Thread: TX - English amendment will likely be on Friendswood's May b

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English amendment will likely be on Friendswood's May ballot

07:40 AM CST on Tuesday, January 30, 2007

By Sara McDonald / Galveston County Daily News

FRIENDSWOOD — An amendment that would declare English as the official language of Friendswood will likely appear on a ballot May 12.

The amendment wouldn’t prohibit speaking or using other languages, but instead formalizes what is already practiced — which has its supporters asking what harm it would do and its critics asking why it’s necessary.

“Codifying your existing practice is a good thing,” said city council member Chris Peden, who plans to propose the amendment. “We’re putting on paper what our practices are.”

But, if voters approve the amendment, it’s possible that their tax dollars will go toward defending the law in court.

The League of United Latin American Citizens, a civil rights group, threatened to sue the city if the amendment passes.

“Why are they going to waste taxpayer money when they already know what’s going to happen?” asked Jose Jimenez, the deputy district director for LULAC.

The legal threat is just another reason that council member Laura Ewing said she won’t support the idea.

“I think we’ve already seen a lot of misunderstanding about what this means,” she said. “I think this will just become worse. All of our communications are in English. Why do we need to complicate the issue by putting this in the charter? It’s already taken care of.”

But with or without Ewing’s support, the amendment will likely be sent to voters.

In the Dec. 4 meeting, when the issue first came up, council members John LeCour, Jay Horecky, Jim Hill and Peden said they’d support putting the issue before voters. That’s enough votes to overrule the opposition.

The proposed amendment specifies that city business will be conducted in English, all city employees will be able to communicate in English and any official city correspondence be in English.

But it’s not “English-only,” as some people assumed, Peden said.

The proposed amendment also says that employees and elected officials aren’t prohibited from speaking in another language. City publications could be printed in other languages, as long as they are also printed in English.

It also says that the law shouldn’t be used to discriminate against anyone or discourage the use of other languages in a nonofficial capacity.

The amendment’s critics have warned that its passage could lead to more restrictive laws or discrimination later on.

LeCour said he didn’t think that was a legitimate argument.

“I don’t think that’s likely, and I think its pure demagogue,” he said. “You don’t say ‘we can’t have any law because it would lead to abuse that would be restrictive on our citizens.’ We’d have no laws then.”

The amendment also addresses the problem that brought the issue forward.

In November, a Friendswood resident complained to city council that some city workers didn’t speak fluent English. Since then, City Manager Bo McDaniel altered the wording in job postings to specify that English skills were needed.

That situation made Jimenez question who would regulate and measure English skills.

“Are they going to have grading requirements?” he said. “What about the people who don’t read or don’t speak perfect English? Where do you draw the line?”

But the proposed amendment also says that the city will be obliged to encourage individuals to learn English.

Part of that has already been done.

Peden said the College of the Mainland offered its free English as a Second Language classes to city employees. There’s also talk about starting a class at the Friendswood library, he said.

“If this [amendment] spawns more access to ESL classes, or if we now notice that there’s a gap that we can shrink, that’s a good thing,” Peden said.

For the amendment to be on the May 12 ballot, the city will have to call a special election by March 11.

This story is available through KHOU, Ch. 11's partnership with The Galveston County Daily News.

The League of United Latin American Citizens, a civil rights group, threatened to sue the city if the amendment passes.

What about the town in South Texas that made Spanish the offical language????????

It is becoming pretty evident that LULAC wants to make America Mexico. Why in the hell do we need to be speaking Spanish in America? This is obsurd and unreasonable to even entertain LULAC in court.

LULAC - go do some real work for Hispanics. Like solve the domestic violence, infant mortality, teen pregnancy, high number of drop outs, gang membership, violent and sex offender crimes, drug use and distribution... within the Hispanic population. No, you don't have programs like that because that cost real money and takes some real effort to reslove. It's a hell of a lot easier to show off around town and look important so people will contribute to you.

Dixie

Amen to that Dixie

thrown out. Congress should have done this many years ago before the pro-hispanic groups got so strong. Someone is funding all these groups to destroy america.