CITY OF OAKLAND

AGENDA REPORT

TO:
FROM:
DATE:
RE:

Robert C. Bobb, City Manager

H. Simon Bryce, Assistant to the City Manager
Deborah Liu, Equal Access Coordinator
November 13,2001

AN INFORMATIONAL REPORT BY THE CITY MANAGER'S OFFICE

REGARDING PROGRESS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE
EQUAL ACCESS ORDINANCE AND THE RESULTING PROGRAM

SUMMARY
This is an informational report by the City Manager's Office that details the manner and progress
with which the City is implementing the Equal Access Ordinance, ratified by the Oakland City
Council on May 8, 2001. Because it is an informational report, no action is required by City
Councilor its committees.
FISCAL IMPACT
This is an informational report only. There are no fiscal impacts.
BACKGROUND
The Equal Access to Services Ordinance, Oakland Municipal Code, Chapter 2.30, was passed by
the Oakland City Council on May 8, 2001 with the purpose of removing language barriers that
some citizens may have in accessing City services. The ordinance mandates that the City must
. accommodate - through outreach materials and "public contact" positions on staff - languages
that have 10,000 or more Oakland residents that are limited English speakers based off the most
current U.S. Census. Currently, only Spanish and Chinese meet this standard. Another aspect
ofthe ordinance is to distinguish between Tier 1 (i.e., CEDA's permit counter and the Police
Department's community policing program) and Tier 2 departmental units: Tier 1 units must be
in compliance with the ordinance within a year, while Tier two departments must be in
compliance within two years.
On July 7, 2001, in furtherance of the ordinance, City Council approved a report and resolution
authorizing the City Manager to enter into a professional services contract with a qualified
language translation firm for the purpose of providing translation services of written materials.
Included in this contract are services related to the City's new Teleworks automated phone
system which allows citizens to access telephone messages at any time of the day related to
central City services in Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Vietnamese.

KEY ISSUES AND IMPACTS

Implementation efforts have focused on short-term goals, establishing organizational
infrastructure for the program that will allow expansion to other languages if the need arises.
These efforts have achieved on three major goals: (1) hiring a full-time program coordinator, (2)
contracting with a firm to do written translations, and (3) developing ordinance compliance
reports for each City agency.

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FINANCE &MANAGEMENT CMTE.

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Equal Access Update

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Full-time Program Coordinator

In October 2001, the City Manager hired Deborah Liu to serve as the Equal Access Program
Coordinator. In her position, Ms. Liu will report directly to the City Manager, coordinating all of
the City's Equal Access efforts, including ensuring the hiring of qualified employees into "public
contact" positions, supervising agency compliance plans, investigating complaints from limited
English residents, and overseeing the translation of written materials (i.e., brochures, pamphlets,
etc.). Eventually, it is contemplated that the Office may include an in-house translation corps if
it proves effective and economical.
Ms. Liu has most recently served as the program director for the Women's Initiative for Se1fEmployment/ALAS, a non-profit helping low-income women in San Francisco and Oakland.
Ms. Liu also has significant experience in marketing and product distribution. Importantly, Ms.
Liu speaks both Spanish and Cantonese, and has a background in bridging cultures and
languages.

Contracting for Written Translations

In July 2001, City Council authorized the City Manager to enter into a contract for language
translation services related to the Equal Access Ordinance and the Te1eworks automated
telephone message project. Advertised between July 24 through August 13, the Request for
Proposals (RFP) received seven submissions. In early September, the top-rated vendor was
selected. Negotiations are currently in progress, and the contract is expected to be executed the
first week in November.
The purpose of the contract is to provide Spanish and Chinese translations of approximately 35
City brochures and 100 forms. Since this amount will not meet all City translation needs arising
from the ordinance, the Equal Access Coordinator will prioritize translation projects considering,
in part, (1) whether the material relates to a Tier 1 department, as defined by the ordinance, or a
Tier 2 department, (2) how the material relates to City Council's overall goals and objectives,
(i.e., public safety, economic development), and (3) whether the material can be translated by
current City personnel without any substantive impact on the quality of citizen access.

Agency Compliance Reports

The ordinance requires an annual compliance report to City Council be submitted by June 1 of
each year. While the Equal Access program is developing, the City Manager has required
agencies to tum in quarterly reports, creating the opportunity for regular compliance assessment
and City Manager intervention.
In October 2001, all City agencies completed their first quarter compliance report. The chief
purposes of this first round of reports were to (1) educate agencies on the expectations of the
ordinance and (2) establish an information baseline with which to evaluate future compliance
activity.
The compliance reports ask agencies to detail their:

Item: ------=~-Finance Committee

November 13,2001

Office of the City Manager

Equal Access Update

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Number of public contact positions, including where they are located, which of those

positions are currently filled by bilingual staff, and how many of those positions are
currently vacant;
Written outreach materials and which of those materials have been translated into
Spanish and/or Chinese; and
Complaint procedure for limited English speakers.

The compliance reports yielded the following information:

Most departmental units are currently staffed to provide "coverage" of public contact
positions, meaning that, although they cannot meet the ordinance's mandate of
bilingual personnel in public contact positions, they do have bilingual personnel
physically close enough to the public contact positions to provide assistance when a
language need arises.
No agency or departmental unit has formalized a complaint procedure for dealing
specifically with limited English speaking complainants.
Most agencies, especially those that deal with the human services (i.e., the Life
Enrichment Agency) have already made efforts to translate critical brochures and
forms, although often these are done by staff, not professional translators.

Next Steps
The Equal Access Program's immediate goals will include (1) inventorying and translating
critical City outreach materials under the aforementioned professional services contract, and (2)
tailoring the first round of compliance reports to each agency, thus establishing action plans.
During this time, the Equal Access Coordinator will also begin site visits to Tier 1 units to assess
current compliance levels.
One major issue that the Equal Access Program must address in its first year is city-wide
standardization oflanguage proficiency. Currently, there is no control mechanism for ensuring a
high level of interpretive skills of employees: There is no test for an employee's skills with
Spanish or Chinese. Therefore, there is no standard definition of "bilingual." In order to ensure
that residents are truly receiving equal access, a standardization model must be developed.
RECOMMENDATION AND RATIONALE
This is an informational report only. No action is requested of City Council.

Respectfully submitted,

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H. Simg Bryce
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Item:
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Finance Committee
November 13, 2001

Office of the City Manager

Equal Access Update

Page 4 of 4

APPROVED AND FORWARDED TO THE

FINANCE COMMITTEE:

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OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER

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Item:
Finance Committee
November 13,2001