2024-02-23 Merit Appeals Board Minutes

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Merit Appeals Board February 23, 2024 MR. KUNZ: So, is it the responsibility of this BoardI mean, this is a good cheat sheet as, I think, we wanted to have something that would help. But, in terms of—and I think I brought this up some time ago regarding an actual County merit employees handbook that actually states that you have the right—'cause we don't write the rights. But we're, kind, of, like handing off aan antidote to help the individual. So, I feel that we need to be a little careful when we cross over informing a civil servant that they have the right to appeal. I don't think that's our job. But this is a good guidepost for them should they appeal, which I think we can do. I don't know if that's making sense, but I kind of caution this body when we start trying to determine that we have to provide something to they know what the merit workers' rights are. I think that's not our job. Our job is to have the hearing, make a determination—everybody has a process. And we're, kind of, like, creating a guidepost for the appellant and I think yes, we can kind of doctor the language, but I don't know how much further this body should be or this Board should be pursuing that each employee has a particular right and we want to try and for lack of a better term—help enforce that right. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Kunz, you raised a good point. I just want to add on that appeals are not only filed by employees of the County of Hawaii, but applicants—members of the public. So, we may be having a wide range of persons coming before the Board, not necessarily employees. And you're right, it's not the responsibility of the Board. There is a process that the County already has established and because our Director of Human Resources is sitting at the dais, I'm going to yield at this point—and I'm going to ask Ms. Tokihiro to explain that part because the department, I believe, if my memory serves me right—has in place areas where employees and members of the public are also informed of their right—not only of the internal complaint process but of their right to appeal before the Merit Appeals Board. So, I'm going to defer to you, Sommer, if you could explain to the Board about that. MS. TOKIHIRO: Good morning. So, yes, the internal complaint procedure identifies who can file and the method for doing so. So, that's yeah, so that's the process as far as being notified of your right to because the appeal, in some situations, starts at the department level for certain actions. It's an appeal directly to this body. So, the internal complaint procedure identifies that process and the rights to pursue that. I just wanted to add with regard to the language. I mean, I'll leave it to this Board to decide how you want to handle this sheet. But a lot of our—almost all of our procedures and policies include definitions in the beginning. And so, I wonder if possibly adding "definitions"a definitions section. You could address what is meant by "appellant" but then continue to refer to it as "appellant" so that the cheat sheet does, as Member De Soto mentioned, use the language that is going to be used at the time of the appeal and maybe that would help bridge some of that understanding, if you were able to provide or more clearly define the terms. Page 17