if everyone will take their seats, we'll begin shortly. thank you. >> good afternoon, and welcome to the mayor's disability council this friday november 21, 2014, in room 400 of san francisco's city hall. today we are continuing our conversation about employment. today we are

focusing on veterans. city hall is accessible to persons using wheelchairs or other assisted mobility devices. wheelchair access is available at the van ness via ramps and provided a wheelchair lift. assisting listening devices are available and our meetings are open captioned and sign language interpreted and our agenda is available in large print and braille. please ask staff for assistance. to respect everyone's ability to focus, please silence all mobile phones. your cooperation is appreciated. we welcome public comment. you may complete a speakers card or call bridge line 415-554-9632

where a staff person will handle a request to speak at the appropriate time. the mayor's disability council meetings are generally held on the third friday of the month. our next regular meeting will be january 16, 1:00 p.m.-4 :00 p.m. in room 400 in san francisco city hall. please call the mayor's office at 415 -554-6789 for the standard voice line or 415-554-6799 for tty line. i remind all speakers to speak slowly into the microphone to assist our captioners and sign language interpreters and me too. we thank you for joining us today. first up, we will have roll call.

>> thank you. cochair. chip supanich, present. cochair chair chair zarda, kostanian, laura, harriet wong, roland wong, senhaux. present. >> moving to item no. 2, action item. reading and approval of the agenda. city clerk: agenda item no. 1, welcome introduction and roll call. agenda item no. 2, action item, reading and approval of agenda. agenda item no. 3, public comment, items not on today's agenda,

but within the jurisdiction of the mdc. item 4, information item. report from the cochair soup initiate. item no. 5, report from the director of the mayor's oh office on disability. >> agenda item 6, ceremonial item in honor of john paul scott. >> agenda item 7. housing for low income chronically homeless veterans presentation. >> break. the council will take a 0 -minute break. agenda item no. 8. information item. employment and training for veterans with disabilities. presentation by chris dame. public comment is

welcome. agenda item no. 9. policy recommendations for employers hiring veterans. presentation by kevin c miller, strategic partnership associate. swords to plow shares. agenda item no. 10, ceremonial item in honor of derek zarda. agenda item no. 11. report from the disability disaster preparedness committee. agenda item no. 12. public comment. items not on today's agenda but within the jurisdiction of the mdc. agenda item no. 13, correspondence agenda item no. 14, councilmember comments and announcements. item 15, adjourn. >> thank you. today as we

continue the discussion with people on disabilities and employment to focus on bettering employment on disabilities it's important how to keep in mind how the two are connected. veterans returning from vietnam war had acquired disabilities. the anti-kwar movement gave rise to the disability rights movement in the 70s and veterans disabilities often crossed the threshold between the two communities and veterans got lost. soldiers returning from the recent conflicts, many of them with visible disabilities remind us that the connection is there and veterans with disabilities are still members of the disability community and part of the struggle for equal rights and community integration. on a personal note i'm very happy that one of our councilmembers was able to

organize the event for today because this is a special time to be able to connect the two communities. >> moving now to information item no. 3 before we get to the presentations, public comments, items not on the agenda but within the jurisdiction of the mdc, each speaker is limited to three minutes. 3 minutes. first we have mike with the assisted suicide opposition. >> thank you for your time and i'm coming here today to basically warn the disabilities community of a threat that's coming soon to you. it is coming to the elderly community and those with chronic illnesses such as

diabetes. that threat is assisted suicide. it's being pushed by a group "compassionate choices" and "death with dignity" this group is well funded this time. remember they have tried propositions twice in california and both defeated by majorities. this time they are coming back with really well-defined approach. they also have a saint in brittany, you've heard about brittany. today i was reading an article about another woman named terry hill who was in college and was playing basketball and diagnosed with the same disease that brittany may nard had. she decided to play her last basketball college game and the college donated in her name to fighting the disease

she had. i ask you which is the better example. a n opposition drive is now in effort. if you want information to contact, you can contact linda coleman, the anti-euthanasia coalition. please take the opportunity to spread the word to your friends. study the issues because they are complicated because it seems very reasonable on the is surface, but when you look behind it, for those people who do not have support, it can be very very devastating. i know from example. thank you. >> thank you. is there anymore public comments not on today's agenda for today? >> any on the bridge line? okay. seeing none, we'll move forward to agenda item no. 4.

information item: report from cochair zarda. today is actually kind of a special day as well for myself. it is actually going to be my last meeting here as the core -- cochair. i will be moving on overseas for other opportunities specifically in the country of taiwan. i have been there twice and had some presentations with the independent living centers there in taipei and i'm looking forward to continuing some of those efforts personally. i wanted to take this time to kind of address the council itself and some of the members that i have grown to know since the past year that i have been appointed. serving here this past year i have seen remarkable growth in each and everyone of you and it's been an honor and pleasure to grow with each one of you and have grown in the

talents, there are so many dedicated passionate advocates in this city. in order to fully realize this potential, we need a council to have with them. i also want to take the time to thank the mayor's office on disability fore being able to provide support to this council as well as expertise when needed and guidance when needed as well. in moving forward i charge each and everyone of you here as well as in the crowd and in the community to step forward to not try to sink into the background. one of the easiest thing to do is to hear a passionate speech like this and move forward in the next day as if nothing happened. i know because identify been there. one reason i have been on this council because i was tired of hearing the same speeches and me not doing anything about it. you don't have to run to city hall immediately the next day, what you need to do is

connect with someone else and it starts from there. maybe after the break or after the meeting is closed or maybe just calling the mayor's office on disability. it is up to each and everyone of us to move forward with this movement. but to start it off on a smaller scale and buildup. that's how we should build a true community. thank you again for letting me serve and wish you best as you move forward. thank you. >> them in -- next on our agenda item no. 5. report from the director on the mayor's office off disability. >> thank you, cochair zarda and councilmember, well said. we'll miss you. and we'll have an opportunity to say more about how much we'll miss you. i -- would like to ask

heather kittel to give us as update and we would like to honor and commend john paul scott. the four items on my agenda is a follow up on the mdc and a report on recent legislation passed by the planning department. an update or conversation about the giants parade and celebration and announcement about innovation. on employment first there has been a lot of visibility since the council talked about this at our last meeting and today as we look for special issues around employment for veterans i think is a building of a movement. the council has really framed the discussion about how we employ more people with

disabilities in san francisco and how 114 can be used to employ more people. we went to the department of human resources and had the ability to talk to the people who make the hiring decisions and the people who give information to the department heads about hiring people with disabilities and at our last meeting you heard people talking about an advisory group that met in the early 2000s to provide the city with information about how we can better hire more people with disabilities. that advisory group back in 2006 had issued a written list of recommendations and that advisory group is going to start meeting again. they won't be necessarily the same people from last time. in fact the people who are participating this time

around are some of the speakers that we heard at our last mayor's disability meeting. joana and i will be hosting this meeting. holding this public hearing in october and having a conversation today about veterans because i think that movement really can get some legs and go somewhere. our kickoff meeting is going to be in early december. and what i promised to do is to provide you regular reports and work progresses. now, regarding legislation, the planning department passed a piece of legislation yesterday updating the housing element and the planning code. and this legislation establish is a

process for making and acting upon request for reasonable modifications for people with disabilities. the connect establishes the zoning rules and zoning rules dictate what you can do with your property. for example they have rules around required front yard, side yard and rear yard set backs whereas a general rule there aren't supposed to be structures built, it's supposed to be open space. sometimes people with disabilities might need to use that open space in order to build a ramp, an elevator or park a car. under the previous rules there wasn't a way to take the fundamental aspects of the americans with disabilities act the one that says cities and counties have to made reasonable modifications to their policies, practices and procedures in order to accommodate a person with a disability. by

saying that, it doesn't mean the planning department hadn't granted reasonable modifications in the past, but they didn't have it spelled out specifically. under this new rule certain kinds of reasonable modification request cab be handled by staff. this in the past needed to go to a variance hearing. what the planning department has done, is they have empowered staff, they are educating staff, but most importantly what they are doing is providing a clear process so that a person with a disability understand how to ask the question and how to meet the rules in order to get that modification that will make their home accessible as they need. our office has worked very closely with the planning department on this legislation. donna

atkins has presented on this report. regarding the giants celebration and parade this year, our office provided support. our role was really to work in collaboration with the party planners which is no small feat because we had only 48 hours to put this to go, that is part of major league rules and we worked to ensure there were appropriate barricades that didn't block paths of travel that there was portable accessible toilets and captioning and as in 2012, we

served as ambassadors because in these large events, it's sometimes impossible to find your way or understand where the sign language interpreters are going to be placed and be visible. we guided people to the appropriate areas and also dealt with some of the predictable little bumps on the road that happen, the mechanical malfunctions that required our attention. the good news is that we were there, part of it, we get better every single time we pull off one of these celebrations. the bad news there were some malfunctions but out of those malfunctions specifically for a lift that broke down and had to be repaired and some captioning that was intermittent in its presentation. out of that malfunction, our report was to get our recommendation into the files so at the next event

hopefully everything will be even better than this event. last of all on innovation in 2015, san francisco is hosting the u.s. conference of mayor's in august of 2015, the mayor put out a call to all of his department heads and asked for examples of projects that demonstrate innovation. i'm proud to report that our accessible building blocks for bicycle facilities document was chosen as one of the top 10 innovation projects that the mayor's will be highlighting. this council again had a role in the development of that document going back to our first involvement in the jfk bike lane facility in the park but also more recently as we went to the physical access committee and the hearings about the draft documents and

such, your input was very helpful. this document is really good evidence of the collaboration between not only the four different departments that were involved which was the mayor's office on disability, department of public works, municipal transportation agencies and the planning department but also innovation that becomes when we are engaging with the disability community. that concludes my report. i want to ask heather kittel to talk about the program action. >> one quick question before you pass it off. can we get the actual name of that ruling in terms of planning commission. is there a name we can look for to reference? >> sure, what we can do is give you a link to the language from the planning

department. this is something that will be going to the board of supervisors because it's legislation. yesterday it passed at planning commission and it will be going forward to the supervisors. i'm sure the planning department and the supervisors also appreciate hearing support from the disability community when that hearing takes place. it's titled "reasonable modifications to the housing element". >> when that actual board of supervisors meeting will be you can go to the site or the standard. >> i think we can put a link on our mod site but i'm going to ask donna if she will report on that. >> they actually didn't give us a specific date on which they will hear that but i will follow up up and

inform the council on that update information. >> that would be great because anytime you can empower the public about this new legislation it will help things to get built much faster and smoother. thank you. >> good morning council. in the months of august through october our office received 189 inquiries including information referrals and request for ada and technical assistance. 88 of these inquiries were from the public and 12 from the department. we received 11 curb ramp request and request for

accommodation in blue zone and effective communication for hard of hearing individual in a city shelter program. we also received 24 complaints. they fall into three major categories. maintenance of accessible features, public right-of-way access and effective communication especially when it's related to information technology. the majority of the complaints involved in operable elevators in city funding programs and facilities. under the ada public entities must maintain in working orders equipment and features of facility that are required to be ready access for people with disabilities. however temporary interruptions to access of maintenance in the future is not prohibited. in these cases work

orders had been issued and prioritized. in addition alternate arrangements for structures. for instance when the elevators are down in the parking garage staff to alternate spaces to guide people to the ground level that are designated and held open to help patrons to access. also when elevators go out of service at a family shelter, it's the policy of staff to provide people with disabilities. in some case staff offers to relocate clients to another location, if this is not possible, they do deliveries and offer any additional items. the second category of complaints involved obstructions to the public right-of-way and

blocks to construction activity. in these cases office collaborated with dpw or sf mta street inspector to investigate and revolve the issue immediately. this is a reminder to the public, if you notice something blocking the path of travel without an alt ernate routine. please call our office, 554-6789 voice or reach us through tty at 415-554-6799. let me repeat those numbers. you can reach us at voice at 415-554-6789 or reach us through tty at 415-554-6799. the final category of

complaints received had to do with a city app and documents in a city website not being compatible with software use by people who are blind or have low vision. under section 508 of the rehabilitation act and ada program access requirement, the city must make available the same information to people with sensory disability as the general public. in this case the city app, currently staff are working with the app vendor to see if changes can be made to add this functionality and they hope they will be able to incorporate this soon. in addition, individuals may access the information at the portal or call the staff call center from their mobile devices. all of these devices provide information. they promote on

their website that offer voice over options. the city has a robust city policy built into every new website developed and delivered through the department of technology. city staff through the system is trained to provide information on the website in accessible format. however in this case an error occurred. the city is xhiltd -- committed to take actions to improve. the quality of information publiced online through further staff training and quarterly website monitoring. once again, if you experience a disability access issue in a city facility or city program, please call the mayor's office on disability at 415-554-6789 or through our tty number at

415-554-6799. you can also reach us by calling 311. thank you. >> we'll be moving to item no. 6. ceremonial item in honor of john paul scott. former deputy director for architectural access on disability. >> at this point i would like to ask john paul scott to come to the podium and stand with me. i think i need to clairerify -- that we are here to honor john paul scott. it's not in the context that we are losing john paul scott. john paul scott is a resource and a person very much still with us. what he did recently was he left our office, the mayor's

office on disability and accepted a promotion at the department of public works. when he first shared with me his change, his plan, my first thought was panic and incredible loss. the next thought i had was just being so proud of him for choosing to take a new path to take on new challenges to really chart a route where he can continue more of his amazing work that heats done with us. so given that, i gave him my full blessing and my full support and i'm very proud that he's gone now to the department of public works to serve another one of our disability access coordinate ors working with kevin generous --