and this is year of 2014 is also going to be the 25th anniversary of loma-prieta. and, so, anniversaries are always just that fabulous opportunity to think about what we need to do personally and also as a community to get prepared. so, i want to give you those reminders about checking your stash. one of the most important things to really check always is that list of contact numbers for friends and family to make sure that we can reconnect if we get disconnected from our housing. and keeping that clear list of medications, too, you know, current and a few extras laying around. along the lines of the disaster preparedness, you know, we did have a tsunami exercise this last month and tying into earthquakes again, tsunamis are caused by earthquakes. and what the city did was we

had a three-day exercise where we practiced alert and evacuation and notification, then disaster response, and then after that long-term planning for recovery. and joanna fraguli played a very important role on behalf of the mayor's office on disability because she was embedded in the joint information senterra long with our interpreter, our american sign language interpreter jennifer mantle who worked with the public information officers to make sure that effective communication that would reach really the entire community was a big part of how the information officers would plan their proceedings. they helped the joint information center create very simple messages that could be easily understood by all of us. i think my best example that joanna shared with us is that they started to give an

evacuation out -- warning that said if you live at leavenworth or if you live west of this block and you need to travel four blocks southwesterly to get out of the inundation zone, really kind of complicated instructions. and between jennifer and joanna they were able to come up with a message that says, go five blocks away from the water. just to make it clear and simple. so, having american sign language and the joint information center is just part of that createding a new normal for our emergency alert systems. and, so, we were delighted to be part of that. also this last week, joanna and i participated in a conference call with marcy roth who is the head of fema, disability integration and coordination.

and also on that conference call was richard [speaker not understood] who heads up the disability section at the california office of emergency services. and joanne scordino who is our fema representative in fema district 9 over in oakland for disability integration. and the take away from that conversation is that community is the key here for truly being prepared and supportive to us all. we can't really assume that the government is going to come and rescue us or that the government is going to make effective plans would you tell us. and, so, if we have one take away from that, the most basic is get to know your neighbors. agree to support your neighbors, and get involved in the city's efforts, and especially get involved in our disability disaster

preparedness committee meetings. we will be meeting next on friday, may 1st -- friday, may 1st, here in city hall at 1:30 in room 43 1 -- 421, excuse me. also touching a little bit on some of the ~ discussion that we heard earlier, i wanted to talk a little bit about elevators. and i don't know if the council remembers them -- sure that you do -- there was a story in the chronicle a few months back about the housing authority, and specifically the clementina towers and the need we have in our older housing buildings to invest in the infrastructure to make sure that we have a sustainable and reliable accessible path of travel with functioning elevators. and, of course, the housing authority is not actually owned by the city of san francisco. it's owned by our u.s. housing

and urban development properties. but what the city has done over this last year or more is really stepped up to try to provide resources to the population that lives in the housing authority properties. and remember that many of the people who live in public housing are our older adults and are people with disabilities. and, so, our mayor today announced in a press conference that through the mayor's office of housing that they have identified $4.5 million worth of money to do these incredibly critical elevator renovations to make sure that those elevators are going to be reliable in the future. and there are nine specific properties that they have identified as being buildingses where they're going to be making those improvements.

also over the next few months you're going to be hearing more from our office about the housing authority because the housing authority properties taken under the umbrella of the mayor's office of housing are going to start contracting out the management of the housing authority properties to some local nonprofit housing providers. and what those nonprofits will be doing is putting forth plans to actually renovate and repair those properties. and our office does the quality control permit review and field inspection of those. so, we'll be very much involved and i'll keep you posted as that program develops. also this week, for those of us that see transportation as being an important part of our universe, i wanted to highlight that the san francisco municipal transportation authority held their annual hearing to discuss their capital and operating budget for the next two years, and

that one of the items that the board was considering was free muni for low-income seniors and people with disabilities. and this is a program that was identified really building on the success of the free muni for low-income youth that has rolled out over the last couple of years. and it made a lot of sense to expand it to older adults and to people with disabilities, especially because the role that transportation plays as a life line here, that our public transportation system is really part of what allows us to live independently here. it gets us to work. it gets us shopping. it gets us to our appointments and it connects us to each other. yet the people who ride public transportation are often the people who have the fewest resources. and we really don't want to see people making those hard decisions between rent, food,

and being connected to the community. well, the mta heard this proposal. they gave it a lot of support conceptually. honestly, they don't have the money in the budget this year, but they did commit that they would be bringing it back forward in the next budget year and their hope is that with the transportation 2030 bond, that that would give them the flexibility to be able to finance this program. at the hearing, there were a lot of members from the disability community that spoke and advocated very eloquently. it's a good hearing to watch on the play back. i really think that they swayed the councilmembers and also the letter writing campaign by senior and disability action, independent living resource center i think had a huge influence. last of all, i have two quick announcements.

on may 4th, the national council on disability or the ncd is going to be in the bay area for their quarterly meeting and that will be running from sunday, may 4th until tuesday, may 6. and the topic is sharing great ideas, pioneering the next wave of disability policy. and i really want to encourage people to participate in this process. it's going to be at the ed roberts campus, which of course is the ashbury bart. and it's a very grassroots, ground up identify your issue and pitch it to the crowd type of structure, similar to [speaker not understood]. in fact, they have a goal. they want no spectators, just participants. what they are looking for are people or groups that want to lead a session to share what you're working on, what your goals are, and your issues.

so, sunday, may 4th, starting at 4 o'clock is when the reception begins and access dance company is going to be performing that night at 5:30. and again, the meeting will be at ed roberts campus, ashbury bart, berkeley, california, and the best site to learn more about the national council on disability is to go to the ncd.wikia website. that's like a rookie website for independents. and last of all, speaking of access and art, this week i learned about a new film festival that's planned for october 15th to the 19th, 2014 here in san francisco, and we heard catherine speak earlier about quick fest and super fest which is coming up a little bit sooner.

but this film festival is called real abilities and it's real, r-e-e-l and it's going to be held in 12 cities nationwide. it's dedicated to promoting awareness to the lives and stories and artistic expressions of people with disabilities ~. and we'll be hearing more from the reel abilities folks as we get closer to october. what the council might consider signing on as an endorser or supporter. and after talking with kathleen o'harra, i thought the council might even want to consider using one of your council meetings to really focus on art and disability and the intersection of those. so, just a suggestion. but to learn more about the film festival, go ahead and look up reel abilities and

that's r-e-e-l a-b-i-l-i-t-i-s.org and that concludes my director's report. but at this time i wanted to turn things over to the deputy director for programmatic access joanna fraguli for a quick announcement. >> good afternoon, councilmembers. as some of you may know, i have served 24 city departments and [speaker not understood] we're going to go over some of the a-d-a training that i present to city departments. this time around we launched an a-d-a training coordinators academy which is a series of four two-hour long individually organized sessions that are open to our a-d-a coordinators and they address some of the most common a-d-a questions and concerns.

if you remember, each city department or most of the city departments have a designated a-d-a coordinator who interacts with our office directly and also our liaison when we have complaints or issues or training questions that come up with very specific departments. now, really quickly i just wanted to mention the four sessions that we have slated. the first one took place already on march 20th and it was an introduction to overall jenna. d.a. requirements, a little bit about the history, and gave a good sort of background for folks who may have been new to the role of the a-d-a coordinator. ~ general a-d-a the next session is coming up april 25th and it's all about information access and

universal access -- it's about how we communicate. anything from access or information for deaf and hard of hearing individuals, blind individuals, but also individuals with cognitive and intellectual disabilities as well as a little preview in assistive technology in the electronic and -- electronic accessible information technology, public events and meetings. section 3 would focus on our [speaker not understood] accessibility and hopefully our director or deputy director for the access would be able to help with that. and finally, the last session would be proper ways of addressing complaints or concerns from the public. a grievance procedure, how to write a good resolution letter and how to evaluate reasonable

accommodation requests. so, again, the session is open at this point to a-d-a coordinators, but it's something that we're hoping to institute on an annual basis and hopefully make them open to the public. thank you. >> thank you. all right. we're moving on to agenda item number 9, co-chair elections. i will now call for nominations. councilmembers may nominate themselves or another member. councilmember wong. >> yes, i'd like to nominate derek to be a co-chair or candidate. >> thank you. does anyone second the nomination? >> i second it. >> great. are there other nominations?

oh, councilmember zarda, do you accept the nomination? >> yes, i accept the nomination. thank you, yes. >> okay. do we have any other nominations? all right, then. if we don't have a ton of competition, but we'll still do our secret ballot.

>> okay. the results of the election, we have four votes for derek and one absentee. >> okay, congratulations, derek. >> thank you very much. (applause) >> i didn't give you an opportunity to speak before the vote. would you like to say a few words now? >> yes, i would. first i'd like to thank my fellow councilmembers for your support. it has been an honor since first starting serving on this council this past fall. i wanted to thank the mayor's office staff for their support. i really want to address you in the crowd, everyone here today,

everyone on the bridge line, everybody watching on tv whether this be live or on a repeat. everybody who is watching this on an online stream or watching this as an archive, i want to let everybody know that i'm going to be working very hard with our co-chair and our council to make sure that this council's ability, its power, its capacity comes from our community. our community is our strength. i'm a huge proponent of not just handing out an informational flyer, but sitting down and having a discussion with people in our community. this body has such potential and it's shown it time and time again in the past from the current members and past members. i just want to take this moment to say idell wilson did a great job in her time with leadership from what i witnessed myself

and talking with her privately, seeing her in subcommittees. i saw a person who has very passionate and very caring about this community and it is an honor to continue on in her stead. so, i look -- i look forward to working with you, chip, as well as the rest of our councilmembers, but most importantly with our community. there are several opportunities for participating and becoming involved within our council, whether it be serving as a councilmember, whether it be visiting or participating on our various subcommittees either for disaster preparedness or physical access, or most importantly coming to us with your own subcommittee ideas. pitch us your ideas. come up to us. talk with us. contact the mayor's office on disability -- going to read their number aloud.

415-554-. , my apologies. ~. 67 89. i want it make this heard and heard loud. my past with advocacy, it happened in high school and college, being a youth with chronic medical conditions and adhd, i witnessed firsthand that disconnection in your community and what that means when you don't feel like you can actively participate or that your voice is not being heard. and i just want to issue a challenge to everybody here, everybody listening and everybody online to take a moment and just think, if you don't think you can participate, challenge yourself and call us because everybody here on this council, everybody here on this council has said the same thing. i don't know if i can do this, and here they are. so, i am issuing that challenge to everybody here, everybody online, everybody listening. come forward, talk with us,

let's see what you can do. >> thank you, derek. okay, we are back to public comment, item number 10. i have no cards filled out. so, any further public comment today? my name is larry juicy edmonds. i ran for mayor in '99 and i was homeless here and i got eight votes [speaker not understood]. i know that god has given everybody a special talent and it's up to us to bring that star ship out. and i feel incredible being here today thinking third friday, the mayor's disability council meeting. learned that from idell wilson. i know that this is probably where i really need to be. oftentimes i'm many things, but i found out this is really who i am and a lot of times in the

good and the bad that i know that i do have a disability. i know that i do have greatness. and i know that i can serve. i know that i love people. i'm a humanitarian. and i think that that is to uplift my life is to actually pass on information and resource to people. and although you don't always get it back in return, sometimes i try to learn to be bad, but i'm not a bad person. i can only pass on goodness. and this is really what it's about. and just in case you are a [speaker not understood] kj paul.com karaoke. i did presidential karaoke and i did rock with you, michael jackson, and [speaker not understood], i have 300 songs that tells you about how i deal

with disabilities with my failures and my successes when i can go to a place and let my voice out. i'll be this sunday in the golden gate park with [speaker not understood] celebrating easter and 420, and earthquake. like i told you, my first earthquake was in san diego. and then october 17, '89, i was hurt in san diego when they had the earthquake here. so, when i got to go hear willie brown present on his mother's birthday the bridge and i met willie brown in '94 and '95 when he was running for mayor, i felt kind of great. i always connected myself to greatness in earth. it's a good or bad time, but you have to put yourself and see what were you doing and how you passed along. i think we all need to learn to make sure that our days are just as good as the bad that

come, take a lemon and making it to lemon ade. so, go online, kj paul.com, juicy, jucye with the e, and you'll hear my music, songs from 11-6-12 presidential candidate, presidential karaoke. [speaker not understood]. >> okay, we move on to our next item which is correspondence. >> we have two correspondence items. one is a letter from co-chair chip supanich from the oakland disability commission. the second piece of correspondence is a notice of board vacancy from conard house, inc., a private california nonprofit corporation gives notice that two director positions on its

nine-member volunteer board of directors are vacant. >> thank you, heather. agenda item number 12 is councilmember comments and announcements. are there any councilmember comments or announcements? there is, councilmember zarda, co-chair zarda. >> i just wanted to thank the commissioners and the representatives from the s.f. youth commission that came here today during our earlier public comment to bring up their draft resolution for including disability history curriculum into the san francisco unified school district. i believe that that's characteristic that i want to see more of within this council and their commission and in

reaching across and kind of seeing where our partnerships lie and how we can overlap and help each other out. so, i just wanted to thank them for coming. >> thank you, co-chair zarda. any other announcements? all right, then, this meeting is adjourned. [adjourned] (clapping.) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ i think we have more companies anywhere in the united states it's at the amazing statement we're not trying to be flashy or

shocking just trying to create something new and original were >> one of the things about the conduct our you enter and turn your your back and just so the orchestra. the most contrary composer of this time if you accountability his music you would think he's a camera come important he become ill and it was crazy he at the end of his life and pushed the boundary to think we're not acceptable at this point for sure it had a great influence he was a great influence on the harmonic language on the contemporary up to now. i thought it would be

interesting because they have e he was contemporary we use him on this and his life was you kill our wife you get poisons all those things are great stories for on opera. i was leaving behind a little bit which those collaborative dancers i was really trying to focus on opera. a friend of mine said well, what would you really want to do i said opera what is it not opera parallel. why isn't it are that i have the support now we can do that. i realized that was something that wasn't being done in san francisco no other organization

was doing this as opposed to contemporary we are very blessed in san francisco to have organizations well, i thought that was going to be our speciality >> you create a conceptual idea for setting the opera and you spear ahead and work with the other sdierndz to create an overview vision that's the final product felt opera. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> i was very inspired to work with him because the way he looked at the key is the way i looked at sports looking at the daily. >> so much our mandate is to try to enter disis