sure that our ada coordinators have the opportunity first. session for would be june 23, 2014, titled complaints and request for accommodations. again, same time, same location, room 421, city hall. and we will send that to you by e-mail. >> carla, i have one question as well. during the trainings, i was curious if there ever needed to be covered a fourth module when it comes to complaints and request. when it comes to communicating or working with people with disabilities and making sure the communication is effective and understanding between both parties especially when it comes to local government officials. i know there was an issue that arose during a

disaster training. i wonder if there is a way to improve upon communication between the both parties between people with disabilities and local government. >> sure. and effective communication with the module is not only about making the coordinator an aware of the obligation but also different resources and it would include some disability etiquette about the proper way to talk with people and to ask people what is it? how can i assist you? thank you for that comment. >> thank you. >> my next item is on the mayor's office with disability website. we have discussed with our web masters to update the web page. the city as a whole is moving to a new

content system. one of the advantages is that it's going to be consistent across about 100 or so different departments. it's also a system that will be easier for people to access on mobile devices because it will have drop down types of menus. our office is still in the very early stages of discussion about this process. what we've done is we've created an outline on how we want to see the page structured. we are aiming at a page that is very simple and intuitive because that's what i need. we also want a web page that will provide better links to services to connect to other city departments and some of those city departments that have great content are the public library, recreation and parks and the office of small business. so we want links to those. we also want to connect to other outside resources.

building code sites, employment opportunities and departments in the community. the council web page will be part of this process as well. as we get further along in march or april. i want to talk about this with you in greater detail probably through our executive committee meetings. this is your first heads up. also, i have an announcement about some disaster and emergency exercises that's coming up. the department of emergency management is going to be holding a tsunami exercise for city departments in late march. it's going to be occurring over a 3-day period and the first day will cover emergency warnings and evacuation. the scenario is a major earthquake in alaska that triggers a tsunami and the city is given about a

5-hour warning. and in that 5-hour warning we'll be challenged to communicate with the people who live in the tsunami affected areas and to then mobilize an evacuation which will have to include not only effective communication with sign language and websites and television and radio and twitter and alert sf and 311, all those great resources that we have, but we are also needing to make sure that we have bus rides and policies and wheelchair access and also include the para transit system in that process too. the second day of the exercise will be a policy discussion. annoy -- you know at a

higher level where they talk about response activities. the third day we'll be focusing on recovery. what we hope to do is use some of the lessons we learned from new york and hurricane sandy and certainly the recent federal court decision on emergency management. we will look at a variety of emergency plans beyond just the traditional care and shelter plan which has been more of this council's focus over the years. >> may i ask a question? >> absolutely. >> is this primarily an exercise for city staff and local law enforcement as opposed to, is there any point where people with actual disabilities will have input to this? >> it's a very good question. what makes this exercise different from the golden

guardian scenario we worked on last year, there isn't going to be that live sheltered type of component to it. it really is going to be about the city departments being able to talk together at the emergency operation center and the department operation center. so at this time there isn't a public role. >> thank you. >> you bet. the next topic i would like to discuss is the t and c taxi issue. i want to draw your attention to the correspondence in your packet. the three correspondence items came from the transit council and they were sent to senator yee, mark leno and assembly

member tom. there is a news article that appeared in the chronicle. i don't know if people saw this or not. but the suggest matter is the loss of accessible ramp taxi and the shift to transportation network company like uber, lift and sidecar. the issue that ramp taxi is a vital component of our accessible transportation system and they are part of the para transit network of accessible vehicles. they are regulated by the sf mta and there is a very long history of the mta working with the disability community around issues like making sure that we have an adequate number of ramp taxis by percentage of fleet, customer service and disability sensitivity training. and the new t and c

, which stand for transportation network company are regulated by the california public utilities commission. the puc hasn't gone far enough in the process to develop a robust set of rules or oversight to make sure the ride share companies are able to meet an equivalent level of accessibility as the taxis do currently. the city is losing it's trained taxi drivers. companies are turning in their ramp taxi medallion and going to the ride share services. the coordination transit council has taken this up as a very important issue to the disability community. i wanted to make sure that you were aware of this discussion in case this is something you would like to look at as well. this is really an issue that

affects not only san francisco but the entire state of california . it's the ca puc that regulates these. so the letters that you will see in your correspondence package are very long and detailed and they have all the facts, but that's just a brief summary of the issue for you. >> my last topic is to talk about pedestrian safety. at our last meeting in january we heard from walk first and we learned about their strategy for prioritizing which streets and intersections would get pedestrian safety treatment subject to funding because funding is the big piece here. and you also heard me talk briefly at our last meeting about the transportation bond that will be used in the november ballot to help fund the transportation safety

projects. i want to repeat what we heard in public comment earlier about the fdr democratic club pedestrian safety forum. i think this is an important forum that we want feedback from people with disabilities. the reminder that the pedestrian safety forum will be held next thursday, february 27th, the doors open at 6:00 p.m.. at the first congregation church at polk street and bush. i'm hoping that one or more of you can come to that. also on the pedestrian safety front, i want to let you know our office is looking at the curb ramp program. by way of background, each year our office has a budget of about $4.5 million that we use to build curb ramps for people who have asked for them. this

is what we call our ada transition plan for curb ramp construction. people who make the request are people with mobility disabilities who use a certain route to get home or to work or school and they need curb ramps to make sure their path is accessible and safe. one quick reminder that our funds, $4.5 million is not the only way that curb ramps get built in the city. it also gets done by paving jobs and three times as many curb ramps throughout our transition plan. each year our office sits down and look at the map of the city and look at the projects that are planned by street scapes and paving and look at the ramps and look at

the districts for geographic equality and we make priority decisions about where to build curb ramps to fill in the gaps. this year our office did something different wechlt took all of those request in the projects and did a map over lay with the pedestrian high injury corridors and intersection and our intention was to identify locations where curb ramps might be paired with other pedestrian safety improvements to support the pedestrian safety initiative. and other improvements can run the gamete from audible pedestrian signals, new crosswalks and bold outs and other features. we coordinated the safety locations with mta and dpw are planning and took this coordination and made a budget

request for an in accrues in the amount of money that could support our curb ramp program. to use a scale here, it cost us around $20,000 to build a curb ram in one corner and $100,000 to build a bulb out. we wanted to be able to build some bulb outs and be able to extend and not subtract. so i will be meeting with both the department of public works and mta and the mayor's budget office to talk about that budget request that we've made and we are hoping that we'll be getting support for that. but i this i the take away really is that this city is really trying to coordinate and the city is trying to make smart decisions about how we spend our curb ramp money. that concludes my directors report. at this point i wanted to turn things over to mike

alonzo because he has a brief report on some of the activities on disabilities.> hello. in january our office received inquiries. additionally we received eight complaints for curb ramp request and 11 service request and one request for an accommodation. records have shown in the past that a decline in the number of contacts we received during the holiday season is pretty typical and we expect a

significant increase within the next coming months. the manuality of our complaints was about non-compliant barricades, damaged curb ramps and damaged sidewalks. other complaints included power door maintenance here at city hall, service issues with sf mta and elevator maintenance at sro's. most were inquiries about people seeking information about affordable and accessible housing and service for animal information and how to request for housing. many of those services and support for animal inquiries were from tennants currently facing eviction by private landlords. this is an issue we are continuing to see. in curb ramp related news we want the public to know that the

department of public works has set aside a fund dedicated to the repair of the detectable warnings on curb ramps. these are known as yellow mats with truncated domes which last about 5 years. once they show signs of deterioration they can become a tripping hazard and therefore we have a curb ramp that all it meets the is a replacement of those domes. we encourage the public to call 311 if they come across such conditions on a curb ramp so it maybe addressed. thank you. any questions? >> thank you, mr. alonzo. okay. is there any other

comment on the directors report? okay. we'll move on to report on item no. 10. a report on the disability disaster preparedness committee. >> thank you, the disability disaster preparedness committee or ddpc met on friday january 3, 2014. there was a large turnout with representative from several city agencies, from community based organizations as well as interested members of the general public. committee members spent time reviewing the ddpc accomplishment in 2013. they included participation in last may's golden guardian exercise in which people with disabilities actively participated with people seeking shelter after a disaster. participation in a civic center evacuation drill

and a significant increase in attendance and participation at ddpc meetings. following that was a lengthy discussion of the ram ification of a federal court decision for a disaster plan for people with disabilities. the committee review the documented comment conveying a variety of topics including physical evaluation issues, shelter, culture, ada complaint and housing and communicating and transportation issues. out of that discussion came a substantial list of goals for the committee in 2014, included but not limited to working in a shelter plan working with access and functional needs and reviewing and amending appendix e which

is a statistics manual for people with disabilities and seniors in mass care shelters in a development of a solid transportation plan for people with disabilities during an evacuation from the city. our next meeting is to be held on friday, march 7, 2014, in city hall in room 421 from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.. please join us as we continue to refine our goals and continue working on disaster preparedness for san francisco disability community. thank you. >> any comment on that report? councilmembers? staff? >> then we'll move on to item no. 11. public comment. this

is for items not on the agenda. i have julian parsons. >> hi, folks. so nice to see you today. the other side, you know i just want to meet you all not yet having the pleasure to work with you. i apologize for missing the first part of the agenda. it was my attention to hear the first report. i apologize for that. i'm here now and once in a while i want to call to your attention and request that you pursue is the option of medical marijuana for cancer patients primarily. the option to choose which pain medication would be most beneficial to you or if you have exhausted all other

options to try something new to carry on with your life. there are other options when you consider our perspective. why we have not worked in the past, i think there is room for movement of the future. for example in the state of washington where i live now having the availability of many options, eating options. can binnide which do not have any thc component. there are option for people. there are options for people who want to experiment with this herb. their hands are tied because right now marijuana is classified as class 1. that was a different time. that was

a different culture. i strongly urge you to do what you can. call your congress folks. tell them to support people having an option for medical. it could be just a brownie. they have got things like oil and processed into low heat that might save someone's life. this is really important. that's why i had to come and tell you to consider our work. i wish you all very much in this new year and it's a great pleasure to see you again. >> thank you very much. this you for coming to visit. >> any other public comment? okay. item no. 12.

correspondence. heather? >> the first piece of correspondence on director carla johnson mentioned earlier is related to correspondence that was sent from the san francisco para transit coordinating council about item of private transportation companies which do not provide wheelchair accessible vehicles therefore impacting the transportation options for wheelchair users. the second piece of correspondence was a notice of board of vacancy through connored house ink a private non-profit corporation on its non-board of directors. the third piece of correspondence a member from the public about their concern about family court. you'll i will distribute those

packets. >> thank you. item no. 13. councilmember comments and announcements. do we have any? mr. zarda? >> thank you, cochair supanich. i just want to give a heads up about events coming up in march. march 29th, a saturday, the independent living center in san francisco with the san francisco blind will host a regional power summit which will be an opportunity for community partners and members of the public to come together for a 1 day summit with other community members from the bay area to discuss issues that are important to the community for better fostering

independence where we live, work, learn, shop and play. this is a great time for people interested in learning more about how to join the advocacy effort to attend. for those who want more information, you can go to the websites for ilrcsf. www.ilrcsf.org. on the website there will be an events calendar on the right side of the main page and you can find more information on how to register there. i also want to call attention to a "state of the arts mobility demonstration" march 5th, at the independent living resource center in san francisco. whill type a is a

next generation personal mobility device to expand the horizon for functionality and style for everyday use including the ability to maneuver bumps and sidewalk cracks with ease. for those interested in attending you can contact our office at 415-543-6222. that is wednesday march 5th, 11 a.m. '11 a.m.-3:00 p.m.. that's all i have. that is a wednesday. >> are there any other councilmember announcements? then i have one. good news, we are going to start our weekend a little early, this meeting is adjourned. [ meeting is adjourned ] >> >> >>