Henry L. Palacios serves as Director of the Kansas City Regional Census Center.

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

Arkansas: Little Rock LCO

Iowa

Kansas

Minnesota: Minneapolis West LCO; St. Paul LCO

Missouri

Oklahoma

Highlights of the Region include:

• Approximately 9,824,377 Housing Units
• 418,295 Square Miles
• 6 States, 558 Counties
• 21 American Indian Reservations and 17 Tribal Jurisdiction Statistical Areas
• 8,721 Governmental Units
• 36 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives
• 12 U.S. Senators
• 36 Local Census Offices and one additional Field Office in Anoka County, Minnesota

Additional items of interest include:

• Largest number of governmental units
• Largest number of counties
• Third among regions in the number of states within any Region
• Has been the home of the Popultion Center of the U.S. since 1960
• 18 percent of the Hmong population of the U.S. lives in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul (1990 census)
• Has five states with populations of persons 65 and older greater than the national average
• Had four states with greater than 50 percent turnout in the 1994 elections

Overview

Dates of Visits:
April 6, 2000
May 23, 2000
July 5, 2000

Mailback Response Rate
64%

NRFU Workload
106,366 housing units

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

Geographic Description
The Little Rock LCO was located at 10801 Executive Center, Little Rock, Arkansas. According to the February 2000 Tract Action Plan, there were 131 tracts, of which 10 (7.63 percent) one-third were HTE. According to the 1990 PDB, there were 248,354 housing units. The LCO was responsible for eight counties in central Arkansas, where the major components of the population mix were roughly 80 percent white and 18 percent African-American.

Pay Rates

Presidential Members' Summary

Summary
This office was responsible for operations in and around the cities of Little Rock and North Little Rock, roughly equal to the boundaries of the Second Congressional District in Arkansas. The mail-response rate of 63 percent was higher than the 61 percent rate anticipated.

Observations
The LCO received over 6,400 applications, which was 98 percent of its overall goal. Despite this success, the office was short-staffed in some areas such as Pulaski County. Turnover was also a significant problem in Little Rock. Due to these factors, and the problems posed by the large number of part-time workers, the office enlisted the help of 14 enumerators from the Pine Bluff LCO in the final two weeks of NRFU.

Little Rock found that radio advertisements and "word-of-mouth" contributed most to its recruiting efforts. To boost the recruiting pool, the LCO undertook a successful door-to-door blitz recruitment campaign.

Presumably, the higher than expected mail back rate allowed the office to complete NRFU operations on June 18, ten days ahead of the national completion date.

The three partnership specialists who worked out of the Little Rock LCO regularly interacted with the ten Complete Count Committees (CCCs) in its jurisdiction. Each county had its own CCC, headed by a local judge, that included representatives from a wide-range of ethnic, religious, and cultural groups. And while the community was generally responsive to the Bureau's efforts, some respondent resistance to the long form was encountered. Management believed that the "Census Skeptic" comments made by certain national political and media personalities contributed to this resistance and served to undermine public cooperation.

LCO staff was proud of the fact that they succeeded in establishing 149 QACs. Superior Bank made every one of its branches available to the Bureau, as did many libraries, churches, and grocery stores. Local partners picked up the costs of producing and placing ads that advertised QAC locations and hours of operation. While some contacts may not have been recorded, the office reported only 573 recorded contacts.

LCO staff regularly updated local political leaders on the state of Census operations. Of these, the Secretaries of State and Education were cited by the LCOM and partnership specialists as being the most helpful and involved.

Congressional Members' Summary

Summary
The Little Rock office demonstrated that strong state and local government support can assist the Bureau in getting a substantial number of volunteers to improve recruiting, partnership and planning efforts and ensure a more accurate enumeration.

Observations
Based on information supplied by the Kansas City RCC, the Little Rock LCO management staff wrote an HTE Action Plan to address its difficult tracts. According to office's AMFO, the demographics of the area had changed significantly since 1990, and while the RCC reportedly had been informed of these changes, the original HTE plan was based on outdated information from 1998. The LCO staff worked with the HTE plan and made necessary adjustments, but suggested that less effort would have been required if their suggestions had been considered. The Kansas City RCC provided a copy of the plan to the Monitoring Board.

Though the office's recruiting efforts were not successful in reaching its bilingual (Spanish) enumerator hiring goal, creative cooperation with the University of Arkansas provided a crucial number of language student volunteers to accomplish the task. In addition to Spanish, these students provided language support in Croatian and Chinese. Within Pulaski County, in its high-crime area, the LCO management staff described problems with recruiting and retention of enumerators (reported at 50 percent during our May 23 visit).

Two of the most common characteristics of the HTE neighborhoods were the high numbers of renters and negative attitudes towards the federal government. The LCO management staff reported the blitz enumeration strategy was effective in high crime and mobile home areas in Pulaski and Selene Counties, while the team enumeration strategy was utilized in apartment complexes. Management's decision to shift Hispanic enumerators into Hispanic neighborhoods successfully assisted in enumeration.

Ten local CCCs, chaired by county judges, established strong working relationships with the Bureau. State and local governments lent assistance to Census 2000 as well. Many of the LCO's QACs (several of which we visited on April 6) and "Be Counted!" sites were staffed with volunteers, who served about 573 people. Other partnering organizations provided assistance to the Little Rock LCO, demonstrating how important these relationships between the Bureau and its associates are. For instance, the local Emergency Management System provided correct maps for enumerators, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) assisted in the identification of HTE neighborhoods.

During our May 23 visit, we accompanied the office's AMFO, rather than an enumerator, in enumerating several households in an HTE section of Pulaski County.

Overview

Dates of Visits:
April 6, 2000
May 15, 2000
June 23, 2000
Mailback Response Rate
79%

NRFU Workload
60,294 housing units

LCO Type
Type B Office (entirely mailout/mailback)

Geographic Description
The Minneapolis West LCO was located in the Braemar Office Park, on the second floor of 8000 West 78th Street in Edina, Minnesota. According to the February 2000 Tract Action Plan, there were 152 tracts in the LCO, of which none were HTE. According to the 1990 PDB, there were 252,407 housing units. The LCO encompassed all of Hennepin County, with the exception of Minneapolis, Fort Snelling, Richfield and St. Anthony. The office was responsible for 37 municipalities and was primarily suburban and ethnically and linguistically homogenous.

Pay Rates

Presidential Members' Summary

Summary
The Minneapolis West office did excellent work based on our three visits. The LCO's ability to meet its recruiting goals, hire highly qualified employees and create community awareness, contributed to the success of the operation. A newcomer to the census, the LCOM also deserves credit for his leadership, organization and efficiency.

Observations
Community outreach played a significant role in the success of the office. The LCOM said the ten-member local Complete Count Committee was well organized and very involved. He also credited a Bloomington cable access station for its focus on the census.

As in LCOs around the country, the LCOM credited the national advertising campaign for raising census awareness and making NRFU operations run more smoothly.

There were 15 Question Assistance Centers and 71 Be Counted sites in the LCO jurisdiction, all of which were said to be located in high-traffic, high-visibility areas. These programs were well utilized and effective in communicating the census message.

Despite the area's low unemployment, the office was able to meet its recruiting goals and attract a large, highly qualified, applicant pool — the lowest test score among those hired was 87 percent. There were, however, some concerns from senior citizens at the office that could only work part-time in order not to lose their social security benefits. Hiring bilingual enumerators was a priority as large pockets of Somali, Russian, Latino and Arab immigrant communities reside in the LCO jurisdiction. The LCO employed more than 800 enumerators during NRFU's peak.

The LCO designed and implemented a very effective HTE plan. One of the greatest obstacles the office overcame was that of "snow birds," residents who spend the winter months in states with warmer climates. Enumerators were disappointed to learn from residents that many warmer climate states encouraged "snow birds" to mail-back their census forms from their temporary residences. This caused confusion with some residents, as many claimed they already mailed in their census forms.

The LCO was aided by the experience of a former insurance claims evaluator as the supervisor for the re-interview process. Around the country, LCOMs attributed the preponderance of re-interview cases to human error rather than malicious intent. Only one instance of fraud was detected in this office causing all of the enumerator's 193 cases to be re-enumerated.

The LCO finished NRFU on June 17, six days before Regional Office's deadline. The LCO manager said productivity increased near the end of the process because employees learned to cooperate better and managers learned to re-distribute their workloads more efficiently.

Congressional Members' Summary

Summary
The Minneapolis West office had high response rates and a successful NRFU phase, however the numerous changes among the Twin Cities-area LCOMs were disconcerting to state and local officials.

Observations
The Minneapolis West LCO, which includes all of Hennepin county (the LCO did not cover Minneapolis, Richfield or Fort Snelling) was successful in achieving high response rates. Hennepin County finished sixth among the nation's 100 most populous counties in updated Census 2000 response rates. The September 19 updated rate represents the percentage of housing units that mailed back a questionnaire, filed it over the Internet, completed a form over the telephone or returned a "Be Counted!" form obtained from a QAC. In 1990, 75 percent of the housing units in the county returned their forms, in 2000, 77 percent did, which is an increase of two percentage points. Maple Grove was one of the notable cities in the LCO's area of responsibility. In this rapidly growing community, with many new developments and new businesses, 88 percent of the city's housing units returned their forms. Suburbs, like Bloomington (83 percent, goal 85), Eden Prairie (83 percent, goal 77) and Edina (85 percent, goal 89) also had high rates of return.

Despite having high mailback response rates, NRFU success and few HTE areas, local governments and community organizations appeared to lose confidence in the LCO's overall managerial ability because of LCOM changes. The Minneapolis West LCOM was one of several managers in the Twin Cities area who had been reassigned to fill gaps in other offices. These shifts appeared to erode working relationships that are necessary to a successful census.

During the June 23 Monitoring Board visit, we accompanied two employees to observe address verification firsthand in the municipality of Minnetonka Beach. About 25 percent of the residents of this municipality did not receive census forms, because the Census Bureau did not deliver questionnaires to Post Office Boxes.

The Hennepin West CCC consisted of the seven county commissioners and seven more at-large members. The Hennepin County government provided funding for five mailings and other promotions.

Overview

Dates of Visits:
March 29, 2000
May 4, 2000
June 13, 2000

Mailback Response Rate
76%

NRFU Workload
69,798 housing units

LCO Type
Type B Office (entirely mailout/mailback)

Geographic Description
The St. Paul LCO was located on the fourth floor of the Army Corps of Engineers Building at 190 East Fifth Street, St. Paul, Minnesota. According to the February 2000 Tract Action Plan, there were 169 tracts in the LCO, of which 22 (13.02 percent) were HTE. According to the 1990 PDB, there were 252,664 housing units. The LCO included Ramsey County, part of Washington County and featured the city of St. Paul and its surrounding suburbs. There were considerable communities of color: Southeast Asians (Hmong), African-Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans (Chippewa, Ojibwe and Sioux).

Pay Rates

Presidential Members' Summary

Summary
This LCO achieved a high degree of success recruiting temporary employees, conducting NRFU operations and maintaining an atmosphere of excellence.

Observations
All recruiting and hiring goals were met. The office worked in cooperation with the Mayor's office in joint recruiting events that contributed to the LCO's success.

Large multi-unit buildings with security posed initial difficulty to NRFU enumerators. The City worked with the LCO to send letters to the buildings describing the obligations and responsibilities of respondents under Title 13 of the U.S. Code which requires all persons living in the country to respond to the census. This letter helped enumerators gain entry to previously inaccessible buildings.

Receiving a significantly higher than expected mail response (76 percent) rate, the NRFU workload was therefore reduced by well over 40,000 housing units. Indeed, the LCO was successful at accomplishing its NRFU workload. Identifying difficult and under producing areas in the LCO allowed for targeted enumeration methods such as blitz enumeration, which enabled the completion of NRFU ahead of the national deadline by June 21.

Addresses identified for final attempt procedures were only assigned to proven high producing crew leaders and enumerators to ensure that the best effort was made to complete the interviews. This also served to maintain a high level of quality in the responses collected.

LCO staff were clearly dedicated to collecting quality data. Only one enumerator's work had to be redone due to falsification.

A close partnership with the Mayor's office to increase participation focused especially on the 22 HTE tracts (of the 169 census tracts). This partnership clearly reaped the benefits of a high mail response rate.

Congressional Members' Summary

Summary
The St. Paul LCO was fortunate to have a hardworking and effective CCC. However, state officials were disappointed with the level of support received from the Kansas City RCC. Additionally, the Post Office Box non-delivery policy left many residents without questionnaires.

Observations
The St. Paul LCO was ranked last by productivity among Minnesota's eight LCOs and 31 of 36 among the Kansas City RCC's 36 offices. Many of the NRFU cases that were difficult to complete were in neighborhoods the LCO did not anticipate.

In addition, on June 6th, the St. Paul Tribune reported that two police officers posed as census enumerators. This incident received national attention, ocurred in a HTE area during NRFU, may have produced bad publicity for the census, and did cause concern for the Census Bureau. At this time the city is not taking disciplinary against these two officers. CMBC, however has written the U.S. Attorney for Minnesota, expressing our belief that this matter should be reviewed further.

Since census forms were not delivered to households that rely on Post Office Boxes, residents of three towns in the LCO's territory did not receive questionnaires during the MO/MB phase of Census 2000 operations.

During the June 13 Monitoring Board visit, the LCOM estimated that Reinterview was only 90 percent successful and attributed most of the discrepancies to Crew Leaders' District, rather than CLs, reviewing the questionnaires. She said this work arrangement relieved CLs of a great deal of responsibility and contributed to enumerators' errors.

Repeated offers of aid made by the city of St. Paul and the Metropolitan Council to provide phone bank employees, statisticians and demographers were not accepted. In fact, in a March 27 letter to U.S. Representative Bruce Vento (D-4^th), the city described its efforts to assist the Bureau in an effective partnership as being met with "silence, dismissiveness or outright disinterest." State officials were disappointed that the Kansas City RCC had ceased weekly conference calls among governors' liaisons in early February 2000.

The rotation of LCOMs in Minnesota, especially in the Twin Cities area, frustrated numerous stakeholders. Local governments and community organizations lost confidence in the Bureau's overall managerial ability. The LCOM was one of several managers in the Twin Cities area who had been reassigned to fill gaps in other offices.