reaching those goals and i wonder if you have suggestions for the city on how to gather that kind of information. >> yeah, you know, positive resource center started off as a hiv and we expanded to mental health and hipa comes up a lot and how do you get the information to address the need that is in the community? and a lot has to do with self-reporting, educating the individual on what they are reporting on to make sure that you get the signed consent from them and then to reach out to them and get as good of information as you can and it is not unlike another effort that is happening in the disabled community where a lot of people are on the long term disability policies and who are just aging off and since they are on the policy and the city wants to do that and way to create a possibly a financial step down for them so it was not as precipitus, how do you

find that information if you are not in the system and where are those invisible, and in many ways, those invisible people and so i will back to the co-chair's response and i think that it is a marketing effort and it is an out reach effort that will not be like a job fair but an information fair that one, indicates individuals on what they are needing to report to us, so that we can better respond to them. and so i think that we have to start all the way back to the very beginning, full consent and full knowledge and moving in a timely fashion to seek to create the programming that will address the need. >> okay. >> and we actually have some other comments from the council members? >> thank you so much for coming. i just want to make a comment in regards to another population, that often gets overlooked when we are talking about the disability community. and that is the veteran population. and so the veterans with

disabilities and seeing if you are have it on your radar to connect with other veteran organizations in the city, that are doing some of the same things to insure that veterans with disabilities are receiving the same access to those, highly sought after jobs. >> i agree, and i was just talking to michael about that, and, the services that we provide, with those employment service and benefits are very much in line with what the services they are providing to the plow share and it was very encouraging because i just hired an out reach worker who did an in-service on way that we can collaborate a little better on these efforts and i really appreciate councilman what you were saying, because i think that for a lot of people in the community, at the local level, somehow have decided that they are going to mark the box because they think that it was taken up for the latest of a federal effort, where i really appreciate our first lady and the second lady going

out and creating the public private partnerships with disney and the other corporation but that does not mark the box fully and i know a couple of organizations that have taken these on and created projects, and other places as well. but i feel that in so many ways, when we see that in the community we feel that it has been done and that is not the case and i want you to know that on a very, very local community based level we are having those conversation and may very well get equal to if not greater out comes. >> i am an employee. >> yeah, that is great. >> all right, great. >> absolutely. >> and councilman wong? thank you very much for the presentation so far. you mentioned about some employment maybe for the verico, i used to work at laguna honda in medical

records, and time and time again that the staffing and sometimes have the shortage, and then, we have trouble, you know, putting together the charts and the medical records and so you know do you have people fully employed, you know, that is another option, of you know, possibly hiring people to do certain tasks.

>> we are highlighting again the exercise that the city will have to go through, driven by 115, to do an internal access of what jobs are out there and trying to debunk what we believe are the requirements in order to do that job and really thinking fully who is eligible of doing the jobs and the skills to do that all wait up and including the full disabled population, and then once we have an understanding of that, while in as we believe in at least a minimum of a double pronged effort we will do a series of informational fares across the city, where we are gathering information, and maybe district by district and figuring out where the disabled population and what the needs are, and district by district and having these informations there and educating them on 115 and, our efforts around it. and so again for me, i don't think that the work is remarkable, i think that it is

important and it is needed, and so much more of it needs to be done and we just have to commit to doing it. >> right >> thank you. >> we have one last question, from council members. thank you for taking your time. >> thank you it is not so much of a comment, it is a comment, not so much as a question, i want to also thank you for being here today. and i like what you said in the beginning of your presentation about matching the applicant to the job and having that dialogue with the individual and i appreciate that interaction. i know that depends on the education and skill set, but they could be developed or mentored to get to a level of

advancement if it is possible. >> and we are talking about the city of san francisco to say while we are busy doing this and let's not just create one more level of, you know, plat end jobs, but we really want to find these individuals and matriculating through and contributing in ways because we have the same hopes that the able bodies do. i have been hiv positive and i have been fortunate not to have step out of employment, but at the same time i know that there are challenges every day that i face, and i hold and i have td

same dreams and i make a personal commitment to you as i am a part of the positive project and i challenge the city to match and meet all of us in those same aspirations. >> thank you. >> and we hope to see you back as things develop. >> absolutely, happy to come, thank you. >> moving on to information item number 5, advocacy for employment of afor people in disabilities and this presentation or discusses the problem and benefits, and discusses the problem, as well as the benefits of employing people with disability and proposes practical solutions that the city and county of san francisco can implement to be a leader in addressing this issue, presentation by jonathan lyens president of the fdr democratic club of san francisco for senior and people with disabilities. >> thank you council members,

once again, my name is jonathan lyens and i am the president of the fdr democratic club for the people with disabilities and there are a couple of disclaimers at the beginning. i am a proud city employee this issue is personal for me, and the city of san francisco is a place that gave me a lot of my first shots, you know, began my career with the city, and actually working in the mayor's office and then i had more opportunities, afforded to me by the city's department of human resources, and calahan personally, is a mentor of mine, and somebody that i respect very, very much, and really gave me an opportunity

to learn a lot about labor and employment and i have moved on to the city's department of public health and so i had a lot of opportunities in the city and i come at this issue as somebody who wants to see other folks with disabilities qualified applicants with disabilities afforded the same opportunities that i have been granted. so, without further adieu, i have a brief presentation, i am going to go through, and one other thing that i totally forgot, my nerves are getting away with me. i wanted personally thank supervisor mar supervisor mar, we approached him onthies you, he was very receptive and learning about this issue and hearing more, and then he very pro-actively approached us and

said, why don't we have a hearing about this issue with the board of supervisors which really kick started this whole thing and i want to thank the department of human resource and carla, and donna, and everybody else, all of the advocates who are sitting behind me and all of the others that could not be here today that did show up to the meeting and gave their personal stories. so, all right, to the presentation. and so i want to go just sort of very quickly to paint the piblgt picture that there are a lot of facts that a lot of people know the federal department of labor did not actually start tracking, did not bother to figure this out, how many people with disabilities are unemployed until 2009. and we have and so we are really dealing with the less than 5 years of data. and on the slide, that is on the screen here, and there is a

table or a line graph that shows, the unemployment rate of the disability community, compared to the unemployment rate of those without disabilities, and it is, roughly, double. and is a pretty staggering statistic in its own right. and the picture is not fully painted unless you look at, what it is called, the labor force participation, rate and i think that a lot of folks probably know what this is, this is, this is the number of, it is calculated as the number of people that are either employed, or unemployed but actively looking for a job. and in 2015, the rate of people without disabilities that were actively par participating in the workforce, was 68.9 percent

and that is compared to the rate of people with disabilities in 2013. was 20.3 percent. and i think that it is really important to point out here, and as the table, on this slide, and tries to show, is that while we have seen a slight decrease in the unemployment rate of the disability community, there is also a very similar decrease in the labor force participation rate of our community. and so really what that, and to me, what that illustrates is that it is not necessarily the unemployment rate is falling, because, people are getting jobs, it is because people with disabilities are giving up. and you know, i don't know about you guys, but i find that not to be okay. so, slide? >> most important question out of all of this, so what, why are we all here?

and i think that this drills down into three main things. the most important one being, what do you do for a living? probably the first question anybody asks you, when you meet them. >> the first question. and if more than 80 percent of us have or don't have a good answer to that question, how are we ever going to be seen as equals. and fully empower in the society, and moving on to next, i think that really is, people with disabilities are more loyal and compared to employees without disabilities, and our turnover rate is 40 percentage points lower. and the one dealing without that position being filled and two having to pay to go out and

recruit for, and to refill that position. when i found this in the research it was true and i was shocked by it too. and the other issue is economics and from the public perspective, the numbers show that more than a third of people with disabilities are on some kind of income based government assistance program and so we always talk about, you know, political, and progressives, and to me, this is the bi partisan issue and you could be a progressive and you want to help the people with disabilities to become employed or you can be a fiscal conservative and want to save

money. and we will turn the conversation over to the current challenges in the city and the next slide. and civil service 115, there is a lot of conversation about the rule 115 and i am not going to belabor the point and i think that there is a lot of weaknesses and most noticeably, a lengthy one and the council members brought this up, but a very strong weakness is the fact that real 115 is limited to entry level positions. and there are a lot of people with disabilities who are not qualified who are over qualified for entry level positions. i can tell you my own personal story, i spent all of 2013, and a chunk of 2014, unemployed, and trying my darnest to get back in to city service, and i

was not qualified to have a rule 115 position. and i had several departments come to me and say, jonathan could we get you on a rule 115, and i said, no, i am not, i am over qualified for 115. and so p and beyond that, you know, as we move into the city has moved to what they called, decentralized hiring, and so basically, you know, let's, you know, it speaks for the fight that every department does, its own hiring. and there really is no normal way, at this point, for each department to one identify positions that could be good candidates for rule 115, or two, to connect with the non-, or with the numerous service providers, like the positive resource center, like the golden gate regional center and like the arc, that are doing this really impressive and valuable and important job coaching work out there and

have qualified applicants with disabilities. and right now, there is no formal way to connect these two parties. and so, that all being said, you know, we and the fdr democratic club has in june, we put forward a couple of, what we considered to be low hanging fruit, type of recommendations, and things that we felt could be implemented straight and very easily and very straight forwardly, next slide? the next one will be the creation of a a disability of the cities and basically. and to be that con did you it and does exist and discussed earlier and connect to, and educate the departments on rule 115 and the value of rule 115.

and also to educate i know that the department of human resources has hired somebody to do this and we are definitely encouraged by the movement and by dhr and we are, and we still hold out hope that a full time position could be created to do this. we believe strongly that this is a significant issue that very much warrants the creation of a full time position. and in a city that has 30,000 employees, we think that we can have one of them being in charge of coordinating employment of people with disabilities in city service. so, next? >> yeah. >> the next one is to set san francisco hires goals and this is something that could be modeled after section 503 of the act and we believe that it

is a pretty straight forward thing and we believe that this is something that the city needs to do, and there is a core element of that and we believe, strongly that the city should be collecting data. on its current applicant and on its current employees and we have no idea, and the federal government has said, 7 percent is a goal, for, you know, federal contract we could be at 25 percent or we could be at one percent, we don't know. and in order to form coherent solid, public policy, we need data to drive these decisions and right now the city has zero data to show us, and the only data that it can show us is that when we asked, last fast, in the past ten years, how many times have you used rule 115?

and the answer was 6. and in the decade. and so, you know, i know that there has been, you know, a conversations directly with director cal han and i know that there is definitely concerns around proposition 209 specifically. and that they have raised with me. you know, and i think that is definitely a valid concern, and in order to reach that concern after it was raised to me and i went back and read the proposition and i also read the state constitution and that prop 209, amended. and what it does, is that it prohibits affirmative action goals and it does not list a disability as a cross application that is covered by prop 209 and actually gone further than that and found a court case that specifically says, that people with disabilities are not covered in the prop 209 and should not be

covered. because, of, you know, the long standing issues and challenges that the community has had in finding employment. so, and you know, on you know i understand, fully that there are concerns around you know collecting data, and making sure that we are not using data around to say one governor hiring decisions and to dragging people out of city service, or disciplining people for having a disability ask all of these are very, very valid concerns. and i would put out a couple of things. one, we already collect minority data on our job application and we ask about race and we ask about gender on every job application in the city i know that i have filled out a lot of them over the last year and a half and two, we also asked this information of many of our commissioners and

council members, and i am sure that many of you will probably ask before you received your appointment. and you know, so we have a track record in this city, and in doing, it in rule, 115 itself requires that you have a disability and so we ask at some point before we hire people if they have a disability but i would, i would suggest that in order to mitigate, the concerns, the valid concerns that have been raised that we will remove the collection of the data from the responsibility of the department of human resources and place it elsewhere. and perhaps, with the mayor's office on disability. and it seems like a logical place for me. and so, in closing, i know that i have gone on too long. and you know people with disabilities are ready, willing and able to work. and we want to work. we are itching and ready to go. and so the state department of rehabilitation, spends tens of millions of dollars every year to educate, and train people

with disabilities to prepare them and to go to work. and there is a disconnect somewhere and it is breaking down and there is a lot of people in the city that ran for office, on a platform of jobs, jobs, jobs. and indeed the last city and the last budget and the last two year budget that we are currently in the city created 1400 brand new positions, over and above the 30,000 that we already have. and if, you know, started doing the quick math if we were to target 70 percent of those, as just of those brand new ones. and for people with disabilities we are looking at, right around 100 positions, 100 people with disabilities, could be employed in city service. >> and i think that that is a valid, goal that we should all be aiming for. and so, with that, i am happy to answer any questions that

you have. >> council member supanich? >> thank you very much for your presentation and this is related to what you were talking about. this is what i called a disability trap. which is if you receive federal disability income you can only make a few hundred dollars a month before you go into a trial work period which lasts 9 months. and then after that, you start, if you continue to work above a certain level of income, receive a certain level of income, you begin to go on the clock starts ticking and you will lose your medicare benefits and your social security benefits after a period of i think, 36 months and so anymore that trap, i have used my trial work period, and so i have to keep my income below a certain level and i could work, more, i can't work full time. but i could work more. are there any efforts being done to work with the feds on

relaxing these restrictions, so that people with be more fully employed? and be more fulfilled and economically independent? >> yeah, i know that i am not completely educated on that, but i can tell you that i have personally been to dc and lobbied congressionals to increase the limits to ssi, and to do away with the fall off the cliff public policy that congress has implemented and allow for a gradual transition. and i don't know how closely folks follow this, but, not sure that congress has passed a law in the last several years, so, you know, these things are definitely, on ice cubes, and in washington. and but what i can tell you is that one of the, i think that the biggest advantages to having such a strong advocacy

on this issue in san francisco, and if we are were allowed to really move this into action, is that, the city and county of san francisco pays quite well, by and large. and so if we are able to get the people with disabilities into some of these positions that are more compensated i think that you know, hopefully some of those issues will be mitigated. >> thank you. >> no other council members? >> i had a quick question. i loved the presentation that you put together and it is very brief and con size and goes over the main points and your recommendation and in the beginning of the presentation you talked about statistics and about the actual conclusions about employees with the disabilities that are actually and easier to retain on the job and they have lower, turnover rates, but they take the less sick days and what are some of

the actual concerns or if you had to give some examples of the concerns that you feel, are misguided by current employers, and either within the city, or the departments themselves or in the city itself that you would think that the disability community keeps coming up against and kind of stops us from being seen as an equal status and my concern is that i see as a buyer's market that i can get any of the employees in the mind set, why would i settle for a disabled person, what makes you feel that are misguided but existing today? >> i think that definitely, we have hit one of the many nails right on the head. and you know, and i can speak for my personally and so some of what i have heard through the grapevine over the years and my work in the community and i think that a lot of it is rooted in lack of education. and i can tell you that in nearly 6 years of city service,

i have never been discriminated against because of my disability. i had a very, unique role i work in the mayor's budget office for four years and was able to interact with almost all of the department heads in the city and each and every one of them to their credit recognized me as a valuable, colleague. and many of them indeed turned to me for issues and concerns that they were having i think that a lot of is rooted in lack of education and the abilities of people with disabilities i remember, that i speak fondly and i have a great memories of my work in the mayor's office. but i can tell you that i recalled, distinctly, when i lost the issue of my blindness in my interview and offered them an opportunity, and offer

them an opportunity to pose a question about how i will go about doing the job as an employee with a disability. the first question that they asked me is that i send a lot of text messages, how are you going to be able to text? >> you know, it is a very obvious and it was folks it is an obvious question, if you don't know, you don't know. honestly a lot of it is exposure, and the more that we are able to get the people with disabilities integrated into the workforce, i think that a lot of those concerns will fall away. >> thank you very much. >> any questions for the staff? >> okay. seeing none, we will go ahead and break, shortly, for a ten-minutes and, we will be back here for the presentations thank you, again for all of those who attended.