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Merit Appeals Board December 18, 2019 <br /> that into consideration, please do. How do we address the health and safety of some of that <br /> leadership. <br /> MR. BRILHANTE: And that's a great point because one of the things we realized during that <br /> incident, was the fact that—and the County was—we weren't adequately addressing the issue <br /> with respirators. Being able to provide our personnel on the ground proper breathing <br /> protection—respirators. <br /> One of the requirements—you can't just give an employee, under federal law, you can't just give <br /> an employee a respirator. You have to ensure that—one, the employee is properly trained to use <br /> all facets—change the filters and have all that knowledge. That's a two-hour training class,just <br /> proper use of the respirator. And, two, there's an issue regarding the proper fit of the respirator, <br /> and there's a—it's called a"fit"test that unless you conduct that testing for each employee and <br /> make sure that the mask you provide to them is properly fitted on their face, then it's like you <br /> haven't really helped that employee. You've given a piece of equipment but it's not properly— <br /> they're not able to properly use it. <br /> So, that was something that we realized and our safety officer—at that time, we just have Ryan <br /> and Doug, our two training officers—they went during the lava flow. And they certified <br /> everybody who was assigned to the lava flow area. And it took about six weeks to get <br /> everybody properly certified—all the police officers, all the firefighters, all the public works, the <br /> highways guys, the parks and rec. guys—everybody had to be properly certified and provided a <br /> mask. <br /> We were fortunate, Queens Hospital donated a few thousand masks for us. And— <br /> CHR. NAMAHOE: But I'm thinking of sleep. <br /> MR. BRILHANTE: Yeah. <br /> CHR. NAMAHOE: If you working 16-hour days for three months with no day off, you are a <br /> hazard on the job. <br /> MR. BRILHANTE: Oh, definitely. And we see that and part of the—fortunately, for us, we <br /> have requirements like that within the CBA. So, now, it's just a matter of us, again, through our <br /> supervisor/management training program is us being able to educate the supervisors and <br /> managers as to what is—what are the required and necessary rest times and time when you have <br /> to send somebody home and just being understanding of that and cognizant of those components. <br /> And that comes under our training— <br /> CHR. NAMAHOE: Thank you. <br /> MR. BRILHANTE: —as we provide that information. But you're right. An event like that— <br /> we've had events like that. We've had earthquakes,we've had tsunami warnings, we've had <br /> missile alerts. We've had it all, but what made this incident so unique was just the longitudinal <br /> Page 13 <br />