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First-ever Spanish translation planned at Marsac Building meeting

Jay Hamburger THE PARK RECORD

One of the discussions planned at a Park City Council meeting on Thursday will be translated into Spanish on a real-time basis, likely the first time that has been done at the Marsac Building.

Mayor Jack Thomas and the City Council are scheduled to discuss a broad range of Latino issues on Thursday. That portion of the meeting will be translated. The discussion is scheduled toward the end of the meeting. The meeting is slated to start at 6 p.m. in the City Council chambers, but it is not known when the discussion of Latino issues will begin.

Diane Foster, the Park City manager, said a professional translator will attend. The professional also translated a four-page City Hall staff report drafted in anticipation of the meeting. The staff report offers suggestions for participation in a bilingual meeting. They include that speakers should pause after 30 seconds "and look to the translator so that she can translate what you have just said" and that the conversation will "take a bit longer" since it will be in two languages.

Foster said in an interview she could not recall another City Council meeting translated on a real-time basis in her eight years as a City Hall staffer. She also could not recall a translated staff report. She said some City Hall-produced fliers and advertising has been translated into Spanish, though.

Dana Williams, the mayor of Park City between early 2002 and early 2014, said in an interview he could not recall a meeting translated on a real-time basis during his time in office. Brad Olch, the mayor from early 1990 until early 2002, also said he could not recall a real-time Spanish translation at a City Council meeting. Olch noted real-time translations between English and French, though, on occasions when Park City’s sister city, Courchevel, France, sent delegations to Park City.


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