Report 2010-106 Recommendation 12 Responses

Report 2010-106: Dymally-Alatorre Bilingual Services Act: State Agencies Do Not Fully Comply With the Act, and Local Governments Could Do More to Address Their Clients' Needs (Release Date: November 2010)

Recommendation #12 To: Housing and Community Development, Department of

To ensure that they meet their constituents' language needs, state agencies should make certain that they accurately assess and report their clients' language needs to the State Personnel Board. State agencies should also analyze formally their language survey results and consider other available bilingual resources to determine their true staffing deficiencies. Further, state agencies should establish procedures to identify the written materials that the Act requires them to translate into other languages and ensure that such materials are translated or made accessible to the agencies' LEP clients. Finally, state agencies should develop detailed corrective action plans describing how and when they will address their staffing and written materials deficiencies. In addition, they should submit their corrective action plans to the State Personnel Board as part of the state agencies' overall implementation plans.

1-Year Agency Response

The Department of Housing and Community Development (Housing) reported that beginning with the 2010 biennial language survey, it assigned responsibility for the survey to its equal employment opportunity officer, who also serves as its bilingual services program coordinator. This individual is responsible for coordinating, implementing, and overseeing the language survey, analyzing completed survey tally sheets, reporting the results of the analysis to the Personnel Board, and maintaining sufficient documentation. Housing also participated in the 2010 language survey and submitted an implementation plan to the Personnel Board in 2011. In addition, Housing formally analyzed its language survey results and established procedures for identifying written materials that require translation. Finally, Housing's implementation plan included a corrective action plan describing how it will address its staffing and written materials deficiencies. (See 2012-406 p.68)

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

All Recommendations in 2010-106

Agency responses received after June 2013 are posted verbatim.