O'Neil pointed out that "it's not difficult
to comply with ADA," and with a little preparation companies
and individuals can avoid serious problems with the millions
of individuals in the workplace protected by the statute.
She said employers can't discriminate against
an employee or job applicant on the basis of a disability if
the individual is qualified, and employers are required to reasonably
accommodate a disabled employee or applicant to enable that
person to perform his or her job or duties.
"An accommodation includes modifications
or adjustments to the job application process, modifications
or adjustments to the work environment, modification regarding
how a position is customarily performed, and unpaid leaves of
absence for a definite period of time….It is also one that
does not pose an undue hardship upon the employer," O'Neil
said.
An employer may ask an applicant about his or
her ability to perform specific job functions, qualifications,
skills, to describe or demonstrate how the applicant would perform
essential job tasks, and whether the applicant can perform the
job with or without an accommodation.
However, she said, "An employer may not
ask questions regarding the applicant's medical condition, disability,
or medication, or for the applicant to submit to a medical examination.
And never tell an employee that he or she needs to see a psychiatrist,
or attempt to diagnose a physical or mental condition."
She added that employers must keep medical information
concerning its applicants and employees confidential and separate
from ordinary personnel files.
With regard to the use of alcohol and drugs,
she said:
"An employer may prohibit the illegal use
of drugs and the use of alcohol at the workplace. An employer
may also hold an employee who engages in illegal drug use or
who is an alcoholic to the same standards for employment or
job performance and behavior as other employees even if the
unsatisfactory performance or behavior is related to drug use
or alcoholism. A test to determine use of illegal drugs is not
considered a medical examination and not a violation of the
ADA."
Facility managers probably will find themselves
dealing with the public accommodation provision of the ADA.
A place of public accommodation is one whose operations affect
commerce and falls within one of 12 categories listed in the
ADA, including:
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Theaters, concert halls, stadiums, and other places of
exhibition and entertainment.
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Auditoriums, convention centers, and other places of public
gathering.
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Service establishments of all kinds such as dry cleaners,
banks, and gas stations.
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Terminals, depots and other places of transportation.
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Museums, libraries, galleries, and other places of public
display.
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Parks, zoos, arcades, and other places of recreation.
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All private schools from pre-school to college. (Public
schools are covered under other laws.)
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Day care centers, senior centers, homeless shelters, adoption
agencies, and other social service centers.
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Gyms, health spas, bowling alleys, golf courses, and other
places of exercise or recreation.
O'Neil stated that places of public accommodation must take
affirmative steps to remove structural and communication barriers,
including the following affirmative requirements:
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"Eliminate eligibility requirements or rules which
deny disabled persons equal opportunity to enjoy the goods
and services provided, and make reasonable modifications
in policies and procedures which deny equal access.
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"Provide goods, services, privileges, and advantages
in the most integrated setting possible.
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"Provide auxiliary aids necessary to ensure effective
communication such as interpreters for the hearing impaired
or closed caption decoders in hotels.
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"Remove architectural and structural communication
barriers in existing facilities where readily achievable.
(Such things might include ramps, curb cuts, lowering shelves
and water fountains, and making entryways wheelchair accessible.)
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"Design and construct new facilities and alter existing
facilities that are readily accessible to persons with disabilities
in accordance with design standards set forth by the Architectural
and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board."
O'Neil said the responsibility for compliance
with Title III of the act includes any private entity that owns,
leases, leases to, or operates a place of public accommodation.
"Therefore, you have concurrent and overlapping
responsibilities. However, the regulations issued by the Department
of Justice state the responsibility for compliance may be allocated
by provision in a lease or contract.
"If the responsibility has not been allocated
by lease or contract, the responsibilities are generally allocated
as follows:
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"The landlord is obligated to remove barriers in common
areas.
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"The tenant is obligated to remove barriers within
the leasehold premises unless the removal is not readily
achievable by the tenant due to the tenant's financial conditions,
if the landlord does not consent to the alterations, of
if the lease prohibits the tenant from making alterations
under any circumstances."
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It wouldn't be correct to say Fred Timm has done
it all. However, you could certainly get away with saying Timm
has done a lot more than most.
Timm, vice president of the central Ohio IFMA
Chapter, is an independent contractor, an extension of his clients'
staffs with services to offer in project and move management,
facility planning, building and interior design and construction,
and facility management planning.
That's just since 1994 when he took early retirement
from Battelle Memorial Institute where he was manager of facility
engineering and construction. At Battelle he supervised several
million dollars of construction, and managed an annual capital
budget of $7 million.
His recent major accomplishments include:
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Serving as the Westerville City School's representative for
the construction of the $19 million Genoa Middle School.
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Assisting Bank One move 2,500 employees into its new one
million-square-foot Corporate Center at Polaris.
Timm, through his company, Timm Facility Management,
also has a regional appeal. He is now available to companies throughout
the midwest, and has been involved in site selection and planning
activities in northern Ohio, southern and central Indiana, and
northern Kentucky.
Prior to his association with Battelle, Timm
was employed as a lead for the family-owned Charles C. Petzinger,
Inc., a general contractor in Westerville; worked in plant engineering
and manufacturing management with Procter & Gamble, Co., in
Cincinnati; and served as an artillery officer with the U.S. Marine
Corps.
Timm obtained a bachelor's degree in mechanical
engineering at The Ohio State University and a master's in business
administration from Xavier University before and after his four
years in the military. While in the military, Timm served as battery
commander with the rank of captain, and was qualified as an ordnance
officer, nuclear assembly officer, nuclear biological and chemical
defense officer, and Korean language specialist. He also is conversant
in German and French.
Timm was instrumental in developing Ohio's first
facility management technology degree program at Columbus State
Community College. He serves on the college's Facility Management
Advisory Committee and as an adjunct faculty member, teaching
an introduction to facility management, a course he developed.
He also developed a course on voice and data systems but has passed
it along to another adjunct for the moment.
Timm has been a member of Toastmasters International,
Franklin 524 for 12 years and served as area governor. (For those
interested in improving their public speaking skills, the group
meets at 7 a.m. Thursdays at Denny's Restaurant in Westerville.)
Timm, who lives in the Westerville area, also enjoys sailing on
nearby Hoover Reservoir and woodcarving.
Timm is a charter member of the central Ohio IFMA
Chapter and served as president in 1992. He also served a half
term as secretary, an 18-month stint as co-chair of the Education
Committee, and in all probability will become president for a
second term at the next election. Timm, as an independent contractor,
also is a chapter sponsor, listed on the sponsor's page as Timm
Facility Management.
He joined IFMA before the central Ohio Chapter
came into being when he learned of the group's existence through
a trade magazine. He was looking for a professional organization
for facility managers, preferably one emphasizing research and
development, when he stumbled onto IFMA.
This brought Timm into contact with other "wandering"
IFMA members and led to the establishment of the central Ohio
Chapter where facility management professionals gather for fellowship,
educational and occupational opportunities, and to keep abreast
of developments in a growing and vital profession.
He and his wife, Ann, are the parents of a son
and daughter and two grandchildren. Mrs. Timm operates her own
business, Little Louvre Gallery & Art Studio, a children's
art school and gallery, in downtown Westerville.
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John Tucker is a transplanted Sooner, but he wears
two big Buckeye hats.
Tucker, originally from Oklahoma and a long-standing
member of the central Ohio IFMA Chapter, is president of two Columbus-based
companies, Ohio Support Services Corp. and Ohio Custodial Maintenance,
both Initiator Level sponsors operating from 1291 S. High Street.
Ohio Support Services is a new IFMA sponsor. Ohio
Custodial Maintenance was a sponsor in 1999 and has rejoined the
fold this year. This report is on Ohio Support Services, but stay
tuned to the IFMA Web site because a feature on Ohio Custodial
Maintenance is scheduled for the April Web Page.
Tucker, who was working in Cleveland as a financial
analyst for International Telephone and Telegraph's Building Services
Division, came to Columbus in 1973 to manage a commercial custodial
service branch for the company. He was later named regional security
manager for the company, and was directing 400 security officers
out of four offices when ITT sold out to a British company in
1978.
When this occurred, Tucker found himself with
enough experience and confidence to launch Ohio Support Services,
which would provide security officers and consulting and investigative
services to companies in a number of fields, including office
complexes, industrial, distribution, education, computer technology,
and health care.
Not only did Tucker develop Ohio Support Services,
he grew the company into the largest locally owned security firm
in central Ohio with over 100 employees providing services to
a number of clients. Clients range from those who need one person
for a 40-hour week to 35 officers per week at a single site.
Tucker started with one client, the J C Penney
Catalog Logistics Center on the city's far East Side, where he
provided various types of security at the two-million-square-foot
facility.
"We started out with about 30 employees and
we checked for proper identification of employees entering the
doors, monitored vehicles coming onto the site, responded to fire
and medical emergencies, monitored 35 security cameras and 200
alarms, and checked the facility for fire and safety hazards."
And after 22 years, Ohio Support Services still
has the account. The key to his success: "higher quality
service."
"While I was working at ITT, I developed
a feeling that companies needed and wanted a higher quality service
than was being provided by the company. I couldn't convince the
local management to improve our applicant screening, training
and quality control standards. So, I decided that since there
seemed to be enough companies that wanted quality service and
were willing to pay for it, I should try to provide it.
"As it turned out, there were a lot of people
looking for quality!"
When interviewed in 1996 by Employment
News, Tucker described his service by saying:
"Security officers are always there assisting
employees, visitors, customers. It's a very high-profile job.
They have tremendous responsibility. They're in charge of not
only protecting specific assets, but also they usually handle
medical emergencies, fires, and natural disasters.
"They are often the first persons that
somebody from the outside meets. So, they're the first impression
for the client. It's an opportunity to play a very important role
for the client and to be of service."
Maintaining quality remains Tucker's biggest
challenge.
"There's a lot of pressure from companies
for a reduction in all costs, for cheaper security to help them
reduce their costs. But when all your expenses are labor and you
are in a tight labor market it is difficult to reduce cost without
reducing quality.
"Despite this, Ohio Support Services is always
striving to maintain or improve its quality of its service, and
to be the most cost effective provider" he said.
Tucker resides in Worthington. He is the father
of three sons, Scott, a vice president with the company; Wendell,
who has a computer consulting company; and Brian, an aspiring
drummer with a band in South Carolina.
In addition to being a certified protection professional
and a licensed private investigator, Tucker served as the 1994
chairman of the Columbus Chapter of the American Society for Industrial
Security. He also is a former two-term chairman of the board of
the Ohio Association of Investigation and Security Services, past
president of the Ohio Association of Private Detective Agencies,
and a past member of the board of directors of the National Council
of Investigators and Security Services.
He holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering
from St. Louis University, a master's degree in business administration
from Kent State University, and did postgraduate work at the Harvard
Business School. He has been certified to teach the private security
curriculum for the Ohio Peace Officers Training Council, and has
been a speaker at various security seminars and workshops.
Tucker said Vern Metz, one of the chapter's first
presidents, and Dave Feusner introduced him to IFMA. Both men
were at Wendy's at the time. Feusner is director of Corporate
Services for Wendy's, and Metz is assistant director of the Columbus
Zoo. Since joining IFMA, Tucker has served as a member of the
Education Committee and as photographer.
"I joined IFMA to be associated with a group
of facility professionals who would share the things that I needed
to know about managing our own properties, and to meet people
who would be interested in knowing about Ohio Support Services,
Ohio Custodial Maintenance and in the services we provide. IFMA
members have been very helpful by sharing information. We all
support each other's success." .
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