Mayor Orders City Agencies to Go Multilingual

he Mayor signed an executive order on Tuesday, July 22 mandating that all city agencies must start providing services in the top six foreign languages spoken in New York.
Mayor Orders City Agencies to Go Multilingual
Christine Lin
7/23/2008
Updated:
7/23/2008
NEW YORK—The Mayor signed an executive order on Tuesday, July 22 mandating that all city agencies must start providing services in the top six foreign languages spoken in New York.

City agencies that directly interact with New Yorkers will have to include Spanish, Russian, Chinese, French-Creole, and Korean interpretation services and materials in those languages.

“For the 1.8 million New Yorkers with limited English proficiency, interacting with government all too often can be a challenge,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “All New Yorkers should have the same access to the same services and the same opportunities. This Executive Order will make our city more accessible, while helping us become the most inclusive municipal government in the nation.”

The City has been asking various city agencies to increase their language options for several years. The new Executive Order is the first comprehensive policy to demand language accessibility across the board.

“It didn’t make sense to look at this agency by agency,” said Council Speaker Christine Quinn at the signing.

Last year over three million New Yorkers accessed city agencies by phone and over 10 million visit agency offices, according to Jeff Kay, the director of the Mayor’s Office of Operations.

The Mayor hopes to draw on the pool of polyglots New York City offers to fill translator jobs.

The Office of Operations will monitor the execution of the plans, which are expected to take shape by the beginning of 2009.

Under Local Law 73 signed by Mayor Bloomberg in 2003, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Department of Homeless Services, the Administration for Children’s Services and the Human Resources Administration already provide enhanced language access, according to the city website. Since 2003, the 311 Customer Service Center has been providing information for callers in 170 different languages.
Christine Lin is an arts reporter for the Epoch Times. She can be found lurking in museum galleries and poking around in artists' studios when not at her desk writing.
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