2018-12-19 Merit Appeals Board Minutes

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Merit Appeals Board December 19, 2018 The first sentence that came out of the union agents—business mangers mouth when I met for the Step 2 grievance meeting was—“You know, fire paid all their guys 25 percent you know. How come you no can pay the police?” I was like, “Wow, really?” Well, the—and the reason that fire did that is there’s a glitch in the collective bargaining agreement where SHOPO, Public Works, and HGEA—the chiefs aren’t—or the department heads aren’t authorized—the HR director is the only one authorized to approve the hazard—the extra hazard pay. Unfortunately, in fire—they didn’t put that specific language in the CBA. CHR. NAHUINA: Battalion chiefs— MR. BRILHANTE: So, the battalion chief felt—feels that he has the authority. MS. NAMAHOE: And they did. Yeah. MR. CHILLINGWORTH: Well. MR. BRILHANTE: So, hoping—what I’d like to see with these numbers both for the new claims and open claims is there’s somewhat of a downward trajectory in the numbers—and every dollar we save there, we have a $2.2 million budget for workers comp. And so, for every dollar we save, out of that $2.2 million—it goes directly back to the general fund. So, for us that’s something. The other thing I like is the—that same downward trajectory with the County of Hawaiʻi vehicle equipment property damage reports. If you look 2014—228; 2018—knock on wood—167. So, that was another area where—because—and what makes this so important from both the workers comp aspect and the property damage aspect is the County of Hawaiʻi’s self-insured. So, it’s not like we’re—if something were to happen we can send it out to our assurance—insurance agent and they’ll cut us a check—for every dollar we spend on this is dollar that comes directly under work comp. MS. NAMAHOE: What’s the gentleman’s name, again—the—your work comp? MR. BRILHANTE: Oh, we have Allan— MS. NAMAHOE: Allan. MR. BRILHANTE: Yoshimura— MS. YAMADA: Yokoyama. MR. BRILHANTE: Yokoyama. CHR. NAHUINA: Yokoyama. Page 24