Census Gets Ready to Fill in Gaps in Its Count

You know who you are. Maybe you are an incurable procrastinator. Or perhaps you relish being a government scofflaw.

Whatever your excuse, get ready for a knock at your door as the U.S. Census Bureau kicks off the second wave of its national head count Thursday by tracking down the thousands of residents who did not mail in their forms.

The phase is officially known as the “non-response follow-up,” which means workers will launch a massive, block-by-block campaign lasting as long as six weeks. In Los Angeles County, an army of 16,360 census workers will swarm into neighborhoods toting signature black book bags.

They will carry short and long forms, a reference “flash card” to pinpoint 38 different languages, privacy notices and other paperwork. They have been coached on how to be polite but persistent, how to work around Sunday religious commitments and how to convince the more stubborn to listen.

“This is the hardest part of the census,” said John Reeder, regional director of the Census Bureau.

For all the effort that will be spent--enumerators will work evenings and weekends to catch people at home--Reeder is convinced most people are not really die-hard resisters.

“For whatever reason, they forgot, they were too busy, or they threw it out by mistake because they thought it was junk mail,” he said.

California, with a current response rate of 68%, has a target goal of 70%. In 1990, the state’s response rate was 65%.

Los Angeles County also has a response rate of 68%, putting it just a point shy of its goal.

Most of the state’s big cities, including Los Angeles, with a 62% current response rate, are still short of their targets. Los Angeles is aiming for 65%.

“We make an attempt to convert refusals into cooperation,” said Census Bureau Director Kenneth Prewitt.

At this stage of the census, capturing those percentage points boils down to the persistence of enumerators such as Dona Evans, 45, of Van Nuys.

Tired of hearing her co-workers at a graphics firm complain about the census, Evans applied for the part-time job. Now she is the census “source” at her day job, and she can tailor her enumerator hours around nights and weekends.

Evans expects that some of the residents she will encounter will complain--about the government, about taxes or whatever rubs them the wrong way--so she will try to convince them of the benefits of the decennial count by explaining how it translates into dollars for neighborhoods.

“You can get your answers,” Evans said. “You have to know how to deal with people and allow them to vent.”

Enumerators undergo 24 hours of training, must be at least 18, are paid $14 an hour and in Los Angeles, are as diverse as the city. Many are bilingual. They range in age from students to retirees, and each has a different take on their role.

“My job is to get accurate information, not debate the issue,” said Marsha Lenox, 44, of Studio City. “They can argue with their friends.”

Enumerators will make up to three phone calls and three visits to reach residents, officials said. If that fails, they can seek out landlords, building managers or neighbors as “proxy” or substitute sources for information.

The workers will wear white plastic badges with their names, the Census Bureau logo and the American flag.

They are instructed not to ask to enter a residence and not to leave blank forms if no one is home. Instead, a “Notice of Visit” card will be left and a resident can contact the enumerator later.

After a recent training class, Taylor Wright said he enjoyed his enumerator job a decade ago in Santa Monica and Westside neighborhoods. This year, the 30-year-old North Hills resident will be working close to home. He has been brushing up on the questions.

“Most important, no one wants to talk to a robot,” said Wright, who also works for a shipping company. “Never read to them.”

Being an enumerator is not a job for the thin-skinned, Reeder acknowledged. In 1990, doors often were slammed in his face.

“You are often the only government they see,” he said. “If they are mad at the IRS or the city, they take it out on you.”