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Commission presses city on Spanish translations, live interpretation and budget for outreach
Summary
Commissioners pressed city staff about Spanish translations and live interpretation for charter review meetings and discussed a requested appropriation (reported as $15,000 with a possible additional $5,000) to fund outreach, translation, and interpretation services.
Commissioners spent a substantial portion of the meeting pressing city staff to improve Spanish-language access for the charter review process and to secure funding for translation and interpreter services.
Commission members said the lack of legally certified Spanish translations and the city's inability to provide Spanish captions on the meeting feed have limited outreach to Reading's large Spanish-speaking population. "We have failed time and time again as commissioners to translate the charter in Spanish," a commissioner said. Another commissioner noted the city website's PDF documents often do not translate automatically and urged staff to provide word-format files for automatic translation tools.
Staff reported that the commission's $15,000 appropriation request (with a potential additional $5,000) had been forwarded to the city managing director and finance director and acknowledged as under consideration. "I did forward to the city managing director and the city finance director what was agreed upon ... the appropriation of $15,000 followed by the possibility of another $5,000," Ed told the commission.
Technical and legal constraints were discussed: city IT staff said the meeting system can produce English captions but not Spanish captions automatically; commissioners and advocates said certified legal translation is needed if Spanish-language text will be treated as authoritative. Commissioners discussed various approaches, including live interpreters, Spanish subtitles, and certified translation of the final charter materials.
Why it matters: commissioners said meaningful public engagement requires accessible materials and live or captioned interpretation for meetings and outreach. Several speakers argued that without translations the large Spanish-speaking community cannot meaningfully participate in a process that could change local government.
Next steps: commissioners agreed to include translation and interpretation costs in a budget request to city council; staff will follow up with the finance office about the $15,000 proposal and clarify whether and when legally certified Spanish translations can be produced.
