CITY GETTING READY FOR HEAD COUNT; MUNICIPAL REVENUE WILL DEPEND ON ACCURACY IN CENSUS.

Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Daily News Staff Writer

The next national census is nearly two years away, but the city already has begun taking steps to ensure an accurate count.

City officials have met with school representatives to review ways to make sure all households are counted, said Laura Stotler, an associate city planner. Plans also call for involving church and community leaders in helping publicize the census and encouraging residents to participate.

``It's important to know the actual count, to know who is living in the city,'' Stotler said. ``It helps us know who we have in the community. And the city gets some of its money based on population.''

Tonight, the Santa Clarita City Council will be asked to approve the formation of a multi-agency committee to encourage participation in the 2000 census. The campaign calls for including reminders in utility bills to complete census forms, sending information home with schoolchildren, placing newspaper ads and running notices in city publications, Stotler said.

The council will meet at 6:30 p.m. in City Hall.

Representatives of the U.S. Census Bureau in Southern California have been meeting with city and county officials in the region to encourage publicizing the upcoming count, Census spokesman Jim Foy said.

Missing some residents in the 1990 Census is believed to have cost California as much as $1.3 billion this decade in federal funds distributed on a population basis, city officials said.

Stotler said the state also uses population figures in dispensing various revenues to the city. Santa Clarita receives about $115 a year per person from various state sources, she said.

She said one of the key reasons people are not counted in the 10-year national census is that they ignore the forms that come in the mail. Foy said others are mistrustful of government for one reason or another and refuse to take part.

Minority populations are often undercounted because of language barriers, Stotler said. In Santa Clarita, fast-paced development and annexations of large, populated areas can add complications in obtaining accurate counts.

The Census Bureau has supplied cities and counties with address lists for counting purposes but ordered them to keep the information confidential and not use it for other purposes, such as zoning code enforcement, Foy said.

To encourage participation, census information is confidential. In fact, census workers who violate that confidentiality are subject to a federal prison sentence and a $5,000 fine.