The City of Change is a Midwestern city of approximately 80,000 people spread over a 35 square mile area. Its management team has been stable for the last twenty plus years. The current city administrator served 15 years in the position of Deputy Administrator and was promoted after his boss’s retirement. Most managers have grown up in this system, there has been little turnover. The city’s bureaucratic processes have received criticism for not being more futuristic in its thinking. When citizens log blog comments to articles regarding city government their comments often mention that the old mind set, “its always been this way,” just isn't good enough any more!
Andrew Curtis is the City Clerk for the City of Change. He was born and raised in the City of Change. He completed his undergraduate studies at the local University. During school’s summer breaks Andrew did work as a seasonal worker cutting grass and trimming trees. As an upper classman he performed internships at the City in various departments performing analysis. Throughout the school year, for big elections, he would volunteer in the Clerk’s Office as an inspector to receive ballots. Andrew enjoyed his job and thought of it as an exciting opportunity, especially the presidential election of 2008. Although, it is a lot of work, the thought of being able to take a part in electing the most power individual of the free world really got his juices flowing. His position makes him aware that although 70 percent of people eligible to vote in the city are registered, he is also aware that less than half of the community’s Hispanic population is registered to vote.
Andrew and Mila, the Assistant City Treasurer, who is Hispanic and Andrew, take an occasional smoke break. Andrew decides to ask Mila to participate in a voter registration drive in a Hispanic neighborhood. When he asks Mila the question her response surprised him. Mila states that she is not registered to vote and furthermore, what has government done for me? She continued saying I have worked and pay taxes into a system that offers me little reward. When I looked-for the system the most it turned its back on me and my family. Government is for the people that have everything, if people truly had a voice in the decision making process, it would work for those in need of its assistance. Andrew was taken surprised by her response and thinks how can I (or we the government) try to communicate with people in our neighborhoods when we have people within our organization that do not see the value in their participation.
Mila’s mother is an undocumented Mexican immigrant who came to the United States in search of a better life. For several summers she worked the fields harvesting crops and returned home at the end of those seasons. The following summer when she returned she was offered a job at the local canning factory. There she met and later married an American citizen and through this union Mila was born.
Mila grew up knowing the value of a dollar and that when you work hard your rewards would come. She went to school and during the summers worked at the same factory that her parents did. When she graduated high school she went to community college on a part-time basis. She needed to work to help support her parents who were getting older and who had poor health was not good. Her parent’s medical bills were piling up; the cost of their medicine was not covered by the company’s health coverage. Unfortunately, because of its requirements the government’s programs for supplemental coverage were unobtainable. Although, Mila saw school as her priority and a means to achieve her goals in life, her parents were her responsibility. As Mila’s work hours increased to meet her families’ financial obligations and her student status lessened, government grants and money from her earnings went to pay for schooling, when she could afford it.
After several years Mila’s parents died within weeks of one another. With no money for their funerals she looked for government assistance. The government was without any programs to assist Mila. Help for her comes from the Hispanic community; the community pooled its resources together to properly bury her parents and brought food to celebrate their lives. Many in the Hispanic community work hard but because we are either not citizens or speak the language we lack access to the systems. The older members were denied the opportunity to register to vote. The younger adults are registering to vote but find it a difficult choice to make when not many of the politicians represent what is important to us.
The next semester Mila registers as a full time student. With the assistance of grants and loans she completes her Bachelors degree in Accounting at the age of 28. Her first position is with the City of Change as an Account Clerk in Utility Billing. She would work in that position for the next 7 years. In that time she sees several city councils seated men and women, while mostly Caucasian and some African Americans, but not one Hispanic. Occasionally, a Hispanic would run for elected office but at best they would finish a distant second. Mila continued to work hard at work and after work she volunteered in the Hispanic community giving back to the people that had given to her.
Andrew feeling flabbergasted by Mila’s response decides to investigate, for himself, the disconnection between the Hispanic community members and government’s election process. The presidential primaries are only weeks away, so he decides to go at it alone an initiate a voter registration drive in the Hispanic community. At a local convenience store Andrew works it out with the store owner to set up table and booth on the westerly side of the store.
Saturday arrives and Andrew is at his post. He has with him several brochures and pamphlets which describe the candidates, their stance on issues, general information on voting and “VOTE” bumper stickers. His tabled is draped with a large sign with the words “Register to Vote”. Store patrons come and go paying little attention to Andrew’s voter registration drive. Andrew notes that most of the customers are mature adults and a few younger children. As the day wears on younger adults begin to appear and are curious enough to wander over to the table. After noon Andrew begins to dismantle his registration station and notices that several young adults are coming and going now. Andrew engages them by inquiring whether they are registered voters. Replies varied from, “Yes I am registered to vote” to “I’m not sure” to “the last time I voted my vote did not count because my guy lost” to “I have a record so I am not eligible to vote.” Andrew understood from the comments that there was a great deal of misunderstandings going on due to the lack of communication. He thought that providing people with printed information would increase the communication. He turned to his brochures and pamphlets and realized that in this community Spanish is the most commonly used language and his information was only printed in English. He needed to adapt the information that his office was providing to the clientele it was intended to reach.
Andrew realized making a connection with Mila held a lot of promise to bridging the communication gap with the Hispanic community. Andrew was aware that Mila worked with several organizations in the Hispanic community. Mila was bilingual and could help with the translation of the information in the brochures and pamphlets. Pamphlets and brochures being provided in Spanish is one of several changes necessary for better communication. Surely He could spend time with Mila sharing the importance of voting so that together they could work in the Hispanic community dispelling the incorrect information that was shared with him from the patrons at the convenience store.
Andrew approached Mila during a smoke break and explained to her his experience with the voter registration drive. Andrew shares that experience has enlightened him. Knowledge and encouragement which he received growing up within the City of Change system was not universally shared. Now, he wants to work to change that so that all people share in the benefits of community. People’s voices are heard by the government through their participation in the electoral process. He explained that although it matters most to the voter if their candidate wins or loses, politicians pay attention to those who vote. Their involvement ensures that are heard.
Mila was mildly amused stating that, “He probably had more success with his voter registration effort if he had done it later in the day.” She explained that the young adults work hard all week and need to let off a little steam on Friday, making them late risers on Saturday. She asked Andrew why he was so concerned about what Hispanics thought or if they got involved. He replied that “we all live in the City of Change and the government is here to work with its entire people. To make Change the best it can be all of its citizens must be heard.”
Mila agreed to translate Andrew’s voter registration information from English to Spanish in exchange for Andrew presenting the information to community groups within the Hispanic community. The two have agreed to return to the convenience store to do a late afternoon voter registration drive geared toward registering voter age Hispanic adults.
Their teamwork continues to inspire other departments to print materials into Spanish. The City Council’s agenda now informs the community that the city will make available an interpreter to provide translations between Spanish and English.
Their work will not stop there; Mila has enrolled at Spring Arbor University to obtain a Masters of Organizational Management degree. Her goal is to continue moving up the corporate ladder. She is also maturing within the City of Change system and sees the rewards that it has offered her predecessors. Change often occurs within ourselves and within the organizations in which we are involved.
Andrew is also attending school; he is taking Spanish language classes to more effectively communicate with the community’s Hispanic population.
1. How could communication be improved to increase voter participation?
2. What is the message being sent or received when hearing “it’s always been this?
way,”
3 Generally speaking government’s image could use an upgrade, how could Mila’s
experiences have been improved through better communication?
4. Government bureaucracy can both intimate and alienate its citizenry, what
communication tools could be implemented to improve this relationship?
2 comments:
Dennis, I have asked this question of another student but it is worthy asking you this as well...going forward, what does the U.S. need to do to build more fluency among the population with languages other than English?
To improve the fluency of immigrants the United States Government should enhance communicating an effective naturalization process. Streamlining the process by which immigrants could achieve citizenship creating new citizens that would understand the principles of free government. As a result, immigrants would be more than mere inhabitants living isolated in America. They would be Americans, having the choice to choose to retain their native language and culture.
This country was founded by immigrants. America has been good for immigrants, and immigrants have been good for America. America has always welcomed immigrants who came to this country seeking the promises and opportunities of the American Dream. Social scientists emphasize that assimilation has never been a first-generation process. They rely on such measurements as language, education, economic mobility, intermarriage, and geographic distribution to assess assimilation, the test of which is not a loss of ethnic identity, but parity with the majority. The massive wave of immigrants a century ago made few gains, but its grandchildren were integrated (Karin Bruillard, Washington Post 2007).
Assimilation throughout the course of American history has been a strengthening of our social capital. It is imperative that we revive the government’s efforts to assimilate immigrants to create new American citizens.
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