2026-05-12 Merit Appeals Board Minutes

Home

Merit Appeals Board May 12, 2026 they were then given a separate paper application because the Police Department does different background check requirements, et cetera. And so, what we’re working with them to do is to incorporate all of the information in that paper application into our NeoGov template, which will help keep everything all in one place and should, hopefully, help them be able to complete their initial screening faster, get to that background check step faster—so that we can respond to applications quicker and people who are interested in coming to work for the department—get them on board faster. So, also last week, our Personnel and Organizational Development Division did their Office Support Staff Conference. This was the second annual conference that they did for our clerical support teams in our departments, and the speakers addressed business writing skills. So Sinclair Salas-Ferguson was the instructor for that from our Office of the Corporation Counsel. And then they also brought in Kuakahi Mediation Center to talk about, basically, communication skills—but it was conflict management. We don’t have a whole lot of training opportunities for support staff and opportunities for them to connect outside of the office. So, this office support conference is a great opportunity for them to be able to network with people from other divisions and departments that they might not, otherwise, come into contact with. So, that was exciting to be able to do that again this year. I think those are—I mean, there’s a lot happening as you can tell from the report, and— but those are a couple of the highlights. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, thank you. Board members, do you have any questions for the Director? No? None. Niel— MR. THOMAS: I really enjoy having these reports, and I see them as training opportunities for us as Board members. So, my question would have to do with what you’ve written here on the Classification and Pay Division. Can you teach me a bit about how the process—what are the checks and balances on the process—how do you decide that a new position, for instance, is necessary? And is it your decision or is there a decision process involving multiple people? MS. TOKIHIRO: So, if a department comes to us with a need—that they’re identifying an operational need that we don’t currently have a class of work that addresses that, they provide their—I guess their proposal as far as what are the job duties, what is the work that needs to be accomplished. And our Classification and Pay Division currently has four staff members. So, the Manager, a Specialist, a Program Specialist, and a Technician. And so, they take that information and then they look at all of the classes of work that we currently have. And Page 4