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Lacey commissioners review draft language-access plan and approve rollout of on-demand interpretation tools
Summary
City staff presented a draft Language Access Plan and demonstrated a new on-demand video and audio interpretation app, posters and iPads for city point-of-contact staff. Commissioners asked about translation priorities, bilingual hiring and funding; executive assistants will serve as language-access coordinators to manage requests.
City of Lacey staff presented a draft Language Access Plan to the Commission on Equity and described immediate steps to expand interpretation services across city departments.
The draft plan, staff said, is intended to bring the city into compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by improving “meaningful access” for people with limited English proficiency. Veronica, the equity and inclusion program staff member who led the presentation, said, “we finally have our language access plan…if you have a chance to review it in the next coming days and send me any comments.”
Why this matters: staff said the plan will standardize interpretation and translation across departments, provide on-demand video American Sign Language (ASL) and hundreds of spoken languages, and create a central dashboard to track demand. Commissioners pressed for details on who will be prioritized for translated “vital documents,” how bilingual employees are recognized in hiring, and how the effort will be funded.
What staff described: the city has contracted for a vendor app (LanguageLine Insight) that provides on-demand video interpretation including ASL and audio interpretation for hundreds of languages. Staff showed a demonstration video and said every city employee has the app on their personal cell phone; the city also purchased eight iPads for customer-service points of contact. The presenter said the app offers 24/7 access to interpreters and a scheduling feature for planned events.
Veronica also explained an outreach package of two posters: a “Know Your Rights” poster in multiple languages and a “I Speak” poster that allows customers to point to their language when they need an interpreter. She said the posters will be distributed to customer-service counters and the community center, and that translated surveys and a limited set of translated documents already exist.
Staff noted planned next steps and limits: the plan identifies Spanish and Korean as the two top target languages for translating the most-used written “vital documents,” but staff said translating those documents will depend on next year’s budget. The plan calls for executive assistants across departments to serve as language-access coordinators; those coordinators will submit document-translation requests through the vendor’s dashboard, receive cost estimates and approve work orders. Veronica said the city created an intake email for language-access questions and complaints (equityandinclusion@cdlaz.org) and that the city will review and update the plan at least annually.
Commissioner questions and staff responses: commissioners asked whether bilingual staff would receive additional compensation, and whether job descriptions should explicitly prefer bilingual candidates. Veronica said the police department currently pays a small bilingual premium (she cited about 3%) but the citywide budget does not yet support a universal pay differential; she said HR has diversity goals but no formal policy to give extra hiring points for bilingual fluency. Commissioners urged staff to collect dashboard data from the new app so the city can later justify hiring or budget requests based on actual language demand.
Community access and training: staff said they have trained customer-service staff on the app, provided instruction materials and plan to publish videos and tools on the city’s public website. The vendor dashboard will generate usage data so the city can track which languages are used most often, which departments request services, and how frequently interpretation is provided in the field.
Limitations noted by staff and commissioners: Veronica said some documents and web-content translation will be a multiyear effort because of cost and scope. Commissioners warned that usage data will undercount people who do not contact the city at all because they do not expect language help; staff said the city will combine app data with community-outreach strategies (trusted-messenger programs) to broaden awareness.
What’s next: the plan remains a draft. Staff requested commissioner feedback in coming days; no formal adoption was recorded. Staff described near-term operational steps already in motion: the app rollout to staff, distribution of posters and iPads, coordinator training, and a vendor dashboard to track demand for future budget and policy decisions.
