Worried that Escondido might be as badly undercounted in the 2010 Census as it was in 2000, Councilwoman Olga Diaz has been urging residents to fill out their forms by canvassing inner-city neighborhoods and posting fliers all over town.

Census officials have already focused their North County outreach efforts on the 17 neighborhoods that were significantly undercounted in 2000 ---- nine in Escondido, seven in Oceanside and one in San Marcos.

But Diaz is going beyond those efforts because she wants to make sure Escondido gets its fair share of $400 billion in federal aid to local communities for roads, hospitals, senior centers, schools and emergency services over the next decade.

"This affects our funding so much that I consider it the greatest dollar-value investment of my time," said Diaz, explaining that the city loses about $4,000 per year for each resident not counted. "I want to make sure people realize why it's important."

Complicating outreach efforts are fear in the Latino community that census data will be used by police or immigration officials, a census boycott organized by immigrant rights activists and an Internet campaign calling the census an invasion of privacy.

But Diaz said she hopes to break through the distrust by stressing her Latino heritage, her ability to speak Spanish and her strong record of advocacy for Escondido's roughly 60,000 Latino residents.

And local officials are predicting Diaz will make a big difference in getting people to return their forms, which were mailed out this week, by the April 1 target date.

"Being Latino and being the newest member of the City Council means she can relate to the people," said Tom Cooper, who manages the North County census office in San Marcos. "I think she'll make them feel relaxed and not scared to fill out the forms."

Mary Ann Dijak, a community volunteer who is coordinating a separate outreach effort in Escondido, said the concentration of Escondido's undercounted neighborhoods within Latino areas makes Diaz a key ambassador.

"It's going to make a big difference for them to see somebody they trust and that represents their culture, telling them it's a good thing to be counted," said Dijak. "This is a community that can be very distrusting ---- for good reason."

Escondido, Oceanside and San Marcos

Census officials deemed 17 tracts in North County "undercounted" during the 2000 Census, meaning that at least 30 percent of addresses did not return census forms.

In Escondido, all of the tracts were located in predominantly Latino, inner-city neighborhoods. Those areas are bordered roughly by Centre City Parkway, El Norte Parkway, Citrus Avenue and Felicita Avenue.

In Oceanside, the tracts were bordered by the Pacific Ocean, the San Luis Rey riverbed, Oceanside Boulevard and Rivertree Drive.

Cooper said the undercounting in Oceanside appeared to be driven less by race and income level and more by vacation homes and the relatively transient lifestyle of residents connected to the Camp Pendleton Marine base.

In San Marcos, the undercounted tract was bordered by West Mission Road, Rancho Santa Fe Road, Twin Oaks Valley Road and Discovery Street.

The rest of North County, which also includes Carlsbad, Vista, Encinitas, Poway, Solana Beach and Del Mar, had no significantly undercounted census tracts in 2000, Cooper said.

Fear, raids and boycott

Alberto Laura, leader of a residents group within the undercounted part of Escondido, said Wednesday that he's been impressed by census outreach efforts, which have included commercials on Spanish language TV channels.

But Laura said he still worries there will be a significant undercount because many Latino residents fear the government. And he said that fear has been heightened recently by what he called "immigration raids" at the Escondido Swap Meet, Food for Less, a local dance hall and the San Marcos Walmart.

"Escondido is not an immigrant-friendly city," said Laura. "If I were illegal, I'd be a bit concerned about filling out census forms."

A local Border Patrol official said Wednesday that he knew nothing about a recent increase in raids.

Jim Zahr, who co-owns the Korner Market in central Escondido, said Latinos are typically scared of authority. But he told Diaz, who canvassed his store Wednesday, that residents would probably fill out the forms if she convinced them it was safe.

Laura said it might help if the census forms specified a penalty for not filling them out.

But a recent effort by immigrant rights activists to launch a census boycott will not have much effect in Escondido, Laura said, because the groups don't carry the same weight in Latino circles as organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union.

"These groups are extremists," said Laura. "It's not coming from the ACLU or a respectable organization."

Those groups include the Los Angeles-based Mexican American Political Association, which could not be reached for comment Wednesday. The groups contend a boycott would send a strong message that the nation's immigration system must be overhauled.

But Diaz said such efforts are ill-advised because they would cost cities with significant Latino populations millions of dollars over the next 10 years.

Robert Barrientos, a neighborhood leader in central Escondido, said Wednesday that his neighbors seemed to understand the importance of the census and the impact of the 2000 undercount.

"We're going to be counted this time," said Barrientos. "We're going to be heard."

Call staff writer David Garrick at 760-740-5468.