Supervisors hear BLA, community calls for $5.8M to implement San Francisco language-access amendments

The Budget and Appropriations Committee on May 21 heard a report and community testimony on implementing the city’s 2024 language‑access ordinance amendments and the 2025 Language Access Compliance Summary Report, with the Budget and Legislative Analyst estimating roughly $5.8 million in first‑year costs and a total investment need of about $22.9 million across departments.

The hearing, chaired by Supervisor Connie Chan, opened with sponsor Supervisor Shamon Walton saying the amendments are meant to expand language access and “ensure that we continue to identify ways to support this effort, through funding, staffing, but we’re also advocacy, outside City Hall.” Walton added: “Language access is not just a legal obligation, it is a matter of equity, dignity, and public trust.”

The Budget and Legislative Analyst’s office presented a citywide review of how departments report language‑access costs and services. Fred Brusseau of the BLA said departments reported $15.1 million in language‑access spending in fiscal 2022–23, with telephonic interpretation a large component and a category labeled “other/non‑categorized” accounting for nearly half of reported costs. The BLA reported divergent figures for compensatory bilingual pay: departments reported $2.2 million to the Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs (OSEA), while payroll records from the Department of Human…