http://www.charleston.net


Town's Spanish-speaking employees to get bonus
Monday, September 11, 2006


HILTON HEAD ISLAND - Employees for Hilton Head Island who know Spanish soon will make an additional $1,200 a year.

The program is meant to help workers from emergency crews to building permit officers better communicate with the region's growing Hispanic population.

Critics say the program eliminates a reason for immigrants to learn English, with some of the harshest detractors asking why the town is catering to illegal immigrants.

But Hilton Head Island officials said the policy is pragmatic.

It wouldn't be worth it to have to hire an interpreter for code-enforcement officers needing to tell someone they were cutting down a tree improperly, officials said. Also, emergency workers can't refuse to treat someone who doesn't speak English, and state law requires interpreters in courtrooms, Mayor Tom Peeples said.

Peeples said he does agree with critics who say the program shouldn't have been extended outside of emergency workers. Beaufort County has a similar program only for law enforcement officers. But he said Town Council doesn't like to micromanage Town Hall.

At a Council meeting last week, Fabia Kendall, who said she didn't know English when her family came from Italy, said her family didn't expect government workers to speak anything but English.

"Your incentive plan treats this issue with little or no respect for the obligations that come with legal immigration, and completely sidesteps the issue of illegal immigration. It is just plain wrong and an insult to all of those who came to this country legally and properly to improve their way of life," Kendall said to applause.