Sacramento City Council members push for services in more languages

By Erin Reynolds Last updated Feb 2, 2023

Sacramento is on its way to becoming the 13th state jurisdiction to offer language access services. This comes after the city auditor’s office and the city manager ordered a language access gap analysis from Nimdzi Insights, LLC., a third-party consultant to employees. That analysis found several gaps.The results led to the following recommendations for Sacramento city employees:Periodically tracking changes to the city’s limited English populations (LEP).Providing more language access services in Spanish, the most frequently encountered LEP language.Applying additional language services Resources towards programs that serve a higher proportion of LEP individuals.Increasing marketing to LEP individuals on the availability of language access services.Offering a complaint process to use if such services are not provided or are of poor quality.Providing employee training on identifying situations that would benefit from an interpreter.Providing guidance on understanding which situations would benefit from professional language resources vs. using bilingual city staff.Formulating procedures for identifying vital documents that would benefit from written translation.Consulting LEP.gov guidance on the use of websites and multilanguage digital content. A sur vey used received 141 responses. Of those, the majority were in English, followed by 21 in Spanish, one in Vietnamese, and one in simplified Chinese.”I want to make sure that our limited-English speakers in our city are able to access city services no matter what English proficiency they have or physical ability,” said District 8 council member Mai Vang. The survey revealed that 55.93% of English respondents didn’t know that the city offered free translation and interpretation services, while 33% of Spanish respondents had the same response.”If even folks who do speak English don’t even know the full array of city services – what does that mean for folks who cannot communicate in that language mainly? The city is responsible for a lot, and for the city to do its job well, it really needs to be able to reach our communities as well,” said Carissa Gutiérrez, the executive director at the Latino Center of Arts & Culture.Vang added that when she became a council member, she had staff approach her to ask if she could help translate flyers into Hmong. “While I don’t mind doing that – as a city council member – it was frustrating and also disappointing.”In the United States, more than 70 million individuals speak a language other than English at home, and an estimated 25 million Americans, 5 years of age and older, speak English “less than very well,” according to US Census data. Nimdzi Insights, LLC. also identified language services already offered by the city of Sacramento. Currently, the city’s 311 service offers assistance in 17 languages through Language Link — a third-party telephone interpretation service paid for by the city, allowing employees to communicate with LEP community members during a phone conversation.The survey showed that between January and August 2021 , 5,143 interpreter calls were made to the Sacramento police department, and 82.96% were made in Spanish. Vietnamese, Cantonese, Mandarin and Russian each made up less than 3% of the calls, while all others represented 6%.When it came to residents asking for help, about 70% of those surveyed said they didn’t feel comfortable requesting assistance. Vang and Gutiérrez both agree that many times the ones providing translation services are children.”For many of our families, this is the representation they’re getting – don’t get me wrong, a child does a great job, but I think the city can do better,” added Gutiérrez. Sacramento City Council members Mai Vang and Eric Guerra are also drafting an ordinance to make language access services a permanent policy within the city. Other local language access policies have been placed in 12 California jurisdictions: City of Long Beach City of Oakland City/County of San Francisco City of San Jose City of Buena Park City of Santa Maria City of Arcadia City of Alameda City of Monterey ParkMonterey CountySan Diego CountyOrange County

SACRAMENTO, Calif. —

The results led to the following recommendations for Sacramento city employees:

Periodically tracking changes to the city’s limited English populations (LEP).
Providing more language access services in Spanish, the most frequently encountered LEP language.
Applying additional language services resources towards programs that serve a higher proportion of LEP individuals.
Increasing marketing to LEP individuals on the availability of language access services.
Offering a complaint process to use if such services are not provided or are of poor quality.
Providing employee training on identifying situations that would benefit from an interpreter.
Providing guidance on understanding which situations would benefit from professional language resources vs. using bilingual city staff.
Formulating procedures for identifying vital documents that would benefit from written translation.
Consulting LEP.gov guidance on the use of websites and multilanguage digital content.

A survey used received 141 responses. Of those, the majority were in English, followed by 21 in Spanish, one in Vietnamese, and one in simplified Chinese.

“I want to make sure that our limited-English speakers in our city are able to access city services no matter what English proficiency they have or physical ability,” said District 8 council member Mai Vang.

The survey revealed that 55.93% of English respondents didn’t know that the city offered free translation and interpretation services, while 33% of Spanish respondents had the same response.

“If even folks who do speak English don’t even know the full array of city services – what does that mean for folks who cannot communicate in that language mainly? The city is responsible for a lot, and for the city to do its job well, it really needs to be able to reach our communities as well,” said Carissa Gutiérrez, the executive director at the Latino Center of Arts & Culture.

Vang added that when she became a council member, she had staff approach her to ask if she could help translate flyers into Hmong. “While I don’t mind doing that – as a city council member – it was frustrating and also disappointing.”

In the United States, more than 70 million individuals speak a language other than English at home, and an estimated 25 million Americans, 5 years of age and older, speak English “less than very well,” according to US Census data.

Nimdzi Insights, LLC. also identified language services already offered by the city of Sacramento. Currently, the city’s 311 service offers assistance in 17 languages through Language Link — a third-party telephone interpretation service paid for by the city, allowing employees to communicate with LEP community members during a phone conversation.

The survey showed that between January and August 2021, 5,143 interpreter calls were made to the Sacramento police department, and 82.96% were made in Spanish. Vietnamese, Cantonese, Mandarin and Russian each made up less than 3% of the calls, while all others represented 6%.

When it came to residents asking for help, about 70% of those surveyed said they didn’t feel comfortable requesting assistance.

Vang and Gutiérrez both agree that many times the ones providing translation services are children.

“For many of our families, this is the representation they’re getting – don’t get me wrong, a child does a great job, but I think the city can do better,” added Gutiérrez.

Sacramento City Council members Mai Vang and Eric Guerra are also drafting an ordinance to make language access services a permanent policy within the city.

Other local language access policies have been placed in 12 California jurisdictions:

City of Long Beach
City of Oakland
City/County of San Francisco
City of San Jose
City of Buena Park
City of Santa Maria
City of Arcadia
City of Alameda
City of Monterey Park
Monterey County
San Diego County
Orange County