SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICAN AND THE CITY OF WAUKEGAN, ILLINOIS UNDER THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT

REMEDIAL ACTION

NOTIFICATION

10. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the City of Waukegan will adopt the attached Notice (Attachment A); distribute it to all agency heads; publish the Notice in a local newspaper of general circulation serving the City of Waukegan; post the Notice on its Internet Home Page; and post copies in conspicuous locations in its public buildings. It will refresh the posted copies, and update the contact information contained on the Notice, as necessary, for the life of this Agreement. Copies will also be provided to any person upon request.

11. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, and annually thereafter until the Agreement terminates, the City of Waukegan will implement and report to the Department its written procedures for providing information for interested persons with disabilities concerning the existence and location of the City of Waukegan accessible programs, services, and activities.

ADA COORDINATOR

12. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the City of Waukegan will appoint or hire one or more ADA Coordinator(s). The ADA Coordinator(s) will coordinate the City of Waukegan’s efforts to comply with and carry out its responsibilities under the ADA, including any investigation of complaint communicated to it alleging its noncompliance with title II or alleging any actions that would be prohibited under title II. The City will make available to all interested individuals the name(s), office address(es), and telephone number(s) of the ADA Coordinator(s).

GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE

13. Within two months of the effective date of this Agreement, the City of Waukegan will adopt the attached ADA Grievance Procedure (Attachment B), distribute it to all agency heads, and post copies of it in conspicuous locations in each of its public buildings. It will refresh the posted copies, and update the contact information contained on it, as necessary, for the life of the Agreement. Copies will also be provided to any person upon request.

GENERAL EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION PROVISIONS

14. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the City of Waukegan will identify sources of qualified sign language and oral interpreters, real-time transcription services, and vendors that can put documents in Braille, and will implement and report to the Department its written procedures, with time frames, for fulfilling requests from the public for sign language or oral interpreters, real-time transcription services, and documents in alternate formats (Braille, large print, cassette tapes, etc.).

15. Within two months of the effective date of this Agreement, the City of Waukegan will implement and report to the Department its written procedures to ensure that TTY calls are returned by the appropriate City of Waukegan official by TTY on the same day as the call is received. If the caller’s questions or concerns cannot be handled promptly, the procedures will require a City of Waukegan employee to communicate with the caller on the same day in order to establish a time frame for the call-back.

16. The City of Waukegan will take steps to ensure that all appropriate employees are trained and practiced in using a TTY and the 7-1-1 Illinois Relay Service to make and receive calls and that its TTY’s are maintained in good working order through test calls every six months for the life of this Agreement.

LAW ENFORCEMENT AND EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

17. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the City will adapt for its own use and implement the City of Waukegan Police Department’s Policy Statement on Effective Communication with People Who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing [Attachment C] and distribute to all police officers the Guide for Law Enforcement Officers When in Contact with People Who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing [Attachment D].

18. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the City will contract with one or more local qualified oral/sign language interpreter agencies to ensure that the interpreting services will be available on a priority basis, twenty-four hours per day, seven days a week, to its police officers or make other appropriate arrangements (such as contracting directly with or hiring qualified interpreters).

19. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the City will ensure that each police station or substation and each jail is equipped with a working TTY to enable persons who are deaf, hard of hearing, or who have speech impairments to make outgoing telephone calls. Where inmate telephone calls are time-limited, the City will adopt policies permitting inmates who use TTY’s a longer period of time to make those calls, due to the slower nature of TTY communications compared with voice communications.

EMPLOYMENT

20. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the City will amend its employment policies, as necessary, to comply with the regulations of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission implementing title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, codified at 29 C.F.R. Part 1630. At minimum, those policies will provide that the City:

    • will not discriminate on the basis of disability in its hiring or employment practices.

    • will not ask a job applicant about the existence, nature, or severity of a disability. Applicants may be asked about their ability to perform specific job functions. Medical examinations or inquiries may be made, but only after a conditional offer of employment is made and only if required of all applicants for the position.

    • will make reasonable accommodations for the known physical or mental limitations of a qualified applicant or employee with a disability upon request unless the accommodation would cause an undue hardship on the operation of the City’s business.

    • if an applicant or employee requests a reasonable accommodation and the individual’s disability and need for the accommodation are not readily apparent or otherwise known, Juneau may ask the individual for information necessary to determine if the individual has a disability-related need for the accommodation.

    • will maintain any employee’s medical records separate from personnel files and keep them confidential.

    • will make an individualized assessment of whether a qualified individual with a disability meets selection criteria for employment decisions. To the extent the City’s selection criteria have the effect of disqualifying an individual because of disability, those criteria will be job-related and consistent with business necessity.

EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS AND RECOVERY

21. If the City of Waukegan contracts with another entity, such as the American Red Cross or another local government, to provide its emergency preparedness plans and emergency response services, the City of Waukegan will ensure that the other entity complies with the following provisions on its behalf.

22. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the City of Waukegan will implement and report to the Department its written procedures that ensure that it regularly solicits and incorporates input from persons with a variety of disabilities and disability advocates regarding all phases of its emergency preparedness plan (preparation, notification, response, and clean-up).

23. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the City of Waukegan will implement and report to the Department its written procedures that ensure that its community evacuation plans enable those who have mobility impairments, vision impairments, hearing impairments, cognitive disabilities, mental illness, or other disabilities to safely self-evacuate or be evacuated by others. Some communities are instituting voluntary, confidential registries of persons with disabilities who may need individualized evacuation assistance or notification. If the City of Waukegan adopts or maintains such a registry, its report to the Department will discuss its procedures for ensuring voluntariness, appropriate confidentiality controls, and how the registry will be kept updated, as well as its outreach plan to inform persons with disabilities of its availability. Whether or not a registry is used, the City of Waukegan plan should address accessible transportation needs for persons with disabilities.

24. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the City of Waukegan will implement and report to the Department its written procedures that ensure that if its emergency warning systems use sirens or other audible alerts, it will also provide ways to inform persons with hearing impairments of an impending disaster. The use of auto-dialed TTY messages to pre-registered individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, text messaging, e-mails, open-captioning on local TV stations and other innovative uses of technology may be incorporated into such procedures, as well as lower-tech options such as dispatching qualified sign language interpreters to assist with emergency TV broadcasts.

25. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the City of Waukegan will implement and report to the Department its written procedures that ensure that at least 1 emergency shelter has a back-up generator and a way to keep medications refrigerated (such as a refrigerator or a cooler with ice). Such shelter(s) will be made available to persons whose disabilities require access to electricity and refrigeration, for example, for using life-sustaining medical devices, providing power to motorized wheelchairs, and preserving certain medications, such as insulin, that require refrigeration. The written procedures will include a plan for notifying persons of the location of such shelter(s).

26. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the City of Waukegan will implement and report to the Department its written procedures that ensure that persons who use service animals are not separated from their service animals when sheltering during an emergency, even if pets are normally prohibited in shelters. The procedures will not unnecessarily segregate persons who use service animals from others but may take into account the potential presence of persons who, for safety or health reasons, should not be in contact with certain types of animals.

27. Some of the City’s emergency shelters may be owned or operated by other public entities subject to title II or by public accommodations subject to title III and, as such, are subject to the obligation to provide program access or remove barriers to accessibility under the ADA. This Agreement does not limit such future enforcement action against the owners or operators of these facilities by any person or entity, including the Department.

28. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the City of Waukegan will request in writing that the each of the owners and operators of the shelter facilities listed in Attachment E will remove the noted barriers to access for persons with disabilities. The request will specify that the remediation be completed within one year of the effective date of this Agreement. The City of Waukegan will simultaneously send a courtesy copy of the request to the Department.

29. Within fourteen months of the effective date of this Agreement, the City of Waukegan will survey the shelters listed in Attachment E to determine whether the noted barriers have been removed. If not all barriers have been removed, the City of Waukegan will identify within 18 months of the effective date of this Agreement an appropriate number of alternate shelters where the parking, exterior routes, entrances, interior routes to the shelter area, and toilet rooms to the shelter area comply with the Standards.

30. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement and until all emergency shelters have accessible parking, exterior routes, entrances, interior routes to the shelter area, and toilet rooms serving the shelter area, the City of Waukegan will identify and widely publicize to the public and to persons with disabilities and organizations that serve them the most accessible emergency shelters.

31. To the extent that the City of Waukegan provides opportunities for post-emergency temporary housing to its residents, within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, it will develop, implement, and report to the Department its plans for providing equivalent opportunities for accessible post-emergency temporary housing to persons with disabilities. Within one year of the effective date of this Agreement, the City of Waukegan will ensure that information it makes available regarding temporary housing includes information on accessible housing (such as accessible hotel rooms within the community or in nearby communities) that could be used if people with disabilities cannot immediately return home after a disaster if, for instance, necessary accessible features such as ramps or electrical systems have been compromised.

SIDEWALKS

32. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the City of Waukegan will implement and report to the Department its written process for soliciting and receiving input from persons with disabilities regarding the accessibility of its sidewalks, including, for example, requests to add curb cuts at particular locations.

33. Within six months of the effective date of this Agreement, the City of Waukegan will identify and report to the Department all streets, and roads that have been constructed or altered since January 26, 1992. Paving, repaving, or resurfacing a street, road, or highway is considered an alteration for the purposes of this Agreement. Filling a pothole is not considered an alteration for the purposes of this Agreement. Unless already provided, within three years of the effective date of this Agreement, the City of Waukegan will provide curb ramps or other sloped areas complying with the Standards or UFAS at all intersections of the streets, roads, and highways identified under this paragraph having curbs or other barriers to entry from a street level pedestrian walkway.

34. Beginning no later than three months after the effective date of this Agreement, unless already provided, the City of Waukegan will provide curb ramps or other sloped areas complying with the Standards or UFAS at any intersection having curbs or other barriers to entry from a street level pedestrian walkway, whenever a new street, road, or highway is constructed or altered.

35. Within four months of the effective date of this Agreement, the City of Waukegan will identify all street level pedestrian walkways that have been constructed or altered since January 26, 1992. Paving, repaving, or resurfacing a walkway is considered an alteration for the purposes of this Agreement. Within three years of the effective date of this Agreement, unless already provided, the City of Waukegan will provide curb ramps or other sloped areas complying with the Standards or UFAS at all places where a street level pedestrian walkway identified under this paragraph intersects with a street, road, or highway.

36. Beginning no later than three months after the effective date of this Agreement, the City of Waukegan will provide curb ramps or other sloped areas complying with the Standards or UFAS at all newly constructed or altered pedestrian walkways where they intersect a street or road.

WEB-BASED SERVICES AND PROGRAMS

37. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, and on subsequent anniversaries of the effective date of this Agreement, the City of Waukegan will distribute to all persons – employees and contractors – who design, develop, maintain, or otherwise have responsibility for content and format of its website(s) or third party websites used by  the City of Waukegan (Internet Personnel) the technical assistance document, “Accessibility of State and Local Government Websites to People with Disabilities,” which is Attachment G to this Agreement (it is also available at www.ada.gov/websites2.htm).

38. Within one year of the effective date of this Agreement, and throughout the life of the Agreement,The City of Waukegan will do the following:

    1. Establish, implement, and post online a policy that its web pages will be accessible and create a process for implementation;

    2. Ensure that all new and modified web pages and content are accessible;

    3. Develop and implement a plan for making existing web content more accessible;

    4. Provide a way for online visitors to request accessible information or services by posting a telephone number or e-mail address on its home page; and

    5. Periodically (at least annually) enlist persons with disabilities to test its pages for ease of use.

PHYSICAL CHANGES TO FACILITIES

39. The elements or features of the City of Waukegan facilities that do not comply with the Standards, including those listed in this section, prevent persons with disabilities from fully and equally enjoying the City of Waukegan services, programs, or activities and constitute discrimination on the basis of disability within the meaning of 42 U.S.C. § 12132 and 28 C.F.R. §§ 35.149 and 35.150.

40. The City of Waukegan will comply with the cited provisions of the Standards when taking the actions required by this Agreement.

41. Within four months of the effective date of this Agreement, the City of Waukegan will install signage as necessary to comply with 28 C.F.R. § 35.163(b), after having surveyed all facilities that are the subject of this Agreement for the purpose of identifying those that have multiple entrances not all of which are accessible.

42. Newly Constructed Facilities: In order to ensure that the following spaces and elements in City facilities, for which construction was commenced after January 26, 1992, are readily accessible to and usable by persons with disabilities, the City will take the actions listed in Attachment H.

43. Waukegan City Hall 2004 - New Construction The New City Hall was competed during the summer of 2004.  The Department reviewed the preliminary plans for the new City Hall (not including the construction manual). The Department will conduct an onsite inspection of the New City Hall and will supplement this Agreement to the extent necessary to ensure that all aspects of the new facility comply with the ADA. The City of Waukegan will cooperate in good faith with the Department in this regard.

44. In conjunction with the new City Hall, the City may redesignate the existing Municipal Hall, Municipal Hall Addition, and Municipal Hall Police Station (which are all adjoining), for new purposes. In doing so, it may eliminate or change the purpose of other City-owned or -managed facilities as functions are moved to the renovated old Municipal Hall. If the modifications required by the language of Attachments H, I, and J are reasonably anticipated to become moot before the expiration of the deadlines associated with those modifications, the City may request in writing that the Department release the City from the relevant obligations, or revise the obligations, as appropriate. The Department will notify the City, in writing, within 30 days of receiving such a request. The Department shall not unreasonably deny such a request.

45. Altered Facilities: In order to ensure that the following spaces and elements in City facilities, for which alterations commenced after January 26, 1992, are readily accessible to and usable by persons with disabilities, the City will take the actions listed in Attachment I.

46. Program Access in Existing City Facilities: In order to ensure that each of the City’s programs, services, and activities operating at a facility that is the subject of this Agreement, when viewed in its entirety, is readily accessible to and usable by persons with mobility impairments, the City will take the actions listed in Attachment J.