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• BEN: May I offer, too, that I have two Civil Service Commissioners also
<br />attending, Mr. Bill Thibadeau and Mr. Rick Robinson from Kona.
<br />RAY: Okay. And I guess I'm here to talk about the proposal that I had submitted
<br />earlier. Basically, the proposal is to provide for transferring the functions of the Safety
<br />Coordinator's Office under my department, the Department of Civil Service. Primarily, it is a
<br />Human Resource function, and it is -, and the functions of the office, itself; is not conducive to
<br />being an appointed type position where it's responsible for major changes in direction -, you
<br />know, changes in directions that occur whenever there is a new election. And I think, I believe
<br />that's the basic premise for the proposal.
<br />RAY: And as far as, you know, right -, as far as the staffing demands, do you
<br />have any comment on that in terms of, you know, whether the present, you know, manpower is
<br />adequate to deal with this? That's certain been brought up as an issue that it's, you know, it's
<br />pretty overwhelming for Mr. Sasan.
<br />BEN: I think the -, it's hard to comment on that without really looking into the
<br />nature of the operations. I, personally, feel that, you know, the workers' comp unit has not been
<br />as efficient and effective as it could be, and that's primarily due to the changes that keeps
<br />occurring within the workers' comp position itself. There's been a retirement. We hired someone
<br />else; that person left. There was another hire, and that person left. And it's just been -, the last
<br />six years, it's been in turmoil.
<br />RAY: Well, I'm thinking more of the overall issue of safety in the County and,
<br />you know, I've had talks with, you know, Mr. Sasan. You know, he points out to me that, you
<br />know, he really doesn't have the ability to get things enforced in some of the other departments.
<br />He goes over and, you know, he's basically -, kind of his hands are tied. He's given up. And
<br />they, basically, just don't pay any attention to him and, you know, whether it's Parks and Rec or
<br />Public Works or whatever. So he makes his recommendations, and then they just more or less do
<br />what they want. So from a safety standpoint, you know -.
<br />BEN: Again, from the safety standpoint, the problems being referred to by
<br />Mr. Sasan, I don't think is one that's related to staffing and the inability to get things done
<br />because of staffing. I think, I think it's the direction that's being received from topside.
<br />RAY: Right.
<br />BEN: I mean, if you don't have any authority -. If you got responsibility but no
<br />authority, you know, nothing ever gets done and I think, unfortunately, that's the situation
<br />we're -.
<br />RAY: Right.
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