2023-07-11 Salary Commission Minutes

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Salary Commission July 11, 2023 comfortable—and we saw this in Honolulu—City and County where people were saying, "I don't feel comfortable talking about what I'm deserving"—so to speak, right. So, I know—and I won't say which one but I have other clients that do not feel comfortable coming in to say, "I deserve `x'." So that may be—maybe they will. I think our police chief will, for example. So, everyone is going to be different but I think affording the opportunity, maybe—do you want to do that same letter to each? Do you want to do a letter to the actual potential recipient—the department head—"Tell us how your job duties. Here's a copy of your position description." Your job class specs., for example, if the appointing authorities have those as well. I don't know the answer to that—Danny, our acting director, may be able to chime in. But tell us how much time you actually spend on these things and maybe we have a separate letter to the appointing authority that says, "Tell us what you think this person deserves a raise" and/or what. Maybe we have two, maybe we have one just throwing that out there. MS. NAMAHOE: Okay, so Namahoe—final point of clarity. The goal is, with this initial letter, is to this is not the final official letter. In the introductory solicitation, which is what we're doing right now, I would likeI suggest that we include that opportunity to all of the department head from the get -go. That allows them the luxury to choose where they are comfortable or in how they wish to reply. But since all of us know that this is the work ahead, as important as it is to reach out to the commissions and the governing authorities, they should also be allowed that voice that they can choose to use or not. Thank you. MR. FARAHL Commissioner Farahi5'. I read all the material that Glynis sent I don't have a paper printer, though. I've been on this kind of a commission about five times in the last 30 years—in New Jersey, in Missouri, and New York. I think there are—with your permission, Mr. Chair, I thought a lot about it and I said, "Don't take too much of their time, they have their own system"—and the system is what it is"Don't try to confuse anybody." But, in reality, we're doing some stuff that really isn't our job in terms of our expertise to do it. Even if you had somebody sitting over there explaining, "I deserve this because I do this" you go back to the comparative index of how much the police chief in Maui makes. It doesn't solve anything. There are essentially three different things involved. One, is the annual cost of living increase. Obviously, this County hasn't done that since 2019. Two, some sort of an increment or a performance increase. The unions and the collective bargaining have increments in their system as part of their negotiation—Step 1, Step 4, Step 3 3,000 for that step and 2,000 for that step. Page 12