2025-12-22 Salary Commission Minutes

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Salary Commission December 22, 2025 having a long, dormant Board or a long, dormant Commission—puts us in a—it’s a tough task, but then it’s also not a welcomed task, and then there’s a lot of additional math to it. In a perfect world, this Board will stay. This Commission will stay. It will require conversations like the one you’re having, take it upstairs to the ears who need to hear it because it needs to be nominated by the Executive Office, and then passed by the Legislative Branch. We need to keep the Commission going. So three—is going to be dormant. Mr. Pavao— CHR. PAVAO: Two. MS. NAMAHOE: Two is going to be dormant. If it’s filled, then it can continue to hug closer to the year over year, and we are not looking for an elegant solutions—like following BU13, which none of us wanted to do. But in order to do that, don’t take the teeth away from what we need to do. So, we have to show up as voters. We also have to show up and testify, but we also have to read the law as it’s written and then figure out what’s the right way to push it forward. I want to thank you again. MS. OTSUKA: Thank you, I appreciate that. It’s just hard. I mean, you talk about cost—and I mentioned in my testimony—$337 million for a five-year project is only one of many. And this raises, if they were done year-after-year, maybe—yeah, one year at a time. But four years in advance—that kind of makes it harder to swallow, if you’re looking at the cost. And if you looked at the condition of the Kulaimano and Papaikou wastewater—you would be shocked. I mean, with the amount of money they spend on commissions—I mean, consultants—they could have fixed both of those wastewater stations—really. Each department spends so much in consultant fees that—so, this is why when you talk of cost and raises, they all—in math, they all fall in. And so, I can’t fathom how the County’s going to sustain all of that. I can’t. So, maybe with the Commission because you’re approving for all departments—maybe look at each department and see what they’re not doing that should have been done, so that you don’t have to do across-the-board raises. Is that ever possible? CHR. PAVAO: No. Again, you’re going into performance, and the Charter is very specific that we don’t— MS. OTSUKA: I better see the County Council then— CHR. PAVAO: —(inaudible) pay raises is very specific (inaudible)— MS. OTSUKA: I’m going to see the County Council, okay. Page 16