Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0177.165 1998-2000 MYY Os y, Michael R. Ben, SPHR Stephen K. Yamashiro • , Director of Personnel Mayor ; • Rodney T. Kaido ~'+iE o~•w~+~~~ Deputy Director of Personne/ !~>QUZtfg ,i~ futtti DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL SERVICE Hilo Lagoon Centre, 301 Aupuni Stree4 Suite 133, Hilo, Hawaii %720-0260 Phone (808) 961-8361 Fax (808) %1-8617 TDD (808) %1-8619 C17 GO l7 L ~c ~ z TJ zC fTf June 7, 1999 1_ i The Honorable Bobby Jean Leithhead-Todd, Council Member ~ ~ - _ Hawaii County Council ? ~ ~ ~ 25 Aupuni Street ~ co Hilo, Hawaii z ~ Dear Council Member Leithead-Todd: Re: BIII 45, Draff 2 Thank you for your courtesy in forwarding the proposal to amend Bill 45, Draft 2, for our review and comments. I sincerely appreciate your notifying us of this proposal. We were never consulted regarding the proposed reductions in our operating budget and had you not brought it to our attention, we would never have known of the changes until much later, perhaps, too late. First, let me explain that we are not unwilling partners in making cuts to our departmental budget because of these tough economic times. We ask only that we be allowed to determine where these cuts are to be made rather than have arbitrary and capricious determinations made for us without examining our operational needs. However, the proposed reductions are not being made because of the difficult economic times we face, but because money is being shifted to another account. We do not understand the reasoning and rationale used to make the proposed reduction in funding for the specified accounts for our department. Budget already significantly reduced. Proposed reductions further reduces our budget by another 5.8% Our proposed budget, not including salaries, already reduces our expenses by 29.9%, from $218,469 to $153,156. With the proposed reduction of $12,731, our proposed budget reduction would increase to 35.7%, (from $218,469 to $140,425). Without having been consulted on this matter, we cannot begin to~,7 /6 Gumm. No. ~ 5 N'iie No. B V~ I2ei. Toc Prestutted covNCrt_ Rif. Date~~ ?~9~2~, The Honorable Bobby Jean Leithhead-Todd, Council Member June 7, 1999 Page 2 of 3 understand or appreciate the rationale for the increased reduction to our budget. Proposed reduction is done in anHfhesis of the budgeting process I believe the across-the-board reduction to select accounts as proposed is irresponsible and is disrespectful to the budgeting process, not taking into account what goes into the budgeting process. The action, taken without any discussion with us, is arbitrary and capricious. Our proposed budget was developed on certain assumptions being made. That is how our budget numbers were arrived at. For example, our budget for travel is made on the assumption of needing to take X number of trips at $X/trip. An arbitrary reduction of $X negates that budgeting process. We can't take, for example, 35.8 trips. Mileage is another example. Mileage is budgeted for at an anticipated mileage figure - X number of miles at $X per mile. Our civil service commissioner or salary commissioner cannot shorten the number of miles he or she travels to conduct county business because an arbitrary reduction of $X was made. By requiring arbitrary reductions in specific accounts, the Council is taking over the budgeting process from the departments, with no regard to departmental priorities. If reductions are needed, departments should be informed as to the total amounts they need to cut, and then asked to submit their reductions to the Council. I had always thought that if the Council members had concerns about our budgeted amounts, Council members would raise these concerns at the budget review process. Council members have every right to question our budget and our operations. Further, the legislative auditor should be further examining departmental operations and spending. However, at our budget review, the only concerns seemed to be about our vacant position and our subscription accounts. We are willing to do our part and make necessary reductions to our budget if need be, but it shouldn't be done in the manner that's now being proposed. If cuts are necessary for whatever reason, departments should be given the opportunity to decide for themselves what their priorities are and where the cuts are to be made. If the Council disagrees with the departments' priorities and cuts, then it needs to engage in dialogue with the departments to determine what the priorities should be and where the cuts should be made. The Honorable Bobby jean Leithhead-Todd, Council Member June 7, 1999 Page 3 of 3 We will be willing to do our share in these tough economic times, but we would like to do so in partnership with the Council. With respect to the specific cuts being proposed, comments may be found on the attached. I have not addressed each specific cut, but only those for which I wanted to offer additional comments other than those made above. Thank you again for bringing this matter to our attention. If there any questions or if I can be of any help, please call me at 961-8361. Sincerely, Michael R. Ben, SPHR Director of Personnel attachment Attachment Page 1 of 3 5151.01.011 Regular Salarles/Wages -Not funding position no. 2446, Personnel Assistant. We had testified during the budget hearings that we had requested to fill this training position several times but our requests were not approved. Because we continued to have training activities to plan for, and because we wanted to further increase training opportunities for County employees, I began assigning some clerical employees to assume the duties normally performed by this vacant position. While these clerical employees do not perform the full range of training duties, they nevertheless are required to perform higher level duties. Thus, we downgraded the position to personnel assistant so that we could temporarily assign employees to the position whenever they performed higher level assignments in the training area. While not having been allowed to fill our position since 1992, we have attempted to fulfill one of our charter-mandated function of training. While the vacancy has severely limited this function, we are not opposed to not funding the position at this time. However, the vacant position funds would have been used to help pay for the temporary assignments being made to the position. Therefore, should this position not be funded, we request that our 099- miscellaneous salaries and wages account be increased by $1,000 so that we may be able to continue our temporary assignments to the position. 5151.01.021 -Overtime Salaries/Wages The proposal is to further reduce our overtime budget. We had reduced our overtime account by 5.1% (from $9925 to $9415). The proposed reduction would reflect an overall reduction of 14.6% (from $9925 to $8474). This overtime is primarily budgeted to conduct examinations that are held after work hours and on weekends. A substantial portion of the budgeted overtime amount is for police and fire recruit examinations. When overtime work is required, and an employee elects cash payment, cash payment must be made; there are no other alternatives once an employee has elected cash payment. We cannot require employees to accept compensatory time off in lieu of cash payment for overtime work. 5151.02.104, 5151.14.104 Travel/Conferences The proposal is to further reduce two of our four travel accounts. We had reduced our travel accounts by 23.1% (from a total of $51,097 to $39,941). The proposed reduction would reflect an overall reduction of 30.7% (from $51,097 to $35,947). Attachment Page 2 of 3 In reducing our travel budgets, we eliminated our only budgeted mainland travel used for the purpose of attending an annual national human resources conference that have kept us abreast of issues in human resource management and provided us with networking opportunities that can't be found in Hawaii. We felt our other travel expenses to attend various meetings and negotiation sessions were of a higher priority than our only mainland travel. While civil service reform did not make it past the legislature, the Governor has instructed his HR director to continue pursuing civil service reform by creating a task force of key personnel to review this area and come up with recommendations for the 2000 legislature. This will necessitate additional travel than our normal travel during the course of the next fiscal year. A reduction in our collective bargaining travel account was made in anticipation that negotiations for all bargaining units would be completed by this June and our travel would be limited to meetings involving the proper adminsitration of the contracts and possible preparations for the next round of bargaining. However, out of the seven bargaining units, only one unit will have completed negotiations. The remaining six units will carry their negotiations into this next year. 5151.02.106 Printing I will just note that we have already decreased this account by 35.40% from last year's budgeted amount (from $3,698 to $2,387). The proposed reduction would reflect an overall reduction of 41.9% (from $3,698 to $2,149). 5151.02.109 Equipment and repairs; 5151.02.227 computer and offlee supplies We had increased our equipment and repairs account by 13.49% (from 10,325 to $11,718) and our computer and office supplies account by 4.85% (from $4,569 to $4783) because we have acquired additional equipment such as computers. Equipment does no one any good when it's left unrepaired, or if no supplies are available. 5151.02.112 and 5151.22.112 Mileage and automobile allowance A substantial amount of our mileage costs is paid to our civil service commissioners and another portion to our salary commissioners to attend their respective meetings. While staff mileage is also included, these amounts are minimal. Staff incurs mileage whenever they give examinations on off-duty hours. Mileage for commissioners is a requirement of law, and staff mileage is necessary to conduct large group examinations during off duty hours. Attachment Page 3 of 3 5151.02.115 Miscellaneous conhactual services A substantial portion of this budget is used for our examination process. It pays for examination rentals and item test bank services (a service by which examinations are prepared). It also covers court reporting services that are needed whenever civil service commission contested case matters are appealed to the circuit court. Unlike prior years, our CSC now hears a contested case hearing every month, thus increasing the odds of an appeal being filed to the circuit court. 5151.02.337 Subscription and membership Budgeting for this account is based on continuing the existing subscriptions and membership fees that represent specific yearly costs. An arbitrary reduction figure doesn't taken into account what will be canceled and what items are of a high priority. For example, the proposed reduction is $528. We can cancel any number of subscriptions for a total of $500. To find the $28 more, we may be forced to cancel a very important resource subscription costing $300. If we were allowed to reassess our budgets, rather taking an arbitrary $528 cut in this account, we could probably find another account to reduce by $28 based on a reassessment of our needs.