Thread: Official opposes bilingual services

Published Thursday, May 4th, 2006

By Nathan Isaacs, Herald staff writer

A Kennewick councilman wants to provide English-only city services or start charging residents who need an interpreter.

City Councilman Bob Parks weighed in on the issue Tuesday dur-ing a meeting in which the council considered, and later approved, a three-year contract with the labor union representing the city's police support services employees.

Included in the contract was a 50-cent-per-hour pay increase for a day-shift employees who provide bilingual services -- in this case offering Spanish interpreters to people coming to the police station's customer service window.

The deal is thought to save money for Kennewick, because the city would otherwise pay $3 per minute, or $180 per hour, to use a telephone service that offers translations in many languages.




"My point was why are we paying $3 a minute when these people should speak English. And if they don't, they should be paying the bill," Parks said Wednesday. "Why should I (as a taxpayer) have to pay for someone that can't speak English?"

He said he wants residents charged for what they receive from the city that he considers above basic services. "It's my philosophy. It doesn't mean it's right," he said.

During Tuesday's meeting, he asked if the city could recoup the money it spends on interpretive services. He also wants a report on just how much money is spent annually for interpreters.

"I think enough is enough, personally," Parks said during the meeting. "I think this is a huge problem in the community now. It's going to continue to get worse. And I think government has been its own worse enemy in this whole process as we continue to get more and more taken, more burden is put on the cities."

He was told by Kevin Ferguson, Kennewick's director for corporate and community services, that trying to recoup the money would be difficult to administer and that operating costs in staff time might be more than what the city would collect.

Ferguson also said, in this case many of the people coming into the police station and needing assistance are crime victims or are helping police in an investigation.

Ferguson said providing bilingual services recognizes the diversity of the community. He also said federal regulations may require the city to make a reasonable effort to provide access to people with limited proficiency in English.

Councilman Paul Parish also spoke against paying extra for a bilingual employee, especially making it part of a labor contract. He rhetorically asked where it would end.

"Are you going to offer interpretive services for every language?" he asked.

Kennewick does not offer a premium pay for any of its other bilingual employees, such as those who work in customer service or police officers and firefighters.

Richland also does not pay its bilingual employees extra.

Pasco pays its bilingual police officers and firefighters a 3 percent premium above their base pay. City Manager Gary Crutchfield said the premium pay was the result of an arbitrator's decision in a labor agreement with police officers several years ago.

Crutchfield said the premium pay was extended to firefighters and paramedics when the issue appeared to be headed to arbitration.

He said no other bilingual employees receive the premium pay. But he said the city has made a concerted effort to hire bilingual employees over the past 10 to 15 years.

"We found it advantageous to us in the delivery of services to have the ability for bilingual employees at public counters and in emergency services," Crutchfield said.

He said about 10 percent of the city's 280 employees speak Spanish.

Kennewick City Manager Bob Hammond said providing better services also was the reason the city agreed to the union demand for the pay increase.

"Philosophies aside about what you should be speaking in the country, this is an economics issue," he said at the council meeting, responding to Park's and Parish's concerns. "We are forced in order to do our job effectively to have somebody there to speak Spanish."

Park said some of his frustrations stem from the ongoing national debate about immigration reform, and nationwide protests Monday.

"That's their right to protest," he said. "You haven't seen a lot of American people protesting; it's been a pretty one-sided protest."

He said he's expressing the voice of those wanting to get tougher on enforcement against illegal immigrants.

Parish referred to Theodore Roosevelt's often-quoted speech on immigration, saying "One flag, one language." He said he believes it should be a prerequisite that immigrants learn English.

"My grandparents came to this country and they had to learn to speak English in order to become a citizen," Parish said during Tuesday's meeting.

The councilman, who turns 70 today, clarified his statement Wednesday by saying it was his grandmother who emigrated from Sweden. Her husband, his grandfather, came from Georgia. His other grandparents came from Scotland.

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/local ... 2527c.html

All of these illegals protest claiming that all they want is to be American and DEMAND to be given amnesty and citizenship. Yet they refuse to even learn English. There was one local TV news interview of a man and woman couple with like 14 children, and they were asked about being allowed to become citizens, and they said it was their right...through a translator.

They said they deserved to become American citizens because they have lived and worked here for 15 years, illegally of course, yet neither of them could speak a word of English. In 15 years, they worked, lived and drove here, yet could not speak any English. How much do you want to bet they didn't have any driver's license or insurance or anything? These people DEMAND all the rights and priveliges of being American citizens, yet never bothered to try to learn English.