2011-06-23 Merit Appeals Board Minutes

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Mr. Takahashi responded that the terms of the UPW contract which has the furloughs in it was also a contract that they deemed to have been a temporary reduction, and those temporary reductions would have been for that specific contract period so that the temporary reduction would go away come July 1. Their continuation would be of the contract that was in effect prior to that. The County has, through the wisdom of Mayor Kenoi and in consultation with Budgeting and HR, taken the safe road and budgeted for continuing wages and the 60/40 EUTF for the County of Hawaii. The position of the employer is that the supplemental time off is a non-cost issue, and while that's debatable, since it is paid time off, the employee cannot cash out that time at the end of the contract. The employee can accumulate it for two years and take the time off with the approval of the supervisor, but the employee must either use it or lose it. The issue of employee shortage at certain facilities opens the door for supplemental agreements for jurisdictions to enter into regarding implementation and to come up with terms that would be applicable to each jurisdiction. C) Other Items of Current Interest. At the end of last year, the department lost Daniel Santos to retirement. Since that time, the department has lost the services of two clerks and has hired a new specialist, Jennifer Sakamoto, who transferred from the Department of Public Works. As part of the organization of the department, Mr. Takahashi's plan had been to downsize and become more efficient, create more generalists and get away from the specialized areas. A pool of three generalists has been created, and the department is moving toward that direction. Mr. Takahashi anticipates losing two more employees this year through retirement, and the department is gearing up and training staff to face the reality that they won't be filling positions. Mr. De Lima stated his concern that Mr. Takahashi's good management is going to come back and haunt him, because if he keeps the positions vacant and it comes time to review where the administration needs to take money from, Mr. Takahashi may lose those positions. However, if Mr. Takahashi filled it now and people retiree, at least he'd have a longer period for training. Mr. Takahashi stated that he has taken that into consideration in their discussions, and he has a plan that he believes they can implement. The department did purchase online software program for recruitment, which in 9