Agenda - Council Work Session - 01/26/2016

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SD -29. Disability Access Requirements Issue: Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 requires that state and local governments provide people with disabilities equal opportunity to benefit from all of their programs, services, and activities. Public entities are not required to take actions that would result in significant financial and administrative burdens, but they must modify policies, practices, and procedures to avoid discrimination unless they can demonstrate that doing so would fundamentally alter the nature of the service, program, or activity being provided. State and local governments are also required to follow specific standards when constructing new facilities and altering existing public buildings, and they must relocate programs or otherwise provide access in inaccessible older buildings. Under the ADA, public entities are not necessarily required to make each existing facility accessible. However, their programs—when viewed in their entirety—must be readily accessible to people with disabilities. A public entity may achieve program accessibility through various methods. For example, a city may alter existing facilities, acquire or construct new facilities, relocate a service or program to an accessible facility, or provide services at other accessible sites. One district court judge has taken an expansive view of disability access requirements for public recreation facilities. The case involved a parent who sued a city due to difficulty viewing soccer and baseball games on certain city fields. The court, in interpreting the Minnesota Human Rights Act (MHRA), held that any public facility is a public service. Since the MHRA requires that every public service be accessible to disabled persons, the court concluded that each and every playing field and other public facility must be fully accessible. The court rejected the ADA's limitations on modifications for physical access to older facilities, as well as the ADA's "when viewed in its entirety" language for program access. The result is a more restrictive state standard for physical access to public facilities than required by the ADA and the State Building Code. Response: The League of Minnesota Cities supports changes to the MHRA that will make state accessibility standards compatible with the federal ADA for public services and facilities. The Legislature should clarify that a facility that is in compliance with handicap access provisions of the State Building Code meets the physical access requirements of the MHRA. State law should also specify that access requirements apply to public programs and services as a whole, rather than to each individual aspect of a public program or service. SD -30. Assaults on Code Enforcement Officials Issue: Many city employees and contractors are required to enforce city codes and ordinances and state statutes and rules as part of their job duties. Code enforcement can involve denying a building permit, ordering a landlord to make repairs to rental properties, or fining property owners for failing to abate a nuisance. Because of the nature of their job, code enforcement officials can be subjected to verbal assaults, threats, and physical violence. Minnesota law recognizes the need to protect certain employees whose jobs make it more likely that they will be the target of assaults by escalating assault charges from fifth to fourth degree for the assaults of peace officers, firefighters, school officials, League of Minnesota Cities 2016 City Policies Page 19