Census Bureau Kicks Off 2000 Campaign

The U.S. Census Bureau opened its four Orange County offices and kicked off its “Generations Are Counting on You” campaign Friday with receptions, speeches and high school band performances.

In Garden Grove, 100 community activists and civic leaders vowed to form an alliance with census workers from Newport Beach to Cypress. Similar promises were made in the Fullerton, Irvine and Santa Ana offices as census workers mingled with community leaders to highlight the need for outreach programs.

Participants in Garden Grove were treated to music by Pacifica High School’s band and chorus, and observed a presentation of colors by Santiago High School’s Reserve Officer Training Corps before listening to census workers explain the significance of an accurate 2000 count.

“The goal in Census 2000 is to take the most accurate and cost-effective census possible,” said Raymond Lopez, the office manager. “The importance of a complete and accurate census count cannot be overstated.”

Twelve days before the national decennial count begins in Alaska, anxiety is growing about getting the word out to the nation’s 120 million households. It is particularly difficult in diverse regions like Southern California, with large pockets of minorities and non-English speaking immigrant residents who fear or don’t trust the government.

Only three in five households are expected to respond to the mailed survey, which will be sent out to most U.S. residents in mid-March.

That’s troubling to California leaders, because the count is used to allocate public funds and reapportion state legislatures as well as the U.S. House of Representatives.

“We are at 84 days before the [local] count begins. This area had the largest number of people missed during the 1990 census,” Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante said Friday at the downtown Los Angeles census office open house. “We don’t want California to lose 3, 4, 5 billion dollars in resources again.”

Such dire predictions have led to the largest effort to date to increase awareness about the census. An unprecedented number of civic leaders, school districts and grass-roots organizations have banded together with government to boost participation under the bureau’s partnership program.

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Making people aware of the census is only half the battle, local leaders said. Many residents who hear about the head count are often reluctant to take part, fearing they’ll be deported, audited by the IRS or arrested, or hearing wild rumors about what is actually asked on the form.

Four community partnership specialists in Orange County are devoted to promoting the significance of an accurate count by joining forces with churches, organizations and local governments.

In general, the questions deal with racial and ethnic makeup, age and the number of people living in a household. Some will receive a longer form that includes questions about income, jobs, cars owned and mortgage amounts.

Federal laws guarantee that respondents are not identified for 72 years to anyone other than census workers, a mantra recited by government officials and community leaders at every turn. The anonymous data, however, become public record.

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“I put my personal reputation on the line,” said Nhi Ho, an outreach specialist based in Garden Grove. “I ask the community to trust that what I tell them about the confidentiality of the census is true. When I finish my work with the community, I’ll go back to the community and they won’t accept me if I have not told the truth.”

The census has been taken every 10 years without interruption since 1790. But the response rate has declined in recent surveys, down to two-thirds in 1990 and even lower for Los Angeles, where only 60% mailed back the forms.

“We will be telling everyone that being counted will mean money for schools, infrastructure and fair representation in Washington, Sacramento and City Hall as well,” said Michael N. Carpenter, the Van Nuys census office manager.

Assemblyman Tony Cardenas (D-Sylmar) urged that census takers be taught about the various cultures represented in the area and to use that knowledge to get people to fill out census forms.

For example, he said, census takers should be aware that the Latino community is predominantly Roman Catholic and workers should not hesitate to draw on the New Testament story of Joseph and Mary’s journey to Bethlehem to take part in the census.

“It is a humble responsibility that must be taken just as seriously,” he said. In addition, the federal government has spent $167 million on a 17-language television, radio and print ad campaign launched in November. The state is spending an additional $8.7 million on its own ads.

Some community leaders worry that efforts to publicize the census are too late. As of Friday, no state money had been forwarded to the counties or school or grass-roots groups, all charged with boosting participation.

“It’s great that the state has come up with $25 million to spend on the census. But the greatest challenge is that it’s a slow process with layers of bureaucracy,” said Louisa Ollague, who heads the census effort for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund in Los Angeles.

Jorge Jackson, who directs the state’s Complete Count Committee, disagreed, saying that officials are on target with selecting organizations to help funnel the money to various groups. The last of the funding should be handed down by mid-February, he said.

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The Census Bureau, meanwhile, this week launched a nationwide recruitment drive to hire hundreds of thousands of census takers to go door to door and count residents who fail to send back forms by the April 1 deadline.

“We anticipate having to knock on 46 million doors” to follow up, Census Bureau Director Kenneth Prewitt said during an earlier news conference in Washington.

In Central and Southern California and Hawaii, 36,000 census takers will be hired this spring, said John Reeder, census region director.

The temporary jobs, which pay $11 to $14 an hour depending on the county, have already generated thousands of phone calls from applicants, a pool Reeder hopes to increase to 200,000 across the region.

Office manager Lopez, who retired 10 years ago, said he decided to join the bureau and became the manager of the Garden Grove office because 50,000 Orange County residents were missed in 1990. In Santa Ana, where Lopez lives, more than 10,000 Latinos were not counted 10 years ago.

“For the majority of us working here, we are here to help our local and personal communities and for the kids,” Lopez said. “I’m working for the seniors and for the children. I want the children to get the best education so that they can support me in my old age.”

Times staff writers Karima A. Haynes and Edgar Sandoval contributed to this story.