Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
Kokua Line
Question: We received a survey from the Department of Commerce. It looks like an incremental census form called the American Community Survey. We completed our census form earlier this year, now we have a new request for all kinds of information. Is this something we have to legally comply with or risk going to jail? Mini-census survey
causes confusionAnswer: It's not likely they'll haul you off to jail, although you're required by the U.S. Code to fill out the Census Bureau's American Community Survey.
If you don't fill out the survey within a certain time frame, expect to get a phone call from the bureau to "help" you complete it.
It turns out the survey has been sent to a random selection of U.S. households every year -- in fact, every month -- since 1996, according to Census Bureau branch chief B.J. Wright. It's like a "small census," she said.
Ultimately, the plan is to replace the long-form census survey taken every 10 years with the American Community Survey in 2010.
Wright did acknowledge in a telephone interview that many people have found the American Community Survey "confusing" since Census 2000 was just completed earlier this year.
The bureau began using the survey in 1996 as a means of getting more timely, detailed economic data about communities across the U.S., she said. It's "designed to provide direct estimates annually for all states, all cities and all counties and metropolitan areas."
While the census taken every 10 years does count the population and compile detailed information about people living in the United States, the data become outdated within a couple of years.
Wright said she didn't know how many people in Hawaii received the American Community Survey, but your household was chosen from a "scientifically designed sample."
"Each household is weighted. In other words, each household represents many other households just like them. So it is very important that everyone answer" the survey, Wright said.
If it's any consolation, anyone selected need participate only once during a five-year period, she said.
If you have any more questions, call the toll-free number listed in your survey letter, 1-800-354-7271.
Q: My wife, a part-Hawaiian, and I had our first child recently. We were wondering how we might go about registering our child with OHA or some other "official" Hawaiian registry so that she might have proof of her heritage.
A: There is no registry, as such, as far as we know.
Before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled this year that non-Hawaiians could vote for trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, an otherwise qualified voter simply signed an affidavit saying he or she is Hawaiian. No documentation was required.
However, if you want to apply for a Hawaiian homestead land lease, the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands requires applicants to provide proof of at least 50 percent Hawaiian blood, said spokesman Francis Apoliona.
Usually, birth certificates of the applicant, plus parents and grandparents are asked for. If birth certificates aren't readily available, "we have people on staff to do research and go to the archives," Apoliona said.
Mahalo
To bicyclist Allen for use of his cellular phone when our car stalled at about 5:50 p.m. Friday, Sept. 15, in the old Kipapa Gulch. Mahalo also to police officers Darin Ortega and Kenneth Roberts for assisting us until help arrived. -- Two Mililani residents.
Need help with problems? Call Kokua Line at 525-8686,
fax 525-6711, or write to P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu 96802.
Email to kokualine@starbulletin.com