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Mayor’s
Disability Council
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Mayor’s
Disability Council
Draft
Minutes
Monday, November
16, 1998
Civic Auditorium, Room 201
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Members
present:
Walter Park ( Chair), Grace
Regan ( Co-chair), Sergio Alunan, Vince Behan, Edward Evans, Viola Jackson,
Michael Kwok, August Longo, Frank Marone, Damien Pickering
Excused
absence:
Susan Mizner
Staff:
Steve Nelson, Council Secretary
and Director, Department of Administrative Services
Richard Skaff, Disability
Access Coordinator, Department of Public Works
Jose Caedo, Deputy
Citywide Disability Coordinator
Guests:
Spencer Gosch, Building
Inspector, Department of Building Inspection
Peter Margen, Accessibility
consultant, City Hall renovation project
Tony Irons, Project
manager, City Hall renovation project
Cofo Dominguez, Executive
Assistant to the Director of Administrative Services
Carrie Painter, City
Hall Building Manager
Members
of the public who signed in:
Bruce Oka, Karen Young Simmons,
Jana Oberbo, Charles Levinson, Steve Rothman, Debbie Macklin, Bruce Allison,
April Chartrand, Harry Mar.
The meeting was called to
order at 1:00 p.m., by Chair Walter Park. He introduced Grace Regan as the co-chair.
A roll call of members was made. It was noted that Susan Mizner was on leave
and had been excused. Introductions of all the persons present in the room were
made, and informational materials distributed. The minutes were approved as
submitted. The proposed agenda was adopted.
1. Presentation
by City Attorney’s Office on Open Meeting and Ethics Rules:
Brown
Act, Sunshine Ordinance, and Political Reform Act,
Deputy City Attorney Amy
Ackerman presented an overview of the Brown Act, Sunshine Ordinance, and discussed
how these laws related to the Mayor’s Disability Council. The Brown Act does
not apply to the MDC, and neither do the major parts of the Sunshine Ordinance
because the MDC was created in writing by the Mayor, and not by any Federal,
State, or local law, or resolution. Therefore, only certain provisions pertaining
to passive meeting requirements under the Sunshine Ordinance apply to the MDC.
The passive meeting provisions are contained in the San Francisco Administrative
Code Section 67.4. These provisions do not require formal notice of meetings.
It simply requires that the members be told of the next meeting’s location,
date, and time. Agendas if printed, must also be available to the public at
these meetings. There is no requirement for the meeting place to be available
to accomodate the public. If the use of public funds were to be discussed, the
meeting should be open to the public. There is no requirement to provide for
public comment, although there is discretion on whether to allow for this. These
are the only requirements for bodies created by the Mayor in writing, city department
heads, or individual members of the Board of Supervisors. Deputy City Attorney
Ackerman distributed copies of the passive meeting rules with the Brown Act
and Sunshine Ordinance.
Given that the MDC wishes
to voluntarily use the Brown Act and Sunshine Ordinance as guidelines, Deputy
City Attorney Ackerman further explained two underlying principles for the Brown
Act and Sunshine Ordinance. The first is that boards or commissions are doing
the people’s business and that the people have the right to see how decisions
are made. Second, the public has a right to make comments on the issues before
any decisions are made.
There are five simple rules
that must be followed:
1. Commissioners must discuss
items and make decisions only at meetings open to the public.
2. There must be public
notice on when, and where the meetings take place.
3. The public must know
what is to be discussed or acted upon.
4. The public must be provided
time for public comments.
5. The public must be allowed
time to comment on any issue within the organization’s jurisdiction, whether
or not it relates to items on the agenda.
She also discussed the fact
that meetings sometimes occur even when the members were not all in one place
at a time, when some, not all of the members are present in a place that is
not a public meeting. If there is a quorum present at such a place, then it
is an illegal meeting. Also, `serial’ meetings occur when one commissioner phones
another, who then discusses public business with another, etc. The members were
cautioned not to discuss agenda items or related issues outside of public meetings.
Deputy City Attorney Claire
Sylvia discussed conflicts of interest and other related ethics laws for the
benefit of the council members. She stated that in general, it was unclear whether
the laws on conflict applied to advisory bodies such as the Council, but that
it would be safe for the members to assume that these laws applied to them in
the conduct of their business. She proceeded to explain the main portions of
the Political Reform Act. She also explained the State law on contracts, and
how members should not influence other members or vote on a contract where there
was a previous relationship with the bidder. The rules on the Common Law `Duty
of Loyalty’ was also explained. The prohibition of using information received
through one’s public capacity for personal gain was also explained. It was generally
agreed by the members that they would calendar for the next meeting a vote to
incorporate open meeting and ethics rules by reference into the MDC by-laws.
2 City
Hall Seismic, Building Upgrade, and Accessibility Renovations Project.
Richard Skaff introduced
this item. Mr. Tony Irons, Project Manager, Spencer Gosch, and Peter Margen
were introduced. Richard Skaff said that Tony Irons, appreciated the complexity
of the situation and engaged Peter Margen as accessibility consultant. Peter
worked on the plan review and site review for all access issues on the project.
Tony Irons stated that this project took seven years to accomplish and it was
important for the project team to bear in mind that the building was the seat
of City government, constructed in 1915. Access issues in existing conditions
were manifold throughout the building and required the permanent alteration
of its historical fabric. With this in mind, access and historic preservation
consultants were engaged to address the thousands of issues related to the renovation.
The idea was to finish the project making City Hall both a model for historic
preservation and disability access. Both Federal and State codes were utilized,
and on an almost daily basis, the project team would discuss issues that would
respect historic preservation while providing disability access. The project
is the largest base isolated building in the world, with the entire basement
level raised three feet in order to accommodate seismic safety features. These
features will allow the building to become much safer during earthquakes. City
Hall also has brand new electrical, telephone, computer, and fire warning/safety
systems. The building is scheduled to be officially opened to the public on
January 5, 1999.
Peter Margen presented various
disability access issues that have come up in the project, to the council, using
visual slides, and discussing the recommended solutions on each matter. The
Council members and the public had numerous questions on the various access
issues and recommendations or options presented. Peter Margen pointed out that
three laws were utilized during the project, namely the State Building Code
of 1989 (Title 24), the applicable provisions of the ADA Accessibility Guidelines
(ADAAG), and the Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards (UFAS). It was stated
that the policy adopted for the project was to use the most restrictive aspect
of each law and apply these in the issues encountered.
3 New
Mayor’s Office on Disability:
Walter Park introduced this
item stating that there had been a discussion with Mayor Willie L. Brown, Jr.
and staff on the creation of a new Mayor’s Office on Disability. Steve Nelson,
Director, Department of Administrative Services, who also is the MDC Secretary,
presented the proposed structure and budget for this new office, which will
be an administrative adjunct of the Department of Administrative Services. Director
Nelson stated that the concept was to have one centralized location where persons
may contact with staff on any and all disability access issues, except those
related to employment, which will continue to be handled by the Department of
Human Resources. In addition to the MOD Director, initial staffing includes
a physical accessibility coordinator, a programmatic accessibility coordinator,
a citizen information specialist. Also, there will be a half-time person on
staff to generally attend to Mayor’s Disability Council matters, and to do longer
term projects and reports. Finally, staff will be augmented by project consultants.
Proposed budgets were distributed.
A budget supplemental for the current fiscal year is required, and amounts to
some $350,000. The budget for FY99/00 will be approximately $800,000. Some funding
now received from departmental work orders will instead be directly budgeted
from the Genral Fund. Steve Nelson requested the Council’s input on the matter
on whether or not this office should be created, and its budget.
Frank Marone and Walter
Park noted that the figure of 20% for fringe benefits was quite low. Ed Evans
asked whether the budget included funds for Braille printers, scanners, and
other specialized programs or auxiliary aids. Steve Nelson and Richard Skaff
replied that these would be provided. Frank Marone asked about the $250,000
item for consultants’ fees. Richard explained that this was required to cover
the costs of engaging access consultants instead of generating work orders from
other City Departments, or increasing staff. Given the size and complexity of
the City’s Disability access issues, the services of outside access consultants
were needed to augment the work performed by Disability Office staff. Frank
Marone wished to discuss expansion of the Disability Office and budgetary increases
for equipment since it seemed to him that three staff persons were insufficient
to address the needs and issues of the Disability community.
There was general agreement
from the council members that the creation of the Mayor’s Office on Disability
be created, and the budget be endorsed in principle. Walter Park stated that
this item would be place on the agenda and voted on at the next Council meeting.
Several members of the public
gave comments and asked questions. These comments and questions related to employment
of disabled persons, and representation by persons with mental illness on the
MDC.
4 The
meeting adjourned at 3:10 p.m.
Submitted for adoption:
Steve Nelson,
Council Secretary