2012-03-05 Salary Commission Minutes

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same salary that Ms. Iboshi is making now. There would be no adjustment in the salary. Ms. Stroh asked whether there are any instances now where the deputy is making more than the director. Mr. Takahashi added that if this pay plan is not adopted, come December (elections), they are going have a new Prosecutor and a new Corporation Counsel (as appointed by the Mayor), whoever that Mayor is. Under the current plan, everyone's salaries are going back to the A step, which is $99,000, which will then, as Ms. Lugo pointed out, affect the pay for all Deputy Prosecuting Attorneys and all Deputy Corporation Counsels, as right now the salaries are pegged at Mr. Kimura's old salary at $110,268 and most of them are set at 90% of that salary. Therefore, if the Commission makes no changes, or if the Commission doesn't make any changes to the current pay plan, come the next election, there will be a lot of people with a reduction in pay. That is the net effect of what is going to happen, which is why he proposed one set salary to avoid that from occurring. Mr. De Lima commented on other changes he would like to see; for example, he disagrees with where the Parks and Recreation Director is placed. Parks and Recreation is one of the largest departments, and yet it's paid in the second tier of wages. That, to Mr. De Lima, is the greatest discrepancy because most of the island's citizens use the parks; they have the most parks, the largest number of employees supervised. Then there's the Chief Engineer. It's difficult to get an engineer. Every year when a new Mayor comes on board, it's the most difficult position to fill. Why? Because it's capped at $99,000. That's something Mr. De Lima would like to visit in the future. As Ms. Wong talked about her concern on whether people knew about this proposal, Mr. De Lima's thought was that they should have the discussion, make as many changes as they think is appropriate, and then postpone final action until the final meeting. They should discuss in an open session right now their various thoughts on respective positions, make amendments that they believe make sense, then send out what they view as a consensus for further comment, and take action at a subsequent meeting. That would be better than distributing something they have real concerns about, because it doesn't give the public a real reflection of what the consensus is. So what Mr. De Lima thinks they should do today is go through various changes. He also thinks the Mayor getting a salary less than his department heads is ridiculous, and they should increase the Mayor's salary to $115,000, also effective December 3, 2012. He believes the Fire Chief and the Police Chief should have the same salary, and the Deputy Fire Chief should be commensurate with the other amounts. The Parks & Recreation head should make $99,000, and the Chief 7