spaces come together and formed the great streets project. and they did what the mayor did and imported talent from chicago and led that. i want to bring up the leader of the great streets program now. >> thank you. what a beautiful day. the great streets projects facilitates this and we this is a great place. the street is a wonderful wide place to be. you want to bring your friends and family repeatedly. congratulations to the many agencies who have participated in making this possible. many community members and businesses participated along the way and it couldn't have happened without everyone rolling up their she was and coming together to make this possible. congratulations to everyone. i also want to point out this is a harbinger of things to come. it is a wonderful step forward for san francisco, the culmination of tremendous hard

work by many people in the agencies and in the communities. i want to particularly acknowledge adam for his leadership on this. i want to acknowledge the m.t.a., p.t.w. m.o.d. and c.t.a. apnd departmet of public health. a lot of acronyms but they stand for a lot of great people in the city working together to make this possible and are working with community members and folk to bring together ideas that will make better streets possible throughout the city. congratulations to everyone and i look forward to enjoying valencia street and many other corridors around the city for many years to come. [applause] >> thanks to all much the organizations working with the city to make san francisco a better place. a few more acknowledgments. i did mention the deputy general manager is here for a

significant part of the process and more significant part when we get to caesar chavez. we had a support from the better streets, league of conservation voters, state department of transportation, cal tran and many others and the merchants around here were wonderful to work with. i also want to acknowledge i mentioned our director of cultural affairs is here and we have a lot of art here. the artists on this project and i pt want to acknowledge michae with that project. modestly hiding behind his art. i want to finally bring up one of our partners in this process and it was not just a partner in name but a partner sitting at the table, not just as we designed but as we did the construction to make sure safe

passage for what is one of the fastest growing modes of transportation in san francisco. i would like to bring up the acting executive director of bicycle coalition. renee rivera. >> thank you, ed. it is a wonderful day to be here at the san francisco bicycle coalition we are so excited about these wonderful changes to valencia street. we have been around san francisco for quite a few years now and have been working on making valencia street a better place for biking and for everybody for many years. in fact, i was thinking back to 1999 when we first saw the bike lanes that have just been improved put in on valencia street and what an incredible day that was for this street and bicycling in the city. one thing we saw after the lanes were put in is first of all a huge number of people coming out and biking on valencia street

making it one of our most popular bike corridors in the city. but we have seen the neighborhood blossom and thrive and seen the businesses thrive. that is one thing that makes us so excited about today and the changes that have just been put in. because we know from our experience in the past how much these improvements and how much making better space for bikes, better space for pedestrians, making sure space for everyone of all ages and abilitys to use and enjoy the street. we know how much that makes the neighborhoods thrive and city thrive. and it is wonderful to see a business owner out here talking about how businesses are and when we look at the businesses on this block how many were not here in 1999. what a commercial corridor this has become because of the changes the city has put in. we appreciate the vision from

the city, from the mayor's office, m.t.a., all the agencies that have come together with the vision to make fran -- make san francisco a better place for everybody. improving the streets where we live and enjoy every day. i also wanted to specifically thank ed and other folks from d.p.w. for making this construction process as little suffering is possible. construction is always difficult but they were incredibly responsive through the process and we have been a partner through the whole construction and that has made it as easy as it could possibly be. i want to also thank the contractor on this project for also being an incredible partner as we've gone through this construction phase. thank all for being here and we

look forward to the better streets rolling out across the city and making many more of our streets and corridors to the city a wonderful place to bike, walk, take transit and enjoy. thank you. >> thank you, renee. a few final acknowledgments, the small project goes through different supervisor districts. i want to thank supervisors daly, tkufrt and campos. and the director and member of liveable cities. thanks for being a great advocate for these improvements. i want to acknowledge the deputy director for public works who oversaw the construction and deputy director for operations who now will be responsible for maintaining this beautiful landscape. if he doesn't do so the mayor will remind him.

finally, i want to acknowledge the guy who led the team that designed this whole project, an outstanding project. a lot of effort went in to getting community consensus, to working out the technical details and coming out with a beautiful project. landscape architect john dennis. the designers. then last but most the project manager for valencia street and the great streets program within d.p.w. or project manager, chris. phenomenal job on this project. with that, we want to thank you for coming today to celebrate valencia street and the better streets plan. we would be happy to take questions if anybody has them for the mayor or anybody else. >> or we could do the ribbon cutting. >> on to the ribbon cutting. >> we will go five, four, three,

two, one. five, four, three, two, one. [cheers and applause] >> walk your streets. there you go. supervisor mar: go, everyone. this is the july 22, 2010 meeting of the government audit and oversight committee.

are there any announcements? >> yes, please remember to turn off all cell phone to and pagers. items act and on today will be forwarded to the august 3 full board agenda. supervisor mar: we are waiting for supervisor alioto-pier or someone from her office to lead the hearings on items 1, and connected to 2. let's move on to item 3. >> motion directing the budget and legislative analyst to audit the department of children, youth and their families. supervisor mar: supervisor chu? supervisor chu: supervisor alioto-pier will not be able to

make it today, but there is someone from the office of the stability here who will be doing the presentations for items 1 and 2. item 3, legislative aide will be coming for that item. supervisor mar: why don't we delay item 3 and go through the top of the agenda. >> item 1. hearing on the recently published 2009-2010 civil grand jury report entitled "americans with disabilities act: is san francisco in compliance?" item 2. resolution responding to the presiding judge of the superior court on the findings and recommendations contained in the 2009-2010 civil grand jury report entitled "americans with disabilities act: is san francisco in compliance?" supervisor chu: this is an item that was brought to us by supervisor alioto-pier. i know that you have also co- sponsored item 2.

this is simply a hearing on the disability act. the mayor's office will be here to give us the findings and recommendations on that. >> i believe we have someone here from the mayor's office. i would be happy to follow-up. >> thank you. i want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak on behalf of the mayor of regarding the civil grand jury report. i want to thank everyone toward work on this report as well as the san francisco police department, city attorney's office, as well as others, for helping to track responses to

this report and committing to insuring that the city addresses all of the needs of the disabled community. we have the most stringent standards for access review, construction, renovation. we are one of the nation's leaders when it comes to accessibility signals. in our capital plan, we prioritized improvements to city facilities for disabled people. we also allocate money, city fund, and we also have state and federal dollars to comply with the americans with disabilities act transition plan. one thing the report alludes to is the level of funding dictate

our progress. so depending on level of funding the city has every year, that will tell how quickly we can implement some of the recommendations, requirements of the ada. the mayor is committed to maintaining the public right of way. one thing, and dealing with complaints on the public right of way -- given what we have on hand, that will dictate our compliance. again, the mayor is committed to doing all he can to make sure that we address all the complaints. the mayor's office also believes city departments are implementing training and are providing assistance to the civil community, but more can be done. we are cognizant of that. we are also working with

different departments to update the program to train not only top managers, but others as well. i am happy to answer any questions. bob will turn it over to susan now. -- i will turn it over to susan now. >> thank you, supervisors. mayor's office on disability. if you would like, i could walk through each of the findings and recommendations, our response on this ability. i want to start by thanking the civil grand jury. it is helpful to have them take a focused look on disability issues in the city. i feel like they did so with a very good faith effort.

we are great -- are very grateful that the report was as thorough and gracious as it was. they had six findings, six recommendations. the first finding was a request from the city attorney's office to come up with an assessment, how in compliance the city was with the americans with disabilities act. my understanding is because we are currently under litigation, that response will occur after the response has been made. the ada requires that we have a grievance procedure in place to address any potential this ability -- disability rights problems.

we do have that grievance procedure. we did lose the dedicated position to take those complaints and work with department around the city. this of a grand jury's recommendation is to reinstate staff so there is greater support for that work half. we always appreciate more staffing, but we recognize in these tough times, the choice needs to be made on where the city is putting its resources. currently we have in turn to a are being trained by some permanent staff. we believe we are responding to complaints adequately and efficiently. it does take time away from other activities, and perhaps

what the civil grand jury has been most eager to see -- it takes away from the belt region in the community in terms of what we can do the educating folks, what is appropriate to bring as a grievance, what is not. the third finding was to look at the other requirement under the ada that are not totatitle ii. because there are few options for people who experienced discrimination in the private sector with businesses, shops, private employers, private housing, a civil jury expressed a need to expand capacity to handle those grievances as well.

while we would love to be helpful in that regard, that would be a significant increase in our offices responsibility and would require major increases in staff and. -- staffing. that was a recommendation we did not agree with, but we did point out there are three entities within the city that help with these complaints. one is the department of building construction. the other is the police, mainly around service complaints. then the human rights commission is tasked with helping to settle civil rights violation of all kinds, including disability rights violations. supervisor mar: the board of

supervisors is not required to respond to this funding and recommendation, is that correct? >> i apologize. i have been told that the board would be responding to all of them. supervisor chu: if i might, it looks like we are responsible for responding to item 1, finding 4, 5, and 6, recommendations 4, 5, and 6. >> we have two ada transition planned. one is for the city office buildings, the other is the public right away. what they refer to is sidewalks and curb ramps.

there is an enormous amount of work that is estimated to be done in this area. $500 million was, at what point one pointm, the amount that was cited. we have made quite a bit of progress and we have been able to count some of the progress that had not been counted before. that estimate is not entirely correct. it is much closer to $120 million, $150 billion for curb ramps, another $100 million for sidewalks. it is recommended we look at stable funding for this work. we have tried to get on the money several times over the last 10 years and those efforts have not succeeded, so much of that money comes from the

general fund, but not all. we have had federal projects including sidewalks, curb ramps, paving, when they get non-general dollars, include to curb ramps as well. the main response we have to this is we agree this is a priority for the city. we need a dedicated and stable funding stream. the 10-year capital plan has allocated, stable funding streams for this. there are some financial issue glitches but we have always prioritized this work second only to safety in this city. the fifth recommendation was not something that we had to respond to. it was the department of public works.

it was a response to barriers that arise in the public right of way, usually from construction or activities. i would like to refer to the department of public works on that. the sixth recommendation was to look at how the city's training of disability rights issues is done, especially with respect to the police department and municipal transportation agency. clearly, they deal with a broad swath of people. the disability community is understandably invested that they handle these issues well when they come up. we have done training for both the san francisco police department and mta, and both departments have their own internal training programs which include disability rights issues. both departments are here to talk about that in detail, if

you would like. the mayor's office on disability has conducted training for trainers and managers for every department in the city, with the exception of police and mta. those have been scheduled. me requested timeline should be met, in terms of the director and manager training, for those departments. i will be happy to answer any questions you have. supervisor chu: thank you. if i could perhaps go to finding 5 and have dpw come up for a response to that one. >> good morning, supervisors.

we also want to thank the civil grand jury for the fairness of the reports, dedication to improving access in the city. item 5 is related to enforcement, the entering of the incursion. it could be a barricade in the way of someone with a disability try to make a passage on the public right-of-way. recommendation was to more fully fund the city's enforcement team. we are in difficult times, as you know. but we will continue to do everything we can to innovate funding sources. i think all of you are aware of the efforts taken to dedicate

funding to sidewalk repair and improvement. i think it was a couple of weeks ago at the full board where we had a program to do rather progressive sidewalk inspection and repair programs, a systematic way to look at correcting defects that could be considered access issues. we just want to give our assurances, we will continue to work as hard and as quickly as we can given the budget constraints that we have to make our inspection more effective and cost-effective. supervisor chu: what is the current process under which different individuals are experiencing problems with private contractors, even with public projects, with regard to access? how can people contact dpw?

what is the process to resolve these issues? >> there are two avenues. you can get in touch with the mayor's office of disability. if you feel there is an access complaint, 311. they are good at capturing that data and getting it to the appropriate and see. if is a construction-related defect -- it is a construction- related defect, we will go out there and inspect, get the contractor to move their equipment. in the case of sidewalk defects, we inspect sidewalks which are typically the responsibility of the home owner, and then we work with them to stress that they get these things fixed. there are also cases where the city is actually responsible for

the repair, such as around tree basins and curbs. supervisor chu: thank you. i probably should have alled to see -- called to see if there are any officials who want to respond to the report. >> we are pleased that you will be considering the findings and recommendations of the americans with disabilities act report. thank you for your time and consideration. overall, the jury had six responses and recommendations. it responded for the office of the mayor, the mayor office of disability, department of public works, mayor this ability

council, and transportation agency. today, the government oversight audit committee is asked to ratify four, five, and six. i want to introduce the chair of the ada committee. >> good morning. thank you for taking the time to review the report. i am jim kiknidell. the purpose of the report was to review the compliance with the 1990 with disabilities act and to support the mayor's office in disability and achieving that mandate within a reasonable time. title two requires the facilities, programs, activities, and services of the state and local government

should be made accessible to persons with disabilities. this coming monday, by the way, is the anniversary of the passage of the act. in 2009, 2010, is of a grand jury initiated an investigation to determine what has been done to comply with the americans with disabilities act, and what, if anything, remains to complete compliance. in summary, the jury identified three areas where support is needed in order for full compliance to be achieved. the first was facilitate and expand the citizens of a grievance procedure. second, accelerate the completion of the transition plan. third, to develop and implement training program for city staff, especially for the contact personnel at the police department and municipal transportation agency. there are many areas which there are many areas which further work needs to be done,