504 Democratic Club: Questionnaires (Candidate for City Council Alan Sasson's 2009 response)

Candidate Name: Alan J. Sasson

Council District: 46

Contact Person:

If there is a Campaign office, is it wheelchair accessible? Not applicable.

Campaign Address: 1949 Haring Street, Brooklyn, NY 11229
Phone: 917-855-5995
Fax:
Email: Sassonforcouncil @ gmail.com
Website: www.alansasson.com

Action Shows Commitment!
1. While in public office/prior to this campaign, what have you accomplished in regard to advancing disability rights? This can include work towards accessible housing, transportation, employment, health care, education, and including people with disabilities in the political process?
  
  I worked with and advocated for people with disabilities in order to get assistance from their HMO's and make buildings accessible for disabled individuals.
2. Will you commit to only attend / sponsor events that are accessible to people with disabilities (PWDs including providing written materials in alternate formats, providing assistive listening systems, and sign language interpreters as well as ensuring that locations are physically accessible)?
  
  Yes.
General Questions
1. What personal and professional experience have you had with people with disabilities in your personal life and in the workplace?
  
  I have many friends and family members who are disabled and know firsthand the difficulties that they have to deal with because of their disabilities.
2. What type of jobs would you be willing to hire and to provide reasonable accommodation (e.g. flex or part time) for staff members with disabilities?
  
  Any and all jobs would be available to any qualified person regardless of their disability.
3. How will you work closely with the disability community to assure passage of vitally needed legislation through the City Council? What will be your strategy?
  
  I will listen and discuss with my constituents the problems that they face and will work diligently as their representative to find a solution or to advocate on their behalf.
Housing
1. What is your position on the development of supported apartments/homes and retirement homes for the persons with mental and/or physical disabilities in your district?
  
  I am in support of the development of these types of homes in my district.
2. What is your position on making DRIE (Disabled Rent Increase Exemption) and SCRIE (Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption) programs income eligibility comparable? (At present a individual senior or household income eligibility is $28,000. While the income for a younger disabled individual is capped at $19,284 and $27,780 for a household?)
  
  I believe that they should be equal because it would constitute discrimination, just because a person is young and disabled there is no reason why they should be treated differently as a non-disabled senior citizen.
3. Visitability sets guidelines to ensure newly constructed multi-family dwellings have basic accessible/adaptable features to permit people with disabilities can visit, and for residents to "age in place," without having to move out when age and/or disability set in. Do you support incorporating the concept of "visitability" in the Building Code?
  
  Yes.
Transportation
1. Will you support an expansion of affordable wheelchair accessible transportation in NYC, including taxis, livery service, express buses, and shuttles, more accessible subway stations, etc.?
  
  Yes.
2. Efforts to secure a 100% accessible fleet of medallion taxis have been hampered by opposition from Mayor Bloomberg and the taxi industry. The current emphasis is on creating a 100% "green" fleet. What would you do to assure that taxis and community car service vehicles are both "green" and universally designed for wheelchair access?
  
  Although, I believe that we as a society must go green in order to have a cleaner Earth, the mayor and the taxi industry are blatantly discriminating against all disabled people by choosing not to have encourage all taxis to be accessible for the disabled community. I would try to find a company that deals with supplies for the disabled, that would be willing to work on a deal where they would be willing to make a deal with the city for installing all taxis with accessibility devices for people with disabilities.
3. Access-A-Ride (AAR) users experience unnecessarily long trips, causing workers to be late for work, have their pay docked and possibly losing their jobs. AAR leaves consumers stranded, lies that a vehicle is coming and penalized riders as a "no-show" when the vehicle never arrived. Riders who complain report they are subject to retaliation. What would you do to improve the quality of AAR? Would you support the issuance of a "smart card" so that Access-A-Ride users can use accessible cabs/livery service at a reduced cost and receive better service?
  
  Firstly, there should be a separate body besides the MTA that oversees the AAR program and secondly, there needs to be a better system in place, the people that rely on AAR don't use it for choice they use it because it is their only option. It is unconscionable that a person who lives in Brooklyn and wants to go to a doctor's appointment in Manhattan, will sometimes have to go to other boroughs first to either pick up or drop-off other riders.
4. Would you support the issuance of a "smart card" so that Access-A-Ride users can use accessible cabs/livery service at a reduced cost and receive better service?
  
  Yes.
Civil Rights

Do you pledge to use your office to affirm or strengthen, rather than weaken, civil rights protections for persons with disabilities?

Yes.
Community Board
1. Do you support requiring all Community Board meeting and function be accessible, including requiring sign language interpreters and large print format material?
  
  Yes.
2. How many people with disabilities have/will you appoint to your local Community Board(s)?
  
  Any person with a disability that wants to serve on the community board will be permitted, there is no limit on how many people with disabilities can serve and I will not set a number, every person who wants to serve their community has the right to do so.
3. Will you support the "requirement" and implement, a Disabled Committee on every Community Board?
  
  Yes.
Discretionary Funds

Will you use your discretionary funds to support organizations serving people with disabilities or service organizations seeking to make their programs accessible to people with disabilities?

Yes.
Accessibility
1. Under Mayor Bloomberg, the City settled with the United Spinal Association and agreed to install pedestrian ramps, on all corners which presently don't have one. However, no provision was made to repair and/or replace existing ones which are unsafe. How would you ensure that pedestrian ramps are provided or repaired? What would you establish as a timetable?
  
  There needs to be input from community residents stating whether there is a problem with the pedestrian ramps on their blocks and also the city needs to check all of the ramps at least once every 3 years in order to determine whether the ramps need to be repaired or replaced.
2. What steps do you think NYC should take to encourage business owners to make their establishments more accessible?
  
  NYC should implement some type of incentive program for businesses that make their establishments accessible. It could be a tax break or some kind of "free money" for the future use of upgrading their store.
3. How would you ensure that emergency evacuation for PWDs provisions are put in place to improve survival rates of PWDs in the event of fire, attack, blackout, or other emergency situation?
  
  There has to be a group of people that are properly trained to deal with the moving and caring of people with disabilities in the event of any emergency evacuation.
Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD)
1. Mayor Bloomberg elevated the Director of the (MOPD) to a Commissioner without any increase in budget or responsibilities. How would you ensure that city departments/agencies coordinate through MOPD?
  
  I would mandate that there should be a meeting with that agency in order to address their concerns.
2. How do you believe the City Council should enforce and do oversight regarding the work of the office and be certain of the implementation and its efforts?
  
  There should be committees and public hearings that address the issues in order to bring publicity to the issues and that in effect will bring light to the issues that are affecting the disabled community. This will then put pressure on the City Council body and the Mayor to implement and enforce policies that will be of benefit to the disabled community.

Date: May 27, 2009

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