2018-09-19 Merit Appeals Board Minutes

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Merit Appeals Board September 19, 2018 MS. NAMAHOE: Yeah. MR. BRILHANTE: (Inaudible.) MS. NAMAHOE: Yeah. So, that’s wonderful that he—mahalo to his discretion. MR. BRILHANTE: Yeah, he’s very good. And I—and Gabe is really happy, ‘cause she had real deep concerns as to who would be replacing— CHR. NAHUINA: Sure. MR. BRILHANTE: And so, I think it’s a win-win all the way around as far as that goes. The only other thing to report is, I’ll keep you abreast of the re-org. with the Work Comp Division. And just to, again, for full disclosure—each year the Work Comp Division is audited by independent third party auditor because there’re financial fiscal expenditures that the County makes and there’s always that checks and balances and we have to report—we have to do an annual report where all our fiscal expenditures from a financial standpoint. And if we’re deficient in an area or if some areas are problematic, then the result of those problems may be a reduction in our bond rating and the like. And so, those are the requirements that flow from our ability to issue municipal bonds. And, with that in mind, this is the third year that we’ve had some issues raised as to our accounting methods and our ability to properly record and capture expenditures and payments being made, and billing issues with physicians and the like. And I—this is the first year where it’s been reported and I’m directly responsible for it. As I explained to my staff, if this thing gets any worse or continues to go in this direction, they’re not going to be the ones called in front of the county council or in front of the mayor and ask, “Oh, how come you guys are still having problems?” It’s going to be me— CHR. NAHUINA: Yeah. MR. BRILHANTE: —sitting on that seat. So, I said if I fail to do anything, then that’s incumbent on me. So, that was—that played a significant role and—into why I decided to, kind of, do a re-org. for that Health and Safety Division. And I think we need to jump on that situation. Any time you talk about money and expenditures—again, we’re talking about public money. We’re not generating our own work comp money. Those monies are coming from fees that we collect from the public. So, in essence, it’s public money. And I just—so I thought if we allowed that to continue the way it was, then at some point in time the very near future, it’s going to be a real problematic issue that it’s going to be—“Why wasn’t it ever addressed?” So, again, I’m trying to be proactive for making adjustments. A lot of it— oftentimes when I meet with the staff and we sit down and we try to problem-solve, it’s always—“Well, the reason we’re not inputting that information is ‘cause we don’t have time”— it always seems we don’t have time, we don’t have time, we don’t have time. Page 14