2011-07-27 Merit Appeals Board Minutes

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Aowkk A01% As a courtesy, because of the island's large geographic size, public hearings are normally held in both Hilo and Kona. An option that she could look into if the Board chooses is to do videoconference meetings that allow both audio and visual. If the visual goes out, the meeting can be continued by audio only, as long as all the materials and everything else is accessible and available to everybody. The other consideration is, for instance, if Mr. Silva is in Kona and they have a quorum of three, if the videoconferencing (i.e., electricity) goes out and he's no longer accessible, then there's no longer a quorum to continue. Chair Yoshiyama asked whether they need a quorum to receive input from the public. He noted that it's not a debate or an exchange of ideas; it may be an explanation as to what the amendments are, but the public hearing is to receive information. Ms. Noda stated that she would check into that. Mr. Takahashi noted that previous practice on rules changes when they held public hearings was the director and secretary would open and conduct the public hearing. He doesn't believe they need to have that quorum. Chair Yoshiyama asked Mr. Takahashi about rule changes for the director. Mr. Takahashi noted that they are working on that, and there will be substantive changes to it, one of which will be to clarify the issue of filing appeals to the Board for probationary appointments. The Board scheduled the public hearing for 9:00 a.m., September 21, 2011 and decided to have only one public hearing in Hilo. DIRECTOR'S REPORT Mr. Takahashi reported the following: A) The County of Hawaii has negotiated a supplemental agreement with HGEA where they will have one -day furloughs beginning this Friday and thereafter the first Friday of every month for the next two fiscal years. The Mayor also negotiated a supplemental agreement to keep the EUTF contributions at 60/40 instead of 50150. Other unions are still in negotiations. 7