Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-06-24 Merit Appeals Board Minutes REGULAR SESSION Merit Appeals Board Hilo Council Chambers Hawaiʻi County Building 25 Aupuni Street, First Floor, Room 1401 Hilo, Hawai‘i June 24, 2025 (Tuesday) Call to Order (Item 1) The regular meeting of the Merit Appeals Board, County of Hawaiʻi, was called to order at 9:02 a.m. by Chair Gabriella M. Cabanas, at the Hilo Council Chambers, Hawaiʻi County Building, 25 Aupuni Street, First Floor, Room 1401, Hilo, Hawaiʻi, on Tuesday, June 24, 2025. Roll Call – Present Ms. Gabriella M. Cabanas, Chair Ms. Suzi Bond, Vice-Chair Mr. Daniel “Niel” Thomas, Member Also Present Mr. J Yoshimoto, Assistant Corporation Counsel, Office of the Corporation Counsel Ms. Sommer J. Tokihiro, Director, Human Resources Department Mr. James E. Halvorson, Deputy Attorney General, Department of the Attorney General (via Zoom) Mr. Demetri Lametti, Deputy Corporation Counsel, Office of the Corporation Counsel Ms. Glynis Yamada, Secretary-Reporter, Human Resources Department Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 Call to Order (Item 1) th CHR. CABANAS: Good morning, everyone. It is 9:02 on June 24, 2025, the Merit Appeals Board meeting is called to order. We have quorum today with three of our Board members present. I’m Gabriella Cabanas, Chair of the Merit Appeals Board. And sitting in the Hilo Council Chambers of the Hawaiʻi County Building are my fellow Board members—Ms. Suzi Bond, Vice-Chair. MS. BOND: Good morning. CHR. CABANAS: Good morning. And Mr. Daniel “Niel” Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Good morning. CHR. CABANAS: Good morning. And to my immediate right, our Assistant Corporation Counsel, Mr. J Yoshimoto. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Good morning, everyone. CHR. CABANAS: Good morning. Seated in the back of us is our Secretary-Reporter, Ms. Glynis Yamada. MS. YAMADA: Good morning. CHR. CABANAS: And seated in the gallery are Ms. Sommer Tokihiro, our Director of Human Resources; and Mr. Lametti from the Office of the Corporation Counsel; and appearing via Zoom from Oʻahu is our Deputy Attorney General, Mr. James Halvorson. Good morning, Jim. MR. HALVORSON: Good morning, Chair. CHR. CABANAS: And is there anyone else appearing via Zoom? I don’t see anyone else. Addendum to Agenda (Item 2) CHR. CABANAS: Looking at our agenda, Number 2, Addendum to the Agenda—we have Communication No. 25-04.04. This was a notification from Mr.—his name is Mr. Ikaika Kailiawa-Smith, who gave notice to the Board on—I’m looking at the date—June 20, 2025, of his withdrawal of his appeal with the Merit Appeals Board. And it was confirmed via email by our Secretary-Reporter on that same date. So, may I have a motion to add this communication number to the agenda? MS. BOND: So moved. Page 2 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 CHR. CABANAS: Second? MR. THOMAS: Second. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. Any discussion? And I just want to note that this was for the hearing that would be occurring at 9 a.m. today—and we have the attorney from the Office of the Corporation Counsel, if you want to come forward or just for formality purposes? SPEAKER: (Inaudible.) CHR. CABANAS: Yes, if you could kindly—oh, put your mic. on. (At this time, Mr. Demetri Lametti, Deputy Corporation Counsel, Office of the Corporation Counsel, came forward.) MR. LAMETTI: Good morning, Board—Deputy Corporation Counsel, Demetri Lametti, for the Appellee’s. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. So, it is noted that Mr. Ikaika-Smith has withdrawn his appeal, Mr. Lametti. And so, we are ready to vote on accepting his withdrawal. Any other comment? MR. LAMETTI: The only comment I would have is I would support the withdrawal and the dismissal of the communication in this case. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, very good. Thank you so much. And so, may I—so may I have a motion to amend—no, we did make the motion, I’m sorry. So, I’m going to start the rollcall vote to approve that the Communication number 25-04.04 be added to the agenda. So, I’ll start a rollcall vote with Ms. Bond. MS. BOND: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Three ayes. Motion carried to add Communication number 25-04.04 to the agenda. Thank you very much, Mr. Lametti, for coming today. MR. LAMETTI: Thank you. CHR. CABANAS: You’re very welcome. I also want to add a communication—a memo rd submitted by our Director of Human Resources, to the Board, dated June 23, 2025, and she has added highlights to her Fiscal Year 2024-2025 Divisional Activity Report. Page 3 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 So, we will be adding this to Sommer’s Monthly Divisional Activity Report in a few minutes. MR. THOMAS: Do we have that? MS. BOND: Yeah, it’s in the little green folder— MR. THOMAS: Green folder—thank you. rd CHR. CABANAS: It’s dated June 23, 2025, and it’s a memo from Sommer Tokihiro. MR. THOMAS: Got it. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, very good. So, may I have a motion to add this, also, to the agenda. MR. THOMAS: So moved to add it to the agenda. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. MS. BOND: Second. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. Any discussion? If not, I’ll start a rollcall vote with Ms. Bond. MS. BOND: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. rd Three ayes. Motion carried to add Sommer Tokihiro’s June 23, 2025, memorandum to her monthly divisional activity report, which we will take up in a few minutes. Statements from the Public (Item 3) CHR. CABANAS: Any “Statements from the Public” on any agenda items? Page 4 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 9:00 A.M.: HEARING RE COMMUNICATION NO. 25-04 (Note: The Hearing Concerns The Preliminary Issue Or Any Other Preliminary Issue Of Whether The Board Has Jurisdiction To Hear The Appeal, Under Section 76-14, Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes. If It Is Determined That The Board Has Jurisdiction, An Additional Hearing Will Be Scheduled Concerning The Merits Of The Appeal.) Communication No. 25-04, Received On March 13, 2025, From Appellant, Appealing The Following Action By The County Of Hawaiʻi’s Environmental Management Department And Office Of The Mayor: Employment Action Taken Under Chapter 76, Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes; And Communication No. 25-04.01, Received On May 19, 2025, From Appellant, Regarding Appellant’s Position Statement (Exhibits “1” – “6”; And Communication No. 25-04.02, Received On May 20, 2025, From Appellee, Regarding Appellees’ Position Statement; Declaration Of Counsel Demetri G. Lametti; Exhibits “A” – “K”; And Communication No. 25-04.03, Received On June 3, 2025, From Appellee, Regarding Appellees’ Memorandum In Response To Appellant’s Position Statement Dated May 16, 2025. (Executive Session: The Merit Appeals Board Anticipates Convening One Or More Executive Meetings Regarding The Above Matter, Pursuant To HRS Sections 92-4, 92-5(a)(2) And 92-5(a)(4), For The Purpose Of Evaluating An Officer Or Employee Of The County Of Hawaiʻi, Where The Consideration Of Matters Affecting Privacy Will Be Involved And Consulting With The Board’s Attorney On Questions And Issues Pertaining To The Board’s Powers, Duties, Privileges, Immunities, And Liabilities. A 2/3 Vote Of The Members Present Pursuant To HRS Section 92-4 Is Necessary To Hold An Executive Meeting.) CHR. CABANAS: If not, our 9 a.m. hearing regarding Communication number 25-04— actually, was scheduled for this morning, but the Board recognizes and accepted Mr. Kailiawa-Smith’s withdrawal of his appeal. I do want to note that the hearing concerned the preliminary issue—or any other preliminary issue of whether the Board has jurisdiction to hear the appeal under section 76-14 of the Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes. And if it was determined that the Board had jurisdiction, an additional hearing would have been scheduled concerning the merits of the appeal. For the record, I just want to note what the Communication numbers were that we received— Communication number 25-04, Communication number 25-04.01, Communication number 25-04.02, Communication number 25-04.03. Do I—and also, as I had mentioned that we had added to the agenda, Communication number 25-04.04. So, at this time, may I have a motion to accept and file all these communications that I just read? MS. BOND: So moved. MR. THOMAS: Second. Page 5 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. Any discussion? If not, I’ll start a rollcall vote with Ms. Bond. MS. BOND: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Three ayes. Motion carried to accept and file all of the communication numbers that I read. Okay. So, Mr. Halvorson, we don’t have any other matters that would require your assistance this morning. Do you have anything to report to the Board? MR. HALVORSON: No, I’m still working on the Orders regarding the prior hearing with regard to the Board’s decision to not grant attorney’s fees in those two cases. I should have that out within the next week. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. And, by the way, have you heard anything from HLRB on the appeals from our—concerning our employees at the Hawaiʻi Police Department, the Records Division? MR. HALVORSON: They have not made a decision yet and— CHR. CABANAS: It’s almost a year. We haven’t heard from HLRB. MR. HALVORSON: No. CHR. CABANAS: Can you—would you—would the proper protocol be to follow-up with them, again, ‘cause I hate to have these employees waiting so long. MR. HALVORSON: Yeah, I’ll follow-up. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. Thank you so much, Jim. Okay, so we’ll see you again at next month’s meeting. MR. HALVORSON: It’s July— CHR. CABANAS: Eighteenth. th MR. HALVORSON: —eighteenth. July 18, is that what you said? Page 6 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 CHR. CABANAS: Yes. MR. HALVORSON: Okay. CHR. CABANAS: At 9 a.m. MR. HALVORSON: All right. See you then. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, take care. Thank you. We are now on approval of our meeting minutes— (There was some discussion, however, the microphones were not turned on during this time.) MS. BOND: Just in case—withdraw, aye. MR. LAMETTI: Yeah, my understanding was just that the vote was passed—and Mr. Ikaika Kailikawa-Smith’s new communication to the agenda. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, okay. MR. LAMETTI: And then there was— CHR. CABANAS: Okay. MR. LAMETTI: (Inaudible.) CHR. CABANAS: Okay, so let’s do it. So, may I have a motion to accept Mr. Ikaika Kailiawa- Smith’s withdrawal of his appeal to the Merit Appeals Board. MS. BOND: So moved. MR. THOMAS: Second. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. Any discussion? If not— MR. THOMAS: Happy that somebody was listening besides me. CHR. CABANAS: If not, I’ll start a rollcall vote with Ms. Bond. MS. BOND: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. Page 7 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 MR. THOMAS: Yes—aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Motion carried to accept the withdrawal of Mr. Ikaika Kailiawa-Smith’s appeal to the Merit Appeals Board. Thank you, kindly. MR. LAMETTI: Thank you, Board. Approval of Minutes (Item 4) April 22, 2025 nd CHR. CABANAS: Okay. So we are now on the approval of the meeting minutes for April 22, 2025. Has everyone had the opportunity to review the meeting minutes? Okay. May I have a nd motion to accept and file the meeting minutes of April 22, 2025? nd MR. THOMAS: So moved to accept April—what was the date—22? CHR. CABANAS: Twenty-second. MR. THOMAS: Twenty-second minutes. MS. BOND: Second. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. Any discussion? If not, I’ll start a rollcall vote with Ms. Bond. MS. BOND: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Three ayes. Motion carried. Page 8 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 Review of Executive Session Minutes February April 22, 2025 (Executive Session: The Merit Appeals Board anticipates convening one or more executive meetings regarding the above matters, Pursuant To HRS Sections 92-4 And 92-5(a)(4), For The Purpose Of Consulting With The Board’s Attorney On Questions And Issues Pertaining To The Board’s Powers, Duties, Privileges, Immunities, And Liabilities. A 2/3 Vote Pursuant To HRS Section 92-4 Is Necessary To Hold An Executive Meeting) nd CHR. CABANAS: We now have the April 22, 2025, executive session meeting minutes. Have you had the opportunity to review those meeting minutes? SPEAKER: No. CHR. CABANAS: Okay—sure, we’ll pause for a few minutes while Board members review these minutes. RECESS: The Chair called for a recess at 9:16 a.m. RECONVENE: The meeting reconvened at 9:25 a.m. in open session. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. So, may I have a motion to accept and file the executive session nd meeting minutes for April 22, 2025? MS. BOND: So moved. MR. THOMAS: Second. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. Any discussion? If not, I’ll start a rollcall vote with Ms. Bond. MS. BOND: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Three ayes. Motion carried. Page 9 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 Director’s Report (Item 5) MAB Monthly Divisional Activity Report: June 2025 (Administrative Services Division, Classification & Pay Division, Equal Opportunity/ADA Division, Health & Safety Division, Labor Relations Division, Personnel & Organizational Development Division, Recruitment & Examination Division, Workers’ Compensation Division) CHR. CABANAS: We now have the “Director’s Report” on our agenda—asking Ms. Tokihiro to come up to the dais. (At this time, Ms. Sommer J. Tokihiro, Director, Human Resources Department, came forward. CHR. CABANAS: And this is the MAB’s Monthly Divisional Activity Report for the month of June 2025, and listed on the agenda are the eight divisions in the department. Good morning, Sommer. MS. TOKIHIRO: Good morning. Okay. So, for the month of June a special shout-out to our th Classification and Pay Division. During—on June 9, I signed the remaining 180 Class Specification revisions where we removed specific degree disciplines from bachelor’s degree requirements. Unless there was a regulatory reason or a licensure reason that a position required a degree in a specific discipline, we removed the discipline so any bachelor’s degree would satisfy the education requirement. So, previously, the Class Specs. had a general statement that would require a bachelor’s degree in business administration or—and it always included the clause, “or other related field”—and that’s very subjective and could, in some instances, create an artificial barrier—like, if someone was screening an application and decided that that wasn’t related. And so, with the changing workforce, we have to look at what is the skill or aptitude that we’re trying to assess to see if the person meets the qualifications for a position. And so, by removing those specific disciplines, it is more incumbent upon our departments in their interview and selection process, to be making sure that they administer assessments that are assessing peoples’ aptitudes and abilities to perform the job, and they can also ask interview questions about someone’s specific educational background—but we just don’t want to create a barrier. If someone has completed a bachelor’s degree from an accredited university or college, it indicates that they have skills in analysis and research, et cetera. And so, giving credit for any degree from an accredited university, I think, is going to make a big impact in our recruitment efforts as far as seeing more qualified applicants referred to departments for consideration. So, that was a big project for them and happy to see that implemented. Page 10 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 The Health and Safety Division—Doug McCormick went to the training to learn how to become a Certified—it’s to basically, train the trainer for a CDL trainer—but it’s under new regulations, which the State hasn’t adopted yet. So, he’ll be ready for that when we adopt these new regulations. But one of the things that he noticed while he was on campus at this university was they had a lot of postings about general mental health resources for students. And he was thinking about it and said he’d like to see something like that posted here within the County. We have had—I think that there’s just more general anxiety whether—or so it could be people are a little bit more anxious. It seems like people are feeling the effects of, maybe, financial issues. There just seems to be a need for people to be reminded of resources. So, Doug actually came up with this flyer, which I can pass around to you folks. But, basically, something that we can post on our bulletin boards—and areas we’ve asked for it to be posted in high traffic areas that our employees visit—just so that they’re reminded of resources available to them. (SEE ATT. A.) So, I was really happy to see Doug take that initiative and bring that back—and happy to be able to find different ways to remind our employees of available benefits. Jenny and I, in our—Jenny is the Manager in our Personnel and Organizational Development Division. She and I had a meeting with the Deputy Director of the Planning Department because they did an employee survey—an internal survey. And one of the areas that the survey identified for improvement was wanting more information about County benefits. And we thought that was really interesting feedback because we’re, kind of going—“Okay, well, yeah, we inform people of the benefits”—but it reminded us of the need to be reminding our employees of what benefits are out there. And so, we’re going to look to start a new initiative—maybe do it, kind of like, a brown bag lunch sessions on a periodic basis to really go over our employee benefits and make sure that people are aware of what’s out there—but, also, go over the work that our various County agencies do. I mean, people may not be aware of all of the services that, say, the Office of Aging provides. And that wouldn’t necessarily be an employee—a direct employee benefit—but we have family that we may not be aware that a resource exists. And so, wanting to provide different information and get those—get information about those benefits out there and really help foster this idea of, like, a County community. Michelle Simmons and I went to a “talent training” in Waimea. And one of the speakers, her feedback was that employee benefits that people are looking for in the workforce, aren’t necessarily all about just health insurance and wages. It’s getting other benefits from your employer. So, she gave the example of maybe you teach people how to apply for a mortgage or—so tangible, wholistic life skills—as opposed to just focus on, like, benefits—like, retirement and things like that. Page 11 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 So, (inaudible) to take a step back and look at a wholistic approach and seeing if there’s other ways that we can incorporate services for our employees and help them—have that different engagement. Continuous recruitments—we are back down to 48. At one point, during this year, I saw that it went as high as 64. So, we are making progress or, at least, back to holding steady. Some of those 48 positions have historically been very, very difficult to fill and there’s a lot of positions on the continuous list that are being recruited for at multiple levels. So, it may not be actually 48 vacancies, but we recruit at multiple levels to give us the greatest opportunity to find a candidate and then provide training, if needed, to get back up to the permanent class of work. We’re continuing to work really hard on the new ERP software that will replace FRESH. So, the st financial portion, including payroll, goes live on July 1. So that the financial section goes live st on July 1, and then for the human resources portion, we’re going to begin testing shortly because our go live date is January 1, 2026. So, CherryRoad, the Implementor of the Oracle software, was here onsite in April and what I got from attending the in-person sessions with my staff—and then also with the software developers—we had gotten a lot more engagement when we were all in the same room. Most of the meetings that we have—and the meetings can last up to six hours each day, usually Monday through Thursday—and they’re broken down into different segments, so it’s just not one meeting. But we attend all of these virtually because the software developers are spread across the mainland. And then, my staff is—and Finance staff—everybody’s in their respective offices at their computer. And I was noticing a lot of pauses—long pauses where a question was answered and there weren’t responses. And so, after attending the in-person session and I saw how everyone was focused, more engaged—indicating more understanding, really following along noting problems in the design of the software—I told my staff that, from that point forward, we were going to be attending all of the meetings, on our laptops, in the conference room together. So, we all have to look at each other, and talk to each other, and focus on that. I think there’s a lot of benefits to being able to attend meetings virtually and do this development virtually, but it’s very easy to become distracted by your email or trying to do other work. And so, really, for our—the last few months of this push, I felt it was important for everybody to continue that effort to be collaborative in one space and I think that that’s going much better. So, I’m really happy to see people raising questions and concerns. We want this project to be as successful as possible. And so, this next phase, where we do the testing—is going to be instrumental in making sure that we’re able to iron out all the bugs before we go live in January. So, they’ve been working incredibly hard. It’s good to see some of their time freed up but at least there’s not as many Page 12 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 meetings related to development, since the development is basically done, and then the shift will go to testing. But that’s a big—big project. I think that that’s all I would specifically note for the Board, but I’m happy to answer any questions. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Bond, any questions for Sommer? MS. BOND: No. I just think that that’s probably wise to have people in the same room, ‘cause I know when I’m on a meeting without people in the room, then I can tend to wander off myself. So—and especially, this is such an important project to get off the ground that you really need to make sure they know what they’re doing. So, good job. MS. TOKIHIRO: And they all seem to really enjoy it. I mean, I think that there was initial resistance but even for us to be able to all be in the room when the developers were here between even Finance staff, and then HR staff, and they really enjoyed it—and it is good to foster and build those connections. And I hope—I actually saw some of our newer employees in our Finance Department just become more confident—confident in themselves, confident in asking questions because they feel like that—then you’re provided peer support. And so—and that was great to see—and so that is—and that’s something that’s carried forward. And so, I think that there’s—yeah, a lot of good benefits to it. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas, any questions for any of the areas? MR. THOMAS: I’m good and no questions. But I agree with what’s been said already about the Zoom meetings. It’s like you have somebody siloed in their office or something and their screen goes dark—did they not like what you said or do they have to go shishi. No, it’s—that’s a good move to have everybody together. CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. And I agree, also. It just allows for the bouncing of questions— and sometimes one person will think of something that another person didn’t—and then, they learn that way. And, especially, when you’re implementing a new system, you want to try to always be ahead and think of what you really need, but it’s not perfect because once you implement it, then you’re going to see other things come up and then you have to deal with that. So, the more thought given ahead of time, hopefully, will minimize that later once you go live. Yeah, so that’s good. So, did I hear you right—they have laptops? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. So, our staff—after COVID we actually were able to purchase a certain number of laptops for our staff. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, wonderful. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. So, it’s handy. But, yeah, it’s nice that they can—it helps that they’re all in the room with their laptop, as much as we can project this information onto the big screen Page 13 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 when we’re looking at the layout and the different fields and the different screens within the system—it’s helpful for them to be able to see it on their own monitor. Have we not had those laptops, we wouldn’t—it wouldn’t be as easy of a process. CHR. CABANAS: And these are—the managers, they’re attending or support staff as well? MS. TOKIHIRO: Support staff as well, yeah. So, it’s our Admin. Services Division—that is where most of the support staff—in addition to the manager because that’s all of those personnel processes and that auditing process—all the forms and things like that. But this software also has engaged—there’s a learning component which is, basically, the training area where you can register everybody for the training courses that are offered. So, that’s included engagement from our Health and Safety Division because they provide a lot of County training; our Equal Opportunity/ADA Coordinator, she does training so she’s been involved with that; and then Jenny, also from our Personnel and Organizational Development Division, has been engaged. So, in different aspects, every division has been engaged so far. Recruitment hasn’t been as engaged in this process so far, but that’s because we aren’t using the software or their recruiting tool. We’re going to continue to use NeoGov. So—but they’ll be getting involved shortly, in the coming months. So, it’s been a big collaborative effort that has really tapped every division of HR. CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. So, how will this work because right now you have the payroll personnel form—known as the “Form 13”—and it’s usually initiated by a line department and it comes to the Admin. Services Division staff. MS. TOKIHIRO: Mm-hmm. CHR. CABANAS: So, how is this going to work? Still going to have the Form 13? MS. TOKIHIRO: No paper. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, wow, that’s wonderful. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. So, it’s going to a paperless system. So, the actions will be initiated in the system by the department and then it will be audited by our Admin. Services Division, but we won’t have the paper. So, it’s a huge process change and while we’re happy to go paperless, there’s some concern as far as checking and monitoring and so—but we’re excited and we’ll see how it goes. Page 14 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 CHR. CABANAS: So, when the staff audits the form—in the past there were corrections—so they’re able to go back in the system, make the appropriate change—the line department will see that? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. So, as far as who can make those changes and the security for that— they’re—we’re still working on developing that. We had our initial security and workflow processes—our idea of how that would work. And now that we’re, kind of, finishing up this processing and going to begin testing, we’re noting that—“Oh, maybe we need another layer of approver and understanding the Oracle system and at what level someone can change, or do you just have to reject that action and send it back to the person who added it and they edit the information?” So, there’s some restrictions within Oracle on certain aspects of that, so we’re fleshing out all those details. But, yes, the system is—it’s all one in real time. So, if anybody were to make a change it will be immediately visible to all of the users. CHR. CABANAS: And so, there’s a—there’s multiple levels of users? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: Including department heads? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: Including Managing Director and Council Chair? MS. TOKIHIRO: As far as how those are all separated out and, again, that would be the security and the permissions for who can see what, right? CHR. CABANAS: Right. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, with IT, we’re working on setting up all of those permissions to restrict access for certain (inaudible). CHR. CABANAS: The only reason why I asked is on the Form 13 you have the appointing authority, who is the department head. MS. TOKIHIRO: Right. CHR. CABANAS: And so, yeah, how would you get that or on—in the system? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. And so that’s—those are things to be ironed out in that process. CHR. CABANAS: And then, they’re going to get trained? Page 15 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. So, we have to—we’ve been provided training as far as the financials st because that’s the part that’s going to go live on July 1. Right now, we’re working up all of the scenarios. We, actually, provided a list of scenarios to the company that we want tested, and they’re working on setting up those testing groups throughout the County. And then, the next step, once we are—started in the testing and we’re finalized on those workflow processes—then that’s when all the training materials get generated, and then we’ll begin training in the coming months for the HR module. MS. BOND: So, this is, like, payroll and everything? MS. TOKIHIRO: It’s everything. This is all of our positions— MS. BOND: So, there’s no paper trail—quote/unquote, “paper trail” anymore for payroll—for, like, submitting a timesheet or all of that stuff? MS. TOKIHIRO: Right. So, it won’t be a paper timesheet. It’s all submitted and tracked in the software. MS. BOND: And if you screw up somewhere along there, then can you go back—say, I added (inaudible) hours and wrong—then, I can go back and change it? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. MS. BOND: Okay. CHR. CABANAS: Does that include leaves of absence forms? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: All electronic? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah—leave of absence request. CHR. CABANAS: Wow. MS. BOND: Yeah, it’s (inaudible). CHR. CABANAS: Wow. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, this is—yeah, it covers everything. So, it’s all of our salary schedules, all of our positions, all of the benefits that are outlined in collective bargaining agreements, overtime, TA, meals—so it’s everything. CHR. CABANAS: So, let’s say if someone wants to request vacation, they would go into Oracle and put their request in? Page 16 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: So, that means all the employees have to be trained? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: Blue-collar, white collar— MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: That’s a lot. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. It’s a lot. It’s a lot of—because it’s making sure that there’s connectivity at all of the worksites and that there’s devices for employees to login, and there’s going to be a lot of training involved in that. CHR. CABANAS: Do the departments have the capability for, let’s say, the blue-collar workers to access the computer to submit a request? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: Vacation, sick leave—they have the capability at the base yards and all of that? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. All of that is being worked on by IT and Finance to get all of that finalized and set up, but they are going to need that capability to do that. CHR. CABANAS: And is there a minimum—I’m assuming there’s a minimum—how can I say it—system requirement—a computer system requirement? MS. TOKIHIRO: It’s actually—it’s Cloud-based. So you could actually—as far, like, a system requirement—people could technically login from your phone. So, it doesn’t require some certain type of computer—it’s, basically, internet access. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: And so, that’s going to make it a little bit easier. But, definitely, a lot of training involved because there are a lot of—even details—like, say, related to someone’s timesheet and at what point the meal kicks it, and when is it over 40 hours versus over eight hours, versus—so all of these collective bargaining rules that’s going to really require a lot of training. Because I’m sure that there is a lot of the employees that may not even be aware of how all those details work—and the system will be programmed to recognize certain information and make those adjustments, but we also have to be able to audit it and make sure that it’s accurate. Page 17 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 MS. BOND: And you’re going to roll this out, like, little by little. You’re not going to try and do it all on the same day? MS. TOKIHIRO: So, what has been broken down into the modules—we started with budget. So, budget went live last—in January, I believe—and then, our financials—so our accounts payable, that goes live in July. And then, HR goes live in January, so it is going to be all together. Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: In some departments—I hope they’re not still doing it—but they were at one point—where someone does the timesheets for a number of employees. So, would they be changing that? ‘Cause usually—I mean, normally, an employee does his or her timesheet. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes, that’s the expectation. CHR. CABANAS: That’s—yes. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. So, I mean, the training going forward will be that employees need to be able to enter that information themselves. CHR. CABANAS: So, for the HR component, who’s the lead on the training? Is it the Admin. Services Division? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. It’s going to be Dee. I’m the Readiness Coordinator for that change management component. But, yeah—definitely, because Dee has been involved in every aspect of development on this project and she’s the most familiar. CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. MS. TOKIHIRO: I think she’s an integral part. As much as I would like to be able to free up her time and get her off this project—because I know she’s been very frustrated at times. It’s been difficult for her to keep up with her own work and work on this project and she’s very committed to having it go live in January because she wants it done. And then, after having gone through the recent financials training with CherryRoad, they did a really good job as far as explaining the software and the workflows. I think what was missing was some of the explanation of, “This is what you do now. This is now how you’ll do it in the new software”—and so, when Dee and I were talking about training—getting ready for the HR module, I felt that it was really important that she be able to provide some of those explanations because people are going to have this process questions about how—what does this look like for me, going forward. And so, we want to make sure that she and I—and I also am including members of her staff that have been involved in the project since the beginning. We want to make sure that someone is available at all the training sessions, that is, from the County that can answer those questions. Page 18 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 Because when we did the financial training, while CherryRoad was there, we didn’t have our rep. from Finance to be able to answer some of those questions. And so, it became, “Oh, well, we’ll keep a log of your questions and then we’ll provide you the answer”—so we did end up getting the answers to our questions later. But I’d just like to see us more engaged on the front end because this is going to be a huge change for everybody. So, I’d like to see that “training” be a little bit different for the HR part. st CHR. CABANAS: Did you say HR was going to be live—is it January 1 or— MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. st CHR. CABANAS: January 1. Okay, so people are still on vacation sometimes. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah, right. Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: On the holidays. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, yeah. I mean, that’s our date. As far as whether or not we actually—it’s stthst January 1 or January 6—but we’re all targeting January 1. There are different points in this project because of staffing constraints and just time and other things—there’re aspects of the project that have been pushed back. And so, we really don’t want to see this pushed back—so st we’ve just been very committed to that January 1. CHR. CABANAS: So, let me ask you this—when I implemented NeoGov, it was like do we transition and get away from the paper applications or do we go cold turkey and just jump in? st So, what is your plan to transition or go cold turkey—no paper come January 1? MS. TOKIHIRO: I think it would be—as much as I’d like to say we’ll go cold turkey and no paper—I think with 3,000 employees and all of these different processes—I don’t know that we’ll do that January 1, right, especially when it comes to things like timesheets, while people get adjusted to how this works. We do need to maintain records while we’re learning. st So, no Form 13’s as of January 1. But I think some of the more practical day-to-day things for our employees—they’re going to need a little transition time while they get used to how they enter it, where they enter it. So, rather than considering it like a paper form that they’re submitting, we’ll consider it their notes—but that would probably be on a written timesheet for a period of time while they get adjusted. CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. Okay. Any other questions? Niel. MR. THOMAS: What’s the situation with the IT staff? I’m mindful of how many people are “technologically uninformed” to put it kindly. And there’s a lot of people that can get access to the system and break something. Has the IT staff been increased to handle the demand of, “Oh, my God, this doesn’t work”—and everything blew up in our face. Page 19 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. So, they have added more positions over time—I mean, not specifically for this project, but just in general as the County builds more IT resources and things like the laptops. There were a lot of departments that got new technology after COVID and so, there has been an increase to IT staff. When it comes to this specific new software project, we’re also going to have support from the Implementor, CherryRoad, for a period of time once we go live. And I think we’re going to have to evaluate ongoing maintenance through them as well, just because the software is so specific and our IT Department is tasked with a big task already, by keeping all our servers and computers and phones and all of those things—working. And so, they won’t, probably, be able to handle maintenance of this new software all on their own but, yeah, it’s an area that we continue to build, especially as concerns over the last few years related to cyber security and things of that nature. MR. THOMAS: So, is there a designated team that people can call when they don’t know how to do something, instead of just jumping in and breaking things? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. So, we have an IT Helpdesk. So we always encourage people to contact the Helpdesk. So, they can either contact them by phone or send an email. And so—and then they’re very responsive. We, actually, have IT staff that have been positioned in different buildings. So, for example, I believe we have two, possibly, IT staff that are—that have desk space in, I believe, the Real Property Tax Division, across the street at the Aupuni Center—so that if there’s a help ticket item that comes up for anybody in our complex, then they’re able to respond right away. So, that’s really increased the response times and it’s nice to be able to know Rodney can come to our rescue, right. And then, I believe that there’s someone also positioned in this building because they’re—the actual IT Office is at—on Kinoole Street—at 1990 Kinoole. MR. THOMAS: This is a joke, but I’d love to call them because I’m switching my household from the PC world to the Mac world and I have no clue as to what I’m doing. MS. TOKIHIRO: Oh, my, yeah. Yeah, that’s a— MR. THOMAS: (Inaudible) for those people to come and show me, “No, don’t do that.” MS. TOKIHIRO: That’s a big one. CHR. CABANAS: But if they have questions pertaining to this new system, the questions would be going to Dee and her staff versus IT? Page 20 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 MS. TOKIHIRO: So, it’d be different layers, right. I mean, if it’s just a—if it’s a user question about how to login or where do I find this item on my dashboard—those things are going to go to an IT person as opposed to coming to HR. So, there’s going to be different levels for that and then we’ll be able to—once all those roles are specifically identified and once those workflows are identified—we’ll be able to provide our employees with their points of contact. CHR. CABANAS: Any other questions for Sommer? Okay, so that was on Admin. Services. Classification and Pay—any questions? Niel, you have a question on Classification and Pay? Okay, I do, Sommer. So, out of the 180 class specs. where the degree or the educational requirement is now just a bachelor’s degree, how does the staff substitute experience for lack of a bachelor’s degree? MS. TOKIHIRO: So, it’s the professional level experience. CHR. CABANAS: Right. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: So, you’re going to still adhere to that? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, well, that’s a big change. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah, it is. And we are—through the E&E—if, say, for example, someone was applying for a position as an Accountant—and that might be a bad example because I think we still require a certain number of credit hours in accounting, but we’ll use it for purposes of this discussion, just in general terms. So, say, I was applying for a position as an accountant and I happened to have a degree in accounting. The fact that that bachelor’s degree is specific to that area results in being awarded more points, as far as qualification but, at least, it’s—if I have a degree in history and I’m applying to be an accountant, my history degree does not disqualify me from—or does not disqualify my bachelor’s degree from being considered as meeting the educational requirement. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. So, are the bulk of the classes now E&E? You still give written exams? Page 21 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 MS. TOKIHIRO: No—only written exams for police recruit, fire recruit, and police and fire promotions. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, okay. So it went back to how it used to be? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: We are going to be having a meeting on, I believe it’s Thursday. I set up a virtual meeting for our R&E team to talk to the team from Maui County. So, I coordinated that with the director from Maui County. Just want to look at—they’ve changed their application recently. I’d really like to change our application and streamline it, so I’m looking at options for that. And then, wanting to talk to Maui County about the way that they’re doing their screening, especially given the recent changes that they’ve made to their application. And then, also want to talk to them or looking forward to talking to them in getting their feedback on their hiring event that they had in May. So, I’m looking forward to that collaboration in getting some different ideas. Maui—or Kauaʻi County went to—I believe they’re using “Workday” for their recruiting now, and they’re no longer using NeoGov. CHR. CABANAS: Oh. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, after I follow-up and introduce my team to the team from Maui County, we’ll probably reach out to Kauaʻi. But our application is (inaudible) that’s feedback that we’ve gotten over and over again—and what I want to get to the heart of is having applicants answer the information or address the information that we’re really looking for. So, a lot of times, we’re really focused on responses to the supplemental questions, but the supplemental questions are at the very end of the application. And I think, a lot of times, applicants are tired by the time they get there and they feel that, “Oh, well, if I put all of this information in my profile, then it’s redundant to answer the question”—and I understand that. And, yet, for our team to be able to do the screening and do the evaluation of how much time spent performing certain duties—their focus is really on those answers to the supplemental questions. So, I’m looking at alternatives for changing our application so that—the work history information is important, but maybe it’s more important further on in the process. Maybe it’s more important once they get to the interview process. So, maybe rather than having them do it in the job profile in the application, maybe we ask that they do it—then they respond saying they’re interested in an interview—that’s when we can ask about references, that’s when we can Page 22 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 ask for some of those other details and maybe at that point, people will feel like, “Okay, at least I’m being asked for this because I’m getting to that interview stage”—instead of feeling frustrated when they’re applying for a position and being asked (inaudible) that on the application, right now, there’s about four different places where it asks about a driver’s license. I’d like to see that being one thing. So, I’m looking forward to these collaborations because that’s one of the next big projects that I plan to address. And we may have to do it as a pilot—change the application and then see how that works. We can create template applications, so that allows us to—I don’t want to say, “Play around with it”—but make adjustments. And so, I’m really looking at that after we, kind of, collaborate with the other counties and get some feedback from them, so looking forward to that—more to come. CHR. CABANAS: Did NeoGov—can they—can NeoGov change it? I think they can, right? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. So, there’re certain fields—we don’t want to change the master profile. So, like, if we remove things from the master profile, we won’t be able to get it back. So, there’re certain things that you can hide, there’re certain things that you could label as optional— but I think the fact that something is “optional” if there’s still a box there, I think there’s a certain sense of obligation that, “It must be important. I must put something in there, otherwise, it wouldn’t even be here.” And so, that’s where we’re, kind of, going to maybe changing the process a little bit—hiding those fields so that people won’t feel obligated to put something in there—and so, it will really make the application shorter. But then, we need to look at the workflow as well because it becomes important for our departments to know job history because they’re going to want to know were there gaps in employment, et cetera, but it’s the timing of when do we ask that. Do we need it all up front? I don’t think so. So, we’ll be evaluating. I’ll have more progress for the Board on that in the coming months. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, sounds good. Equal Opportunity/ADA—any questions? It’s still a short sentence. MS. TOKIHIRO: It is. And it— CHR. CABANAS: Actually, it’s the only division with the short sentence. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. And I’ve talked to Alika about expanding on that. She does—she expands on it in the quarterly report. What I will say is we’ve had a lot more inquiries. This year, I believe, we’re already at 106 different inquiries than last year—in all of last year—we only received, like, 101. Most of the inquiries are about reasonable accommodations. So, yeah, she’s been very busy. Page 23 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. Although I do note that—I’m assuming it’s under her area—the retraining on anti-discrimination. Is that her area? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: And Harassment Policy and Procedures— MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: —which clarifies the complaints process. So, yeah, that’s something that— yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: (Inaudible.) MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. So, we did that revision to that policy and procedure, following consultation with all unions. And so, all of our employees and supervisors are being re-trained. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. MR. THOMAS: A question. CHR. CABANAS: Go ahead. MR. THOMAS: There’s a lot of pressure coming from the Feds. against any kind of DEI appearing policies in state and local governments—and even at the federal level. What’s the situation here? Are we trying to stay away from it, are we reasserting whatever policies might have been in place in the past? MS. TOKIHIRO: I think for—I mean, as far as our County and the way we’re handling things— it’s continuation of our existing policies and procedures. And this revision to the Anti-Discrimination and Harassment Procedure and Policy was to make it clearer. So—and it removed the—previously, was a formal and informal complaint—and what we’ve done is just streamline it. So, if a complaint—is a complaint. So, I think in that—I don’t know that there’s a specific response to, like, DEI initiatives, but I think for all of our policies and procedures—wanting to make sure that they’re as clear as possible and that our employees know what their resources are. But even our anti- discrimination/harassment policy—is for the public to—the public could file a complaint. MR. THOMAS: Any pressure coming from the Feds. about us? MS. TOKIHIRO: Not to my knowledge. Page 24 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 MR. THOMAS: Okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: And I don’t—the Mayor was recently in Washington D. C. for, I think, their “Hawaiʻi on the Hill” event. I haven’t spoken to him or the Managing Director, specifically, about the outcome of their visit, but he would be better informed as far as if we were feeling any pressure from that. MS. BOND: I think Hawaiʻi as a, kind of, an interesting concept all the way around because we are diverse, just by nature. MS. TOKIHIRO: Right, very much so. Yeah. MS. BOND: So, it’s—I know that they’re having issue about the Hawaiiana and Hawaiian languages and whether or not that’s being discriminatory because they’re not teaching them to everybody or their—and it’s like, “Come on people”—you can’t take a whole division of the university that’s in Hawaiʻi and say, “You can’t teach Hawaiiana”—it’s just like—you just can’t. And I think they’re finally getting pushback on that, kind of, silliness— MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. MS. BOND: —which—and overall, it just seems like, if you’re going to really live in a diverse society, which we are by nature, then that’s something that just can’t even be a subject. MS. TOKIHIRO: I really appreciate all the—all of the diversity and that saying, “Lucky you live Hawaiʻi”—is very, very true. I mean, even attending the Mayor’s Community meetings around the island, he talks about how he’s glad that we’re here and that’s all the way over there. So, we’re just very, very lucky to live in a very special place amongst so many different and unique people. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, moving along. Health and Safety, any questions? Labor Relations, any questions? I have one question. You know for the nepotism survey, what happens if an employee indicates they’re related to a supervisor? MS. TOKIHIRO: So, we would have to assess if the supervision could be changed. If the position could be supervised by somebody else, so that would be internal discussion with the department to see if operationally that could be moved. If it couldn’t for some reason, then the department would need to petition the Board of Ethics— CHR. CABANAS: Okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: —and get a ruling from them. Page 25 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 CHR. CABANAS: Do you have any so far? MS. TOKIHIRO: We haven’t had any so far. We have—we sent the survey, we’ve sent guidance to the departments. I’ve been reviewing those State Ethics Commission—they’ve had—they’ve provided 13 different rulings on different scenarios related to employee relation. So, that’s interesting and it provides a roadmap for our Board of Ethics, if they do need to provide a decision on something. th But that’s, kind of, evolving—the Mayor just signed that ordinance on May 28. So, we got all the surveys out and, so far, we haven’t been informed of any, but we’ll be definitely working with departments. MS. BOND: When there’s a panel that’s doing the interviewing, and there’s someone that’s being interviewed that has reported someone on that panel for something they did not do in their duties, should—they shouldn’t be allowed to be on a panel that—where they’re being—where they’re judging someone who has already—has made a complaint? So, there was a person who was a Dispatcher for Animal Control. The Animal Control per— there was a person who was supposed to do something. She didn’t do her job and the person’s dog was destroyed—and the person was distraught. The dispatcher had followed up with her four times on it and she had not done it and that the dispatcher then told the supervisor what was going on. When it came time for—the dispatcher was a temporary employee—when it came time for him to be interviewed for the permanent position, she was sitting on the panel. I can pretty much tell you what happened. He did not get the job. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, when we— MS. BOND: And as it turned out, a cousin of hers got the job. MS. TOKIHIRO: Oh. MS. BOND: Though all of this is—this nepotism thing doesn’t specifically say “cousin” so you got to be careful, ‘cause steps, fosters—all of that’s in there—guardians, but cousins aren’t. MS. TOKIHIRO: Right. MS. BOND: Cousins are a thing. MS. TOKIHIRO: Right. MS. BOND: They are related. MS. TOKIHIRO: And that was one of the—actually, one of the council members was wanting to expand the definition to second cousin. And the Board of Ethics, in their review, Page 26 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 recommended that that change come out, because it was becoming very complex. And we were trying to model—or the Council was modeling the language after the state law that was passed. So, yeah, there was a lot of discussion about how to define “relative.” MS. BOND: And then, but also the whole thing about the panel. Somebody who has had— there’s been that kind of a thing—should not be sitting on a panel judging that— MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah, so there are— MS. BOND: —period. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah, the disclosures for the family relationships now—disclosing if someone is related to either a member of an interview panel or someone that is an applicant that’s being interviewed. In the scenario that you’re describing, though, that would actually—it should be the department head that is or whoever is involved in the interview panel saying if there’s that kind of a conflict, especially if it was about a supervisor—a former supervisor-subordinate relationship—that person should have not participated. And so, when we audit interview packets or when we audit our departments, we wouldn’t—HR wouldn’t be aware of a situation like that. But, yeah, I would agree—if there was any type of conflict related to a prior relationship, the department should rethink who would be participating in that interview panel. CHR. CABANAS: And sometimes the panel is supposed to know that this person is going to be on an interview, but it goes back to the panelist because once they find out that the person that’s coming before the panel, they should actually recuse themselves—and that’s part of the training. Yeah, that’s part of the training that HR would provide—recuse yourself to avoid any appearance of impropriety or conflict. There was one situation that one of our employees was asked to be on an employ—on a panel. And so, he went to the other department that asked him to be on the panel—and then, found out that his—I think it was sibling—was coming, so he recused himself. But it was, like, that day— he didn’t know that the sibling was coming for an interview with that other department. So, he recused himself. MS. TOKIHIRO: And that’s—that there’s going to be training. We’ll be working with Corp. Counsel to do trainings, specifically related to now, the change in the County Code related to nepotism and the various disclosures. And it’s going to be a change to our interview and selection process as well, because our practice has been to not have departments disclose the names of applicants that are going to be interviewed until just before the interview. Page 27 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 And now, we’re going to have to implement a timeframe where those names can be disclosed so that in the event that there is a conflict, an alternate panel member can be identified. But, again, that’s all going to be a part of the training that we will be providing to our departments. But thank you for that feedback, because that can be an additional area to highlight—it’s not just these family relationships or household member relationship, but we can also include in the training any other instances of conflict perceived, possible impropriety where it would best just to recuse yourself from—as a panel member. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, very good. Moving along—Personnel and Organizational Development. Any questions there? MS. TOKIHIRO: We did reimplement, I believe, it’s been about 15 or 18 years since the County last offered what was called in the past, the “Clerical Conference.” We called it the “Support Staff Conference Training”—but that was well-attended. We don’t have a lot of training opportunities for our clerical staff. And so, it was nice—it is a two-day event. It was nice to see people from different departments that wouldn’t, otherwise, maybe have the opportunity to interact together, to be able to attend this conference. And they had a couple of training sessions but it—really, an opportunity for them to connect with one another, which was great. So, we’re looking forward to reincorporating that into our scheduled trainings and doing that on an annual basis. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, moving along—Recruitment and Examination Division. What’s happening with the task force on hiring? Anything—any highlights? MS. TOKIHIRO: So, I meet with the Mayor and the Managing Director every other week, and we talk about a variety of things. What we have seen is an increase in the submission of Request to Fill, which is great. It was great to see some of our registration recruitments reopen again, so those are for entry—that (inaudible) positions for laborer, custodian/groundskeeper—those positions only require that someone have a driver’s license. There’s no specific experience requirement. Seems like it’s been a while since we’ve had those recruitments open, so we’re happy to see that. We’re following the audit of the Temporary On-Call positions—the Temp. On-Call Park Caretaker positions. We noted that Parks has vacancies that they need to fill. And so, they’re not using that Temp. On-Call Program now and are instead working to fill their vacancies, which is great. So, we’re seeing a lot of forward momentum. My staff has been going through the list of vacancies and looking at the date of which a position was last filled, so that we can provide that information to the Mayor and Managing Director—because part of the discussion was also that there were a lot of positions that were added through the budget process over the last several Page 28 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 years. There’s about 60 of those positions from prior fiscal years that still haven’t been allocated. So, we got to look at—departments are looking at what their operational need is—with the change of Administration, we have new department heads. Some of those positions could have been—were established under prior Administrations for things that a former director envisioned that may not be something that the current director wants to move forward with. So, we’ve been reaching out to departments to talk to them about their specific vacancies, to talk to them about their un-allocated positions, and to help them formulate what path they want to go forward with because it may be, if some of these positions aren’t necessary, they should be unfunded. So, that’s part of the discussion with the Mayor and Managing Director, but we’re happy to see the forward progress. We’re happy to see people—we’re now requiring that they have to turn in a current position description so that would be on the form that was revised in 2016. People weren’t using—or departments weren’t using the new format. And so, I sent out a memo in January that, basically, said we’re not going to accept your Request to Fill with a position description that predates 2016. It’s time to re-evaluate that. We need to make sure it’s still accurate—see if there’s any changes that need to be made, and forcing all of us to make sure this is the job that’s actually being done, and make sure that it’s described accurately. So, I’ve seen a lot of—we’re getting a lot of engagement from departments as they now have been there for about six months and are getting their—getting a handle on what their needs are and what they want to accomplish going forward—and then, looking at their vacancies and working to fill those. So, I think the task force is—at this point, it’s more continued strategy and engagement between myself, members of my staff, and the Mayor, and Managing Director. CHR. CABANAS: It’s not with the other department heads? MS. TOKIHIRO: Not—there aren’t any other department heads involved in the task force at this point. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, my engagement with the department heads is through Recruitment and Examination staff and then also Classification and Pay—I’ll take members of each of those teams and meet with department heads and talk about their needs. (Inaudible) all that information I provide to the Mayor and Managing Director so that we’re all on the same page as far as our path forward. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. Page 29 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 MR. THOMAS: Question? CHR. CABANAS: Go ahead. MR. THOMAS: With the change to continuous recruitment—I noticed these are pretty high level positions. Is there any special strategy to reach out further and succeed in that area? MS. TOKIHIRO: So, it’s always a challenge. We look at professional publications—so, like, for engineers or our positions in Solid Waste and Wastewater—so, we have a Wastewater Division Chief, a Deputy Division Chief—we look at advertising those things in professional publications to see if we can get more interest. But, yeah, it’s tough. Some of those positions, especially our engineering classes of work, are very challenging to fill. MR. THOMAS: When we get inquiries from people not in Hawaiʻi, and we’re always concerned about if we hire them, will they stay? What’s our strategy for handling that? MS. TOKIHIRO: I think at this point, a lot—there is, I think, that concern but I’ve seen more people—like, we do have a lot of people that move to Hawaiʻi for these positions. As, like, a recruitment strategy, the County can offer—say, relocation expenses. A department could offer that, if they chose to. But, really, I think, once we have new people here, it’s really about that engagement and connection, and showing them what a great place Hawaiʻi is to live and the County is a great place to work. And, hopefully, building those relationships so that people want to stay. So, the Workers’ Compensation Division the new Manager, her name is Corinne. Corinne st started May 1 and she’s done an incredible job. She has 30 years of workers’ compensation adjusting experience. So, we’re very, very lucky to have her and be able to learn from her. She’s done really well bonding with the team in the Work Comp. Division and they continue to make great strides as far as active management of the claims. I think, as of today, when I looked at the number of open claims we’re at about 233. It—that number will never be “0” but for having almost 3,000 employees, to have 233 claims, is not bad. And we’re actually lower than where we were at last year. I believe last year, we ended the fiscal ended at 265. And we receive about 120 new workers’ compensation claims every year. So, to be at a level of 233 means they’re continuing to resolve older claims, which is great. So, happy to see their continued progress in the division. MR. THOMAS: What’s the backlog on that—on that list of 230 some? How long does really it take to get a claim resolved? Page 30 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 MS. TOKIHIRO: Depends. I think it’s taken—for a while the Work Comp. Division was, kind of, overwhelmed. So, actually, when I began my role as the Division Head for Work Comp. in 2019—I believe we had somewhere close to 500 open work comp. claims. And the hardest ones to resolve are often times the ones that have been open the longest just because there’s just, kind of, a lingering pattern in that, right. So, when I say active management, it’s really making sure that the claim is being monitored and you’re engaged with that claim and we’re getting an updated independent medical evaluation at least, not less than once a year—just to make sure that the claim is on track. You don’t want to have an instance where someone starts out with a shoulder injury that ends up in the right knee or something of that nature. So, I think that the claims are resolving faster through that—just detailed monitoring, and then regular re-evaluation, so that we can get the recommendation of experts to see, “Is this care warranted? Is there something different that we should be doing? What is the timeframe?” When should we reassess to help really guide and direct the best care. MR. THOMAS: What constitutes closing a case? Do they ever close? Or are they—just die in office? Or what happens? MS. TOKIHIRO: No. So, if an injury resolves and then there’s no need for ongoing continued medical care—then the claim would be closed. Some claims stay open, if there’s an ongoing medical need—maybe medications or certain types of follow-up—but, they do close, if there’s an ongoing need. MR. THOMAS: So, the responsibility for making that determination lies with the division head? MS. TOKIHIRO: No. As far as whether or not a claim should close, it all has to do with medical opinions. So, if we get an independent medical opinion that says, “No further follow-up is needed. There’s no additional medical care. Treatment has plateaued, they’ve reached a point of medical stability”—then we would move to close it. But everything that the Work Comp. Division does is overseen by the State Department of Labor. And any of our employees or our claimants, the Department of Labor is their advocate to make sure that the County is following all the proper rules and law, as far as handling the claim. MR. THOMAS: So, help me understand what the division head does aside from keeping the case moving. Do they—what if they disagree with what is said by the medical authorities or the State Department of Labor. Do they have any authority to question or challenge that? MS. TOKIHIRO: So, it can be questioned through a Department of Labor hearing process. MR. THOMAS: Who initiates that? Do we? MS. TOKIHIRO: So, we could request a hearing or the injured worker could request a hearing. Page 31 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 MR. THOMAS: I think there could be a fair amount of that sort of thing where— MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. So, for example, if a doctor submitted a treatment plan for a certain type of treatment and it would come in to the Work Comp. Division. And if we decided we were going to deny the treatment, then a Department of Labor hearing could be requested by the injured worker to— MR. THOMAS: But more often—or more often, when we’ve had the case for a while and now we think its run its course and we ought to be done with it, but we’re getting opinions to the contrary? MS. TOKIHIRO: It could be. I mean, it’s difficult to go to hearing on a medical issue if we’re just saying we disagree with the physician. We would, basically, have to get an opinion from another physician, since we’re not doctors. MR. THOMAS: You have the authority to do that? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. MR. THOMAS: Okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. So, there’s different ways to approach it, depending on what the scenario is. So, if we got an independent medical opinion and there was concern that, maybe, that wasn’t the best course—we can get an alternate opinion. MR. THOMAS: So, that’s the leverage that the department has, which is to get dueling doctors up to the stand or something? MS. TOKIHIRO: Potentially—yeah. I mean, we—yeah, try not to do dueling doctors, but if it were necessary—but it’s all based on medical opinions because, again, we’re not doctors. So, we’re going to rely on the experts to determine what is necessary in a case. But, like, for example, an independent medical examiner—there’s only certain doctors that are qualified to perform as an independent medical examiner. And that independent examiner is also not the injured workers regular treating physician, so that creates that separation where it’s an objective, third party evaluation of the complete medical record, and we go from there. MR. THOMAS: Thank you. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. Any other questions for, Sommer? Okay, thank you, Sommer, for your monthly June report. May I have a motion to accept and file the “Director’s Report?” MS. BOND: So moved. Page 32 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 MR. THOMAS: Second. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. Any discussion? I’ll start a rollcall vote with Ms. Bond. MS. BOND: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Three ayes. Motion carried. Communications (Item 6) CHR. CABANAS: We do not have any “Communications.” New Business (Item 7) CHR. CABANAS: And no “New Business.” Unfinished Business (Item 8) FY 2024-2025 Annual Performance Evaluation Of The Director of Human Resources (HR): Presentation By The Director Of HR Regarding Department’s Goals And Objectives For FY 2024-2025; SurveyMonkey Results For FY 2024-2025 (Line Department Survey And Internal Employee Survey); NeoGov Survey Results For FY 2024-2025 (Provided By The Recruitment And Examination Division) (Executive Session: The Merit Appeals Board Anticipates Convening One Or More Executive Meetings Regarding The Above Matter, Pursuant To HRS Sections 92-4, 92-5(a)(2) And 92-5(a)(4), For The Purpose Evaluating An Officer Or Employee Of The County Of Hawai'i, Where The Consideration Of Matters Affecting Privacy Will Be Involved And Consulting With The Board’s Attorney On Questions And Issues Pertaining To The Board’s Powers, Duties, Privileges, Immunities, And Liabilities. A 2/3 Vote Pursuant To HRS Section 92-4 Is Necessary To Hold An Executive Meeting) CHR. CABANAS: So we are now on “Unfinished Business.” Does anyone need to take a little break? Okay, so we’ll take, like a 5—10-minute break and we will return to discuss the unfinished business. Yes, we are in recess—10-minutes RECESS: The Chair called for a recess at 10:37 a.m. RECONVENE: The meeting reconvened at 10:47 a.m. in open session. Page 33 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 CHR. CABANAS: Okay, we are now back from our recess. On “Unfinished Business” for discussion and appropriate action concerning FY 2024-2025 the Annual Performance Evaluation of the Director of Human Resources. (At this time, Ms. Sommer J. Tokihiro, Director, Human Resources Department, came forward.) CHR. CABANAS: Sommer, do you want to present your goals and objectives for this fiscal year in an open or a closed session? It’s your option. MS. TOKIHIRO: I can do it in open session. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. So, you may proceed with your presentation, Sommer. MS. TOKIHIRO: Okay. Good morning. So, I’ll just start in order. Goal Number 1 was to “Work with the Mayor’s Office and County Council to introduce an amendment to the County Code addressing nepotism, and revise DHR’s Interview and Selection procedures as may be necessary.” th So, the Ordinance was approved by the County Council and signed by the Mayor on May 28. Following that amendment to the Code, we provided information to our departments about the change and then have provided them with disclosure forms as well as guidelines for doing the disclosures, making—adding the information into NeoGov, et cetera. We amended our Request to Fill form as well. We have started noting changes to be made to our Interview and Selection Procedures but haven’t finalized all of those changes yet, while we kind of roll this out and address any issues that are coming up. But, as I mentioned, when I was providing the director’s report, we will be working on training specific to this change, providing guidance to our departments—working with Corp. Counsel on that. MR. THOMAS: What’s the timeframe on the major steps of this project? MS. TOKIHIRO: In what way—timeframe to complete it? MR. THOMAS: Complete all those—yeah—get the policies out, feel like they’re in place and running. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. So, I mean, we got it out as soon as possible. So, we have guidance as th far as what to do as of May 29. So, we were already—we’ve already been implementing those changes. Page 34 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 So, basically, it took effect, effective immediately. As far as coordinating the training, I anticipate that that will happen over the next couple of months. But, as far as the timeline, it took effect right away and we’ve been enforcing as of that time. So, we haven’t been notified of any conflicts to date. But as I mentioned earlier, if an issue arose that we couldn’t address through change of supervision, the next step would be petitioning the Board of Ethics for determination. MR. THOMAS: And who initiates that petition? MS. TOKIHIRO: It would be the department. MR. THOMAS: Okay. And the department, in doing so, is saying what—there’s been a hire that’s not proper? MS. TOKIHIRO: They would be saying that—well, not that it’s not proper—they would be saying that there’s a—there is some type of family relationship that where a supervisor would be supervising a family member and that couldn’t, otherwise, be avoided—and seeing if the Board of Ethics would grant an exception. MR. THOMAS: So, we go to the board before any hiring action? It’s not an after-the-fact kind of examination? th MS. TOKIHIRO: Right. So, it’s—because this took effect May 29, we do have to address all existing employees. And then, yes—going forward, it wouldn’t be—you wouldn’t be hiring someone without the exception from the Board of Ethics. MR. THOMAS: So, how many of these existing hiring situations are there? Is there a bunch of them or— MS. TOKIHIRO: We—we’re unaware of any. MR. THOMAS: No? MS. TOKIHIRO: We haven’t been informed of any—with existing employees or new hires that there’s any conflicting relationships. CHR. CABANAS: There’s a draft of a letter to an applicant, so does this letter be after a Board of Ethics ruling ‘cause it’s to the applicant that they’re no longer being considered due to requirements of the Hawaiʻi County Code relating to nepotism? MS. TOKIHIRO: So, that would be if an applicant were being excluded for consideration. This would be coming from the department, if it was determined that that supervision conflict existed. So, this is for the department to send out, if they had—if they’re disqualifying an applicant for that reason. Page 35 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 CHR. CABANAS: So, the person is not being interviewed or was interviewed because it says for the time you invested in the application and interview and selection process? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. We wouldn’t know that someone—right now, the way that we drafted the guidelines, we’re not asking an applicant to disclose family relationships. So, they would go through the process and, if selected for a position— CHR. CABANAS: Okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: —then we would become aware of a potential conflict. So, yes, it could— they may have gone through the whole process— CHR. CABANAS: Okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: —and depending on when the disclosure is made. CHR. CABANAS: But, prior to a Board of Ethics ruling? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. Because it would have to be the department petitioning the BOE. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. So, why would the department reject someone without going to obtain a ruling from the Board of Ethics? In other words, they are saying—we’re not selecting you, but they haven’t gone to the Board of Ethics, yet. How does that play out? MS. TOKIHIRO: That’s a good question. Ultimately, it would be for the department to decide if that was the only and best qualified applicant, then they may want to pursue going to the Board of Ethics rather than just eliminating someone from consideration. CHR. CABANAS: So, should this letter be drafted to say that “We are holding your selection in abeyance pending a ruling from the Board of Ethics, which we will be following-up on”—or something like that? MS. TOKIHIRO: It could be. And maybe we need to draft an additional letter, so that if that’s the course that the department chooses to pursue. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. Okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: And, again, this is where it’s kind of an evolving process and as we see situations come up, we’ll be moving and addressing those as well. It was really helpful to read the State Ethics Commission Findings and their Rulings related to exceptions that they granted and ones that they didn’t grant. And, again, I think that that’s helpful—it would be helpful for the Board of Ethics as well, if they have to make decision. So, so far, no conflicts. Page 36 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 MS. BOND: So, at this point, the form is going through the system and everyone is having to fill it out? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. So, immediately after it was approved, we sent out a form to all supervisors that’s supposed to be completed Countywide, to disclose if they were supervising anybody that qualified under the definition. And then—so we could address any—if there were any current conflicts. And then, going forward, anybody who’s on an interview panel, has to disclose if there’s any relationships. And then, when someone is selected for a position, they would have to disclose if there’s a relationship, and then their new supervisor would also have to disclose. So, anytime someone changes a position or if there’s a change in supervision, they would be asked to do new disclosure forms. MS. BOND: And those forms already came back and there was nothing there? MS. TOKIHIRO: No. Not to our knowledge—no. We haven’t been informed of any. So, the forms were distributed and collected at the department level. And we haven’t gotten any feedback from our department HR reps. of existing conflicts where they needed guidance as far as change in supervision or other recommendations from us. There is a memo that’s going out today, I believe, to—from our Labor Relations Manager, again, just reiterating the change to the County Code and giving examples of things that would be prohibited, and then reminding departments to reach out to us, if there’s any questions or any issues arise. So, we want to engage with them. MS. BOND: And this goes all the way to the Mayor’s Office, right? MS. TOKIHIRO: Correct. MS. BOND: And so, the Mayor can’t—I mean, not that—accusing by any stretch of the imagination—but just saying that the Mayor can’t bring his sister into help him run the office or that kind of thing? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes, that would be—yeah, a conflict—prohibited. MS. BOND: Because— MR. THOMAS: So, we passed a law against something that doesn’t exist? At least, we couldn’t find it, right? MS. TOKIHIRO: We’re not aware of it, right now. MS. BOND: It has happened in the past. Page 37 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 MS. TOKIHIRO: It has happened in the past. CHR. CABANAS: It has happened in the past. MR. THOMAS: It’s (inaudible). CHR. CABANAS: Years, years ago. MS. BOND: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MS. BOND: There’s a lot of evidence of it. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, it has. MS. BOND: So, yeah, this is fixing an old problem. MS. TOKIHIRO: And it was helpful to be able to model all language after what was already passed by the State. CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, them taking that action, helped us to be able to move forward to do the same. CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. Has this—have the—has the State—are you aware of any training done by the State that you could—what’s the word, I want to say—not “copy” but— SPEAKER: (Inaudible.) CHR. CABANAS: —yeah, piggyback, that’s a good one, thank you. Piggyback. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah, so for the State all of this information actually comes out of the State Ethics Commission. So, really, it’s not coming from human resources. I became involved in this process because of the recommendations from the Auditor following the 2017 audit and in the follow-up audit in 2022. And then, there was a whistleblower complaint that alleged of family relationship that affected an interview process in one of our departments. And so, before the Auditor presented his report to County Council, he came in and met with me and said, “The State passed this in 2022, what are you—when are you going to move forward with this?” So, we became involved through that process—through the internal audit within the Department of Human Resources. And then, follow-up audit—and then, this whistleblower complaint. But, normally, something like this would come from, like, the Board of Ethics. Page 38 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 So, as far as training, I did note that the State Ethics Commission came up with this, like, a quick guide resource—and it would be helpful if our Board of Ethics would put out something like that. I don’t know that they will. I don’t know if it’s something that working with Corp. Counsel will put together something. I, definitely, want to put together training, but—yeah, kind of a unique situation. So, I’m not aware of any training that the State has done, but we would be actively looking for those resources as we try and put things together. CHR. CABANAS: I’m sorry, I’m just reading these procedures. I’ll read it later. Okay, any other questions for Sommer? MS. TOKIHIRO: Number 2. So Goal Number 2 is to “Complete phase two of the new Hazard Assessment and Certification Program, which includes: developing and implementing a Hazard Assessment and Certification Procedure and providing documentation of job hazard analysis, required personnel protective equipment, and required and optional trainings for positions in the “heavy” physical effort grouping in the Department of Public Works and Department of Environmental Management.” So, the procedure is enclosed in your folder. And what I brought in these two big, beautiful binders is a copy of all of the class specifications that Ryan and his team evaluated and developed job hazard analysis for our Department of Public Works and also Environmental Management. I will note that the goal focused on the heavy categories of work because these are the positions that most likely have personal protective equipment issued and would have required training. But Ryan took it above and beyond and included, I think, this is almost all of the positions or all of the classes of work in each department. So— MS. BOND: Thank you for not copying that for us. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. So, I brought it so that you folks could— CHR. CABANAS: Can we take just a quick look? MS. TOKIHIRO: Sure. CHR. CABANAS: That’s a big binder. We can share here. Yeah, we’ll share here. Just to get an idea of what it looks like. (Note: At this time, some comments were made; however, the microphones were not turned on.) CHR. CABANAS: —reasonable accommodation consideration or—yeah, wow. Page 39 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 MS. BOND: Impressive. CHR. CABANAS: This is impressive. MR. THOMAS: This must be somewhere else, right, these— MS. BOND: She has to get back to her (inaudible). MR. THOMAS: Right. MS. TOKIHIRO: For the record, so Glynis can transcribe. But, yeah, Fire and Police are different because they have their own safety protocols and other equipment. And they each— those departments have their own Safety Specialist. So, we work with them but that would be, sort of, separate and apart from this program. MR. THOMAS: Do they have their own manuals like this? MS. TOKIHIRO: I believe they do. Yes, manuals, General Orders, things like that. CHR. CABANAS: They have it broken down like this? MS. TOKIHIRO: I don’t know to what ext—like, to what level of detail. But as we continue moving through with the departments, then we’ll be coordinating with Police and Fire as well, even on their facilities. So, as part of the next goal, we can go over that. So, we’ll be working with them. Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, this is really—this is awesome. MS. BOND: Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: Oh, good, I’m glad you— CHR. CABANAS: I’m impressed. MS. TOKIHIRO: Good, I’m glad. MS. BOND: Very well done. CHR. CABANAS: Very well done. MS. TOKIHIRO: We wanted to have it all in one place. I’m particularly pleased with the required and optional training documentation, at the back of each one, because it is helpful for all Page 40 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 of our supervisors to be able to have a quick reference to know exactly what training is required, at what timeframe, what is the optional training. We really needed a central place. So, we really—when we first started talking about this, the whole foundation and reason behind it was for continuity purposes. We have change in supervisors and then there wasn’t, necessarily, a repository for that information. And so, things would get lost. We wanted to get back to basics and make sure that we’re looking at all of these class specs.—we’re working with our departments so that they really know and understand where the hazards are, what their personal protective equipment recommendations are, and then following-up with the regular training. CHR. CABANAS: And these are not all blue-collar workers. These are, like, professional. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. MS. BOND: Yeah, it’s for everybody. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah, so Ryan took it above and beyond. My expectation was to hit the heavy category first and—but he was, like, “If I’m going to do it, I’m going to do it all.” So. CHR. CABANAS: This is blowing my mind. It’s so impressive. It’s so impressive! MS. TOKIHIRO: You have to say that on the record, Gabe— CHR. CABANAS: This is blowing my mind! MR. THOMAS: What are the tabs for and how is this actually organized? It’s not annual— alphabetical by position. MS. TOKIHIRO: I would have to look at—so he broke it down by divisions because each of those sections would go to a, like, the supervisor of that area. MS. BOND: They color-coded the beginning. MR. THOMAS: Oh, okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. There’s, sort of, a table of contents— MS. BOND: Go to the very first page. MR. THOMAS: I see it. Okay. Thank you. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Page 41 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 MS. BOND: So, I have a question here just cause I, sort of, saw it going through it. Is there a CPR/AED training for everybody in the—that works for the County. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. MS. BOND: There is? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. MS. BOND: Okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: We provide numerous CPR and AED training sessions every year. MS. BOND: Good. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. MS. BOND: It’s something everybody should know anyway, but—yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. And we do have 66 AED cabinets throughout the County and I believe we just received 6 or 8 more, so that’s going to go up to over 70. Yeah. MS. BOND: Yeah, because I just recertified recently, on mine—it’s like, I’ve been doing this since I was 14— MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. MS. BOND: And still, I’ll be 70 in a couple of months and it’s something that you should really re-do regularly. CHR. CABANAS: Yes, that’s true. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. And they chan—because they changed the protocols, too, right—now you don’t—it’s just the chest compressions. MS. BOND: Yeah, when I first started it—it was roll them over, put your fingers in their mouth— MS. TOKIHIRO: Right. MS. BOND: —when I was doing lifeguard training at 14— MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. MS. BOND: —so things have definitely changed since then. Page 42 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 MS. TOKIHIRO: So, yeah, we do numerous CPR and first aid training courses or training classes every year. MR. THOMAS: How many people worked on this project and how long did it take? MS. TOKIHIRO: So, the Health and Safety Division has a staff of three. The primary responsibility for this was with Ryan, the Division Head, and he worked furiously on this all year long. So, during the initial pilot, in my initial six months was a good, kind of, trial run for him. So, this looks a little bit different than what we initially put forth last year because we really focused on classes of work as opposed to specific positions. But, yeah, Ryan worked very hard on this. CHR. CABANAS: He even has the authority. MS. BOND: Yeah, he cites everything—it’s just amazing. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, he cites the—what is this—CFR—the Federal Regulation? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: What does “C” stand for? MR. THOMAS: Code. CHR. CABANAS: Code? Code of Federal Regulations? MR. THOMAS: CFR Code—yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Wow, this is really good. MS. TOKIHIRO: And I think it’s important, we want the authorities listed so that people understand the “why”—right, it’s not just that we’re arbitrarily deciding. It’s for compliance with the authorities. CHR. CABANAS: (Inaudible.) MR. THOMAS: (Inaudible.) MS. BOND: And then, you also have to have a label on the front of it that tells you how to lift these books, so you don’t hurt your back. Page 43 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 MS. TOKIHIRO: Only I got the “big” books for purposes of showing you folks all his hard work, but it’s intended to be broken down again, so that we can give it to the specific supervisor— MS. BOND: Right. MS. TOKIHIRO: —or division. And he’s actually meeting with the departments and their divisions to go over all of it—make sure that people understand it. MS. BOND: This is really impressive. CHR. CABANAS: This—it is. This can be used, not only for, like, reasonable accommodation request, job placement—it can be used even when they’re doing interviews. MS. TOKIHIRO: Mm-hmm. CHR. CABANAS: A lot of the information, they can focus in on. MS. TOKIHIRO: And now we have it in one place, right. And so, even for our Safety Division to have all of this in one place and be tracking it and monitoring it. When there’s an amendment to a Class Spec. we’ll be back in there looking at it, to see if there’s any updates that need to be made. And so, it’s a awesome step towards continuing that continuity and ensuring employee safety. CHR. CABANAS: So, I have a couple of questions. So, now that this is done, is it online or in the Intranet or where is it? MS. TOKIHIRO: It isn’t online or in the Intranet yet. We’ll have to evaluate that. Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. And then, the other thing is, since he’s done this for a whole range of classes—blue-collar, professional, clerical—well, I want to ask is—how does this correlate with the PD’s that (inaudible) Classification and Pay look at? So, are they looking at this when they’re reviewing, now, a position description coming in for maybe a redescription review? Do they go to this to, kind of, do a comparison check? MS. TOKIHIRO: Right now, they’re not. I think the engagement is when Classification and Pay, like, amends a class spec.—we have to make sure that Ryan’s incorporated in that process, so that he understands any changes that are being made. And then, can follow-up with the department to see if there’s any new hazards or, hopefully, hazards removed kind of a thing. So, we’ll be working on making sure that that information flow goes both ways. CHR. CABANAS: Yes, both ways. MS. BOND: He should be nominated for Employee of the Year. Page 44 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 CHR. CABANAS: Really—well, not employee—he’s the Manager, right? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes, he is. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, go for Manager of the Year. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah, I’m very happy— MS. BOND: It’s impressive. CHR. CABANAS: It’s very impressive. Wow! I like to see things like this. Like I said, it blows my mind—I love to see this. This is wonderful. But, also, how they will use it. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: The application of it, not only in HR but— MS. TOKIHIRO: In the department. CHR. CABANAS: —in the department. MS. BOND: Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: This is wonderful. MS. TOKIHIRO: And Ryan has been, kind of, a key part of MAB goals now, from my last two rounds of MAB goals. And so, he’s begging not to be included in the new MAB goals—but I don’t think I’m going to let him off the hook. We need to keep going, keep up this momentum, yeah. So, he will be continuing to work through the rest of the departments. So, we need to—we’ll be identifying it—I believe we want to work on Parks and Recreation next. CHR. CABANAS: So, that one is Public Works? MS. BOND: This is DEM. CHR. CABANAS: Environmental—so is your plan, like, the Big 7— MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: —major departments? Page 45 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. The smaller departments will be easier and once—now that he’s gotten through these big departments that include the blue-collar—a lot of classes of work are pretty similar. So, he’ll be able to—it’ll be easier for him, going forward with the rest of the departments. MS. BOND: (Inaudible.) MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: So, when he did this—like, for DEM, and it was verified by Gene. Gene is what—an engineer? MS. TOKIHIRO: He’s actually, he was actually the Acting Solid Waste Division Chief for a period of time. Yes. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, okay. So, then they’re working together with this document— MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: —to make sure its accurate and if Ryan missed something, then Gene would give input and vice versa. MS. TOKIHIRO: Right. Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Well done. MS. TOKIHIRO: Having that engagement and then also it goes back to the employees as well. I mean, if there’s a question about the class spec. when he was doing some of the ones for the, like Carpenter Shop—he would go and actually talk to their supervisor, talk to the employees, and go, “Is this accurate?” CHR. CABANAS: So, would this be attached to position descriptions or job per—I don’t know what you call it now, but Job Performance Evaluations? MS. TOKIHIRO: It could be. It depends on how the departments want to utilize it. I mean, I think that it’s a great resource for departments and I think that their use of it may evolve over time and having—just having it available. CHR. CABANAS: So, is each employee given a copy of this, so that—okay, if I were the Solid Waste Superintendent, I would love to see—as the Manager I would say, “Okay, this is yours. Just for, not only informational purposes, but to keep apprised of the safety equipment, PPE that you’re required to wear, and these are your job duties and the hazards”—do they get a copy of this? Page 46 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 MS. TOKIHIRO: They could, certainly, be provided one. As far as, if the departments are actually distributing it that way—I’m not sure, but we can definitely—I can talk to Ryan about encouraging them to do that. CHR. CABANAS: It’s a wonderful tool that can be use, not only like I said, for reasonable accommodation, when you’re doing a job placement, or even the EOO person—the Manager, if she has someone—if she has a reasonable accommodation request, she can look at this, along with the PD. This is a wonderful tool. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. Thank you. CHR. CABANAS: Or even for a—the County Physician—that someone is referred, let’s say, for a medical re-eval.—then, with the memo.—you could attach this and the PD—the position description for the County Physician to use. So, this can be used in a whole number of ways. This is very impressive. MR. THOMAS: That’s a good idea. I hope you give that some consideration. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes, definitely. I’ll, definitely, take this back and I’ll be sharing the feedback on—with Ryan and his team. And also—yeah, we’ll definitely take that into consideration. I think that there’s some good additional ways that it can be utilized. MS. BOND: (Inaudible) Workers’ Comp. CHR. CABANAS: A little humor (inaudible). Okay, all right. Oh, this is wonderful. Okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: Okay. CHR. CABANAS: Anything else, Sommer? MS. TOKIHIRO: No. Goal Number 3. Okay. So, on Goal Number 3, was to “Develop and implement a program for the completion of the Semi-Annual Checklist for Safety for County facilities to include site visits by the Health and Safety Division for purposes of verification, education, and guidance in mitigating potential hazards.” And so, we have—oh, you know what’s missing is the Semi-Annual Checklist Form. So, there is a Semi-Annual Checklist Verification Form and then there’s also the Procedure. Unfortunately, in my haste to put this together I was more focused on the documentation of how we’re going to be identifying the priority for our sites and where we’re going to be doing the verification first. So, we are prioritizing the sites based on a DART score, which is how HIOSH evaluates injuries and I, actually, had to text Ryan to get the definition. So, you get a DART score, it’s the total Page 47 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 number of missed work days, plus the number of days restricted duty, and then the number of days on transfer—multiply it by 200,000 and divide it by total hours worked. So, it’s this complex formula— CHR. CABANAS: Could you repeat that, again? Yeah, number of missed work days— MS. TOKIHIRO: Missed work days— CHR. CABANAS: Okay, wait, wait—go slow. Work days—okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: Let me look and see if this chart helps. CHR. CABANAS: So, that DART rate column is the far right column, right? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes, correct. So, it’s a percentage. So— CHR. CABANAS: A percentage. MS. TOKIHIRO: It’s—you add the total number of missed work days, plus the number of days on restricted duty, plus the number of days on transfer of duties—so you add all those together and then you multiply that by 200,000 and— CHR. CABANAS: Two hundred thousand? MS. TOKIHIRO: Two hundred thousand and then you divide it by the total hours worked by all employees and that results in the DART rate. MR. THOMAS: “DART” stands for what? MS. TOKIHIRO: That’s an excellent question. So, I believe it is— MR. THOMAS: (Inaudible.) MS. TOKIHIRO: The Days Away— CHR. CABANAS: Where do you see that? MR. THOMAS: The last column—all the way to the right. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, I saw DART rate but— MS. BOND: (Inaudible.) CHR. CABANAS: Right, right. Page 48 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 MS. TOKIHIRO: It’s the Days—I think “Days Away of Restricted Time”—something—I’ll get that acronym detail for you. But, basically, we wanted to model our evaluation of injuries based on the way that HIOSH would do it. So, if you look at the chart, the first base yard, had a 25% DART rate. Part of that—part of what factors into that is it’s a very small area. And so, if one employee has an injury, it results in a 25%, right. So, it’s a little—it can be skewed based on employee count. But, nevertheless, we want to evaluate or establish our priorities based on where we have the most time away from work related to injuries. So, DART is “Days Away Restricted Transfers”— CHR. CABANAS: Days Away— MR. THOMAS: So, is Parks and Rec. our biggest department? MS. TOKIHIRO: So— MR. THOMAS: At 272,000 hours? MS. TOKIHIRO: Parks and—so DEM, and Parks and Rec., and Public Works would be our larger departments. But then, following the first sheet where we’re looking at the DART rate— and we calculate the DART rate from the OSHA 300 Forms that are filled out by our departments every year. So, you can actually see the OSHA 300 Forms—they’re at the back, after the “List of Facilities.” So, these are actual copies of OSHA 300’s that we received. The Health and Safety Division receives every year and then they can calculate the DART rate from that and establish a priority list for these verification inspections. But, in the event that this is a short list and we only had so many that were actually affected by injuries, we would then prioritize inspection of facilities based on highest concentration of employee count or—and then, also, greatest use by members of the public. So, maybe when you’re in executive session, I can get the copy of the actual procedure and the Semi-Annual Checklist Form—I apologize for my oversight on that. But, basically, the departments do the Semi-Annual Checklist twice a year. They submit it to the Health and Safety—or they keep it within the department—and our verification component is an additional form that we’re adding to the Semi-Annual Checklist, which is that the Health and Safety Division would get the departments copy of their Semi-Annual Checklist. And they will go into the facility with the department representative, go through, verify the information on the Semi- Annual Checklist, and check to see if there were any additional areas that needed to be addressed. So, anything that was missed or additional recommendations. Page 49 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 And we want this to be an interactive engagement process for purposes of education as well. So, it’s not meant to be punitive. It’s meant to be preventative, but it’s also meant to educate, but also really ensure that we have a regular and routine schedule of evaluating our facilities and making sure that we’re taking all preventative measures to keep things safe. MR. THOMAS: Are there metrics that you use to measure the success of this kind of reporting and project? I know it’s required, so you got to do it anyway, but is there a sense that all of this adds up to fewer injuries or some other kind of metric that you track? MS. TOKIHIRO: I think—well, so the goal would always be injury prevention. But I think that we will have to establish those metrics as we get in and do the verifications and I’d, actually, like to see the metric be just corrective actions. I don’t know that facilities inspections like this will necessarily result in fewer injuries. And I only say that because the nature of the injuries that we’re seeing, as far as workers’ compensation claims, are not—“I tripped in this facility”—it’s usually someone is out in the field or performing certain type of work and has a back strain or an issue with the chainsaw—or whatever it is. I’m not seeing as many facility-related injuries, necessarily. But I think maybe the metrics would be corrective actions and maybe it’ll be a decrease in the number of things that the Health and Safety Division has to go in and call out because departments are learning and mitigating those risks and making those changes themselves. MR. THOMAS: So, it’s up to Health and Safety to monitor that? They’re the police of this activity? MS. TOKIHIRO: They’re going in and doing the verification. I hesitate to call them “police” but it’s more—if we’re only tasking the departments to do the Semi-Annual Checklist and there’s no accountability for that by having it verified—having that information verified by our Health and Safety Division—it seems—I don’t want to say it’s pointless, but if nobody’s actually going in and looking at that, it just leaves questions as far as—is it being done, is it being done correctly, is the person who’s doing the Semi-Annual Checklist actually aware of all the things that they should be looking for? And so, I just wanted to see it be more interactive with Health and Safety and an opportunity for more education. MR. THOMAS: So, what’s the experience of Health and Safety in terms of actually getting to facilities and doing this work? MS. TOKIHIRO: So, they already do facility inspections annually. So, they address a certain number of facilities. I think so far, this year, they’ve been to 10 different sites looking at specific issues. So, we had a pesticide issue out at the Pāhoa Pool. And so, for right now, it would be as issues come up. But I want us to be more proactive in not just addressing “as issues come up” but having a regular schedule to be out there and assessing different facilities and different sites. Page 50 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 MR. THOMAS: So, how is that done? How do you set standards for those kinds of inspections? Do you say you need to go—I mean— MS. TOKIHIRO: So, there’s certain—so I think it’s addressing a number of facilities, like, per year. And so, assessing those areas where they have the highest need—say, by the DART rate— ‘cause that would indicate injuries. But then, really, it’s developing a schedule of evaluating these facilities. So, we have 66 AED cabinets right now. Those AED units are inspected twice a year. So, we replace batteries, we have to replace expired pads, et cetera. So, Health and Safety is regularly and routinely at all of these different sites, a number of times a year. And what this verification will do is while you’re out doing these other things, if you can be—if you can do this verification, go through their Semi-Annual Checklist while you’re there—and then we have this interactive process. I think it can be incorporated with things that they’re already doing and just documenting it in a more formal manner and taking the opportunity to provide that education and mitigate potential risks. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. Any other questions? Okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: Okay. So, I can get you the—I apologize, again. I’ll get you the procedure and a copy of the form while you folks are in executive session. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, thank you, Sommer, for the report and presentation, actually. MS. BOND: Do we need to— CHR. CABANAS: We need a motion, right—so, may I have a motion to accept and file the Director of HR’s presentation regarding the departments goals and objectives for Fiscal Year 2024 to 2025. MS. BOND: So moved. MR. THOMAS: Second. CHR. CABANAS: Any discussion? If not, I’ll start a rollcall vote with Ms. Bond. MS. BOND: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Three ayes. Motion carried. Page 51 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 Okay. So, next are the SurveyMonkey results for Fiscal Year 2024 and 2025, which are the Line Department surveys and Internal Employee survey and the NeoGov survey results for Fiscal Year 2024 through 2025. MR. THOMAS: May I ask a general question about this because I can see that there were so few responses that I wonder what weight, if any, we should give to this aspect of the evaluation. CHR. CABANAS: We can talk about it in executive session. MR. THOMAS: Okay. CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. So, may I have a motion for the Board to enter into executive session? MR. THOMAS: So moved. MS. BOND: Second. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, yes—and Glynis will give you, Sommer, a copy of the different survey results. MS. BOND: And you can go sit out in the mud with the kids out there. So, apparently, those big columns are—big rains that funnels water off of the roof on the inside, and they found plumbing problems underneath them (inaudible). MR. THOMAS: I thought they were digging up coqui frogs or something. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, so we have a motion, right. MR. YOSHIMOTO: To be clear for the record. So the executive session motion is pursuant to HRS 92-4, 92-5(a)(2) and 92-5(a)(4). CHR. CABANAS: Yes, thank you. Okay, so we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? MS. BOND: No. CHR. CABANAS: If not, I’ll start a rollcall vote with Ms. Bond. MS. BOND: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Aye. Page 52 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Three ayes for the Board to enter into executive session. And Glynis will be securing the room. It is now 11:35 a.m. RECESS: The Chair called for a recess at 11:35 a.m. RECONVENE: The meeting reconvened at 4:20 p.m. in open session. FY 2024-2025 Annual Performance Evaluation Of The Director of Human Resources (HR): Presentation By The Director Of HR Regarding Department’s Goals And Objectives For FY 2024-2025; SurveyMonkey Results For FY 2024-2025 (Line Department Survey And Internal Employee Survey); NeoGov Survey Results For FY 2024-2025 (Provided By The Recruitment And Examination Division) (Executive Session: The Merit Appeals Board Anticipates Convening One Or More Executive Meetings Regarding The Above Matter, Pursuant To HRS Sections 92-4, 92-5(a)(2) And 92-5(a)(4), For The Purpose Evaluating An Officer Or Employee Of The County Of Hawai'i, Where The Consideration Of Matters Affecting Privacy Will Be Involved And Consulting With The Board’s Attorney On Questions And Issues Pertaining To The Board’s Powers, Duties, Privileges, Immunities, And Liabilities. A 2/3 Vote Pursuant To HRS Section 92-4 Is Necessary To Hold An Executive Meeting) CHR. CABANAS: We are now out of executive session. MS. BOND: I move— CHR. CABANAS: We are now in open session. MS. BOND: We are now in open session—yeah, you can take your post-it off. CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. MS. BOND: So, I move that— MR. YOSHIMOTO: We have to go back on. MS. BOND: Oh, do we have to? MR. YOSHIMOTO: Just in case there’s somebody there waiting. I don’t know who would be. MS. BOND: I just know that he wants to go home, so the sooner we do this. So, the next thing is to move that we— CHR. CABANAS: We have to have a motion to vote on our Director’s evaluation as to her meeting the expectations of the position. Page 53 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 MS. BOND: Okay. I’ll move that we accept the outcome of our discussion and that HR Director meets the expectations that have been set for her, and that we look forward to working with her in the future. MR. THOMAS: Second. CHR. CABANAS: Any discussion? If not, I’ll start a rollcall vote with Ms. Bond. MS. BOND: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Three ayes. Motion carried. The Director of HR meets the expectations of the position. Congratulations, Ms. Tokihiro. MS. TOKIHIRO: Thank you. MS. BOND: Thank you. Okay, so. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. So going to our agenda. MS. BOND: I think we can just get to adjourn, huh? Announcements (Item 9) CHR. CABANAS: Are there any “Announcements?” MS. BOND: There’s a “Revitalize Puna and Community Preparedness and Resilience Fair” on th July 12 at Billy Kenoi Park in Puna—in Pāhoa—and from 10 to 2. And I know that you’re on the (inaudible) to be there. So, that’s coming up soon. That’s my—(inaudible). CHR. CABANAS: Okay. Any other announcement? If not, may I have a motion—oh, yes, I’m sorry. Page 54 Merit Appeals Board June 24, 2025 Schedule Next Meeting Date (Item 10) The Merit Appeals Board Will Convene Its Next Meeting On Friday, July 18, 2025, At 9:00 A.M., At The Hilo Council Chambers, Hawaiʻi County Building, 25 Aupuni Street, First Floor, Room 1401, Hilo, HI 96720 CHR. CABANAS: Scheduling the next meeting. The Merit Appeals Board will convene its th next meeting on Friday, July 18, 2025, at 9 a.m., at the Hilo Council Chambers, Hawaiʻi County Building, at 25 Aupuni Street, First Floor, Room 1401, in Hilo, Hawaiʻi. Adjournment (Item 11) CHR. CABANAS: May I have a motion to adjourn today’s meeting? MS. BOND: So moved. MR. THOMAS: Second. CHR. CABANAS: Any discussion? If not, a rollcall vote with Ms. Bond. MS. BOND: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Motion carried. Meeting is adjourned at 4:22 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Glynis Yamada, Secretary-Reporter APPROVED: Gabriella M. Cabanas, Chair Merit Appeals Board Page 55 Merit Appeals Board June 24,2025 Schedule Next Meeting Date (Item 10) The Merit Appeals Board WM Convene Its Next Meeting On Friday,July 18,2025,At 9:00 A.M.,At The Hilo Council Chambers,Hawaii County Building,25 Aupuni Street, First Floor,Room 1401,Hilo,HI 96720 CHR. CABANAS: Scheduling the next meeting. The Merit Appeals Board will convene its next meeting on Friday,July 18t`, 2025, at 9 a.m., at the Hilo Council Chambers, Hawai`i County Building, at 25 Aupuni Street, First Floor, Room 1401, in Hilo, Hawai`i. Adjournment(Item 11) CHR. CABANAS: May I have a motion to adjourn today's meeting? MS. BOND: So moved. MR. THOMAS: Second. CHR. CABANAS: Any discussion? If not, a rollcall vote with Ms. Bond. MS. BOND: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Motion carried. Meeting is adjourned at 4:22 p.m. Respectfully submitted, dakail-> Glynis Yamada, Secretary-Reporter APPROVED: )4a.AA L(.21.4.)' •Al. • ea Prama Gabriella M. Cabanas, Chair Merit Appeals Board Page 55 ' HAWAII CARES 988 IS A 24/7, FREE SUPPORT SERVICE FOR HELP WITH CRISIS,MENTAL HEALTH, AND SUBSTANCE USE. ft - -t, AM, *, ', No matter what, our local I caring crisis counselors are I here to support you. You have someone to talk to. obygi �� ' s �'; HAWAN a Someone to respond. '• •` CAR E S /88 Some where to go. to ' ' CALL 988 TEXT 988 The Employee Assistance Program is a benefit provided at no cost to you by your employer. Our goal is to assist you in identifying and resolving issues that may be interfering with you your job or your personal life, or that may be of concern to you. The EAP provides easy access to confidential, professional services. EAP is available 24/7 by calling (808)597-8222 or toll-free(877)597-8222. Their website is at:https://www.eapacific.com/?customer=COH COUNSELING LEGAL E INANCIAL ■ t{l i'" ti� , , ,-,_ ., „ �L , , t R . - ' is .Sn / EMPLOYEE ASSISTANCE OF THE PACIFIC,LLC " - - COACHING HEALTHCARE NAVIGATION MEDIATION !DEP, ![t t AA F it ib i .1 6'4° . 4•/` The Domestic Violence Action Center is committed to addressing domestic violence • 1 II , , , ,• d/ and other forms of harm through leadership, unique services,legal representation, 1, % 0 housing,survivor and system advocacy,community education and social change work. • •a .• w .. ,, We believe all persons should be treated with equality,dignity and fairness.With high D V / quality and culturally sensitive programs,delivered with integrity and compassion we are creating safety and self-sufficiency for survivors and their children. DOMESTIC VIOLENCE Call our Confidential Helpline: (808) 531-3771 ACTION CENTER Toll-Free Neighbor Island Helpline: 1-800-690-6200 Living or a w:- ....... .: You can also email us at: dvac@stoptheviolence.org use "BREAK THE SILENCE" ATT. A