Non-English proficient entrepreneurs to benefit from California Senate bill

California Senator Leland Yee

SACRAMENTO, Calif. –A bill that would shift the responsibility of providing accounting record information to wholesale fish distributors that sell to small-business owners passed a key committee on Jan. 15.

The Senate Natural Resources Committee unanimously passed Senator Leland Yee’s (D-San Francisco/San Mateo) Senate Bill 764 to help non-English speaking small-business owners.

Currently, the Department of Fish and Wildlife is citing businesses that cannot provide receipts in English, despite the fact that many of these are owned and operated by monolingual individuals and serve a non-English speaking population and do not keep English records.

As a result, small businesses have been cited and fined, and had to hire lawyers to defend themselves in court at great cost.

The case that brought this matter to Yee’s attention was that of Anna Li, general manager of Chung Chou City. When the Department of Fish and Wildlife came to her store and requested documentation on her inventory, she provided that information.

However, because the references to abalone were written in Chinese, she was cited, and had to hire a lawyer and appear in criminal court before the charges were dismissed.

By shifting the responsibility from small businesses to distributors, it will prevent these unnecessary fines from being levied against small businesses, and ensure that there is a record in English.

“A local fish vendor should not be punished for keeping records in the language that they speak,” said Yee.  “The wholesale distributor already is required to keep this information in English, and can easily share it with small businesses so it can be shared with Fish and Wildlife. This bill will protect small businesses in communities throughout California, while still providing protections for consumers.”

“The majority of the small businesses doing business in Chinatown do not speak much English, and it has been the common practice to do business in the Chinese language,” said Pius Lee, Chairman of the Chinatown Neighborhood Association.

“We want to thank Senator Leland Yee for his help by introducing SB 764 to ensure that small businesses are provided with the necessary records,” Lee added.

SB 764 will next be heard by the Senate Appropriations Committee.