Boise could soon offer these free services at public meetings to encourage participation
Free programs, including child care and real-time Spanish translation, could soon be a feature at public forums and meetings in Boise.
If implemented, the move could make Boise one of the first cities in the state to offer such services at public meetings.
The city piloted similar offerings to people who attended the city’s “Community Conversation” on transportation back in May. Mike Journee, spokesman for Mayor David Bieter, said he was only aware of one person taking advantage of each service, but he said it “would be awesome to offer to all residents so they can take part in meetings.”
“We want to make sure the city government is representing these individuals and is responsive to their needs,” Journee said.
The city would likely have to contract out for both programs, as the city doesn’t have full-time translators or child care providers, but money has not yet been aside for the projects yet as they are tentative.
There is no date yet that the city would begin to offer those services, Journee said, and it would take a few months at least to iron out the specifics. Boise officials will spend time the time researching how similar programs are run across the country to develop best practices for the city, including how often to offer the services.
Journee said the translation system could utilize live streaming programs the city already has. A translator in the audience would translate the meeting live, and then those translations would be pushed live to those in the audience wearing special headsets.
Translation services would help open up city meetings to people, said J.J. Saldaña, community resource development specialist at the Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 10% of Boiseans speak a language other than English at home.
“I think it’s a great idea,” Saldaña said by telephone. “Hopefully it would bring in more people and get more people involved in their community.”
Journee said that it could be possible to incorporate other languages if there was a demand for it.
Adding child care would open the meeting to parents, particularly those with young children who can’t afford to hire a babysitter for weekday meetings, said Beth Oppenheimer, executive director of the Idaho Association for the Education of Young Children (IDAEYC).
Oppenheimer said that many parents are already paying for expensive daytime child care. Budgeting in extra money to afford nighttime care as well often just isn’t in the cards, she said.
“Anything we can do to support parents as a community, to remove a barrier to help them participate, that’s a good thing,” she said in a phone interview.
Adam Park, the director of community engagement, told the City Council on Tuesday that while not many people took advantage of the offerings in May, people were enthusiastic to learn it was available.
“Once it becomes the norm, I think it will become more heavily utilized,” he said.
This story was originally published August 29, 2019 at 4:08 PM.
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