The Collin County Observer

News, Analysis & Opinion for Collin County

When are we going to have to hire A-rabs... and Indians?

07/11/08

12:53:05 am, by bill

, 407 words,

Categories: Observer Opinions, Discrimination - equality

When are we going to have to hire A-rabs... and Indians?

So asked Collin County Commissioner Jerry Hoagland at Tuesday's court meeting. On his soapbox again about bi-lingual workers pay, he asked, "When are we going to have to hire A-rabs? When are we going to have to hire Indians, and everything else?"

Jerry wasn't talking about the county's lack of a working equal employment action plan. He was protesting the county paying a 3% higher salary for a bi-lingual juvenile detention officer.

Over the past few months, Hoagland has consistently and loudly voted against all bi-lingual new hires, even as jailers and health care workers. He charges that the county is, "bending over backwards to enable non-english speaking people". Judge Self and newly installed Commissioner Kathy Ward appeared to be in agreement with Hoagland, although they did vote to approve the hiring.

Ward told Hoagland, "Believe me, what you are saying is not falling on deaf ears. We're in America." Self noted that what Hoagland was really wanting was a change in the county policy that moves bi-lingual employees up one salary step.

Commissioner Jaynes commented, "I'm almost with you there Commissioner", but Jaynes also noted that detention officers are dealing with people in jail, and need to communicate for their own safety.

The only commissioner who did not take part in the discussion was Phyllis Cole.

Both Self and Ward asked that the bi-lingual policy be placed on the agenda for the next meeting of the court.

Hoagland told the court that his "wife runs the Passport Office in Plano", and that they don't have any Spanish interpreters. Hoagland says his wife tells Spanish speakers they need to, "bring somebody who speaks English".

What amazed me was the acceptance of Hoagland's racial remarks by the entire Commissioners Court. No one pointed out to the Commissioner that they do have to hire Middle Eastern and Indian applicants. No one called him down. No one appeared offended.

Following on the heels of the county's forcing out of a gay employee and their refusal to enact a meaningful equal employment policy, Tuesday's incident proves that these "good old boys" are out of touch with the moral values of the vast majority of Americans.

Racism should have no place in county government, not even in Collin County.

Bill

NOTE: The discussion of approving the hiring of the bi-lingual jailer can be found on the the recording of the July 8 meeting. Set the time slide to 2:09:00. The recording can be found here

Permalink 23 comments

Comments, Pingbacks:

Comment from: randy [Visitor]

I am very, very glad to know this. Thank you.

Permalink 07/11/08 @ 06:50

Comment from: anon [Visitor]

I personally fought along side many Americans of all ethnic backgrounds, including many who spoke Spanish as their first language. What we all had in common was "US Army" on our chest. Hoagland and his spiritual brother Sandoval are perfect examples of what is wrong with Collin County. They need to go to the bone yard now. I suspect Self and Ward agree with this but have to be politically practical.

Permalink 07/11/08 @ 07:50

Comment from: Observer [Visitor]

Hoagland open his mouth and ugly spews out - but he does have a point. There are schools in Collin County that have students speaking more than 20 languages. Simply speaking Spanish is not enough. I do think that official business should be done in English. However it is the governments responsibility to effectively serve residents. We are fortunate to have such a diverse population, but it does bring challenges. Wouldn't it be great to have a volunteer base of translators?

Permalink 07/11/08 @ 11:35

Comment from: Anon [Visitor]

I think the context of his comment was "When do we have to hire employees that speak Arab, Indian?" His argument is the slippery slope argument, that people who speak all kinds of languages are going to demand the same thing.

Bill, you are either purposely being disingenuous, or you aren't as bright as I thought you were.

Having said that, it's pretty common sense that if around 1 in 4 prisoners are Hispanic, you'll need people who can speak Spanish. HIs comment about his wife doesn't even make sense. What is his point? He wants the prisoners to go home and bring someone back who can speak English?

If a high percentage of prisoners are Arab, get someone who speaks Arab. No big deal.

The higher pay is warranted because of supply and demand economics.

Permalink 07/11/08 @ 13:14

Comment from: anon [Visitor]

Anon, I am having a hard time understanding the value of the following quote. Could you please explain the value of this to me? I would really appreciate it. Thanks "Bill, you are either purposely being disingenuous, or you aren't as bright as I thought you were."

Permalink 07/11/08 @ 13:35

Comment from: Anon [Visitor]

Value is subjective. Did you not understand the point or was that a rhetorical question?

I think it's quite obvious Mr. Hoagland didn't mean they shouldn't have to hire people from the Middle East and India. He was referring to bilingual employees.

Permalink 07/11/08 @ 13:46

Comment from: anon [Visitor]

The sentence could be interpreted as being personally insulting which of course is destructive. I will assume you did not mean that.

Permalink 07/11/08 @ 14:47

Comment from: Anon [Visitor]

You mean destructive like taking people's comments out of context and calling them racists? No, I'm not that destructive.

Permalink 07/11/08 @ 15:40

Comment from: bill [Member]

Hoagland said what he said. I reported his exact words accurately.

If you think I misquoted him, then watch the recording. I hope that any elected official who is pushing "English Only" would have a base competency in that language.

Or do you think the County should provide a translator to interpret from redneck to English?

I don't. I believe Hoagland said precisely what he wanted to say. I believe he said precisely what he wanted to say when he asked a citizen what bathroom trans-gender employees should use. I believe he says what he feels when he refers to minorities and as "those people". I believe he calls middle-easterners "A-rabs" quite consciously.

He constantly uses pejorative language. He likes being confrontational. He should be called on it.

What he is doing is called "pandering". He is pandering to the lowest denominator of prejudice and bigotry. That's his style, and it should be condemned for what it is.

Bill

Permalink 07/11/08 @ 15:41

Comment from: Anon [Visitor]

The context was hiring bilingual employees. His point, obviously, was asking if they should hire bilingual employees for every language.

You lose credibility when your reporting seems personally motivated, Bill.

Permalink 07/11/08 @ 16:36

Comment from: Anon [Visitor]

I just think before you go out and slander someone as a racist like that, you give them the benefit of the doubt. I know you aren't big on that (Allen High School, Collin County in general...).

Permalink 07/11/08 @ 16:55

Comment from: bill [Member]

Anon

My point is divisive pandering.

Your point is context.

My response is "bull crap!".

Nothing personal.

Bill

Permalink 07/11/08 @ 17:00

Comment from: anon [Visitor]

Anon, I have listened to the recording and have quite a different interpretation. I believe Hoagland's comments are face value bigoted comments. The likes of Hoagland represent a bygone era and the sooner they are gone, the better. They are good old fashioned Dixiecrats masquerading as Republicans. Their attitude is the reason the Collin County judiciary has become so tainted. Collin County now has a lot more educated and affluent population. We will not settle for this good ol' boyism any nore.

Permalink 07/12/08 @ 07:28

Comment from: randy [Visitor]

Bill and anon are right. Hoagland is not stupid. I know what he meant, and it was pretty ugly.

Permalink 07/12/08 @ 08:24

Comment from: Anon [Visitor]

If that is what the man meant, than he clearly has no business being in the position he is in.

Bill, who is he pandering to?

Permalink 07/13/08 @ 08:40

Comment from: Friendly Observer [Visitor]

I am floored that someone would be so ignorant that they would oppose a three percent pay premium for bilingual county employees. The three percent pay premium should be paid to any county employee who can pass a proficiency examination in any foreign language whether it be French, German, Spanish, Chinese, Cantonese, Farsi or any other recognized world language. Although we are in the United States, we live in an increasingly diverse world where globalization is increasing our opportunities and our contact with other cultures.

I suspect that Mr. Hoagland and his peers are the type of people who go to France without learning a lick of French and return saying that they hate the French because they are snobs. Duh?

Permalink 07/13/08 @ 13:14

Comment from: anon [Visitor]

This is par for the course for Jerry Hoagland. Just think... when he and his wife retire they will earn, in total, about $150,000+ a year in retirement - not a bad deal for all they have cost Collin County, both in dollars and in respect.

Permalink 07/13/08 @ 22:18

Comment from: Anon [Visitor]

"I suspect that Mr. Hoagland and his peers are the type of people who go to France without learning a lick of French"

Voting for Obama, are you? This belief by elitist liberals in the USA is false. In fact, it is the French who do not learn the language of the country they are visiting and they are considered the rudest tourists:

http://www.gadling.com/2007/05/23/french-deemed-worst-tourists/

Americans are the second best, behind Japan.

Permalink 07/14/08 @ 15:45

Comment from: randy [Visitor]

Anon, the post to which you linked is really interesting (I'm especially surprised that India ranked so low), but it doesn't address learning foreign languages at all. In my experience in Europe, American workers tend to be good about learning the language, but tourists are actually notorious.

Permalink 07/14/08 @ 17:48

Comment from: Anon [Visitor]

Well, Randy, 15,000 European hoteliers disagree with you. ;)

That's the funny thing about elitist liberal Americans who are so concerned about how Europe views us. The don't realize that they hate each other much more than us!

Permalink 07/14/08 @ 19:22

Comment from: randy [Visitor]

Sorry, but as far as your gadling.com link goes, these 15,000 European hoteliers say nothing at all about language. I only see vague references to "best" and "worst" tourists. I assume the original Yahoo link would tell us more, but it seems to be dead.

Permalink 07/14/08 @ 19:49

Comment from: Anon [Visitor]

Google is your friend, Randy. It's from Time Magazine:

"The survey was taken by employees in 4,000 hotels in Germany, the U.K., Italy, France, Canada and the U.S. for the French travel website Expedia.fr. The study asked respondents to rank clients by nationality on criteria of general attitude, politeness, tendency to complain, willingness to speak local languages, interest in sampling local cuisine, readiness to spend money, generosity, cleanliness, discretion and elegance."

"American tourists fared well in some surprising ways. Despite being notoriously language-limited, for example, they top the list of tourists credited with trying to speak local languages the most, with the French, Chinese, Japanese, Italians and Russians coming in last in the local-language rankings."

Permalink 07/17/08 @ 16:39

Comment from: randy [Visitor]

Thank you, Anon! That's exactly what I wanted to know. I don't think it matters so much that tourists aren't good at local languages--people really appreciate it when you just make an effort. Good to know we are being good ambassadors!

Permalink 07/17/08 @ 18:17