Hillsborough treads lightly with bilingual meeting

By Times Staff Writer
Published March 12, 2008

TAMPA - After the flak they got last year, Hillsborough County officials were more careful when they advertised Thursday night's bilingual town hall meeting in Town 'N Country.

Still, there was resistance.

"It's a big waste of time, having people speaking two languages that you have to translate in between," said Jack Peel, a past president of the Baycrest Homeowners Association.

Bill Browne, chairman of the Town 'N Country Alliance, sent an e-mail to county offices.

"I would have thought that given the angst generated last year somebody would have at least considered asking how we are dealing with this again," he wrote.

County officials say the reaction this year is far more subdued than last year, when they held the first such event in Town 'N Country. While the gathering attracted 500 people and was considered a success, there were heated exchanges in the days leading up to the meeting.

"I still have people in the community and even in my own church who aren't speaking to me because they misunderstood my intentions," said Browne, who opposed the bilingual format.

This time, officials were careful to call the meeting "bilingual," not "Hispanic." And they were careful to put signs penned in Spanish only in areas with a high concentration of Hispanics.

"It's a process where we learn," said Tony Morejon, the county's Hispanic affairs liaison. "Not everybody's going to be happy but it has to happen. We need to communicate."

If you go:

Town hall meeting

Thursday, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Iglesia de Dios Pentecosta., 5800 N Church Ave., Tampa

[Last modified March 11, 2008, 23:54:45]