2023-06-22 Fire Commission Minutes

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Hawaii Fire Commission Regular Session Minutes June 22, 2023 Page 5 attended EMD training, they're working on additional EMD training moving forward. The warehouse is finalizing work on changing over to a new vendor for their ordering system as the current vendor will be shut down. The vehicle maintenance shop conducted 60 repairs, 15 service calls, and 7 contracted out and tows. Two jet skis arrived for Ocean Safety. Information Technology: Fire dispatch console was set up at police dispatch. Computers at Haihai for ProQA and EMD training were set up. Nearing completion of RFP process for new NFIRS Software vendor (EPR Fireworks). Recess was called at 10:12 a.m., the meeting reconvened at 10:22 a.m. NEW BUSINESS Discussion with the chief about the process of promotions. Chair Kosaki advised the chief that they were not there to discuss how he conducts his promotions. They just have some concerns about certain situations where the rules, policies, and procedures were changed during the promotional process, which resulted in some grievances. There were some comments from line personnel, it seemed like someone was influencing his decisions. Commissioner Magsalin wanted to know what the old process was for promotions. Chair Kosaki advised the process is the same, there is no change. Chief Todd reported there currently is a grievance from a firefighter. They recently had an FEO process start up, and one of their applicants was sent information that he was not eligible and did not submit the proper paperwork. He called HFD's HR explaining that he did submit the paperwork and they told him they weren't accepting it. He then went to the union and the union filed a grievance on his behalf claiming that he submitted all the paperwork. They later pulled all his paperwork and later realized he had in fact submitted all the required paperwork. At this point, it was already the day of the testing. They replied back to the union in a formal letter stating they agree with their findings that he did meet the requirements for the test and they will reach out to HR and close the grievance at an informal level and allow him to take the test. Two days later he took the written test and was placed into the normal process. He met all requirements to be part of the process and he was flagged inappropriately. The secondary grievance from another firefighter was that the original firefighter had a process and he did not follow it. Their reply to him was that he had done everything appropriately. This firefighter doesn't agree with this and his grievance is currently at step two. Commissioner Mattos asked why HR said he didn't qualify. Chief Todd explained that he submitted his national registry certificate instead of his state licensure. Commissioner Mattos asked if it states that on the recruitment, to which Chief Todd replied it does not say that the state licensure needs to be submitted, everyone basically does, so HR thought because he didn't submit his state licensure, the national registry