2025-03-13 Merit Appeals Board Minutes

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Merit Appeals Board March 13, 2025 MS. TOKIHIRO: So, we're open to receiving applications from any displaced workers. I know that the Governor came forward with, kind of, this emergency hire. We need to be careful about making sure that we're following the merit principle. And so, we didn't —our jurisdiction decided not to issue an executive order because these peopleindividuals still need to go through our normal application process. So, we cannot show a preference or provide a preference to a certain category of people, but we're definitely letting people know that our —what our job openings are —and Michelle Simmons and I attended the career fair and Prince Kuhio Plaza on the 22nd of February. And it was a really well -advertised event by R&D. They actually were part of putting that on with the Job —with Goodwill Industries and, I think, America's Job Center. And so, hundreds of people came through. It was an excellent opportunity to talk about our website and several people who were in federal positions that said, "Okay, I'm not affected now but I may be in the future" we were able to explain to them, showed them how to fill in the Job Interest Card on our website, be able to provide information about our departments and our job openings, and encourage them to apply. So, we are closely monitoring. Unfortunately, not a lot of guidance came from the federal government. We have a lot more questions than answers. We have had departments that have elected to close recruitments in order to preserve their existing funds, if they got it through some type of grant or other federal program. So, they've stopped recruiting for those —some positions because they're not sure if that funding source will continue. We have been working with departments to evaluate, if they have positions that have federal funding just kind of saying, "Hey, you might want to make sure that the employees know that this funding could be an issue" —so that they can be evaluating other options or alternatives —if there's other positions that they'd like to apply for within the County, if there's a concern that the federal funding for their position might lapse or be withdrawn. So, it'swe work closely with Finance and then just trying to see what happens. Be a little bit I guess, we're not patient —we're very impatient to get the answers. Unfortunately, it's not in our control, so MR. THOMAS: To follow on to that question. Has the County identified positions that are either require a higher level of particular skills or, for other positions, hard to fill? And if so, is there some kind of outreach that goes beyond just looking within the County or whatever, to try to find those individuals? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. So, typically, those hard to fill, higher level positions —it's always engineers. Engineers have been a shortage category in the State for decades. And so, we've tried different recruitment strategies, so whether it'swe did a trial with, like, Zip Recruiter, to get the word out nationally. Then going and attending the engineering career fairs at UH Manoa. Page 19