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Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2023 <br />CHR. CABANAS: Okay. Okay, go ahead, Mr. Patel. <br />MR. PATEL: And so, to kind of—it might be helpful to explain how the commission arrived at <br />sending out this letter. They felt they needed some baseline information, a kicking off point to <br />see where they wanted to head. <br />Some commissioners discussed sending the letter that you received, directly to the department <br />heads. The reasoning being they're most familiar with the operations, what is needed, the work <br />they actually do day -in and day -out. Other commissioners felt that it might put the department <br />heads in an uncomfortable positionessentially, advocating for their own pay, if they went there. <br />The alternative would be to just say nothing—we leave it to you type of scenario. <br />So, where they felt in sending out this letterbasically, the same letter as prior—was that they <br />wanted to address it through all the appointing authorities and then, at that point, the discussion <br />they had was—if the appointing authorities felt they needed input or they needed to have their <br />department heads respond, then they could let their department heads know. <br />So, just to give you an idea, the same letter was sent, obviously, to the mayor's office, council <br />chair—mayor's office responded, some department heads responded directly as well. So, for our <br />purposes here today for, I guess, for guidance for myself—if you would like the department to <br />respond directly, we're more than comfortable doing that. We do have all the information. Same <br />information that the salary commission has. If you think you wanted to propose some kind of <br />increase or decrease or status quo—we could, certainly, provide you with that information as <br />well. It's all public information. And then, you can consider looking at what other department <br />heads across the State are being paid currently. <br />MR. KUNZ: Would that information include what department's heads are being paid locally as <br />well? <br />MR. PATEL: Are being paid within the County? <br />MR. KUNZ: Correct. The County directors. <br />MR. PATEL: Yes. <br />CHR. CABANAS: From within the State? <br />MR. PATEL: Yes, from within the State. <br />CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. <br />MR. PATEL: So, all the county jurisdictions with the same positions, essentially. <br />CHR. CABANAS: That would have been very helpful, I think, to the Board if we had that. <br />Page 10 <br />