2025-11-17 Salary Commission Public Hearing Minutes

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Salary Commission November 17, 2025 The Commission will consider all comments and materials and may take final action at its nd regular meeting scheduled for Monday, December 22, at 10 a.m. at the Hilo Council Chambers, Hawaiʻi County Building, 25 Aupuni Street, First Floor, Room 1401, in Hilo, Hawaiʻi. Members of the public may attend the meeting either in-person at the meeting location or via Zoom. For access at the meeting—Zoom—please contact Glynis Yamada at Glynis.Yamada@hawaiicounty.gov or you can call 808-961-8361, or by checking the December nd 22,’25, agenda. Okay, we’ll start with public testimony. Is there any public testimony in Kona? MR. RUEDY: Good morning, we have no testifiers here in Kona. CHR. PAVAO: Okay, thank you. Okay, so we’ll go with public testimony in Hilo—starting with Hugh Ono. MR. ONO: Good morning, Chair Pavao, and members of the Salary Commission. My name is Hugh Ono. I once was a member of the Salary Commission. I’ve also been a state employee, a County employee, and also worked in the private sector. Anyway, I’d like to start off by saying that—I can’t read my writing—there we go—I’m almost certain that this Commission has done its homework, and looked at comparables, and gotten advice from other jurisdictions as to setting the salary for the appointed officials or whomever are on the list. But I’d also like to mention that I believe—and I support that multi-year plan that you’ve come up with because at the time I worked on the Salary Commission, we were just doing one-time adjustments at a time and that gets—this will take care of salaries over a period of time, which is really good. It’s the right thing to do to adjust the salaries and we all know what the word “pono” means— “do the right thing”—and I certainly support that. Secondly, I’ve always supported equal pay for equal work. And this goes back to when women were paid less than men. I believe that’s still going on to some degree, but it’s—the gap is getting closer—and it should not be closer, it should be equal without question. Public employees—well, people who are for the public, I’ve never considered them “public servants”—they are “public employees.” And so, they need to be treated as such—but I’ve been referred to as a public servant and, yeah, we try and serve and do our very, very best. And, in closing, I hope and I’m asking that—hopefully, this Commission can vote unanimously in support of these well-deserved raises. And who knows when the next time will come around—but I thank you, the Commission, for doing such an excellent job. Mahalo and thank you. Page 3