approaching the mitt romney debt, that they are not tourists because one of the excuses that is sometimes given is, oh, these people must have been tourists. it kind of reminds me sometimes when you are traveling anybody that's a pickpocket, oh, they can't be from here, they've got tor a foreigner. this is what's going on every day on the sidewalks and streets of san francisco and it's getting worse. but mayor lee is doing nothing. the president of the board, david chiu, is doing nothing. the board of supervisors as a body is doing nothing. the mta board is doing nothing and mta management is doing nothing. thank you for listening. >> thank you, howard.

do you want to say something? your light was on. thank you, howard. this is the council's committee that addresses architectural and right of way issues that may directly affect ada access for the san francisco citizens, workers, employees, school children and visitors and of course individuals with disabilities. this is the mayor's disability council of physical access committee. mr. chadner has served as the chairman on the physical access committee forum for more than 5 years and has chosen to resign to pursue other interests and activities. the council expresses its deepest gratitude and appreciation for howard's volunteering on this committee, his leadership and caring for the community at large. always

he has let participate papts have their time, express speech and opinions on issues vital for san francisco's well-being. he has an inclusive style. certainly he will express his opinions. both strong-willed and well thought out. john paul scott, the deputy director of the mayor's office on disability, will discuss some of the major projects that he and chadner have shepherded through the community. the list is impressive though these projects howard promotes accessible design, good design and most importantly, universal design, design that seeks to meet and exceed the needs of the broadest range of people's needs and disabilities. after each meeting chairman howard will provide the council with a very detailed report of

the committee's activities. he will forward its recommendations, many of which have led to the council's resolution for the mayor and other city departments. in addition to his volunteering for the council's physical access committee, howard participates in many volunteer civic activities. one of these is volunteering here at city hall conducting tours. we recommend you take a tour and enjoy howard's fascinating information and tales about this great civic home and monument. now i would like to invite other council members to provide public comment and then we will have, ask john paul scott to make a short presentation. any members of the council have any comments? denise.

>> howard, what can i say? that script kind of speaks for itself as far as your back grupbld and experience and what you brought to the council and i want to thank you. it's not too easy to come here and give a report month after month of the different projects and activities. and you and john paul scott do a good job on updating us on access issues and getting our input and i want to thank you because advocacy by no stretch of the imagination is hard at times and especially with some of the issues, you know, that you stated, you keep on being involved and care about the community and remind us of the issues and the work that still needs to be done. so i want to thank you for your time and so many things that you've done that i'm sure everything wasn't even covered in your background and how you supported the city

and county and the disability community. so you will be missed but i know we'll still see you around city hall. i know you will still come to our meetings. it's been a pleasure and i wish you luck in whatever you do and you'll be great and i'll shut up now so the other council members can chime in and say some other kind words. but thank you, it's been a pleasure. >> roland. >> yes, i'd like to also thank howard for being such a detail-minded person. we have worked on many projects together like the central subway, like elevator issues that we're having, going to be having dual elevators and direct access from bart to muni and the concourse level. also the san francisco general's program to be able to see where

things are as far as where, you know, it make sure that everything is accessible for universal design for people who need adequate (inaudible) and stuff like that. i really appreciate his dedicated work to san francisco and the mayor's disability council and with mod thank you again. >> thank you. >> thank you especially for your (inaudible) with disabilities and the elderly. you are awesome. >> thanks to all of you, it's been a pleasure and a privilege to work with you guys. you will still see me. >> john paul.

>> hithere, i'm john paul scott, deputy director on the mayor's council on disability for the physical access group. howard and i have been working together for 5 years. i went back through our records to try to find the first agenda where his name appears and that's june 6, 2008. this committee and howard's leadership have been absolutely critical for us to vet the ada transition plan to give it purpose and to keep it grounded and keep it moving forward through the physical access committee and then through this council. we have been able to not only present on a yearly basis the status of the ada transition plan, the actual construction projects that we do on a yearly basis, our transition plan for curb ramps and sidewalks and policies for the pedestrian right of way. also mod's request for the city's 10 year capital plan

which is on-going. we're working on that right now. i just wanted to go through a list of some of the projects that we have worked on and reviewed through the committee. it's very impressive. these are just the big ones. 10 billion dollars worth of projects. treasure island in yorba buena island development, that's 1.5 billion with 8,000 units. transbay project, 5 blocks long, 4 billion dollars, almost fully funded now and with the tallest tower in san francisco on the west coast now approved. san francisco general hospital rebuild, an extremely important project for the city, we've spent a lot of time on this, 887 million dollars, 284 acute care beds and it triples the size of the emergency ward and department. of course mta's central subway, very important to get the dual elevator access into

each of the stations which we also did in the transbay terminal project. that's 1.6 billion dollars. recreation and parks department, we have had them come through with their bond programs plus we've seen many of their individual projects. over 200 projects have been produced by this program, which is approximately 315 million dollars. the san francisco public library project, its bond is approximately 196 million dollars and 29 projects. we have had many of these projects such as north beach library come in front of the council through this committee. san francisco airport terminal b, which was 383 million dollars and probably our -- the best thinking the city has done about toilets and unisex, family toilets, the best. and of course the port of san

francisco's cruise terminal which howard also serves on the advisory committee for the port, that's 65 million. i won't go through the list of all the individual projects or we'd be here until 5:00. but some of the planning department projects that create public policy i think are very important to note that pourd has brought and helped leadership on and through this committee and this council has actually shaped the accessibility content of these things and changed the course of this paradigm. the better streets plan with shared public streets, shared public ways and simply the courtesy of good design on the public sidewalk. the van ness avenue brt bus rapid transit system and that is, will be an on-going project for the next couple years for us. the committee has vetted publicly funded housing programs, adaptable and accessible dwelling units and

we have had jim whetbone and carla johnson come in and make presentations and explain that facet of our office. mta clear channel bus shelters, adaptable dwelling units, as i've mentioned. the new ada, finally after 20 years, the 2010 ada courses, we have had (inaudible) going through the dimensions. san francisco's variety of systems for granting approval for temporary events which led to the office working on the temporary events policies with varied departments. the america's cup, it's people's transportation plan and as we talked about an outgrowth of that was the improvements on jefferson street and of course planning department parklets and i should not say this, but cycle tracks in jefferson. go, state park. so it's an impressive body of work. and we really appreciate

you putting that public time in. i know it's a lot of work to keep doing this every month and to try to get people to come to the meeting. i think we made some really good headway through this process. so, council, you are going to have to pick a new chairperson for this committee. >> that will be a challenge, definitely. >> thank you very much for that, john paul. one of the best things about this role is the opportunity to work with john paul and carla before you, susan, there's really some talented, dedicated people who are not just dedicated but really good at what you guys do. you are good teachers and so i thank you all for the opportunity to have done that. >> and, howard, if you would stay for a minute, the council would like to present you a

small token of our appreciation. . >> thank you very much. >> howard, on behalf of the council, carla, everyone involved, i with like to present you with this token of our appreciation for all your hard work and your dedication and we hope to see your face around because we do need your opinion and we know you will speak your mind. thank you. >> thank you. that's beautiful. thank you very much.

(applause). >> thank you all. >> thank you so much, howard. moving on to item no. 9, a

report from the disability disaster preparedness committee. joanna >> good afternoon. actually my report will be extremely brief. as you know, the dupc now meets every other week -- every other month so we didn't meet last month. however, a small group, a small subcommittee, has been working on putting together a grant application for a fema innovation challenge award which is about $35,000 to do a small innovative project. after long deliberation we decided to work on a disaster preparedness initiative for sro owners -- for sro tenants. these, as you know, are some of the most challenging populations who have traditionally been ostracized

or kept away from the typical disaster preparedness can urricula. our project is proposing to develop an innovate i've can you remember rim klupl using collectives and community organizers to get folks, around 300 residents, to develop a structure for developing culturally appropriate disaster can urriculum. we believe very strongly this is a project worthy of funding and possible to create some important work and important precedent and we'll keep you updated. i also would like to remind everybody that our next disability disaster preparedness meeting that's open to the public is on november 2nd, so the first friday of november, and it will be in room 421 of city hall

from 1.30 to 3.30 pm mraes feel free to call us for access or more information about the meeting. >> thank you, joanna, any public comment? seeing none, we will move on to our -- may i go on? next item, no. 10, the november election, access to information, polling places and voting machines. presentation by gil fox from the san francisco department of elections. hi, welcome. >> thank you, good afternoon, everyone, i am here and my colleague will be right upstairs, natalia kasin amount, our deputy director, and we are here today to talk about disability training for

election staff, accessibility in voter education and accessibility at polling places. i have prepared a written report which i will -- ken will hand out large print paper copies at the end of your meeting and i will get to him for his sdrib distribution on monday electronically. i also have some other materials here for the public. at the department of elections we strive to help every eligible san franciscoan be a voter on november 6 and that includes people with disabilities. to do that, we started out several months ago -- well, this has been an on-going process as you know

better than i do. but we started out several months ago meeting with the disability rights california organization who educated our staff on both respect and etiquette for working with people with disabilities. our outreach staff then provides this information in all of our presentations. we have done almost 300 public presentations this election season and all of that information, accessibility information, is in our presentation. our trainers who are also trained by the disability rights california organization, they trained 3,000 poll workers on voter rights and respect. so it's kind of dropping a pebble into a like. we get a little information and then it spreads out to a lot of people. our poll worker hiring is

inclusive. when the letter goes out recruiting poll workers, people with disabilities are included in the availability letter and we provide wheelchair seating and large print materials and printed copies of spoken information and space for a guide or service animal and other requests for poll worker with disabilities. then all poll workers are, their mission includes accessibility goals to protect voter rights and serve voters with respect. it's a major part of the voter -- poll worker training and also in their poll worker manual. they are taught how to set up accessible stations and keeping the polling places safe and setting up the edge accessible voting machine, and there is a video that they view in class and that is available to the

public on how it use the edge machine on you tube.com/sfelections. and they get hands on training how to set up these machines as well. in your written materials will be experiments from their training manual so you will be able to read exactly what they read and learn. accessibility in voter outreach and education, which is more my wheelhouse, we have materials that we provide to the public, large print election flyers, i have some samples here today, and we provide those in english, chinese, spanish and russian. we have options presented in all the presentations that we do. we have an accessible web site with screen reader

capability and we have a large print voter information pamphlet. we advertise that we have this in our outreach, we take requests and we make it available in english, chinese and spanish in large print and in audio format in english, cantonese, mandarin and spanish. we did get a number of requests and this year we produced a total of 120 audio formats of our voter information pamphlet and 130 large print in various languages. we have some in the office at room 48 of city hall if anyone would like one and did not request one earlier. they can contact us and we can get one to anyone who needs one. we

also have some at the lighthouse for the blind. and also in your printed material are excerpts from the voter information pamphlet which provides general -- that's in every copy of the voter information pamphlet that provides information about accessibility in voting for everyone. one of the other things that we've done in outreach this year, and this is fairly new for us, is we've developed a community network of organizations. in total we have between -- around 350 organizations that we outreach to that then outreach to the community, all of the community that we serve, but specifically we have 47 organizations that have self-identified as serving community of people with disabilities so we work with

those organizations that again work with the community. so i think that's a really positive step in building coalitions between elections and the people we want to serve. and, finally, accessibility at the polling places is also we're making great strides there. we looked up at some statistics and going back to march 2004 election we had 550 polling places in san francisco, 211 of them were not accessible. in november 2012 we have 573 polling places in san francisco and only 29 are inaccessible, so we think that

is a very positive statistic for all of us. and by accessibility at the polling places it's not just getting there, it's also being able to vote once you're there. when you receive your voter information pamphlet, when every voter receives one, on the back of that pamphlet it is listed whether or not your polling place is accessible or not. if it's not, you are instructed to call or email the department of elections and we will make arrangements. every polling place that is accessible has signs at the entrance. this time a doorbell where someone will be able to call for assistance to inside the polls place. of course we hope we will have a welcoming poll worker staff and then there's some practical things

like a pen grip and a page magnifier, large print instructions, accessible voting booth and, of course, our accessible voting machine with a touch screen, audio ballot in english, cantonese, mandarin or spanish. this is the same edge machine that's been in use in san francisco since the february, 2008 election so people are probably fairly familiar with it. but there are instructions on the edge machine in braille and of course the poll workers have been taught how to use the machine. we also have curb side voting available if people cannot get into the polling space and poll workers understand that two assistants to help people who need to use curb side voting to mark their ballot.

for everyone, the last day to register to vote is october 22nd, the last day to request to vote by mail is october 30th. you can vote early at city hall monday through friday and the last two weekends before the election and of course on behalf of the department of elections, we encourage you to be a voter november 6th. if you have any questions i'm happy to answer them. thank you. >> through the chair, could i ask a question? >> if no one else has a question, we will allow miss carter-johnson to ask a question. go ahead. >> it's just a very short question. thank you for your presentation. if a voter encounters difficulty on the day of the election is there a number, a hotline number, that you would like to advertise for people to call to get assistance? >> yes, thank you for asking. our voter assistance hotline

and it is, it's actually live now and it will be available on election day in english is 554-4375. in chinese, 554-4367. and in spanish, 554-4366. if you need another language, call the english number, 554-4375, and people will help you. >> and just one more quick question. >> okay. >> i don't know if i heard you mention that people can vote early also here in city hall, which is fully accessible. did you mention that? >> i did mention that, but it is fully accessible here and we are open monday through friday from 8:00 to 5:00 for voting and the last two week ends

before the election from 10:00 to 4:00. >> that's lael good. i also would encourage people to vote but it's a little late now. is it too late to call for the vote by mail? >> no, it's not. you can apply to vote by mail until october 30th. >> october 30th. so, so that gives us plenty of time. so they can call the 4375 number, right? >> yes, or they can go to sfelections.org and get instructions there. >> all right, thank you. any other questions? public comment? none? ken. >> yes, speaking for staff, i'd like to apologize that you had to wait so long. i thank you and natalia for coming, but the good news, the upside, is that you now and we have a very good and very