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Page 11 <br />1 MR. BECKER: Good morning, Commissioners. <br />2 My name is Robert Becker, and I am the Chair of the <br />3 Hawaii County Fire Commission. Thank you for the <br />4 opportunity to make a statement before the Salary <br />5 Commission today. <br />6 As you continue your fiscal investigation and <br />7 make decisions on County agency head and deputy pay <br />8 inequities, I ask that you of course look at pay <br />9 inversion, but I also ask that you take more into <br />10 account than just pay inversion. Executives in public <br />11 service deserve pay that is commensurate with the <br />12 knowledge, skills, and abilities required by the <br />13 position. In many county departments, counterpart <br />14 positions and/or skill sets can be found in private <br />15 industry. That can't be said for public safety <br />16 positions, fire and police. Counterpart positions can <br />17 only be found in local, state and federal fire, and <br />18 police positions within the State and on the mainland. <br />19 Union fire contract negotiators look at mainland fire <br />20 department pay levels for comparable skills and <br />21 experience in setting their compensation requests, and <br />22 we should do the same for executives. <br />23 HFD is the second largest department in the <br />24 State in terms of paid staffing, but it's the most <br />25 complex in terms of diversity of required knowledge and <br />ISLAND COURT REPORTING & TRANSCRIPTION SERVICES <br />(808) 933-9800 <br />