2025-07-18 Merit Appeals Board Minutes

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Merit Appeals Board July 18, 2025 th MR. HONG: It started—the letter’s dated May 12, 2025. MR. HALVORSON: Okay, so— CHR. CABANAS: (Inaudible) check for a moment, Mr. Halvorson and Mr. Hong, and Mr. Disher, Exhibit L—the letter from the Hawai ʿ i Civil Rights Commission—first sentence says, “The investigator assigned to handle the discrimination complaint, which you filed with the Hawai ʿ i Civil Rights Commission (HCRC), has recommended that the case be closed on the basis of no cause.” MR. HALVORSON: Okay, thank you. And the reason I asked about what the date was of the letter is—you were indicating you’re still within the 180 days. However, that—if for some reason this Board has to deal with a contested jurisdiction issue, we may have to refer it to the Hawai ʿ i Labor Relations Board, under statute, for determination and that could affect your timeline. MR. DISHER: That’s correct. I actually mentioned it also in the response that, if this Board basically can’t decide that there’s no jurisdiction, that it would have to go to the Labor Relations Board. MR. HALVORSON: Okay. That’s all—I just wanted to clarify that, Mr. Hong. I’m sorry to interrupt you, Mr. Disher, go ahead. MR. HONG: If I may address that. I would disagree, respectfully, with Mr. Halvorson, since I think this is probably his last meeting of a storied career with the Attorney General’s Office, but I disagree because that, actually, goes along the lines of the Turner Lyndon case, where that issue of jurisdiction came up, they said it was a collective bargaining issue, and then we had to go before the Labor Board, which pretty quickly—from my experience—said that it’s not a question of jurisdiction for the Labor Board that it actually rest with the Merit Appeals Board. I think the Merit Appeals Board is—has the authority—statutory, sorry—to make that decision. It doesn’t have to go anywhere else. I mean, I don’t know that, if the County—if the Board says that you have jurisdiction, the issue would be raised on appeal with the Third Circuit—not necessarily the Labor Board. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Disher. MR. DISHER: I will quote HRS 76-14 (c)(2) as well as MAB Rule 104-3(b), which directs the MAB—quote, “shall not proceed on an appeal”—and “if there is any controversy regarding its authority to hear the appeal until the controversy is resolved by the Hawai ʿ i Labor Relations Board.” That’s pretty clear. Page 13