RESOLUTION #2005-3

 

Mayor's Disability Council (MDC) Resolution

Endorsing a system of priorities for the re-assessment and implementation of the City and

Countyof San Francisco

 

 

 

's Americans with Disabilities Act Transition Plan

 

 

 

Whereas, the City and County of San Francisco has an obligation under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and other disability rights laws, to provide equal access to all City and County programs and activities; and

 

 

 

Whereas, with regard to existing facilities, the ADA requires the City and County to operate each service, program or activity, when viewed in its entirety, is readily accessible to and usable by people with disabilities, but does not necessarily require the City and County to make each of its existing facilities accessible and usable by individuals with disabilities; and

 

 

 

Whereas, the City and County endeavors to provide to the residents each service, program or activity in the most integrated setting as possible, and per the Self Evaluation report, endeavors to provide service delivery characterized by flexibility and individual attention rather than rigid adherence to official policies and procedures, the City and County seeks to provide accessible and usable facilities for its residents and employees in the most creative and efficient manner possible; and

 

 

 

Whereas, a facility assessment was conducted on more than six hundred and seventy five facilities and buildings within the jurisdiction of the City and County in 1999 and 2000, which included not only identifying barriers or hindrances to service program or activity, but also included deviation from current accessibility or building code technical standard for new construction; and

 

 

 

Whereas, in an economic environment of limited capital funding sources, competing needs for social service program funding and limited architectural and construction human resources to implement design and construct building and facility alterations or replacement, the City and County must prioritize efforts for the removal of architectural barriers in buildings and facilities under its jurisdiction; and

 

 

 

Whereas, the City and County seeks participation of interested persons, including individuals with disabilities in this process; and

 

 

 

Whereas, the City and County does concurrently and proactively seek to provide and ensure programmatic access to services, polices and practices, especially where there may be architectural barriers or hindrances to direct access in a particular building or facility; and

 

 

 

Whereas, since the advent of the ADA in 1990, the City and County has spent and committed millions of dollars in new construction, alteration, and removal of architectural barriers that dramatically improve the accessibility and usability of numerous buildings and facilities throughout the City and County for individuals with disabilities; and

 

 

 

Whereas, the City and County endeavors to continue improving the physical environment for accessibility and usability for all its residents and employees and visitors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, That the Mayor's Disability Council (MDC) recommends to the Mayor of San Francisco and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors that the City and County adopt a creative and flexible set of priorities for the removal of architectural barriers in existing buildings and facilities, that:

 

 

 

A) Leverages removal of architectural barriers into planned capital improvements through new construction, alterations and maintenance projects that have the result of removing architectural barriers,

 

 

 

B) Prioritizes coordination of project funding through capital projects joint ventured between various departments or agencies, and where applicable, other state or federal funding sources, that will have the result of removing architectural barriers,

 

 

 

C) Prioritizes removal or architectural barriers in public use spaces and employee controlled public use spaces, prior to conducting the same in employee work areas,

 

 

 

D) Prioritizes barrier removal projects in departments or agencies that do not generate significant fees, bonding potential or endowment, or which have not undergone significant facility replacement or alteration since 1992, and which provide significant public service and benefit, specifically, and in the following order:

 

 

 

Priority 1. Public Health Department medical centers,

 

 

 

Priority 2. Social Service (including Public Safety) buildings and facilities, and

 

 

 

Priority 3. Places of Assembly and meeting places that do not charge significant fees per seat, or high use fees, such as auditoriums, hearing rooms, council chambers, community centers, community meeting rooms and conference rooms.

 

 

 

E) Prioritizes removal of architectural barriers in public and common use areas for those departments that provide the most crucial services to the disability community.

 

 

 

F) Prioritizes accessibility of City and

 

Countyweb sites

 

.

 

 

 

G) Encourages departments and agencies which have significant fee generation, bonding capability or endowment, or which have undergone significant facility replacement or alteration since 1992, to maintain accessible features and, where necessary, to conduct removal of existing architectural barriers to public use and controlled public access areas in their buildings and facilities, concurrent with the City and County's ADA Transition Plan activities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

H) Encourages those agencies which are a separate administrative entity from that of the City and County, to conduct their own ADA Transition Plans, in concert with the spirit and intent of this resolution.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 15, 2005 Mayor's Disability Council – ADOPTED

 

 

 

 

 

Ayes: 6 - Jul Lynn Parsons, Norma Block, Ed Evans, Robert Neil, Denise Senhaux, and Tatiana Kostanian

 

 

 

 

 

Absent: Jack Fagan, Eugene Flannery, Elizabeth Grigsby, Richard Ow, and Ruth Nunez.