2021-11-19 Merit Appeals Board Minutes

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Merit Appeals Board November 19, 2021 So, good afternoon, Board members, my name's Tyler Benner and I'm the Auditor of the County of Hawaii. I'm here today to discuss standing up of the Whistleblower Hotline in connection with our 2017 Hiring Practices Audit performed with the Human Resources Department. So, kind of where we're at—we have a page designed and ready to deploy as soon as we get the assigned phone numbers and we have disclaimers approved. We are actively been recruiting a third Audit Analyst position and we've added the job duty to the analyst role. So, were going to deploy the line regardless of whether or not that recruitment is filled. I've provided, kind of, a visual aid here with the general call flow attached (SEE COMM. NO. 21-05.01), which really does consist of six distinct phases. So, "Complaint/Concern" individual feels that something has not been handled adequately. And so, they go ahead and seek a venue to address that complaint. Find us on the web on a directory and go ahead and we field that call as "Intake"assess based on the circumstances, make a "determination" as to whether or not it's jurisdictional—within our purview to address. And then, based on that, we'll do an "Examination & disposition." And then, we will provide periodic "Analytics" in reporting. So, I've spoken with an auditing colleague from the mainland who operates a matured program of this nature in a population of about 652,000 residents or three times the population of this island. They've created their hotline in 2011 under the Office of the Ombudsman. But based on the calls that they were receiving, they determined that the program was better housed under the audit function. And so, the audit—auditor took control of that in 2013 and have operated that ever since. So, a mature program with a population of that size, last year, generated about 90 phone calls; four of those revolved—resulted in investigations and one resulted in an addition to the annual audit plan. The auditor informed me that they spent the vast majority of their time connecting people in non jurisdictional capacities answering questions and just assisting with general issues that are ultimately determined to be non jurisdictional things like Craigslist purchases that the individuals aren't satisfied with. But for the five percent of those remaining calls of consequence, they found significant value in the line. So, in terms of our iteration of the program, we're going to operate the line in a beta for approximately one year and assess the program to determine what resources are needed for sustainability and possible growth. So, I'm open to any questions the Board members might have. CHR. CABANAS: Floor is open for any questions. Mr. Ventura, do you have any? MR. VENTURA: I have no questions. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, thank you. Ms. Mathews. MS. MATHEWS: How are you going to sell this? Page 17