2006-09-21 Cost of Government Commission Minutes

Home

has come up with for taking action. Mr. Ben said that some hospitals had a monetary award system for employees who did not take sick leave for something like six months. A result was that employees were coming to work sick because they were close to getting the award. So this system could work, but it could also "go the other way." Mr. Sakaguchi asked whether, when the County outsources a service, it sets standards for the contractors to observe for the contractors' employees, and Mr. Ben said no. Mr. Sakaguchi asked whether, if the County decided to turn over all billing and collections to a bank which had bid on and won a contract to do so, the bank could follow its own policies in terms of employee benefits, vacation, sick leave, etc. Mr. Ben said yes, currently, but if the County wanted to, it could put certain conditions in the contract. For example, he said he believed the City and County of Honolulu has a requirement that bidders have a sexual harassment program in place in order for them to bid and be awarded. The Chair asked that they return to the agenda. h. Flexibility or authority for supervisors to hire quickly. Mr. Ben said he was not sure what was being asked on this item. He said to keep in mind that there is a Civil Service system, a merit principle system, in place. For the 65 to 70 years that the system has been in place and in process, its purpose has been to protect and prevent nepotism. In doing so, a system of equal opportunity to work for the government has developed so that it's not "who you know" that gets a person a job with the County. The County has to go through the process of announcing an opening to the public and conducting the examinations. Once Civil Service has a list of approved applicants, it is good for a year. If, for example, they have a current list of Planner applicants and the Planning Department tells them there is an opening, they will turn the list over to the Planning Department upon its request by the next day. If there is an immediate need and there is no current list of applicants, the department is allowed to hire on a temporary basis until such time a list is available, and then they would have to hire a permanent employee from the list. Ms. Provalenko asked whether a temporary hire could go on the list, and Mr. Ben said if that person applied and qualified, yes. The only requirement in hiring on a temporary basis is that the person meet the minimum qualifications. The temporary hire would have to go through the regular civil service process to be placed on the eligible list. Mr. Joseph asked whether the fire fighters and police officers are in the Civil Service, and Mr. Ben said yes. Mr. Joseph said the Fire Department is lagging behind in recruits and that vacancies are not filled in a timely manner. He asked if this was because of inadequate funding for recruitment classes. Mr. Ben said there are a variety of reasons. The recruitment class has to be of a certain size, something like 12 -15 recruits. This is for the 5