Independent Living Council Takes Up Five Policies That Have Not Cleared Legal Review

The Texas State Independent Living Council meets Oct. 8 to rewrite its internal rulebook in a single sitting — and five of the six items on the agenda carry a note saying lawyers have not reviewed them yet.

The council is the governor-appointed body that writes the state plan routing about $18 million to the 27 centers it counts that help Texans with disabilities live outside institutions. Federal law bars it from delivering those services itself and bars it from sitting inside a state agency, so what it directly controls is its own governance and its own staff. Chair Patrick Sturdivant of San Antonio presides; Janet Sharkis has been executive director since May 2024, the third person in that job since 2022. The Oct. 8 agenda proposes to overhaul the rules governing all of it in one meeting.

First comes a round of deletions from the council’s policies and procedures manual, which the agenda calls Phase One of a longer update and marks as subject to legal review. Then four newly written policies — on drugs and alcohol, on leave and time off, on approvals, and on annual performance reviews and compensation — each listed as pending legal review. All five are posted as discussion and possible action, which means the council may adopt them Oct. 8 or hold them until counsel has read them.

The sixth item is money. The council will consider raising the rate it pays personal care attendants from $13 to $20, about 54 percent, and backdating the increase to Sept. 23 — a date that has already passed, and that falls two days before the council’s last meeting, a two-day retreat in Georgetown. The notice does not say whom the rate covers, how many people it reaches or what the increase costs, and the council has posted no board packet.

The meeting runs on Zoom and requires registration through a link in the notice. The council’s own website does not mention it: its meetings page read “No upcoming events scheduled at this time” when checked Oct. 5, and the minutes posted there still stop at August 2023. The members page carries an older puzzle — PiPa McCollister of Cleburne holds the treasurer’s title while Michael Garrett’s biography on the same page says he is treasurer. Public comment comes before the votes.

Meeting at a glance

Council members

• Patrick Sturdivant — chair; San Antonio; consultant, Deque Systems.
• Tiffany Walker — vice chair; San Antonio; nonprofit executive.
• Amanda Bowdoin — secretary; Forney; teacher of the visually impaired.
• PiPa McCollister — treasurer; Cleburne; joined December 2024.
• Rebecca “Hunter” Adkins — Lakeway; volunteer, Ride On Center for Kids.
• Cindy Burkett — Seagoville; former state representative.
• Erik Dally — Poolville; president, Into the Right Hands.
• Michael Garrett — Missouri City; retired equities analyst; listed as treasurer.
• Melva Henderson — Dallas; advocate for blind and visually impaired Texans.
• Lisa Thompson — external affairs manager, local power company.
• Seth Wells — Beaumont; center for independent living director.
• Mollie Witt — Cypress; disability advocate.

Roster from the council’s members page, checked October 5 and unchanged from the Dispatch’s September 17 check; the page still carries a February modification date. Cities and occupations come from that page and from the member profiles and governor’s appointment releases the Dispatch compiled in September; the summary page does not state a city for every member. Two entries claim the treasurer’s post. Three nonvoting members sit ex officio for the Health and Human Services Commission, the Texas Workforce Commission and the Texas Department of Transportation: Dana McGrath, Bonnie Notargiacomo and Juanita “Nita” J. Webber. Federal law requires a majority of voting members to be people with significant disabilities who do not work for a state agency or a center; the council does not publish which members meet that test.