In order to comply with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 the city must ensure that persons with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) are able to effectively participate in, or benefit from, federally assisted programs such as the Community Development Block Grant Program.
A recent review of the city’s demographic information revealed a threshold of over 5% of persons speaking the Spanish language. As such, it is appropriate for the city to adopt a Language Access Plan so that the types of language assistance that will be provided are defined and promoted. Incidentally, if other populations of LEP persons are identified in the future, the city will implement additional measures to serve the language access needs of those persons.
The purpose of this agenda item is to introduce the Four-Factor Analysis which is helpful to the city in determining the most appropriate forms of language assistance to undertake in order to guarantee access to programs by LEP persons. Additionally, to gain the support of the City Council in the form of a resolution as it relates to the Language Access Plan being proposed for implementation in conjunction with the CDBG program.