Missouri disability advocate seeks to make his town accessible

From The Columbia Tribune in Missouri:

CENTRALIA, Mo. — John Hinten is co-founder of a committee focused on improving accessibility for disabled people in this north Boone County town, and he was recently recognized as a “champion” for the disabled in a proclamation by Gov. Jay Nixon.

But Hinten (pictured) these days is barred from meetings of the Centralia Accessibility Committee because he filed a disability discrimination complaint against Mayor Tim Grenke.

Grenke notified the panel he could not attend the CAC meetings until the complaint is resolved, citing a potential conflict of interest. CAC officers then decided to ask Hinten to withdraw from the committee pending resolution of his complaint.

The Missouri Commission on Human Rights is investigating the complaint against Grenke. As a result of its preliminary inquiry, the commission expanded its investigation to include the city of Centralia. Hinten signed complaints against Grenke and the city, but he didn’t sign the amended complaint that added the city to the inquiry until a week after the commission notified the city of that decision.

Hinten began using a wheelchair five years ago in a 20-year battle with complications from Lyme disease. He is an unabashed crusader for equal access for disabled persons, insisting that the city and town merchants comply with the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act.

Hinten filed the disability discrimination complaint against Grenke on Oct. 6 after Grenke’s city-sponsored “coffee with the mayor” Sept. 26 at J.R.’s Diner. Hinten said he had complained to Grenke at least a half-dozen times that the eatery lacks a wheelchair-accessible entrance. Grenke also hosted a mayoral campaign event at J.R.’s in March.

Grenke’s Facebook message inviting residents to the Sept. 26 event noted that city officials “are always open to suggestions regarding the compliance of ADA regulations.”

Hinten said Grenke’s invitation was “another blatant act of discrimination by city government” and the mayor. “He was basically thumbing his nose at me.”

Hinten said a rights commission investigator told him Grenke declined to let a mediator help settle the complaint, though Grenke said he has had no contact with the commission other than their notification to him of the complaint.

Grenke also said Hinten had contacted him only once about the inaccessible coffee session at J.R.’s Diner.

The mayor said he has had similar “coffee” events at other establishments that are not handicap-accessible. Where accessibility is an issue, Grenke said, businesses “make reasonable accommodations” to handle wheelchair-users by lifting them up steps or across other barriers.

Grenke insisted he has hosted coffees at wheelchair-accessible sites, but Hinten has attended only one.

Hinten said that carrying a wheelchair-user is “neither legal nor dignifying.”

The ADA says that carrying someone in a wheelchair is appropriate only when a business has construction in progress so long as those carrying the wheelchair are properly trained.

Hinten said he has become a pariah in the community over his relentless quest for ADA compliance.

“Why am I the only one that’s doing this?” he said Thursday in an interview. “The issue is not whether I filed a complaint. The mayor held inaccessible meetings. This issue is the mayor refuses to change his practices.”

Grenke said he will continue to schedule coffee-with-the-mayor events at different locations, but he declined to discuss details of Hinten’s complaint.

The complaint and the rights commission investigation prompted the CAC to ask Hinten to temporarily withdraw from panel activities. Grenke and a Centralia alderman, Paul Million, also are not participating in CAC activities.

Hinten views the CAC request as implied “pressure from the mayor or his attorney.”

Grenke said Thursday he wasn’t aware that Hinten was not serving on the committee and that he did not have a hand in the committee’s decision.

Steve Oberman, committee chairman, said the CAC will not choose sides in the flap over Hinten’s complaint to the human rights commission. But he acknowledged that J.R.’s Diner and other establishments where Grenke has had coffee-with-the-mayor events are not wheelchair-accessible and do not meet ADA requirements.

Oberman said he has not asked Grenke why he holds events at inaccessible sites.

Human rights commission spokeswoman Amy Susan said the agency cannot comment on active investigations.