The owner of the restaurant, who had had an emergency of her own, sent her sister to represent her at the hearing.  The sister had not been at the store when the incident occurred, but she understood that there would be witnesses there.  When she was called for the hearing she agreed to everything that was asked of her.  When she was asked if she would stipulate to the charges she assented and was told to get on line to pay her fee.

I immediately asked to speak to the hearing officer.  The representative from the Department of Streets and Sanitation who was representing the department at the hearing and acting as the complaining witness explained to me that since there was an agreed stipulation, nothing could be done.  The hearing officer then concurred explaining that there was no procedure for appeal or to request a hearing after there was a stipulated agreement.  From further discussion it was immediately obvious that the business owner’s sister did not know that she could ask for them to wait until her witnesses arrived.  To this they both responded.  “She should have asked.”  It was also apparent that she was insecure in the English language and although she did not understand what she was agreeing to, she had done so because she thought she had no choice.

Ultimately the stipulated agreement was voided and a hearing held.  Pictures were shown, testimony was given and the ticket was dismissed.  However, the discussion about multi-cultural training for hearing officers and investigator personnel within all city departments has just begun.  And if there is training that encourages and trains people who work within a bureaucracy tools they can use to improve communication with people who have language differences or specific cultural differences, in the end those same tools will improve communication with and therefore service to everyone.