By Dalia Diaz
If you think this is another article with Rumbo encouragement to complete your census for 2020, you are wrong.
This is a story of one person wanting to usurp, not only the work but the accolades of another by interfering in the operational task of the federal government’s job.
The federal government’s job is to complete a census every ten years on those years ending in zero as required by the Constitution of the United States. This is not to be confused with the city census that takes place every single year.
Over the years several different federal agencies have had the responsibility of carrying out the count. This current census is operated by the Department of Commerce. They hire thousands of people throughout the nation to outreach and count every single resident in every corner of this nation. This includes every person of any age (even babies) and legal status in the country. Since no questions are asked about residency or citizenship, people have nothing to fear.
It will take over 750,000 temporary and permanent employees to conduct the 2020 Census. Every state has a manager, which in turn has regional supervisors and countless temporary employees out in the field. Known as In-Field Address Canvassing, this is the process of having field staff visit specific geographic areas to identify every place where people live or could live. The staff then compares what they see on the ground to the existing census address list. They verify, correct, or add address and location information.
During the spring and summer of 2020 census workers knock on doors to interview people who don’t respond to the census by telephone or online. Then why it is that Mayor Dan Rivera is taking cash from the City coffers to pay for employees to call Lawrence residents to remind them of the census. After all, it’s not his job.
I understand why he believes it’s important to get all, if not most, people to respond to their census. But he is also sending the City Council President Kendrys Vasquez and the recycling coordinator Carlos Morel with his friendly neighborhood City Councilor Celina Reyes (aka Lina Montesino) to discuss the census on the radio during work hours.
People of two leading departments are making calls to residents reminding them of the importance of completing the census.
Last year it was known that the Department of Commerce hired Former Lawrence Mayor William Lantigua as a Regional Census Recruiter Manager and he has nine Recruiting Assistants. There are thousands of enumerators – they are the people going house to house gathering the information from people who have not responded to the census.
In a recent conversation with Lantigua, he explained the reason for the delay in growing the numbers in Lawrence. “With the COVID-19 pandemic, Census workers including enumerators, are not allowed to visit homes and are limited to making telephone calls. Once everything opens and we go back to normal, they will visit those in non-compliance,” he said. “In more affluent cities, there are residents with a different lifestyle who have been prompt to respond to the census, and thus, their numbers are higher.”
In Lawrence, our community is different and we have to insist on them to fulfill their obligation. There’s a lot at stake depending on the total number of residents. Many services from the federal government depend on those results; that is why everyone needs to comply.
This is the same mayor that began doing balance budgets for the City of Lawrence and took Lawrence out of the abyss from bankruptcy. So why does Danny not allow William Lantigua to do his job? I am sure that William is appreciative of the assistance because it will make him look good on the data and we are sure that Dan will say that he wants to help reach out to the residents to ensure proper count and future funding.
Nonetheless, once the great numbers are known, Dan will take credit away from William, as he has always done.
There is no reason why Dan should use the funding from city coffers on projects that are not city projects. It’s the same for the COVID-19 testing site. Why did he insist on paying more than $1 million of Lawrence residents’ taxes to pay for COVID-19 testing? Does he not know that the City is still trying to get away from all the debt it took to remove itself from bankruptcy? Does he not know that he must go and seek funding for new schools, refinance debts, and other city projects that are not state or federal related? There is no reason except that at the end of it all he can pat his back and say “attaboy!”
On the other hand, he can continue to use taxpayers’ money to clean up and make city lots easier to award to his friends for housing.
City Councilor Jeovanny Rodríguez has placed on the agenda for the June 16th meeting, a Resolution to support the mayor’s actions with the census.
