The (Bloomington) Pantagraph reports (http://bit.ly/SaunBu ) that Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office has leveled 105 violations since the Livingston County Justice Center opened last November.
Problems include a 7-inch single-step barrier to the witness stand, bathrooms that lack enough floor space for a disabled person and tactile panels designed to help blind pedestrians into a crosswalk that instead lead them into an intersection.
More than two dozen security concerns were raised by the 11th Judicial Circuit, including alarms not installed on fire doors and no deadbolt locks on doors from the courtroom.
County officials say the security violations have been corrected and they're working on the accessibility problems.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Talks to address changes to law center ongoing
August 19, 2012 6:00 am • By Edith Brady-Lunny | Pantagraph.com
PONTIAC — The committee that worked with architects to design the Livingston County Law and Justice Center relied on a 2006 report from a national committee studying accessibility issues for guidance to make the facility accessible for disabled people, the county told Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office.
In a July 27 reply to Madigan on how it intends to address more than 100 alleged violations of disability access rules, the county said it used a report compiled by the Courthouse Access Advisory Committee. The document was created “in part to help fill in the absence of requirements, the information gap and inconsistencies that existed in the 1991 ADA,” County Board Chairman Bill Fairfield told the AG’s office.
Last week, Fairfield said he thinks the state will be satisfied with its plans.
“I’m cautiously optimistic. I believe we’ve answered their questions,” he said.
Construction manager Jack Hayes, with Frederick Quinn Corp. in Addison, declined to answer questions about the responses he helped prepare for the county, or the building’s design.
“We’re the construction manager. We had nothing to do with planning and design,” said Hayes.
In its first response to the state in January, the county agreed to comply with the least serious citations involving signs and adjustments to the force required to open interior doors. But the county stood its ground that some items did not require fixing.
A mandate that the court clerk’s area in three courtrooms be accessible to disabled workers solicited this response from the county: “The court clerk must be an ambulatory person due to the required fast paced moving from the bench to the file rooms, to the copy machines etc.”
Madigan’s office repeated its demand that the area be accessible and warned the county that “your response regarding the court clerk having to be an ambulatory person could violate Title I of the ADA” that prohibits discrimination on the basis of a disability.
Suggesting that disabled people would not be able to do the work of a court clerk runs counter to the progress made to employ such individuals, said Laura Schwartz, a spokeswoman for the Americans with Disabilities Association.
“For a government body to state that it intends to violate the law by discriminating is an astonishing position. Following the law is a requirement and not an option and governments are not an exception. They should be leading the way on ADA compliance,” said Schwartz.
Bill Flott, chairman of the County Board’s Law and Justice Committee that oversaw the building project, outlined the county’s possible strategy in a Feb. 15 email to another board member: “I think we need to hear the people from Madigan’s office before we take additional action. If they are real a-holes and won’t listen to logic and common sense then I think we need to look at attorneys that deal with this stuff as well as get help from Cultra, Barickman, Rutherford etc.,” referring to area elected officials. Last week, Flott said the email reflected his frustration with the ongoing ADA issues.
The board also suggests in the July 27 reply to the state that accessibility to the clerk’s area and witness stand can be answered with removable ramps. But the board continues to disagree with the AG that counters in several offices must be lowered because the surfaces are not service counters.
The state is reviewing the latest responses.
Meanwhile, some County Board members are demanding answers as to how the $16 million building could be constructed outside federal and state disability guidelines.
One, District 2 board member Joe Steichen of Kempton, is calling for members of the Law and Justice Committee to resign, saying last week, “This is such a mess I can see us having to close the building” until the issues are resolved.
http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/talks-to-address-changes-to-law-center-ongoing/article_456663d2-e979-11e1-bb12-0019bb2963f4.html
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