By Brooklynn Wong
According to the City of Buena Park’s website, the largest ethnic group of the city by percentage is “Hispanic.” Following that is “Asian.” “Anglo” comes in third.
The second group had two representatives voicing concerns at this week’s City Council meeting over a lack of a certain type of service.
The majority of Buena Park’s Asian population is Korean, and the two residents at the meeting voiced concerns over not being able to understand or speak via translator at city meetings.
The first speaker, a male, said many of the city’s Korean residents are “afraid of being here” and that they would greatly benefit if the city could “provide language assistance.”
That man translated for the next speaker, a female, who said she was frustrated because due to the lack of a translator, she and others were not able to speak at the most recent public hearing on the proposed homeless Navigation Center in the city. She requested that a translator be made available at the next one.
However Mayor Art Brown was quick to say that this very topic was on their agenda for later that evening, to discuss in a study session. The agenda item was to “discuss and provide direction regarding a city language assistance program.”
Per the agenda packet, the city is currently in compliance with federal and state regulations for servicing those with no-or-limited English proficiency. What they were to discuss was whether they wanted to implement a program to supplement these regulations.
The California Bilingual Services Act says government entities that serve “a substantial number of non-English speaking people” must provide language access services.
56.1% of Buena Park residents “sometimes or always” speak a language other than English at home. Buena Park, among its city staff, has approximately 60 employees who speak the major languages represented in Buena Park, with four of these speaking Korean.
At one recent City Council meeting, residents requested Spanish and Korean translation services be available. An individual who could translate Spanish was provided, but no Korean translator was available.
The city’s options going forward, per the agenda packet, include “retaining translation services for public meetings with advance request from the public, translating the most frequently requested/used City forms into other languages, and updating the City’s website to include translation friendly formats.”
