Keizer committee flags high interpreter costs, asks staff to explore captioning and AI options

The Keizer Community Development Committee raised concerns about the city’s recent interpreter invoices and encouraged staff to evaluate captioning and other technology options to broaden access while managing costs.

A city staff member reported recent interpreter invoices and described the current practice of guaranteeing two interpreters for some meetings; the staff member provided a figure for interpreter costs. Committee members said the amounts were larger than expected and urged staff to explore alternatives such as closed captioning on broadcast screens, automated captioning or other technologies that can broaden access in multilingual meetings. “There are a lot of new technologies that are emerging every day,” a city staff member said when the committee discussed technology options.

Why this matters: several committee members expressed support for more accessible meetings and outreach but were concerned about the budgetary burden of guaranteed in‑person interpreter services. Staff noted that Spanish translation at council meetings has historically been covered from the public education/broadcasting fund and that contractual service dollars are used for other translation or sign language services.

Next steps: staff will compile interpreter costs across recent meetings, confirm current funding sources, and report back with cost comparisons for in‑person interpreters, contracted translation services and available captioning/AI options that could be piloted at committee meetings and outreach events.