libraries? >> we just call it disability awareness month and in october we offer a number of programs and so i was invited to talk about that and as well as the other feature and since you digressed i want to digress a tiny bit. and i really want to invite you all to come to the main library and go into the growth street entrance because we have a new exhibition, hoping today, by arists by the fox explored and it will be there until the middle of january but come to the library and see that wonderful exhibition, so sorry about that we are installing something that is available in the microsoft operating system

and we are using the ease of access condition ter and putting the magnifier and by the end of this fiscal year and probably by the end of january. and to choose the three different kinds of lens so they can view the different parts in different ways. and coloring version. and on the fourth floor of the library and in many of the libraries. thank you carla for letting me do that. >> and any more comments from the staff?

>> okay. >> we have not had negativity and we simply made the decision and went for it. >> could i interrupt, and we lost our captioning, it is back on, thank you. >> >> and no negative experiences with this at all.

>> and let's that is amazing, do you think that is unique to the library? or was it something that you guys did differently that can help to inform the other departments? that might be hesitant in applying that rule? >> the thing that i think to say is that we are working hard at making our programs of service inclusive and our public programs inclusive and it is something through the staff training and stuff that we send out to people regularly, and it is just something that is grown to be part of our culture, so, >> thank you. >> i don't know what else to say about that. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> moving back to agenda item 6, information item and a

review of the civil service rule, 115 and, its implementation for hiring people with disabilities. >> the presentation by donna. >> let me apologize for being late, i looked at it twice and it said 2:30 and so i am here at 2:30, thank you for accommodating me. >> i am the director at the department of workforce services and with me is ed who is the newly acquired recruiter and i will talk about him later. i thought that i would do a quick recap, in 1985, prop a

was passed to amend the city charter so that qualified individuals with disabilities could be hired into the city's workforce, without going through the city's merit system process. and you know the goals, need to increase in the employment opportunities, and to increase the diversity of the city's workforce, and to really allow, a city department to hire qualified individuals. it brought about the rule, and the rule 115, if i am not mistaken, rule 115 allows them to be appointed to permanent exempt positions for entry level, classification and without going through the civil service, exam process, and as you all know, civil service, exams are very, time intensive and we want to be fair employees but sometimes the process over comes everything

else. and so, the requirements that are the positions must be designated and i think that you heard earlier and it applies to the entry level classifications and this means the entry level classifications the applicant must meet the qualification so that they can perform the essential positions of the job and serve a one-year probation period and after one year, they will be transitioned into a permanent civil service position, and through that period, the, and the candidate, now employee would be to have an assessment done at 3 months, and 6 months and 11 months to insure that they are moving

ahead in their position that i think some of the challenges have been, one thing, and that, i think that at this point, a lot of the departments don't really know about rule 115 i think that education and getting the word out is one of the big challenges and i think that the other challenge has been our lack of resources, and to be able to put more emphasis on that. and i am, and it is really, and i would have to say that we are making some of those changes now, and it is one of those very positive changes. and but, i think that the other thing that has happened is that as the economy has improved, and more and more people are applying for positions the time to hire for the city departments is really there is a lot of out cry that is taking too long to hire people and so i think that taking advantage of those two things, we can

really, looking forward on promoting rule 115 hires. and again, i think that the main two things that i will like to focus on, is one is getting the information, out and secondly it is great if we could highlight that there are all of these qualified people out there that can do these jobs those are some of the things that i think that we need to focus on. and so, one thing that we are doing, around the educational out reach we just begun, both carla and johana thank you for coming to the city wide, hr professional meeting on a monthly basis and this past wednesday, carla and johanna came and we talked about rule 115 and talked about their percent and things like and so i think that is just a start. and also, what we are going to do is we are going to start reaching out and individually to the departments. and then, we also, want to start developing more marketing materials, and i think that both, print materials would be

great, and maybe, we will put a little video on the website at something like that. and so, i definitely think that market and getting the word out is really important. and the other thing that i want to also, continue or partnership and expand our partnership with the community based organizations that have the clients look at the website and with the job post and if there is something that they feel the clients qualify for and they will contact me and i will reach out to the department and that is very limiting in some ways and what i would like to really look more into is finding a way that we can partner with organizations to maybe, if you, if you can develop a job bank or a skills bank or something that we can really match up people who are can qualify for these positions. with the vacant position and we can work with the departments to designate them ahead of time but we really need to figure

out a way that we can match those, and the people and the positions up. thirdly, the great news is that we now have a recruiter, ed is, city wide recruiter but there are two areas that he is focusing on, and you one is public safety recruitment but also recruiting the people with disabilities and increasing the 115 hires is another area, and so we are beginning our out reach, and campaign around that. and then, we are also revitalizing and i think that earlier they had an advisory panel to actually advise us more on what some of the challenges have been and give us more advice and things like that and how we can increase some of the rule 115 hiring and so we are going to reinstitute that, and hopefully starting next month. and then, just a couple of other items that we are looking into that we would like to have some more discussion on. is the possibility of a civil

service rule change around rule 115, and i know that there has been a lot of discussion about the terms severely disable and so we want to have some discussion about that. and dhr can put forward that, and for the commission, and recently, many of us attended a national conference, for resource and professionals in the public sector and there were a lot of jurisdictions that talked about the different kinds of programs that they have and so we are reaching out to them, and trying to learn more lessons and hopefully get some new ideas from them as well. and so that is kind of where we are going, at this point. again, ed is here and i am happy to answer any questions >> thank you for coming here today. and i think that first we will start off with co-chair supanich. >> thank you. >> thank you so much for coming

today. and we really appreciate the efforts that you are making to implement rule 115, and more broad fashion. and i actually agree with you that public education community education, is very important. i think that our goal as a council will be to see and normalization of the workforce where the people with disabilities are not the exception but they are part of. and that come component of marketing is vital. >> and you mention td the 3, and 6 and 11 months. i would like to know do non-disabled new hires get evaluated at the same rate? if not, why are the people with

disabilities evaluated more often and what is the purpose and goal of that? >> and great, i don't know if i can answer that, i can answer part of it. i do know that all, employees, probationary employees have been assessment and an assessment, and we do encourage them to you know the managers and the supervisors to assess them at mid point. and at least, at the 6 month period and then do it, and then do annually evaluation. and as far as why that was, and that assessment was put into the rule, and so i am not exactly sure, as to why, it was inserted in the rule, but i can look into that and get back to you on that. >> that will be great, and i would like to think that it is because they are focusing on the specific needs and making sure that the disabled employee has all of the rules, he or she needs, to perform their jobs. >> i would hope so. >> i would hope so too. >> but i just wanted to ask the

question. >> okay. >> and to the chair, i might be able to share a little bit of light on that because i actually was a rule 115 placement for the building inspector after suffering a disables injury as a carpenter and i believe that it was part of the negotiations actually with the different bargaining units and the unions who had expressed the concerns that they wanted to be sure that the candidates that were coming in outside of the civil service process that they truly did have, as you said the tools to be able to perform that job. and it was not an onerous process, it was routine and it was actually always good to have a dialogue with your supervisor about expectation and goals for performance. but that was my understanding of the background of it. >> and now, we have questions or comments from council member

wong. >> hi and, thank you for coming today. and i just guess that my question was, why is the probationary period so long? it is one year? >> and that is pretty standard for the city employees, and all of the city employees have one year probation. >> okay. >> mine is only three months. >> oh, you are lucky. actually it is a short period if you are move froming one department to the other but the new employees have a one year probationary period. >> questions and comments from commissioner? >> thank you for come ining and speak on behalf of the rule 115. are there, and the place that we and the people can see in

the website. >> yes, it is on the dhr website. >> and can you, give us the contact information, and i mean, like a telephone number and the website? >> okay. yeah. >> and maybe they will do it slowly. >> okay. >> the website is sfgov.org back slash, dhr. like donna. h, like harry and r like roland. >> okay. >> got it. >> the department of human resources. >> correct. >> and then you are going to have to go to up in the right-hand corner, there is something that says highlights and you can see new job postings for the week but also on that page you will be able to scroll down to see all of the job postings. >> okay, great. >> and can i get your office phone number?

>> yeah the office, or do you have a business card? >> i do. >> and i have my business card with all of it. >> okay, thank you. >> and ed's as well. >> okay. >> for the chair, i have a question, councilman wong were you asking specifically how could an individual with a disability know when a rule 115 position came up? >> yeah. i guess that would be a good example. >> at this point, it would be through, either through our website, which is not necessarily the ones that are posted would not be designated rule 115 at this point. >> and so, if a department designates a rule 115, position, and then, i think that we need to iron out the process but my thought is that we would reach out to, you know, the mayor's office of disability and the other partner to let them know that there is a rule 115

>> right and i am hoping that maybe in the future, there will be more like what you just said about the out reach. >> oh, >> and it does not seem like and because i used to work for laguna honda and it did not seem to really hire people with disabilities. and you know, i was one of the people that basically was beyond the entry level. and then it became a medical records admission and so it was beyond the entry level. >> right. >> and within a few years i was promoted. and so it is one of those up the ladder. >> yeah. >> and so i worked for the city for over 24 years and i am still ready for work. that is why i am also inquiring. personal. >> okay. >> thank you. >> thank you for coming in today, i have a few quick questions as well.

earlier you spoken to, you know, the importance of trying to hire on the public out cry for trying to hire on the city employees at faster rates and you know, thanks to and part of the solution is in the hiring of mr. wong here and you also spoke to some of his duties and i was not clear if you spoke to all of his duties that he is responsible for, if you could go over a little bit of that just briefly of the list that he has, and also if you feel that with this list, of duties that he has is that you will be able to perform these duties for the people of the facilities and successfully. >> okay, let's see. >> he has a lot of work unfortunately. yes, he is on probation. and basically, he is responsible for recruiting city wide. he is working, again, he does

have a focus, for, there is the two, or the three areas of focus, i am sorry, there are three. which was public safety, recruitment, it hiring and employing people with disabilities. and then, in it and then, so his work is to development the recruitment plans and out reach plans for those areas specifically. and then he helps with the other for the specific hiring and recruiting needs. >> knowing that he needs to speak and do you think that it will be beneficial and i know that you have spoken at the june hearing that supervisor mar had called together and we thank you for that as well. that did they mention that maybe even more today, that it will be better to hire on a

person specific live tasked with hiring for the people with disabilities because it is not just trying to develop a plan, you also have to develop not just a plan to talking about rule 115, you also have to work with partners and the other agencies and finding that you educate the city departments on the basics of a person with disability, and the people with disability and the culture tf and what they are capable of doing. and the process, and going through rule 115, and how to identify a proper job for the right applicant and the proper questioning and so forth and that is just within a glance. >> right. >> and so in trying to make this a successful venture, do you feel like it would be possible to hire a specific person for that role. knowing what you have said about the different responsibilities for mr. wong. >> that would be great if we could. it really would. this is the first year that we have actually been able to hire a recruiter, in general. and so, you know, i think that

it is hopefully just the beginning and yeah, i would lobby myself to hire another *f an additional person, because there are a lot of recruitments >> and very enthusiastic as well. >> i don't deny that. >> second, we had spoken about the image, and a new committee and an advisory commity being set up next month and where can we find more information about this as far as people who are eligible participate on this committee? >> i will send a note to the mayor's office on disability. and perhaps, they can do, out reach, to everyone and let them know about it. >> thank you, any more questions

>> council member wong. >> can you clarify about the rule change and the severity of the disabled? >> we had heard, the feedback from the different sectors of the community to want to change the wording because it had some what of a negative connotation and with maybe, perhaps, even the departments or other, you know, yeah, the departments from wanting or amending the language but would like to have more discussion with this and the community advocates on that. and any questions for the staff? >> thank you, donna so much for coming and facing the council, and giving us more information. and it has been really great

working with your department and we appreciate the openness and have the opportunity to speak with your staff, and it is one of the things that carla and i spoke about this past week was stream lining the city's reasonable accommodation and application process. and so, it does not just have to be rule 115, hires it does not, and that rule 115 is only, it is only, one tool in the tool box. and what needs to happen within the hr department, and within the city family culture, is to really open up the gates so to speak, and create the more friendly, user friendly application process, that the people with disabilities can actually participate in those exams. and can compete in the level of playing field. >> because one of the things that i think gets to create some of the negative feelings, around rules 115, is when we

talk about bypassing the city's merit system, there is a connotation that the people with disbelieves are not good enough for the exam, and what they sure is that, maybe they (inaudible) to be adapted and maybe we need to think about the reasonable accommodations in the application process and you know, much more cohesive, structured way and maybe we need to do a job analysis and actually have the job postings that are in main english and to work with the folks on is the portal of how do the people even know where the rule 115, or the preference for the people with disabilities jobs would be, if it is only through connections

with the community agencies? how could someone who is not connected or a client of the arc going to find out about these positions? >> just a general comment, thank you. >> thank you for those, definitely we will take those into consideration and by the way, a number of people across the board talk about how we need to change our job titles, and things like that. so, thank you. >> >> thank you, again for coming today and we look forward to working with you, and still in the future around rule 115 as well as continuing a conversation when you had earlier today about the possibility of collecting the statistics and we will talk about that moving forward as well. >> thank you very much. >> moving on to our next agenda item, information item i am

sorry, 8, information item, comments and xhun based organizations that train and place workers with a broad spectrum of disabilities. we will be having three speakers and just notified that there is a variety of speakers and there is a time limit and so we appreciate the people staying in that. we have terry goodwin, director of partnership and business development and arc, of san francisco. >> thank you for letting me speak today. and i first would like to say that i have been in the field for many, many years and i am not going to say how many. and my job is always been in my career, to place people with disabilities with the developmental disabilities for the arc of san francisco. and we have made a big difference. and i have seen a lot of success. but, regardless we are very lucky in the city right now, because we have had the people calling us and so in my career i have worked for that and i feel so great that finally, the word has gotten out and we

placed the people successfully and we have the people recently at facebook and twitter, and fitbit, and sales force employs 20 of our clients and we have a niche in the office services support area and we continue to get calls, and so we are very, very happy and but for most of my career it has been really hard and it is really many years that we have not made that many placements and it is a tough, it is a tough thing. and so, i think that one of the key things that we talked about today is education, and it is about the fear people have, and the unknown, that the people have not worked with our clients before. or the people with disabilities in general and i think that one of the big things that can change things, and i encourage staoet to do this, is an internship program. we four years ago, took me two years, to develop an internal program, with pg&e and they were now in the fourth year and it is a small internship program but it is changing the culture of that company, and

they of the, and we have the 94 percent job placement rate, out of the four years of the people that have gone through that program. and it is really outstanding, and we really want the city to do that. i really want to speak to a few of the issues related to the rule 115. and i want to thank supervisor mar and jonathan for getting the dialogue going and react vaiting the rule and thanks for getting the position and we know that it is a start and we got a long way to go and i hope that we can designate a position that will be solely around the rule, 115 because it is a huge job and it is a huge job and the city has a long way to go. and i think that one recommendation that no one has brought forth is that we should definitely create the incentives for the departments to show the results, to get a bigger result for the rule. and so some kind of incentive and of course we need the goals for the departments as well and

i would really like to see a action from the mayor, and we really need a high level call to action. and i am so happy that supervisor mar is taken it out and we just need more support and getting more visibility. and again, a plan to promote and educate the managers, which again, is a big job, and i would like as a community agency, to be able to meet with the managers, and so, that is the other part of it, is implementing a plan for the community agency to meet with the department managers because there is a real gap in terms of understanding what we do and the people that we represent, and also, you know, the referral and so we can refer our candidates. and, also one other point, would be really that just looking at other city agencies city government and successes has occurred and i know that i have mentioned it previously, that there is a wonderful program in seattle, where they can put over 80 pe