Sugar Land Mayor James A. Thompson has appointed a 12-member Complete Count Committee made up of community leaders representing the city’s diverse ethnic, geographical and age groups as the city prepares to be counted as part of the U.S. Census. One of their first efforts was to establish “Make Sugar Land Count” as the slogan representing the local initiative. The committee is also developing strategies to educate and reach the entire community.
Pictured are Communications Director Pat Pollicoff, Senior Planner Lisa Kocich-Meyer; committee members George Chang and Terri Wang; Census Partnership Specialist Ralph Stafford; committee members Tom Gargiulo and D.C. Pickett; Director of Planning Sabina Somers-Kuenzel; and committee members Shenila Momim, Leon Anhaiser and Nancy Porter. Not pictured are committee members Harvinder Arora, Jeanette Anderson, John Cantu, Sherrie Knoepfel and K.C. Mehta.
Members include co-chairs Nancy Porter and Sherrie Knoepfel, Jeanette Anderson, Leon Anhaiser, Harvinder Arora, John Cantu, George Chang, Tom Gargiulo, K.C. Mehta, D.C. Pickett, Terri Wang and Shenila Momin.
As mandated by the U.S. Constitution, the Census is taken every 10 years to count every person in the nation. Census questionnaires will be mailed to all residents in March – every household will receive the same short, 10-question survey.
All information is kept completely confidential, as mandated by law, with no questions about citizenship or social security numbers.
“10 questions, 10 minutes,” said Thompson, “affects the next 10 years of our lives. A good count is critical for Sugar Land and every other community.”
At stake is more than $400 billion per year in Federal dollars that is allocated to states and communities based on census data. That’s more than $4 trillion during a 10-year period for things like new roads and schools, as well as services like job training centers.
The data is also used to determine boundaries and representation for state and local legislative and congressional districts.
