2006-09-21 Cost of Government Commission Minutes

Home

police as well. Vacancies may be occurring more rapidly. The Police Department has gone from one class per year to two. Mr. Joseph asked whether Civil Service provided the testing and ranking of the police applicants, and Mr. Ben said yes. In addition, they do the physical agility testing, which is part of the Civil Service exam, for both the Police and Fire Departments. Mr. Ben said he was surprised when Mr. Joseph said that the Fire Department had difficulty filling positions, as his Department works with Fire on getting applicants and setting up schedules according to when Fire wants to start a recruit class. He said they have no want for fire fighter applicants. On the other hand, the Police Department used to receive 300 to 400 applications, but all counties are now having difficulty getting police officer applicants, which is partly due to the Police Department's very stringent requirements on who they'll accept as officers. About 50% of applicants are screened out because of their background checks and psychological testing results. Mr. Sakaguchi asked who performs the psychological testing, and Mr. Ben said the Police Department does. They have a person on contract who does it. Ms. Stremski asked whether Fire personnel also receive psychological testing, and Mr. Ben said that currently only the Police do. He does not know if the Fire Department is considering this, but Civil Service would allow them to do so if they wanted to. However, there is always the need to be careful about conforming to the ADA. Certain things are not allowed to be done before an employment offer is given, such as getting into a person's medical history. Under the ADA, mental illness may be a protected disability, which means psychological testing cannot be performed to undercover it. Mr. Joseph asked whether any County department was in critical shortage of civil service personnel. Mr. Ben said it depends on the definition of "critical," but there has been a shortage of engineers for years. He has not seen any real negative effect from not filling engineer positions, because there are ways of getting the work done, through temporary hires or contracting out. If something is very important, it will get done. Ms. Stremski asked whether the shortage of engineers was due to the pay scale, and Mr. Ben said that was the primary reason. However, if the County's pay scale is too low, they are authorized to add an additional amount so they can recruit. As examples, engineers as well as water treatment operators, who run the facilities for the groundwater in Waimea, are positions which are given additional amounts. Mr. Sakaguchi asked what an "additional amount" is and whether it is forever. Mr. Ben said it is forever and only gets reduced if the employee leaves the position. As long as the employee stays in the position, he /she will continue to get the additional amount, which might also be adjusted if the County finds the pay is still under the market. 31