HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-01-20 Salary Commission Minutes Page 1
BEFORE THE SALARY COMMISSION
COUNTY OF HAWAII
TRANSCRIPT
of the meeting had with the Salary Commission, County
of Hawaii had at the County Council Conference Room,
25 Aupuni Street, Hilo, Hawaii 96720,
commencing at 10 : 00 a.m. on January 20, 2017 .
TAKEN BEFORE: M. SHARON SOUZA, CSR NO. 184
Members of the Salary Commission:
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Chairman: Pudding Lassiter
Members : George J. Handgis
Florence K. Ikeda
Melvin S. Morimoto
Hugh Y. Ono
Board' s Counsel : RENEE SCHOEN, Esq.
Deputy Corporation Counsel
101 Aupuni Street, Suite 325
Hilo, Hawaii 96720
Also present:
County of Hawaii
Human Resources : Sharon Toriano
William Brilhante
Jennifer Sakamoto
Jamie Martines
Kim Kailipaka
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1 MS . LASSITER: This meeting will please come
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2 to order. As we are kind of new at this for some of 4
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3 these people, I ' d like them to introduce themselves as
4 we start from like Mrs . Ikeda, would you please
5 introduce yourself?
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6 MS . IKEDA: Yes, I 'm Florence Ikeda .
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7 MS . LASSITER: Thank you.
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8 Renee?
9 MS . SCHOEN: Good morning, Renee Schoen,
10 Deputy Corporation Counsel .
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11 MR. MORIMOTO: Good morning, my name is Mel
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12 Morimoto .
13 MR. ONO: I 'm Hugh Ono.
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14 MS . LASSITER: Sharon?
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15 MS . TORIANO: Good morning, Sharon Toriano,
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16 human resources director . And with me --
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17 MR. HANDGIS : Good morning, everybody, aloha.
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18 It ' s George Handgis .
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19 MS . LASSITER: You heard them all?
20 THE COURT REPORTER: Yes, thank you.
21 MS . LASSITER: Now, this morning as we start,
22 you know, we haven' t been here since 2014, and we have
23 some new members here that realize that sitting up
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24 here is a lot of work. And so as we go along and we 4
25 question anybody here, it may be only to help them get t
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1 started, not necessarily what we are talking about for
2 right now. So give them a few minutes to be
3 comfortable, and if should we ask any questions if
4 you ' re not familiar with, please question. i
5Let ' s go to the agenda -- onto the agenda page
6 that you folks all have the information on -- and now
7 I will do the actual real roll call . We just did a
8 practice for everybody. So now we ' ll do the real roll
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9 call .
10 Present, I 'm Pudding Lassiter.
11 MS . IKEDA: I 'm Florence Ikeda -- I 'm Florence
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12 Ikeda .
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13 MS . SCHOEN: Renee Schoen. I
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14 MR. MORIMOTO: Mel Morimoto .
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15 MR. ONO: Hugh Ono present . 1
16 MR. HANDGIS : George Handgis in Kona.
17 MS . LASSITER: And Sharon Toriano. We ' re all 1
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18 here, okay. Thank you so much.
19 Okay. There ' s been some things that we have
20 to have right now done . Do we have anybody here that
21 would like to come forth from the public with any
22 business? No.
23 MS . TORIANO: We have none in Kona, but we
24 have, though, however, a representative from the fire
25 commission who is sitting in, and his name is Scott
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1 Sussman.
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2 MS . LASSITER: And would Scott like to share
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3 some information with us?
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4 MS . TORIANO: No, he ' s going to quietly sit
5 there he said. 1
6 MS . LASSITER: He ' s welcome to try.
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7 MR. SUSSMAN: Thank you very much for what
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8 you ' re doing. Thank you.
9 MS . LASSITER: Right . If you feel comfortable
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10 -- why, just get up there and say something, you' re A
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11 welcome to, you ' re far away from us .
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12 MR. SUSSMAN: Okay, thank you very much.
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13 MS . LASSITER: Could I have an approval of the 1
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14 minutes?
15 MR. ONO: So moved.
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16 MS . IKEDA: I second. g
17 MS . LASSITER: Moved and second.
18 Do we have any discussion or any corrections
19 that need to be made at this time?
20 MR. ONO: Can we, as new members, assume that
21 the minutes are correct?
22 MS . LASSITER: Yes, you can.
23 MR. ONO: Thank you. 1
24 MS . LASSITER: Could I have a vote on that,
25 please, all in favor of the minutes .
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1 ALL MEMBERS : Aye .
2 MS . LASSITER: Thank you, sir.
3 Then it ' s passed.
4 Now we have some communications here dated
5 December 22nd from Guy Schutte, chair of the police
6 commission concerning equitable salary of the County
7 of Hawaii police chief and deputy police chief. You
8 all have that communications -- you can read.
9 MS . SCHOEN: So Madam Chair and members of the
10 commission, usually when you receive communications
11 what the commission does is review those
12 communications, and you would usually accept and file
13 those communications and/or decide whether or not
14 you 'd like to act upon them at a later time, at
15 another meeting .
16 MS . LASSITER: So consequently, I think
17 because it ' s a new day for all of you people here, and
18 you read what the letter from Guy Schutte was about
19 and asking, I think that you need to prepare yourself
20 to look into a little bit more research into this and
21 perhaps at the next meeting we can discuss it . Any
22 favorable comments on that?
23 MR. ONO: Hugh Ono, totally agree .
24 MS . LASSITER: Okay, thank you.
25 MS . IKEDA: I agree, I reviewed it . I agree .
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1 MS . LASSITER: Don' t feel nervous, because
2 this is a big job to take on, this salary commission
3 thing, and if you ' re uncomfortable right now, you' ll
4 be more comfortable next time you come in here, so
5 don ' t worry about it .
6 Mr. Morimoto?
7 MR. MORIMOTO: Yes, I agree with the rest of
8 the commission.
9 MS . LASSITER: And how about you, George, over
10 there in Kona?
11 MR. HANDGIS : Hi, Pudding. Forgive me,
12 please, would you mind repeating your last sentence?
13 MS . LASSITER: My last sentence was, hi,
14 George, over there in Kona .
15 MR. HANDGIS : Oh, nice, well done . The next
16 to the last -- hey, excuse me . Golly, it ' s nice to
17 see everybody getting together . The last thing that
18 you had said, I missed the --
19 MS . LASSITER: I said right now the new
20 commission members should read on, because they can ' t
21 make a decision on this today. There is more involved
22 in this than it looks to be, so it ' s something they
23 can maybe next month when we resume ourselves, it ' s
24 something that we ' re better prepared to discuss .
25 MR. HANDGIS : All right . Thanks, Pudding. If
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1 it matters, I certainly agree .
2 MS . LASSITER: Thank you. So all agreed upon?
3 MS . IKEDA: Yes .
4 MS . LASSITER: Yes .
5 MS . TORIANO: Madam Chair --
6 MS . LASSITER: Yes, Ma ' am.
7 MS . TORIANO: This is Sharon Toriano.
8 I just wanted to inform you that the police
9 commission is meeting here at the West Hawaii Civic
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10 Center, and if they have an opportunity to break, and
11 come in, I believe they will come by to testify on
12 behalf of the petition to the commission.
13 MS . LASSITER: I think that ' s well said, thank
14 you.
15 MS . TORIANO: Thank you.
16 MS . LASSITER: Okay. We have a communication
17 from Sharon received on January 11th, entitled,
18 executive salary jurisdiction comparison. Can you
19 please explain that to them, please, Sharon?
20 MS . TORIANO: With pleasure .
21 In order to conduct your reviews, one of the
22 factors of consideration has always been to look
23 across the State of Hawaii and consider those
24 positions that are also covered under a salary
25 commission and what the compensation rates are. So
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1 this information, typically, is brought forth to every
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2 salary commission when they need -- decisions have to
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3 be made .
4 Mahalo to Jenny Sakamoto, I think she ' s there .
5 Jenny is our classification and pay division head, and
6 she works very closely with her counterparts to gather
7 this information for us .
8 MS . LASSITER: Thank you, Sharon.
9 Let ' s move on to communications dated 11/2016,
10 the collective bargaining, are you all familiar with
11 that?
12 Sharon, would you please explain to them the
13 collective bargaining too.
14 Sharon?
15 MS . TORIANO: I am sorry, I was babbling but
16 the mike was off .
17 MS . LASSITER: Oh, could you rebabble?
18 MS . TORIANO: With pleasure .
19 This information is being offered up to the
20 salary commission after considering the letter that we
21 received from the Police Commissioner Guy Schutte. He
22 identifies in his letter the concerns with salary
23 inversion, the concern with our exempt personnel not
24 keeping pace with collective bargaining, which as
25 always is your subordinate personnel .
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1 Guy mentions in his letter what he would
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2 recommend. And to give you some framework of the
3 adjustments that have been occurring in collective
4 bargaining, this information was prepared for you.
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5 We ' ve included the contract periods so that you' re
6 familiar with -- contracts may be two years, some may
7 be four years . In this case, for police, it was a
8 six-year agreement .
9 So over the six years and looking at this
10 grid, it ' s Bargaining Unit 12, and it ' s roughly been
11 about seventeen percent . And that ' s a conservative
12 amount . Seventeen is calculated just on
13 across-the-board increases during the six years .
14 If you ask me what did we build the budget on
15 given step movements, catch-up step movements, et
16 cetera, it ' d be closer to like twenty-three percent .
17 But we took the most conservative, which is just the
18 across-the-board increases that the collective
19 bargaining had to give you some frame of reference of
20 what Mr . Schutte was pointing to .
21 Any questions?
22 MS . LASSITER: What is your process of
23 collective bargaining -- is the question asked.
24 MS . TORIANO: That is a good question. We
25 have within each collective bargaining agreement a
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1 date where each party can open renegotiations, and
2 it ' s based upon the contract expiring.
3 Right now, all of our collective bargaining rr
4 agreements are scheduled to expire on June 30, 2017 .
5 So we are in negotiations with all of the bargaining
6 units with the exception of police, they start
7 sometime in October. But during that process, besides
8 the different articles or sections in the collective
9 bargaining agreement, wages and salaries are a focus
10 piece for most of the bargaining units . So that
11 negotiation process involves employer putting forth
12 their proposals, union putting forth their proposals
13 so they can come to some agreement on each of the
14 proposals . And if we are unable to resolve, we would
15 typically submit to interest arbitration, and that, in
16 itself, is another process . The arbitrator would then
17 render a decision. We will take that decision
18 forward to the counsel for funding, and once funded,
19 we then execute the decision.
20 I hope that summarizes it, but if there is a
21 question in there that I can be more specific to,
22 please let me know.
23 MS . LASSITER: Do you people have any
24 questions for her?
25 MR. ONO: I do not .
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1 MS . LASSITER: I would like someone to make a
2 motion to file all three issues that she ' s talked
3 about .
4 MS . IKEDA: I move .
5 MR. ONO: Second the motion .
6 MS . LASSITER: Thank you, Sharon.
7 Oh, we have to take a vote .
8 All in favor?
9 ALL MEMBERS : Aye .
10 MR. HANDGIS : George, Aye .
11 MS . LASSITER: Thank you.
12 So now I want to bring in a new subject . I
13 want to talk on the new business about the inversion
14 that some of you questioned about . And maybe
15 Mr. Brilhante, do you have some information that you
16 can pass out on that?
17 MS . SCHOEN: Madam Chair, are you on new
18 business relating to review of existing compensation?
19 MS . LASSITER: I want to bring in inversion
20 before that .
21 MS . SCHOEN: All right . We ' ll go to new
22 business for review of existing compensation plan to
23 include consideration of possible decision-making on
24 proposals for adjustment to current salaries of
25 executives and elected officials .
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1 Do you have any discussion on that?
2 MR. ONO: Yes, I move that we place
3 appropriate items on the next meeting agenda to
4 discussion the police commissions request as well
5 there may be some other positions out there that fall
6 into this similar or same category.
7 MS . LASSITER: Are you making a motion on
8 that?
9 MR. ONO: Yes .
10 MS . LASSITER: Do I have a second?
11 MR. HANDGIS : Second, George .
12 MS . LASSITER: Take a vote -- any discussion
13 on that?
14 MR. MORIMOTO: I 'm sorry, can you repeat your
15 motion again?
16 MR. ONO: Yeah. I moved we place an item on
17 the agenda to take a look at the communication,
18 especially 16-1 that was submitted, as well as any
19 other positions out there that fall into the same
20 category where you have this inversion taking place .
21 I would hope that in the process of discussion
22 someone can identify what some of those other
23 positions are for the salary commission. I do not =`
24 know what they are, I can guess at it, but I don ' t
25 know what they are.
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1 MR. MORIMOTO: Madam Chair, if I may ask, can
2 we not go into executive session to discuss those
3 salary amounts and inversions, instead of going to
4 another meeting, is that appropriate at this time?
J.
5 MS . SCHOEN: Well, you know, the commission is
6 always -- always can go into executive session if you
7 want any type of legal voice related to powers,
8 duties, privileges, or responsibilities under the
9 charter.
10 How I 'm looking at the agenda today is that
11 there ' s a piece on there for you to look at -- what I
12 think is proposals for adjustment to current salaries
13 of all executives and all elected officials .
14 Mr. Ono mentioned a possible inversion as it
15 related -- as it was related in the communication from
16 the police commission, so that is -- I look at as a
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17 separate, a second piece . So I think the first thing
18 you should look at is whether or not you should review
19 all of the elective -- executive and elected
20 officials ' salaries, and then including police, and
21 then whether or not there is any type of inversion
22 within those positions .
23 So one thing you could do is -- I ' ll have
24 discussion on it today, maybe review numbers that were
25 provided by the department, and then at your next
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1 meeting, another option would be to appoint a
2 subcommittee that would look at it more closely, or
3 you could all just meet again at the next meeting and
4 have a discussion. But because of the Sunshine Law,
5 it precludes you from meeting individually and
6 discussing board business . So one way that boards get
7 -- I wouldn ' t say get around that, but one way boards
8 can have meetings is to appoint subcommittees to
9 discuss these matters more closely. And some of you
10 may be aware of that and have been on this board
11 before, and that has been done in the past .
12 You don' t have to do that, though. You can
13 have a discussion today. You have the director and
14 deputy director here to discuss and answer any
15 questions you may have on the current salaries across
16 the State .
17 MR. ONO: So question, with that said, should
18 I withdraw my motion and restructure it somehow? Are
19 we -- kind of getting off into the future a little bit
20 too far.
21 MS . SCHOEN: No, I think your motion is final,
22 actually, because I understood your motion as wanting
23 to consider any type of inversion as discussed by the
24 police commission, okay. So that falls within looking
25 at everybody' s salary.
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1 MR. ONO: Okay, okay, so that ' s it . Thank
2 you.
3 MS . TORIANO: This is Sharon. I have a
4 question. I anticipated that the question on
5 inversion would come up, not just for police, but for
6 other departments, because in the past it ' s come up
7 with other meetings . I believe we are prepared to
8 share information, but may we table the discussion for ;4
9 the next meeting, if that would help?
10 MS. SCHOEN: That ' s fine . Whatever ' s the
11 commission' s pleasure .
12 MR. ONO: When I made my motion that was the
13 intent to not include only the police department, but
14 other positions that -- all the positions actually
15 within the County of Hawaii .
16 MR. HANDGIS : This is George . It sounds like
17 that would certainly be a productive use of time, make
18 things more efficient .
19 MS . LASSITER: At this time, do any of you
20 want to have any discussion on this? Any questions
21 that you can relate to --
22 MR. MORIMOTO: I have a question, Madam Chair.
23 MS . LASSITER: Yes, sir.
24 MR. MORIMOTO: Wouldn ' t it be prudent upon us
25 to -- being that the contract would be expiring June
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1 30th of this year, would it be prudent for the
2 commission to look at overall salary increases of
3 everyone versus only the police commission -- police
4 salary, the chief and deputy chief . I know it hasn ' t
5 expired yet, but it will be coming up in a few months .
6 MS . LASSITER: Any discussion on that?
7 MR. ONO: I, personally, my recommendation is
8 not to wait for that. I think there is a
9 generalization of things that happened. So we can
10 have a discussion while the contracts are in
11 negotiation to better understand the dynamics of
12 what ' s going on with this inversion.
13 MS . SCHOEN: Madam Chair, Mr. Brilhante is in
14 the room and also Sharon in Kona, so why don ' t you
15 invite them up and they might have some information
16 especially on some communication provided by the
17 department .
18 MS . LASSITER: Mr. Brilhante, for the benefit
19 of Mrs . Ikeda and Mr. Ono -- I don ' t know their first
20 name, but I ' ll introduce you to them.
21 MR. BRILHANTE : Thank you, Madam Chair, and
22 commissioners . William Brilhante, deputy HR director,
}
23 I have to be careful of how I introduce myself, but
24 I 'm a little bit nervous . I 've had several jobs
25 within the last couple of weeks .
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1 But just to clarify -- I 'm hoping to try and
2 clarify this issue here . If you look at the agenda,
3 the agenda is -- specifically, if you look at the
4 compensation plan for the salaries of executives and
5 elected officials -- and just to be clear, the chief
6 of police and the deputy would fall under one of the
7 executives of the administration.
8 I think what we would like to do from the HR
9 department perspective is to be able to provide you
10 some information, and to have some initial discussion
11 regarding what the current state of the salaries are
12 as it relates to the deputies and the department
13 heads, the directors, in comparison to what the
14 mid-level managers or their subordinates are making .
15 I mean we can provide that information today to you,
16 then it can be for you to -- prior to the next
17 meeting, to go home and do your homework and do
18 whatever you feel necessary in order for you to be
19 able to make a fully informed decision, and have maybe
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20 more dialog and discussion at the next scheduled
21 salary commission meeting. I just wanted to provide
22 that option, and put that on the table for your
23 consideration.
24 MS . LASSITER: Any discussion?
25 MR. ONO: That ' s good.
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1 MS . LASSITER: Any discussion from people?
2 Thank you so much.
3 It ' s nice to have you here .
4 MR. BRILHANTE : Would you like me to continue?
5 MS . LASSITER: Yes, please do .
6 MR. BRILHANTE : Okay. Great .
7 What I 'm going to do is, I 'm going to provide
8 a handout here . And it ' s a -- it ' s a handout, again,
9 that was prepared by our office staff, and it ' s
10 regarding specific department heads, their deputies,
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11 and comparison to their highest paid managerial
12 position, which we would like refer to some issues
13 like inversion where the managers are making more than
14 the department heads or the deputies --
15 MS . SCHOEN: Mr. Brilhante, does Kona have
16 that document?
17 MR. HANDGIS : Yes .
18 MS . TORIANO: Yes .
19 MR. BRILHANTE: I believe Director Sharon
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20 Toriano provided it to the people in Kona .
21 If you look at this chart, it ' s entitled
22 highest paid subordinates, and that ' s what we ' re
23 comparing . And in the first column it says,
24 departments, so identifies each of the departments .
25 The second column identifies the salaries of each of
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1 the department heads . The third column -- and I 'm
2 moving from left to right . The third column is the
3 salaries of the deputies . And then you look at the
4 position numbers and the title of the mid-level
5 managers or the subordinates, and that ' s under title,
6 and to the right have had that is the actual salaries .
7 So if you can just look at that, you can see
8 there is one two, three, four, five, six, seven,
9 eight, nine -- about twelve departments currently
10 where the mid-level managers or the subordinates are
11 being compensated at a higher rate than the department
12 heads and/or the deputies within that department . And
13 that ' s -- and I think that ' s what predicated or is the
14 genesis behind today' s discussion, is it ' s been
15 brought to the concern of the department of human
16 resources through the correspondence from the police
17 commission, you know, that was a concern of theirs,
18 specifically related to the chief of police ' s salary
19 and the deputies, and that came to their attention
20 during the recent recruitment for the new chief. You
21 know, I guess there was some communication that may be
22 the best qualifier, or more qualified candidates, or
23 whatever the like may be, weren' t interested in the
24 position because they would have to take a reduction
25 in pay. And you know, I think we hate to see that
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1 type of situation present itself . And that was the
2 initial step that everybody took when we decided or
3 when this matter was decided, like we should have a
4 discussion regarding it .
5 Also on that chart, if you look, there was a
6 -- just a comparison with communication that was made
7 to us that has recently took place on Maui through
8 Maui ' s salary commission, was that the County of Maui
9 is in the process, and I think at this time, I 'm going
10 to call Jenny Sakamoto, who ' s the head of the
11 classification and pay division within our department .
12 And she ' s been in communication with Maui regarding
13 the actions that they' re proposing to take on Maui as
14 it relates to the salaries of their department heads .
15 MS . SAKAMOTO: Hi, good morning. I 'm Jenny
16 Sakamoto, classification and pay. Yeah, so Maui
17 salary commission recently approved twelve percent
18 across the board for their executive pay. So I
19 believe that is reflected already in the handout that
20 was provided to you folks .
21 MR. ONO: Uh hmm.
22 MS . SAKAMOTO: I also found out this morning
23 that the City and County of Honolulu salary commission
24 will be meeting on Tuesday. So these salaries are
25 reflective of what ' s currently there, but they may
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1 also be moving forward with a different proposal . I 'm
2 not sure . They' re very interested to see what our
3 salary commission decides today so .
4 MR. BRILHANTE : Also I ' d like to invite
5 Director Toriano to provide additional information.
6 MS . TORIANO: Thank you. And Bill, well done .
7 It ' s -- inversion is one issue, I think, one
8 of the challenges this commission faces, has also to
9 do with how we manage adjustments going forward. And
10 I believe it was mentioned earlier that with
11 negotiations going on, we are at risk -- we ' re always
12 falling behind in our executive pay, because once the
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13 contract comes up, an adjustment is made, we might be
14 right back where we started come June. But whatever f
15 comes out of this, I would hope that the salary
16 commission would continue to meet to address on a long
17 term basis how we might address this issue .
18 Thank you.
19 MS . LASSITER: Thank you, Sharon.
20 Any other discussion?
21 MR. BRILHANTE : May I correct the record, I 'm
22 sorry. I just wanted to correct the record of
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23 something I said earlier. I don' t want to leave any
24 misimpression as to what I was saying . As related to
25 the police commission, I just want to say that
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1 Chief Ferreira, in my opinion, by far and away, the
2 most qualified candidate they could have considered
3 for that position for chief of police . I don ' t want
4 to make any allusions to the fact that, well, they
5 felt they didn ' t have the best qualified candidates .
6 I think the concern was in the future, moving forward,
7 you know, very well qualified candidates may not be
8 interested in applying for the position because of the
9 current situation, the possibility of a reduction of
10 salary. But I just wanted to make clear that in my
11 opinion, Chief Ferreira is by far and away would have
12 been the best candidate, and is the best candidate for
13 that chief of police position.
14 MS . LASSITER: Jenny, did you have something
15 wanted to add?
16 Mrs . Ikeda, go ahead.
17 MS . IKEDA: So this chart that you gave us the
18 current figure -- so this chart that you gave us are
19 current figures, is that correct?
20 MR. BRILHANTE : Those were current as of
21 January 1st, 2017 because under the collective
22 bargaining agreements the mid-level managers received
23 a raise on January 1st, so this is correct -- the
24 correct figures .
25 MS . IKEDA: Is it possible to get a projected
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1 chart, so like when collective bargaining goes
2 through, say for instance, you project four percent
3 every year, and you go forth three years, that would
4 be nine percent . And if you show us like at what the
5 highest paid collective bargaining person would be,
6 and what their top pay would be, you know, at the end
7 of this bargaining, it ' s just a projected chart so
8 that we would know what kind of we are looking at down
9 the road.
10 MR. BRILHANTE : That is definitely something
11 we can do. Again, just to be clear, there ' s no way we
12 can really definitively make a determination as to
13 whether or not the collective bargaining units will be
14 getting raises and, if so, what percent raise . You
15 know, historically, if we look back, there ' s been
16 three percent raises, or four percent raises, or
17 something to that effect, but there is no guarantee
18 moving forward that those numbers will be the same .
4
19 So what we can do is we can come up with maybe two or
20 three different scenarios, maybe a one percent raise,
21 or two percent raise, or four percent raise, and we
22 can project that out if that ' s your wishes .
23 MS . IKEDA: I understand that, you know, it
24 depends, because I 've been through collective
25 bargaining, but it ' s just figures that we could just
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1 look at to see approximately what we ' re looking at
2 down the road. It might not come to fruition, but we )'
3 have figures to look at .
4 MR. BRILHANTE : I think that ' s a good idea,
5 and I think that ' s something we can definitely prepare
6 for the next meeting.
7 MR. MORIMOTO: Madam Chair, a question for
8 Bill .
9 Bill, every city and county or every other
10 county on the island, the department heads have
11 different salaries, and I have to assume it ' s based
12 upon an amount of responsibility that they undertake,
13 the amount of manpower that they have under them. Is
14 the number that you posed -- is that impacted into
15 that, is that projected into it?
16 MR. BRILHANTE : When we talk about percentage
17 raise, the reason we use raises and discuss it in
18 percentages is because you ' re absolutely correct,
2
19 maybe City and County of Honolulu, or County of Maui,
20 there may be a different basis or a different
21 formulation that they use to determine their
22 department head raises .
23 MR. MORIMOTO: Yeah.
24 MR. BRILHANTE : And that formulation could be
25 based on responsibility, size of the department, size
6
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1 of the community they' re serving and the like . And
2 that ' s why when we talk about percentage raises, we
3 say, okay, here' s the base salary, here ' s the salary
4 that our department heads have . And then if Maui
5 doing a twelve percent raise, then when we look at a
6 twelve percent raise, the twelve percent raise is
)
7 reflective of an increase into the County of Hawaii ' s
8 current salary. So it ' s not really indicative of how
9 much they' re making on Maui, for example .
10 I 'm sure I made that clear as mud.
11 MR. MORIMOTO: Being this island has the
12 greatest land area, land mass than all of the rest of
13 the other islands combined, it does impact how
14 services are provided to the community, because of
15 such great distances, is that factored in?
16 MR. BRILHANTE : You know, I 'm going to defer
17 to Director Toriano . In my opinion, I would say that
18 consideration is made and is reflected in the salary,
19 but you know, I think I 'm going to allow a higher
20 source of information provide the answer.
21 MS . TORIANO: Nice hand off and great
22 question.
23 The best way to address that question -- in
24 the past, there was an executive pay plan, and through
25 the efforts of the commissioners having interviewed
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1and considered factors such as size of the department,
2 number of positions, questions they had to manage, the
3 salary commission assigned positions in to a tier.
i
4 And then they created, within the tier an eight-year
4
5 step plan. Eight years, I believe, was predicated on 0
6 -- that ' s the duration of the mayor' s terms, maximum
eA
7 duration. And so individuals would move through this
8 pay plan overtime .
9 In that sense at that time, I do think there
10 was a great amount of consideration as to the
11 complexity and scope of responsibility. When we did
0
12 away with that pay plan, my general opinion is that we
13 went clearly -- our focus was clearly on the inversion N
14 issue, and we 've not moved off of that since.
15 This goes back to my earlier statement that I
16 would hope going forward, the commission would
17 continue to meet to see what, if anything, we can do
18 on a long term basis to address this .
0
x
19 I will tell you that as long as collective
20 bargaining continues to receive increases, and should
21 we not address our exempt appointees, they will always
22 continue to fall behind. I
3
23 But there is a challenge here too. A lot of
1
0
0
24 these individuals who are the highest paid in the
f
25 department, they have been with the county for
1
3
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1 probably close to 25-plus years . That ' s how they
2 ended up being on the high end of the salary range .
4
3 When that person vacates, the next person may not be
4
4 as high a salary, we don ' t know.
i
3
5 But those are my comments, I guess .
6 Questions?
7 MR. MORIMOTO: So Sharon, this here did not
8 address the inversion rates?
f
9 MS . TORIANO: My impression was that it didn ' t
4
10 need to. f
11 MR. MORIMOTO: It didn ' t need to?
12 MS . TORIANO: Because there were steps in the t4.
13 range that people would be moved to and continuous
14 increases .
15 MR. HANDGIS : So this is George.
16 So Sharon, you ' re talking about over time?
17 MS . TORIANO: Over time -- eight-year span.
18 MR. HANDGIS : Okay. Degradation. Eight-year
19 span. Degradation in difference .
20 And how many -- how many of these, if these
21 are the -- this is George still -- so 3, 6, 9, 12, 15
22 it looks like here, but quickly, how many of those
23 positions, those exceptions would be people that have
1
24 been, say, due to a case class -- I 'm trying to
i
25 quantify, just rougher approximation, please.
0
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1 MS . TORIANO: I would say, greater than eighty
2 percent of them.
3 Jenny -- m'
4 MR. HANDGIS : Wow, so let me finish, please -- 1
5 again, I 'm sorry, this is George . I hate to 1
6 interrupt, forgive me .
7 But perhaps, theoretically, but looking at it
3
8 realistically, coming from the private sector, then in 1
9 eighty percent, not to quote you verbatim, but if
10 eighty percent of these situations where someone will
11 always have after two decades, we would be replacing
12 that person probably not at that salary level or
13 compensation level?
14 MS . TORIANO: It ' s possible, yes .
15 MR. HANDGIS : Highly possible, I would think
16 after twenty years --
F
17 MS . TORIANO: The replacement may not actually
0
18 -- in certain departments like fire, police, there is
19 a definite career ladder promotional opportunity
20 there . Those might be your exceptions .
21 MR. HANDGIS : Okay, okay.
22 MS. TORIANO: But Jenny, not to put you on the
23 spot, both Jenny and I were not here, I guess, at the
1
24 time when executive pay plan was in place, but if you
0
25 have any more comments to add to the tier pay plan,
1
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1 please do so .
2 MS . SAKAMOTO: Yeah, as Sharon mentioned, I '
3 was not in HR at the time they developed that pay
4 plan. But from what I understand, it was an involved
5 process where the salary commission had actually
6 brought in the directors, interviewed them, looked at
7 all of what they were responsible for in terms of like
8 their subordinates, held licenses, that kind of stuff,
9 professional level, amount of the budgets, amount of
10 employees . So they took into consideration a lot of
11 factors that we look at in classification. And they
12 developed a pay plan accordingly, and they kind of
13 ranked the directors based off of that information
14 that was provided to them at the time .
15 And then they developed like a salary schedule
16 so -- and then within that pay plan, I believe it had
17 provisions for step movements and so forth. So after
18 they developed that pay plan, there wasn' t as much of
19 a need for the salary commission to meet, because
20 they had already developed this system, and it was
21 already in place to allow for automatic step
22 movements as they gained years of service and so
23 forth. And then so I guess every so often they would
24 have to meet to kind of update what that pay plan is,
25 so they could adjust the salaries . So maybe they gave
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1 everybody a five percent across the board or whatever
2 it was . So that was my understanding of the work that
3 was involved. I believe if it might have been 2004 ,
4 but don ' t quote me on that .
5 But we could also provide you with that
6 information so you can see the plan that was developed
7 at the time . But I believe they did consciously rank
8 the different directors into tiers according to the
9 area of responsibility, and they looked at a lot of
10 the stuff that you ' re talking about now.
11 MR. MORIMOTO: Maybe it ' s a little bit
12 premature, but it sounds like it ' s a more accurate way
13 of allocating raises to salaried executives, am I
14 wrong to make a statement like that?
15 MR. BRILHANTE : I 'm not sure if I ' d use
16 accurate, but I ' ll say it ' s a more current, maybe,
17 adjective to describe that . And the reason is that,
18 say today, hypothetically, we -- the commission makes
19 a decision, okay, we ' re going to give this percent
20 raise to everybody. Today, that percentage is fine .
1
21 But a year from now, two years from now, we may fall
22 back into the same situation because once you
23 authorize the pay, the directors ' s pay is then set at
24 that level . In the future, until this body comes
25 back, and has another discussion and makes another
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4
1 decision as to whether or not the department head 1
i
2 raises should be provided.
1
4
3 So I think you' re correct in that assumption
1
4 that with the step movement, a consideration of a step
5 movement, you fall -- you maintain a policy or program
6 where the department heads get regular raises, the
V
4
7 same way that the mid-level managers get raises
8 through the collective bargaining system.
1
j
q
9 The concern with that, and I know that this
1
10 was a discussion several years back, though, is that
1
11 if -- in some departments, and I 'm playing devil ' s
1
12 advocate, I 'm giving you the broad spectrum here . In 1
13 some departments, say, for example, corporation 00
14 counsel or the prosecutor ' s office, the salary of the
1
15deputies in that office is, by charter, can be no more
16 than a certain percentage of what the department rt
17 head makes . So as the department head progresses in
1
18 years, I believe -- let ' s take Jay Kimura, for an
1
19 example, as he progressed in years of service, he got
20 the step movement, but at the time he retired, and I
21 believe Sharon, you can correct me, Charlene Iboshi,
22 his deputy, took the helm. And because she was now a il
i
23 new department head, her salary dropped back to the
g
24 beginning stage of the step movements, and there would
0
25 have been an adverse effect on the deputies under her
1
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1 because their pay, which was tied in to Jay' s, was no
2 more than ninety percent of Jay Kimura ' s pay. When
3 Charlene came in, their salaries would have been no
0
4 more than ninety percent of Charlene ' s pay. And since
0
0
5 there was a reduction at that time, the subordinates
1
6 would have been adversely affected.
7 So that ' s the situation that presented itself
0
8 with the step movement policy.
i
9 MR. ONO: I have a question. So currently, e
10 help me to understand, the executive salaries right
1
f
11 now are set, or are they on a step movement plan, or
12 was the step movement something that happened before?
13 MS . SAKAMOTO: Yeah. So I can ' t remember
i
14 exactly what year it occurred, but the salary
15 commission at the time that was meeting, decided to
4
C
16 get rid of that pay plan. So there ' s no provision
17 right now for step movements on a regular basis . So
C
18 when you look at the current pay plan, which I 'm not
19 sure if you have it in front of you, but it just lists
0
20 one salary for each director and deputy.
21 MR. ONO: Yeah, okay. 1
22 MS . SAKAMOTO: So unless you folks meet and
23 authorize an increase, they' re going to stay at that
k
24 salary forever.
g
25 MR. ONO: It ' s set?
4
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1 MS . SAKAMOTO: Yes . So that ' s why I think they
2 developed that pay plan, so that they could allow for
3 regular increases without the salary commission having
4 to continuously meet and look at it, and figure out
5 the salary.
6 MR. ONO: Does anybody recall roughly the
7 years within which that took place where the
1
8 appointees had step increases, roughly?
9 MS . SAKAMOTO: I feel -- right off the top of
10 my head, I 'm not sure . I would have to go back and
11 look.
12 MR. ONO: Because as far as my recollection,
13 back in the ' 80s, those executive salaries were again
14 set like they are today.
15 So was there something that happened
16 in-between the ' 80s and currently where they had this
17 kind of step movement kind of thing?
18 MS . SAKAMOTO: Yeah.
19 MR. BRILHANTE : Yeah, I believe it was in
20 2004, so.
21 MS . SAKAMOTO: Yeah, I think in 2004 they had
22 a pay plan -- so we can share that with you so you can
23 see --
24 MR. ONO: Okay, okay, okay. No, no need to
25 get the information, I 'm just curious .
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4
1 MS . SAKAMOTO: So that pay plan kind of
1
2 existed so that for the next eight years they didn ' t
3 really have any reason to meet, because it was already
i
4 provided for and planned out and automatic. So that V
5 when they gave them the increases, they had the
6 authority to provide those increases . But now, v
7 because of the way the pay is set, there is no 5
8 authority to allow us to provide increases to any of
w
9 the executives that are in place now.
10 So if you look -- I think there was some --
11 there might have been some who never got raises this
12 whole time, even before 2014, that we have been --
13 some department heads never got any increases, because
r.
14 the way the commission was looking at it was purely
15 inversion. And so they would only look, okay, well,
16 if your subordinate is making more than you, we ' ll
17 give you a higher pay. And if that never happened for
18 that department, they may not have received any
o
19 increases .
20 And you know like what Bill was talking about d
v
t
21 with the attorneys, you know, the way that the
22 particular plan was written, after, you know, you have
23 a new administration, they go back to that first step.
v
24 So that could have just been changed so that
25 it continues on or whatever. You know, they could
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1 have just changed that language, but what happened was
2 they got rid of that whole pay plan.
3 So now for you folks, you can look at it and
4 you can say, do we still want to continue on with that
5 one salary, or is it something that you want to look
6 at to create a pay plan so that it ' s already -- you
7 don ' t have to worry about continuously meeting to look
8 at the inversion issue, or whatever, to keep up with
9 collective bargaining, and those other issues that
10 come up about .
11 And other things change too, like sometimes
12 departments grow, they have more responsibilities now,
13 maybe you want to take a look at it . It ' s no longer
14 in the lower tier, maybe it ' s in the higher tier, you
15 know, that kind of stuff, or maybe you don ' t have
16 tiers .
17 So it ' s going to be really how you want to
18 develop something like that if you ' re going to go that
19 route .
20 MR. ONO: So this commission is at liberty to
21 come up with its own type of formula for that, for
22 these positions?
23 MS . SAKAMOTO: Yes .
24 MR. ONO: Are there any statutory limitations
25 that we ' re not allowed to do or Civil Service type --
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1 MR. BRILHANTE: Basically, what we ' re looking
2 at executives and elected officials, so there ' s no
3 statutory requirement . At this point in time, you ' re
4 taking this -- you can take this on as if it were a
5 blank canvas, and you can create whatever, as a body,
6 you feel is the most equitable . And that ' s the term
7 used in the charters, is to provide an equitable
8 salary schedule or salary for the executives and/or
9 elected officials .
10 MS . SCHOEN: Yes, I just want to chime in.
11 The charter, Section 13-28 empowers you to establish
12 salaries of all county elected officials and appointed
13 directors and deputy directors of departments, and
14 executive agencies, so that their total salaries and
15 benefits have a reasonable relationship to the
16 compensation in the public and private sector.
17 MR. MORIMOTO: I have a question. I know
18 the salary commission is charged with developing some
19 pay scale or salary for their executives .
20 In looking -- in reviewing what was submitted t
21 by the police commission, they asked that the police
22 chief get twenty percent above the highest paid
23 subordinate and ten percent for deputy.
24 I 'm not saying this is a cure all, but what
25 would happen if the commission did something like
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1 this, every time they have -- the bargaining agreement
2 changes and we apply a twenty percent and ten percent
3 above, automatic?
4 MR. BRILHANTE : Well, the actual --
5 MR. MORIMOTO: What would be the practical
6 effect of that?
7 MR. BRILHANTE : The practical effect would be,
8 there ' s a specific language that the salary commission
9 adopts that states, the police chief ' s salary shall be
10 twenty percent more than the highest paid subordinate,
11 then that would be like almost an automatic increase.
12 As the subordinates get their increases then their
13 percentage would be then tacked on to the chief of
14 police percentage to maintain that twenty percent gap.
15 MR. MORIMOTO: So what ' s the downside of that?
16 MR. BRILHANTE : Well, the downside of that is,
17 can we afford it as a County?
18 MR. MORIMOTO: Here ' s my next question, can we
19 afford it now?
20 MR. BRILHANTE: You know, that ' s always the
21 question, and that ' s what you' re charged with, is to
22 be able to make a decision that, you know, you feel
23 comfortable enough with, and you feel confident enough
24 with that whatever you decide won' t have too much or
25 too much of a significant adverse effect . Because any
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1 time you' re dealing with raises, then you have an
2 issue with, well, how you going to pay for it? And
3 that has to be a consideration that you as a body
4 make .
5 MR. MORIMOTO: Corporation counsel just
6 reminded us what was the function of the commission.
7 But it states nothing of what you just mentioned.
0
8 MR. BRILHANTE : I 'm going to say maybe a
9 reasonable inference could be made from the language
10 provided in the charter. I ' ll let Ms . Schoen clarify
11 that .
12 MS . SCHOEN: Yeah. And this commission is
13 certainly empowered to obtain whatever information it
14 needs in order to make the determination, even
15 inviting the department of finance here if that would
16 be helpful . 0s
17 MS . TORIANO: This is Sharon Toriano.
18 Thinking about the downside, and one item that has
19 come up in our recent history is furloughs . If you
20 set a pay plan so that it automatically happens during
21 the difficult economic times when you may have to
22 freeze or even do take-aways, the salary commission
23 may have to convene again and amend their previous
24 decision. But fiscal is always a concern for anyone
5
25 in the County and on taxpayers .
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1 MS . LASSITER: Any other questions?
2 MS . IKEDA: Question. Like if we -- here, we
3 say that it ' s a twenty-percent raise that we give, but
4 we have to then include all the benefits, that ' s
5 another percentage, is that correct?
6 MR. BRILHANTE : When a decision is made, what
7 we ' re looking at now is the salary you set is the base
8 salary of the department heads, or the executive, and
9 the legislative officials, so elected officials .
10 We ' re not discussing benefits . That doesn ' t change .
11 The official -- the executive officials and the
12 legislative -- the elected officials will still
13 maintain their current benefit package .
14 MS . IKEDA: So if we ' re looking at it
15 physically, even if we say twenty percent, we have to
16 take into consideration -- we have to put in what
17 benefits would cost in addition to that twenty
18 percent, is that correct?
19 MS . TORIANO: That is correct, there is a
20 different compounding effect --
21 MR. HANDGIS : When we ' re talking -- this is
22 George . When we ' re talking about benefits, we ' re just
23 talking about fringe, right?
24 MS . TORIANO: Yes .
25 MR. HANDGIS : Okay. Thank you.
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1 MS . TORIANO: All of that is not considered --
2 and we can, perhaps, clarify that with the police
3 commission, but I interpreted their request exactly as
4 how Mr. Brilhante described it . We ' re talking about
5 base salary adjustments . The benefits typically will
6 always follow the collective bargaining aspect .
7 MR. HANDGIS : This is George, again, so excuse
8 me .
9 I believe I probably know the answer to this,
10 but looking at my notes, there are no other -- there ' s
11 no additional compensation that I wouldn' t see over a
12 base here, like some annual incentive, or bonus that
13 might be missing, there ' s nothing like that?
14 MS . TORIANO: We don ' t have a bonus --
15 MR. HANDGIS : Okay. Or any other kind of
16 incentive?
17 MS . TORIANO: No . But there are other things, y
18 like subsidized vehicles for police .
19 MR. HANDGIS : Okay, okay. That ' s what I 'm
20 talking about .
21 MS . TORIANO: Would be those kinds of things
22 --
23 MR. HANDGIS : Would that be worthy of
24 footnoting or noting on here?
25 MS . TORIANO: If that information would be
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1 helpful, we can certainly get our hands on it . But
P
2 subordinate personnel might have the equal benefits,
N
3 is what I 'm saying, like ERS benefit --
4 MR. HANDGIS : For everybody else here, I 'm
5 speaking for myself, to my fellow commission members, f
6 that ' s something that I would certainly like to look
7 at, because it ' s a part of the total compensation
8 package.
9 MS . TORIANO: Okay.
10 MR. HANDGIS : Thank you.
11 MS . LASSITER: Thank you, George .
12 Any questions?
13 MR. ONO: I have one more question, just a
14 clarification. So these executive salaries, once the
15 base salary is set, well, pretty much in all cases, it
16 -- these positions are not subject to any overtime
17 provisions, are they?
18 MR. BRILHANTE : That ' s correct . The
19 department heads and deputies aren ' t entitled to
20 overtime, although we would love to be entitled to it,
A
21 that ' s not the case .
22 MR. ONO: Well, the overtime provisions apply
23 to the other -- could be some of the managerial
0
24 positions that are part of the Civil Service system,
25 am I correct?
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1 MR. BRILHANTE : That ' s correct .
2 MR. ONO: Okay.
3 MS . LASSITER: Any other questions?
4 Thank you, Jenny. Thank you, Bill .
5 MR. BRILHANTE : Thank you.
6 MS . LASSITER: Do we have any unfinished
7 business that has to be attended to do?
8 MR. ONO: Question. It would be helpful to me
9 to find out -- ask each one of us commissioners to
10 tell me something about yourself, you know, where were
11 you working, or what is your background.
12 MS . LASSITER: We ' ll do that before we ' re
13 finished here .
14 MR. ONO: Okay, great .
15 MS . LASSITER: Okay. All right .
16 So we have no unfinished business at this
17 point? So let ' s move on to scheduling our next
18 meeting. You all should have a calendar there in
19 front of you.
20 Sharon, do you have a particular time where
21 you go to Kona that you would be there if we could
22 schedule a meeting so that George can be there too?
23 MS . TORIANO: I 'm fully flexible .
24 That should not be a concern. It ' s based on
25 availability of the commissioners .
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1 MR. HANDGIS : Thanks, Pudding.
2 MS . LASSITER: No, we like you there . We like
J
3 to look at you on TV.
4
4 MR. HANDGIS : Thank you. And frankly, I don' t 1
o
5 drive . That would certainly make things easier.
6 MS . TORIANO: I would like to remind everyone
I
o
7 that a quorum requires all of us five members to be
8 present for a meeting .
i
9 MR. ONO: I might -- I think we have an agenda
10 that ' s pretty interesting, so I would support sooner
1
o
11 rather than later.
12 MS . LASSITER: Today is the 20th, so how about
F'
13 next month about -- is the 17th a good time for you
14 all? 17th of February -- that ' s a Friday.
15 MR. HANDGIS : This is George, I can make that
16 happen.
17 MS . LASSITER: This works for you, Mel?
O
18 MR. MORIMOTO: Yeah.
i
19 MS . LASSITER: Mrs . Ikeda, does that work for
1
o
20 you?
21 MS . IKEDA: Let me just check my calendar. ',
22 MR. ONO: We would be talking about the same o
23 time, ten o ' clock?
24 MS . LASSITER: Yes, start at 10 : 00 .
1
25 MS . TORIANO: May I ask, if the strangest
4
i
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1 things happen, and if the counsel chamber is not
3
2 available, is the commission open to have a meeting by
3 -- in lieu of PTC, if we just use a phone conference?
4 MS . LASSITER: Yes, that would work.
5 MS . TORIANO: Okay.
6 Right now it looks like it ' s available, but we
7 need to confirm with council, thank you.
8 MS . LASSITER: Now we have our scheduled
9 meeting for February the 17th.
10 MS . SCHOEN: Madam Chair, let me just
11 interrupt . So your last new business, a discussion
12 that just occurred regarding reviewing the existing
13 compensation plans, my understanding is that the
14 commission will receive additional information from
15 the department for next time, and so we ' re going to,
16 rather than take any action today, we ' re just going to
17 be continuing this matter for further discussion.
18 Thank you.
19 MS . LASSITER: Yes .
20 MS . TORIANO: May I run down the list of items
21 that I heard the commission ' s asked for?
22 MR. HANDGIS : I was just going to ask that .
23 MS . LASSITER: Please .
24 MS . TORIANO: Salary projections based on
25 bargaining unit adjustments at various percentages
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1 one, two, three, four, et cetera . Other benefits that
2 are exempt personnel might receive, which might
3 include bonuses, incentives, subsidized vehicles . I
4 did not hear anybody ask for the previous executive
5 pay plan, but is that something the commission wanted
6 to see or no need?
7 MS . LASSITER: You might bring it up. I think
8 it ' s interesting for the new people, especially, to
9 know what that is .
1
10 MS . TORIANO: Okay. And one that I added for
11 myself is the county charter, which states what the
12 salary commission does . Any others did I miss?
13 MR. MORIMOTO: Question, maybe perhaps we can
14 have someone from -- finance director here so we can
15 ask questions regarding the state of our finances for
16 the county.
17 MS . TORIANO: Excellent .
18 MS . SCHOEN: If not the finance director,
19 maybe a representative?
20 MR. MORIMOTO: Absolutely, yeah, a
21 representative .
22 MS . TORIANO: Very good, thank you.
23 MS . LASSITER: Sharon, I think now I 'm going
24 to ask the new members here to give a brief of what
25 they' ve been doing. Maybe what they don ' t realize
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1 they' re in for -- because come March, I 'm out of here,
2 because that ' s when my term ends . So I think it ' s
3 important that they recognize the fact --
4 MR. ONO: Really?
5 MS . LASSITER: Yeah, really.
6 MR. ONO: No, we ' re not going to let you go .
7 MS . LASSITER: Oh, yeah, you are. We have to
8 be sure that we have five people, so I ' ll stay through
9 five people, but come March, that ' s the end of my
10 term.
11 MR. ONO: Wow, that ' s really quick.
12 MS . LASSITER: So you won' t have a quorum, but
13 I ' ll come anyway and make trouble for you. That ' s
14 good, right .
15 MR. ONO: Good, wonderful .
16 MS . LASSITER: All right . So briefly, let ' s
17 go through -- maybe -- Hugh, give us a little
18 background of yourself.
19 MR. ONO: Oh, certainly. Okay. I was the --
20 when I got the request to participate in this
21 commission, it ' s just -- something I 'm really eager to
22 do. I 've been both, you know, a Civil Service
23 employee and an appointee. And I 've seen a lot of
24 dynamics about what goes on with the pay, and pay
25 schedule, collective bargaining, all those things in
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1 both the County and State level .
2 So I 've been retired -- I 'm in my nineteenth
3 year, but I am employed or I 'm a consultant to SSFM
4 International, which is a planning and engineering
5 firm.
6 MS . LASSITER: Good.
7 MR. ONO: Not to useful, but --
8 MS . LASSITER: No, it sounds good.
9 Mel?
10 MR. MORIMOTO: I am a former historian/site
11 manager for a living history museum, which was a Kona
12 coffee history farm in Kona, Hawaii . It is the only
13 living history coffee farm in the entire United
14 States . So I 'm a past manager of that site there . If
15 you guys have a chance, please go, come and visit
16 that .
17 MR. ONO: Oh, okay.
18 MS . LASSITER: Mrs . Ikeda?
19 MS . IKEDA: I worked for the State of Hawaii
20 for thirty years, and I also helped with my husband' s
21 family business . I 'm still working in the family
22 business .
23 MS . LASSITER: Renee?
24 MS . SCHOEN: I have been an attorney with the
fr
25 county for ten years, practicing for about
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1 twenty-three years in Honolulu, and on the Big Island.
2 MS . LASSITER: Thank you.
3 Myself, I 'm a past employee of the State
4 twenty years, retired from them. Ran the Wailoa
5 Center for twenty years, past police commission with
6 Mel . I had to leave the police commission because Mel
7 made so much trouble for me that I had to leave, but I
8 took him here with me, ' cause I can' t add very good,
9 and he could add really well, but we had a good
10 working relationship.
11 I 'm now housing my last granddaughter before
12 she graduates, and I enjoyed every minute of it . I 'm
13 so glad you people had come .
14 And then it ' s kind of fun that we have a
15 member of our family here on TV. And so we always
16 will see George on TV. So now he can tell us how good 4
17 he is, because he ' s well known, because we all tune in
18 at ten o ' clock to watch George ' s program.
19 MR. HANDGIS : Wow. Pudding, with that
20 introduction, I feel like I should be selling used
21 cars . Boy, do I have a deal for you.
22 No. Pudding -- first of all, Pudding,
23 seriously, at the risk of sounding a little corny,
24 thank you very much for your service.
25 I joined the commission in December -- I was
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1 appointed December 2011 . I turned sixty-five last
2 week. I 've been married forty-three years to a
3 wonderful, wonderful person, Sharon. I ' ve been
4 retired -- I 'm an unemployed fisherman. Let ' s see, I
5 retired thirty years ago. We live in Keauhou
6 full-time . And my background is in the private
7 sector, primarily high volume, mass merchandising. I
8 think I sat on, perhaps, fifteen boards, maybe ten
9 public companies, and five private companies . And I
10 don ' t want to go into the names of the companies, but
11 chief executive CEO of some public companies you would
12 know.
13 And it has been an honor to work with you,
14 Pudding, thank you.
1
15 MS . LASSITER: I have a correction now. You
16 said you were married to this remember wonderful lady,
17 Sharon. Is that to your right or do we have another
18 Sharon that we don' t see?
19 MR. HANDGIS : Oh, my gosh. Okay, there ' s a 4
20 transcript -- the joke in Kona is this is S-2, and of
21 course, Aunty Sharon is S-1 . Thanks, Pudding. I like
22 your humor.
23 MS . LASSITER: Just checking on -- you know,
24 how things are as well .
25 MR. HANDGIS : Thank you very much.
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1 MS . LASSITER: Thanks so much.
2 MR. HANDGIS : And Sharon, according to her, is
5
3 the original model, that ' s number 1 .
4 MS . LASSITER: I know. You were so easy to
5 say Sharon, so we weren' t sure which one, but --
6 MS . TORIANO: My motto is, you can never have
7 enough Sharons in this world. In fact, the
8 transcriptionist there today is also named Sharon.
9 And I want to thank you her for coming to transcribe
10 our minutes .
11 MS . LASSITER: I was going to get to her, as
12 the last, because she hasn ' t said a word yet and so
13 now it ' s your turn, Sharon.
14 THE COURT REPORTER: I 've been a court
15 reporter for thirty-eight years . Started with
16 Judge DeSilva back in the late ' 70s . I 'm still here .
17 I have my own company. And I love working for Sharon.
18 MS . LASSITER: And then we have -- thank you
19 so much -- Jamie and Kim, they think they' re going to
20 sit there quietly, but guess what girls, tell us who
21 you are.
22 MS . KAILIPAKA: I 'm Kim Kailipaka, HR
23 department, as HR assistant, and we ' re filling in for
24 Glynis . It takes two of us to cover for Glynis .
25 MS . MARTINES : I 'm Jaimie Martines, I also
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1 work in the HR department . I help Jenny also in
2 classification and pay. We ' re just filling in for
3 Glynis .
4 MS . LASSITER: We should all bow our heads in
5 prayer and say, good job, Glynis . You got these girls
6 trained really well . Okay.
7 Okay, boys and girls, I think our scheduled
8 meeting will be done on the 17th and there are no more
9 announcements to be made .
10 MR. ONO: One more question.
11 MS . LASSITER: Yes .
12 MR. ONO: Florence, what department were you
13 in or departments?
14 MS . IKEDA: I started out in the Department of
15 Labor. And I worked in the Department of Education
16 for twenty-eight years .
17 MR. ONO: Thanks .
18 MS . LASSITER: Nice to have you.
19 Meeting closed. Okay.
7
20 Thank you, Bill .
21 (Adjourned at 11 : 07 a .m. )
22 --oOo--
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1 STATE OF HAWAII
2 ) ss .
3 COUNTY OF HAWAII
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5 I , MERCEDES SHARON SOUZA, a certified court
6 reporter in the State of Hawaii, do hereby certify
7 that the foregoing pages are a true and correct
8 transcription of the meeting had in the above matter .
9
10 Dated this 27th day of January, 2017 .
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16 Mercedes Sharon Souza, CSR No . 184
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ISLAND COURT REPORTING & TRANSCRIPTION SERVICES
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Ms. Mercedes Sharon Souza, Certified Court Reporter, transcribed the aforementioned
proceedings of the Salary Commission at its meeting held on January 20, 2017.
At its meeting held on October 11, 2017, the transcript was amended by the Commission to
reflect some minor housekeeping revisions. The revisions were incorporated and the transcript
(minutes) was approved, as amended.
Respectfully Submitted,
;41 I allainal)
Glynis Yamada, Secretary
APPROVED:
Hugh Y. Ono, P. E., Chair
Salary Commission