2024-03-12 Merit Appeals Board Minutes

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Merit Appeals Board March 12, 2024 MR. YOSHIMOTO: Where I think you were going MS. MATHEWS: No, what I want to do is make sure that—because what I was trying to do was tone it down so that it was palatable for a knapsack sprayer. I know we don't have those anymore but, you know, plantation kid here. Because what I saw before was the language was more conducive for somebody that either worked in HR or was in the legal field using terms like, "appellant" and when you're—what I was trying to do is make it be something that would be a guideline. I mean, then, in a perfect world what there would be is actually a mock-up of what one would look like this is what your complaint looks like—and that kind of deal and I don't know if that's doable or not. But that's where I was starting out—was I was trying to tone it down to—at a maximum, a 7t' grade level—and make it be something where somebody doesn't take one look at it and go, "Whoa, I can't do this"—and just walk away. MR. YOSHIMOTO: So, it looks like you that's what you're trying to do—and it looks like you're doing a good job about changing the readability, right—or understand ability of the outline, right. MS. MATHEWS: Yes. MR. YOSHIMOTO: 'Cause—so, yeah—because you use a lot of "you" right, which is the "appellant" that this is mainly for the appellant even though you provide it to all the parties, right. So, I think it's good. MS. MATHEWS: I mean, and there were things that I wasn't changing that really need to be in there, like, the importance of timelines and what to do if you can't meet the timeline for some reason. Because you could have somebody that's trying to gather their documents and just can't get it in time—what could they do about those things? MR. YOSHIMOTO: Yeah. And part of the caution for any type of outline that may be interpreted as legal advice is that I know there's a disclaimer here on the first page is that we cannot anticipate every possible motion that a party would want to bring in the hearing. When I say "motion" meaning "motion to dismiss" or a "motion to have this evidence stricken" things like that, right. So, I think the outline—and you have the Deputy AG that's going to advise you on this matter, but my perspective is yeah, just be careful in providing enough information as guidelines, guideposts—but not too much where it's limiting and they say, "Well, you didn't say it here"— right, "I thought you said... "—and this is not what we're doing, right. I understand. So yeah, so it's that fine balance and I think this your comments, your revisions they're definitely a step in the right direction. Page 12