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Rules Committee advances expanded language-access ordinance to full Board
Summary
The Rules Committee advanced an ordinance to broaden language-access requirements across city departments, adding "tier 1" public-facing agencies, annual compliance plans and 311 complaint tracking; the Committee moved the item to the full Board for consideration on Aug. 11, 2009.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors Rules Committee on July 30 considered an ordinance to expand citywide language-access obligations and voted to forward the measure to the full Board with a recommendation.
President Carmen Chu, who introduced the measure, told the committee that San Francisco is linguistically diverse and that updates are needed to close gaps in existing law. "We would place into this new tier 1 category departments like the airport, the assessor and treasurer's offices, the library, Rec and Park, our zoo, the PUC, [and] the department of public works," Chu said, summarizing the ordinance’s core elements. The proposal would also require departments that anticipate health emergencies to develop language-access plans, notify limited-English-proficient individuals of their right to request translation, produce annual compliance plans including bilingual staff counts and translated documents, and use 311 to record complaints.
The Office of Civic Engagement representative told the committee the office supports the amendments and will "build our own in house capacity to translate documents in Spanish and Chinese" for the 2010 census and develop a bilingual website, acknowledging limited staff and the need to leverage resources.
Community organizations and residents urged approval during the public-comment period. Ronnie Rowan of Chinese for Affirmative Action asked the committee to "pass these amendments forward unanimously," citing a CAA survey showing ongoing accessibility problems in agencies such as the police department. Emma Delgado of United and Active Women described what she said were real-world harms from language barriers, including victims not reporting domestic violence and difficulty accessing emergency information. A Visitation Valley resident recounted repeated break-ins and said the housing and police departments "have not provide[d] us adequate, language services," which in the speaker’s account delayed responses and caused lost work days.
Committee members discussed implementation details and definitions for the ordinance’s tiered department structure. President Chu and others requested that departments newly placed in tier 1 outline their compliance plans before the full Board hearing. Supervisor Chris Daley moved to forward the ordinance to the full Board with recommendation and added his name as a co-sponsor; colleagues asked to be listed as co-sponsors and there was no recorded objection. The clerk noted recommended items will go to the full Board on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009.
The committee then convened into closed session to discuss pending claims and litigation; Deputy City Attorney Cheryl Adams said items 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7 were moved forward with recommendation and item 3 was continued to a future closed session.
The full Board is scheduled to consider the language-access ordinance on Aug. 11, 2009.
