Plan to increase pay for bilingual workers closer to fruition

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Friday, July 26, 2002 | 9:27 a.m.

In a move that Clark County Manager Thom Reilly called part of a "comprehensive outreach" to Hispanic citizens, a push to obtain extra pay for bilingual county employees drew closer to being resolved this week.

The county and the union that represents county workers are close to putting a plan into action to pay an additional $100 monthly to Spanish-speaking workers, said Ray Visconti, county human resources deputy director.

Visconti said the plan could be in place by September. The topic was to be discussed again at meetings set for today and Wednesday.

The issue arose when Spanish-speaking employees in the Department of Family and Youth Services began complaining about being called away from their caseloads to translate for English-speaking colleagues.

Concern about the problem grew with Nevada's Hispanic population, which went from 124,419 to 393,970 in the decade before 2000.

In July, the department split into Family Services and Juvenile Justice Services. Employees from the two departments will be the first to use the plan.

The idea is to give the extra pay to employees who pass written and oral exams in Spanish and can show they have long-term relationships with clients that have them writing and speaking Spanish at least 20 percent of the time.

A total of about 15 employees from the two departments will benefit from the extra pay at first, Visconti said.

Susan Klein Rothschild, director for the Department of Family Services, is also behind the plan.

"There's no question this makes sense," she said. "It makes sense for Spanish-speaking staff to deal with clients who speak Spanish where possible, since it helps build rapport. And it makes sense to give staff some reward or incentive for doing so."

Reilly said putting bilingual pay in place is part of an overall plan that includes publishing the county's newsletter partially in Spanish and issuing information about ballot questions in November's elections in Spanish.

Tony Sanchez, president of the 1,000-member Latin Chamber of Commerce, said these moves are important for Southern Nevada, and that bilingual pay may be something other local governments could use.

"It brings the county in line with many private employers, who pay extra for what is basically an added skill," he said. "And it's making sure government is more responsive to the community we live in today -- which is a more diverse one than in the past."