06/21/1983 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 6/21/83 -8- Mr. McKay stressed the fact that the legislation waa introdueed AFTER a • petition waa prearanted to Council; Council did not go out and solieit it. Ara to why this legislation ehouYd be paased aso the peop2e can vate aad decide the iasue, the aeniors need self government, so3f representation, ae?? depmdmce, coatrol of their future aad destiriy. Put it on the ba11ot; l+et the peop!* decide what they want. If Mr. Woerpel dbea not wsnt it, he can go ctiut sad mork against it. Mr. Wil.amoaky atated that Couneil should be 1oak3ag at giving cat?aider?tion to giving senior citizena s vehicle to improve their quality of life and a acnee of being part of the cawmunity and society. When people reach the ag,e of 62 or 65, they are still viable, praductive, cantributisg members of thia ty• Council needa to addresa, on a long range basis, the rteecls a€ thre ol4eri params of the conimunity; there are definitely different needs between the gouth and the elderly. City has a total populaticsn o€ over 36,000 people, a medisn age of 31, and a population growth of cnly 4.7% in the laet ten gesra. Tt?e facta are that there is a populatian differesce in birtha down 34% frrom ten yeara ago; 5 to 9 pear olda are down 12% from ten years ago; 60 to 64 ptar olde is cp 39% and reaching the peak, 50 to 59 year old people is up 70X from ten yeare `. What is going tv happen to the 59 year old, in five years, when he or ahe is 64? 2'hese are aame of the things that have to be examined in the deveiogmr?t 6f ap-rogram for the aged of this commwaity. The re:al iaaue is tYe growt.ng need £or strwl.ces for aeniors in the c ity and it is time Cotsncil looked a.t a possible sepsration to accomplish this. Sees an dffice on Aging aa a vefiicle to meet tfie neede of thia community. Mr. Bierman suggeeted that aince there are a number of aenior citizena prasent tonight, and it is late, and it is very warm, Cctmcil should move on to further legislation. Mr. Woerpel stated that most of the rhetoric he heard did not addreas the ieaue. Nawhere in the legis].ation could he find anything that addresaed the real and aocial needs of aging Awricans. Agrees that there are sncial r??edes that aeEd to be addressed. In fact, would Iike to aee the Senior Cester and scnior activities expanded to include more s+enior citizens. The queation of whrther or nert to address aenior needs is not the iaaue at hand. The clear iaaue at hsnd is aiaigly a ptr- sonnel administration situation where the legialation is attempting to charter the lines of authority within the manag+ement. He seea no reaavn why that shou18 be chartered. It is not a funetion that belongs in the Chartar and that particul.$r line of authority doea nQt euen belong in the ardinaneea. This is the onlq issue that this particuZar 1eg,i.al.ativn adtiresaes. All the other thinp that weroe dia- cussed, the needs for activities and facilitiea for aeniors are (a) alreadp in place for the moat part; (b) are provided for under current ordtnances and current Charter; or (c) if senior citizens are not getting the kind of sezvicea they want, would sug$est they go to the Aesietant Director in ch$rge of coordinating senior citizens and work through that person and through the Department of Human Reeaurces. Mr. Gareau pointed out that he, personally, wrote the firat legialation dealing with the Department of Amman Rtaources. Sectian A of this ardinsce is identical to the language presently ia the Charter except for two wordrs, wbcih hwm been re- placed in Division B of thc ordinance. Subaesction B of the Charter was simply "establish a Diviaion of Aging". The laaguange in that Division B is quite similar I to the language, as far as generalities are concerned, as A. IIiviaion B simgly eetabliehes a separate divis3.oa and does make i:t permanent. It cannot be taken away by ordinance and it takea away the fears of the senior citizens that anyone, ever, in the future, wi11 be able to do that. Once it is in the Charter, the only way to get it out is to put it to a vote of the people. That is what this ordinance does. ti }. ,:??? = . 77