2012-03-05 Salary Commission Minutes

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got a Department of Transportation training grant of $82,000 for statewide training. Because of their office, they've been able to do training statewide, since 2006, of all the prosecutors. They have a $25,000 grant for violence against women; and a grant from DEA for overtime moneys for drug trafficking in the County. Mr. De Lima asked Ms. Iboshi whether she thinks they should follow the law. Ms. Iboshi responded that her understanding is that Mr. Takahashi and Ms. Lugo looked at it, and it's legal. Mr. De Lima stated that Mr. Takahashi interpreted the law. The law says whoever steps in that position gets rolled back to step A. Ms. Iboshi is stepping into that position. Mr. Takahashi interpreted it that because Ms. Iboshi was the First Deputy, she can get the same level. Mr. De Lima thinks that was the wrong decision. It has nothing to do with Ms. Iboshi, who is one of the finest people he knows. Ms. Iboshi works harder than what she even testified about. The people under Ms. Iboshi respect her, and he would say they love her. That's the highest compliment they can pay anyone in public service. So it's not about her. What it comes down to is that they, the Salary Commission, have to follow the policy; and the policy was to roll back salaries when someone took the position. It didn't have anything to do with whether they serve as First Deputy, whether they have five years previous experience or ten years previous experience. It said that when a person steps into a position and are new to that position, the person gets rolled back to step A. Mr. Takahashi thought that was a bad result. Mr. De Lima agrees it's a bad result; and they should rectify it, but he couldn't buy giving her the D step. He didn't think a pay decrease was justified either, that's why he suggested a step where she would still get a pay increase, but not at the full level. He thought that was a fair compromise. In response to Ms. Wong's inquiry about what Ms. Iboshi would recommend for the position, Ms. Iboshi stated that the person who gets the Prosecutor's position should get paid the same amount it's currently at. She did want to bring up, however, that Ms. Ross remains at $99,000, and they couldn't do anything about it because of the way the Charter was set up. Ms. Iboshi also noted that the salaries are affected by furloughs, and that is not reflected in the amount. Ms. Wong asked Mr. Takahashi what the triggers are that move the salaries. Mr. Takahashi explained that the Salary Commission set up this current pay scale with a pay plan where there are automatic step increases for every two years of service. However, the Salary Commission froze the 17