By Adam Swift
The city council will continue debate on a proposed ordinance for providing interpretation and translation services for public meetings and documents.
During a public hearing on Monday night, Council President Anthony Cogliandro moved the ordinance to a future meeting of the legislative affairs subcommittee.
While the proposed ordinance was in subcommittee in the spring, Cogliandro noted that it has changed significantly since it was first presented in April.
At Monday night’s public hearing, Claire Inzerillo from the city solicitor’s office outlined the city administration’s opposition to the proposed ordinance.
While Inzerillo praised the intent of the ordinance, she said it would conflict with the city’s recently adopted Language Access Plan (LAP) and cause budgetary issues.
“A dedicated group of city employees have been implementing the LAP since its adoption earlier this year, and we are making great progress in the collection and categorization of material from our various department heads,” said Inzerillo.
When the LAP is fully implemented, Inzerillo said it will provide notices for availability for interpretation of public meetings and for small group interactions.
“An example of this is when we have a business owner come in to talk about a small business loan, which happens quite often,” Inzerillo said. “The city’s offerings for interpretation will exist on a by-request basis once this initial collection phase has been completed.”
Vital city documents will be translated following federal Housing and Urban Development guidelines where a language is spoken by either 5 percent of residents or 1,000 people, whichever is less.
“For all services, however, written or spoken, residents will be able to request their language with the city making a good faith effort to provide said language service,” said Inzerillo. “There are detailed policies and procedures and a timeline, which are outlined in the LAP that city staff use to ensure meaningful access to services by all the folks who are living in our community.”
While the ordinance before the city council is well intended, Inzerillo said, it sets unreasonable standards that conflict with the LAP the city is working on. She noted that in the month of August alone, there were 21 municipal meetings that would have had to be translated under the ordinance, several of which had either minimal or no attendance from residents.
“This demonstrates why our LAP operates on a by-request basis for interpretation services, to ensure that we are not wasting precious time, energy, or money in a needless manner,” Inzerillo said. “We stand on the opposing side tonight because of the fundamental budgetary differences that exist between the two. A city the size of Lynn or Worcester may have the bandwidth to provide this … for all meetings and all documents, but with a new high school on the horizon and a small group of employees we have at city hall, the proposal before you right now is unobtainable.”
