Councilmen express their concerns on employment

Chang, Kwok and Knapp talk about bilingual requirements

By GEORGE MOORE

Two city council members met recently to discuss their concerns with City Manager David Knapp about the city's hiring practices. Vice Mayor Michael Chang and Councilman Patrick Kwok wanted to address the bilingual requirements in certain city-staffed positions.

However, Knapp said that as a municipality, the city cannot do anything in any way that relates to quotas.

"If I do anything with the goal of changing the ethnicity or gender of our staff, that fails the test of discrimination in California because of Proposition 209," Knapp said. "An invaluable rule with me is that we hire the most qualified."

Kwok and Chang sat down with Knapp, Sandy Abe, human resource manager, and Carol Atwood, director of administrative services,on Feb. 19 to give some input about what can be done to improve communications."We wanted to understand the process of how the city is reaching out to get the most qualified people, but at the same time representing the community that they serve," Kwok said. "Technical translation at staff level would improve our customer service. We want to show ethnic minorities that they are welcome."

Kwok said he understands the bottom line is that the city hire the best-qualified person, but he said he would like to make sure one department is not overrepresented.

"All we want to do is provide ethnic minorities with fair opportunities," Kwok said.

Knapp said Abe is the person who does all the outreach in terms of hiring and he understands his goal of hiring the most qualified person. Abe is placing advertisements in many of the local newspapers, including Chinese-language publications, as well as the Cupertino Scene, which is delivered to every Cupertino household.

"From my perspective, if the most qualified person lives within the city limits, that would be a definite bonus," Knapp said. "But I would not use that as a basis for hiring them."

Abe said the nature of the opening determines where they advertise.

"One of the things we're very successful at is making sure we advertise in local professional organizations and publications," Abe said. "One of the reasons is because the Bay Area housing market is so [expensive] that it is difficult for people to relocate."

Abe said announcements are made on the city's website, City Channel, the Chamber of Commerce and local colleges and universities.

Chang and Kwok asked that Knapp show them documentation for how each city staff position was advertised.

"Abe provides me with this information so I have some kind of comfort that we're doing the widest possible search and including as many people as we can," Knapp said.

There have been some jobs where there was a need for someone who was bilingual and a bilingual candidate was hired, Knapp said. Teresa Mo has been recreation coordinator at the Cupertino Senior Center for the past year. Knapp said the fact that she is multilingual has had a real impact in helping with communication issues at the center.

"The Senior Center serves a population where language is much more likely to be an issue," he said. Knapp added that by design, the building and planning department also have employees who are bilingual.

"We found it was one of our needs because there was a communication problem in that department," Knapp said. "Where language is an asset or a necessity in a job, it is my practice to put that in as either a requirement or as a highly desired skill, which counts for something in the selection process."

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