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Date: 12/18/2023
SPRINGFIELD — A Springfield City Councilor recently pushed for changes that would make the public hearing process more accessible to minority populations.
Ward 6 City Councilor Victor Davila made the observation during the council’s Dec. 11 hearings meeting that the body should have translation services readily available for those coming before the council.
“As we all know, our city has changed. It is now a minority-majority city with a very diverse population, which only makes our great city better and enriches us,” Davila said. “And I believe that this wise and humble body has to come to terms with that and we should start looking about proper translation for petitioners in hearings so that the hearing can go better, more smoothly.”
He voiced this opinion in response to a belabored hearing on a petition regarding a South End business during which he and Ward 8 City Councilor Zaida Govan had to serve as impromptu translators for the petitioner, Pedro Rodriguez.
Rodriguez was able to answer in English when asked to state his name and address, but when given the floor by council President Jesse Lederman, he looked to Govan for help, at which time Lederman asked Govan to assist.
The hearing included testimony from neighborhood residents and abutters of the 62 Freemont St. business, who voiced concerns with Rodriguez’s request to expand what is currently a tire shop into a full service repair business. Davila and Govan translated statements and questions asked in English into Spanish and when questions were posed to Rodriguez directly in Spanish, the interaction was translated to English for the benefit of English-only-speaking councilors.
Those offering testimony were periodically asked to pause to allow for translation to occur. The occasional opportunity for misinterpretation were also present — Govan at one point admitted she did not know the Spanish translation for driveway, for example. After the council voted to continue the hearing to allow Rodriguez to meet with the South End Citizen’s Council, Govan translated the decision and next steps for Rodriguez as well.
According to the most recent census information, of the city’s 58,448 households identified from 2018-2022, 41.2% reported speaking a language other than English at home. A 2019 report titled “Springfield and its Neighborhoods,” based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey information available at that time, similarly reported 43.% of the city’s households spoke a language other than English at home — 35% of the city’s households spoke Spanish and an additional almost 8% spoke other languages. Twelve and a half percent of all households were identified as “linguistically isolated,” meaning no person 14 or older speaks English or those over 14 do not speak English well.
The 2018 Annual Business Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau also identified that of the city’s 2,094 employer firms, 339 were minority-owned.
Of the city’s 154,064 residents, 48.3% identified as Latino or Hispanic, 20.5% as Black, 2.9% as Asian, and 18.5% as two or more races, per census data.
Davila said he looked forward to collaborating with the council to make translation services more accessible in 2024.