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Merit Appeals Board <br />February 23, 2024 <br />MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah, so, I can spout those facts off to you from the top of my head, at this <br />point—but, so, in 2019 when I started as the Manager for Workers' Compensation, there were <br />about 474 open workers compensation claims. So, and then as of February 2024 there are 246 <br />open claims. <br />So, during the five-year period, they've the number of claims has consistently gone down as far <br />as the total number of open claims that the division is handling at any one time. That doesn't <br />mean that the total number of claims filed has gone down. <br />So, we still continue to receive approximately 10 to 12 new workers' compensation claims every <br />month but, fortunately, through claims handling strategy we're able—we were able to close more <br />than we were opening and now we're, kind of, able to keep pace with it. So, it's not just that <br />claims are remaining open for extended periods of time. <br />Last fiscal yearno, it wasn't—it was for 2221-22, we actually had 200 workers' <br />compensation claims that year, which was a high numberdefinitely, outside of the average but <br />usually it comes in somewhere around 130. <br />But if you'd like that comparison information on the monthly report, I can ask Lisa to include <br />that going forward. Usually, those statistics we're providing in the quarterly report. <br />MR. KUNZ: Yeah, I think the quarterly is fine. I just wanted to, for myself, just kind of see <br />what the difference was. <br />MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. <br />MR. KUNZ: And you were saying that on an average you would get maybe 10 to 12 a month? <br />Would you say that average was the same back in 2019 as well? <br />MS. TOKIHIRO: I canso, that's there's a comparison on those report—but it's pretty <br />consistently been 10 to 12. <br />MR. KUNZ: Okay. Thank you. <br />MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. <br />MS. MATHEWS: So, the number of people that were working not the number of positions <br />open, but the number of people working in 2019 versus 2024—is that the same? <br />MS. TOKIHIRO: No. I believe that there's then consistently more positions added. So, we're <br />going to have to look at—we would have to look at the vacancy rate to get a true number as far <br />as how many people—how many employees we had at the time. But we haven't seen a decrease <br />in staff, per se, or positions. So, there's new positions added. <br />Page 23 <br />