REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL FROM: SCOTT L. MOZIER, PE, Director Public Works Department BY: RANDALL W. MORRISON, PE, Assistant Director Engineering Division, Public Works Department SHANNON M. MULHALL, ADAC, NIC, CASp, Americans with Disabilities Act Coordinator, Public Works Department SUBJECT ..Title Adopt the Citywide Americans with Disabilities Act Self-Evaluation Update FY22-FY27 Action Plan. ..Body RECOMMENDATION Staff recommends Council adopt the Citywide Americans with Disabilities Act Self-Evaluation Update FY22-FY27 Action Plan (ADA Action Plan) and prioritize funding budget requests, in subsequent budget years, to fully fund each department's action steps through its completion. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a comprehensive civil rights law that mandates equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities. The ADA prohibits discrimination in access to jobs, public accommodations, government services, public transportation, and telecommunications. The ADA states that a public entity must reasonably modify its policies, practices, or procedures to avoid discrimination against people with disabilities. The City of Fresno (City) has undertaken a comprehensive re-evaluation of its policies and programs to determine the extent to which individuals with disabilities may be restricted in their access to services and activities. This ADA Action Plan is prepared in partial fulfillment of the requirements set forth in the ADA (28 C.F.R. � 35.105). This ADA Action Plan will assist the City staff in identifying policy, program, and physical barriers to accessibility and in developing barrier removal solutions that will facilitate the opportunity for access for all individuals. BACKGROUND The preparation of a Self-Evaluation is a requirement of the federal regulations implementing Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (Section 504), which require that all organizations receiving federal funds make their programs available without discrimination toward people with disabilities. Section 504, which has become known as the "civil rights act" of persons with disabilities, states in part: No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States shall, solely by reason of handicap, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. Subsequent to the enactment of Section 504, Congress passed the ADA on July 26, 1990. Title II of the ADA covers programs, activities, and services of public entities. The Department of Justice's Title II regulation adopts the general prohibitions of discrimination established under Section 504 and incorporates specific prohibitions of discrimination for the ADA. Title II provides protections to individuals with disabilities that are at least equal to those provided by the nondiscrimination provisions of Title V of the Rehabilitation Act. Specifically, the City may not, either directly or through contractual arrangements, do any of the following: � Deny persons with disabilities the opportunity to participate in services, programs, or activities that are not separate or different from those offered others, even if the City offers permissibly separate or different activities. � In determining the location of facilities, make selections that have the effect of excluding or discriminating against persons with disabilities. Title II of the ADA stipulates that public entities must identify and evaluate all programs, activities, and services and review all policies, practices, and procedures that govern administration of the entity's programs, activities, and services. The Self-Evaluation identifies those policies and practices that are inconsistent with the requirements of Title II of the ADA. The City conducted citywide Self-Evaluations of services, policies, and practices in 1994, 2002, and 2017. In the years since the last self-evaluation of programs was conducted, new programs have been created, existing programs/services have changed, services have been realigned to other departments, and personnel has changed. All of these changes affect program accessibility. For this reason, the City is updating the Citywide ADA Self-Evaluation with a five-year action plan. The development of the ADA Action Plan involved the participation of ADA Liaisons from each department. A review of the 2017 ADA Self Evaluation was conducted to determine which objectives were completed and which required additional time or steps for completion. Departments had completed all or most of the previously identified steps within the timelines put forth in the previous plan. With the guidance of the ADA Coordinator, each department liaison reviewed their existing programs, services, and activities to identify existing barriers to access and identify the steps and timelines for the removal of the barriers. The ADA Action Plan is a list of attainable goals that were developed to be budgeted and implemented over the next five fiscal years. The goal of the ADA Action Plan is to develop policy and procedural recommendations for the City and each of its departments, divisions, and sections and to foster ties between City employees and representatives of the disabilities community. The process of making City facilities and programs accessible to all individuals will be an ongoing one. The City will continue to review accessibility issues such as resolution of complaints and reasonable modifications. Once this ADA Action Plan is completed, a subsequent five-year action plan will be initiated. Through the course of the ADA Action Plan, there were opportunities for people with disabilities to provide input. The public input period was from July 6, 2021, through August 31, 2021. On July 14, 2021, July 20, 2021, August 17, 2021, and August 25, 2021, people with disabilities and other interested community members were invited to attend online public meetings to provide input on the plan. The first two public meetings were broadcast by the Community Media Access Collaborative (CMAC). Groups that represent or serve people with disabilities were contacted regarding the opportunity to provide comments. The following organizations were provided copies of the draft document and encouraged to submit comments: Resources for Independence, Central Valley; Deaf and Hard of Hearing Service Center, Inc.; Central Valley Regional Center; Valley Center for the Blind; Exceptional Parents Unlimited; and State Center Community College District Disabled Students Program & Services. During the public comment period, copies of the plan and information about how to provide comment were distributed in conjunction with the FAX pop-up outreach events held throughout the month of August. The ADA Action Plan should be considered in conjunction with several other Citywide or Department-specific planning efforts including but not limited to the ADA Facilities Transition Plan, ADA Transition Plan for the Right of Way, FAX ADA Bus Stop Transition Plan, Active Transportation Plan, Complete Streets Policy, General Plan, Parks Master Plan, Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice, Consolidated Plan, and Housing Annual Action Plan. The City is committed to transparency of efforts to comply with the requirements of the ADA. The City regularly reviews the success of improving access to programs, and will continue to do so based on the steps outlined in the ADA Action Plan. To that end, each fiscal year the City of Fresno prepares and distributes an ADA Annual Report. The ADA Annual Report highlights the efforts across all departments to include people with disabilities in programs, services, and activities, demonstrates progress on the action steps outlined in this document, and allows departments an opportunity to adjust timelines as necessary. ENVIRONMENTAL FINDINGS The adoption of the Self-Evaluation is not a "project" pursuant to California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines Section 15378. LOCAL PREFERENCE Local preference was not considered because the adoption of the Self-Evaluation does not involve a bid or award of a construction or service contract. FISCAL IMPACT The ADA Action Plan primarily represents operational impacts, that is, adjustments to processes, procedures, and employee training. FY22 action steps are already included in the FY22 approved budget. For future year goals, each department will need to investigate costs for action steps and request or reallocate funds through the typical budget processes. The ADA Annual Report process provides flexibility from year-to-year to change the targeted completion date based on the approved budget. Items not funded in any specific year would roll over to the following fiscal year budget request process. Certified Access Specialist (CASp)-related objectives in the plan will be addressed utilizing the Disability Access and Education fund, which is earmarked specifically for training, education, and retention of CASp and programs that facilitate construction-related accessibility compliance. ATTACHMENTS ADA Self Evaluation Update FY22-FY27 Action Plan (ADA Action Plan) Appendix A - ADA Liaisons 2021 Appendix B - ADA Self Evaluation Action Plan Public Comment Matrix