Title
Consider a response by the Clerk of the Board Supervisors’ office to Board Referral No. 2020.27 seeking the need for simultaneous Spanish interpreter services for live Zoom Board of Supervisor’s meetings and Spanish translation services of the recorded minutes of Board of Supervisors meetings.
Report
RECOMMENDATION:
It is recommended that the Board of Supervisors:
a. Consider a response to Board Referral No. 2020.27;
b. Direct that the referral be completed as indicated in Attachment A - Options.
SUMMARY:
Board Referral No, 2020.27 is a joint referral submitted by Supervisor Chris Lopez and Supervisor Luis A. Alejo.
The referral requests completion of the following tasks for:
• A community member to receive simultaneous Spanish interpreter services via Zoom during live meetings;
• A recording (video) of the simultaneous Spanish interpreter services be uploaded to the Clerk of the Board’s webpage; and
• The Board’s meeting minutes translated into Spanish and uploaded to the Clerk of the Board’s webpage.
Estimated Projected Costs:
The Clerk of the Board’s office does not have the budget for these services and would need to seek a budget augmentation which would need to be considered for all future budget requests.
If implemented the new live simultaneous Spanish interpretation services via Zoom will require two (2) simultaneous certified Spanish Interpreters due to interpreter fatigue after 45 minutes when interpreting; this will ensure quality of interpretation for community members and would:
• Consist of 38 regular meetings (not including special meetings) approximately 4 hours on average for 152 hours in meeting time; $85 per hour per simultaneous Spanish Interpreter = $25,840.
In addition, if implemented the Board’s meeting minutes translated into Spanish by an outside certified vendor would be:
• On average minutes consists of 5000 words. Mid-range translation costs are .15 cents per word. $750 per minutes x 38 regular meetings (not including special meetings) = $28,500.
For both services the total = $54,340
Note:
A pilot of these services were put into place from December 2020 - April 2021, from salary savings in the Clerk of the Board’s budget equaling approximately $28,000 (for live Spanish Zoom meetings only). Unfortunately, during the duration of this pilot no one attended the live Spanish Zoom meetings and to date no requests for the minutes to be translated into Spanish have been made.
Staffing Level Estimate: One (1) IT person at initiation and set-up; one (1) Clerk of the Board plus support staff on-going:
• This would require two meeting dates in Legistar to display on the Clerk of the Board’s webpage one in English and one in Spanish;
o The English recording (video) and minutes are uploaded automatically via the case management system; and
o The Spanish recording (video) which will also include the live transcript in Spanish and the Spanish translated minutes require a manual upload by staff.
Departmental Challenges: Press of other business.
Proposed Response Date: July 1, 2022 once funded
BOARD OF SUPERVISORS STRATEGIC INITIATIVES:
One or two sentences explaining how this recommendation supports/advances the Board of Supervisors Strategic Initiatives. Reference to any Key Objectives and/or Milestones that are related.
Mark a check to the related Board of Supervisors Strategic Initiatives:
__Economic Development
X Administration/Public Service
__Health & Human Services
__Infrastructure
__Public Safety
Prepared by: Valerie Ralph, Clerk of the Board, Phone Number 831-755-5842
Approved by: Charles McKee, County Administrative Officer, 831-755-5113
Attachments: Attachment A - Options; and Board Referral No. 2020-27 - Address the need for translation services