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Mayor’s Disability Council
D R A F T Mayor’s Disability Council Minutes 19 January 2001	Willie L. Brown, Jr. Mayor Sergio Alunan Co-Chair Vincent Behan Jim Brune Claudia Center Ed Evans Viola Jackson Michael Kwok August Longo Frank Marone Damien Pickering Walter Park Council Secretary

 

1 ROLL CALL

Mayor’s Disability Council Members Present: Sergio Alunan, Vincent Behan, Jim Brune, Michael Kwok, Frank Marone and Damien Pickering.

Absent: Claudia Center, Viola Jackson, and August Longo.

Staff: Walter Park, Director; Richard Skaff, Deputy Director; Susan Mizner, Assistant Director and Jada Jackson, Assistant to the Director.

Co-Chair, Sergio Alunan, called the meeting to order at 1:14 p.m.

2 APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA.

The agenda was approved with the following additions:

· Add the wording "nominations closed" in front of Election of New Co-Chair, Item #8

· Item #10 is deferred to the next Mayor’s Disability Council meeting on February 16, 2001.

· Item #11B Presentation by Consumer Assurance is added as a discussion item.

3 APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES.

The minutes were approved.

4 PUBLIC COMMENT.

· Estelle Eskenazi, staff of Progressive Research and Training For Action, announced that this organization has started a new program called "A Healthy Future for Youth with Disabilities." This program is working with agencies to help make their programs accessible and to help these agencies identify youth with disabilities. This is a free service that serves five counties in the Bay Area. The telephone number is 510-705-8918.

· Idell Wilson, administrator of DAMO, announced that DAMO is having a campaign January 20^th, at the Family Connection Center located at 2565 San Bruno Street in San Francisco from 11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. Free lunch is provided. For additional information call Leroy Moore at 695-0153 or Idell Wilson at 338-6929.

5 REPORT FROM THE CO-CHAIR.

Sergio Alunan, Co-Chair, reported on the following:

· Celeste White, a long-time advocate in the disability community passed away in December and will be greatly missed. A memorial for Ms. White will be held on February 3^rd at the Mission Cultural Center.

· A new pilot program will loan the City and County of San Francisco one new Windstar ramp taxi that will be utilized by Yellow Cab and one new Chevy side-entry ramped taxi. Feedback from paratransit consumers regarding these vehicles and the pilot program is welcomed. To give input regarding the new vehicles contact Sergio Alunan at 981-4477 ext. 307 or Mark Soto of Intelitrans, the Paratransit Broker, at 351-7010.

6 REPORT FROM THE DIRECTOR.

Walter Park, Director of the Mayor’s Office on Disability, and his staff reported on a number of current accessibility activities, including the Dare case progress, residential hotel elevator failure response, the creation of new reasonable accommodation policies, and the Mayor’s inclusion of a `Talking sign’ transmitter and receiver into the City Hall time capsule at a ceremony in January. The written report is attached.

7 COMMITTEE REPORTS.

REPORT FROM THE EMPLOYMENT COMMITTEE:

Richard Rothman, Chair of the Employment Committee, gave a summary of the activities of the Employment Committee:

· The Committee has been discussing the city employment medical questionnaire and whether it violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. There is a new state law stating that the questions on the medical questionnaires have to be job specific.

· A Rule 115 database will be created and located on the Mayor’s Office on Disability website showing different types of employment and the availability of people in that field from the disability community. The Committee would like to schedule another Rule 115 meeting with City department heads and members from community groups. This meeting will give the department heads an opportunity to find out more information about the skills of different members of the disability community and how they can be integrated into their departments.

· There is a tremendous shortage in communication dispatchers in the City and at the Airport. Marilyn Ridgeway, staff of Vocational Rehabilitation, and two people from the Airport discussed the need for communication dispatchers and the possibility of setting up a training program for the disability community to be hired into these positions. People who are interested in the dispatcher jobs can call the Department of Emergency Services, Human Resources - Employment Office and the Airport Human Resources.

· The Committee goals for 2001 are to create a job-sharing program and to start a Reasonable Accommodations Sub-Committee. The Reasonable Accommodations Sub-Committee will have its first meeting on January 29^th at 4:00 p.m., for additional information call the Mayor’s Office on Disability at 554-6789.

· The Employment Committee meets the third Tuesday of every month in City Hall, Room 421 at 4:00 p.m.

REPORT FROM THE PROGRAMMATIC ACCESS COMMITTEE

Damien Pickering, Chair of the Programmatic Access Committee, requested to defer Action Item #10 to next month’s agenda and give an informational report instead.

Mr. Pickering, gave a summary of the activities of the Programmatic Access Committee:

· The Programmatic Access Committee has been working on disability rights under contracts with the City. Susan Mizner has been in contact with the Human Rights Commission, which handles the nondiscrimination language section of the contracting process. The Human Rights Commission has requested further training on disability rights issues.

· The Programmatic Access Committee will be requesting a resolution to expand the contracting language that will further clarify what is meant by nondiscrimination in terms of disability. The draft resolution of this language is:

In the context of disability, nondiscrimination includes but is not limited to 1) Providing notice to the public of their rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act. 2) Providing reasonable modifications in your policies, practices and procedures. 3) Providing materials in alternative formats and having auxiliary aids and services available in order to ensure communication access. 4) Ensuring that service areas and bathrooms are architecturally accessible to people with disabilities or that you provide programmatic solutions to architectural barriers such as an equally accessible alternate location to meet with people.

· This language does not add any requirements, or change any existing requirements. The above language simply clarifies what is expected of City contractors.

· The Programmatic Access Committee meets at the Rose Resnick Lighthouse, 214 Van Ness Avenue, on the first Friday of each month at 1:30 p.m.

8 ELECTION OF NEW CO-CHAIR.

Vincent Behan was the only councilor nominated for the Co-Chair seat at December’s meeting. Mr. Behan was unanimously voted the new co-chair.

9 RESOLUTION TO AMEND BYLAWS REGARDING MATERIALS IN ALTERNATIVE FORMATS FOR MDC PRESENTATIONS.

The Council voted to approve the following resolutions.

It is hereby resolved to amend the by-laws of the Mayor’s Disability Council to include a new Section 2. In Article VI, and to re-number the current Section 2 and Section 3.

Article VI

Section 2. Materials for presentation at Council meetings. All print materials for presentation at Council meetings by City department representatives must be available in alternative formats. Braille, large print, and electronic copies (disk or web-accessible) shall always be provided. Audiotape shall be made available upon request from members of the public. Materials in alternative formats must be provided to staff five working days before the meeting date, to allow time for their distribution. These materials are public documents. It is recommended that video material be open-captioned and audio-described.

It is recommended that individuals and other organizations that present materials also make them available in alternative formats.

10 RECOMMENDATION FROM PROGRAMMATIC ACCESS COMMITTEE

Deferred to next month’s Mayor’s Disability Council meeting on February 16, 2001.

11 NEW MEDI-CAL AND IHSS PROGRAM FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

Dale Spink, staff of the Department of Human Services Medi-Cal Division, discussed the new Medi-Cal program:

· This new program is called "The Aged and Disabled Federal Poverty Level Program", and was started on January 1, 2001. The program raises the amount of income a person can have to receive free, no share cost Medi-Cal. The share of cost is a result of subtracting $620.00 from the Social Security a person receives. This program raises the share of cost to $946.00, so if a person is receiving Social Security payments of $946.00 and has no other source of income, they would be eligible for this program. Since January 1^st 1700 people have been added to this program. Medi-Cal also pays the Medi-Cal premiums for people even if they have the share of cost. This program offers a complete mail-in process for applications, call 558-1965 to request an application. A worker will contact interested people after receiving their application. Mr. Spink’s phone number is 558-1951.

Luis Calderon, staff of the In-Home Support Services Public Authority (IHSS), discussed briefly an outreach campaign started in collaboration with the IHSS, the Central City, and CIAPA:

· A large number of people will benefit from this program by having access to both Medi-Cal and free IHSS. The waiting list is now open for this program, to be placed on the waiting list call IHSS at 557-5251. Mr. Calderon’s contact number is 981-4477 ext. 330.

Mark McClure, Coordinator of Consumers In Action For Personal Assistance (CIAPA), introduced the share of cost campaign:

· CIAPA is an organization that advocates for the extension of home care to cover more people and promotes independent living in the community. This year, CIAPA and other organizations will ask the City to make a commitment to expanding home care coverage to elderly people and people with disabilities throughout San Francisco. It was proposed that the City create a solution to cover people that are not covered by this new Medi-Cal program and have to pay a share of cost. One solution is to expand the pilot project that is already started by the Department of Human Services. This pilot program pays for only 27 people’s share of costs, the goal is to expand this program to include more people. Another solution to implement is to have the City make a commitment to have a sliding scale share of cost. Mr. McClure can be contacted at 397-2588.

Tony Nicco discussed the new program at IHSS:

· This new program has impacted about 250 current consumer of in-home support services, who had a share of cost and now do not have any. Mr. Nicco stated that by participating in this program called the 133%, a person will have the benefit of Medi-Cal linked services such as Adult-Day Health. If a person is not paying a share of cost, then they receive a Medi-Cal card and IHSS is free because the person has a zero share of cost.

Sergio Alunan asked if CIAPA would be asking for any money for next year’s budget process to help support the share of cost program.

The budget process has already started; the first hearing is scheduled for January 25^th at 9:30 a.m. at 170 Otis Street.

11B PRESENTATION BY THE DEPARTMENT OF CONSUMER ASSURANCE

Amy Kiernan, staff of the San Francisco Department of Consumer Assurance (formerly known as Agriculture, Weights and Measures) gave a report on the responsibilities and activities of this department:

· State laws require that all gas stations provide, upon proper request, fueling services to a disabled driver that displays the proper placard; gas stations that are not able to provide fueling services are required to post a sign.

· The Department of Consumer Assurance performs regular testing of measurement devices such as the produce scale at the cash register and gas pumps at gas stations. These tests make sure that a consumer is paying the correct amount for the amount of goods that they purchased. The Department places a seal on the scales at cash registers to assure that the test has been performed.

· This department is responsible for enforcement when fraudulent situations arise.

· Another area that the Department is responsible for is Agriculture, in relation to the food that a person eats, the trees and pesticides.

· The Department of Consumer Assurance handles pest detection to protect industries such as the wine industry from pests such as the Med Fly or Africanized HoneyBees. Ms. Kiernan stated that outreach is provided to anyone interested on preventing swarm outbreaks.

· The Department is involved with tobacco regulation and signage that is illegal.

· When a complaint comes in, there are inspectors who go into the field and investigate the situation.

· The Department of Consumer Assurance contact information is 824-6100, 285-1214 TTY and their website is www.ci.sf.ca.us/casf or sfgov.org.

Ed Evans asked if the Department of Consumer Assurance checks the scales in the produce section of a market as well as the one at the cash register.

Ms. Kiernan explained that the test is only performed on the scale at the cash register, not the "convenience" scales.

Damien Pickering asked Ms. Kiernan to explain the jurisdiction of the Department of Consumer Assurance and if laundry facilities were in their jurisdiction.

Ms. Kiernan explained that City departments are local government although the Department of Consumer Assurance does enforce some State and Federal regulations based on the requirements of the State and Federal Government to enforce those regulations in local municipalities. The Department of Consumer Assurance regulates laundry facilities and is working on legislation to be able to perform tests in these facilities.

Vincent Behan wanted to know if repeated visits were made to an establishment after a complaint has been investigated.

Ms. Kiernan explained that gas stations are visited once a year unless suspicions arise or complaints come in regarding a particular gas station. For example, if complaints are received at a gas station, frequent visits will be made to either cite or give a warning to the business. If the problem continues after these steps have been taken, the result can be criminal persecution and can turn into a Federal case.

12 MEMBER REQUESTS FOR FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS.

Ed Evans requested for the following departments to be added as future agenda items:

· Ed Lee, the new director of the Department of Public Works, to be invited to discuss curb ramps, sidewalks, adding new inspectors, and the complaint process for the Department of Public Works.

· The Mayor’s Office on Housing to be invited to discuss access for disabled people in new housing developments.

· The Department of Parking and Traffic to be invited to address the issue of installing electronic stoplights.

· The Department of Building Inspection to be invited explain enforcement of accessibility in merchandise display areas in stores.

Frank Marone requested the following:

· A discussion on the issue of placing the captioning device on the rear wall.

· A discussion on a policy for requesting the removal of council members, who do not attend at least 70% of the meetings.

· A discussion on making the conference room monitors accessible.

· A presentation by IHSS for February or March’s agenda.

· Invite Treasure Island Housing Authorities.

· The Mayor’s Office to give the Mayor’s Disability Council a survey of TTY numbers for City departments.

Damien Pickering requested that the issue of the energy crisis and the effect of rolling blackouts on the disabled population in San Francisco be a future agenda item. Discussion can be made on the things that can be done in the City to mitigate possible effects and have Ron Lopez from the Department of Health provide some information regarding emergency services during this situation.

Jim Brune agreed that there is a need for a captioning screen on the back wall.

Walter Park stated that this issue of a captioning screen on the back wall has been discussed and agreed on. Mr. Park will make sure that the captioning screen is installed by next Mayor’s Disability Council meeting.

13 CORRESPONDENCE.

No correspondence.

14 ANNOUNCEMENTS.

Frank Marone announced that an accessibility survey is being done regarding parks and recreation across the State of California. The questionnaire will be available February 1, 2001 in a variety of formats. For additional information, contact Julie Stein by mail at MIG, 800 Hearst Avenue, Berkeley, California, 94710. Ms. Stein’s fax number is (510) 845-8750; her e-mail address is [email protected] or go to the California State Parks and Recreation Accessibility website at http://parks.ca.gov/access or contact Frank Marone at 753-5695, or by e-mail at [email protected]

Ed Evans encouraged the public to contact and send letters to local legislators at the State Capital to encourage them to show their support for any upcoming legislation that would allow severely disabled people and seniors access to medicinal Marijuana.

15 PUBLIC COMMENT.

No public comment.

16 ADJOURNMENT.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:59 p.m.

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REPORT FROM THE DIRECTOR
at January 2001, Mayor’s Disability Council Meeting

· Mr. Park commended the Mayor’s Disability Council Committees for the work that they are doing and reminded the public that they are welcome to attend the Council’s Committee meetings. A notice of upcoming meetings including Committee meetings is sent out each month with the Mayor’s Disability Council agenda.

· Last year, California appealed the Dare case to the Supreme Court. The Dare case includes a challenge to the validity of Title II of the ADA as applied to the States. After pressure from the disability rights community, the Governor announced that he wanted to settle the Dare case quickly, but there have been no developments since June 2000 after this statement was made. Neither the Governor’s office nor the attorneys for the plaintiff have been able to reach an agreement. Comments from the public to either the Governor or to the plaintiff Attorney would help move the case along.

· Mr. Park announced that Vernon Cox, staff member of the Marin Independent Living Center recently passed away. Mr. Cox worked with people in San Francisco involving disabilities and his work will be greatly missed.

· There have been problems with elevator access in Residential Hotels once an elevator is out of order. Staff from the Mayor’s Office on Disability, the City Attorney’s Office, the Mayor’s Office on Housing, Department of Public Health and other City departments have jointly been involved in trying to come up with a solution to these elevator access issues. Within two months a final policy draft should be completed that will provide notification when an elevator is out to services such as In-Home Support Services and Meal delivery programs. These services are needed to assist people with disabilities who cannot leave their homes without a working elevator.

· The Mayor’s Office on Disability has been working with departments on reasonable accommodation policies.

· On January 5^th, 2001, the Mayor dedicated a time capsule that will be opened in 100 years which included a talking signs receiver, in front of City Hall.

· The Mayor’s Office on Disability has been working on a number of employment cases. Some of these employment cases may involve reasonable accommodations and their provision or lack thereof. The Mayor’s Office on Disability is working with the Human Resources Department and other departments both on resolving the problems and trying to improve the training and the policies that relate to reasonable accommodations for City employees.

· There is a new program to sell telephone cards in vending machines that will be located in City Hall and other Government buildings. The Mayor’s Office on Disability is working with the Department of Administrative Services to make sure that these vending machines are fully accessible to those who are blind.

· The Self-Evaluation Survey Project is now under contract to Logan Hopper Associates, who is also the consultant for the Transition Plan.

· All of the Mayor’s Disability Council’s meeting minutes, since the Council was reconstituted, are available on the MOD website. The URL to view the Mayor’s Disability Council meeting minutes is Minutes.

· The Mayor’s Office on Disability has been working with cases regarding the Airport’s parking rate change in the short term lots for people with disabilities. The Airport did not provide notice that the parking rates were changing, so anyone who would like for the Mayor’s Office on Disability to assist them in receiving a refund can call the office at 554-6789.

· Mr. Park congratulated the City Attorney for filing a lawsuit against PG&E. MOD’s biggest concern regarding the PG&E blackouts is that it will harm people with disabilities. If there are any problems that a future outage may cause for a person with a disability, please call 554-6789 for assistance.

Susan Mizner, Assistant Director of Programmatic Accessibility, added information regarding the Self-Evaluation Survey Project:

· The Self-Evaluation Survey Project has designed a new survey. This new survey was presented to the Programmatic Access Committee for input. Members of the Council and public can review and give input on the survey, for more information contact the Mayor’s Office on Disability at 554-6789. The survey is expected to be finalized within the next three weeks.

Richard Skaff, Deputy Director of Physical Accessibility of the Mayor’s Office on Disability gave a brief report:

· The U.S. Access Boards Pedestrian Right-of-Way Committee has halfway completed its work. The final report of the Pedestrian Right-of-Way Committee has been presented to the Access Board and the Transportation Research Board in Washington, D.C. The Mayor’s Office on Disability has copies of the summary of the final report available. which is a brief review of the major aspects of the report. The Access Board’s website has the full final report of this committee available. This website is one of the links on the Mayor’s Office on Disability website.

· Some of the major aspects summarized are:

¬ Rough surfaces create a vibration in manual wheelchairs, which causes pain to a person with nerve damage.

¬ A guideline has been created for the type of surface that must be used at least in a portion of the public right-of-way that would be smooth.

¬ The size and width of the required pedestrian right-of-way has been increased to 60 inches.

¬ The allowance for rails for transit vehicles and heavy rails has been reduced to 2½ inches.

¬ There will be a requirement that in public spaces, where there are drinking fountains, there must be two high-low drinking fountains.

¬ A national standard, which is not yet a mandatory requirement, has been developed regarding the use of infrared audible signage.

¬ The landing at the top of curb ramps were increased from 36 inches to 60 inches, which gives a turn-around.

¬ Truncated domes, the yellow raised bumps used on transportation platforms to help a blind pedestrian identify the edge of a platform, are a requirement for curb ramps.

· A site review of the Schindler Miconic 10, a new elevator system, was attended by people from the disability community, Mr. Skaff, Damien Pickering, Ed Evans, and Michael Mankin from the State Architect’s Office. This system was developed for high rise & medium rise buildings to allow for the use of the elevators to be more expedited. The Schindler Miconic 10 has a computerized system that manages the use of the elevators and directs each individual as to which elevator would make them and the system move more effectively.

· Mr. Skaff has some new photos available of the Van Ness Pedestrian Safety Project, which was developed to shorten the walking time between the crosswalk ends for elderly individuals and for persons with disabilities.

· The Mayor’s Office on Disability recently concluded a plan review of the Delta Hotel, which is a Single Occupancy Hotel in San Francisco that is being completely remodeled. This hotel will have over 180 rooms with 18 rooms being fully accessible, and the other rooms are adaptable. Nonprofits being funded by City offices will be given priority to those units that are fully accessible.

· The Mayor’s Office on Disability will be doing an evacuation chair test with the Fire Department and other offices. The Mayor’s Office on Disability has two models of evacuation chairs that persons with disabilities can use to be evacuated out of a building that has been damaged by an earthquake or fire.

· On February 9^th at 2:00 p.m. there will be a site review of a proposed ground surface material at Rincon Park, which is located on the Embarcadero at Folsom Street. The test path is concrete blocks with grass between as the proposed path of travel.