2022-08-30 Merit Appeals Board Minutes

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Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 always had an annual pre -retirement workshop for both state and County employees, which basically includes ERS—Employees Retirement SystemEUTF, Island Savings Plan which is the deferred comp. administrator for County employees, social security. So, all these agencies would come together under one roof and provide an all -day seminar/training/information for employees who are two or three years out from retirement. And so that they're educated on what they need to do, who they can contact if they have any specific questions about retirement—and since COVID we had stopped that because the group is pretty big. It's a pretty big -sized group and everybody's, kind of, in close proximity. So, we usually have it at the Aunty Sally's Luau Hale. But this year, we were actually going to have it in-person and then when there was the spike in COVID, we decided not to do it. But we are working with the agencies on either coordinating individual sessions for our employees or having another big session virtually in the future—and we don't have a timeline, yet, but to answer Gabe's question yes, we are going to have something in the future, `cause we feel it's very beneficial to those of our retirees. CHR. CABANAS: Is Aunty Sally's still available or is Civil Defense still using it as the operation (inaudible). MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yeah. So, Civil Defense and National Guard still has they still occupy the space. So, it is not available for rent at this time. MS. MATHEWS: So, is there any consideration to videoing this, so that it's available on-line for people that either missed it or decided they are looking at retirement earlier than waiting a year to find out what's going on? MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yeah. Actually, that's part of the discussion—is actually having something. And we just have to be careful at the information that we do provide and record because, as you all know, information changes so quickly. But, yes, that is definitely part of the conversation. CHR. CABANAS: And just for the Board's information, those that are eligible to attend are planning retirement in, what, two years? MR. LEOPOLDINO: Two to three years. CHR. CABANAS: Two to three years. MR. LEOPOLDINO: I believe that's the timeframe we advise, just to limit the size. CHR. CABANAS: So that they can plan accordingly, even though they're not going to retire, let's say, this year—but they still have time to plan. MS. MATHEWS: And that's, kind of, where my question was going. I thought, for some reason, spouses were included on some level of this? And the idea of having something that's Page 17