2024-07-15 Merit Appeals Board Minutes

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Merit Appeals Board July 15, 2024 Right now, the hearing is an open hearing in accordance with your appeal form. So, I'm going to ask you, Mr. Turner, do you want an open or closed hearing at this time? Because your appeal form states "open." You want it open? MR. TURNER: Yes, open. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. Which means that any member from the public walking in can sit in and listen or appearing via Zoom. MR. TURNER: Perfect. Thank you. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. All right. So, the hearing is on the appeal filed by Mr. Lyndon P. K. Turner, and I understand that Mr. Ted H. S. Hong, Esquire, will be representing you, Mr. Turner. Okay. The issue in this case has been identified as Number 1, did the Employer, the Human Resources Department of the County of Hawaii violate any statutes, regulations, rules, or personnel policies in the Appellant's statement of legal wrong regarding the following actions Recruitment and Examination, and Classification or reclassification of a particular position. And Number 2, if the answer to the above is "yes," then what remedy can be awarded by the Merit Appeals Board? Before we go any further, I need to make, as the Chair, a full disclosure. And this the disclosure is on two points. The first point being that I have worked with Mr. Ted Hong in his prior capacity as the Assistant Corporation Counsel, many years agoI believe it was in the nineties—Ted, when you started with the Office of the Corporation Counsel. And I, at that time, I worked for the Department of Human Resources and I was the Recruitment and Examination Manager. So, basically, he was newI trained him on recruitment and examination functions and he and I worked together on appeals, and I represented the department at appeal hearings. Okay, so that's my disclosure. The second disclosure is, I noticed in the exhibits provided by the County, Mr. Justin Lee, who's the attorney for the CountyI noticed that, without going into any specifics, that my name is listed on one of the exhibits. Okay. Having said that to all of you, I just want to ask all of you if you have any questions or concerns about me presiding over the hearing? And I just also want to state that in all the work that I have done for the Department of Human Resources, my career over 35 years with the department— I've epartmentI've been with the County over 37 years. I started in Public Works and then I went to Human Resources that I've always tried to be fair and objective reviewing the facts and then making Page 17