The Erie County Legislature passed the Erie County Language Access Act, Thursday.
The local law mandates that department-specific plans, practices and trainings are made available in the top six languages used by community members in the county, including American Sign Language.
Legislature Chair and District Two representative, April Baskin (D) sponsored the bill, which passed seven to four along party lines.
Baskin said an independent work group will be formed to help put the new law into practice.
“We will have a group that will assess what common languages are spoken in Erie County outside of Spanish and English, and make sure that those documents are readily accessible,” Baskin said.
“We will then empower this independent work group to work with department heads and identify what the vital documents are, and how often residents come into that department and request those documents,” she added.
The bill was developed with input from the local refugee and immigrant communities.
Patience Nimely-Keys said she shared her story of coming to the United States with policy makers, with the goal of helping other immigrants and refugees to navigate life in the county.
“We hope that the next generation, the next people who come, now we can tell them, ‘You can come to the U.S. and you can have access to these documents. You can go to the office, you can have a way to communicate and get access to government services,'” Nimely-Keys said.
Democratic Legislators Timothy Meyers, Howard Johnson, Jeanne Vinal and John Gilmour were the other sponsors of the act, which is the first of its kind passed by a county legislature in New York State, according to the Partnership for the Public Good.
The law is due to come into effect 180 days after it is signed by Erie County Executive, Mark Poloncarz.
WBFO's Grant Ashley contributed to this report.
