2022-12-13 Police Commission Regular Minutes

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Hawaii Police Commission Special Meeting Minutes December 13, 2022 Page 9 ➢ Sherry Bird stated she will keep her vaccination status to herself. As far as the enforcement of the vaccination policy, they didn't have a "get vaccinated or be terminated" policy for the department. You had choices. If you chose not to be vaccinated then you would need to submit to the weekly testing. That was the rules at the time, so departmentally that's what they followed. ➢ Benjamin Moszkowicz stated that he doesn't feel comfortable discussing this in a public forum. If you want to talk about it in executive session, that's fine. He stated that he would like to point out that he oversaw human resources at the Honolulu Police Department when the city came out with a vaccine mandate. Their policy was, you get vaccinated by a certain day or else...we will terminate your employment. He is proud to say that it was a lot of work to manage all of that human resources information, but of the 2,501 employees, volunteers, and contractors they only lost two who weren't able to get into some sort of compliance. There were a lot of discussions and a lot of hard deadlines imposed on them by the city, but they were able to convince the city to allow religious or medical exemptions. ➢ Edward Ignacio stated that he was working for the federal government. They had no choice and had to get vaccinated for their employment, which came from a presidential directive. He stated that he is vaccinated. He believes in people's right to choose if they want to be vaccinated or not. He further stated that he would support any legislation that comes up and that hopefully if this comes up again, he would support legislation that gives the people the right to choose. ➢ Paul Applegate stated that he is vaccinated and as police chief, he would enforce any lawful order. He would not allow his personal feelings at any time to interfere with any professional decisions that would have to be made. Commissioner Andrion had a follow-up question for Mr. Applegate. He stated there were several testimonies that they heard from members of the public who felt their constitutional rights were violated by different mandates, including vaccine and mask mandates. He asked if he would enforce mandates if they were directed to his department. Paul Applegate stated yes, those that have been vetted through Corporation Counsel or legal counsel and have been interpreted as being lawful. Vice Chair Brown added that the commission isn't just interested in their vaccination status. They're representing the public because the public in numerous testimonies, spoke about following the Constitution and Bill of Rights. He thinks 99% of them were referring to vaccination. They're following