Alfonso E. Mirabal serves as Director of the Dallas Regional Census Center.

Following are the states located in the Dallas Region and the Local Census Offices in those states reviewed by the Census Monitoring Board:

Louisiana: Orleans Parish LCO

Mississippi: Greenville LCO

Texas: El Paso LCO; Harris County Northwest LCO; San Antonio Central LCO

Highlights of the Region include:

• Approximately 11,455,812 Housing Units
• 365,000 Square Miles
• 3 States, 400 Counties
• 6 American Indian Reservations
• 6,103 Governmental Units
• 42 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives
• 6 U.S. Senators
• 46 Local Census Offices

Additional items of interest include:

• Has three of the top 10 most populated cities in the U.S. (Houston, Dallas and San Antonio)
• Third largest number of housing units
• Contains 1,400 colonias, unincorporated, quasi-rural settlements on the U.S. side of the U.S. _ Mexico border
• Second largest projected net increase in population from 1995 - 2025
• Hispanics make up one-fourth or more of the total population of Texas (26 percent) and has four of the largest cities in the U.S. (Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and El Paso) with Hispanic populations
• The percentage of people who do not speak fluent English is higher in Texas than the national average
• Mississippi has the lowest median household income in the nation

Overview

Dates of Visits:
March 29, 2000
May 4, 2000
June 8, 2000
Mailback Response Rate
55%

NRFU Workload
58,365 housing units

LCO Types
Type C Office (includes mailout/mailback and update/leave enumeration areas)

Geographic Description
The Orleans Parish LCO was located at 1250 Poydras Street, New Orleans, Louisiana. According to the February 2000 Tract Action Plan, there were 78 tracts, of which 20 (25.64 percent) were HTE and characterized by illiteracy and language barriers (Spanish and Vietnamese). According to the 1990 PDB, there were 117,116 housing units. The LCO was responsible for outlying areas near the city of New Orleans. The area's diversity included African-Americans, whites, Hispanics and Asian-Americans. The office was physically located in the city of New Orleans, outside the LCO's region. General Services Administration (GSA) had been unable to secure a lease in Orleans Parish.

Pay Rates

Presidential Members' Summary

Summary
The Orleans Parish LCO completed NRFU operations during the third week of June. While the office was slightly behind the regional curve completing NRFU, the office completed these operations well ahead of the national completion date of June 28.

Observations
The area is characterized by growing Hispanic and Vietnamese populations and a history of illiteracy. Moreover, the LCO jurisdiction contains a high volume of blighted and dilapidated housing units. Nearly 20,000 census forms sent in the mail could not be delivered by the post office. The LCO hand delivered 95 percent of these forms; the remaining 5 percent of housing units no longer exist.

The LCO succeeded in recruiting a large number of people. During our first visit in late March, the office was at 125 percent of its recruiting goal. One of the recruiting assistants was Vietnamese and instrumental to bringing Vietnamese employees on board. Approximately 5 percent of the applicant pool was Vietnamese.

Orleans Parish experienced difficulty hiring Hispanics. Unfortunately, the LCO relied on a single person who made promises to deliver large numbers of recruits. During our second visit, the office reported that just under three percent of the employees were Hispanic. At our last visit, the LCOM felt confident that the problem had lessened.

Louisiana as a whole ranked 45^th among the 50 states with a 59 percent response rate. The mail response rate was 55 percent for this LCO's jurisdiction. While the response rate was disappointing, the workload for Orleans Parish was just over 58,000 housing units. This workload is comparable to other local census offices with better response rates. The office had a slow start when two assistant managers left. Due to the lack of time for management training, these managers were replaced with two regional technicians. Our third visit to the office in late June showed that the office was just short of the national NRFU completion goal (85 percent) at 83 percent.

The Bureau's Planning Database helped this LCO make decisions about which methods of enumeration to use. For example, based planning database information, management decided to employ paired enumeration in East Orleans and blitz enumeration in some housing projects. The planning database did not, however, anticipate the problems it encountered gaining access into gated communities.

Cities around the country encountered challenges gaining access to gated communities and secure apartment buildings. LCOs in Hialeah, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Portland reported this as an unexpected challenge to enumeration.

During our first visit in late March, the LCOM told us that he wished local leaders were more involved in the local efforts to promote the census. When we returned in early May, the LCOM reported community leaders had increased their level of participation and were actively assisting the Bureau.

Congressional Members' Summary

Summary
The Orleans Parish LCO faced several challenges including difficulty recruiting Hispanic enumerators, a high turnover rate, a large amount of UAAs and an ineffective Targeted Non-Shelter phase.

Observations
During the June 8 visit, the LCOM reported that he had been directed by the Dallas RCC to not give copies of any material, including their HTE plan to the U.S. Census Monitoring Board.

The LCOM was forthright in discussing the weak relationship between the federal government and the Hispanic community (about 12 percent of the population), which was confirmed by the state's Hispanic CCC. There were seven Recruiting Assistants assigned to the office, however none were Hispanic. Consequently, the office had difficulty in hiring Hispanic enumerators, despite the efforts of the Hispanic CCC and the Catholic Church. Furthermore, we noted a 50 percent turnover among the office's enumerators during our May 4 visit.

We are concerned with the 15,000 forms returned to the LCO as UAA, as reported during the June 8 visit. (60,000 forms were reported as UAA among the four LCOs in the vicinity of New Orleans.)

During the June 8 Monitoring Board visit, the LCOM described an ambitious, though artificially imposed deadline of June 24 for the completion of NRFU. At that meeting, the office was a week behind schedule and had only completed 80 percent of its original caseload. Approximately 12,000 cases remained open, despite using over 1,200 enumerators. Although slow progress does not correlate to inaccuracy, the office's remaining cases were concentrated in the HTE areas _ places where adequate time should be spent in order to fully enumerate them.

It appears that the Targeted Non-Shelter phase of Census 2000 operations was not effective. Despite visiting seven locations, only two people were enumerated.

Overview

Dates of Visits:
March 30, 2000
May 3, 2000
June 12, 2000

Mailback Response Rate
59%

NRFU Workload
82,753 housing units

LCO Type
Type C Office (includes mailout/mailback and update/leave enumeration areas)

Geographic Description
The Greenville LCO was located at 707 Washington Avenue, Greenville, Mississippi. According to the February 2000 Tract Action Plan, there were 111 tracts, of which 20 (18 percent) were HTE and characterized by people's distrust in government and the fear of losing public assistance. According to the 1990 PDB, there were 172,179 housing units. The LCO was responsible for the 19 counties of the Mississippi Delta, an area extending north to south about 200 miles and east to west about 150 miles. This region had a wide variety of rural and hard-to-reach areas.

Pay Rates

Presidential Members' Summary

Summary
In the Mississippi Delta, farming is the main industry although government assistance is reportedly the number one source of income. Just under half (49) of the 111 tracts were hard-to-enumerate areas.

Observations
The major challenges facing the office were a lack of trust, fear of government, and apathy. However, when Board staff observed field operations in mid-June, enumerators reported a cooperative community response, especially in the southern counties. One respondent invited the enumerators and Board observers in to her home and told the enumerators she was so glad they came because she wanted to be sure her family was included in the census.

Field operations took place in very rural and some suburban areas. The AMFO reported that the rural maps created some confusion since they seemed to be printed on the same scale as more urban areas. In an urban area, an assignment map might be covered by one or two maps. In very rural areas, such as those covered by the Greenville, Mississippi, the Window Rock, Arizona and the Altoona, Pennsylvania LCOs, upwards of 50 maps covered one assignment area.

The office reached its recruiting goal but faced problems finding workers in DeSoto County, located in the Memphis metro area. DeSoto County is one of the fastest growing counties in Mississippi. This recruiting difficulty affected NRFU as DeSoto was the last County enumerated. Experienced enumerators from the southern counties were sent to help finish the entire LCO's NRFU workload ahead of the national deadline by June 21.

With a lower than expected response rate, the office compensated by hiring an additional 200 enumerators. Furthermore, after a visit from a Bureau Headquarters observer in mid-March, two more FOS districts were authorized to balance the workload and geographic area.

The LCO's five public forums on the census to raise mail response rates, contributed to a 30 percent increase in the mail response rate in Clarksdale. The Governor performed public service announcements and the LCO enlisted the support of mayors, county supervisors and ministers. Actor Morgan Freeman also produced effective public service announcements.

Congressional Members' Summary

Summary
The Mississippi Delta was highlighted by CMBC as part of our "listening tours" and was described in our January 18, 2000 report to Congress. It appears that two of our salient recommendations, the use of facilitators and culturally sensitive enumerators, were not adopted in this extremely hard-to-count area. We are concerned about the reliability of the Greenville LCO region's census efforts, due to a lack of sensitivity to the needs of the community.

Observations
This LCO faced recruiting difficulties, a high number of UAAs, and initial low response rates. In addition, the community has expressed concern regarding the LCO's efforts.

This LCO had low recruitment rates. Specifically, we noted that the office conducted its U/L operation with only 90 percent of its hiring goal. The LCOM reported that illiteracy, a small skilled-labor force, and the casino industry had made recruiting difficult. In addition, even though almost 800 NRFU enumerators were hired, none were members of the growing Hispanic community (about 5 percent of the LCO's population). Nor did the LCO hire facilitators. As late as May 3, the LCO was forced to ask the Jackson (LCO 3022) office's Hispanic liaison for assistance in reaching out to Hispanic churches in the Greenville area.

We have concerns regarding the 7,400 forms to the LCO as UAA, many due to difficulties with PO Boxes during the MO/MB phase. Three thousand of the UAAs were concentrated in four counties: Coahoma, DeSoto, Panola and Tunica. These northern Delta counties, that include Memphis suburbs and rural areas, were forced to rely on enumerators to deliver the UAA forms to the households. In addition to the UAAs, there were also reports that housing units in rural areas, parts of the U/L operation, did not receive census forms, increasing our concern that many housing units in this historically undercounted region may not have received an initial census form.

Although return rates of census forms began slowly, the involvement of elected officials and the airing of PSAs _ including a joint PSA by the U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R) and U.S. Representative Bennie Thompson (D-2^nd) _ helped increase the response rate 34 percentage points during the last two weeks of the MO/MB phase (the first two weeks of April). Local government also helped establish 24 QACs, most of which were in local libraries, county extension offices and town halls. The LCO's final response rate was 59 percent _ the final response rates in many counties and towns were below the goals set for 2000 and among the lowest in Mississippi.

To demonstrate the value of local elected officials in ensuring a successful census, compare Tunica and Holmes Counties within this LCO region. They are demographically very similar both are extremely rural and have an African-American population of approximately 76 percent, according to the 1990 census. However, the performances of the two counties were markedly different. Holmes County's rate of return was 59 percent (goal 59 percent), Tunica County's was 43 percent (goal 64 percent).

In Holmes County, an engaged Board of Supervisors, as well as other partnering organizations made valuable contributions and promoted the census. In Tunica, after discussions with the Industrial Foundation and Southern Echo, two partner organizations, questions were raised as to the aggressiveness of the Bureau's efforts to engage the community and to ensure that Tunica was counted accurately. After our May 3 visit, members of the community reported forms had not reached the African-American neighborhoods.

During the June 12 visit, the LCOM reported that he had received an e-mail from the Dallas RCC that authorized local managers to provide copies of the HTE plan to the Monitoring Board. However, when CMBC staff asked for a copy in order to evaluate it, the manager refused stating that the document would only be sent to the Bureau's headquarters.

Overview

Dates of Visits:
February 29, 2000
May 18, 2000
June 30, 2000

Mailback Response Rate
68%

NRFU Workload
71,061 housing units

LCO Type
Type D Office (includes list/enumerate areas and may also include mailout/mailback, update/leave and update/enumerate areas)

Geographic Description
The El Paso LCO was located at 8037 Lockheed, El Paso, Texas. According to the February 2000 Tract Action Plan, there were 120 tracts, of which 41 (34.17 percent) were HTE. According to the 1990 PDB, there were 211,525 housing units. The LCO was responsible for 10 counties in over 25,000 square miles. This area has a growing Spanish speaking immigrant and colonia population.

Pay Rates

Presidential Members' Summary

Summary
Overall, the El Paso LCO was very efficient in all its operations and produced excellent results. The office overcame a rocky start, replacing a low performing AMFO in mid-March, with an employee who had experience in the listing and block canvassing operations. Recruitment efforts were very successful largely because of the high local unemployment rates.

Observations
Exceeding expectations, the mail-back response rate was nearly 70 percent, leaving about 72,000 housing units for NRFU. During our visits, NRFU progressed ahead of schedule, allowing El Paso to send work crews to fire-devastated Donna Anna and Otero Counties in New Mexico.

The LCO hired 75 cultural facilitators to assist in HTE communities. Facilitators accompanied enumerators to gain access to communities traditionally leery of the census. Facilitators were also effectively used in the Boston South, Denver, San Diego South and Portland LCOs. Both the Board and the LCOM agree that the cultural facilitator program was effective. To further assist enumeration in HTE communities, 43 QACs were established and reported good turnout. The elderly were frequent visitors of the QACs.

Group Quarters enumeration went relatively well. The Bureau encountered resistance from the local U.S. Border Patrol officials as well as personnel from Latuna, the local state prison. Neither would initially release the names of people detained at their facilities for the census count.

The El Paso LCO included a large portion of the colonias which presented serious challenges for an effective census count. However, the LCOM reported that enumeration went exceptionally well in the colonias, the majority of which were reached during Update/Enumerate operations.

Because of shared media markets and intermingling communities, the LCO's media Partnership Specialist worked with El Paso and the Dallas Regional Office, and some locations in New Mexico under the Denver Regional Office. The arrangement reportedly worked well and served to provide a consistent message while maximizing marketing dollars in the shared communities.

Assistance by local elected officials resulted in the production of several Public Service Announcements featuring the Mayor as well as the local Catholic Bishops encouraging participation. Census Day at area schools was highlighted by LCO staff as being very successful.

In the process of NRFU, a new and serious problem arose. Some retired military personnel and higher income households refused to cooperate with enumerators citing negative comments about the census from national political figures and radio commentators.

Congressional Members' Summary

Summary
The El Paso LCO management staff reported that the historically undercounted populations were more responsive during this decennial Census. Throughout its area, especially in the colonias, neighborhoods were better served with special, tailor-made preparations rather than the "one-size-fits-all" census planning. These plans included the use of cultural facilitators, a successful strategy that proved to be successful for this LCO.

Observations
The El Paso office was one of four LCOs highlighted in our April 1, 2000 report to Congress. In that report, we summarized the results of our February 29 visit, our first to the office. We noted the office's formidable challenges in the colonias, "residential subdivisions lacking essential facilities such as water and wastewater services and paved roads," in trying to enumerate a vast area on the western edge of the Texas / Mexico border, with large and growing immigrant Spanish-speaking communities. One of the strategies listed in the Bureau's "Toolkit" to address such HTE tracts was cultural facilitators. During our May 18 visit, the LCOM staff reported 200 facilitators had been identified and 75 were currently employed.

The El Paso office ranked first in recruiting among the Dallas RCC's 42 LCOs. One unique source of qualified job applicant was the 10-county region's school boards. Often the largest government entity in a community, these boards contributed teachers and other employees to the census.

The state's QACs, established by The Texas 2000 Initiative complemented the 43 QACs established by the Bureau. This program, developed by Governor George W. Bush was intended to achieve a complete census count in Texas.

Besides appearing in PSAs to promote awareness of the Census, U.S. Representative Silvestre Reyes (D-16^th) was especially active in outreach efforts targeted to the colonias, and encouraged participation in the "Census in the Schools" program.

The LCO management staff maintained a good working relationship with the city of El Paso, which allocated $50,000 for its CCC to conduct partnership and outreach efforts. Another unique partnership was formed between two media specialists. The Dallas RCC media specialist, who worked out of the El Paso LCO collaborated with the Denver RCC media specialist, who worked nearby (46 miles away) at the La Cruces, NM LCO (3135). This relationship is an example of excellent inter-RCC cooperation and proved to be effective in developing successful strategies.

Overview

Dates of Visits:
April 5, 2000
May 17, 2000
June 29, 2000

NRFU Workload
98,892 housing units

Mailback Response Rate
65%

LCO Type
Type C Office (includes mailout/mailback and update/leave enumeration areas)

Geographic Description
The Harris County Northwest LCO was located in Long Point Plaza II, at 9610 Long Point, Houston, Texas. According to the February 2000 Tract Action Plan, there were 102 tracts, of which 8 (7.84 percent) were HTE. According to the 1990 PDB, there were 247,653 housing units. The LCO is responsible for Harris County and parts of the northwest side of the City of Houston. More than half of this population is white, about 10 - 15 percent is Hispanic, about three percent Asian-American and about one percent American Indian.

Pay Rates

Presidential Members' Summary

Summary
Despite several facility issues and supply problems, the LCO successfully completed all operations. Recruitment exceeded goals and NRFU ended earlier than the national deadline.

Observations
Recruitment efforts resulted in over 7,000 applications, 103 percent of the overall goal. The recruiting success was instrumental to NRFU completion since the employee turnover rate was reportedly high. An ongoing recruitment and training effort was necessary to staff the various operations.

The LCO manager described general facility and material delivery problems. Examples include: the office's air conditioning did not cool sufficiently; there were not enough phones and phone lines; there was a lack of storage space; and some materials were not delivered in a timely manner. The LCOM reported that she coordinated with the managers from other local area offices to swap supplies whenever possible.

In an effort to reach HTE populations, 47 QACs with at least one paid employee per site and 8-10 additional Be Counted sites were established. Fifteen of the QACs were staffed by Spanish speakers. The LCO worked hard to get sites in various languages such as Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Urdu and Polish.

During NRFU, the LCO enumerated approximately 98,000 housing units distributed among 49 crew leader districts to enumerate. Initially, the operation lagged behind schedule. The large number of part-time enumerators, which comprised about 60 percent of the total, was cited as the primary reason for the delay. As work progressed, part-time employees dropped to an average of 40 percent of the LCO's full employment goal. The LCO then mobilized an all-out canvassing effort and was able to complete NRFU ahead of the national deadline, on June 21.

Given the diverse population, significant outreach efforts focused on reaching minority communities. This work resulted in a better than expected response, especially among traditionally HTE populations. However, an unanticipated low response rate occurred in White middle and upper-class communities. The LCO manager reported that "census skeptic" comments made by national media personalities and political figures had a negative impact on public cooperation, especially during NRFU.

Partnerships were established with community organizations, churches, local elected officials and the business community. Partnerships with the Indian Job Training Center and Luby's Cafeterias were cited as particularly successful. Overall, the cooperation and participation from all sectors of the community contributed significantly to the final success of completing operations ahead of deadline.

Congressional Members' Summary

Summary
The frustrations in the Harris County Northwest LCO due to material and computer system problems were apparent at each meeting. The LCO staff worked hard to overcome challenges and reduce the undercount.

Observations
The Bureau initially had identified only six HTE tracts in this LCO's region. By working with two partners, the Houston Independent School District (HISD) and the Greater Houston Partnership, the LCO management staff identified two more such tracts. However, the LCO management staff identified yet another hard-to-count area — communities of upper-middle class citizens where rapid development had occurred and residents were reluctant to participate in the census. Because of the major changes in this area, several tactics were used to complete enumeration, including switching from male to female enumerators (and vice versa), visiting at different times and using the enumerators' supervisor, the Crew Leader.

During our May 17 visit, Assistant Manager for Recruiting discussed staffing levels and difficulty in retaining employees, though the office ranked 13 by recruiting among the Dallas RCC's 42 LCOs, according to the final April 20 national recruiting report. The LCO management staff reported the office had lost more than half of those trained and had a training no-show rate of about 40 percent, thus requiring about one hundred employees to be replaced weekly.

The LCO staff reported inconsistencies, even non-delivery with respect to census materials. This material included recruiting material (received in early May), outreach material, enumerator bags and kits, as well as occupant name list supplements. Though not directly related to actual enumeration, the lack of material has affected the operations of this LCO, at times requiring four clerks to spend entire days just copying material.

The LCO staff also reported problems with the administrative computer system. Though applicant records are reportedly screened three times, ineligible applicants were actually hired and later had to be terminated. The LCO staff was then required to double-check clerical information manually. In fact, when Monitoring Board staff accompanied the LCOM and AMFO to a May 17 Crew Leader meeting, a review of some enumerators' "poor" performances revealed that they were no longer working there at all, having either terminated, moved to a different district or promoted.

LCO management staff reported over 17,000 UAAs had been returned to the office; however, 60 percent had been hand-delivered by 90 Bureau employees.

Overview

Dates of Visits:
March 28, 2000
May 5, 2000
June 15, 2000

Mailback Response Rate
62%

NRFU Workload
69,543 housing units

LCO Types
Type B Office (entirely mailout/mailback)

Geographic Description
The San Antonio Central LCO was located in the Austin Building, at 4415 Piedras Drive West, in San Antonio, Texas. According to the February 2000 Tract Action Plan, there were 99 tracts, of which 77 (77.78 percent) were HTE. According to the 1990 PDB, there were 180,916 housing units. The LCO was responsible for the east (primarily African-American) and west sides (primarily Hispanics) of San Antonio.

Pay Rates

Presidential Members' Summary

Summary
San Antonio registered the third highest initial mail response rate of the nation's major cities and the best city response rate in Texas with 66 percent. This level of participation was due largely to partnership work with the city's Complete Count Committee and local churches.

Observations
In conjunction with the city's CCC, the LCO decided early to promote the census in areas of San Antonio that were heavily undercounted in 1990. Primarily targeting the western half of the city, the city government paid for billboards and city bus advertisements while the Northside school district produced its own public service announcements.

The LCOM noted with pride that this census was the best publicized census in history and that the heightened public awareness added to the success of NRFU operations. LCOMs with previous decennial experience in San Francisco, Portland, and Philadelphia, also noted the positive effect of the national advertising campaign.

The LCO was fortunate to have a husband/wife team of partnership specialists who attended every Catholic mass in the Hispanic HTE areas for five Sundays beginning in March through the first week in April. Mail response rates clearly reflected their effort in the churches.

Hiring bilingual enumerators was a priority and the office reported during our first visit in March that roughly 75 percent of the applicant pool was bilingual in Spanish and English. The LCO contained a large number of military personnel who represent an efficient and organized workforce. The LCO Manager (a former military employee) lamented that national policies prevented him from hiring those on active military duty. Nonetheless, the office hired qualified applicants throughout the city. Indeed, during our second visit in May, the office had reached 153 percent of its recruiting goal. Recruiting and hiring efforts were concentrated in the eastern half of the city after reports in March and April showed lower mail response in those areas.

Most of the 69,000 Non-Response Follow-Up cases in the western part of the city were completed in May. Crews that completed their workload early were quickly re-assigned to help finish areas in East San Antonio. The office finished NRFU on June 8, well ahead of the national deadline. This allowed for crews to be sent to the Austin LCO for a couple of days to help finish the enumeration there.

Congressional Members' Summary

Summary
The San Antonio Central office showed partnerships with respected community organizations can assist the Bureau in attaining recruiting goals, though pay issues reportedly caused consternation among employees. Enumeration of three local military bases was made more difficult because of last-minute decisions affecting recruiting and counting methodology.

Observations
Three-fourths of the office's tracts met the definition of hard-to-enumerate neighborhoods, therefore the LCOM treated the entire territory as HTE. The LCO management staff wrote an HTE Plan to address the difficult tracts and staff drove around the community to verify the characteristics. The plan used a few methods from the Bureau's "Toolkit," such as the paired enumeration strategy in certain high-crime areas.

The office's strong awareness and recruiting efforts among Hispanics on the West Side of San Antonio Central were assisted in large part by its partnership with the Roman Catholic churches. However, recruiting among African-Americans on the city's East Side was reported as difficult, despite ministers and community leaders assisting in door-to-door and team recruiting. Though waivers were granted for recipients of public assistance, the LCO management staff believed an earlier approval of these waivers would have boosted recruitment efforts in HTE areas.

The LCO management staff described the need for competitive pay in retaining office staff. In particular, although office clerks were paid $7.75 hourly (originally $7.00), clerks at the Telephone QAC, two blocks away, were paid $9.00.

There were 15,000 forms returned to the LCO as UAA. Enumerators redelivered two-thirds of the forms, the remainder were vacant or nonexistent households.

The San Antonio Central LCO faced its largest challenge in enumerating the military members that were stationed at three local installations (approximately 36,000 at Brooks, Kelly and Lackland AFBs). Though management staff had worked assiduously to establish partnerships with the military, a Commerce Department decision prohibiting the hiring of active-duty service personnel was promulgated just before the start of the Census. The office's AMFO attributed the bases' low response rate to this decision. Reportedly, eligible service personnel were angered by this decision, which was made during a critical recruitment period, and chose not to participate in the census and convinced some others to do the same.

Compounding this difficulty was a reported change in enumeration policy. Although the LCO's employees had completed enumeration of the bases by individual units, a later directive from the Dallas RCC changed the enumeration to the Group Quarters process. Despite the employees' previous efforts, work was reassigned and redone by other enumerators.

According to San Antonio's city manager, there were problems in parts of San Antonio that were going through redevelopment and had numerous new addresses. He felt many of these new addresses did not receive forms and reportedly were not visited by enumerators.

The San Antonio CCC and the city of San Antonio established good working relationships with the Bureau. Of note, the local CCC allocated funding for outreach that provided advertising wraps on buses that served some HTE tracts. The San Antonio CCC worked in conjunction with the LCO in establishing 77 combined QACs and "Be Counted!" sites that served about 560 people.

In each of the Monitoring Board's interviews, the LCO management staff expressed frustration, directed to the Dallas RCC, at the timeliness of material receipt. Although employees persevered, assistant managers said materials, including Special Places, recruiting kits, and language guides arrived late, incomplete or not at all.