State may target many counties with no Spanish phone options
Beaufort initiative reveals others with English only

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Jay Niver

February 27, 2008
The Beaufort battle over the use of Spanish messages on county phone systems may soon be a war that engulfs more than a dozen other, similar counties.

Commissioners here have been trying to make Beaufort County less attractive to a flood of Hispanic/Latino illegal immigrants, many of whom tap public resources such as schools, health and social services.

On Feb. 4, commissioners voted 4-3 along party lines to remove pre-recorded Spanish from phones at the Department of Health. But before the week was out, Health Director Roxanne Holloman had found state attorneys in Raleigh who said that could cost the county dearly: More than $1 million in state and federal funding would be lost.

The bureaucrats told her that the absence of a Spanish phone option would be a violation of the Title VI provision of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based upon national origin.

Hearing that, she consulted with Board of Heath Chairman Betty Jo Tetterton, and an illegal "emergency" board meeting was hastilly called without any public notice.

Board members met on Friday afternoon, Feb. 8, and – faced with the alleged potential cutoff of major funding – voted unanimously to keep Espanol on the phones.

While this county was trying to remove Spanish, other nearby and similar counties have never used it.

The Observer and County Manager Paul Spruill conducted separate surveys of similar counties' language policies, though neither knew that the other was investigating the issue.

What became apparent is that, while many counties with sizeable Hispanic/Latino populations do use Spanish on their phones, many others do not. And among those who "no speak Spanish," some are presumably inflicting a far greater negative impact.

U.S. Census estimates from 2006 give Beaufort County a 4% Spanish-speaking population. That means there may have been 1,854 immigrants who could have used Spanish assistance on Health Department phones if none could speak English and every one needed health services.

By contrast, Wilson County had more than double the ratio of Hispanics/Latinos (8.4%) and more than three times the number of Spanish-speaking residents (6,436). Still, a call this week to the Wilson County Health Department found no Spanish among the pre-recorded options.

The same was true for Nash County, which in 2006 had a higher portion of Spanish-speaking population (4.4%) and over twice the number of Hispanic/Latino residents (4,061) than did Beaufort.

Greene County had the sixth-highest H/L portion in the state at 11.5%, and it does have a Spanish message at its Health Department – but you must know English to get to it! It says, "If you need to hear the following message in Spanish, press one."

Research by Spruill and the Observer found at least a dozen counties similar to Beaufort that have no Spanish-language phone options. They include Edgecombe, Jones, Duplin, Hyde, Martin, Hertford, Pamlico and Carteret.

All these health departments, including Beaufort, provide paid translators for H/L clients. But that, says Raleigh, is not enough.

So why does the state, at Holloman's invitation, put a bull's-eye on Beaufort County?

The Observer asked Terry Hodges, compliance attorney for the N.C. Dept. of Health and Human Services. He's the state's chief Title VI enforcer.

When told of all the others who don't bother with Spanish, he said, "Thank you for letting us know. ... We'll contact the OCR (Office of Civil Rights) about these possible violations."

The Board of Health meets next Tuesday, March 3, to hear from two state experts about language-compliance issues, and some county commissioners say they will be there.

When asked if he would attend, Hodges said, "I don't have the time to go around to 100 county boards of commissioners and convince them of something we already know is true."

Not to say that there aren't legal immigrants calling though

The bureaucrats told her that the absence of a Spanish phone option would be a violation of the Title VI provision of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based upon national origin.

how is removing spanish discriminating against someone based on their origin? i guess since english isnt our official language?

It has more to do with the fact that a person, even after living here for many years, legally or not, may still be less than fluent in English, and would be helped tremendously by having someone speak to them in the native language about important issues. To not have a Spanish translation available is discriminating against people for who Spanish is their first (or only) langauge, and it is their first langauge because of their country of origin.

Aren't we then discriminating against people who's natural tongue isn't Spanish, but say Mandarin, or Arabic or Pashtun? Since they don't have an option for their native tongue, they are being discriminated against. Where does it end? An option for every language and dialect??

Esperanto ftw.

FAIL.

Unu lingvo neniam estas sufiĉa!

In areas where there are a large number of Chinese or Arabs or other langauges, they do have multiple options. I think there have been court cases regarding how many affected people there must be to mandate the langauge assistance.

i actually work with these systems and often i have to program 1 for spanish, 2 for english. needless to say, this would never pass in Florida.

Wait, so it only equals discrimination if you live among like-speaking people sufficient to warrant funds to accommodate you and your kind? It's either discrimination or its not. It can't really depend on numbers (which then turns into a due process argument).

Wait, so it only equals discrimination if you live among like-speaking people sufficient to warrant funds to accommodate you and your kind? It's either discrimination or its not. It can't really depend on numbers (which then turns into a due process argument).