(page 1) MEMORANDUM TO SENATOR DOLE DA: June 16, 1995 FR: Alec Vachon RE: TY FROM VICTOR ASHE/OUTGOING PRESIDENT, U.S. CONFERENCE OF MAYORS ATTACHED IS A THANK YOU LETTER FROM VICTOR ASHE, outgoing President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, for your March 24th letter to Attorney General Reno asking for an extension of the deadline for curb cuts by cities. (Justice is now moving forward on issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking.) Although Ashe is personally unenthusiastic about ADA, his letter is positive on ADA. Ashe also raises the issue of the costs of paratransit required by ADA--I have been talking with the Mayors about this. BTW, the new President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Norman Rice of Seattle, has the reputation of being very good on ADA. (page 2) (The United States Conference of Mayors Logo) THE UNITED STATES CONFERENCE OF MAYORS 1620 EYE STREET, NORTHWEST WASHINGTON, D.C. 20006 TELEPHONE (202 293-7330 FAX (202) 293-2352 TDD (202) 293-9445 President: VICTOR ASHE Mayor of Knoxville Vitt President: NORMAN RICE Mayor of Seattle Past Presidents: JERRY ABRAMSON Mayor of Louisville ROBERT M. ISAAC Mayor of Colorado Springs JOSEPH P. RILEY, JR Mayor of Charleston, SC Trustees: HECTOR LUIS ACEVEDO Mayor of San Juan CHARLES BOX Mayor of Rockford DEEDEE CORRADINI Mayor of Salt Lake City PAUL HELMKE Mayor of Fort Wayne SHARPE JAMES Mayor of Newark, NJ JAMES PERRON Mayor of Elkhart ELIZABETH D. RHEA Mayor of Rock Hill PETE SFERRAZZA Mayor of Reno DAVID SMITH Mayor of Newark, CA GREG SPARROW Mayor of DeKalb MICHAEL WHITE Mayor of Cleveland Advisory Board: RICHARD M. DALEY, Chair Mayor of Chicago DENNIS ARCHER Mayor of Detroit RICHARD ARRINGTON Mayor of Birmingham ROBERT COBLE Mayor of Columbia, SC BRENT COLES Mayor of Boise CARDELL COOPER Mayor of East Orange LOUISE GARDNER Mayor of Jefferson City SUSAN GOLDING Mayor of San Diego KAY GRANGER Mayor of Fort Worth MIKE JOHANNS Mayor of Lincoln JAN LAVERTY JONES Mayor of Las Vegas FRANK JORDAN Mayor of San Francisco JOHN McCARTHY Mayor of Everett PATRICK McMANUS Mayor of Lynn RITA MULLINS Mayor of Palatine JOHN O. NORQUIST Mayor of Milwaukee MEYERA E. OBERNDORF Mayor of Virginia Beach DONALD PLUSQUELLIC Mayor of Akron SAUL RAMIREZ, JR. Mayor of Laredo SHARON SAYLES BELTON Mayor of Minneapolis KURT SCHMOKE Mayor of Baltimore PAUL SOGLIN Mayor of Madison BRUCE TODD Mayor of Austin WELLINGTON WEBB Mayor of Denver Executive Director: J. Thomas Cochran June 5, 1995 The Honorable Bob Dole Majority Leader United States Senate 141 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 Dear Senator Dole: On behalf of The U.S. Conference of Mayors, I would like to record our support for the letters which you and Senators Harkin, Kennedy, Hatch and McCain have sent to the Attorney General on implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The issues which your letters address -- the need for more time to make curb cuts and a simplified process for assuring that local building codes meet ADA requirements -- are real problems for our cities. We appreciate both your strong support for the ADA and your efforts to make its implementation more realistic for our cities. We look forward to the Attorney General's response to your letters. There is another issue relating to implementation of the ADA which we must also bring to your attention, and that is the impact which its implementation is likely to have on public transportation systems. As it currently stands, compliance in early 1997 with ADA's paratransit requirements, when coupled with proposed reductions in federal operating assistance, threaten the future viability of many local transit systems and their ability to deliver services to persons with disabilities. We urge you to work with us to address this critical problem as well. Thank you for your efforts on behalf of the nation's cities. Sincerely yours, (Victor Ashe's signature) Victor Ashe Mayor of Knoxville