By Keith Burbank. Bay City News.
Three members of the Berkeley Commission on Disability have filed a lawsuit against the city of Berkeley, alleging discrimination regarding the rules for attending commission meetings.
Rena Fischer, Helen Walsh and Kathi Pugh filed suit Tuesday in federal court over allegations that the city will not grant them accommodations to attend commission meetings, according to Disability Rights Advocates, a nonprofit legal center that advocates for to people with disabilities and representing all three.
All three say their disabilities require them to attend meetings remotely. If they do, the city requires them to open their homes to anyone who wants to attend a commission meeting, threatening the safety and health of members. The addresses of all three are publicly released.
"Ridiculous," "invasive," and "illegal" is what attorney Jinny Kim of Disability Rights Advocates called Berkeley's stance on the issue.
The city is imposing the requirements on commission members attending remotely due to state law, according to the complaint. The new law, which went into effect this year, arose from Assembly Bill 2449.
That law does not require the addresses of commission members to be public, Kim said.
Assemblywoman Blanca Rubio, D-Baldwin Park, was the author of AB 2449. She declined to comment Thursday on the lawsuit.
Fischer, Walsh and Pugh are part of a nine-member commission. There are four vacancies.
Two of the three who filed the lawsuit must attend commission meetings from their beds. The third is immunocompromised.
By allowing the public into her home, she will be subject to the very threat she seeks to avoid, according to the complaint.
"Opening the homes of Commission members to the public can also be dangerous to the public, as private homes may not be safe or accessible to members of the public with disabilities in the same way that a public meeting place is." in the city," the complaint says.
Fischer, Walsh and Pugh seek to force the city to allow them to attend meetings remotely, as needed.
The three are also seeking to prevent the city from making their home addresses public and forcing them to open their homes as public gathering spaces for commission meetings, among other solutions.
"It is a sad irony that the city of Berkeley, where the movement for full participation and independence began, is putting obstacles in the way of people with disabilities," Pugh said in a statement.
"The ridiculous and untenable position of the city denies us the right to full participation in the government of the city," he said. “The City of Berkeley was repeatedly asked to change its position. Unfortunately, we are forced to file a lawsuit to guarantee our rights."
San Francisco has taken exactly the opposite stance, at least on paper, Kim said.
“If a member of a policy-making body has a disability under federal law—the Americans with Disabilities Act—and their disability limits or prevents their in-person attendance at meetings, for example, if their disability limits them to their residence, then the city must make reasonable accommodations to allow the member to participate in meetings remotely,” a January memo from the San Francisco City Attorney's Office read.
Fischer, Walsh and Pugh could be expelled from the commission, Kim claimed.
A spokesman for the city of Berkeley did not respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit midafternoon Thursday.
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