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Rules Committee advances revisions to San Francisco's Language Access Ordinance after 2024 compliance report
Summary
The Rules Committee accepted substantive amendments to the Language Access Ordinance (Administrative Code —1) after hearing OSEA's 2024 compliance report and extensive public comment. The committee voted to continue the ordinance, as amended, to May 13 for final drafting and filed the related compliance hearing.
San Francisco's Rules Committee on May 6 accepted a package of amendments intended to strengthen the city's Language Access Ordinance (Administrative Code 91) after hearing a presentation of the 2024 compliance summary report and more than an hour of public comment.
Supervisor Shimon Walton, the legislation's author in committee, said the changes add findings, clarify the difference between interpretation (spoken) and translation (written), strengthen the Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs's (OSEA) role in guiding departments, expand language access for health-related emergencies and digital services, require departments to post signage and "know your rights" materials, and require departments to plan and budget for language services. Walton told the committee the measure would memorialize Chinese (Cantonese), Spanish and Filipino as required languages and lower the threshold that triggers a required language from 10,000 to 6,000 residents, adding Vietnamese as a required language two years after passage.
OSEA Di…
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