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RESOLUTION #2005-3

Mayor’s Disability Council (MDC) Resolution

Endorsing a system of priorities for the re-assessment and implementation
of the City and
County of San Francisco ’s Americans with Disabilities Act Transition Plan

Whereas, the City and County of San Francisco has an obligation

under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and other
disability rights laws, to provide equal access to all City and County
programs and activities; and

Whereas, with regard to existing facilities, the ADA requires the City and County to
operate each service, program or activity, when viewed in its entirety, is readily
accessible to and usable by people with disabilities, but does not necessarily require
the City and County to make each of its existing facilities accessible and usable by
individuals with disabilities; and

Whereas, the City and County endeavors to provide to the residents each service,
program or activity in the most integrated setting as possible, and per the Self
Evaluation report, endeavors to provide service delivery characterized by flexibility
and individual attention rather than rigid adherence to official policies and
procedures, the City and County seeks to provide accessible and usable facilities for
its residents and employees in the most creative and efficient manner possible; and

Whereas, a facility assessment was conducted on more than six hundred and
seventy five facilities and buildings within the jurisdiction of the City and County in
1999 and 2000, which included not only identifying barriers or hindrances to service
program or activity, but also included deviation from current accessibility or building
code technical standard for new construction; and

Whereas, in an economic environment of limited capital funding sources,

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competing needs for social service program funding and limited architectural and
construction human resources to implement design and construct building and
facility alterations or replacement, the City and County must prioritize efforts for the
removal of architectural barriers in buildings and facilities under its jurisdiction; and

Whereas, the City and County seeks participation of interested persons, including
individuals with disabilities in this process; and

Whereas, the City and County does concurrently and proactively seek to provide
and ensure programmatic access to services, polices and practices, especially
where there may be architectural barriers or hindrances to direct access in a
particular building or facility; and

Whereas, since the advent of the ADA in 1990, the City and County has spent and
committed millions of dollars in new construction, alteration, and removal of
architectural barriers that dramatically improve the accessibility and usability of
numerous buildings and facilities throughout the City and County for individuals with
disabilities; and

Whereas, the City and County endeavors to continue improving the physical
environment for accessibility and usability for all its residents and employees and
visitors.

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, That the Mayor’s Disability Council (MDC)

recommends to the Mayor of San Francisco and the San Francisco Board of
Supervisors that the City and County adopt a creative and flexible set of priorities for
the removal of architectural barriers in existing buildings and facilities, that:

A) Leverages removal of architectural barriers into planned capital improvements through

new construction, alterations and maintenance projects that have the result of removing
architectural barriers,

B) Prioritizes coordination of project funding through capital projects joint ventured

between various departments or agencies, and where applicable, other state or federal
funding sources, that will have the result of removing architectural barriers,

C) Prioritizes removal or architectural barriers in public use spaces and employee controlled
public use spaces, prior to conducting the same in employee work areas,

D) Prioritizes barrier removal projects in departments or agencies that do not generate

significant fees, bonding potential or endowment, or which have not undergone significant
facility replacement or alteration since 1992, and which provide significant public service and

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benefit, specifically, and in the following order:

Priority 1. Public Health Department medical centers,

Priority 2. Social Service (including Public Safety) buildings and facilities, and

Priority 3. Places of Assembly and meeting places that do not charge significant fees
per seat, or high use fees, such as auditoriums, hearing rooms, council chambers,
community centers, community meeting rooms and conference rooms.

E) Prioritizes removal of architectural barriers in public and common use areas for those
departments that provide the most crucial services to the disability community.

F) Prioritizes accessibility of City and

County web sites .

G) Encourages departments and agencies which have significant fee generation, bonding
capability or endowment, or which have undergone significant facility replacement or
alteration since 1992, to maintain accessible features and, where necessary, to conduct
removal of existing architectural barriers to public use and controlled public access areas in
their buildings and facilities, concurrent with the City and County’s ADA Transition Plan
activities.

H) Encourages those agencies which are a separate administrative entity from that of the
City and County, to conduct their own ADA Transition Plans, in concert with the spirit and
intent of this resolution.

April 15, 2005 Mayor’s Disability Council –

ADOPTED

Ayes: 6 - Jul Lynn Parsons, Norma Block,

Ed Evans, Robert Neil, Denise
Senhaux, and Tatiana Kostanian

Absent: Jack Fagan, Eugene Flannery,

Elizabeth Grigsby, Richard Ow,
and Ruth Nunez.

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