2020-08-14 Police Commission Regular Minutes

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Hawaii Police Commission Regular Session Minutes August 14, 2020 Page 2 Highway, and the Kea'au Highway stretch and is mainly in 55 mph zones. They focus traffic enforcement in high speed areas where they have fatalities. They tend to use the stealth stat mostly in lower speed zones such as subdivisions where people complain of speeding. Commissioner St. Ambrogio expressed concern of speeding in Pepe`ekeo in the 45 mph zone in the area of the post office. AC Wagner stated that he will relay the information to AC O'Connor to see if they can work with State Highways on this. Commissioner Quartararo asked if anything could be done with the lights in the Makala intersection in Kona that are difficult to see. He also stated that they have seen burned areas in the baseball dugouts at the old airport. AC Wagner thought that the dugouts should be locked when not in use. Personnel Report: Major Jelsma reported that as of July 31, they have 71 sworn vacancies, but with the 14 in the 92nd recruit, they have 57 vacancies. As of July 31, the department filled 426 of the 483 sworn positions and 134 of the 155 civilian positions. For the 91 st recruit class, they have 13 in solo assignment until March 15, 2021. For the 92nd recruit class, they have 21 in field training until December 17, 2020. The 93rd recruit class has 25 new hires who will start on August 17. For this 93rd recruit class, 461 applied, 240 took the written test, 138 passed, 103 attended the agility test, and they currently have 33 in their recruitment pool. After the screening process, they now have 25 to start the class. They put out a new Police Officer I recruitment June 28 -July 7. Police Radio Dispatcher I recruitment will open August 16-25. Written exam is scheduled for September 24. They have 10 dispatch vacancies. Finance Report: For fiscal year-to-date 7/31/20, their overall targeted expenditures is 12.50%; actual was 12.21 /%. S & W was targeted at 12.50%; actual was 8.79%. The reduction was due to County Finance posting July's S & W to August. Next month's report should be back on track. For FY 2019-20, the budget was $70,068,506, a decrease due to Area I and Area II TEU S & W being paid out of the Highway Fund. For Fiscal Year 2020-21, approved was $72,091,319. This includes the 10% overall budget reduction. • Commendations of Sworn and Civilian Employees: Deputy Chief Bugado reported that Police Chief Ferreira was on vacation. He thanked Commissioner Springer for attending the graduation ceremony yesterday. There were six commendations involving 13 personnel since the last commission meeting. Officer Ellsworth Fontes, of the Hamakua District, was elected Officer of the Month for July by the Aloha Exchange Club of East Hawaii. He was nominated for his work in investigating several thefts that occurred at a research farm in Hamakua which resulted in the apprehension of the suspect.