Spanish interpreters will start translating Ventura City Council meetings this month.
The City Council unanimously voted last week to approve the new six-month program that’s expected to help Spanish-speaking residents better understand the discussion among elected officials.
Kristian Nunez, a policy advocate for Central Coast Alliance Unified for a Sustainable Economy, or CAUSE, said the program will help Spanish speakers in places like the Westside or Montalvo who are left out because of language issues.
He said big decisions on policies and voting issues take place at the meetings, which are generally held twice a month.
“Even if families or individuals do not speak or give public comment, when they attend, they need to know and understand what’s going on and what’s talked about in their respective communities,” Nunez said.
Ventura City Clerk Michael MacDonald said the translation will begin at the Sept. 26 City Council meeting.
The total cost of the program is $11,400 for 12 meetings, which will come out of the city clerk’s budget, MacDonald said.
The city has hired All Languages Interpreting & Translating Inc. to provide two interpreters, who would switch off every 30 minutes, along with headsets. Nonprofits, including Westside Community Council and CAUSE, have provided interpretation services for city meetings in the past.
The City Council will evaluate the program after six months and discuss whether to make it permanent, the city clerk said.
The city can set up two WebEx channels with one in English and one translated in Spanish, MacDonald said. WebEx is a video conferencing system used to show meetings online.
“The benefit of that is we would be able to record the meeting and have that meeting recording in Spanish posted on our website so that folks in the community could go back and watch,” MacDonald said.
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A recording of the interpreters and corresponding Spanish channel might not begin until October, MacDonald said.
In April, councilmembers directed staff to return with information about a pilot program to offer two-way, Spanish-English interpretation at council meetings.
The city has many monolingual Spanish-speaking residents, MacDonald said, and some have made use of interpretation services at prior council meetings when the services were offered.
The latest U.S. Census data indicates that in Ventura, about 26% of people age 5 and older speak a language other than English at home. The city is 36.9% Latino.
Other cities in the area already provide translation services for Spanish speakers, MacDonald said.
Carpinteria and Oxnard have permanent contracts for translation services at council meetings regardless of need or a prior request, he said.
Ventura County provides translation of Board of Supervisors meetings, but only by request, he said.
Fillmore and Thousand Oaks offer translation services by request. Fillmore has not made a request in more than a year and Thousand Oaks has not made a request in 2022, according to the report. Port Hueneme and Santa Paula do not provide any interpretation services.
The clerk was asked about using WebEx for translation services but he said the quality and consistency of the company’s services were lacking.
“It’s like using Google translate,” MacDonald said.
Councilmember Mike Johnson said it was important to note how low the approximately $12,000 cost was compared to the more than half a million spent on public information outreach and community engagement.
“We all agree, I think, on just how critical this is,” Johnson said.
Wes Woods II covers West County for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at wesley.woodsii@vcstar.com, 805-437-
