2025-10-30 Merit Appeals Board Minutes

Home

Merit Appeals Board October 30, 2025 I believe they are possibly going to have additional discussion on looking at salaries for individual departments and discuss those in more detail. MS. BOND: You guys aren’t union? CHR. CABANAS: No. MS. TOKIHIRO: No. MS. BOND: Okay, just (inaudible). CHR. CABANAS: No, they’re not. MS. BOND: Just checking in. MS. TOKIHIRO: We’re appointed—directors and deputy directors are appointed. MS. BOND: (Inaudible.) Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. MR. THOMAS: Maybe the question I should ask is whether there is a procedure of the Salary Commission to review this or are they locked into this formula for the next four years? I suppose the cost of living goes up 5% a year for the next two years—and now they’re saying, “Whoa, that leaves us not much breathing room for the next two years and we want to go back and review those last two years of increases.” MS. TOKIHIRO: So, I’ll defer to J, but I believe that the Salary Commission Rules allow for them to make adjustments as they see fit—as is appropriate. The Salary Commission currently has six members, so they do have quorum, but I believe that there are some members terming out, which was also a concern for them because there had been an issue between 2018 and 2023 where the Commission didn’t have quorum—and so, they weren’t able to make adjustments. And so, that was also part of the discussion related to wanting to, kind of, lay out what would happen for the next few years, so that at least there was a start on it in the event that there becomes an issue with having quorum in that Commission. MR. THOMAS: So, that is what explains the 20% increase—it finally happened when they were ready to play catch-up ball, right? MS. TOKIHIRO: Correct. MR. THOMAS: And that—how long were they without a quorum and unable to make any adjustments at all? Page 30