KIROLA v. THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO

A. INFRASTRUCTURE TO ENSURE ACCESSIBILITY

1. Mayor's Office On Disability

1. According to the 2000 census, approximately 20% of the City of San Francisco's population (150,000 people) live with disabilities. The City's disabled population includes individuals with mobility impairments, cognitive and psychiatric challenges, sensory impairments and self-care challenges. Reporter's Transcript ("RT") 1596:6-22, 2489:12-20; DTX H27 [11, 14-15].

2. To ensure that disabled persons have meaningful access to its services and programs consistent with the ADA and state law, the City has created a sophisticated and robust infrastructure, which includes the establishment of various departments, positions, policies, and programs, which are overseen by MOD.

3. The City created MOD to ensure that every program, service, benefit, activity and facility operated or funded by the City is fully accessible to, and usable by, people with disabilities. RT 1561:16-18; 1566:8-1567:9; DTX A35.

4. MOD is charged with representing the needs of the disabled community. RT 1592:6-22. MOD staff regularly work with and receive input from a variety of organizations devoted to disabled access. RT 1596:24-1597:16.

5. Susan Mizner ("Mizner") has been Director of MOD since 2003. RT 561:14-21. Mizner oversees a staff of seven full-time employees, all of whom have disabilities and many years of experience advocating for the disabled.

6. Joanna Fraguli ("Fraguli") is MOD's Deputy Director for Programmatic Access.

7. John Paul Scott ("Scott") is MOD's Deputy Director for Physical Access.

8. Jim Whipple ("Whipple") and Carla Johnson serve as MOD access compliance officers who conduct plan and site reviews, and Ken Stein is MOD's Program Administrator. RT 1588:13-1592:5.

9. As part of its efforts to promote access for disabled persons, MOD maintains a public website that provides extensive information on various topics, including: (1) new developments; (2) architectural access; (3) the City's review process for ensuring that publicly-funded facilities comply with access laws; (4) the City's ADA transition plans; (5) the rights of persons with disabilities under the ADA; and (6) the City's grievance procedure. RT 1565:14-19, 1567:16-1588:4, 1571:24-1574:6; DTX A35.

10. MOD has also prepared brochures and other materials to publicize its services and to inform the disabled population of their access rights. RT 1575:20-1576:17; 1578:24-1579:21; see, e.g., DTX A31; DTX E27 [000017].

2. Mayor's Disability Council

11. Since 1998, the Mayor's Disability Council ("MDC") has advised the Mayor on disability issues and worked with MOD on access compliance.

12. MDC consists of between nine to eleven appointed members from the disabled community and serves as an advisory body to the Mayor and MOD.

13. The purpose of the council is to ensure ADA compliance and to provide a public forum to discuss disability issues. RT 1593:10-2; DTX A35 [000003].

14. MDC is MOD's primary liaison to the City's disabled community and provides guidance on a variety of disability issues, including website guidelines, transportation, housing, and priorities for ADA transition plan projects. RT 1593:10-17, 1595:14-1596:13.

3. ADA Coordinators

15. Mizner serves as the Citywide ADA Coordinator.

16. Every City department with over fifty employees has a designated ADA Coordinator responsible for investigating disability access complaints and serving as a resource for the department on disability access issues. RT 1583:7-1584:9, 1854:24-1856:21; see also DTX A35 [000110-113].

17. MOD works closely with the ADA Coordinators for the departments involved in this action; namely, DPW and RecPark, and the San Francisco Public Library ("Library"). RT 1857:21-1859:6, 1861:2-1863:6.

18. MOD provides technical assistance and support to all City departments and employees regarding accommodations necessary to ensure access to City services, programs, and activities.

19. In addition, MOD regularly conducts training for virtually all City departments on matters such as disability rights and access requirements. RT 1852:1-1854:7, 1584:22-1586:7, 1839:20-1840:19; DTX A31 [000003]; see, e.g., DTX E45. The trainings emphasize, among other things, the importance of maintaining accessible features. RT 1863:9-1865:3; DTX E45 [000022-023]. RT 1849:4-1850:23. MOD also provides specific training for ADA Coordinators. RT 1854:16-1856:3; DTX E27; DTX E47.

4. Grievance Procedure

20. MOD oversees a citywide grievance procedure for handling public complaints regarding disabled access to its facilities, programs and services. Instructions regarding this procedure are contained on a website operated by MOD which explains how to submit a complaint, inter alia, by using the "ADA Complaint and Assistance Form." RT 1579:23-1580:12-1581:22; DTX A35 [000105-109]. MOD chose this title, believing that it would encourage people to submit requests, including persons who did not characterize their requests as "complaints." RT 1581:11-22.

21. Upon receipt, MOD transmits a copy of the complaint to the appropriate ADA Coordinator. The assigned ADA Coordinator, in turn, conducts an investigation, and, in the course of investigating and responding to the complaint, may seek assistance from MOD or the City Attorney. DTX A35 [000105]; RT 1866:19-25.

22. Within thirty days of receiving a complaint, a written response, approved by MOD and signed by both the ADA Coordinator and the department head, is sent to the complainant. DTX A35 [000105]. The City responds to complaints received "fairly consistently" within thirty days and handles a significant number of complaints through its grievance procedure. RT 1711:18-20-1712:8. However, depending on the complexity of the issue, some complaints take longer to resolve. RT 2001:2-7. MOD monitors the grievances received to identify trends and develop programs to improve access. RT 1869:6-21.

23. During the three year period prior to trial, 40 percent of the grievances received by MOD were related to housing issues, 25 to 30 percent were related to public transportation and paratransit, and 20 percent were related to physical access (the majority of which were curb ramp requests). RT 1868:9-1869:5.

24. Fraguli oversees the City's grievance procedure. RT 1866:11-14. Between the time she joined MOD in 2006 and trial, Fraguli received only one complaint related to a library (pertaining to assistive technology) and a "few" complaints related to physical access in RecPark facilities, which were resolved "fairly quickly." RT 1869:22-1870:13. She has never received a complaint from Kirola or any testifying class member. RT 1870:14-1871:9.

25. Aside from Fraguli, ADA Coordinators at the City's various departments also receive and address access complaints and/or requests regarding their respective departments. See, e.g., RT 2253:22-2254:24 (complaints regarding access to libraries), 2306:3-2309:14, 2336:16-18 (complaints regarding access to RecPark activities, facilities, or programs), 1999:12-2001:1 (complaints regarding access to the City's public right-of-way). MOD receives a monthly report indicating the types of complaints received by the various City departments and whether any departments have been dilatory in issuing responses. RT 1869:6-17.

26. Curb ramp requests or complaints may be submitted through the complaint form on MOD's website, by telephone, written correspondence, or e-mail, either to MOD or DPW, or through the City's 3-1-1 system (which is used to request City services). RT 1619:15-23, 2416:23-2417:2, 2727:13-17.

27. Curb ramp requests submitted through the City's grievance procedure trigger an investigation by DPW. If appropriate, DPW coordinates with other City departments or offices as needed, assigns an engineer to design the individual curb ramp, and works with MOD to prioritize the inquiry list based on the date each request was received and the priorities set forth in the City's Curb Ramp and Sidewalk Transition Plan, i.e., the ADA transition plan specific to its public right-of-way system at issue in this action. RT 2000:7-18, 2385:14-2386:22; DTX A15.

28. The City also proactively solicits curb ramp requests. For instance, the City became concerned that it had received a disproportionally low number of curb ramp requests from certain low-income neighborhoods, despite the fact that those neighborhoods had fairly high rates of disability. The City thus instituted a public outreach program to solicit curb ramp requests from those neighborhoods. RT 1634:5-10, 2417:12-2419:1. The City funded a bus advertisement campaign and sent postcards to paratransit riders explaining the process for making curb ramp requests. RT 1634:11-14; DTX L4. The City also trained its staff to go door-to-door in the poorest neighborhoods to speak with community members about their disability access needs. RT 1634:15-17.

29. At the time of trial, the City's curb ramp request log contained outstanding curb ramp requests for 124 intersections across the City. RT 2440:3-4. Of those 124 intersections, 44 corresponded to requests from individuals with disabilities and were therefore categorized as "higher priority" requests. RT 2440:4-6. At the time of trial, the City was in either the design or construction phase on fully-funded curb ramp projects at 132 intersections. RT 2440:7-10.

30. William Hecker ("Hecker"), one of the City's program access experts, opined that the City's grievance procedure is consistent with the requirements and provisions of the ADA and its regulations. RT 2727:5-19.

5. Funding for Access Improvements

31. Funding for access improvements is governed by the City's Capital Plan. The Capital Plan for Fiscal Years 2012 to 2021 allocates a total of $177 million in fully-funded capital spending over the 10-year period to disability access improvements, which includes $24 million for facility improvements and $153 million for public right-of-way improvements. RT 1543:2-6; PTX 4057 [7]. Considering other categories of spending that would include disability access improvements (such as street repaving projects, earthquake and public safety improvements, facility renewals, and critical deferred maintenance), the City's Capital Planning department estimated the total amount of planned ADA spending from 2012 to 2021 to be approximately $670 million. RT 1544:6-14, 1543:7-1544:4, 1539:19-1540:19.