Speaker 3: Please add the chair. 20683 will be signed to the Committee on Ways and Means. Mr. Clarke, please read 0684, please.
Speaker 1: Duncan number 068 for Council on me. He offered the following order for a hearing on accountability and accessibility of language access services in the city of Boston.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Mr. Clarke. The chair now recognizes Councilor me here.
Speaker 5: Thank you, Mr. Vice President. And thank you, Mr. President. And I'd like to suspend the rules, allow you both Councilor Arroyo and Councilor Flynn as original co-sponsors.
Speaker 0: Seeing no objection there.
Speaker 5: So we're following this hearing order for two reasons. The first is that in 2021, the Boston City Council passed an ordinance amending the city language access policies in order to give a newly qualified Office of Language and Communications access the time they needed to fully implement the new laws. It was decided that the effective date for the ordinance will be set a year in advance. We're now approaching that 12 month deadline, and it's important that we get a better understanding of where we are in regards to the implementation of the ordinance. The second reason we're fighting this hearing order has to do with the new line item for in-house translators and interpreters. Having spoken with a few with a number of translators and interpreters, we have come to understand just how specialized a field it really is and how important it is to make a distinction between someone who is bilingual and someone who has the capacity to serve as an interpreter. We also need to better understand how translators and interpreters are currently contracted and what metrics we use to determine their quality of service. It probably goes without saying, but it's very difficult to ask a non-English speaking person to rate the quality of interpretation when they have no insight into the source material. So we need to understand more about what we can do to ensure that we are we have the best people working as interpreters, because that says a lot about how we value our non-English speaking community. I'm looking forward to this hearing and to working alongside Councilor Flynn and Arroyo, who have both been champions of immigrants and in language access.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. Here, the chair now recognizes Council President Flynn.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Counsel Arroyo. And thank you, counsel, here for adding me in, for working for the important work that you've done on language and communication access. It's a critical issue facing our city. It's important that we have city services in various languages so that residents across Boston that may not speak English have the opportunity to engage city government in acquiring these city services, especially following during this pandemic. Where. Services are needed for our children, especially mental health counseling. But we need to make sure that our residents are able to communicate with city officials in many languages, such as Cantonese, such as Mandarin, Spanish, various other languages that many, many speak across Vietnamese. Across across the city. Haitian Creole. So I just want to thank my colleagues, council me here, Council Royal and all of my city council colleagues for their important work on language and communication access, along with Mayor Wolf, as well as the city councilor, also is a strong supporter of language and communication and just as well. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Council President Flynn.
Speaker 3: DG. I recognize this council role.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Council President Flynn. And you know, I just want to note behind the scenes, I'm sure folks who are watching this can hear the music going on in the background. That's a celebration of our Asian American and Pacific Islander community. And I think it's sort of indicative of what language access is about, is about making this city government more accessible to folks and making sure that folks have a way of being heard in the chambers that are making decisions on their lives. And so I look forward to this. I really appreciate, Councilman, his tireless efforts on behalf of folks who speak languages other than English. And for Councilor Flynn's steadfast, accomplish, accomplished status in making sure that we are working towards these things. And so I look forward to a hearing because it's vitally important to all of us that when we are speaking and issuing city ordinances or home rule petitions or things that impact people's lives that they know and understand and can participate and partake in those discussions and really understand how this government, our municipal government, is impacting their lives in the ways in which we can make it better. So thank you. Council President Flynn Thank you, Councilman. Here and thank you to my council colleagues who have also been steadfast in making sure that this happens.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Council Royal. Would anyone else like to speak on this matter? Would anyone else like to add their name? Please raise your hand. Mr. Clarke, please add Councilor Baker. Councilor Borg Council. Brighton Council. Cardiff Council. Farrelly Council. Borough Council. Murphy Council. All. Docket 0684 will be assigned to the Committee on Government Accountability, Transparency and Accessibility. Mr. Clarke, docket 0685 has been withdrawn. Mr.. Couric, please read. Dr.. 0686, please.
Order for a hearing on Accountability and Accessibility of Language Access Services in the City of Boston.
On motion of Councilor Mejia, Rule 12 was invoked to include Councilors Arroyo and Flynn as co-sponsors.
Councilor Arroyo in the Chair.
President Flynn in the Chair.