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Accessibility committee debates 2026 work plan, proposes letter-writing campaign and new liaison role
Summary
COBAC members proposed a proactive 2026 work plan to increase outreach, develop letter templates for timely grant and contract input, create asynchronous public comment tools, and consider a councilor liaison role to ensure earlier inclusion in major projects.
Members of the City of Bend Accessibility Advisory Committee spent a major portion of their Nov. 20 meeting shaping a 2026 work plan focused on outreach and early project involvement.
Chair John Halen proposed an organized campaign to raise the committee's profile: "I would love to come up with a list of 12 things with the goal of writing 1 letter a month," he said, arguing that regular letters to city staff and departments would prompt greater inclusion of accessibility concerns in project planning. Amanda Hamer and Carl Burnett supported the approach while urging that the committee also focus on ways to meaningfully include people who face barriers to participation, such as offering support persons or asynchronous comment options.
Cassandra (accessibility and equity manager) suggested reinstating a liaison role similar to an earlier "councilor connector" to meet regularly with the councilor assigned to the committee and keep COBAC informed about upcoming initiatives. "That could be something we contemplate... to really be more included and invited," she said. Members discussed drafting a kickoff letter to City Manager Eric King asking to be added to stakeholder lists for large projects and to be consulted early in the design process.
Ideas for implementation included building an online portal to accept short recorded public comments, developing a standard letter template to speed committee endorsements of grants and RFPs, placing COBAC members on project stakeholder lists, and voting on an adopted letter-writing plan in December or deferring to January if more time is needed.
Next steps: Cassandra will collect written input from absent members, compile suggestions for December's meeting, and the committee may put the proposed letter-campaign and liaison position on the December agenda for formal adoption.
