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Mayor’s
Disability Council
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Minutes
of
the Special Meeting of the
Mayor’s
Disability Council
held
on Friday, June 4
at
Rm. 400, San Francisco City Hall.
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Members present:
Walter Park (Chair), Grace Regan (Co-Chair), Vincent Behan, Edward Evans, Viola
Jackson, Damien Pickering, Frank Marone, Susan Mizner
Excused absent:
Sergio Alunan, August Longo, and Michael Kwok
STAFF:
Steve Nelson, Director,
Department of Administrative Services
Jose Caedo, Deputy Citywide
Disability Coordinator
Kofo Domingo, Special Assistant,
Administrative Services
The meeting was called to
order at 1:10 p.m. by Chair Walter Park. The agenda was read and approved.
REPORT FROM
THE CO-CHAIRS:
Walter Park stated that
there still was no finalized accessible telecommunications policy but that there
had been some progress towards this end. Chair Park reminded the Council that
they had adopted a resolution the previous month on AB 1592 on Physician-assisted
suicide, and he reported that the Bill barely passed the appropriations committee,
by one vote. Chair Park did not believe that the bill would go any further,
but he didn’t believe that it was dead altogether, he hoped that this Council
would sponsor a debate on the issue.
Council Member Frank Marone
informed the Council that numerous disability groups sent in their comments
and information on AB 1592 to the State Legislature, and acknowledged that it
was due to the multiple efforts of these groups that forestalled the bill.
Co-chair Grace Regan informed
the Council that she will continue to track the bill’s legislative history and
invited any interested party to contact her on this matter.
REPORT FROM
STAFF:
Richard Skaff reported the
Mayor’s office on Disability is expected to open around mid-July.
Richard Skaff informed the
Council that Yomi Agundiade, from the City Architect’s office, and Jose Caedo
were in the process of preparing the written report to this Council on the hearing
room accessibility issues. He added that he was expecting a Beta test site at
City Hall for an accessible information kiosk which will be fully accessible
to all persons, including the blind. This kiosk will be linked to the City web
pages and is expected to be implementation probably in mid-June.
At the Council’s request,
Mr. Skaff submitted the City Hall punch list items and informed the Council
that there were 4,000 items on this list. He also gave Damien Pickering the
CD and tapes of the audio descriptions of the Bammy awards installed at the
Bill Graham civic Center auditorium for the Rose Resnick Lighthouse library
and the SF Main library.
Council Member Damien Pickering
asked that he be contacted at the Lighthouse to borrow these tapes, and Marti
Goddard will be the person in charge of the tapes at the SF Main Library.
Mr. Skaff also presented
an E-mail copy of a speech by the US Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater,
on the ADA’s anniversary, talking about the Federal government’s achievements
in the area of disability access. He presented a non-tactile map for the San
Francisco zoo for program access, adding that there was now an accessible entrance
with accessible displays of animals and other items such as TTYS for the deaf,
accessible bathrooms, and water fountains.
Mr. Skaff introduced Mr.
Tom Lillian from Outdoor systems, manufacturer of outdoor signage for bus shelters.
Mr. Lillian and Mr. Francois Nion of the Decauz Toilet company had undertaken
to provide funding toward the provision of Talking sign receivers to the blind
from the Mayor’s Office on Disability at no cost. Mr. Lillian said that Outdoor
systems, formerly Gannett, gave a donation of $5,000 for this purpose, and this
year, would make a donation of $10,000, to assist in purchasing talking sign
receivers. He also offered his company’s services should the MDC decide to embark
on a citywide information campaign.
PUBLIC
INPUT ON DBI ACCESSIBILITY AND CODE:
Deputy Director William
Wong, SF Department of Building Inspection (DBI) and Chair of the department’s
Disability Access Advisory committee, introduced the members of DBI’s Disability
Access Division. Mr. Wong gave an overview of DBI’s operations and structure.
He also went over the key items and work that the committee performed. Wong
said that his committee would be changing its meeting date and time, since it
presently conflicted with the Mayor’s Disability Council meeting, to allow more
participation from the disability community in both forums. Chair Park agreed
that it was good to have a good path for public input and process, and welcomed
this step from DBI. He added that the MDC would be available to help.
Co-chair Grace Regan said
that she had been attending the DAAC meeting for the past 18 months and felt
out of place because everyone on the DAAC was either an Architect or developers
representing contractors who were apparently against provision of disability
access. While these persons would listen to her, and determine that she spoke
for the disability community, her input was not followed.
Council Member Susan Mizner
inquired into programmatic access issues as it relates to DBI and persons with
obsessive compulsive disorders, who had hoard and clutter in their rooms. In
this situation DBI would be called in to inspect for health and safety hazards.
She understood that the Department had in fact provided programmatic access
by allowing such persons with reasonable accommodations in additional time to
clean up their rooms. She asked if DBI had any policies or procedures in this
area that were publicized or routinely available for the public.
Mr. Wong responded that
there was a complaint procedure available.
Council Member Mizner said
that in cases where a disabled person creates the problem of non-compliance
through excessive hoarding or cluttering of items such as newspapers and trash,
thus posing a fire hazard problem, the DBI inspector usually comes in and gives
the disabled person two weeks to clear up the problem. But the requirement of
the ADA was to allow the person more time to clean up the situation.
Todd Jackson responded that
he thought that this matter referred to housing inspections of hotel rooms,
or single room occupancy hotels and their residents. DBI did not inspect apartment
buildings or residences unless they received formal complaints. He added that
the issue which Ms. Mizner raised were important enough for DBI to pay attention
to.
Peter Burns added that situations
of this nature which had been ongoing for many years. His understanding was
that the Housing Inspection Division issues these notices, and that if it was
made aware that certain disability issues were involved then sufficient time
and accommodation will be given.
Council Member Mizner asked
that the department make some effort to publicize that accommodations will be
given to individuals with disabilities.
Council Member Vincent Behan
inquired about issues regarding building scaffolding that block accessible paths
of travel at work sites.
Todd Jackson replied that
typically, contractors secured street use permits which is required under the
Building Code if one obstructs or otherwise impedes a path of travel, and one
is required to create another accessible and safe route of travel. Lighting,
protection from falling objects, ramps, or slopes and the like are required
for these alternate paths of travel. He added that contractor who do not follow
requirements should be reported immediately.
Mr. Wong reminded everyone
that DBI regulated the use of private property, and the Department of Public
Works regulated the use of public sidewalks.
TREASURE
ISLAND ACCESSIBILITY:
Robert Mahoney, Deputy Director
of the Treasure Island Development Authority, gave a brief overview of the housing
on Treasure Island and reminded everyone that these homes were remodeled existing
housing. The program had three components to it, there was a private sector
component with John Stewart Company (JSC) working on remodeling and renting
out 766 units, there was the treasure Island Homeless Development Initiative
(TIHDI) working on an initial 86 units out of a total of 222 units under its
jurisdiction. There will be two buildings under the Mayor’s Juvenile Justice
program which will be administered through the Delancey Street program to support
a life learning academy for juveniles that will be created on the island. It
will take the next 18 months of remodeling to make them available to the public.
Construction on the JSC
units had begun with accessible paths of travel to the bus stops included. Access
to the island was available only by road and the MUNI 108 bus at this time The
paths of travel from the bus stops to the housing areas were not currently all
accessible, and will be modified as part of the process. Accessible paths of
travel from each of the bus passenger loading zones to the over 800 units will
be made accessible, and while some of these will have temporary modifications,
these will be made on a permanent basis as the work progressed. In the next
six months, the bus stops and sidewalks will receive temporary modifications
until they are replaced with curb ramps.
Chair Park asked for a discussion
on public and private funding distinctions for the project.
Mahoney responded that the
JSC funding came from a private sources like Southern Pacific Edison, TIHDI
and Delancey Street funds. Treasure Island itself is owned by the Navy and did
not receive General fund monies, instead received a grant for operational expenses
from the Navy. All city services provided to the island are paid for out of
the private fund, and no General Fund monies are used for this project. Funds
generated through rentals and the Navy funds have restricted uses.
Chair Park asked for clarification
on what public accommodations would be available on the island.
Mahoney responded that there
were existing picnic and scenic areas, with some special events areas available
for rent, but nothing else. The Delancey Street Cafe still had to receive its
final permits to open, and his office was working on securing a convenience/grocery
type store to open within the next six months to a year.
Council Member Evans asked
if any of the units managed by the three entities were reserved for documented
disabled persons.
Mahoney deferred the question
to the agency representatives.
Dan Levine, Vice President
for Construction with JSC echoed that the project was designed as a composite
of economically disadvantaged, affordable housing, and market rate components
of the entire project. JSC is responsible for generating enough income from
rentals so that the island would become self-sufficient to pay for its way.
As conceived, 25% of the housing was dedicated to affordable housing, economically
disadvantaged, and the homeless, with 75% for market rate rentals, from $1550
to $2150 per month. Economically disadvantaged, homeless, students, public service
employees, emergency personnel, and general market rate renters from the City
and County of San Francisco are the target residents. The work that would be
done on the homes would be mostly cosmetic with the exception of certain units
that require structural rehabilitation and disability access.
Co-chair Grace Regan asked
why more accessible units where not available.
Mr. Levine responded JSC
agreement with the City was to ensure that five percent of all units were fully
accessible, plus an additional one percent adapted for the visually impaired,
and another one percent additional adapted for the hearing impaired.
Council Member Evans asked
whether a disabled accessible unit would be reserved solely for a documented
disabled person.
Mr. Levine responded that
the said units will be held open for disabled persons for a period of time.
He informed the Council that of the 800 applications that they received only
1 was from a person who was identified as a person with a disability. While
a lot of effort was made toward ensuring that the island had disability access,
there has not been the demand for the designated units.
Chair Park asked that staff
and member of the Mayor’s Disability Council help address the problem of marketing
to persons with disabilities.
Mr. Mahoney said that he
would welcome any help.
Chair Park ask that a current
map of the island be submitted to the Council.
Sherry Williams, Executive
Director of the Treasure Island Homeless Development Initiative (TIHDI) distributed
information on its housing and accessibility plan. The funding sources for the
rehab work were the Mayor’s Office on Housing for Proposition A funds, plus
funds from the HUD McKinney fund, and the Veterans Administration. For the family
units, there were rental subsidies from the Shelter Plus care program of the
HUD McKinney funds with service funding from Community Substance Abuse Services,
Veterans’ Administration, and HUD McKinney. Accessible units will be 11 out
of 86 total in the first phase for two bedroom one bath units, or 12.7% of all
the units. The number of visitable units is 19, or 22.1 % of all the units.
The total accessible and visitable units is 34.8%, with a 100% ground floor
visitable number of units.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Co-chair Grace Regan reported
that Sergio Alunan, Chair of the Transportation subcommittee of the MDC asked
her to make a few comments on Greyhound. She said that Greyhound which was the
largest operator of over the road transportation had steadfastly refused to
implement any of the transportation provisions of the ADA in its operations
and had managed to get the Federal Transportation Administration to exempt them
from these regulations. The Department of Transportation was now writing regulations
to improve the situation namely by first, requiring that Greyhound provide service
within 48 hours to people using wheelchairs, or who have other mobility problems;
Second, that smaller over the road transportation companies provide parallel
transportation in smaller vehicles such as vans; and thirdly, requiring that
documentation be provided showing how many persons have asked to use the wheelchair
lifts. She said that she called the Greyhound headquarters and was told that
no one in a wheelchair wanted to use Greyhound. She added that a number of local
and national disability organizations have written their opinions on the matter
and submitted these to the Department of transportation.
COMMENTS
FROM THE MDC MEMBERS;
Council Member Marone suggested
the creation of an executive committee that would meet prior or after an MDC
meetings to address any administrative or housekeeping issues.
[The Executive Committee
has since been formed and has begun to meet.]
PUBLIC
COMMENTS:
Sharon Goldman spoke on
the issues of cars blocking the sidewalk on Central Avenue, and the fact that
she was harassed for complaining. She was told that the Department of Parking
and Traffic that this issue was considered low priority.
Chair Park asked that she
refer the matter to the police.
Council Member Evans asked
that an official from the Department of Parking and Traffic attend the MDC meetings
to answer questions.
The meeting was adjourned
at 3:30 p.m..