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Latinos and the Dallas Legal Community: A Case of Two-Way Myopia

Like Mr. Magoo, our legal community sometimes has difficulty seeing beyond their most immediate surroundings. A good example is the large presence of Latinos in the Dallas area, who generally capture the attention of attorneys when they have a problem that is related to traffic accidents, personal injury, immigration or crime – a form of myopia that seems to show little change. This practice is compounded by the myopia of Latinos who often lack knowledge of our legal system and how it can benefit them in other areas as well. This two-way myopia is not a permanent problem, but has a remedy once some of the underlying issues are understood. This disconnect has the potential of creating a community of Latinos that are becoming increasingly vulnerable to events that threaten their most valued assets. To get the conversation going, I would like to share a few insights about Latinos based on the research that I have conducted in past years and hopefully shed some light on this growing problem.

Some Things That We Know About Latinos

The increasing presence of Latinos in the U.S. has not escaped the attention of the legal industry. In its recent report entitled Latinos in the United States: Overcoming Legal Obstacles, Engaging in Civic Life, the American Bar Association’s Commission on Hispanic Legal Rights and Responsibilities provided a comprehensive review and discussion of the various issues that U.S. Latinos experience in eight distinct areas: employment, housing, education, healthcare, criminal justice, media and Latino images, and diversity in the legal profession. The report provides its readers with an excellent foundation for understanding the many challenges that impact the quality of life for Latinos and some possible remedies (www.ambar.org/chlrr). Our focus on Latinos in Dallas County, Texas provides a detailed look at how Latinos in one community manage some of these challenges and the extent to which their legal needs are fulfilled by the current legal community in Dallas County.

Latinos are both numerous and unique. According to the Texas State Data Center, Dallas County Latinos currently represent 4 in 10 residents, and are projected to grow to 6 in 10 residents within 30 years. Many organizations are discovering the Latino presence in schools, churches, business, supermarkets, sports, the courts, and other areas, and realizing that Latinos are also unique in various ways.

For example, it has not gone unnoticed to some attorneys that Latinos are concentrated in blue collar jobs that result in more personal injuries and deaths than their non-Latino counterparts. About 6 in 10 Latinos are foreign-born, meaning that they are very likely to need advice on immigration matters as well as Spanish-language support. The recent surge of children entering the U.S. from unstable Latin countries illustrated the demands made on legal professionals who can communicate in Spanish. And their high rate of Latino business formation, about three times higher than the general population, points to the need for advice on business matters as well.

Unfortunately, their generally lower income and education means that Latinos often lack familiarity with the legal system and how it can benefit their families and businesses. Yet others will consult a “notario” – a person that is not licensed or trained to give legal advice but provides it nonetheless for a fee. The Latino situation is indeed dire and results in their heightened vulnerability to the many problems which families and business owners are likely to encounter on a daily basis.

Some attorneys have become reluctant to address the needs of Latinos, who are perceived as likely pro bono clients and presenting more challenges to serve properly. Census data, however, tells us that Latinos are not exactly without economic means. In 2013, for example, Latino households in Dallas County earned an aggregate income (i.e., gross measure of buying power) of $12 billion – representing 19 percent of the area’s total aggregate income of $65 billion. The Survey of Business Owners in 2007 identified 35,056 Hispanic-owned firms that reported sales and receipts of $5.6 billion. In addition, much of the recent migration from Mexico and other Latin American countries includes highly educated business owners that need legal services for commerce. Think about it: if Latinos were that poor, how is it that many national retailers – airlines, supermarkets, food and beverages, automotive – continue to earn millions in profits from the spending habits of Latino consumers? While the media may portray Latinos largely as under-achievers and steeped in poverty, they contribute substantially to the economic growth of many U.S. communities. Let’s turn our attention now to some interesting facts about the Dallas legal community.

Some Things That We Know About Our Legal Community

There are three aspects of the legal community that, in my opinion, have direct relevance to helping us understand the disconnect between Latinos and the legal community. These three aspects include trust in the legal industry, the traditional practices of area attorneys, and the role of law schools and other community educators.

In their annual Trust in Advertising Report conducted in 58 countries, The Nielsen Company concluded that the most trustworthy source was earned advertising (i.e., word-of-mouth from friends and family) (84%); second in trustworthiness were branded web sites (69%); and ranked third were consumer opinions posted online (68%). The study of trust in the legal industry has not been commonplace, although one key study of Texas residents (sponsored by the State Bar of Texas, Texas Supreme Court and Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, 1998) revealed that lawyers were rated the lowest in terms of their honesty and ethics. Based on ratings of “very” or “somewhat” honest or ethical, the rating was lower for lawyers (40%), while higher ratings were given to teachers (85%), doctors (77%) and judges (71%). Most lawyers, however, were perceived as being very competent in their profession (77%). These public perceptions may or may not have changed since the study was conducted; however, they underscore the challenge that lawyers face in developing trust with the clients that they serve.

The manner in which the legal community is composed also deserves some attention in our discussion. A recent New York Times article (Law Schools’ Applications Fall as Costs Rise and Jobs Are Cut, 1-30-13) reminds us that the future availability of lawyers is diminishing as a result of steep increases in the cost of a legal education and an employment market that saddles many law school graduates with high debt – a trend that will impact the availability of Latino attorneys. For example, a Latino looking in Dallas County for a Latino attorney is likely to be frustrated with the available choices. Of the 14,607 attorneys registered in Dallas County during 2011-2012, the State Bar of Texas tells us that only 627 were Latino attorneys while 13,980 were non-Latino attorneys. This translates to 1 non-Latino attorney for every 108 non-Latino residents, but only one Latino attorney for every 1,543 Latino residents. This disparity is a clear signal that Latinos searching for a Latino attorney may need to consider other options to address their legal needs.

Adding to the problem is the narrow focus of attorneys that serve Latinos. Based on my own observations of attorney advertisements (TV, billboards, newspapers, etc.), Dallas-area attorneys that focus their services on Latinos generally practice in four areas: immigration, crime, personal injury, and traffic accidents. Often ignored, however, is legal representation that would help Latinos protect their most important assets in the areas of intellectual property (patents, copyrights, trademarks); business contracts; business formation; wills; foreclosures; and bankruptcies. Some attorneys may assume that Latinos have less need for these services; however, I would argue that quite the opposite is true. For example, Latinos have a history of inventiveness that requires the need for intellectual property attorneys to protect their inventions from predators in the marketplace. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USTPO.gov) identifies the many inventions by Latinos that contributed to the social and economic well-being of our nation. These Latinos were fortunate to acquire the legal support needed to protect their important inventions; however, there are potentially many Latinos with innovative ideas that will suffer economically due to the many predators that benefit from intellectual property theft. Indeed, The National Crime Prevention Council estimated that intellectual property thefts cost the American economy more than $250 billion and 750,000 jobs per year. Clearly, Latinos are in dire need of IP attorneys that can protect their innovations.

The recent mortgage crisis illustrates the economic harm that can occur when predatory financial institutions focus their attention on vulnerable groups like Latinos. In their recent article Latinos Bearing the Brunt of the Foreclosure Crisis, the Center for American Progress reminds us that the housing crisis was particularly hurtful to Latinos, who faced a foreclosure rate of 11.9 percent – significantly higher than the foreclosure rate among African Americans (9.8%) and whites (5.0%). As the study authors explained: “Latinos were disproportionately targeted for risky subprime loans and were victims of predatory lending practices from major banks, even when their income and credit scores qualified them for a less expensive mortgage.” (p. 2). Although homeownership is recognized as one of the best ways to build wealth and assets, many Latinos lost out on this opportunity because they lacked the knowledge and community resources to insulate them from these predatory institutions.

Educational initiatives designed to train lawyers, business owners and the general public sometimes miss the mark in addressing the legal needs of Latinos. The traditional law school curriculum may not have the time or resources to provide students the insights that they need to evaluate community needs, especially as it concerns groups like Latinos. Community colleges, chambers of commerce and other community organizations that have more direct contact with the Latino community generally offer seminars or courses on starting a business, marketing strategies, developing a business plan, and accounting principles. Curiously missing, however, is instruction on legal topics designed to protect their personal and business assets. A recent welcomed addition to the metroplex is The Center for Innovation in Arlington, Texas which provides pro bono assistance for patent applications. Hopefully, area Latinos will take advantage of the Center’s support.

New Things That We Learned About Latino Legal Needs

These observations address only part of the story about the legal experiences of Dallas-area Latinos. To fill in the gaps, our firm conducted a scientific poll of 400 Dallas County Latino adults, and discussed the poll findings in a recent report entitled Legal Watch Dallas 2014. Following are some of the interesting things that we learned about the typical legal experiences of Latinos which expand upon our previous observations.

· Name recognition of attorneys or law firms is a problem: Nearly half of the respondents (46.2%) could not recall any name of an attorney, law firm or other organization. Apparently, over half of Dallas area attorneys are not even on the Latino radar screen in this community.

· Not all Latinos are looking for a Latino attorney. About three in ten (31.5%) Latinos had used an attorney or legal service; however, Latinos were just as likely to use Latino attorneys as non-Latino attorneys. Nonetheless, over four in ten foreign-born Latinos (41.0%) believed that a non-Latino lawyer would encounter difficulty understanding the problems faced by their families. By contrast, considerably fewer native-born Latinos (15.9%) felt that this would be a problem.

· When choosing an attorney, Latinos placed a great deal of importance on trustworthiness and recommendations by friends and family members. Over eight in ten (83.0%) Latinos felt that an attorney should look like someone that they trust, although only half of the respondents (48.0%) believed that it was important that the attorney be a Hispanic or Latino. Interestingly, Latinos valued an attorney that was well known, but they were not as impressed that the attorney advertised a lot (32.0%).

· The expected legal needs of Latinos included immigration, personal injuries and business matters. Not surprisingly, the study revealed that immigration (42.0%) and personal injuries (34.5%) were high-demand needs for Latinos. However, a distinct need for legal advice was also apparent for business-related issues like the signing of important contracts (43.0%), setting up a new business (28.5%), a business bankruptcy (14.2%), and obtaining a patent or trademark (13.8%).

· Personal relationships and web sites were utilized more often than traditional media sources to find information about attorneys. When seeking information about attorneys, Latinos were more likely to rely on family members (74.0%), friends (73.0%), and web sites (57.0%), and less likelyto rely on advertisements on television (35.2%), newspapers (28.8%), radio (28.2%), yellow pages (26.8%) and social media (18.0%).

· Family members were the most trusted source of information about attorneys. Nearly four in ten Latinos (39.2%) felt that family members were their most trusted source of information regarding attorneys, followed by web sites (23.2%). The level of trust was distinctly lower for such sources as television ads (9.8%), friends (8.5%), and yellow page ads (3.5%).

· If needing legal advice today, Latinos were more likely to consult a lawyer or a personal relationship like a friend or family member. Over four in ten (43.8%) Latinos would hire a lawyer if they needed legal advice, while three in ten Latinos (30.5%) would consult a friend or family member. Interestingly, over one in ten Latinos (12.2%) would consult a web site like LegalZoom.com, or visit a legal clinic (9.2%) for those who could not afford a lawyer.

A Collective Call-to-Action

The poll findings vividly show that the disconnect between Latinos and the legal community has various elements that will likely require the collective action of various organizations to remedy. These organizations include members of the legal community, community organizations, the media, and family members (see Figure below). The basic model assumes that Latinos will not be passive participants in this process and will be expected to engage by participating in activities sponsored by these organizations that are designed to familiarize them with the legal protections and instruments that will protect their assets.

Model of Latino Community Engagement

The legal community, which includes law schools, attorneys, and bar associations, are likely to have the greatest impact. Law schools should modify their curriculum and require law students to take a course on understanding and communicating with Latinos or other key segments of the community where they plan to practice. Internship experiences could be encouraged with law firms that serve large numbers of Latino clients. Bar associations could offer incentives for its members to serve Latinos with intellectual property concerns. Practicing attorneys, especially those with specializations in intellectual property, bankruptcies, foreclosures, wills, and other asset protection practices should offer free seminars to educate Latinos regarding some of the basic legal considerations regarding protection of assets.

Community organizations, including chambers of commerce, immigration centers, churches and other non-profits, have the added advantage of being trusted sources among Latinos, which can direct Latinos to credible sources in the community or sponsor seminars where attorneys with the relevant legal experiences can address the fundamental principles of laws that protect their assets.

Media organizations, while not the most trusted sources of information about attorneys, nevertheless reach many Latinos and are effective in making them aware of the legal resources available in their community. Once aware, Latinos will likely seek the approval of family members or other trusted sources before engaging an attorney.

Family members, while not an organization, are nevertheless an important element of the engagement process for legal services. The role of family members can be both negative and positive, of course. Family members with little or no experience with attorneys may discourage a family member from seeking needed legal advice, or perhaps direct a family member to a “notario” who is not licensed to practice law but may have earned a trusted role in the Latino community. On the positive side, Latinos that have had some experience using attorneys will be more likely to advise family members to seek legal advice. When Latinos have little knowledge or experience with the legal system, the role of community organizations becomes even more critical as a trustworthy vehicle that can direct such Latinos to the appropriate legal experts.

Lastly, the Latino individual should be encouraged to seek assistance in matters related to the protection of their assets, and not remain a passive participant in this process. As with many legal matters, Latinos often postpone the engagement of an attorney until something goes wrong – a traffic accident, a personal injury, a deportation, incarceration, etc. In regards to the protection of assets like intellectual property, wills, and bankruptcy, Latinos are less likely to be familiar with the consequences of not filing for patents or trademarks, wills or bankruptcy, and may thus lose their assets before an attorney is engaged. Latino business owners, in particular, should understand that obtaining legal advice on contracts or intellectual property matters should be an essential element of running their businesses. Interestingly, our own research and experience with Latinos shows that while trust is an essential part of establishing relationships, it is also the case that Latinos can be overly trusting of others and sometimes overlook the need to protect their assets. Such cultural factors need to be a focus of discussion in training activities as well.

In summary, it is my hope that the ideas expressed here will inspire members of the Dallas legal community and our various community organizations to focus their collective talents and engage Latinos with services and programs that will help secure their personal and business assets into the future.

Politicians’ Reckless Disregard for Our Quality of Life

“In politics, an absurdity is not a handicap”

— Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon’s statement rings true as we witness the series of absurdities that are taking place in Texas today. Take a few minutes to read about how Texas politicians are prepared to radically change your quality of life.

Legislative Theft: While the Declaration of Independence guaranteed our right to the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness, Texas legislators apparently see no problem in eliminating this right by supporting legislation that will remove the power of Texas cities to limit the expansion of fracking activities in their communities. Research studies have confirmed the association of fracking activities with earthquakes, their negative impact on roads and highways, contamination of our air quality and water supply, and harmful negative effects to people who are exposed to the dangerous chemicals used in fracking operations. In addition, many areas in Texas are experiencing severe draught while water shortages and restrictions have become commonplace. Despite this, our lawmakers see no problem in allowing the oil and gas industry to continue their fracking activities which consume millions of gallons of water and are rapidly depleting our scare water resources. This appears to be promoting the pursuit of misery, not happiness.

The New Western World: Thousands of lives are lost to gun violence each year. Rather than limit the spread of arms, Texas legislators are supporting the open-carry law which promises to greatly expand the number of residents that carry guns in public. Women are often the victims of domestic and gun violence, while national coverage of questionable police shootings show that Hispanics and African Americans are increasingly the victims of trained law enforcement officials that feared for their own safety. Any guess about who will be the likely targets of gun violence by the mostly untrained gun carriers in Texas? Rather than seek a peaceful resolution of conflicts, Texans may find it more convenient to resolve their conflicts with guns at the slightest provocation to their personal safety.

Mixed Priorities: Politicians like Mayor Rawlings continue to advocate for the construction of expensive toll roads to alleviate transportation problems, despite the absence of community support for such high-ticket investments and evidence that such solutions can also increase traffic congestion. Such “monuments” can glorify the legacy of a politician’s career but may serve no useful purpose to a community. With the third highest poverty rate in the U.S. and deteriorating streets that require an estimated $900 million to repair, Mayor Rawlings needs to get his priorities aligned with the desires of Dallas City residents and spend less attention to glorifying his legacy as mayor.

Dictating Election Outcomes: Strong leaders are needed in many communities, and many centers of leadership excellence have evolved to address this need. It seems a contradiction, however, for media organizations like the Dallas Morning News to use the power of their influence to discourage voter participation in local elections by declaring repeatedly in their campaign coverage that these aspiring leaders have no chance of being elected. The DMN has spared no effort to glamorize the candidacy of Mayor Mike Rawlings in their news stories, while also describing challenger Marcos Ronquillo as a “long shot” with minimal visibility. Do we really need the DMN to dictate the mayoral election outcome, and also tell us that the Hispanic community has a short supply of leaders? Moreover, how much trust can we place on polls sponsored by a news organization with such biased viewpoints? The DMN does the best job when reporting the news, not in creating news that is misleading and biased.

It is lamentable that Texans have grown accustomed to accepting the absurdities that politicians present to us, even when they are clearly harmful to our quality of life. Such absurdities are made more believable by the biased news stories that we read on a daily basis, and reports of substantial campaign contributions from business interests – often the only metrics by which successful campaigns are judged. Texas residents need to improve their political and environmental intelligence by becoming more informed about the destructive programs and policies that are being supported by our lawmakers, protesting these policies, and forming organized efforts to remove lawmakers who are indifferent to our quality of life in Texas.

Lawmakers that continue to support public policies that destroy the quality of life in our communities have lost their moral compass, opting instead to reward their campaign contributors and extend their political careers. Texans should not be forced to be the sacrificial lambs, and our children should not be required to inherit the consequences of these absurd decisions

Is Mayor Rawlings Hiding Behind Inflated Satisfaction Ratings of Dallas Residents?

“Dallas residents generally say they’re more satisfied than people in many other cities.”

According to the Dallas Morning News, that is the response that Mayor Rawlings gave to challenger Marcos Ronquillo during their recent debate at the Belo Mansion when Mr. Ronquillo challenged the Mayor’s misplaced priorities on the Trinity toll road issue. As Mr. Ronquillo asserted, it makes little sense to make such an expensive investment of questionable value given the evidence that the City’s urban core was crumbling – the third highest poverty rate in the nation, a public school system beset by many problems, and thousands of pot holes that residents endure on a daily basis. But are Dallas residents really more satisfied than people in other cities? A closer look at how these satisfaction ratings are produced should raise some eyebrows.

We are all accustomed to hearing of efforts to inflate performance ratings – colleges leaving out the test scores of athletes, and school districts omitting or doctoring the test scores of low performers – all efforts to inflate performance and deceive the public. Although less obvious to the public, opinion polling firms also use questionable practices to distort survey results. In reviewing the survey reports for the City’s satisfaction ratings, it turns out that the ratings are inflated because segments of City residents who are the most likely to receive poor services are excluded from the surveys. Curiously, for several years now the City has awarded the contract for satisfaction surveys to the same survey company that uses the same flawed methodology to produce the same inflated ratings. Really makes you wonder. The reports are available to the public for their own independent review.

Mayor Rawlings, you owe the public an explanation about the manner in which these satisfaction ratings are produced. More importantly, you cannot hide behind inflated satisfaction ratings that have little credibility. The public deserves to get a more reasoned explanation about your willingness to overlook the City’s crumbling infrastructure while you continue to promote the questionable investment in the Trinity toll road.

Does Dallas Need a Mayoral Election This Year?

It’s an odd question to ask indeed, but perhaps not so odd if you have kept up with recent news stories about this year’s Dallas mayoral election. Several recent stories in the Dallas Morning News, for example, continue to praise Mayor Rawlings for the programs that have been initiated during his tenure as Mayor of Dallas, and his campaign fundraising success in comparison to his one challenger, Marcos Ronquillo. The DMN has made no secret about its love affair with Mayor Rawlings, and that a second term would be a piece of cake for the mayor.

But the stories did not stop there. One rather bold DMN columnist stated that “Marcos Ronquillo has a zero chance of being elected” as mayor of Dallas. Yet another story announcing Ronquillo’s candidacy for mayor was placed next to the Obituary section of the DMN. Of course, this was probably just a coincidence.

While it may be obvious to the Dallas Morning News staff that Mike Rawlings is destined to win the next mayoral election, I believe that Dallasites are smart enough to make up their own minds about who our next mayor should be. With voter turnout rates at historic lows, it doesn’t make sense to discourage voter participation by telling voters that the mayoral election is a done deal.

The voting public needs to understand what the mayoral candidates have in mind for improving the quality of life for City residents. The subjective opinions of media pundits should not substitute for a series of well-planned public debates that would require the candidates to address important issues in their own words. Once scheduled, the candidates should embrace the challenge and not avoid open debate.

Following are a few questions and issues that I would personally enjoy hearing the candidates address in a public debate:

Trinity Tollway: Is there any scientific evidence that Dallas needs the Trinity tollway as a transportation solution? Are there any scientific polls that tell us whether Dallas residents favor or oppose this tollway? Wouldn’t it make better sense to first upgrade our local streets, bridges and highways which are suffering from a lack of maintenance and increasing traffic?

Education: Mayor Rawlings stated in a recent DMN story that Dallasites “do not value education.” What evidence allows you to make such a profound statement? How does this conclusion fit your role as the self-proclaimed “Education Mayor?”

Poverty and Unemployment: Efforts to remediate poverty and unemployment often focus on helping people improve their job skills, business plans or personal skills. However, poverty and unemployment also result directly from the loss of millions of contract dollars that leave the City of Dallas every year to companies located outside of the City of Dallas. These lost dollars contribute nothing to our local economy. Moreover, the City’s poverty rate is among the highest in the nation. As mayor, what plans do you have for awarding more contracts to local business firms and bringing more jobs to City residents?

Fundraising Roadblocks: Current City policy places a $5,000 cap on the amount of funds that a mayoral candidate can raise from any one donor, although the policy does not apply to the incumbent mayor. This policy clearly gives the incumbent mayor a decided advantage in fundraising. How does an incumbent mayor justify accepting donations larger than $5,000 when it clearly creates an uneven playing field for other candidates?

Of course, the notion of not having a mayoral election this year is ridiculous. But equally ridiculous are efforts by the media that discourage voter participation by suggesting that the election outcome has already been determined and that some candidates have a zero chance of being elected. Perhaps the media pundits can find something more useful to do with their time rather than discouraging voters from participating in important elections.

The Texas Recipe for Muting the Hispanic Voice in Public Opinion Polls

If you are a tax-paying Texas resident, should your opinion matter in decisions related to publicly-funded programs or services in Texas? Of course, you may say, the opinions of all Texas residents are important. But one Texas state agency thinks that it is acceptable to exclude Spanish-speaking Hispanics from state-funded public opinion polls that are used to decide how tax dollars are spent. I would like to share the details of an actual case study that vividly illustrates how one Texas agency is being allowed to silence the voice of Texas Hispanics in its public opinion polls.

The State of Texas has plans to spend billions of dollars to improve their transportation system, including the possibility of high speed rail. To ensure that the improved system meets the needs and expectations of Texas residents, the Texas Transportation Institute has the responsibility for conducting important surveys of Texans that reside in specific geographic areas, or corridors, that are likely to be impacted by these improvements.

A recently released report by the Texas Transportation Institute for the first of these two surveys, conducted during the Fall of 2012, provides concrete evidence that the voice of Texas Hispanics was muted by the survey planners. Indeed, Hispanics represented only 20 percent of the survey respondents, despite their current representation of 38 percent in Texas (American Community Survey, 2011). Even worse, only 19 percent of the few Hispanics included in the study were interviewed in Spanish – which compares poorly with other state surveys that have shown that 50 to 67 percent of Hispanics prefer a Spanish-language interview.

How could this occur, especially when the study design was reviewed by a “panel of experts” at the Institute? A careful review of the study methodology reveals several missteps in the planning and execution of this survey:

The 16,000 households selected as respondents received only an English-language version of the survey.

The cover letter that was included with the English-language survey was provided only in English, and did not offer respondents any support to complete the survey in another language.

A question that asked respondents to identify their race-ethnic background provided only one ethnic identifier for Spanish-speaking respondents — “Hispanic” – which could partly explain the under-count of these respondents because other labels are often preferred over the “Hispanic” option.

A call center was supposedly set up to receive incoming calls from survey respondents that had questions or needed Spanish-language support. But this call center probably received few calls from Spanish-speaking respondents since the cover letter did not provide the needed contact information. Moreover, the report did not include a copy of the Spanish-language telephone survey that was supposedly used by the survey vendor’s call center to capture incoming calls by the survey respondents.

The study design required that automated advanced calls (or “robo calls”) be made to the selected households prior to the survey mailing. Automated calls are a recognized nuisance from telemarketers and political campaigns that often discourage response rates to legitimate public opinion polls.

The report indicated that the survey “participation rate” was 34.6 percent – a rate that appears subjectively created and not recognizable by the American Association of Public Opinion Research (2011). Instead, the overall survey response rate was more likely to be a much lower 9.7 percent (1,559 completions /16,000 invited participants) – not surprising given the recognized shortcomings in the methodology.

While the vendor acknowledged that Hispanic respondents were significantly under-represented and non-Hispanic whites were over-represented, no explanation was provided about the potential causes or consequences of this imbalance.

The fact that the survey planners ignored a previous warning about the potential flaws in the survey methodology suggests that the poor survey outcomes did not result from just simple carelessness.

To make matters worse, the same survey vendor was awarded a second contract to conduct another public opinion poll of Texas residents using the same flawed methodology. Why are state officials allowing such flawed practices to take place, especially at a time when the state’s population is being heavily impacted by the growing Hispanic population?

As one of the vendors that competed for both survey contracts, Rincón & Associates LLC monitored both competitions with some concern. In both competitions, state procurement staff decided to award the contract to the lowest bidder, which may not have been the brightest decision given the poor study outcomes. As both studies required a mixed-mode survey methodology that few U.S. companies were capable of executing, more weight should have been given to proven experience using this specialized methodology with diverse communities in Texas. Procurement staff did not have to settle for the lowest bidder as other Texas vendors were ready, willing and able to conduct both studies.

Fortunately, an investigation was initiated on March 3, 2013 to find out why a state agency like the Texas Transportation Institute is allowed to deliberately design a study that minimizes the participation of Hispanic residents, especially Spanish speakers. The outcome of this investigation is important because it could either (a) allow other state agencies to exclude Spanish-speaking Hispanics from state-funded studies, or (b) raise the standards of research for all state agencies to ensure that all state-funded studies provide adequate Spanish-language support.

The practical significance of this issue cannot be over-stated. Spanish-speaking residents are often the most likely to be overlooked in the delivery of public services, the most likely to receive the lowest quality services, and show distinctive attitudes or values that differ significantly from English-speakers. Thus, excluding Spanish-speakers from opinion polls can lead to more positive satisfaction ratings than is actually the case, and result in erroneous public policy decisions.

It is time to require a higher standard for public opinion polling in communities that are linguistically and culturally diverse. Although professional research organizations have always defined quality and ethical standards for the research industry, it is apparent from the case just discussed that public agencies may not feel the need to follow these guidelines. Following are a few ideas suggested from our experiences with public agencies like the Texas Transportation Institute:

Research firms that compete for opinion polls in the public sector should be required to produce evidence that they have the staff, facilities and past experience to conduct polls in linguistically and culturally diverse communities. If a research firm does not produce a representative sample of such communities in a contracted study, they should not be rewarded with another contract that utilizes the same flawed methodology.

The committee members convened by public agencies to evaluate research proposals may not have the expertise to judge these proposals in terms of their adequacy for diverse communities. The inclusion of experts with experience in conducting polls in diverse communities may have prevented the missteps in the Texas A & M studies.

In the haste to award a contract to the lowest bidder, proposal evaluators do not regularly check the references provided by the different bidders, but oddly enough still find a way to rate the relevant experiences of the bidders without this information. Prior to contract award, an audit should be conducted to ensure that such references were verified for all of the vendors that submitted a bid in such competitions.

It is unclear that the State of Texas got the “best value” by selecting the lowest bidder from outside of Texas. Indeed, what is the economic benefit to Texans when a contract is awarded to a non-Texas vendor whose payrolls, taxes and local spending for goods and services will only benefit another state?

Legislators and advocacy organizations, especially those that represent the needs of Texas Latinos, should show their concern about public opinion polling practices that minimize or eliminate the voice of the constituents that they represent. Can we afford to remain silent on this issue?

The more conservative members of the Texas community may believe that all public work should be conducted only in English, and that no special accommodations should be made to non-English speakers. Unless we are willing to also exempt non-English speakers from the payment of taxes as well, then I believe that they should be given the option of voicing their opinions on topics that impact their quality of life. Although many Hispanics and Asian residents have proficiency in English and their native language, about 50 to 70 percent of these residents still prefer to express their opinions in their native language. By providing the appropriate linguistic options, public opinion researchers are more likely to establish rapport, increase response rates, and obtain more valid responses to their questions from ethnic respondents – all desirable outcomes for high quality research.

Texas public agencies, especially the Texas Transportation Institute, must be required to raise their standards when conducting opinion polls of Texas residents, and legislators must take a more assertive role to ensure this outcome. We cannot afford to bury our collective heads in the sand on this issue.