The Hermiston City Council paved the way this week for more community members to join the Hispanic Advisory Committee (HAC).
At the request of the committee, the council voted Monday night to drop the requirement that committee members speak both English and Spanish. Earlier this year, the HAC expanded its membership from seven to nine. With three recent vacancies, the committee has had some difficulty filling the seats. At its last meeting, the committee voted to request the council to drop the bilingual requirement in hopes of creating a larger pool of committee members.
There was some discussion by the council that, perhaps, a nine-member committee was too difficult to fill out. Manuel Gutierrez, who is a member of both the HAC and city council, and Hermiston Assistant City Manager Mark Morgan said that was part of the reason for dropping the bilingual requirement.
“It sounds like they have folks in the community who want to serve, but may only speak English or Spanish,” Morgan said.
Anyone interested in serving on the committee should call Hermiston City Hall at 541-567-5121.
