Agenda - Council - 02/08/2021 - Laserfiche WebLink

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adequate qualified local building officials to perform plan review or inspection of the projects. In 2014 the Legislature passed legislation requested by the League of Minnesota Cities and agreed to by DLI to provide more transparency and clarity to the delegation process. DLI, after consulting local governments and the League, implemented a new delegation procedure as required by statute. Although the new delegation process is a significant improvement, it can still be difficult for local building officials to achieve the experience necessary to be delegated full inspection authority. Response: Minnesota's housing and construction industries depend on the work of local building officials, and cities that enforce the State Building Code endeavor to provide quality code administration and enforcement. The State must increase its efforts to train new building officials, and must provide sufficient education to help local officials efficiently administer and enforce construction regulations to protect the health and safety of citizens. These education efforts should include training to assist local building officials gain the requisite experience to qualify for delegation of state -licensed facilities and public buildings. The League urges the state to make surplus revenue from the building permit surcharge available to local governments to help defray the cost of complying with code official training and education requirements. SD-31. Disability Access Requirements Issue: Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 requires that state and local governments provide people 34 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