Page 1 GAO-01-124R Census Bureau Participation in Los Angeles Symposium, August 2000

United States General Accounting Office

Washington, DC 20548

October 24, 2000

The Honorable Dan Miller

Chairman, Subcommittee on the Census

Committee on Government Reform

House of Representatives

Subject: Census Bureau Participation in Los Angeles Symposium, August 2000

Dear Mr. Chairman:

This letter responds to your request that we review the Bureau of the Census’

participation in a symposium entitled “Advocacy in the Next Millennium: New

Paradigms for Progress.” The event, which focused on challenges facing the African

American community, including census undercounts, took place in Los Angeles, CA,

on August 12, 2000. The Bureau attended the symposium as part of its partnership

program, a nationwide effort reflecting the Bureau’s belief that broad-based

participation in the census must be built at the community level. Because

promotional material used the Census 2000 logo, identified the Bureau as a sponsor

of the symposium, and made it appear that the event was connected to the

Democratic National Convention (which began in Los Angeles on August 14th), you

had several questions concerning the Bureau’s attendance.

Specifically, as agreed with your office, we reviewed (1) the extent to which the

Bureau’s participation in the symposium was consistent with applicable

appropriations act provisions, (2) the review process the Bureau used to determine

whom it partners with, (3) how the review process was applied to its decision to

participate in this event, and (4) the Bureau’s specific expenditures on the

symposium and how the Bureau believes they furthered the purposes of the

partnership program. Assessing the appropriateness of the Bureau’s participation at

the event was beyond the scope of this review. As part of our ongoing examination of

the 2000 Census, we are conducting a larger study of the Bureau’s partnership

program that focuses on how it was implemented and some of the key ingredients

that appear to be common to a successful partnership effort. We anticipate issuing

that report in the future.

We obtained our information by reviewing applicable appropriations act provisions;

interviewing officials responsible for approving partnering requests at Bureau

headquarters in Suitland, MD, and at the Los Angeles Regional Census Center;

interviewing Bureau staff who participated in the symposium; and examining relevant

documents, such as budget memoranda.
Page 2 GAO-01-124R Census Bureau Participation in Los Angeles Symposium, August 2000

On October 13, 2000, we requested comments on a draft of this letter from the

Secretary of Commerce by October 20, 2000. None were provided in this time frame.

We did our audit work in Washington, D.C.; Bureau headquarters in Suitland, MD; and

the Bureau’s Los Angeles Regional Census Center in September and October 2000.

Our work was done in accordance with generally accepted government auditing

standards.

Results in Brief

The Bureau’s participation in the Los Angeles symposium complied with annual

appropriations act provisions that prohibit federal agencies from using appropriated

funds for purposes of publicity or propaganda, unless authorized by Congress.

According to Bureau officials, the Bureau’s participation consisted of answering

questions about the census and distributing promotional items such as posters.

Because the Bureau’s role appears to have been informational in nature and did not

emphasize the importance of the Bureau such that it amounted to publicity or

propaganda, the Bureau’s participation in the symposium did not violate

appropriations act restrictions.

According to Bureau officials, decisions on which organizations to partner with and

what events to attend are governed by unwritten guidelines and criteria. In place of

written guidance, officials said that decisions are driven by the Bureau’s desire to

partner with virtually any organization that will support the census, particularly those

organizations that serve hard-to-count populations; and the unique demographic,

cultural, and other characteristics of each census region. In practice, partnership

officials at both Bureau headquarters and the Los Angeles regional office said that the

Bureau relies on the judgement of its temporary employee partnership specialists and

other Bureau employees to decide which organizations to partner with, what events

to attend, and how to make the best use of their time.

According to Bureau officials, the request to participate in the symposium was

approved at the headquarters level by the Special Assistant to the Director and

Associate Director for Field Operations. The request was subsequently approved at

the local level by a Los Angeles Assistant Regional Census Manager. These officials

said they approved the request because the event was expected to attract 1,500 to

2,000 African Americans, a hard-to-count population that the Bureau has targeted as

part of its outreach program. Therefore, they said they considered the request

routine. Further, they said they were unaware of how the Bureau’s role was being

characterized until they saw it in the press several days after the event.

With respect to the symposium’s use of the Census 2000 logo, Bureau officials told us

that the Bureau made it available on its Internet site and encouraged organizations to

use it to help promote the census. We accessed the Bureau’s Internet site and found

that guidelines for using the logo contained strict stylistic standards but did not

include any information on what constitutes appropriate use.

Bureau officials said that that the cost to participate in the symposium was minimal.

Two of the three partnership specialists who attended the event each claimed 8 hours

of compensatory time for the amount of time they spent at the symposium. One
Page 3 GAO-01-124R Census Bureau Participation in Los Angeles Symposium, August 2000

specialist also requested $8.13 for mileage costs. The specialists said they distributed

about 300 posters; 3,000 pens; and an unknown number of magnets, balloons, and

other promotional items. Bureau officials said the 300 posters cost about $117, but

they were unable to provide cost information on the other items. According to

Bureau regional officials, the promotional items were already part of the Los Angeles

Regional Census Center’s inventory—no items were purchased specifically for the

symposium.

Although the Bureau had generally completed its 2000 Census data collection

operations at the time of the symposium, Bureau officials said the event was

consistent with the goals of the partnership program because, as noted above, they

believed that it was an opportunity to reach out to a large audience of African

Americans, answer their questions about the census, and promote a series of

workshops the Bureau was conducting on accessing and using census data. These

workshops were designed to show partners and other interested parties how to

obtain census data on the Internet and how the data can be useful to their

organizations and communities. The Los Angeles region has conducted about 100

such workshops since August, according to Bureau officials. The Bureau partnership

specialists who attended the event estimated that between 500 and 1,000 people

stopped by the Bureau’s table.

Background

To help it conduct a more complete and accurate census, the Bureau reports that it

partnered with 140,000 government, private sector, social service, community, and

other organizations. The Bureau created its partnership program in recognition of

the fact that such organizations supply the unique local knowledge, experience, and

expertise necessary for a successful headcount. To date, partners have helped the

Bureau with such critical tasks as reviewing the accuracy of the Bureau’s address list,

recruiting temporary census workers, and reaching out to traditionally hard-to-count

populations to motivate them to participate in the census. The Bureau hired over 600

temporary employees called partnership specialists to help local organizations

initiate and sustain their 2000 Census activities. The Bureau’s enacted budget for

fiscal year 2000 included about $70.5 million for its national and regional partnership

program.

On August 12, 2000, three partnership specialists from the Bureau’s Los Angeles

Regional Census Center set up an information table at a symposium entitled

“Advocacy in the Next Millenium: New Paradigms for Progress.” The Bureau’s

participation in the event came at the request of a Bureau partner and producer of the

symposium, Tavis Smiley. Mr. Smiley is a Black Entertainment Television talk show

host and radio commentator and, according to Bureau officials, had actively

promoted the 2000 Census. The symposium was free to the public and focused on

various challenges facing the African American community, census undercounts

among them. Symposium speakers included a number of African American political

leaders, journalists, and scholars, as well as sports and entertainment figures. It was

held at the University of Southern California’s Bovard Auditorium in Los Angeles and

was scheduled to run from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Page 4 GAO-01-124R Census Bureau Participation in Los Angeles Symposium, August 2000

A press release promoting the symposium stated that the purpose of the symposium

was to “proclaim to the Democratic party the issues that it must address on behalf of

one of its most loyal constituencies,” and it was “ideally timed to the eve of the

Democratic National Convention.” The press release also noted how the event was

“made possible by the generous donations” of AT&T, Microsoft, and Census 2000,

among others. In addition, other promotional material noted the Bureau’s

sponsorship and used the Census 2000 logo.

The Bureau’s Participation in the Symposium Was Consistent With

Applicable Appropriations Act Provisions

Annual appropriations act provisions prohibit federal agencies from using

appropriated funds for publicity or propaganda purposes, unless authorized by

Congress.1

 We have interpreted these provisions on a number of occasions and have

held that they were intended to prohibit “publicity of a nature tending to emphasize

the importance of the agency or activity in question.”2

 The restriction is typically

directed toward activities whose obvious purpose is “self-aggrandizement” and

“puffery.”3

 On the other hand, we have concluded that these provisions do not

prohibit an agency’s legitimate informational activities. For example, public officials

may report on the activities and programs of their agencies, may justify those policies

to the public, and may rebut attacks on those policies.4

 The executive branch has a

duty to inform the public regarding government policies, and policymaking officials

have traditionally used government resources to explain and defend their policies.5

As discussed in greater detail below, the partnership specialists we interviewed said

they answered questions about the census and gave away a variety of promotional

items, including posters, pens, balloons, and magnets. Because the Bureau’s role

appears to have been informational in nature and did not emphasize the importance

of the Bureau or Bureau programs such that it constituted puffery or selfaggrandizement, we conclude that the Bureau did not violate the appropriations act

limitations on publicity and propaganda.

Partnering Decisions are Governed by Unwritten Guidelines and Criteria

According to regional and headquarters officials we met with, partnering decisions

are not subject to written guidelines and criteria. Rather, decisions are driven by (1)

the Bureau’s objective to partner with virtually any organization that wants to

support the census, especially those with a constituency that includes hard-to-count

populations; and (2) the unique demographic, social, and other characteristics of

each census region. A headquarters partnership official said that the Bureau decided

against developing a set of formal guidelines because it would be difficult for the

guidelines to capture these regional differences. As an example, the official said that

in some rural locations, the Bureau might want to have census events at the local

firehouse because it often serves as a rural community’s social center. In other areas

 

1

 Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act, 2000, P.L. 106-58, sec. 632, Sept. 29, 1999.

2

 31 Comp. Gen. 311, 313 (1952).

3

 Comptroller General Decision, B-212069, Oct. 6, 1983.

4

 Comptroller General Decision, B-114823, Dec. 23, 1974.

5

 Comptroller General Decision, B-194776, June 4, 1979.
Page 5 GAO-01-124R Census Bureau Participation in Los Angeles Symposium, August 2000

of the country, firehouses do not have this function, and a different site would better

suit the Bureau’s needs.

Moreover, the official said that the Bureau’s regional directors—some with

operational know-how spanning several censuses—believed they already knew the

types of organizations with which to partner. In place of specific written guidelines,

the Bureau encouraged partnership staff to work with organizations to promote the

census, a message that was conveyed in the training given to partnership personnel

and in oral guidance given to regional directors during the Bureau’s regular directors’

conferences.

In practice, partnership officials at both Bureau headquarters and the Los Angeles

regional office said that the Bureau relies on the judgement of its partnership

specialists to decide which organizations to partner with, what events to attend, and

how to make the best use of their time. For example, the Los Angeles partnership

specialists told us that they first identified which population groups would be less

likely to participate in the census. Then, partly on the basis of the contacts they

developed from their prior work experience in community service positions, they

partnered with churches, health clinics, schools, and similar organizations that served

those population groups.

Although the specialists operated independently, according to Bureau officials, their

work was subject to supervisory review. Supervisory partnership specialists called

team leaders were to examine the weekly itineraries developed by the partnership

specialists and discuss any activity that could raise perceptual or other problems. At

the Los Angeles regional office, officials said the process worked as follows: by

Wednesday of each week, partnership specialists faxed or hand-delivered their

itineraries for the upcoming week (beginning the following Monday) to both their

team leader and partnership coordinator. An administrative employee checked in the

itineraries to make sure they were received from each specialist. The partnership

coordinator and team leader reviewed the itineraries weekly to (1) see where the

specialists were planning to be; (2) ensure they had enough activities planned with

certain types of groups, such as religious organizations; and (3) ensure they were

treating different population groups equally. On the basis of their reviews, a team

leader or partnership coordinator might occasionally question why the specialist was

planning to go to a particular event, such as a job fair.

Headquarters and regional officials told us that the Bureau has an unwritten policy

not to partner with law enforcement and certain other federal agencies, such as the

Internal Revenue Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Immigration

and Naturalization Service (INS), because it could give the public the wrong

impression that the Bureau was sharing information with those organizations. For

example, the Los Angeles office decided against attending a citizenship ceremony

sponsored by INS. Although the event offered a unique opportunity to educate a

potentially hard-to-count group about the importance of participating in the census,

the Bureau chose not to attend because the Bureau did not want anyone to

misconstrue its relationship with INS. Nevertheless, Los Angeles partnership staff

said they tried to work with as many organizations as possible; and, in fact, the

citizenship ceremony was the only event that they could recall in which they did not

participate because of the nature of the sponsoring organization.
Page 6 GAO-01-124R Census Bureau Participation in Los Angeles Symposium, August 2000

To guard against any inappropriate engagements with political organizations, Bureau

officials told us that about 2 years ago, all staff were sent a memorandum concerning

their responsibilities under the Hatch Act.6

 New employees were also to receive this

information as part of a package of material the Bureau gave them when they first

came on board. An official of the Los Angeles office said that a memorandum

describing Hatch Act restrictions was included in the training provided to partnership

staff. This memo, which we reviewed, provides guidelines on allowable and

prohibited political activities; however, it is generic in nature and does not provide

any guidelines specific to partnering activities.

The Bureau’s Decision to Participate in the Symposium

According to Bureau officials, two employees approved the request to participate in

the symposium. At the Bureau’s headquarters in Suitland, MD, the request was

approved by the Special Assistant to the Director and Associate Director for Field

Operations. The request was also approved in the Los Angeles office by an Assistant

Regional Census Manager and therefore was not part of the review process described

above. These officials told us that they based their decisions on the fact that it would

give the Bureau an opportunity to reach an audience of 1,500 to 2,000 African

Americans, a hard-to-count population targeted by the Bureau, and was thus a routine

request.

According to these officials, a representative of Mr. Smiley’s organization telephoned

the headquarters Field Operations official in March or April 1999 to discuss the

Bureau’s attendance at the Los Angeles symposium. At that time, the date of the

event was unknown. According to the Bureau’s headquarters official, in a subsequent

telephone conversation just before the symposium, Mr. Smiley’s representative

mentioned that the event was to take place on the weekend before the Democratic

Convention but was in no way connected to it. The Field Operations official referred

the representative to the Los Angeles Assistant Regional Census Manager. On

Tuesday, August 8th, Mr. Smiley’s representative telephoned the Los Angeles Assistant

Regional Census Manager. The manager said that during the conversation, there was

no mention of the Democratic Convention or any indication that the event was

political. Further, the manager and the three partnership specialists who attended

the event all said that they were unaware of how promotional material was

characterizing the Bureau’s role in the symposium until it was reported in the press

several days later. In fact, the partnership specialists said they had few details about

the event other than some basic logistical information, such as its time and location.

With respect to the symposium’s use of the Census 2000 logo, Bureau officials told us

that although the Bureau made it available on its Internet site and encouraged

organizations to use it to help promote the census, it would be impossible to monitor

whether it was used appropriately by a census partner. In our review of the

guidelines for using the logo posted on the Bureau’s Internet site, we found that the

Bureau discusses the importance of presenting the logo consistently and lays out very

 

6

 Under 5 U.S.C. sections 7321-7326 (commonly known as the “Hatch Act”), federal employees are

prohibited from engaging in partisan political activities.
Page 7 GAO-01-124R Census Bureau Participation in Los Angeles Symposium, August 2000

strict rules on colors, fonts, and other stylistic standards; but aside from these

presentation guidelines, it provides no guidance on what constitutes appropriate use.

Officials Said Bureau Expenditures on the Symposium Were Minimal and

Furthered the Purpose of the Partnership Program

The incremental cost of participating in the symposium was minimal, according to

Bureau officials. Two of the partnership specialists attending the event each

requested 8 hours of compensatory time off for the time they spent at the Saturday

symposium because they had already worked their scheduled 40-hour work week.

They said that they arrived at around 7:30 a.m. to set up the table and left around 3:30

p.m. when they ran out of promotional items. The third specialist did not request any

compensatory time or other type of reimbursement. None of the specialists received

overtime pay. In addition to compensatory time off, one specialist claimed $8.13 for

mileage costs. The specialists estimated they distributed 300 posters; about 3,000

pens; and an indeterminate number of other promotional items, such as balloons and

magnets. Bureau officials said the posters cost about $117, but they were unable to

provide cost information on the other items. The officials also said that the items

were already part of the Los Angeles Regional Census Center’s partnership program

inventory. No items were purchased specifically for this event.

Bureau officials in both headquarters and in the Los Angeles region said that

attending the symposium was consistent with the partnership program’s goal of

reaching out to traditionally hard-to-count populations, including African Americans.

They stated that throughout the census, the Bureau partnered with African American

organizations, attending events targeting this population and encouraging their

participation in the census. Symposium organizers told the Bureau that the event

would attract key leaders in the African American community and that they expected

a large turnout of between 1,500 and 2,000 people. Of these, the partnership

specialists estimate that between 500 and 1,000 people stopped by the table, which

was set up on a patio outside the entrance to the auditorium.

Although the Bureau had completed most of its 2000 Census data collection

operations at the time of the symposium, regional census officials said they viewed

the symposium as an opportunity to (1) answer questions about the census, (2)

support the Bureau’s nationwide efforts to thank partners for their hard work during

the census, and (3) promote a series of workshops the Bureau was conducting on the

use and availability of census data. The workshops were designed to update partners

and other interested parties on the status of the 2000 Census and describe census

data products, including how to access them on the Internet and how the data could

be useful to their communities and organizations. Bureau officials said this is

important because the Bureau, in promoting the census, emphasized how census

participation would benefit a community. Since August 2000, partnership staff in the

Los Angeles region said they have held about 100 such workshops.

According to Bureau headquarters and regional partnership officials, the Bureau

intends to institutionalize its partnership program so that it can maintain the

organizational relationships the Bureau developed for the 2000 Census and not have

to start over when preparing for the next decennial count. They said this contrasts

with the Bureau’s experience during the 1980 and 1990 Censuses, when the Bureau
Page 8 GAO-01-124R Census Bureau Participation in Los Angeles Symposium, August 2000

did not follow up with its partners and sustain the relationships already established.

As part of our larger review of the Bureau’s partnership program noted above, we are

examining the Bureau’s efforts to institutionalize its partnership program and some of

the factors that appear to be common to successful partnership engagements.

- - - - -

As agreed with your office, unless you publicly announce its contents earlier, we plan

no further distribution of this report until 30 days from its issue date. At that time, we

will send copies to Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, Ranking Minority Member of

this Subcommittee; the Honorable Norman Y. Mineta, Secretary of Commerce; the

Honorable Kenneth Prewitt, Director of the Bureau of the Census; the Honorable

Johnnie E. Frazier, Inspector General, Department of Commerce; and the Honorable

Elaine Kaplan, Special Counsel, Office of Special Counsel. Copies will be made

available to others on request. If you have any questions concerning this letter,

please contact me on (202) 512-8676.

Sincerely yours,

J. Christopher Mihm

Director

Strategic Issues
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