2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998
Gavin Newsom
Mayor
Susan Mizner
Director
Jack Fagan
Co-Chair
Jul Lynn Parsons
Co-Chair
Norma Block
Ed Evans
Eugene T. Flannery
Elizabeth Grigsby
Tatiana Kostanian
Robert Neil
Ruth Nunez
Richard Ow
Denise Senhaux
Mayor's Disability Council
MINUTES
18 June 2004
1 ROLL CALL
Mayor's Disability Council Members Present: Norma Block, Ed Evans, Jack Fagen,
Eugene T. Flannery, Elizabeth Grigsby, Michael Kwok, Jul Lynn Parsons,
Tatiana Kostanian, Robert Neil, Ruth Nunez and Richard Ow
Excused Absent: Denise Senhaux
Mayor's Office on Disability: Susan Mizner, Director; Ken Stein, Program Administrator;
and Howard O. Wong, Council Clerk.
Jack Fagan, Co-Chair, called the meeting to order at 1:02 p.m.
2 APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA
The Council approved the agenda of the June 18, 2004 MDC Meeting.
3APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES
The Council approved the minutes from the meeting of May 21, 2004.
4PUBLIC COMMENT
* Rick Spittler, Executive Director, Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program (BORP), provided an overview of the BORP program. BORP's main objective is to provide sports and recreation programs for people with disabilities of all ages. Their office is in Berkeley, but their programs serve the greater bay area; half of the programs consist of competitive sports such as wheelchair basketball, and the other half consists of outings, from trips to local parks to river rafting expeditions. Mr. Spittler wanted to encourage the San Francisco disability community to participate as individuals and/or to volunteer in leadership positions. For more information, see their website at www.borp.org or phone (510) 849-4663.
* Toby Dixon announced there would be a march across Golden Gate Bridge for universal healthcare on Saturday, June 19th.
5REPORT FROM THE CO-CHAIRS
Jul Lynn Parsons presented a report of recommendations to the Mayor's Homeless Ten-Year Planning Council Meeting on May 27th. The recommendations report was compiled by the Director of Mayor's Office on Disability (MOD) after the Mayor's Disability Council meeting on the topic. Ms. Parson also spoke about the meeting with the Department of Human Services and MOD on disability access to homeless shelters. There will be another meeting to continue discussion on this matter in the near future.
Mr. Fagan thanked two Council Members, Elizabeth Grigsby, for agreeing to serve as the MDC representative for the Voters Access Advisory Committee; and Ruth Nunez, who has agreed to be the MDC representative to the Disability Policy Group.
6 REPORT FROM THE DIRECTOR
Accessible Public Meetings - Ms. Mizner reported that a number of city-sponsored community meetings had been scheduled in locations that were not fully accessible. MOD has updated its accessibility checklist for city-sponsored public meetings, and it is available on the MOD web-site, under policies. See: http://www.sfgov.org/mod.
ADA Coordinators' Meeting - MOD met with ADA Coordinators from across the City to discuss draft policies developed by the deaf and hard of hearing consultants, and to review the accessible public meetings checklist.
Physical Access Committee - Ms. Mizner announced that the Physical Access Committee will begin meeting again in July, and focus on architectural access policies.
Ms. Mizner thanked Tatiana Kostanian on behalf of the entire MOD staff, for volunteering her time to assist in the MOD office. In addition, Ms. Mizner expressed her thanks to the entire Council for how "active, responsible and responsive" they have been to the issues brought before them.
7 REPORT FROM THE PROGRAMMATIC ACCESS COMMITTEE CHAIR
Ms. Parsons reported that the Programmatic Access Committee (PAC) continues to work on City website accessibility issues. Their next PAC meeting is scheduled for Friday, July 2nd.
8 UPDATE ON IMPACT OF PROPOSED STATE AND LOCAL BUDGETS ON PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES:
Presentations by Mayor's Budget Office, The California Disability Community Action Network, Planning for Elders in the Central City, and the People's Budget.
Marty Omoto of The California Disability Community Action Network spoke on both a personal and professional basis, on the reasons for being an advocate for people with disabilities, especially when it comes to budget cuts. On a personal level, he does this for his sister, Elana, who had development disabilities and passed away a year ago.
On a professional level, he stated that the proposed budget cuts affect everyone, whether or not they have a disability. Mr. Omoto provided an update on the budget cuts since the initial proposal. The Governor has decided not to eliminate the Residual Program, which enables parents or spouses of people with disabilities to be their paid in-home service provider.
Other proposed state cuts involve reduced wages and benefits for In-Home Support Services. Although the Senate rejected many of the governor's proposed cuts, the House approved some of his proposals such as a "share of cost for services," which means that a family with a child with development disabilities would be required to pay for a portion of their services. This would be very difficult for a family with an income of $36,000 a year. Therefore, they are raising the threshold to $50,000 a year. There was a cut originally of $100 million that was reduced down to $7 million. For more information on Mr. Omoto's organization, or to be added to his e-mail list, the website is www.cdcan.org.
Noelle Simmons of the Mayor's Budget's Office provided an overview of the Mayor's proposed budget. There is a $5 billion citywide budget with more than $300 million as a projected shortfall. Due to the shortfall, the Budget Office has worked closely withall of the departments to find ways to reduce their current year's spending, such as reducing the use of cell phones, reducing capital and equipment purchases, etc. Also, City employees have agreed to contribute 7.5% of their own retirement, which had been picked up by the City in previous years. This began last year and will continue this year as well.
Then Ms. Simmons spoke about budget impacts on City departments that will affect the disability community. The Department of Public Health is reducing its reliance on the General Fund by $32 million, but there will be no direct cuts to their disability services. Also, the Department of Aging and Adult services will continue to receive funding for their two main contracts, with the Rose Resnick Lighthouse for the Blind, and the Veterans Equity Center.
Erin McGrath, Disabled Services Deputy with the Mayor's Office, spoke about the proposed cuts to the Department of Public Health (DPH). She said that the cuts were "not directly associated with one disabled population." Ms. McGrath stated there would be over 250 layoffs causing some expected changes in services delivery. However, she wanted to reassure the public that despite these cuts, they are still trying to maintain the service delivery system as much as possible on a citywide basis.
Kate Toran, Paratransit Coordinator with MUNI, received a request from Ms. Kostanian on assessing 25th Avenue and Irving for accessible MUNI transport. Ms. Toran provided the name, Paul Fichera - Accessibility Coordinator, as the contact person. His number is 923-6142. However, she told Ms.Kostanian that she will follow-up on her request.
Marie Jobling of Planning for the Elders in Central City, spoke about how the proposed budget cuts will affect seniors and people with disabilities. She focused specifically on the Department of Aging and Adult Services (DAAS) in two main areas - their funding and the proposed re-organization, merging DAAS with the Department of Human Services.
The funding for some of these services (included housing, meals, and case management) has been restored. However, there is a substantial cut of $1 million, which include reduced and unfilled staffing positions. Ms. Jobling stated the merge might not be practical because there was no advance planning on how these two department can function together. For more information, the website is www.planningforelders.org, phone (415)703-0188.
Jennifer Friedenbach, representing the People's Budget, explained that the People's Budget consists of different organizations that serve the poor community. Every year, after reviewing the Mayor's Proposed Budget, they produce a document to find ways to re-direct funds to the poor and other vulnerable populations, including people with physical and/or mental disabilities.
Ms. Friedenbach disagreed with the Mayor's Budget Office, saying that there indeed are direct cuts to people withdisabilities. For example, seniors are losing support services, programs for people with mental illness have been cut, homeless people are losing assistance in getting their disability benefits, and people with AIDS are losing their practical and support services.
Therefore, the People's Budget offers other suggestions on "cutting the fat" such as eliminating free parking for city officials, decreasing staffing in the Mayor's Office, and putting a cap on City salaries at $90,000.00. For more information on their report, contact Ms. Friedenbach at [email protected]
9 "LIVING WITH DIGNITY IN SAN FRANCISCO: A STRATEGIC PLAN TO MAKE IMPROVEMENTS IN THE SYSTEM OF COMMUNITY-BASED LONG TERM CARE AND SUPPORTIVE SERVICES FOR OLDER ADULTS AND ADULTS WITH DISABILITIES
(2004-2008)."
Presentation by Independent Living Resource Center, and the Living with Dignity Policy Committee
Herb Levine, Independent Living Resource Center, provided an introduction to the Strategic Plan. The plan was compiled by the disability community for over two years.
Mr. Levine stated that it is their vision that it "will make possible a real choice for people with disabilities to live in the community; real because there would be real options." The plan is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Grant, which provided the funding for planning, as well as funding for implementation.
Bill Haskell and Nancy Giunta, both from the Department of Aging and Adult Services, reiterated that the Strategic Plan focuses on the current and growing number of people with disabilities who need support and care to remain living independently and in the community. 1 in 5 people with disabilities are between the ages of 18 and 64, with over 150,000 people, the majority of which are over 65. Mr. Haskell stated that not all of these people are going to require long-term care, but some of them will require supportive services to live independently in the community. Therefore, they are working to expand the capacity of home and community-based services, in order to prepare for the increasing needs of aging adults and adults with disabilities.
Ms. Giunta said that a needs assessment was done on long term care, which indicated that there was a significant lack of parity for disability services. Therefore, the plan's goals include establishing better coordination of services, increasing access to services, improving service quality, securing financial and political resources, and expanding system capacity.
Ms. Guinta spoke about the different implementation workgroups which are being operated under the Living with Dignity Policy Committee. These include workgroups on hospital discharge planning, community placement, and mental health access. Other workgroups, being overseen by the San Francisco Partnership for Community-Based Long-Term Care, include case management collaboration, in-home support services workforce improvement, neighborhood partnerships implementation, and public relations and marking implementation. For more information about the strategic plan, contact Nancy Giunta at (415) 355-3555, [email protected].
Luis Calderon of the IHSS Public Authority, provided an overview of specific issues in the Strategic Plan relating to adults with disabilities. He emphasized the importance of shared information among city departments, service providers, consumers, caregivers and the disability community. He felt this would expand the information and referral systems.
Mr. Calderon pointed out that it is important to include services for people with disabilities under 60 as well in the plan. Also, he stated that it is important to have a Commission on Adult Services because the Department of Aging and Adult Services (DAAS) has only one commission that serves the aging only, and none for Adult Services.
Lastly, he requested that the council and community support, assist with outreach, and become actively involved in implementing this plan.
Ken Stein, who has been involved in the process of developing the Strategic Plan, and has represented MOD on the Living with Dignity Policy Committee for the past few years, pointed out that the Strategic Plan includes very specific deliverables and timelines for each of them. He noted that MOD has particular responsibility for taking the lead in about a dozen of these and has shared responsibility for 30 or 40 more. He noted that Nancy Giunta had created a document entitled "Lack of Parity for Disability Services" which details the issues that involve MOD in lead and shared responsibility in the plan.
10CORRESPONDENCE
None
11ITEMS NOT ON TODAY'S AGENDA, BUT WITHIN THE JURISDICTION OF THE MDC.
None
12COUNCIL MEMBER REQUESTS FOR FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS.
Mr. Flannery suggested substance abuse disorders and suicide attempts among teenagers with disabilities as a possible future agenda item.
Mr. Evans requested the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) as a future item as well.
13COUNCIL MEMBER COMMENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS.
Mr. Fagan announced that the monthly meeting for AASCEND (Autism and Asperger's Syndrome Coalition for Education Network and Development) will be on Saturday, June 19th from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 Noon at 1500 Howard Street @ 11th Street.
The SFPD's ADA Coordinator will attend this meeting to discuss training for the police force working with adults with or children who has Autism and Asperger's Syndrome.
Lastly, Ms. Parsons announced at KPFA 94.1 FM (Radio Station) on Sunday, June 20th, the radio show will salute Father' Day by highlighting the perspective of a visually impaired father raising his son.
14ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 4:00 p.m.
For additional information, please contact:
Mayor's Office on Disability
401 Van Ness, Room 300
San Francisco, CA 94102
415.554.6789 voice
415.554.6799 TTY
415.554.6159 fax
[email protected]
Minutes - Mayor's Disability Council - 06/18/04