2018-12-19 Merit Appeals Board Minutes

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Merit Appeals Board December 19, 2018 MR. BRILHANTE: We don’t have capital projects. We’re not going, we not doing all these other stuff that Public Works may do. We’re not buying equipment. We’re not buying a drywell cleaner for $1.5 million. We’re not buying fire trucks for $900,000. We’re not buying ambulances, we’re not buying buses. So, when we say we’re going to reduce—we need to reduce 3 percent—let me tell you, we’re cutting at the quip. We’re already barebones and that was—that statement during our budget hearing, which was on last week Friday—it was stated to us where the budget director was very appreciative of the fact that we have been so fiscally responsible. And I can’t take that much— this is dating back to 10, 12, 15 years ago—that HR has been so fiscally responsible. We’ve been—we really have such a good staff—I have such a responsive staff that my managers would take a—will do a schedule—a change in their schedule—as opposed to submitting a request for overtime. And I can do that—that’s acceptable with the EM’s, unfortunately, I can’t do that with the clerical staff or the SR’s but I have to afford them the—they make the selection but, I just want to say that I have such a good staff, such a responsive staff that I can’t take the credit for that. It always goes back to the staff as it relates to these type of overtime claims and the like. So, you can read that and if—we highlighted some of the areas that we’ve been working on. The next report—Number C, is the post audit progress report. And, again, Gabe—Gabriella was really spearheading this because the audit was specific to the County’s HR hiring practices. And there were several items that they identified—areas of concern. So, out of the 7 items, here are 6 of them, and this is how we specifically addressed them. We came up—we established a new referral system for continuous entry-level recruitment. We have some positions in the County where when we’re talking about the Motor Vehicle Clerk III, we had the minimum requirements in order to—they need 3 years of that specific work. Where there’re some positions within the department—that they’re called “registration class recruitments.” So, all you have to do is submit your name and then you’re considered. There’s no minimum requirements—eight grade education—and those positions are like a park caretaker, public works laborer, (inaudible) station, or parks custodian. There’s positions—those are entry-level positions, which everybody—you’re a County employee, you’re no less than any other employee, but— CHR. NAHUINA: Yes. MR. BRILHANTE: —just because of the requirements of the job, what are we going to say— “You need 5 years of cleaning toilets”—it’s just hard to quantify what the minimum requirements would be for those positions. So, they’re called “registration recruitments.” And so, what we did is was we came up with a system where it’s fairer because the referrals now are based on a lottery. So, when people Page 27