
(rep for riders with disabilities,
in upper Dauphin who use paratransit services)
Robert Philbin
Capital Area Transit
Felix Pacheco
(rider with disability,
representing Dauphin & Cumberland
county fixed route, paratransit services)
Diana Steel
(United Cerebral Palsy consumers)
Tom Young
Capital Area Transit
