A new Humboldt County grand jury report released on Friday states the county is not doing enough to address its backlog of Americans with Disabilities Act obligations and now risks a costly federal lawsuit.
The grand jury claims the county has failed to correct the outstanding ADA compliance issues it promised to address within a three-year time frame as part of its 2008 settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice. With other California cities already having been sued by the federal government for similar violations that ended up costing millions of dollars, the report states federal litigation has “not proved to be an idle threat.”
“There exists a justifiable concern regarding the county’s liability for its failure to comply with the 2008 settlement agreement,” the grand jury report states.
The report criticized the county for a lack of responsiveness to state and local agencies, not budgeting enough funding for ADA projects, having no clear or formal system to receive or solicit accessibility issues, lack of training for county staff to properly assist disabled residents, and failing to adhere to portions of the federal settlement agreement.
“Once again, the disabled community, their families and friends did not receive the justice that was promised to them when President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990,” the report stated about the county not replying to a Caltrans review on ADA compliance.
Meanwhile, county officials recently stated in a Thursday interview with the Times-Standard that efforts are already under way to correct many of the issues the grand jury has pointed out, such as renegotiating a plan of action with the U.S. Department of Justice, cataloging completed and future ADA upgrades, and improving communications and outreach to the disabled community.
The county anticipates the Department of Justice will have the courts oversee the county’s progress due to the amount of time that has elapsed.
The grand jury reports that Humboldt County’s estimated 28,300 disabled population — about 21 percent of the population — is slightly higher than the state average of 18 percent.
Human Resources Director Dan Fulks said the county will likely be able to complete many of the grand jury’s recommendations, but stated the county is currently limited in its ability to catalogue its progress, but is now working to correct that.
“As far as day-to-day tracking and processing and so forth, we don’t have the manpower to do that,” Fulks said in a Friday follow-up interview with the Times-Standard. “I need a person qualified to delegate those responsibilities on a day-in and day-out basis so that responsiveness can be improved.”
Regarding the possibility of a lawsuit, Fulks said that he is not aware of any plans by the U.S. Department of Justice to sue the county. The Department of Justice declined an interview request on the subject.
In order to better organize the county’s ADA compliance efforts, the grand jury is recommending the county hire a full-time ADA analyst position.
One reason for this recommendation was due to the lack of clarity regarding who the county’s point of contact is for ADA issues. The county’s ADA coordinator is Fulks, but the grand jury report stated that many county employees interviewed by Caltrans in 2013 “could not tell them the name of the ADA coordinator” and “were not sure how to contact the county concerning ADA issues.”
The grand jury is also recommending the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors establish an ADA advisory committee, release an annual “State of ADA Compliance and Accessibility Report” for the public, develop a long-term budget plan to bring the county into compliance with the ADA, and direct all department heads to conduct routine ADA training workshops for its staff.
The board has allocated $900,000 in discretionary funds for ADA upgrades within the last two years, according to county Public Works Director Tom Mattson, but past budgets show several requests for ADA funding have been turned down.
A similar request in the county’s proposed 2016-2017 budget shows that a $300,000 budget request to create a master plan to address remaining ADA building upgrades is currently not being recommended for funding.
In a recent interview with the Times-Standard, disabled Eureka resident Charlie Bean said the county has been reaching out to him as well as Tri-County Independent Living, a local advocacy organization for the disabled, to identify priority projects, such as the county courthouse.
“I would never try to say that staff is not aware of this,” Bean said.
However, the grand jury states that this communication is “informal” and was only recently established. In response to the grand jury, Tri-County Independent Living staff stated that “little, if any, communication had occurred between them and the county for almost six years.”
“No formal structure exists for Humboldt County people with disabilities to provide ADA compliance input to the Humboldt County ADA compliance,” the report states.
But it’s not just the county that should be held to this standard, Bean said, as many businesses in the area are also not ADA-compliant.
“I can walk into any building and find something wrong with it,” he said, even with modern buildings that are supposedly up to modern ADA standards.
Several local businesses ended up making costly repairs or even closed their doors after ADA lawsuits, such as those filed by attorney Jason Singleton, were filed against them. Bean said some business owners are not aware of their responsibilities, such as making sure the sidewalk directly in front of their business is ADA-compliant.
“It’s the property owner’s responsibility to fix the sidewalk,” he said.
Bean said that he is also working with the Humboldt County Association of Governments to identify all the bus stops that are in need of modifications to allow for better access.
The board of supervisors is set to discuss the ADA settlement agreement in closed session during its upcoming June 7 meeting.
June 3, 2016
Eureka Times-Standard
By Will Houston
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