Census will cut six offices, save up to $18 million a year

The U.S. Census Bureau will close half of its 12 regional officesin a cost-cutting measure, the agency announced Tuesday.

None of approximately 7,200 field workers who collect vitalstatistics on individual households and the economy will lose theirjobs, said Robert M. Groves, the Census Bureau director.

But about 330 employees - mostly supervisors, including sixregional directors - will be affected. Some will work from theirhomes, others will relocate, and some are expected to retire, Grovessaid. By the time all six offices close at the end of 2012, theCensus Bureau will trim 115 to 130 positions from a workforce of15,000.

The cuts are expected to save $15 million to $18 million a year,the bulk of it in salaries and $3 million in rent. The Census Bureauhas come under increasing pressure to cut costs before the 2020Census, which will have some kind of Internet option.

The offices that will close are in Boston, Charlotte, Dallas,Detroit, Kansas City and Seattle. The six remaining offices are inAtlanta, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia.

The closures will place some locations in regions that make moresense. For example, all of California will be run out of Los Angelesinstead of being split in two, with Northern California assigned tothe Seattle office as it is now.

Around Washington, Virginia has been part of the region based inCharlotte. When the switch is completed, it will be run out of thePhiladelphia office, as Maryland and the District already are.

But the realignment also leaves some parts of the country with adistant regional headquarters. Texas, for example, will be run outof Denver instead of Dallas. The Denver office covers a huge swatchof the country, from the Canadian border to the Mexican border.

Terri Ann Lowenthal, a census consultant who wrote a blog on 2010Census issues, said the loss of proximity could cause problems.

"Can a regional director understand the full diversity ofcommunities to the level that's required, to take a good census ifthey have that much territory to cover?" she said.

Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association ofLatino Elected and Appointed Officials, said losing an office rootedin a region with so many Hispanics, the fastest-growing group in thecountry, could make it harder to count people in the 2020 Census.

"My concern would be not having a field office closest to some ofthe areas of the country where they had some of the greatestchallenges, particularly the border areas," he said.

Groves said in a telephone interview it made more sense to basethe office in Denver, in the center of the region, instead of at itssouthern end in Dallas.

"We think we're setting up the Census Bureau for a future of datacollection that is more technologically assisted," he said.