>> hello, i'm alex madrid, i'm the co-chair for san francisco mayor's disability commission. and it's for september 17th, 2021, friday. i would like to bring the meeting to order. >> clerk: okay, for roll call [roll call] alex madrid.

denise senhaux. tiffany yu. orkid sassouni. helen smolinski. gesean lewis wood. all right, we have roll call. >> co-chair madrid: thank you. would you please read the item >> clerk: now we have reading of the agenda. and on the agenda today we have item number one, welcome and roll call.

item number 2, an action item, reviewing the approval of the agenda. and item number 3 is public comment. and the time for the members of the public to address the council on items of interest for the public that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the council, that are not on this meeting agenda. and item 4, is the information item, the co-chair report. and item 5 is an information item for the accessible business entrance ordinance, abe, with an update, including proposed legislation and resolution. with a presentation by jeff buckley from the department of building inspection. item number 6 is a break. and item 7 is an information item, access to city employment

ace program update, and preparation for the october disability employment awareness month. item 8 is an information item. we have a report from the mayor's office on disability. and item 9 is an information item for correspondence. and item 10 is general public comment. and item 11 is a discussion item, with council members with comments and announcements. and item 12 is adjournment. >> co-chair madrid: members, with the items on the agenda, can you please the agenda again and the council members, just

say yay or nay if you move the agenda. >> we need to approve the agenda and we can move on, please. >> approve. >> co-chair madrid: thank you. so i would like to move to item 3, public comment. >> clerk: okay. so for the public comment, we welcome the public's participation during the public comment period. there will be an opportunity for the public community at the beginning and the end of the

meeting as well as after specific items on the agenda. each comment is limited to three minutes. if you want the council to respond to your comments following the meeting, please provide your contact information by email message to mod@sfgov.org. with the subject "mdc comment reply request." and you can join the webinar by zoom webinar, and members of the public can make public comment by dialing in to the number 1-(669)-900-6833. the webinar i.d. 854 1955 0368.

and if you are using zoom, you can make public comment by raising your hand, by clicking on the three horizontal dots and then clicking on raised hand, or by clicking on the raised hand icon. you can also make a public comment by using the q&a feature in the zoom webinar. if you are recognized you can type into the q&a box and submit your comments and it will be read by the clerk if you're joining us by phone dial star, 9, when you want to be recognized for public comment and you will be prompted when it's your turn to make comments we welcome suggestions about how to make the meeting more accessible. please send an email to

mod@sfgov.org, and if you need assistance, accessing the meeting, please call 415-919-9562. or send email to mod@sfgov.org. the public may comment the subject matter jurisdiction of the council that are not on this meeting agenda. each member of the public may address the council for up to three minutes and the brown act prevents the council from taking action or discussing any items not appearing on the posted agenda, including those items raised on public comment. so i see that we have multiple members of the public who want to make public comment at this time.

i will unmute the first caller. caller, i un-muted you, you have been allowed to unmute. >> caller: hi. hello, can you hear me? >> co-chair madrid: yes. you can begin. go ahead. >> caller: good afternoon. my name is william railing, i'm making this call on behalf of accessible san francisco, an unincorporated non-profit association. first a very quick plug for getting the agenda out a little earlier for these meetings. and making them a little easier for people to find. i do calendar all of the mayor's office of disability council

meetings, and then struggle to find the agenda every time. so i'm not sure why that is, and i'm sure that it is partly my fault, but whatever you can do to get the agenda out earlier and disseminate it definitely will help to encourage more people to participate in these meetings. my two sort of issues/comments today -- first, after the excellent presentation that the council received on the outdoor dining program, you know, it was made permanent, and i just would like to reiterate that it's really something that needs to be followed up on. there were some promises made that these would be made accessible and just everywhere that you go in the city you find essentially new inaccessible dining rooms, which is are what

these are, and so i just want to keep that issue on the radar, because it's really quite a widespread problem across the city at this point. another issue that i wanted to ask about -- i don't think that it's been discussed yet because i think that it came up since the previous meeting in july, but there has been quite a rash of ada lawsuits by the high-volume plaintiffs as they're called. and accessible san francisco is very much anti-lawsuit. we think that a lot of accessibility can be achieved through administrative advocacy and public advocacy, rather than lawsuits. and i did note in the news reports that the city is actually intervening to some extent in the lawsuits. they're trying to help the business community. it was a little weird but it

sounded like they'd fund some access specialists to do some evaluation. so i thought that might be a good subject for the council to possibly get a report on at a future date. thank you. >> co-chair madrid: thank you for your comments. and we can go to the next one. >> clerk: all right, you are un-muted. >> caller: hi, thanks, thank, co-chair, i'm luke brihormer. and, first, related to the last caller, i just want to stand in solidarity with the disabled community around your spaces and help to advocate where possible to ensure the amendments that you've asked for that seem rightfully deserved. i have personally witnessed the

six feet of passable area not being abided by in the restaurants. so i not only stand in solidarity, but i vocalize that concern from a parent's perspective, because as some of you know that pushing a stroller oftentimes creates a lot of empathy for people with disabilities, because parents start to realize where the city is inaccessible. and i wanted to offer my support and help in any way that i can. also i wanted to just call in and comment on the upcoming work regarding j.f.k. and golden gate park as i'm sure that many of you know, supervisor chan has proposed a resolution that's going to go to the land use committee tomorrow, and i want to work with the disability advocates and this council to

make sure that that disability is paramount in the project going forward. so i want to offer -- offer my time and support in any way that i and this organization can help out with. i'd love to connect with anyone on the council or any member of the public regarding that. and just to go along with that, we have -- we have been spending a good amount of our time advocating for more access and more affordable access in the garage. specifically, i know for members of the disabled community, the garage has been a long-standing pain point in the park, not only for a lack of spaces but also an egregiously high price, and not the greatest access for dropoffs and access from the garage. so that is something that we -- is a top priority for us and we're pushing for as many spots,

spots in the garage as possible, in the most accessible space as possible. so i want to offer my solidarity and support on shared spaces and j.f.k. and i would love to connect with all of you about these issues and figure out how we can help and stand in solidarity with you and also to advocate for matters that are important to you and make sure that whatever is done with j.f.k. and as accessible as possible for all of you. thank you very much. and i hope that you have a great day. >> co-chair madrid: thank you for your comments. go to the next person. >> clerk: caller ending in 1034, you have been permitted to unmute. >> co-chair madrid: go ahead. >> caller: good afternoon, council members. my name is kathy deluca and i'm calling on behalf of the long-term care coordinating council of san francisco.

and i'm calling to invite you to an event on october 26th. it's going to be our local event for the california master plan for aging, which also addresses disability, and the event is going to focus on ending homelessness amongst seniors and folks with disabilities in san francisco. the event is on october 26th, from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. and it will be virtual. and we will have asl interpretation, live captioning, spanish and cantonese interpretation, and folks can definitely request other accommodations as needed. we'll have a welcome by mayor breed, a keynote address by dr. margo kushel, to talk about

the breadth and depth of the problem of homelessness in san francisco for older adults and adults with disabilities, and then we'll have a panel with charean mcspaden, the director of the department of homeless and supportive housing and kelly dearing who is the director of our department of disability and aging services. we'll have yolanda harris on the panel, a commissioner from the san francisco housing authority and formerly unhoused individual herself. and then beth stokes, the executive director of episcopal community services. we hope that you will join us. we will send information -- specific information -- to the council through the mayor's office on disability staff and we hope that you will join us in this really important discussion on october 26th. thanks for having me.

>> co-chair madrid: thank you for your call and thank you for the information. there are any more callers at this time? >> clerk: freddy has been allowed to unmute. >> caller: hello. thank you. my name is freddy martin, and i am a housing organizer with senior and disability action. recently i've been put on -- put on, like -- or part of my work plan is to come to these meetings. and i know that it's only meeting once a month, but one of the things that i noticed when my supervisor was telling me about this meeting is that the housing was not on the agenda for this meeting. and i just feel like because of the major housing crisis that

all of us are experiencing and it's so severe for specifically the seniors and people with disabilities, i think that it should be on every agenda, because there's so many things happening. there's a good percentage of people [broken audio] and there's so many other issues, you know, like trying to get more money for disability operating subsidies in whatever form that would take, and also making sure that there's more -- there's more accessible and correctly designed units being built, you know, honestly like it should be built in all of the housing that's coming up, whether it's market rate or affordable housing or whatnot. so i'm just -- you know, i just needed to say that, because i know that this is a time to

emphasize that, but i would really like to see that happen because it's just such a great need. i mean, so many other things fall into place where you're able to take care of so many other things when you have adequate shelter and adequate housing over your head and you don't have to really worry about that. you can take care of other things. so thank you and i will be -- oh, the other thing was that -- it was difficult to find the agenda, and i am not sure -- you know, for some of the other meetings it's easier to just have the agenda on the main site, to be able to access. and thank you for -- >> co-chair madrid: thank you for calling. other public comment at this

time? >> clerk: i do not see anymore public comment at this time. >> co-chair madrid: thank you. we are going -- >> caller: this is orkid. hi, i believe that there's a specific deaf caller who has been asking to make a comment. so i'm not sure that if they're using bri services, they've been typing some comments in the chat. so i would ask that the council and chair address the comments seen in the chat, left in the chat. thank you. >> co-chair madrid: okay. i would ask the clerk if you don't mind reading the comments to us. >> clerk: okay, one moment while i look through the chat.

so i do not see a specific comment in the chat. >> commissioner sassouni: orkid, just to jump in here again. and i think that the issue is also an accessibility issue. i believe that jake goh has made comments in the chat, and several times have addressed the council to say that he has been has notbeen able to see the sign language interpreters. >> can we take the timer down, please, debbie? >> co-chair madrid: i'm looking on the chat and i don't see

anything. >> this is nicole speaking. there's a question in the q&a about general concern around the bus route issues. the comment doesn't elaborate beyond that. i'm wondering if the commenter would like to say more. if you're having access issues -- this is nicole speaking agaio email your comment instead, you can email mod@sfgov.org and we happily read your comments when

we have open public comment again at the latter half of this meeting. >> co-chair madrid: so while we are on that, we are going to proceed to item number 4 on the agenda. >> clerk: okay, item number 4 is the co-chair report. so in august the mdc did not hold a public meeting and instead had an annual planning meeting. the council members agreed to focus on several issues for the remainder of 2021, and the beginning of 2022. it includes j.f.k. drive, golden gate park accessibility solutions and community

engagement. better market street accessibility improvements. shared spaces permanent program audit and enforcement practices the clerk for small businesses and accessibility requirements, including the potential amendments to the accessible business entrance ordinance. disability access for children and after-school or camp programs. and employment of people with disabilities. also in august, the mayor appointed two new members to the mdc, and orkid sassouni, and tiffany yu and alex madrid and denise senhaux. that concludes the co-chair

report. >> co-chair madrid: thank you for that. we are going to item number 5 which is the presentation for accessibility -- accessible business entrance ordinance, including the proposed legislation and resolution by jeff buckley, with the department of public affairs and building inspection.

[indiscernible]first questions from the commission members and then we will take comments from the disability staff. with this presentation with jeff. >> my -- my time to provide the presentation? >> co-chair madrid: yes. >> great. hi council members. my name is jeff buckley and i'm the policy public director affairs director at the department of public inspection i have a brief presentation that i wanted to run through to you about the business entrance program. but before i did that, i first wanted to just highlight that

the legislation that we worked on that i'm here to speak with you about was really a collaboration between, you know, the mayor's office of disability and nicole bond was an outstanding partner, the small business commission, which i believe that we have regina dick-andrezi here, the executive director. and it was sponsored by mayor breed. so we're happy to have this discussion with you. and then i just want to put a plug in that we are available in the future for any issues that you wanted to discuss here. i'm happy to comment and to discuss those with you. so i'm going to share my screen so give me a moment as i do that. could i get rights to share?

>> co-chair madrid: one moment, jeff. i am fixing that issue. one moment. i have fixed it, jeff. >> is it working? >> co-chair madrid: yes. >> excellent. all right, so i'm here to talk about changes to the accessible business entrance program. last tuesday at the board of supervisors, the mayor introduced legislation that provides a two-year extension of the accessible business entrance

program. before we talk about the legislation, i just wanted to walk you through some of the basics about the accessible business entrance program. so the accessible business entrance program was designed -- it's a local ordinance established in 2016, that helps property owners comply with existing state and federal accessibility laws to ensure that people with disabilities can access products and services offered by san francisco businesses. so in many ways, what it is designed to do is to be able to increase compliance with requirements that were established in the americans with disabilities act, which was passed by the federal government, signed into law 31 years ago. now to be clear, the changes that the -- this local program

mandates do not bring you completely into compliance with ada, but what it does is that it does provide clear options for property owners and to small businesses to provide more accessibility than what the current property does, and in the hope that that will also reduce the likelihood of litigation for compliance to the ada. so that we're all on the same page, part of the reason why we see the lawsuits that are occurring regarding ada compliance is a result of the way that the ordinance is enforced. the federal government many years ago for multitude of reasons decided not to create a federal agency that was responsible for enforcement. instead, enforcement was delegated to the court systems. and so that's why we see the type of lawsuits that are occurring from individuals against small businesses in

order to force compliance with ada. and it's a much more complicated issue than that, but i just wanted to kind of make sure that we had the basics. so one of the places -- what the ordinance does is focus on places of public accommodation. so those are businesses that serve the public and they're generally included in the accessible business entrance program. so as defined by law, a place of public accommodation is where the public can enter a building to purchase goods or services. so that could be a whole host of businesses, including hotels, offices, grocery stores or retail stores, day-care centers, theaters and similar businesses that provide -- that are open and serve the public and provide goods and services. so locally how we get compliance with this local program is to

submit initial screening forms so that the property owners are required to certify that their building does not qualify for the program. and there are waiver forms also for property owners who believe that their building already complies with the program requirements. but for those that don't, there is a category checklist compliance form for property owners who need to renovate their property in order to come into compliance with the ordinance. in this form, it is completed by a licensed engineer or architect or a certified access specialist or chapse specialist. so in order to secure compliance, a property owner will need to secure building permits and renovate the property. instruction is required to bring the property into compliance. it's really the owner's responsibility to secure those permits and to renovate the property. so here's -- why we're here is

that, you know, it's become increasingly clear that we had too many properties that were not in compliance for us to be able to enforce. and i think that we also have to acknowledge the effect that, you know, the global pandemic has had on our enforcement activities, as well as on small businesses. and so right now the number of non-compliant addresses is 11,398, which equates to 5,589 property owners. a compliance timeline ends september 1st. so that's a very high number of non-compliant addresses which is after reflection we felt that an extension of warranted to the program. so what does that mean? what it means is that there's three stages to compliance.

the first stage as i mentioned before is that the property owner will need to submit a compliance checklist to the department of building inspection. and so we extended that deadline by a year to be due by the end of september 2022. in addition to that, we pushed back the application for property owner to submit a building permit by one year again, to the end of the calendar year of 2022. and so 12-30-2022. and then also pushed back the deadline to obtain the required building permit by september 29th, 2023. in the meantime we planned on having a very robust communications strategy that targets property owners specifically who are out of compliance. we plan on partnering with

public officials, our city departments and other community organizations, to leverage, you know, reinforce and expand our outreach. and our goal is to really do, you know, some marketing techniques such as repetition and using strong visuals to capture attention and spur action. our communications is designed to really funnel owners to our fully accessible website that we are building as we speak, that will provide compliance information and instructions. so we also plan to do this in a culturally competent manner. so there will be a multitude of languages that we'll be communicating in. in addition to that as i mentioned we are working on updating our website to provide very simple compliance steps and support resources. and we're working, you know, very closely with the office of small business and doing so. we plan to target property

owners in a sequential kind of direct mail and email chase campaign, so those of you who are familiar with these techniques through political advertisements, it's a very similar thing in terms of the way, you know, political campaigns look at chasing the permanent absentee voters. we intend to chase the property owners to make sure that we get compliance. we're also producing a new brochure and we're going to also be conducting stakeholder outreach of publications. and one thing they would like to know and to need your help on is how to reach further within the disability rights community, because we are certainly willing to have those conversations, both to let people know about the changes but also to figure out ways that we could be more effective in terms of getting compliance. because we see this as both something that small business owners should do, but also

really as trying to ensure that this is also a civil rights issue, to make sure that people have the ability to enter any small business within the city and to do it for accessibility for our residents. all right. so with that, i'm going to stop sharing. i'm here to answer any questions. i also believe that we have as i mentioned regina dick-andrezi is here and i believe tom dressler, our technical services point person, is here to answer any technical questions that you have. thank you for your time. >> co-chair madrid: thank you. we will ask the council members to call on you if you have any questions and i will ask you council members to raise your

hand and when i call you to say yes or no. we have any questions? >> thank you, co-chair, madrid. and thank you, jeff, for your presentation. much appreciated. very interesting. two questions. the first you had mentioned that given the number of properties that are out of compliance, the city extended the deadline by a year. i notice that the number of properties was more than double the number of property owners. is the number of property owners so great -- i would think that that's the number that we care about, because these property owners own multiple properties that are out of compliance. is that number so great that

that warranted the extension? >> the interpreter is saying, can you please unmute yourself. >> thanks. so i would say both numbers are important. number one, because we want to have full compliance with the ordinance, and so that requires all of those addresses to come into plans. but as you point out, we have owners who have multiple addresses that they control. so we are definitely targeting the addresses of the owners in order to ensure compliance. i just wanted to point out that sometimes we have multiple addresses for the same owner. but i would signal data points are very important to our compliance efforts.

>> and maybe i missed it in your presentation but the carrot approach to compliance, right, is the right thing to do. in this day and age i don't think we're having to convince anyone about wanting to have their building to be accessible and inclusive and things like that. what's the stick? you said that the law was written and there was no thought to enforcement so enforcement is kind of left to the city. what's the stick? and, of course, we don't want to ever have to use that, but what's the stick that the city is prepared to use to enforce this? >> yeah, and i brought up the context of the -- the way that ada is enforced so that people understand that we all have an

understanding of why those lawsuits are occurring and so we understand that has pushed the ordinance and created the ordinance and created the need for us to enforce on it locally so we have a robust enforcement strategy that is centered around notices of violations that can occur. and so that's a way of being able to get enforcement. ultimately at the end of the day if we need to we can put a lien on the property in order to ensure compliance with this ordinance. so there is real teeth to what we're doing. that being said, i think that -- i think that while we're emphasizing the communication is that we really want to push compliance, right? if we have to do notices of violations, we will. but we really want to be very assertive in getting people to understand these deadlines and to get them to do it through strong communication and marketing. >> commissioner smolinski: okay, thank you.

>> co-chair madrid: thank you. tiffany, do you have any questions for the presenter? >> commissioner yu: this is tiffany. i do not have any questions. i would just reiterate i think what someone said during public comment around how i think that there are other ways to get into compliance that aren't related to lawsuits. i think that i also just want to remind people that accessibility is a human experience, and having space on a sidewalk isn't just a compliance thing, it's that so that people in our community have the autonomy and dignity to be able to navigate our city. thanks for your time, jeff. and, oh, the other thing is you had a question around how to

better get in touch with the disability community. nicole is great or the entire mod is a great start. and i also look at -- there was -- there was someone who said that a tech needs assessment, which i think that was a presentation in the previous month who just really did an inedible job and a great model of how to do outreach for the facets of the disability community. so if the mod, you know, can figure out a way to ed few that process it would be helpful for departments like yours, jeff, to really figure out what the best outreach strategy is. thank you so much. >> co-chair madrid: next do you have any questions for jeff at this time?

okay. next i'll call on orkid. orkid, do you have questions for jeff? >> commissioner sassouni: hi, i just want to make sure that i can be seen clearly by the interpreter. okay, this is orkid sassouni, and i have my mask on for safety so i'll try to sign slowly and clearly to make sure that my comments are understood, since my language is this way. regarding physical issues, there are some things that come up regarding accessibility. i think that there's a bit of dirty business happening, maybe some underhanded business practices, that happen with the city. and maybe some bribery involved

that isn't actually allowing for accessibility to be enforced in the way that it needs to be. and to provide access and to the public spaces is an ongoing issue. and it seems like this continues to be an issue. and so once we take a step forward, it seems that we take several steps back, and i just want -- you know, maybe look at some of -- where the money goes and where the landlords are in terms of their relationships with the city on these things. it really seems to be an ongoing concern and it seems like no one is really working together despite comments or, you know, lip service to that. so i think that there is not the attention paid to equal access and -- and the department of

building inspection and other -- other areas in the city government are not really involved and using, you know, current best practices or skill sets available to them for assistance. so we do have a point where lawsuits need to be the way of navigating these issues. it should be handled in a much earlier part of these processes so i think that what i'm seeing -- what i'm seeing now is just an ongoing concern, and -- and, you know, and then it gets to the point where you're in a legal situation and there's no -- there's no way to back down from that point because you have been forced into that corner.

>> so there's a couple of different points there. let me take the first one. i heard issues related to kind of -- i don't know, from lack of a better term -- corruption. so what we can take offline, but if there's any instances that you are aware of anyone who is not enforced on, you know, this ordinance or anything, that is a department of building inspection employee, like, please let us know. we would forward that on to the city attorney's office, because that's not something that we would tolerate or accept. so taking that for a moment away, i think that the ordinance business entrance program ordinance was designed to help small businesses get ahead of any potential lawsuits by making the necessary changes to their entranceway in advance of any

litigation. so it was also the result of increased litigation that was occurring within the city. now i want to be clear that the litigation that was occurring was really to enforce compliance with federal law. so i don't -- i don't want to say anything negative about that, because ultimately i think that's -- that's the way that the americans with disability act was enforced through the court system. but the local ordinance was generated in 2016 because we were seeing increased numbers of lawsuits, and i think that the city was saying while we can't do something locally that guarantees your compliance with ada, we can at least put a program together that allows people to have greater accessibility into the entrances of businesses. and so the purpose is to really help in advance small businesses

to make them get ahead of it. so part is through enforcement activities, part is through communication. i think that the third is just really through engagement with them, raise awareness that this ordinance is in place and that it will be enforced after the board -- if the board extends it, and then after the mayor signs it into law, we will begin all of those efforts to make sure that we get compliance. >> co-chair madrid: thank you. >> so just a follow-up comment. so i'm wondering if the government had some kind of grant or some kind of resources for the small businesses to be able to get them into compliance? because a lot of small businesses are struggling, and so taking on, you know, the added costs of creating an accessible entryway can be challenging for a small business that is already living on a very

strict budget -- existing on a very strict budget. >> i would defer my comment to regina to answer that question. >> yes, so this is regina dick-andrezi, i'm going to answer the question but i'm going to take a moment to pause while i come on camera to allow for the transition. is the transition complete? so the state has -- requires local municipalities to collect an additional $4 with the business registration fee. with that money it is designed, one, to assist departments and the city departments to pay for

certified inspection -- certified to be a certified inspector and recertification. so that fund helps those certifications like for the mayor's office on disability. then after that, it is to support increased compliance in the built environment for the business community. so because of covid, we had a grant program that was in place but the grant entered, and we will be reinitiating that. what i do want to say is that it will be for small businesses, it will not be for property owners and the ade is the compliance responsibility is for the property owners. we know that because of contractual relationships from time to time there will be property owners who may pass

down this responsibility to the small businesses. and so we wanted the plan to utilize these funds or to help those small businesses. so i'm hoping that we all have in our messaging that we would really want our property owners, this is really to help them to come into compliance, and also to help them because they are also part of the lawsuit as well, to, you know, this is a way to help them not only to support your civil rights but also to not, you know, to not -- to stop future lawsuits. and i would say that this is probably the first in its kind ordinance and legislation in the country that a local municipality is really taking this extra step to get our built

environment at a higher -- higher level of accessibility. >> co-chair madrid: thank you. thank you orkid for the question. >> commissioner sassouni: this is orkid, and i want to say that i agree with the comments that you made. i'm in total agreement. >> co-chair madrid: and my question to both of you, or one of you, is that one is that i know that there are some businesses that are aren't at this time. how do you confirm or -- do you make it so that they are in

compliance is one. and the second thing is that accessible -- do you agree or do you let businesses know about others that make their content public with the obligation -- educate them. [indiscernible]and there are some businesses that don't know

they are required to provide this. so that's my two questions to you both. >> jeff, do you want me to start off with what the office of small business is doing with -- to educate small businesses? and so with our office at the business assistance center, when businesses come in for advice on licensing and permitting, we educate them about their accessibility obligations and the steps that they can take in,

one, they can hire a cast at the hourly rate at the beginning to do an assessment of the property or the space that they're going into. and to get a good idea as to what barriers may be pre-existing that they're going to need to give consideration to for the type of business that they're going to be opening. if they are not working with an architect and we definitely consider -- we definitely recommend that they consider having that ongoing relationship as they're working with their build out. now if they are going to -- if they're going to be doing any construction related build out, then -- then in the construction related build out, there are obligations, there are access obligation requirements that are required by the building code. so that the department of building inspection works with

the business on that. so for existing businesses and businesses that are open, and may be opened for a while, we are in an ongoing effort to educate businesses that they do need to get a certified access inspection and report to identify any current barriers that they may have. and then to remediate them. we -- what i will say is the certified access inspection program, the caip program, it does not put the responsibility on the department of building inspection, nor are we the accessibility experts to verify what the caip inspector has put in their respect as accurate.

that is through -- the certification through the state architecture as they are certifying these inspectors. so that is the entity that probably has for existing businesses that are not going through construction-related items, that is the entity that is going to be providing the best means of certification around -- around -- a current business' level of accessibility. the one kind of thing that -- i'm not going to say it's a gap with the caip inspection program is that it does not require the caip inspectors to come back to make sure that the business did follow through with the remediation recommendations.

so for us it's an ongoing effort for us to educate existing businesses and inform them, you know, inform them that this is one of the best investments that they can make after they have been open. and that, you know, there's annual tax credits and deductions that a business can take annually to make sure that their space is always up to compliance. i will say that one -- one additional item that our office is going to be taking, you know, taking a look at doing is reducing businesses -- and i'm sure that you have experienced this -- that they open up with -- like, a restaurant are commoa fully accessibility restroom and then they start putting shelves,

you know, right next to the door and all of a sudden -- so there is an effort that i also see that our office needs to do to educate businesses to put in their training manuals just as they do for their dph cleaning requirements, they need to train and to do site checks all the time to make sure that they're maintaining the accessibility of the interior of their space. and i'm not sure that i combined all of your questions into my answer, but i hope that that addressed it. >> co-chair madrid: yes, thank you. so for my first question to you, jeff, is that businesses are

planning, for safety to go out to the location and make sure it's compliant and accessible, or do you just take those businesses, and some of them are not telling you the truth? >> so our enforcement process is established in the building code and it has very clear requirements in terms of how we enforce on any code violation. so to answer your question directly, alex, is that so our inspectors would notice, you know, a violation of a building code. in this case it would be -- let's do a hypothetical -- it would be a business owner who is

out of compliance with the accessible business entrance program. so then what we would do is we would note, you know, we'd provide them a notice of violation and we would hope in the meantime they have filed the necessary permits to make the necessary changes. and so just to kind of talk about what that would look like, so they really have to make their entrance more usable by removing a stoop, ramping the entrance, widening the door if possible. in some instances they could install power door operator. sometimes a more complex situations it may be kind of required to use an incline platform or a regular platform lift that really is, you know, i think not always the case. they're also -- for whatever reason they're not able to gain compliance from the entrance itself, they do have the ability to go to the areas outside the

entranceway in order to get compliance. so it's really a case-by-case situation based on the conditions of the property and of the business entrance that kind of, you know, will make the remedy specific to that area. but ultimately the inspector is required to come out and certify that the work has been done. if the work hasn't been done, you know, we have a rather lengthy process, but a clear process, that at some point would mean that they would be held accountable and they'd have to go to a director's hearing or come and publicly explain why it is that they haven't been able to gain compliance. if worse comes to worse, the city does have the ability to put a lien on the property which is a pretty drastic step that affects a number of aspects of how they are able to operate that property. >> co-chair madrid: so just

wasn't sure if it was the business owners to go and take a look at that location to verify? >> yes, they would go to the location and they would verify both the complaint and establish that there's a notice of violation. if they've corrected, they claim that they've collected that issue, then an inspector would come back out to the property to ensure that it's been corrected >> co-chair madrid: very good. i guess that my -- >> i was going to say through the chair, i think that alex's question is about once they turn in the checklist, what happens? is the inspector going out to verify the checklist or not? >> i'm sorry that i didn't understand that part. so at that point, no, the inspector is not going out to -- to go and verify it at the

checklist standpoint. but if the checklist has not been turned in for that particular address, then the city at that point would start beginning enforcement actions. so that would then create the condition where the you know, the inspector would go out. but it would not immediately happen right after the correction -- the checklist has been deadline has been passed. >> co-chair madrid: i guess that i wanted to say from my point is that once the checklist is submitted, how do you know if the business owner is complying or not? that's my question. >> so if they -- in their -- in their screening form, if they

tell us that they're compliant with it, then an inspector would have to go to the property and verify that. yes, they turn in their checklist form. the next milestone as far as we are concerned as the enforcement agency is whether they then pull their building permit by a certain deadline. so then -- so think of us as kind of like the enforcement agency. we don't -- we're not involved until that deadline passes and then if it turns out they have not pulled a building permit by that period, then the department of building inspection would then enforce on that property to make sure that it meets that deadline requirement. >> co-chair madrid: thank you. now i want to ask the council

members when i call on the staff for any questions? seeing none, to move to have any other questions for jeff? >> this is nicole, i'm the director at mod. and i want to thank jeff and gina for coming and being collaborative partners on this process. i was awareness that there's questions from the members of the public about how -- how they can be more directly involved in this process, and if there's anyway to engage on the state level, any other kind of legislation that we might want to think about. i think that there's an

opportunity here to really engage in a positive way with the disability community as so many said at the beginning of this item and that the council members themselves as well. so if you have suggestions there, that would be great. and otherwise if you could also please verbalize a good way to be in contact with you, that would be wonderful. so that the public can know how to best engage. thank you very much. >> hi, i'll go first. and, again, i do want to say this has been a partnership amongst us working together and i really appreciate nicole's leadership on this. it's been instrumental. so, number one, i think -- let me, you know, my email address is jeff.buckley@sfgov.org.

i did type it into the chat, though unclear whether that is part of the public record or no but you now have my verbally conveyed my email address so please reach out to me if you have any questions. or if you want to us to engage further with any aspect of, you know, the disability rights community or really any -- if there's a merchant association that -- let's say that you're walking the corridor and you see a number of businesses that are not accessible, you know, let us know, because we want to be able to work with those commercial corridors and have discussions with them to start getting people ready to really need to get in compliance with this ordinance. and that the city is going to take seriously its enforcement efforts. but i think that we said this a number of times -- we really do want -- you know, we want to get

compliance without having to do notices of violation. i think that is the goal is to get cooperation. and so i think that the way that we can use the time now is to be able to engage in those discussions. one of the benefits of also having zoom teams and webex and the other platforms is that it does make it easier to have those discussions with different communities. and so i just want to once again to put a plug in there that i will come anywhere to the city from my chair, to be able to have those discussions, or to do it in-person if necessary. >> thanks, jeff. is there anything that you wanted to add to that, regina? >> well, i too want to thank nicole and her stewardship, particularly with this second time around, kind of bringing us all back together, the multiple departments who are also not on

here, the department of public works and the planning department. for us to come back i think with, you know, strengthening the ordinance and strengthening the partnership. and, again, just very excited i think that we're the first city who is really working in such a collaborative way to really improve accessibility in the built environment. i have put my email address in the chat. do you want me to spell it out, nicole? >> if you could, that would provide better access. >> so it is a long email address though. it is -- so i'll say it first and then spell it. so it's

regina.dick-endrizzi@sfgov.org. and i too, like jeff, i am happy to come and to attend any community meetings, additional meetings, to have additional conversations. i know that there's, you know, -- and i hope to be back before you to talk about the additional programming through the office of small business that is dealing either with the inside of the -- you know, continuing our work for the inside of the business and then also beginning to start doing more education around websites. >> wonderful, thank you. looking forward to it. >> co-chair madrid: are there

any other staff who have questions? >> i think that we're ready to move to close the item for our presenters and move to public comment. >> co-chair madrid: and we will go to public comment at this time. >> clerk: yes. i see at least one member of the public who would like to make a public comment. i want to remind the members of the public that you can make public comment by clicking on the raised hand icon. or if you're calling in by pressing star, 9. and so the caller 1003, you have been permitted to unmute. >> caller: hello again. this is william railing for accessible san francisco and

unincorporated non-profit association. you know, as accessibility advocates, it is sort of a reflex if accessibility is being delayed to be against it, right? but i want to -- actually, i think this delay is fine. i have reviewed the legislation it doesn't change anything other than these very specific changes to dates that are in the ordinance. and it does seem appropriate in light of covid and in light of the scale of non-compliance that is out there. and i think that the -- i thank you, mr. buckley, and ms. dick-endrizzi, i think that the staff have found a lot of good faith and there's a real intent to enforce this going forward and that that will occur. i just think that this is such -- this is such a great program. and i'm so proud of san francisco for creating this program. and i'd like to say a few words about that because the history has been long.

and the framework that mr. buckley referred to is correct, that every business in america has a federal ada obligation. and then in california, every business that does construction has to comply with the california building code accessibility requirements, which are close, but not exactly the same as ada. in fact, what a business has to do when they do construction is comply with whatever is strictet or the federal building code requirement. but the california building code is enforced by the 540 cities and counties in california. and san francisco is unique in that it has layered on top of the state-wide building code this additional affirmative requirement to provide an accessible entrance. unfortunately, the building code only requires you to create

accessibility when you are actually doing construction. but san francisco has created this program to affirmatively say to each business that is a public accommodation that you need to provide access to the front door. and i saw a very -- a very informative presentation last year for accessibility advocates by a retired city inspector and a current member of the access appeals commission about the history of the program and the thinking was that the reason that it's limited to the entrance is that we're going to get people in the door, and that once that occurs that there's just going to be a natural process then of addressing the interior barriers and the bathroom compliance and things like that. and ms. dick-endrizzi referred to the moving forward on the interior as well eventually. so the bottom line is, you know,

it's a great program, it's taking a little longer than people might have hoped, but that's the story of accessibility, right? and it's an appropriate delay that doesn't make any substantive changes to the program rules itself, other than these big changes. so we're happy to support it. thank you. >> co-chair madrid: thank you for your comment. are there any more public comment at this time? >> clerk: so there are no people on the line but there's a public comment from jessica from senior and disability action it. says thank you to jeff buckley and nicole and others for working on the accessible building ordinance. i really appreciate jeff pointing out that lawsuits have happened in part because there's no other way to enforce the ada which is already 30 years old. and it's great to see the city

coming up with a positive and proactive approach for businesses and requiring them to have accessible entrances. we look forward to working with you all on this important issue >> co-chair madrid: thank you. i wanted to thank you jeff and regina for coming. i hope that this is a start regarding this issue. let's go to [indiscernible]and thank you for comiindiscernibled thank you for coming. with that, i think that we will

go to the next [indiscernible] the abe program making a big comeback. >> are. >> clerk: while we are on break we are experiencing some technical issues with zoom and so it may be the case that the zoom session will be closed on the break. if that happens, please use the same webinar link to get back into the session after the break. and as a reminder to all panelists and council members, during the break, although we are not on sfgov-tv, those listening into our meeting can still hear everything that i

have shared during this time. >> i would like also to remind folks that our 15-minute break will be over at 2:43 it looks like. so with that a good break to >> co-chair madrid: welcome back to our mayor's on disability association public meeting on september 17, 2021. we are going to go to the item the access to city employment program update and preparations

for october disability employment awareness month. and the presenter is porsche bunton. she's with the co some of manager of the department of human resources. porsche, proceed. >> thank you so much, alex, and good afternoon, everyone. my name is porsche bunton, with the city and county department of human resources. i am here and happy to present the access to city employment program, and to discuss the transition that we're going through around our new applicant tracking system. and to end the presentation by inviting you all to one of my most touching and popular events that i have coming up in october which is the first ever national

disability employment awareness month. with that i will start with the first slide. so who am i and who we are. i do want to start off and just say that i was the city's first diversity recruiter starting in 2016. i came on to support the city's access to city employment program as the first ever recruiter. and i was promoted into a new role which i'm very happy about, and that's a recruitment manager, where i support a much broader work of what diversity means to the city. now my team, which i'm very happy to say that i have one after five years, consists of myself, two diverse city recruiters, and one ace panelist. our work is to really promote

and assist city departments in hiring diverse, qualified candidates through our ace program, which is our alternative pathway program for people with disabilities. it is one of the pathways into permanent position with the city. we also have and provide expansion of outreach to engage and recruit candidates with career fairs. we attend events in the high schools and colleges. and we do a lot more other events now that we're working virtually. we've been able to outreach to a much broader community and having sessions on a monthly basis. as well as a new process that we're doing with the city which our department spotlight sessions so it gives the community a better understanding of what the city needs and what the various different departments can offer the show by showcasing those departments in a spotlight session.

we also provide resources to city departments regarding outreach recruitment strategies for example, we show them the right ways to outreach to broader communities, to get the demographics of underrepresented communities, who have not yet heard about these positions with the city. we also ensure they reach out to populations that, again, may not have access to computers. and we also provide the departments strategies of really seeing where in their hiring processes may be challenges to look into to better identify how they can support the recruitment. with that, our department and our little division, we're doing various things. one is our ace program. we also put on presentations. so, again, once a month we also have a career calendar on our website, which showcases the various different events that we offer. some of those include the department spotlight session, informational session, train the

trainer, which means that we support our community-based organizations. providing them guidance and understanding of how to support their job seekers. we also put on events on how to cater to the community, for other job seekers within the city. we support the departments and better understanding the services and also community-based organizations, giving them a broader idea of the various different departments and what they hire for. you may have seen our information in social media, including facebook, linkedin and twitter. and one of the biggest projects that we have right now is really transitioning our new applicant tracking system. we have heard from the community how challenging those applications can be and how long they can be. we have now simplified that application process. so i'm happy to inform you a little bit about that and to let you know about the launch that

will be happening at the end of this month. and one of the biggest transitions that we are moving forward within the city as a whole. now we're going to talk about our access to city employment program. for those that may not know, the rule 115 program started in 1985. that was put on and enacted to increase representation of qualified individuals with disabilities in the city. that is proposition a, and it was put on the ballot and voted in by san franciscans. and the commission adopted this proposition a and named the civil service rule 115. and that goal was to increase employment opportunities internally in the city, increase the flexibility for departments to fill vacant positions. we also increased the time it takes to hire. you may hear that in the city it takes a very long time to get a

job and permanent employment. i'm happy to say with the ace program we make sure that we expedite those hires and ensure that we get someone in a seat much faster than the normal hiring practice. we get someone in the seat in less than 30 days. and i'll give you an example of how we do that in one of our departments that we had last year. we also increased the diversity of the workforce by also ensuring that, again, we have representation of everyone in the city. civil service rule 115 allows for departments to fill permanent civil service positions, however, those positions are entry level. very different from what you would think of entry level in the non-profit in the city, because we have such large classifications and many different departments. we say that those entry level positions are classifications that are the first class in a series, such as health worker

one, would be the first class in a series that consists of over four different promotional opportunities. and then for positions that are stand-alone, which means there may not be a promotional opportunity, they would also be considered entry level. in 2015, we heard from our community that we -- they wanted to expand those classifications, and because the civil service rule really allowed us to stick within the guidelines, we worked with the department of human resources to expand this program to state that departments can fill any position, whichever position they would like -- entry level or not, by using our exempt appointments, meaning both permanent exempt and temporary exempt. that allowed us to change the way that departments thought about ace as only entry level, and ensured that the community was really able to get an opportunity and to position that

exceeded entry level, because that's what they qualified for. with that we've had success in the new pilot program that started over four years ago and have been very successful to get over 40 individuals in a seat to where they've been able to promote within the city outside of the position that they came into. the qualifications of the ace program, going back to rule 115, the positions must be entry level, the on appointee must meet the minimum qualifications of the position and let's hold the certification from the department of rehab or the veteran administration, we work very closely with the department of rehabilitation. we even have a dedicated liaison in every county that you can think of in san francisco bay area. we also are able to fill ace positions by department. so departments must be willing to use the ace program and have a vacant position available. and then appointees are

permanent exempt for one year in the term that they're in a one-year evaluation period. through that one year we support them to ensure that it is a satisfactory completion. and then in the department of human resources we work with the department to transition the person into permanent employment. the benefits that you may ask for the ace program. well, honestly, the departments can fill these 80% faster than the normal civil service hiring process. which means that they're filling their positions much quicker than anywhere they would be able to -- anywhere else. we have a ready pool of qualified candidates whenever they're ready to review. minimal qualifications are already reviewed so if they've been with the departments with almost two months of support. the department of rehabilitation provides the accommodations within the first year if they find that the support is greater than what we can do in the city

meaning sometimes the computers at home, there are sometimes where the applicant may need job coaching and career support, and accommodations that the department of rehab provides on-site or off-site. we have increased flexibility for departments to fill vacant positions at any time. meaning, when they find and identify that they have an opening, they can reach out to us immediately. here is a little snapshot of the rule 115 at placement. i have provided you this pre-pandemic, which means that this happened before we had the shelter-in-place. and we had over 51 hires. those classifications consisted of account clerks, junior administrative analysts, junior admin analysts and management analysts, inventory clerk, and library. the senior collections officer,

civil engineer, environmental assistant, and security guards. while we were sheltered in place as you can imagine, the departments were not filling any positions at that time, so we were closed down. however, as we re-opened and during the pandemic, we worked with the department of re-- excuse me -- the department of public health, which had a huge need for hires and an immediate need for hires. i am happy to report that a lot of those positions supported a lot of the ace programs that were for the department of health for filling those essential positions. we had departments outside of the department of public health that really needed our support and we were able to hire critical positions, positions such as clerk, junior management assistant, porter, clinician and security guard. we were able to make over five

placements during the pandemic. these were essential worker positions and now these individuals are permanent in the city. with the expansion, i talked a little bit it in 2016, we started with four departments -- human service agency department of public health, general service agency and the airport. this allowed for the departments to fill temporary exempt and permanent exempt and any classification. again, we've had a total of over 49 total placements within the time that we started this expansion. here's another snapshot of the various different positions that we've been able to hire through this time. you will see that before the shelter-in-place we had over 30 placements. all of those ranging in various different departments. as you can see we've had multiple support from various different departments in filling positions outside of permanent

civil service. this allowed for the departments to be able to really use the ace program the way they wanted to, filling positions that they really had. some of those positions really included critical positions -- health worker two and threes, custodians, security i.d. airport technician at the airport, medical social workers and behavioral health clinicians. once we had the shelter-in-place, we identified that the department needed help and they needed help right away lastly, we had qualified candidates ready and available to work and we were able to support the departments in filling 16 essential positions since the pandemic started. we continue to support the departments. we have positions now readily available and vacant and 1630 account clerk areas, senior collection officers, and in various different areas and the department of public health. from this, 49 successful

placements and, again, more departments than ever contributing to this support of the ace program. i want to give a huge thank you to the departments. from the departments you will notice that we have a large department of public health, san francisco mta, human service agency, rec and park, and more. these are just some of the few and we continue to strive for more as we have the diversity recruiters and they're outreaching to departments on a monthly basis, and the departments now will have a way to identify ace applications as we transition to a new applicant tracking system, making it easier for ace to be implemented into the application process, which was not originally the case and job ads that we've had for over 25 years.

here's some ace accomplishments and, again, just an overview of our placements. critically, just to inform you all that ace rule 115 has had a total of 56 hires. exempt has been 49. this gives us a total of last year when i spoke with you in february we were at 86. and we've been able to increase our number to 105. we've also increased our department representation to over 21 different departments. and, again, not many people -- when people use the ace program, they're encouraged to also go through the general hiring process. we've been able to successfully see people hired and those are over 30 individuals that have identified that they've used ace and have stated to us that they received permanent employment outside of the ace program. so what's next for the ace program, and what are we doing? well, we receive surveys and as

we build our small program and during the pandemic we were able to outreach with the help of mdc, the mayor disability committee. we worked on getting surveys out to the community. and with those surveys we've been able now to put together the implementation that we're trying to change some of those things that include putting on more events, which we're doing now. and just to say that we have two events coming up. one of them is -- and i invite you -- all of you to attend. our smart recruiter applicant tracking system on september 29th. in addition to that we'll have an overview of how to apply for this new tracking -- applicant tracking system. which is the application system and it is going to be much easier, and we know that applicants will have questions. we'll also have a presenters to come and that's the fun part is really being able to showcase the various different supports of the ace program.

the next event that we have is our october event. this is going to be the city's first ever national disability employment month. october 13th, and we will have a large amount of community-based organizations, city departments, and also an overview of our ace program and success rate. i welcome you to sign up for these events by going to our career events page. please sign up at eventbrite, and these events should not be missed by you all. this is a list of all of the organizations that we have reached out to. again, this is just some as i didn't want to overwhelm you. we currently have a large list but, again, we want to continue to partner with organizations. so with the organizations that you know of that may not know about the ace program or may need more explanation about the ace program and how it can support their job seekers. or they want to partner with us

and i encourage you to reach out to me, at porsche.buntonsfgov.og on how to expand the ace program and to bring in qualified applicants to the city. in addition to that, i wanted to showcase how we supported the various different departments in this time frame of working in the shelter in place. we have worked with oewd. we have put on over 10 train the trainer events to our community-based organizations. during that time we have informed them of the new changes that were happening within the city during the time of the pandemic. we provided awareness of how to go get tested. and we provided awareness of what -- how to use computers when our centers were closed down. it was an informational session on how to support their job seekers despite a pandemic. we have piloted the oewd

neighborhood access points. and we used their extended network to promote events. at the library you will notice they also marked our events on their platform and we work with mod, very excited about that, to expand the accessibility tools for presentation and their network. and with the unified school district on how to apply presentation for their high school seniors. as i close, i welcome you to go on the ace web page, to also look at job and the employment opportunity web page and to reach out to me and my staff. again, i thank you for having me here and i'm really happy to answer any questions that you have, especially around events or how i can be a support to you as a job seeker or as a community. thank you for having me. i'll mute my mic now and take questions. >> co-chair madrid: thank you, porsche, for that information.

i ask the commission members if there's any questions. orkid, do you have any questions at this time? >> commissioner sassouni: okay. great. sorry, i just want to make sure that i'm here and that the interpreter can see me with my mask on. so i work -- rule 115, i work with rule number 115 in my position, and it's a city job. and the application process, you know, at that time took forever

it took about three months. so that -- you know, that period of time i was just sitting and waiting for a response. and it's really interesting that this showed proof that there's been data since this and considered and proof -- i had to approve, rather, from dor that i had a disability to be able to get the position. and it was interesting to notice that many positions in the city required an audiology [broken audio] and that was the rules required for application, which i found odd. you had to be able to -- in the job description -- to speak according to some of the notes that were part of the job responsibilities. so i would apply to several

different positions and be turned down because i wasn't able to speak. so needless to say it was quite frustrating. some of the departments are -- are more receptive to deaf applicants. and some deaf people are actually able to use speech as a mode of communication, but i am wondering if dor should be assisting with modifying that in the system, or if -- if the proof of disability is sufficient as needed for -- as needed for applying for positions as seen in your presentation? >> thank you so much for that question, orkid.

i wasn't here at the time. i started in 2016, so anything before that i wasn't aware in 2015 and before, the departments were able to use this program on their own, so they didn't have guidance from hr on how to really support applicants at the time. and so they were on their own. now it's like a streamlined process. so i am responsible in supporting in the hiring process. i can assure you that there's no speech assessment in the 2016 and before, there's not a speech assessment. there is some positions that require a language condition. and that is where i can see a department using that as an assessment such as can you read, write in that particular language. but i now in my role can say it proudly that there's no speech assessment. and that people who do identify

as deaf or hard-of-hearing do not need to prove that they havg a speech assessment in their department. and if that's -- if that is something that the departments do, they would need to relate to the job that they're applying for. and that's the only time that i can see that happening. but i have not heard about that we do receive certifications of disability and that will suffice for eligibility of the ace program. in addition to meeting the minimum qualifications. that is the only two assessments that we currently have at this time. >> commissioner sassouni: i really appreciate it. thank you so much. >> thank you, great question. >> co-chair madrid: thank you, orkid. do you have questions, tiffany?

>> commissioner yu: this is tiffany. first i want to say that i remember your presentation maybe two years ago to this month when i not only want to say congratulations on building out your team, but i also remember -- i think that the number was maybe 70 or 80 hires and now it's at 110. so progress. and i really -- and i also want to congratulate you on the first national disability employment event that will happen next month. that is also a big deal to at least to be having some programming coming out of the city recognizing that. so lots of amazing wins. my only question was -- and i couldn't tell if you covered it in the program, but i know that you had talked about the expansion of the entry level exempt. and i am not familiar with all of the terminology. but i was curious if you had any data on what percentage of

people through the ace program that were hired into a one-year program who were then able to transition into permanent employment with the city? >> oh, yes, we definitely keep that information. so what i'm hearing you correctly ask is -- do we keep data that shows people entering into our ace rule 115 in a transition, or if they decided to take a different job? am i correct? >> commissioner yu: correct, right. because i think one of my comments from the last time was that i feel like when we only provide entry level/no path for haven'tment opportunities to disabled people, it keeps many of us within this cycle of being unemployed or underemployed. >> yes. so we currently have the data that shows when we have people start with the city in the ace program rule 115, and if they successfully transition.

what we don't show and we haven't tracked because our team is very small and mighty, we don't follow the ace applicants through the process. people that we hired five years ago, we will not go back to see if they have promoted or anything like that, because we're so busy trying to continue to build off new placements and to support the departments that have not used the ace program. however, that is our hope when we do get more people to the program for really right now we're really interested in hiring like an analyst or someone to really support recruiting, because as you can imagine recruiting for the disability community is much different than going out into just any other community and recruiting. so i think that once we get those two, we can do a lot more data. we do our data manually through an x.l. spreadsheet, but i'll be happy to share that with you all without sharing names of the people that have gone in, what the success rate looks like.

and also the positions that people go through without using the ace program. we do have that data. >> commissioner yu: got it. so off the top of your head, out of the 110, are you -- are you familiar with how many of them ended up transitioning into -- into longer-term employment? >> yes, i could say that about 85% of the individuals that we got in rule 115, have been able to move into permanent civil service employment. we have some that didn't pass probation. we did have some that may have left for better opportunities, meaning, some entered into 1404 clerk but applied to a higher level and received it through the general hiring process. so we don't track that. but 85% of our hires have transitioned successfully. all of our departments want to see successful placement and a successful placement makes it more that they can use the program again in the future. so we do have about an 85%

success rate. >> commissioner yu: that's great. anyway that we as a council or mod can help to elevate any of these numbers, i think that provides -- that's really great so keep up the great work, and maybe we'll have you back next year, or another two years, and i wasn't wait to hear about more progress. >> thank you so much. that means a lot to me and i appreciate your questions. thank you for your support. >> co-chair madrid: so do we have this item to go forward. >> hi, porsche. >> hello. >> it's always such a pleasure to come and have you speak with us. so thank you, you're a good sport. and as always, being so prepared and clear in your presentation. so thank you. i'll echo tiffany's comments about congratulating you on building out your team. that's exciting. so great job. more good people to continue the

good mission. so terrific. and i'm also impressed at how you're making it faster for applications from the ace program to move through the whole process. so that's really impressive. here's my question -- i love your collaboration with the high school seniors and i think that is super important. have you worked with s.f. unified special ed departments specifically? and i ask because if you're not, it's another avenue for high school seniors who are -- >> thank you for your question, because we recently -- ricardo perez is our liaison in san francisco and a phenomenal support. he's been with me since we developed this program, six, seven years ago. he put me in a room about two

weeks ago with cara, and cara is the high school employment specialist, at the unified school district. and we're working on a possibility of building in a disability type of program internship with the city. that's the only person that i know, but if you are aware of more names, i would love to partner with you and get in a room with more people that could help me to make the change in a different and kind of build what that program looks like. and i do and i would love to reach out to people and support with high school seniors and with high schools in general. >> yeah, i'm happy to follow up with you. i am in contact with a few people there through our different work through mbc. so i'm happy to reach out to you off line about that. thank you. >> thank you. >> co-chair madrid: very good.

any questions for portia? >> thank you for the excellent work that you're doing. i had two kind of different parallel lines of questions. the first actually, helen has more or less addressed, but to reiterate, as we think about creating a pipeline on an ongoing basis to be able to fill these positions, i agree with her they think that it is really worthwhile looking at that kind of pre-employment preparation stage of starting at high schools and then kind of colleges and technical colleges as well. to the extent -- and i'm sure that your partner network includes some of those players, but to the extent that we could continue expanding that, just having the individuals with disabilities and employment, i have really seen that oftentimes this programs are fantastic.

without them we wouldn't even reach the people that we reach. but even within those groups of individuals, there are differing levels of preparedness for entry level jobs. so to the extent that we can be doing work even earlier in the life cycle of an individual going through their career development process, to prime them to be able to take advantage of an opportunity like this, that's incredibly powerful. and i know that you are already thinking along those lines, so thank you. the question that i had -- and the second piece was on the other side. so once the individual is employed, i'd love to hear about -- if you do any work or if there are partners that do this work around ensuring that once they are in that position, there is some training and awareness around inclusion and best practices to ensure that they thrive in that role, and that

the organization that they're a part of is able to use this opportunity to also learn how to work individuals with different needs. >> great question. so first and foremost, thank you so much. going back to your first question, i think -- again, i would love to partner with you all around community-based organizations -- high schools and contacts that can really help us to see what it looks like to develop pathway opportunities for young adults, especially in their high school and college areas. and as an access point. so anything that we can do to partner, i would love to see that. in addition to that, in regards to once they are in the city, a couple of things. so, for the departments that haven't used the ace program before, we work with the department of rehab to put on windmills training. windmills training is a great disability awareness training

for departments, for us to just really to get them started in understanding the small little touchpoints of how to be successful in working with people with disabilities. that training comes from the department of rehabilitation. then we also have internal trainings as well, implicit bias trainings, and some other ones s that our workforce development trainers put on. so those are for hiring managers as well to ensure that they are providing a safe workspace for our job seekers once they enter there is some work that we are doing around additional training, and that is something that i'm working on in year 2022. which is working with the mayor's office of disability for putting trainings on. honestly, i would have loved to do it for october, but it was just not the right time. mod has put on some great training that i think that we could build off of, in addition to the great work they've done, because our training department

right now and dhr is changing. and we want the changes to line up a little bit. and so before we jump into projects in year 2022, that is going to be something that i bridge the gap on, which is bringing training -- cultural trainings to both our new hires in our departments with the support of mod and the muc academy. so that's something that we're still in a work in progress on. and there are other trainings that we need to put on, so if you are aware of what type of trainings would be good, i would love to see that. again, that would be in support of mayor's office on disabilities, specifically working in partnership with debbie and nicole. >> thank you. >> co-chair madrid: thank you. now my question to you was the

main goal if the staff had fielded questions for porsche. >> go ahead and ask your question and i'll wrap up before we go to public comment. >> co-chair madrid: thank you for coming again. i think that my question is twofold. and there are many departments right now, and about 41 [indiscernible]how do you engage or try to let other

departments know that the ace program is a way to hire amazing people to help the economy. that's one. and the second thing is that once people are becoming permanent, does ace program have the employee or that department to take a look on past promoting for such individuals? >> great question. so i'll answer your question and we'll repeat it for the audience. the first question is -- how do i engage with the departments who want specifically to have not used the ace program.

a great question, alex, and thank you for that. there's a couple of things that i do. i have to admit that in this role i must be creative and creativity changes every day. so right now what i'm doing is i know that we are reopening and i know that right now with the challenges that are happening, the departments are seeing slim to none applicant pool. so i'm reaching out to the dpo, our deputy support in those departments, to engage with them and to say, hey, i know that you're hiring for these positions because i can look at the reports of the departments that currently have vacancies. and to see and identify that. i can also let them know, look, i don't want you to post your positions and have little to none applicants. i have done the hard work for you by going out in the community, getting new candidates, and having those candidates qualify and to meet those qualifications and i am happy to match with you those qualified candidates before you

go out into the post model, to post your job, and then hope that people apply. it's more meaningful to know who your applicants are and i can provide that information to you so that -- >> co-chair madrid: i just wanted to stop you there. i wanted to say one thing for people. i think this was the origin and the public understand what i'm saying, but they could [indiscernible]go ahead, continue, porsche. >> this is the interpreter, i am sorry, could you repeat what you just said. i had a difficult time hearing your comment and question. >> co-chair madrid: well, i just wanted to make a comment and

clarify that i just wanted to thank her for -- for porsche for being the inspiration to the audience and to the public. but i think that the public understand what i'm saying and i think that i would add the mayor of disability, what it looks like to have someone to voice for me, and it's something that i can think about [indiscernible]but, please, go

ahead to answer my question, porsche. >> thank you, alex. so that's one way that we engage with the departments. another route is that we have something called hr professionals. this is a monthly meeting. and i go and i attend those and put on events where i showcase ace, remind departments that frequently change leadership sometimes around the ace programs. and also to identify how and what the ace program is. i also attend the department manager meetings. so, again, the department managers hold meetings with their -- with their team. and i attend their meetings. and i also have a city-wide diversity work group that consists of almost 125 people and various different departments of almost 40 different departments. i also broadcast the ace program in those monthly meetings as well. your follow-up question to your last question on what happens when they're in permanent

positions and when they're in permanent positions do we really engage with promotional opportunities. the answer is it depends and it's really a case-by-case. there are some departments that have promotional opportunities where, yes, they would want to promote. however, the ace program cannot help them anymore at that time other than career coaching and building and resume support, because they must be able to go through the civil service to pass the exam to promote. ace is an entry level alternative pathway but it's not a promotional pathway. so that's a problem and challenge that ace applicants have once they get in the door. (please stand by)

>> we're happy to work with you on whatever training support you need. i think they're important. we're glad to be in partnership with that and i was hoping as a way to wrap up the section

before we go to public comment if you could announce one more time the event details for october -- the october 14th event. >> i would love to. yes. that event will be october 14th. that will be our national disability employment awareness event. the first of the city. it will consist of an overview of how to apply on our new applicant tracking system. various different city departments. and also concluding community based organizations and has supported the program. again, that event is october 14th, from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30. that event is on eventbrite. i believe someone dropped the link for the event and i appreciate you so much for that

and, again, i want to say that is an event not to be missed along with our smart recruiter event as well. and the disability employment awareness month. it will be our first event ever if you do miss it, we do plan to record it and we'll also be putting our recordings on our diversity recruitment team's web page. we have all the recordings on that web page. nicole, thank you for all your support. it is greatly appreciated. >> you're very welcome. we'll be sure to put the event information out on the mayor's office of disability distribution as well. alex, i think we can go to public comment. >> okay. nicole. thank you. do we have any public comment at this time? >> i currently do not see any public comment at this time, however, just to remind the public, they can make public

comment and enter the queue by clicking on the raised hand icon. if you're calling in by phone, you can press star nine and let us know you want to make a public comment. initially, if you are in the zoom platform, you can type in your comment in the q&a box and we can call on you or your comment can be read by the clerk. >> chairman: i'm going to give a few more seconds and then i'm going to close this item. okay.

thank you porsche for coming. it was a great presentation and congratulations for your promotion and thanks. congratulations for your new team. i hope that we will hear from you soon or in the near future. >> thanks. >> chairman: with that, i'm going to move us on to item number seven, reports from mayor's office. >> okay. thank you very much, co-chair madrid. today, i'm going to focus on some of the legislative things that are happening and give

some very brief updates on other things that have happened since our last public meeting. so i'm going to start with some local legislation and then we'll move to some state legislation i want to make sure the council is aware of. the accessible business ordinance is in land use committee right now. i won't go through those details again, but we will post this report on monday for the people that would like the reference number for those of you in the beginning part of our meeting today. i also wanted to highlight for the council that there is a creation of a beach to bay car-free connection and equitable access to golden gate park referral by supervisor chan. it has been referred to land use and transportation. this legislation is separate

and distinct from the golden gate park access and safety program which we'll be hearing from our colleagues in recreation and parks and m.t.a. next month on october 15th, but i wanted to make sure you knew about supervisor chan's legislation in the event that you would like to follow that as well. another piece of local legislation that has passed since the last time we met in public is the shared spaces legislation which you're very familiar with. this legislation passed with amendments directing the maintenance of 8' of pass of travel wherever possible and never less than 6' and the development of the signage to direct the public on how to file complaints and enforcement on that can begin immediately. the permanent program design guidelines are in the final stages of review and they're expected to be released very

shortly. the temporary program expires on december 31st of this year. the council may consider monitoring how the enforcement protocols which are in development and other items related to shared spaces are going and inviting the program leadership back to public hearing as the navigation of our streets and sidewalks continues to be a really critical issue for members of the public. at the statewide level, i wanted to make sure you knew about two pieces of state legislation. one is senate bill 639. this is a senate bill that adds a minimum wage for people with disabilities for california. for those of you interested in employment and employment rights, i direct you to that legislation in case you would like to be engaged with that

and just another update that the senate bill 1376, the t.m.c. access for all act is still proceeding with the public utilities commission and right now it's currently focused on access by offset requirements. those are the key things for legislation that i wanted to make sure you knew about. other things that have also been happening are the city has released a website at https//@sfgov.org/renthelp. i encourage any of you or members of the public to

utilize that site if you're in need right now. related to new topic related to better market street. i know that this is an item of interest to the council. they have changed the accessibility change and scope and the timeline specific to that. the biggest change is there have been pieces of the previously proposed bike level bikeway that have been removed from the project with some other items still in consideration around that. so, again, another item for you to potentially consider bringing to the council for public meeting. we have had some successful meetings in recent weeks around disability access and summer together. the summer camp program, the

school district. collaborative meetings with mayor's office on disability, recreation and parks, and our colleagues at the school district and so that's been very positive moving forward. we've made some improvements in camp and after school programming for the future. i want to make you aware that the community alliance of disability advocates arcada which is led by senior disability action and the independent living resource center in san francisco and many other disability organizations have sent a letter asking the city to look into the future availability of virtual access to public meetings beyond the declaration of the emergency order. so i will be forwarded that letter to you for your

awareness so you can be involved in that and track it should we choose to. just a few more things to announce. one, is that as the city is continually, slowly moving back to providing services in person, i want to make sure that people know that our covid response is still happening and that in relation to that and the vaccines in particular, a reminder that third doses are currently available for immuno compromised individuals and the city is beginning to explore capacity for making third dose clinics available if and when those are authorized. so more to come on that, but i

just wanted you to know that we are thinking about what might be possible there. i also wanted to make sure you know and the public knows that the home vaccination program is still available at any time by calling the call center at (628) 217-6101. and then, finally, i just wanted to add with two more announcements, one is a reiteration that was announced at the beginning of public comment at the beginning of the meeting for the events regarding the master plan on aging and san francisco's hope to help that plan focus on ending homelessness for people with disabilities and older adults and that event is on september 26th at 1:00 p.m. and as was just mentioned, october 14th is the disability employment title starting at

4:00 p.m. for both of those events, we'll send out more information on the mayor's office of disability distribution. if you or any members of the public have questions about anything on this report, please feel free to contact us at mod@sfgov.org or call us at (415) 554-6789 and leave us a message and we'll get back to you. and, with that, that includes my report for today. >> chairman: thank you for your report. now, we are going to item number eight, general public comment. do we have any public comment?

>> so for public comment, members of the public can make public comment by clicking on the raised hand icon. you can also indicate that you'd like to make public comment to be recognized or to make a comment. you can if you're joining by phone, you can press star nine to raise your hand and we will let you know when it's your turn to make a comment. as always, we'll welcome suggestions about how to make sings more accessible. send an e-mail to mod@sfgov.org. and, at this time, members of the public may address the council on items of interest to the public that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the council that are not on this meeting agenda. and, with respect to agenda

items, this is your opportunity. each member of the public may address the council for up to three minutes. the council is taking action for discussing any items not appearing on the posted agenda including those items raised at public comment. with that said, i do not see any members of the public interested in making public comment at this time. >> [inaudible] >> chairman: thank you for that. i'm going to close public comment. i will continue on item number

nine. >> clerk: no correspondence was received in the past month. >> chair, i just wanted to say one thing around correspondence. we did receive questions and correspondence and ideas that were in the chat today that we weren't able to address. so i would like to suggest that we capture the chat and bring that back to the planning meeting so that you'll need to think about those as well.

questions about mutanty and also questions about housing and i wanted to make sure that those questions are taken care of. >> chairman: thank you. i'm sure we will take a look at it on tuesday. with that, we are on item number ten, questions and comments or announcements at this time. for any staff, do you have any questions or comments or announcements at this time?

okay. seeing none. we are on item number eleven, which is adjournment. are there any closing comments from members? going once. >> yes, we have orkid. no. i have no comment whatsoever. >> chairman: thank you for that. >> go ahead and adjourn. >> chairman: thank you, orkid. with that, i would like to thank the staff nicole, john,

and thank you to the interpreters and especially thank you to the public. see you at our next meeting which is october 15th 1:00 to 4:00. so, with that, i thank you all and have a good weekend. >> thank you everyone. good meeting.

thank you. >> thank you. >> chairman: thank you. >> right before the game starts, if i'm still on the field, i look around, and i just take a deep breath because it is so exciting and magical, not knowing what the season holds is very, very exciting.

it was fast-paced, stressful, but the good kind of stressful, high energy. there was a crowd to entertain, it was overwhelming in a good way, and i really, really enjoyed it. i continued working for the grizzlies for the 2012-2013 season, and out of happenstance, the same job opened up for the san francisco giants. i applied, not knowing if i would get it, but i would kick myself if i didn't apply. i was so nervous, i never lived anywhere outside of fridays fridays -- fresno, and i got an interview. and then, i got a second interview, and i got more nervous because know the thought of leaving fresno and my family and friends was scary, but this opportunity was on the other side. but i had to try, and lo and

behold, i got the job, and my first day was january 14, 2014. every game day was a puzzle, and i have to figure out how to put the pieces together. i have two features that are 30 seconds long or a minute and a 30 feature. it's fun to put that al together and then lay that out in a way that is entertaining for the fans. a lucky seat there and there, and then, some lucky games that include players. and then i'll talk to lucille, can you take the shirt gun to the bleachers. i just organize it from top to bottom, and it's just fun for me. something, we don't know how it's going to go, and it can be a huge hit, but you've got to try it. or if it fails, you just won't

do it again. or you tweak it. when that all pans out, you go oh, we did that. we did that as a team. i have a great team. we all gel well together. it keeps the show going. the fans are here to see the teams, but also to be entertained, and that's our job. i have wonderful female role models that i look up to here at the giants, and they've been great mentors for me, so i aspire to be like them one day. renelle is the best. she's all about women in the workforce, she's always in our corner. [applause] >> i enjoy how progressive the giants are. we have had the longer running until they secure day. we've been doing lgbt night

longer than most teams. i enjoy that i work for an organization who supports that and is all inclusive. that means a lot to me, and i wouldn't have it any other way. i wasn't sure i was going to get this job, but i went for it, and i got it, and my first season, we won a world series even if we hadn't have won or gone all the way, i still would have learned. i've grown more in the past four years professionally than i think i've grown in my entire adult life, so it's been eye opening and a wonderful learning

this is the regular meeting of the commission on community investment and infrastructure for tuesday, september 21, 2021. i'd like to welcome members of the public who are streaming or listening, and staff and other commissioners will be participating in today's meeting. following the guidelines set forth by local officials, members of the commission are meeting remotely to ensure the safety of everyone, including members of the public. thank you, all for joining us this afternoon. madame secretary, please call the first item. >> the first order o