2019-04-24 Merit Appeals Board Minutes

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Merit Appeals Board April 24, 2019 should put this off the record but—oftentimes, these awards are politically motivated. So, for us, the State was very desirous of accommodating the fire fighters request. The governor gets four votes. The City and County was very desirous of accommodating the fire fighters because the union strongly supported the current mayor—City and County of Honolulu during his re- election. So—and then, Maui is just so flushed with money that they really didn’t want to upset anybody, so they had the majority of the votes and they were, somewhat, in support of it. Ourselves and County of Kauaʻi were opposed and we raised our objections—but because it’s collective bargaining we just have one vote—the County of Hawaiʻi one vote; Kauaʻi one vote; the governor four votes; City and County one vote; and Maui one vote. So, we were outvoted six to two. And so, there was no descending language submitted to the arbitrator with the decision. MR. CHILLINGWORTH: Wow. MR. BRILHANTE: So— MR. CHILLINGWORTH: Lucky fire fighters. MR. BRILHANTE: Pardon me? MR. CHILLINGWORTH: Lucky fire fighters. MR. BRILHANTE: Yeah. So, what happened was because the award involves cost items, those items have to be approved by council—our county council. So, when the award was sent to the mayor, and the mayor submitted his transmittal for the approving resolution, in that transmittal he recommended that the council reject—come up with an unfavorable recommendation for supporting the cost increases. And that’s going to be for hearing in front of the council—I think committee is the second to the last week of May, and then full council is the first week of June. So, that’s a resolution. So, that’s where we’re at with that. HGEA which is the white-collar government workers, all of their representative—they decided—Randy Perreira decided to have each unit do their independent negotiations with the employers. So, we have Unit 2, we have Unit 3, we have Unit 4—in the County we have Unit— I believe it’s 13 and 14. So, all those units are requesting independent arbitrations. So, unfortunately, the expert witnesses that both the employer and the unions use aren’t available through the summer, so we won’t be starting those arbitrations until August—later this year in August—and they’re going to run independently. So, that’s going to be a task— CHR. NAMAHOE: That’s a sidebar, but what was the rationale? MR. BRILHANTE: What happens is, when you have individual units, the union has to answer to individual panels. So, for Unit 2, they’re made up of Unit 2 members; Unit 3, is only Unit 3 members; Unit 4, is only Unit 4 members—and each of them have their own independent wants Page 5