Disability Awards: The Council is accepting nominations for its Awards of Excellence, which will be awarded at the July 2010 meeting. More information on the awards can be found on the Council’s web site: www.sfgov.org/mdc.
20th Anniversary of the ADA Celebration: The anniversary celebration will take place on Monday, July 26 in the North Light Court in City Hall.
Openings on Mayor’s Disability Council: The Council is looking for new members. Details for applying can be found at the Council’s website at www.sfgov.org/mdc or interested persons may call the Mayor’s Office on Disability at 415-554-6789.
6. INFORMATION ITEM: Report from the Director of the Mayor’s Office on Disability.
Director Mizner reported on the following:
Disability Capitol Action Day: The Independent Living Resource Center of San Francisco will participate in Capitol Action Day in Sacramento, a day to protest the budget and cuts to services for people with disabilities. Anyone wishing to go may, at no cost, ride with them to Sacramento.
State Budget and Civil Rights: The cuts to the state budget will essentially deny people with disabilities the right to live independently in their community by cutting out the backbone of services they need to live outside institutionalized care. These cuts will not only violate civil rights of people with disabilities but violate state and federal law.
Council and Office Staffing Updates: Benito Casados is leaving the Council. He has been and will continue to be a wonderful advocate for the mental health community. Raphaella Bennin is leaving June 6 after creating and maintaining Twitter and Facebook accounts for the Council and Office. Karma Quick will be taking a leave of absence for the summer.
King Settlement: There will be a hearing on the potential King v. San Francisco lawsuit on June 25 at 9:00 a.m. at the 400 McAllister courthouse.
ADA Coordinator Training: Joanna Fraguli completed a training for thirty-five of the City’s ADA Coordinators. Most offices and departments in the City were represented at the training.
Successful complaint resolution: MOD Staff Ken Stein worked with the San Francisco Department of Elections to ensure that a person who is blind received accommodations to work as a poll worker for the City on Election Day.
7. INFORMATION ITEM: City Budget Update. Presentation by Monique Zmuda, Deputy Controller, Controller’s Office
The Controller’s Office acts as the Chief Financial Officer of the City. It is responsible for paying the bills, auditing the City’s finances and performance, and balancing the budget.
Ms. Zmuda presented a chart with the breakdown of the City budget for the 2009-2010 Fiscal Year. The projected budget is $6.6 billion. The two main sources of revenue in the budget are service charges and property taxes. She also presented a breakdown of the 2010 Fiscal Year General Fund. The General Fund comprises just less than half of the City’s Budget at $3.052 billion. Approximately half of the Fund is used for personnel costs such as payroll and benefits of City employees. Stimulus funding from the federal government is a small part of the budget, yet it is assumed this funding will continue at least six months into the next fiscal year.
The projected budget shows a deficit of $522 million, the largest in the City’s history. This is caused by a reduction to tax revenues and one-time reserves, as well as increases to retirement and health insurance costs for city employees.
City Departments have been requested to reduce 20% to 30% of their General Fund Support through layoffs and service cuts. There will be re-negotiations of labor contracts and MOUs to implement unpaid furlough days or to forgo salary increases. Other potential solutions for the deficit include new fees or charges, financing and borrowing on City property or assets, reductions to Capital and equipment, contracting out of City services and potential tax increases on the November Ballot.
Ultimately, the budget problems are structural in that expenses are growing faster than revenue.
Councilmember Bennin asked if the city requests to each department to reduce 20% to 30% of expenses through layoffs and service cuts is in addition to those cuts from the previous fiscal year. Ms. Zmuda replied that with the many additional requirements to cut personnel and services next year there is no city department with more money at this point now than at this time last year.
Chair Parsons asked if there were aspects of the budget that would be more important or relevant for people with disabilities. The response was that between institutional services and community services, the former should receive more cuts than the latter, which is more valuable to the disability community and also is less costly to the City. In addition, the Health Department is attempting to prioritize community-based services and organizations to avoid institutionalization.
Co-Chair Woodall asked to hear about the positive aspects of the deficit, if any. Ms. Zmuda replied that a new Laguna Honda is being built with more community services, the Human Services Agency will not lay off any employees, and the JobsNow program has helped nearly two thousand people find work.
Director Mizner asked how the Governor’s proposals for the state budget might affect the City’s budget. Ms. Zmuda replied that if all state programs for the indigent were eliminated, those in need of aid would qualify for the local programs, which are entitlement programs. There would be $100 million in cuts to mental health services. Because the state’s budget hasn’t been passed yet, it is difficult to determine the full impact it will have on the City budget.
Council Member Bennin asked whether there will be reform in any of the city’s top earners, a large percentage of who are in the police and fire departments. These large salaries often result from overtime payments, one-time payouts of unused sick leave or vacation time, or substitute pay that results in an inflated salary.
PUBLIC COMMENT:
Mike Lee suggested creating partnerships with academia and private entities to create commodities that would produce revenue.
Bob Planthold commented on the cuts to MediCal involving dental care and vision or glasses coverage. He urged the Council to talk to groups that care more about saving money in the budget over the people who benefit from the programs the state provides.
COUNCILMEMBER COMMENTS:
Councilmember Chan noted that people without dental insurance may receive affordable dental care at the University of the Pacific Dentistry School, or other dentistry schools in San Francisco.
8. INFORMATION ITEM: SAVE THE DATE – ADA Twentieth Anniversary Celebration, Monday, July 26, 11-3 p.m., City Hall, North Light Court followed by Superfest Movies in the San Francisco Public Library. Presentation by Councilmember Bennin.
The ADA 20th Anniversary Celebration will be held Monday, July 26, 2010 from 11 am to 3 p.m. in the North Light Court of City Hall. After the celebration there will be a showing of disability-related films at the San Francisco Public Library. The Independent Living Resource Center of San Francisco is working with the Mayor’s Office on Disability to put on the event and more information can be found at www.itsnormal.org. There will be opportunities for other organizations or businesses to become involved. All persons are encouraged to blog, post, and “tweet” about the event to help create as much publicity as possible.
9. INFORMATION ITEM: Mayor’s Disability Council Awards for Excellence – Calls for Nominations
The Council called for nominations for its Mayor's Disability Council Awards for Excellence. The awards are given to individuals or organizations that have excelled in furthering disability rights in San Francisco or who have furthered the work of the Mayor's Disability Council and the Mayor's Office on Disability. Up to three awards may be given. Nominations will be considered for outstanding work in communication access, programmatic access or architectural access and are due June 21.
For a copy of the nomination form or additional information, go to the M.O.D. website at www.sfgov.org/mod, call 415-554-6789 (voice) or 554-6799 (T.T.Y.), or email [email protected]
10. INFORMATION ITEM: The Interplay of Historic Preservation and Disability Rights (Continued from January Meeting). Presentation by Alan Martinez, Historic Preservation Commission.
The Council expressed its frustration with slower-than-expected progress on attempts to create a mutual policy with the Historic Preservation Commission on universal access to historic buildings owned or contracted by the City. Mr. Martinez in turn expressed his confusion regarding the intentions of the Council to work together with the Commission. The Council and Mr. Martinez agreed to continue working together to develop such a policy.
PUBLIC COMMENT
Bob Planthold noted his concern for the Historic Preservation Commission’s efforts to Landmark several public library branches without a seeming concern for disability access.
Mike Lee asked whether portable structures could be used to create access.
Walter Park commented on the need for an agreed-upon civil rights solution to access rather than an aesthetic solution.
11. INFORMATION ITEM: The Disabled Access Section of the San Francisco Department of Building Inspection – Who They Are And What They Do. Presentation by Rick Halloran.
The Disabled Access Section was established in the early 1990s to investigate and resolve disabled access complaints related to California Code of Regulations Title 24, Part 2. It is authorized to investigate complaints of access under the Government Code 4452.
The Disabled Access Section oversees and responds to disability access complaints regarding privately-funded public accommodations, commercial facilities, some publicly-funded buildings, public housing, and private housing available for public use. Its jurisdiction does not cover employment, policy, programs or personal accommodations and by law may only investigate buildings built after 1991. The office has ninety days to find and resolve a complaint.
Many complaints regard wheelchair ramps, path of travel, broken elevators, parking, aisle widths, doorway width, thresholds, door-opening hardware, counter heights, signage, and inaccessible bathrooms. Altogether, the Disabled Access Section currently has fifty-one active complaints. It resolved seventy-three complaints in 2009.
The normal abatement process for resolving complaints is to first receive the complaint and investigate it. There will be a site inspection, resulting in an abatement or a Notice of Violation (NOV) to the building owner or manager. If there is a second NOV, a directors’ hearing is held and an order of abatement given. The case is then handed over to the City Attorney’s office for additional help.
The Disability Access Section accepts anonymous complaints, but needs a phone number. To contact the DAS with a complaint, one may call 415-558-6014 or e-mail DBI.DisAcc.Complaints@sfgov.org. The office is located at 1660 Mission Street, 3rd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94103. Another resource is the Housing Inspection Services at 1660 Mission Street, 6th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94103. The Department of Building Inspection web site is www.sfdbi.org.
12. INFORMATION ITEM: Disability Disaster Preparedness Committee. Presentation by Carla Johnson.
Ms. Johnson reported on the following items:
Statements of Understanding with Community-Based Organizations: On March 20, there was an outreach meeting to several dozen community-based organizations that are service-providers to the Disability Community. Many firm commitments and SOUs were signed between the City and these organizations to provide services or resources in the event of a disaster.
Disaster Preparedness for Alzheimer’s Patients: Ruth Gay of the Alzheimer’s Association of Northern California gave a presentation on how best to help people with Alzheimer’s Disease in the aftermath of disaster on the Committee’s May 7 meeting.
Deaf and Hard of Hearing Outreach: On May 24 there will be a meeting with Deaf and Hard of Hearing service providers to obtain pledges and sign SOUs to provide effective communication and other services to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Communities in the aftermath of a disaster.
13. INFORMATION ITEM: Report of the Physical Access Committee. Presentation by Howard Chabner.
Mr. Chabner reported on the following items:
General Hospital Renovations: Construction on the elevators in the outpatient clinic of General Hospital will be completed in the next one or two years. Currently there is only funding in the coming Fiscal Year to repair the elevators for the short-term, improve access to the ground floor restroom and create a wheelchair accessible clinic on the grounds floor.
Curb Ramps: The funding requests for the A.D.A. curb ramps is nearly $8 million, which relies on certificates of participation and bonds backed from the gas tax revenues.
Transbay Center: There will be a meeting on June 24 to address the change in MUNI bus stops for the new Transbay Center. Drawings for the Center are expected in September 2010.
Update from Rec and Parks: Dawn Kamalanathan and Paulina Araica from the Department of Recreation and Parks gave an update on the capital improvement program. Rec and Parks is the largest landowner in San Francisco with nearly two hundred properties and four hundred structures, some incomplete and a few outside of San Francisco proper. More information can be found at www.sfgov.org/recpark.
Next Meeting: The next meeting will be Friday, June, 11 at 1:30 p.m. in Room 421 of City Hall.
14. PUBLIC COMMENT
Walter Paulson sang encouragement to people with disabilities and to the Council for continuing its work.
15. COUNCIL CORRESPONDENCE AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
There was a letter from Roland Wong regarding MUNI cuts and bus stops.
The next meeting will be June 18, 2010 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. in Room 400 of City Hall.
16. ADJOURMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 4:04 p.m.