The La Plata County Board of County Commissioners must improve the process in which residents for whom English is not a first language can provide input on how $10.9 million of federal COVID-19 recovery funds is spent.
These funds should support programs that improve the community for all La Platans. And by supporting public health expenditures; addressing negative economic impacts of COVID-19; replacing lost public sector revenue; providing premium pay for essential workers; and investing in infrastructure, they can. But only if everyone has an equal chance to be heard.
This will require the board to host more than one public, English-only, virtual input meeting.
Luckily, there are a number of organizations eager to help coordinate simultaneous interpretation and in-person, COVID-safe events. With the board’s endorsement, we can also collect this input via Spanish language surveys, like this: United Today, Stronger Tomorrow.
I believe the board wants to do better. They’ve already listened to our recommendations to move the Spanish proposal form for constituent input to a webpage that’s easier to locate.
It’s good that the board had a public input meeting and is accepting proposals in Spanish. But they must also integrate simultaneous interpretation into all public meetings and host an input meeting intended for non-English speakers and individuals without technology or internet access.
These steps will help ensure that federal COVID-19 recovery funds improve the lives of all La Platans.
Enrique Orozco-Perez
Durango
