2024-08-12 Merit Appeals Board Minutes

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Merit Appeals Board August 12, 2024 CHR. CABANAS: And so, now we are going to proceed to our hearing, which is Communication number 24-04. Note, the hearing concerns the preliminary issue of whether the board has jurisdiction to hear the appeal, under section 76-14, Hawaii Revised Statutes. If it is determined that the board has jurisdiction, the hearing will proceed concerning the merits of the appeal. Before the Merit Appeal Board, we have our Appellant and our attorney from the Office of the Corporation Counsel. (At this time, Ms. Jo -Ann Tallett, Appellant, Police Department; and Ms. Sherilyn K. Tavares, Deputy Corporation Counsel, Office of the Corporation Counsel, and Ms. Sommer J. Tokihiro, Director, Human Resources Department, came forward.) CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Tallett, do you want an open or a closed hearing? I have to ask you that for the record. It can be open? Okay. Is the light onoh, okay, let me ask you, again. So, Ms. Tallett, do you want the hearing to be an open or closed hearing? MS. TALLETT: It can be open. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, thank you very much. So, appearing before the Merit Appeals Board are Jo -Ann Tallett from the Hawaii Police Department and attorney from the Corporation Counsel, Ms. Sherilyn Tavares. So, there are a number of communications that I'm going to read into the record. (At this time, Chair Cabanas proceeded to read into the record Communication numbers 24-04 through 24-04.04.) CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Tallett, I would like to introduce our fellow Board members. I'm Gabreilla M. Cabanas, the Chair; Gay Mathews, to my left, is our Vice -Chair; Suzi Bond to my right, to my far left is Mr. Charlie Kunz, and to my further left is Mr. David Wiseman. Our attorney for the appeal hearing is from the Attorney General's Office, Mr. Jim—James Halvorson, and he's appearing via Zoom from Oahu. So, thank you very much for coming today before the Board. Okay. So this hearing is on the appeal filed by Ms. Jo -Ann Tallett. The issue in this case has been identified as, Number one—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 action—classification or reclassification of a particular position. And if the answer to the above is "yes" then what remedy can be awarded by the Merit Appeals Board. The Board is now is receipt of communications by the Appellee, the County of Page 14