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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-08-30 Merit Appeals Board MinutesREGULAR SESSION Merit Appeals Board Hilo Council Chambers Hawaii County Building 25 Aupuni Street, First Floor, Room 1401 Hilo, Hawaii August 30, 2022 (Tuesday) Call to Order (Item 1) The regular meeting of the Merit Appeals Board, County of Hawaii, was called to order at 10:03 a.m. by Chair Gabriella M. Cabanas, at the Hilo Council Chambers, Hawaii County Building, 25 Aupuni Street, First Floor, Room 1401, Hilo, Hawaii, on Tuesday, August 30, 2022. Roll Call — Present Ms. Gabriella M. Cabanas, Chair Ms. Kate De Soto, Member Mr. Charles Kunz, Member Ms. Gay Mathews, Member Absent and Excused Mr. Mel Ventura, Vice -Chair Also Present Mr. J Yoshimoto, Assistant Corporation Counsel, Office of the Corporation Counsel Mr. Waylen L. K. Leopoldino, Director, Human Resources Department Ms. Glynis Yamada, Secretary -Reporter, Human Resources Department Mr. Relley Araceley, Council Services Coordinator, Office of the County Clerk Merit Appeals Board Call to Order (Item 1) August 30, 2022 CHR. CABANAS: Good morning, everyone. The Merit Appeals Board meeting is called to order at 10:03 a.m. We have quorum today with four Board members present. I'm Gabriella Cabanas, Chair of the Merit Appeals Board. And along with me today at the Hilo Council Chambers at the Hawaii County Building, at 25 Aupuni Street, First Floor, Room 1401, in Hilo, are Ms. Gay Mathews, Ms. Kate De Soto, and Mr. Charlie Kunz. Good morning, Board members. MR. KUNZ: Good morning. MS. MATHEWS: Good morning. MS. DE SOTO: Good morning. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Mel Ventura is absent today and excused—he is our vice -chair. Sitting with us in the Council Chambers are Mr. J Yoshimoto, our Assistant Corporation Counsel. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Good morning. CHR. CABANAS: Good morning. Ms. Glynis Yamada, our Secretary -Reporter. Good morning, Glynis. MS. YAMADA: Good morning. CHR. CABANAS: And our Director of Human Resources, Mr. Waylen Leopoldino. Good morning, Waylen. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Good morning. Addendum to Agenda (Item 2) CHR. CABANAS: I believe there is no addendum to the agenda. Statements from the Public (Item 3) CHR. CABANAS: And any "Statements from the Public"I don't see anyone here in the Council Chambers. Page 2 Merit Appeals Board Approval of Minutes (Item 4) February 2, 2022 (Regular Session) August 30, 2022 CHR. CABANAS: We are now on Number 4 of our agenda, "Approval of Minutes"—for the meeting, February 2nd, 2022. Has everyone had the opportunity to review the meeting minutes? Everyone is nodding, "yes." Okay. So, may I have a motion and a second to approve the regular meeting of February 2nd 2022, minutes. MR. KUNZ: So moved. MS. MATHEWS: Second. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you, Charlie and Gay. Any discussion about the meeting minutes? Okay, if not, I will initiate a rollcall vote starting with Kate. MS. DE SOTO: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Gay. MS. MATHEWS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Charlie. MR. KUNZ: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. There are four ayes to accept and file the regular meeting minutes of February 2nd 2022. Review Of Executive Session Minutes February 2, 2022 (Executive Session: The Merit Appeals Board Anticipates Convening One Or More Executive Meetings Regarding The Above Matters, Pursuant To HRS Sections 92-4 And 92-5(a)(4), For The Purpose Of Consulting With The Board's Attorney On Questions And Issues Pertaining To The Board's Powers, Duties, Privileges, Immunities, And Liabilities. A 2/3 Vote Pursuant To HRS Section 92-4 Is Necessary To Hold An Executive Meeting CHR. CABANAS: Moving along, we also have the executive session meeting minutes of February 2nd, 2022. Has everyone had the opportunity to review these minutes? Yes—okay. Everyone's nodding, "yes." Page 3 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 Okay, so may I have a motion to accept and file these executive session minutes. MS. MATHEWS: So moved. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you, Gay. MS. DE SOTO: Second. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you, Kate. Any discussion? If not, we'll start with a rollcall vote with Kate. MS. DE SOTO: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Gay. MS. MATHEWS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Charlie. MR. KUNZ: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Four ayes to accept and file the executive session meeting minutes of February 2nd 2022. Communications (Item 5) Communication No. 22-05, Dated July 18, 2022, From Cost Of Government Commission Chair Michael Konowicz, Vice -Chair Neal Herbert, And Commissioner Shannon Matson, Stating Their Permitted Information Group Has Been Authorized To Study And Investigate County Of Hawaii Boards And Commissions Methods Of Operations. Requests The Merit Appeals Board Provide Feedback To The Questions Listed In Their Letter By Tuesday, August 9, 2022; And Communication No. 22-05.01, Dated July 25, 2022, From Merit Appeals Board (MAB) Chair Gabriella M. Cabanas Responding To Chair Konowicz's Request, Stating This Matter Will Be Placed On MAB's Agenda For Discussion On August 30, 2022 (And Will Provide Their Feedback In Writing To The Commission Shortly Thereafter) CHR. CABANAS: We are now on Number 5 of the agenda, "Communications." Is there a motion and a second to accept and file these two communications? MS. DE SOTO: So moved. MR. KUNZ: Second. Page 4 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 CHR. CABANAS: Thank you, Kate and Charlie. Any discussion regarding these two communications? I just want to note that the reason why I responded as the chair to the Cost of Government Commission, we had already met in July. And then, we received their letter right after our July meeting and we were not meeting until today. So, I felt that as the chair and in consultation with corp. counsel, that this required Board discussion and then respond officially back to the Cost of Government Commission. So, that's why these two communications are on the agenda. Okay, so we will start with a rollcall vote with Kate to accept and file Communication number 22-05 and Communication number 22-05.01. MR. YOSHIMOTO: So, Madam Chair? CHR. CABANAS: Yes, go ahead. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Is the Board going to discuss the responses to the questions posed? CHR. CABANAS: Yes. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Okay. So, we can take the vote after CHR. CABANAS: We can discuss—or should we discuss it now? MR. YOSHIMOTO: Yeah, now. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, okay, we should do it now. Okay, great. Okay. So, let me direct all of you to the Cost of Government Commission, dated July 18, 2022. Has everyone had the opportunity to review the letter? And may I direct everyone to the back of the letter or the second page of the letter. There are 10 questions that they are asking us for our feedback. The first one is: "Can redundancy and waste be reduced by combining boards/commissions that are like focus?" So MR. KUNZ: Before we begin CHR. CABANAS: Yes. MR. KUNZ: I have aif you guys don't mind, if we want to entertain a point of order and move Mr. Leopoldino's report first before we start all of this? Can we do that? CHR. CABANAS: We can. But do the Board members want to—do they want to take the "Director's Report" out of order? Page 5 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 MS. MATHEWS: That's my thinking is that he has better things to do than listen to us. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. MR. KUNZ: Well, I didn't want to say that but I thought I'd just be more— CHR. CABANAS: Well, it's always good for him to listen to us. But, if the Board so chooses, we can stop what we're doing with the Cost of Government Commission for a bit, and then take the director's report out of order. But I need a motion for—so will someone do a motion and a second. MS. MATHEWS: So moved. MS. DE SOTO: Second. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you, Gay and Kate. Yes? MR. YOSHIMOTO: So, to clarify, that's a motion to table CHR. CABANAS: To table the Cost of Government Commission for a bit. We're going to take—we're going to vote on taking the director's report out of order at this time. So, any discussion to take the director's report at this time? If not, I will start with a rollcall vote with Kate. MS. DE SOTO: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Gay. MS. MATHEWS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Charlie. MR. KUNZ: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: And Gabriella—aye. Four ayes. Motion carried to take the director's report out of order MR. YOSHIMOTO: And to table the CHR. CABANAS: —and to table the Cost of Government Commission just for a bit. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Okay. Page 6 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 CHR. CABANAS: We will return to the Cost of Government Commission -10 questions—in a few minutes. Do I need a motion for that? MR. YOSHIMOTO: For? CHR. CABANAS: The Cost of Government Commission to be tabled? MR. YOSHIMOTO: No. You made the voteI mean, you made the motion correctly the motion to table and to take it out of—to take the director's report out of order. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. Well, the motion was actually to take the director's report out of order. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Oh, it wasn't to table? CHR. CABANAS: No. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Okay. Then you need to table. CHR. CABANAS: So, is that another motion? MR. YOSHIMOTO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. So, may I have another motion to table the Cost of Government Commission, specifically, the 10 questions that they are asking MAB and that we can refocus and go back to it in a few minutes, after the director's report. So, may I have a motion and a second for that? MS. DE SOTO: So moved. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you, Kate. MR. KUNZ: Second. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you, Charlie. Any discussion? If not, we will initiate a rollcall vote starting with Kate. MS. DE SOTO: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Gay. MS. MATHEWS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Charlie. Page 7 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 MR. KUNZ: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Gabriella—aye. Four ayes to table the Cost of Government Commission, especially the 10 questions that's included in their July 18'', 2022, letter to the Merit Appeals Board. We will return to it after the director's report. So, Waylen, could you kindly approach the dais and you can start with your MAB quarterly reports for the months April through June 2022. (At this time, Mr. Waylen L. K. Leopoldino, Director, Human Resources Department, came forward.) MAB Quarterly Reports: April – June 2022; And MAB Monthly Divisional Activity Report – August 2022 (Executive Session: The Merit Appeals Board Anticipates Convening One Or More Executive Meetings Regarding The Above Matters, Pursuant To HRS Sections 92-4 And 92-5(a)(4), For The Purpose Of Consulting With The Board's Attorney On Questions And Issues Pertaining To The Board's Powers, Duties, Privileges, Immunities, And Liabilities. A 2/3 Vote Pursuant To HRS Section 92-4 Is Necessary To Hold An Executive Meeting) MR. LEOPOLDINO: Good morning, Chair Cabanas, and members of the Merit Appeals Board. Thank you for the consideration in moving my director's report forward. MAB Quarterly Reports: April – June 2022 MR. LEOPOLDINO: The first item is our quarterly reports, April through June 2022. Did the Board have any questions? CHR. CABANAS: So, I have one—well, I have a couple of questions. So, for "Administrative Services Division" they didn't do any department audits for the fourth quarter because of COVID-19 and training of new staff. So, are they fully staffed now? MR. LEOPOLDINO: That question, the answer is they are fully staffed, however, they are short-staffed right now due to some reasons I can't bring up in the meeting. But they are very short-staffed right now. The positions are filled though. CHR. CABANAS: And how many are not MR. LEOPOLDINO: So, we have the division head— CHR. CABANAS: Right. Page 8 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 MR. LEOPOLDINO: who's there and the newest—one of the newest employees. The other two senior employees CHR. CABANAS: Are out. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: Wow. Okay. MR. LEOPOLDINO: And that's, actually, not common in our department that's been going on pretty— CHR. CABANAS: No, it's not. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. That's, actually, rare. So, how are they managing with just two because that's— MR. LEOPOLDINO: It's a lot overtime and part of my report is they're currently doing pay increases due to the recent contract negotiations. So, the two employees—our Division Head, DeeAnn, and one of the newer employers are working a lot of overtime. And the other divisions those who have experience in transactions has offered help, including our recruitment staff, which as you all know, they're also working very hard. So, our department is very busy at this time. So—we're trying to manage. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, that's good. Because—yeah—because for this division they process all the payroll, personnel action forms—it's called the Form 13s, and they also process the pay adjustments—so without that being completed timely, it affects employees' wages. MR. LEOPOLDINO: And just to add more context—so, BU's 2, 3, 4, 11, and 13 have been approved by all legislative bodies statewide. So, step movements, pay increases, and lump sums all have to be now processed—and with the two employees that I had mentioned. I do want to say that the third employee has just gotten back so, at this point, they're still working overtime but it's they're in catch-up mode. And then, immediately following these bargaining units, we have 12 and 15 that are up for approval by all legislative bodies. So, that- 12 hat12 is police officers—so that's a big unit. And so, there'll be a lot of work immediately following this group they're currently working with. CHR. CABANAS: So, the mass pay adjustments are retro to what date, Waylen? Is it July or MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes, it's July 1st Page 9 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 CHR. CABANAS: July 1st of this year? MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes-2021—well, a couple of them are 2021. A bunch of them are just lump sums. And then, couple others are July 1st of this year. Not as bad as the previous years where we've had significant retro pay adjustments. So MS. MATHEWS: May I ask a question? Could you explainactually, I think everybody well, maybe Kate doesn't know but is payroll done in-house and are these adjustments done by category and the computer, very nicely, just shovels it in or does each person have to have their payroll adjusted by a human? MR. LEOPOLDINO: So, the short answer isour system is so antiquated—well, Number 1. Payroll is handled with finance, however, HR does the processing and all the data. We do that through our Form 13 or our Personnel Action Form—and, that is, essentially, manual. We have to ensure that step movement dates are correct and this is all done manually. And this is—it's a very tedious process. So, I really applaud the staff for taking all that time to doing all of that. So, the light is—we're working with finance on a new system soon. So, that's where we're at. CHR. CABANAS: A new vendor? MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: That's going to go—what—with an RFP? MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. I think they're working on that right now. CHR. CABANAS: Just for payroll or personnel as well? MR. LEOPOLDINO: It'll be personnel as well. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, great. MR. LEOPOLDINO: So, the FRESH system, I believe, is going to be updated. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, great. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. Just for my own knowledge, I mean, the manager for this division she is very steadfast. She's meticulous. They—she trains the staff to check everythingdates, salaries, the legal authority—everything has to be correct before that thing is—before that particular form of that one employee is processed. It doesn't move unless that thing is correct. Page 10 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 So, I'm sure the work is in good hands with Dee Sadayasu there. She's really meticulous in her work and training the staff. MR. LEOPOLDINO: And we're very fortunate—in addition to Dee, our new staff—same mindset—very meticulous, very detailed oriented—so that helps her out a lot. MS. MATHEWS: So, thank you, that makes me feel a little bit better. What's the projected date, so—and what do you think is a realistic date for the implementation? MR. LEOPOLDINO: Of the pay increases? MS. MATHEWS: No. Your new software that's supposed to make life easier. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Actually, that's a fin that would be a finance directed project. So, we would have to follow-up with finance on that. MS. MATHEWS: So, in other words, you have no clue when this is going to happen. MR. LEOPOLDINO: No, I don't. MS. MATHEWS: I'm sorry. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Thank you. CHR. CABANAS: Requests for Proposals—it has to go out to bid. It's a long process because then different vendors can submit their proposals, but then they have to—finance and HR have to spell out—for the lack of a better word—what system criteria will—what they would want in the system. So, they have to be specific, too, in what they want. MS. MATHEWS: So, I'm assuming there's a vetting process that will involve some members of you folks and you can see if it actually works before anything is solidified? MR. LEOPOLDINO: Absolutely. So, DeeDeeAnn, is the lead and contact for our office. She's the one that has all that information that we're going to need. And she's been coordinating with the rest of the division heads to see what kind of data they would like to see in the new system. So—yes. CHR. CABANAS: So, here we're talking about the new system—so this would encompass the recruitment function? MR. LEOPOLDINO: No, it will not. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, so the recruitment function will still be with NeoGov. Page 11 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. Correct. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Correct. MR. KUNZ: I have a I want to return back to the goal about the audit. So—and excuse my naivete. I just wanted clarification. So, if you are unable to do the audit, does that affect your operation adversely? MR. LEOPOLDINO: This is for the administrative services division audits? No, it does not. I believe what they're doing is they're figuring out alternative ways to review the documents. But I think at previous MAB meeting, I mentioned that part of the audit is for our staff to go in there and actually see where these forms and documents are filed. So, it's an internal process that we implemented. But this division has figured out ways to ensure that's being done remotely. But once we do implement this process, again, they actually go in and figure out where, physically, these required documents are filed. For example, your I9 files—like, where it has to be separate from certain files your personnel files. So, those things will resume shortly once this division has gotten enough staffing to do so as well. MR. KUNZ: But it doesn't put you guys behind the eighth ball (inaudible) MR. LEOPOLDINO: No, it doesn't. No. CHR. CABANAS: Will they do a catchup? Let's say they didn't do two for this particular quarter, so the next quarter they're going to do four? MR. LEOPOLDINO: I don't know the answer to that but I will, definitely, check with Dee on that to see what their next steps will be. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. Because the audit she—her audit schedule, she has departments already defined, right, for the quarter. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: So, I would think that if she didn't do these two departments this quarter, she's going to do these two departments plus two new ones the next quarter. That's her catchup, right? MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: Any other questions for Waylen on—let's do each division separate. For the "Admin. Services Division"—any other questions, Board members? Page 12 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 Okay, so we're going to move on to "Classification & Pay"—any questions here for classification and pay? While everyone is looking at it, I have one, Waylen. So, here the outcome is 86 redescription review requests were received, all requests were processed within five workdays. Somewhere else in the report I think it's the other report—it's the division reportoh, maybe I should wait for that. How does this intertwine with the new positions that are allocated for this year's fiscal budget? Is it part of this 86? MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. So we would count the redescriptions as part of that. So, part of C&P's process is when they allocate new positions, the first thing they do is look at position descriptions to make sure they're updated. So, if they need to be updated, they would be included in the count for redescription review. CHR. CABANAS: Now, there were 71 reallocation requests for recruitment purposes. Can you explain about that 71—are these—all 71 positions are being downgraded or what's happening? MR. LEOPOLDINO: For various reasons. So when we do police recruits we reallocate those positions down. The mayor has been in support of departments—because we're having—part of the strategy is to helping fill a lot of the vacancies, reallocating these higher level positions down for recruitment and lowers the minimum qualifications and increases the pool. So, a lot of that is included in this number. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you, Waylen. Anyone else? Okay. We're going to move on to "Equal Opportunity/ADA Division." So, is that—has this position been filled? MR. LEOPOLDINO: No, it hasn't. We just wrapped up interviews last week. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, okay. And I noticed somewhere else in the report that you downgraded it MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: —from a manager level to a program specialist. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Program specialist—correct. And we were successful in getting a bigger pool of candidates because the MQ's were reduced. So, we got a good sized CHR. CABANAS: Okay. So, he explained that, just so the Board members know when you say the "MQ's" the minimum qualifications had been reduced, it's because it's a different classification. Page 13 Merit Appeals Board MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. August 30, 2022 CHR. CABANAS: So, the minimum qualification requirements for the program specialist are different from the manager level, which is the original level of that position that's what he means. Yeah. Okay. MS. DE SOTO: May I ask a question? CHR. CABANAS: Go ahead, Kate. MS. DE SOTO: So, then, the duties that were under manager that are no longer under program specialist—where did those go now? Who covers that? MR. LEOPOLDINO: So, this position will require a little bit more supervision and someone to work closely with this person until they can fully perform the duties as a manager, `cause it's a temporary reallocation downward. And then, once they—once, through our evaluation and assessment, we feel that the person has met the minimum qualifications and is able to perform at the manager level, we would permanently reallocate that back up. It's not an automatic reallocation. It's through evaluation and assessment of performance. MR. KUNZ: So, is that, like, a probation period of six months or longer? MR. LEOPOLDINO: So, yes. It actually depends. So, if we—with this position, if it requires—if the manager position requires four -years of experience performing these duties that at a professional level, we bring it down this is just an example, this might not be the requirements but if we brought it down to an HR program specialist, which may require only two -years of experience professionally they would have to work at least the two years before we can actually consider the reallocation. MR. KUNZ: Thank you. CHR. CABANAS: In other words, they have to meet the minimum requirements of the manager level position. MR. LEOPOLDINO: At the very least because, as I said, it's not an automatic reallocation even if they meet the minimum qualifications of that position. They may not be performing at the level of that manager position. MS. DE SOTO: Thank you. I'm happy to hear more of the details about the flexible approaches being used. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. Page 14 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 MS. DE SOTO: It's appreciable. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. Any other questions for this particular division in the report? No? Okay. Moving along. The next division is vehicle, equipment, property damage report—so, this is what—what division is this, Waylen? MR. LEOPOLDINO: This comes under Health and Safety. CHR. CABANAS: Health and Safety? MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yeah. And I don't have a lot of details on this, although, just through my analysisobviously, this is a calendar -year report. So, we are significant—at this point, we are not going to meet what we had reported last year, which was 208 damage reports. We're going to fall short of actually all previous years, I believe. CHR. CABANAS: But isn't that good? MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. MS. MATHEWS: Yeah, (inaudible) isn't falling a good thing? MR. LEOPOLDINO: I'm sorry. Wellsorry, my COVID brain fog here. I was also going to add that's also related to a lot of what Health and Safety is doing in developing their training programs and keeping our employees aware—they're doing a lot of driver—defensive driver programs, I believe. That has helped in this number here. CHR. CABANAS: Have there been efforts to beef up the vehicle safety—`cause it, kind of, looks like—wow, there's only two reports of theft, three reports of vandalismso, in other words, the County vehicles are now not being targeted, right, for whatever the reason—which is good. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. However, I—well, I do want to add that the County recently the Council approved the County hiring private security, which is recent I think in the last couple of weeks. Because in the complaint—was initially, as a result of all the homeless individuals hanging out in the back lanai of our office. I mean, a lot of them became aggressive toward a lot of our staff and a lot of the County employees, as well as in this building here. So, I think that's going to help with our County vehicle theft and vandalism. I did see the security guard a bunch of times, so their presence is definitely known and we don't have any of the homeless population any more in the back lanai. CHR. CABANAS: So, theseso, is it just one security officer? Page 15 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 MR. LEOPOLDINO: I'm not sure how many. I've only seen one so far. But I believe it's multiple and they are patrolling a few of our facilities. CHR. CABANAS: Is that 24/7? MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. MS. MATHEWS: So, if you have somebody that is this report is for County vehicles—does this mean employee vehicles have also been potentially vandalized, if you're— MR. LEOPOLDINO: From what I'm aware, we've had over the years reports of County personal employees vehicles vandalized. But I'm not aware of—we don't get any reports of employee vandalized vehicles that would be with public works. MS. MATHEWS: And so, who's responsible to pay for them (inaudible) employee parked on the County property and someone vandalizes the vehicle, is the employee struck with this problem or this MR. LEOPOLDINO: I'm not sure if they have to go through their insur—and I'm not sure it's an insurance issue, I'm not 100 percent on that. CHR. CABANAS: Don't they file a report to the Office of the Corporation Counsel, if their vehicle is damaged on County property? MR. YOSHIMOTO: Yes. That would go through our office. Our investigator would investigate the claim and then make the appropriate recommendations. And many times the insurance is involved, like, Director Leopoldino mentioned. So, yes. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. Moving along to the next division Personnel Organizational Development. Any questions here for the director? MS. MATHEWS: Are you happy with his report? MR. LEOPOLDINO: One of the things on my "to do" list is to actually look at these reports and I'mI want to be more focused on meaningful metrics. And so, this is one of the reports that I would like to revisit and beef up a little bit more. This and a bunch of others but I'm happy with the numbers—but we could improve on it. Yes. MS. MATHEWS: Great. Thanks. CHR. CABANAS: Any plans for the County to sponsor the annual pre -retirement workshop? MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. So, we were actually supposed to have that his past year. But when there was a spike in COVID, we made the decision not to move forward—and just for this groups information, the County historically—and I don't know if Gabe can chime in—but we've Page 16 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 always had an annual pre -retirement workshop for both state and County employees, which basically includes ERS—Employees Retirement SystemEUTF, Island Savings Plan which is the deferred comp. administrator for County employees, social security. So, all these agencies would come together under one roof and provide an all -day seminar/training/information for employees who are two or three years out from retirement. And so that they're educated on what they need to do, who they can contact if they have any specific questions about retirement—and since COVID we had stopped that because the group is pretty big. It's a pretty big -sized group and everybody's, kind of, in close proximity. So, we usually have it at the Aunty Sally's Luau Hale. But this year, we were actually going to have it in-person and then when there was the spike in COVID, we decided not to do it. But we are working with the agencies on either coordinating individual sessions for our employees or having another big session virtually in the future—and we don't have a timeline, yet, but to answer Gabe's question yes, we are going to have something in the future, `cause we feel it's very beneficial to those of our retirees. CHR. CABANAS: Is Aunty Sally's still available or is Civil Defense still using it as the operation (inaudible). MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yeah. So, Civil Defense and National Guard still has they still occupy the space. So, it is not available for rent at this time. MS. MATHEWS: So, is there any consideration to videoing this, so that it's available on-line for people that either missed it or decided they are looking at retirement earlier than waiting a year to find out what's going on? MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yeah. Actually, that's part of the discussion—is actually having something. And we just have to be careful at the information that we do provide and record because, as you all know, information changes so quickly. But, yes, that is definitely part of the conversation. CHR. CABANAS: And just for the Board's information, those that are eligible to attend are planning retirement in, what, two years? MR. LEOPOLDINO: Two to three years. CHR. CABANAS: Two to three years. MR. LEOPOLDINO: I believe that's the timeframe we advise, just to limit the size. CHR. CABANAS: So that they can plan accordingly, even though they're not going to retire, let's say, this year—but they still have time to plan. MS. MATHEWS: And that's, kind of, where my question was going. I thought, for some reason, spouses were included on some level of this? And the idea of having something that's Page 17 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 recorded means that somebody could their spouse's the one that manages the money, for example—is able to pull this up and understand what's going on, which would help the domestic strife be reduced. CHR. CABANAS: I think the spouse involvement comes when the employee—in the past that's how it used to be—would go to ERS directly for estimates or more counseling. But what HR is planning and what the department has done, is for just general information in a group setting. And you can add to that, Waylen. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yeah. And it is a venue for these individuals to get all that general information. This target audience—we can't get into too much of the specifics because, I guess, everybody has their own individual needs when it comes to retirement. So, we try to provide that resource in a general sense and then allow for the opportunity to contact the agency individually. But I hear what you're saying and we have discussed, like, having something prerecorded so that at a later time, maybe the spouse and the person retiring can sit down and review it. That's a good idea. Thank you. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. Any other questions on this particular personnel organizational development division. If not, okay, we will move on to "Recruitment and Examination." So, Waylen, how many recruitments are currently open? Just ballpark—is it over 50? Over 60? MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: It's over 50? MR. LEOPOLDINO: To include continuous recruitments? CHR. CABANAS: Yes. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes, it's over 50. Under 60. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. MR. LEOPOLDINO: The good news—well, good news/bad news iswe closed continuous recruitments—and I really believe it has a lot to do with the efforts we've recently implemented. I'm happy to let youI was going to report it later but I'm excited to share with you. We've actually established all the social media accounts. This is separate from the Facebook/Jobs account. It's part of our rebranding strategy. So, the DHR social media accounts are going to promote our County employees, in addition to posting our vacancy so that people visiting our sites can, kind of, see what the culture is like at the Countycommunity-minded, Page 18 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 community -focused. And also see—and in conjunction with that—see the vacancies that we have that they might be interested in. So, it just got—what do you call that CHR. CABANAS: Launched. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Launched. It just got launched so we're still in development phase but we have our QR Code up, we have the list of continuous recruitments up. So, look for us, add us, and spread the word, get our name out there. So, I'll go more into that when we get to the activity reports. CHR. CABANAS: How do we access that because I get the City and County of Honolulu one on my Facebook account, so I get to see. I think I shared that with you once. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: I get their postings. How do we MR. LEOPOLDINO: So, the tagline for all of these are HICOUNTYDHR. CHR. CABANAS: Is that all one word? MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: HICOUNTY MR. LEOPOLDINO: DHR. CHR. CABANAS: DHR. For Facebook and Instagram? MR. LEOPOLDINO: For—yeah, for everything—and TwitterFacebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. LinkedIn might just be County of Hawaii Department of Human Resources. I think Twitter doesn't—you don't need a (inaudible). But please add us and share our sites. So, then before I forget, I just wanted to add that. So, the next phase of that is to—and I think the recommendation came from this Board—is we want to do current employee testimonials through reels and videos that we want to post upon there, so that we can have first-hand experience from our own County employees. So, that's the next phase of our social media strategy. CHR. CABANAS: The recruitments that were open continuous, can you tell us which ones they were? Were they, like, one positions classes—like, polygraph examiner or (inaudible). Page 19 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yeah. And I apologize, I meant to print it and bring it with me but—so, we do have—like, for example, our engineer classes. We, obviously, we have the class on continuous but we have multiple positions for each of those levels. I'm sorry, Gabe, is that, kind of, where you were going? Even though we have one class listed on the continuous, that doesn't mean it's one vacancy CHR. CABANAS: Right. MR. LEOPOLDINO: it represents multiple vacancies for that class of work. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. Like polygraph examiner is one position MR. LEOPOLDINO: Right. CHR. CABANAS: —for police department. But if you have clerk III, that could be 10 positions for various departments. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Correct. CHR. CABANAS: So, when you close the—how many—five, six continuous recruitments, were they the one position classes or were they, like MR. LEOPOLDINO: No. So, we won't close a continuous recruit—what we'll do is we'll amend the continuous recruitment, if it's for—if we're just filling one of the five for that class of work. I mean, we would have to fill all of those positions before we close. It would be nice to close them and just keep the list getting smaller and smaller. But—especially—and then, I'm going to go into that as well. We're in anew position allocation season because the budget just got approved. So, classification and pay is in the process of adding new positions. So, some of them may be difficult to fill, which would end up on our continuous recruitment. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. So, going back to my questionI don't know if you answered it, but maybe I didn't hear it. The recruitments that were open continuous that were closed, were they one position classes or were they, like, for a number of positions—like, civil engineer I—you filled all your civil engineer I positions and you closed the civil engineer I recruitment? Was it that or, like, one position class. MR. LEOPOLDINO: No, it would be one position class. CHR. CABANAS: One position classes were closed. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. Page 20 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 CHR. CABANAS: Okay. This is a lot for the staff to be administering. You know, the written exams—and I know why the written exams are being administered because the Rules were changed. You went back to, what, the Rule 5. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. But keep in mind—and I think I mentioned it before—keep in mind that why we had civil service reform way back in—around 2002—how are you folks managing with all these exams because I think I read somewhere in one of you reports that now the staff were being delayed in screening applications because they are MR. LEOPOLDINO: It's under the internal CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. Because they're—yeah—because they're administering yeah, it's over here. Impacted staff's availability to review applications and establish list because there's an increase in written exams. So, is there any thought to change this or reduce it for some classes? MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yeah. And, actually, I was going report that in my CHR. CABANAS: Okay. MR. LEOPOLDINO: activities report— CHR. eport CHR. CABANAS: Okay. MR. LEOPOLDINO: but we've decided to temporarily suspend all written exams except for police and fire going forward. So, recruitment is currently developing how they're going to proceed, but they were very excited about that because, as you know, it takes up a tremendous amount of time. So, we are going to be this is for the period ending June, but I think July we might have done a few more but I have asked recruitment to suspend all written exams, except for police and fire going forward. So, this will also help for our applicants that have a difficulty they may be able to do the work but they just may have a difficulty with doing written exams. I'm one of them. I do poorly on written exams. So, it's actually also going to increase the pool of candidates that we have to refer. So, I think it's going to help in other areas in recruitment. So, yes, we have already started that process. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. I'm glad to hear that because with limited staff—staff have to give written exams, taking them out of the office, going to Hilo—I mean, going not only to Hilo but Page 21 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 travelling to Kona. They're not spending time reviewing the applications and that's where, I think, the need is to get persons on an eligible list. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: To make the referral to the hiring department. My other question is, how doesI'm glad you're doing that. I'm glad your staff thought about doing that. How does that impact, now, your Rules? Are you going to do the E&E's to get these qualified individuals on a list, make the referral. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: That's what you're going to do? MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: You're not going to change the Rules in any way then? MR. LEOPOLDINO: No. And we were looking at the quickest way to do it. E&E has been working out well for us. And we thought we could apply the E&Eeducation and experience exam to—in-lieu of the written exams. That's going to be the most expeditious way. CHR. CABANAS: So, actually, you're reverting back to how things were, in a way MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: prior to the Rule change the recent Rule change. The concern would be training and auditing the departments so that we don't have the pilikia— MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: that the County had experienced some time ago. We don't want that kind of pilikia. So but your staff will ensure, with the departments, that that's not going to happen, right? MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yeah. And I was actually happy—and I'm happy to share that the staff were the ones who had raised that issue. So, they're very much aware of the potential for having those issues. So, yes, they're going to be much more vigilant when we apply the E&E for these positions. Thank you. CHR. CABANAS: I think this is a real plus. I think this is going to make it more streamlined, less bureaucratic—which was the intent of the Civil Service Reform back in the early 2000's. So, I'm glad to hear that this is being addressed. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. Page 22 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Thank you. CHR. CABANAS: Other questions? MR. KUNZ: One comment, I guess. Waylen, knowing that you are applying these anecdotes because of staff shortages and changing things—and maybe it's too early to tell, but do you sense or see a trend that you're starting to get more applications for positions? I know I see the numbers, but I'm just trying to, like, it's a balance betweenI don't have enough staff, there's a lot of work, we're kind of shifting from the written exam and stuff. But do you sense that there's a little ground swell of people being more interested despite inflation and everything else and COVID and everything? MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yeah. Thank you for asking that question. And I'm going to go into it when I get to the activities report. But our recent shift in strategy to be more visible in the community, we had a very, very successful event. It's the County's Community Resource FairI cannot remember the date, but it was at the Prince Kuhio Plaza on a Friday and a Saturday—and the traffic was tremendous. I thought that was a great idea by our staff to have us out there. And the focus was just communicating with the public about what the County does. We're not there recruiting, we're just providing information. So, we had a bunch of our departments out there—water for example, how to detect a leak in your toilet—which drew a very impressive amount of people in comparison to theI promise, Charlie, I'm getting to your point—but I really want to blow this up. In comparison to the job fair we did at the Civic, it was very poor. No traffic, handful of people on the two days—Friday and Saturday. So, we really had, like, fish in a barrel kind of situation. Lot of discussion. We even had people come to our HR table there and have discussions about how to apply for a job just educating. How to apply for a job, initial probationary period, new probationary period just information. And it got people excited and interested. And, like we had suspected, a lot of people didn't know that we had all these vacancies, all these job openings. And so, they were excited. So, just by that event alone, I can tell you that—yes, we have sensed more interest in County government and working for the government. And so, that happened a few weeks ago and we've already, kind of, seen more applications come through and I'd like to think it's because of all of these activities we've been doing. Page 23 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 But we're going to build off of that. We already have another one planned for November and we have a list of events already established throughout the rest of the year. So, I think the answer is, "yes." The staff and myself have noticed personally how much more interest we're getting through these events. And so, I want to build on this momentum and continue. But I do anticipate by the end of the year, as a goal that we had set for recruitment to see an increase in, not only in applications, but qualified individuals for the position. So, I think we're doing really well there. MR. KUNZ: Thank you. CHR. CABANAS: I would encourage you folks to continue doing that because you know what that tells me—it tells me you folks went to the right fishing spot. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: You went where the fish are. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes, we did. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. And so, where you have that traffic people are there at the mall, they're shopping—and I'm glad the departments supported you folks they went here. Yeah, you need to keep it up because that's how you're going to get people to apply for County jobs. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. And so, I would like to ask if you guys know of any venues on the west side because we'd like to do the same setup on the west side. It's a little bit different with west side. So, open to any suggestions for West Hawaii. CHR. CABANAS: And even taking it to, let's say, Hamakua, like—Gay is in Honokaa. When Honokaa has, let's say, Heritage Week or they have that Western Week or something—or other— MS. MATHEWS: There's the Western Week and there's, actually, a Renaissance Fair coming up November 12''. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Oh, okay. CHR. CABANAS: Or even in Waimea. MS. MATHEWS: But it's the first time, so who knows how well it'll go. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yeah. Page 24 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. Or even in Waimea because that's like a hub also. Go where the hubs are. MS. MATHEWS: And in Waimea, where I would go, is the farmers market that happens out at the Stables because there's a lot of traffic there. MR. LEOPOLDINO: So, part of my report for the activities—we're pretty much covering the activities report—and I don't mind. But—well, one of the—another strategy we had is to create a popup system where we're ready to go, we have a popup tent, we have portable tables everything is ready to go. Because we're actually going to try this out at the Hilo Market—they have a night market. I don't know the dates, yet, but we're going to get involved with that where we're going to try and rotate departments, but we'll have a popup system where we can quickly get setup at any one of these events—like your Renaissance Fair and being in Waimea at farmers market. So, we're trying different things and I think they're all great things to try out. It's exciting as well. So. CHR. CABANAS: I think the market in Hilo is the first Friday, if I'm not mistaken. Isn't it the first Friday of the month? Yeah. MS. DE SOTO: A regular nightly one now—every Friday. CHR. CABANAS: They do? MS. DE SOTO: Mm-hmm. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, every Friday? MS. DE SOTO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: And a lot of people turn out for that. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yeah. MS. DE SOTO: Across—it's on Waianuenueacross (inaudible)—fish and chips. CHR. CABANAS: I've had friends that they walk downtown and then they have dinner there and they make it a night of it. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yeah. Page 25 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 CHR. CABANAS: So, yeah. And then, you're hit—you're not I don't want to say hitting that's a bad word. But you're reaching out to a different type of group of individuals. So, I think the more the merrier that, to me, is the key. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Absolutely. CHR. CABANAS: And then, focus on other districtsKa`u, when they have something out there or Kea`auso that it's not only just two sides just, kind of, break it down. Well, good. MR. LEOPOLDINO: And we're actually looking at equipment. For example, iPad, to have on hand so that we can actually assist people there— CHR. CABANAS: Right. MR. LEOPOLDINO: to complete applications. CHR. CABANAS: Right. MR. LEOPOLDINO: So, with new technology we want to look at those types of things so we can try and assist as much as possible. CHR. CABANAS: Have you every entertained the thought ofI want to say, retirees of the department coming back to help? MR. LEOPOLDINO: It's funny that you say that `cause one of CHR. CABANAS: No, I cannot double -dip. MR. LEOPLDINO: Well CHR. CABANAS: But there are others that may beI don't know, I haven't talked to them but I don't know, it's something that you might want to explore. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yeah. Well, one of myI haven't proposed it to recruitment, yet, but one of my ideas that I had is a return -to -work program for retirees. I haven't coined a nice catch program, yet, but that's definitely on my list of things. I think that's a great, great idea because it came to mind when I ran into a couple of retirees who didn't know we had so many vacancies. And, kind of, made comments, "Oh, I'm, kind of, getting bored at home"—or those types of retirees, like, that want to come back. So, we want to capture that audience as well. So, yes, thank you. CHR. CABANAS: Especially if those that worked in HR. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. Page 26 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 CHR. CABANAS: Because they still have that knowledge base, yeah. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: And they have the connection to the department in that they had a wonderful career with HR. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: And less training involved because they have that knowledge base. So, I'm just, kind of, putting it out there. They may they may want to connect back. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Right. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MR. LEOPOLDINO: I ran into my old HR tech. at police walking her dog. And I from time to time I'll see her and I'll say, "Are you ready to come back to HR? We got positions"—say, "No thank you." CHR. CABANAS: And in a more fun way. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: It's not where they're going to process papers, screen applications MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yeah, exactly. CHR. CABANAS: They're just there to encourage people to apply. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Things that they've already done in the past. MR. LEOPLDINO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MS. MATHEWS: (Inaudible) just doing it for a couple of hours (inaudible). CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. Page 27 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes, absolutely. CHR. CABANAS: And then, with COVID, I think a lot of people they—well, like for all of us—I'll speak for myself—but it's like, "Okay, I was isolated at home and the only connection to the outside world was MAB." And so, I really cherish MAB because that, kind of, kept me sane and my mind going. So, I speak for myself. But I'm sure they would. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yeah. I think so. CHR. CABANAS: And you know what—it's just an extension of the HR ohana. Just a thought. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yeah. No, that's a great idea. Thank you. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, moving along. MR. KUNZ: You guys have all of this metaphors, like—what was it—where you fish and the barrel CHR. CABANAS: `Cause that's an analogy I used to use. MR. KUNZ: Throw your palo in Waimea and cast your net. Good luck, Waylen, sounds like you're doing a good job. CHR. CABANAS: It's not to offend anyone, but it was just—that's the analogy I would use when I conducted training is, like, you go, you do your research, you research the fishing spots so that you can have a good catch, right? MR. LEOPOLDINO: I got to say, the staff still uses a lot of Gabe's analogies, like, "paint the picture." CHR. CABANAS: "Paint the picture." MR. LEOPOLDINO: So, they use that all the time. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, that's good. MR. LEOPOLDINO: So, just letting you know. CHR. CABANAS: Yes. And we're asking a lot of questions because we're actually painting the picture. Yeah, so that we all understand what— MR. hat MR. LEOPOLDINO: Sure. Page 28 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 CHR. CABANAS: what the department is, not only going through, but what you've thought about and what you plan to do, what your action plan is, what you timeline isso you're painting the picture for us so that we have a better—not only a better understanding, but a better appreciation of what you are all going through. So, that's why we're asking these questions. MR. KUNZ: Let us be your easel. CHR. CABANAS: But, you know, humor is good `cause it just lifts up the spirit. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. So, let's move on. So, we are nowI think we're done with recruitment and exam, so let's move on to "Workers' Compensation." Any questions or comments here? It seems like there's such a big increase for 2022. And I have to ask MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: What's the nature of these claims, just in general, not the specifics. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Sure. So, 60 of those claims are directly related to COVID-19. And even when you take out the 60 claims you're still a little high. Those—workers' comp. has seen a general increase in claims—injury claims. No trend or anything like that. It just so happens, it's a high number of claims in 2022. CHR. CABANAS: And out of the—so out of 20660 are COVID related? MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: And what's the others? MR. LEOPOLDINO: So, police had a high number that year. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, okay. MR. LEOPOLDINO: There were a couple officer -involved shootings. CHR. CABANAS: Physical injuries or stress claims or MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. Physical injuries. Yes. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, okay. Page 29 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 MR. KUNZ: Interesting the tradeoff of not having a lot of positions filled, yet with the ones that are already filled, the numbers are already higher than they were. MS. MATHEWS: Well, that was, kind of, where I—what I was wondering isis the lack of employees contributing to the increase in work comp.? MR. LEOPOLDINO: Without going into the details of the injuries, it's not related. When I was told what the injuries at police were—well, I mean, I take it back. It could be. People working overtime or covering shifts, putting people in a space where they wouldn't normally be—it could be a whole list of things. Yes. MS. DE SOTO: For the individual departments, do they do their own internal audit to look for just, kind of, the micro -trends unique to their own areas? MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. So, each department submits a monthly report to Workers Comp and, actually, we help the departments with that. And so, workers' comp. actually works closely with the health and safety division in HR. So, if we need to dispatch our safety personnel to get into the department to evaluate any processes, we'll do that. MS. DE SOTO: Oh, good. Okay MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yeah. MS. DE SOTO: `Cause I was just thinking, right, with police MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. MS. DE SOTO: —back injuries MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. MS. DE SOTO: I know, like, so many of them have switched to vests and we're still doing belts. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Right. MS. DE SOTO: And, like, there's something (inaudible) MR. LEOPOLDINO: Sure. MS. DE SOTO: but also the social issues have changed in our society. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. MS. DE SOTO: So, I imagine they're facing a different workload as well. Page 30 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 MR. LEOPOLDINO: That's also important to note, the social issuesa lot of tension, a lot of stress in the community will also directly have an effect on our police department. So, yeah, thank you. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. Other questions? Okay, if not, okay—so we are now on—look at my agenda— MR. KUNZ: For the record, I want to acknowledge that I really appreciate the detail, Director Leopoldino, that you provide us. I don't know if you guys heard this before but it really paints a picture for us but—it is to me, it's as detailed as I think I'd want—and, yet it does capture a lot of areas that by the next meeting, I think, it's easy to acquaint what we talked about so manya quarter ago or whatever. And I like this. I really like this. So, thank you for putting in the effort. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Sure, you're welcome. MS. MATHEWS: I agree. MR. LEOPOLDINO: And, definitely, we're open to any improvements, like, Gay mentioned earlier on one of our reports we're happy to take a look at it and revisit any of the reports. Thank you. MAB Monthly Divisional Activity Report — August 2022 CHR. CABANAS: Okay. So, we are now on our MAB monthly divisional activity report. And I know we, kind of, like, asked some questions from here along with the quarterly report. But, I have to say, Waylen, I love this divisional report. This is exactly what we wanted. And I know, Charlie, I don't think you were here when we discussed this, but how this came about just want to preface it. How this came about was I was beginning to feel uncomfortable where—I'll speak for myself] would be asking about I would be asking questions about a particular division and, if it's not on the agenda, we shouldn't be asking questions according to our the advice of our Assistant Corporation Counsel. So, I felt why don't we have—and I proposed to the Board—why don't we have a divisional report, not lengthy, just a snapshot of what the division is doing, highlight it for each month. And the Board members agreed with that and this is how this came to be. And this is exactly what, I think, we needed because it helped us see a complete picture of the divisions and, if we have questions to ask the way we did of the admin. services division, then we asked it so we understand what they are going through and it's not only asking of just, like, one division. So, it's like we're not giving equal time and space for us, as Board members, to ask of any of the eight divisions without singling one division. `Cause I don't want staff from one division to feel slighted, like, we're only asking about recruitment. Well, there are other seven divisions in the Page 31 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 department that we need to also pay attention to and learn from. So, this is wonderful. Please thank them. Thank you and thank them that we appreciate this. This is so helpful and we already started asking questions from this report that we tied into your quarterly report. MS. MATHEWS: And because it's on the agenda, we get to ask anything we want. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. And it's safer for us. Now, we're like, we're legal. We can ask. Yeah? MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: So, thank you so much. MR. LEOPOLDINO: You're welcome. I appreciate that. I do—if I mayI do want to express some concerns with a report like this from Human Resources. And this has been expressed to me by some of our division heads—and I don't need to explain to you the nature of our business and the work that we do. A lot of the work we do is very confidential and cannot be disclosed in an open forum. So, I just need to make it clear that even though that the information is not on here, my concern is the questions that might come to me in an open forum. And Iif we have the public on open forum, I don't know if further action can be taken where, if someone in the public might hear something that is really confidential that they could go through the process to request more information from our department. We might see an increase for records requests. So, I just wanted to make that clear and—on behalf of my staff who have expressed those concerns. I wanted to share that with the Board. That's my only concern with this. And I'm happy to incorporate this into our quarterly report because I think, like—Kate said, we're kind of discussing that through the quarterly report. And I'm happy to go over this but I just wanted to share that with you all first. CHR. CABANAS: Well, my response to that is, I think, at any time that you or the staff when you do a report, they need to be—and you need to be mindful that you do not cross the line in providing us any confidential information. I think that responsibility lies with the department— correct epartmentcorrect me if I'm wrong, Assistant Corporation Counsel—but you folks need to use that judgement. Yes, we don't want any confidential information because our meeting minutes will be public information. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: It's going to be on the—what do you call that—on the public documents. Yeah, so they can access that. But this is just a general, a general, summary of what the division is working on. So, I think in that vein, it should be okay. Page 32 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 MR. LEOPOLDINO: Okay. CHR. CABANAS: But they also need to be careful in what they respond. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yeah. So, our department is very mindful of what we provide. It's just the questions that come back to me—we don't have any control over. So, I just wanted to share that with this Board. CHR. CABANAS: Well, if we're asking questions and you feel that it's going to take you over that line, then don't go over the line. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Okay. So, you guys are comfortable with CHR. CABANAS: Oh, yeah, absolutely. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Okay. Great. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MR. LEOPOLDINO: All right. Thank you. CHR. CABANAS: And, J, do you want to say anything? MR. YOSHMOTO: I believe it'll be beneficial to have an executive session to talk about some issues and concerns that we just talked about but under attorney-client privilege. CHR. CABANAS: And when would we do that? MR. YOSHIMOTO: Whenever the BoardI mean, today would be good. I mean CHR. CABANAS: So after this? MR. YOSHIMOTO: After this or we can talk about it now andI don't think it'll take too long, but I just wanted to share some thoughts. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, okay. MR. YOSHIMOTO: And then— CHR. CABANAS: What would you recommend? MR. YOSHIMOTO: That we go into executive session, right now. CHR. CABANAS: Now? Page 33 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 MR. YOSHIMOTO: And then, ask the director to wait. Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. To—what's the word—be excused for a while, yeah? MR. LEOPOLDINO: Okay. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. Well, thank you for bringing up those concerns from the staff because we do want to be—what's the word—we do want to be sensitive to the staff's concerns as well and, especially, if we're asking questions that might steer you into an area that we should not go. So, we'll go into executive session with a motion. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yeah. I just want to clarify that it's not a complaint or it's not I think I'm very proud of my staff for bringing up that issue because they're the ones in the weeds and doing the work. And I don't want to compromise what they're doing. I mentioned that I would bring it up. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. Fair enough. MR. KUNZ: I think we would be remiss if we didn't yield to that discretion, really, because you guys would know better. Thank you, Waylen. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Thank you. (At this time, Mr. Leopoldino exited the meeting room.) CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. So, at this time, I need an execI need a motion to go into executive session to discuss—what should we word it as, J? MR. YOSHIMOTO: Reports from the director as indicated on the agenda. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. So, that we can discuss the reports of the director of human resources as listed on the agenda, specifically, the quarterly reports and the monthly divisional activity reports. So, may I have a motion and a second? MS. MATHEWS: So moved. MS. DE SOTO: Second. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. Any discussion? Okay, if not, I'll start with a rollcall vote with Kate. MS. DE SOTO: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Gay. Page 34 Merit Appeals Board MS. MATHEWS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Charlie. MR. KUNZ: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Gabriella—aye. Four ayes. Motion carried for the Board to go into executive session at 11:12 a.m. August 30, 2022 RECESS: The Chair called for a recess at 11:12 a.m. to convene executive session. RECONVENE: The meeting reconvened at 11:58 a.m. in open session. MAB Quarterly Reports: April – June 2022; And MAB Monthly Divisional Activity Report – August 2022 (Executive Session: The Merit Appeals Board Anticipates Convening One Or More Executive Meetings Regarding The Above Matters, Pursuant To HRS Sections 92-4 And 92-5(a)(4), For The Purpose Of Consulting With The Board's Attorney On Questions And Issues Pertaining To The Board's Powers, Duties, Privileges, Immunities, And Liabilities. A 2/3 Vote Pursuant To HRS Section 92-4 Is Necessary To Hold An Executive Meeting) CHR. CABANAS: Okay, so thank you, Waylen, for coming back. The Board is now in open session at 11:58 a.m. We had a very long discussion about the director's two reports the quarterly reports and the monthly divisional activity report. Our focus was really on the divisional monthly report and we want to, I guess, get your input about the completion of it and is it working. We need to address the staffs' concern about any confidential information that might come up when Board members ask questions or are very mindful about the questions we ask, but we do not want to create any pilikia either. So, could you kindly give us your take about our Board's request for the completion of the divisional monthly report. Are you completing it or are the mangers completing it. How did this all get to be compiled? MR. LEOPOLDINO: So, once the request was made I had a discussion at our division head meeting that we have weekly. And the discussion happened and it was new to the division heads this request was new. So, the questions were raised, at that time, and I initially brought it up. And then, throughout up until the report was due, we had questions about those concerns. Not so much of the, like I mentioned earlier—not so much of the information we're providing. It's—some of the concerns are if a question is asked to me and I have to say, "I can't answer that"—someone in the public that may want more information on it, might submit a records request to DHR. And so, we would have to act upon it and take action on it anyway. So, we might see an increase there. Page 35 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 And another thing related to that is we don't want to create a perception of HR not trying to be transparent, it's the nature of our work. So, that's where the primary concern is. The staff is very mindful of the information we put on this document. They're very mindful of it. So, that's not the concern. We can—if you guys are happy with this, this is very high level. It's the questioning portion of it that—it's the unknown. And I don't know how you guys feel about being comfortable with me saying, "I can't answer that" but, again, that may raise questions in an open forum. So, that's the premise for the concern. And I don't know the history—Gabe, you might know the historywith the quarterly reports. The elements of the quarterly reports may have been decided on a previous Merit Appeals Board that was satisfactory to both the Merit Appeals Board and the administration at that time those components, which it's been common practice to report quarterly on those components for years and years and yearsor, at least, since I've been with HR. So, I don't know if there's history there. And, like I said, if the Board is agreeable to it, we can—like how our discussion went today like, we can expand on the quarterly, but I know the issue is you guys want more frequent reporting, which is a monthly -type issue. So, that's kind of, basically, where the concern is. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. So, let me, at this time, provide to you the director and to the staff—some reassurance. Most of the staff there are, in fact, all of them areI don't know how to explain it. Are, I guess, newer there. But historicallyhistorically, the director at monthly meetings provided the Board detailed reports on the division's activities. It was done orally historically, okay. As time progressed with different Boards, they asked for the quarterly reports and they asked for it written. Now, none of the members there know that—historically—okay. `Cause I was the last before I retiredso, they don't have that knowledge base. But that's the history of the Board asking for information from the director. The quarterly reports are very helpful to the Merit Appeals Board members because we're getting the information. As I said, not only to learn, but—and to understand and appreciate what the staff are doing, `cause it's a lot—if we did not have the quarterly report today. We also need to be mindful that when we ask questions, it has to be listed on the agenda. And I was getting pretty uncomfortable asking questions just about one division because then, there are 7 other divisions. And so, at the last meeting, the Board—in consensus—agreed for us to ask for a monthly divisional report. Because if we didn't have the quarterly report today, other than you reporting Page 36 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 in certain areas, we wouldn't have a legal basis to ask in areas that you did not bring up, you see—and that was upon the advice or our corporation counsel. So, that's why the importance for the divisional monthly report comes into play because next month when we meet, we won't have a quarterly report. All we will have is the divisional activity report from you, which allows each Board member to ask about any of the 8 functional areas. Now, the divisional activity report, we appreciate. But—well, there's not—but the instructions were that it be just a summarya highlight for the month. So, for some divisions, I think they kept to it at that. If you were to look at page 1I don't know if you have it in front of you but if you were to look at page 1, like, Admin. Services Division perfect. It's a one -sentence thing. That's public information. Okay. Number 2, Classification and Pay, basic information about C&P does—public information. Okay. It may not change every month. It might be the same, especially for classification and pay. It might be the same for every month or it might be tweaked, just elimination of a couple words. So, basically, the divisions on page 1, they kind of adhere to that. Page 2, it's a little bit more detailed. We just want a summary. It doesn't need to be this detailed for divisional report. So, you compiled all this information in discussing it with each manager? MR. LEOPOLDINO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: And you did that at a managers meeting or you did—how did you do it? MR. LEOPOLDINO: Well, so I had to explain what the request was. CHR. CABANAS: Right. MR. LEOPOLDINO: And then, at subsequent meetings we talked about it. And then, I issued a deadline for the summaries to come in. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, okay. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Enough time for me to review before we distribute it. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. So—and they didn't mind doing the report? Did it take a lot of time for them to do the report? MR. LEOPOLDINO: I don't think it took time. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. Page 37 Merit Appeals Board MR. LEOPOLDINO: No. August 30, 2022 CHR. CABANAS: So, if we stick to a sentence or two for each of the functional areas, I think that's what the Board wants. Okay. Just a sentence or two. And please explain to the managers, especially, why we wanted it because it gives the Board the legal basis to ask a question and it's now part of the agenda. Because without this, we couldn't ask unless you bring it up, we were told not to ask. If it'sif you don't bring it up about health and safety, and it's not on the agenda, we shouldn't be asking it. So, it's also to protect the Board. So it gets down to nitty-gritty sort of stuff, but— MR. ut MR. LEOPOLDINO: I don't mind that is how I presented it to them. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. MR. LEOPOLDINO: So, they are aware of why we're requesting it. CHR. CABANAS: And as far as the questions, we're not going to be offended or take it in any negative way, if you cannot answer it. They need to understand that. If you cannot answer it, hey, we understand. You're not going to go into an area that you shouldn't be going into in providing us information that is confidential. We do not expect that. MR. LEOPOLDINO: And, if I may, I just want to add—if you guys understand that a lot of these will continue. It's not going to be completed in a month. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MR. LEOPOLDINO: So, like you said, it'll be—show up on the next report. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, and that's fine. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Okay. CHR. CABANAS: That's fine. So, we know you folks are very, very busy. You're strapped already with a lot of deadlines and staff shortages and a whole rigmarole of everything. We're not here to penalize anyone. We just want, again, paint the picture so we know on a month-to-month basis, as the Board, that this is what staff and the department are going through. Yeah. And if a Board member has a question, then we can ask. And if you cannot answer it because it takes you into a confidential area, then state it, so that we understand and we won't go there. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Okay. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. Page 38 Merit Appeals Board MR. LEOPOLDINO: All right. August 30, 2022 CHR. CABANAS: And so, I'm going to open it up to the floor, to the Board members, if they would like to add anything to what I said orso, I'm going to open it up. So, the Chair yields to my fellow Board members. So, I'll start with you, Charlie, do you want to say anything to our director? MR. KUNZ: I think you summed up what we were all discussing earlier. The last thing we want to do is provide so much over -reach and critique that it creates more stress and having you return back to answer more questions that takes more time. So, I think something like this and with Gabe's comments about narrowing some of the scope and the detail, I think will be fine. And I think—one thing I'd like to say that I've always used to tell my daughter is that—when mom isn't grumbling and she's quiet, that's when you need to worry. So, that we ask thingsI think you should relay to the staff that we're, I think, we're very sincerely wanting to know and help. I think you can have a rubberstamp Board but versus a Board that's really engaged—it's, I think, it's when we don't ask, it's like we don't care. So, that in mind, something like this, I think, captures what we need. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Thank you for that analogy—and that new analogy. Charlie, thank you. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you, Charlie, that was well said. Gay. MS. MATHEWS: So, I'm not going what they've said. And I had to prepare for board meetings every month for 28 years, so I totally sympathize with what you're dealing with. And it would happen occasionally where the board would overreach and it does require you to slap us and say, "No." And I realize that could be difficult for you. And I want you to know that we collectively all want you to do that. Okay. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Thank you. MS. MATHEWS: So, whether you want to discover little phrases that are different from, "I won't answer that" to "I can't answer that" or "I'll get you more information later" you could do that, too. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Okay. MS. MATHEWS: But, yes, we totally are just trying to help, not hinder, and definitely not micro -manage. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Okay. Thank you. Page 39 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 CHR. CABANAS: Okay, Gay, well said. Go to Kate. MS. DE SOTO: Ditto what everyone said. I think the intention is really just about creating the conversations because, as you can tell, this Board is so well -intended. We really want to learn. And I think as one of the newest members, that probably has the least HR type experience out of anyone, it's helpful for me to hear just these general updates, `cause I get—it gives me a sense of flow and a sense of, like, what this looks like on an on-going basis versus, "Oh, something big happened"or, say, we do get the hearings or appeals andoh, something really iffy is happening, right. It helps to have the everyday tone set outside of those moments. So, it really helps me as someone that's learning how to do all of this. I think the intention is there and it's good, and I really do—as someone that's had to do a lot of data reports as well. The quarterly for me, at least, the way I see it—is the quarterly, is your data points, right. Those are data points. This is not the data discussion. So, I hope that that doesn't—unless you feel it's exceptional and you really want to highlight it or you really feel the Board needs to know about it I don't think, at least for me, that's not what I'm looking for. And I love what Gabe—or Gay said about some of the sample language. I think even speaking in theoretical sometimes help—saying, like, "Oh, I can't answer that specifically" because, in general, in HR, this is what happens. That helps me as learner, too, `cause I can see, okay, this is where that line is, right, this is the general process, this is where that line is, this is what's operational, this is what's yeah, it helps to give some of that clarity. Okay? MR. LEOPOLDINO: Okay, thank you. MS. DE SOTO: Thanks. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you, Kate, well said. And in closing, I just want to add that our Board members are right—we care. We care about you and we care about the staff and we care about the departments' mission. And one part as Chair isas Chair, I need to prepare the Board. The Board needs to be prepared in case we have future appeal hearings, which can be very complex. We need to be well -versed in HR and that's why it's important for us to, sometimes, ask the questions—so it's learning, understanding, and appreciating what you all do. When I was working, and we had individuals calling me, and they came up with all kinds of questionsI learned to have one little simple sentence and that was, "I'm willing to help you but I'm not at liberty to provide you with that information"—and that was my mantra. I said that to a lot of people"I'm willing to help you but I'm not at liberty to provide you with that information." And they knew I would not cross the line and that was the end of that. Page 40 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 So, you may want to, as Kate suggested, come up with someoh, and Gay—some little statements. But, yeah—we will respect—if you're not at liberty to provide us with that information, Waylen, we understand. MR. LEOPODINO: Okay. Thank you. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. So, you're on solid ground. We have that mutual respect and understanding of your role and of the responsibilities of the managers and their support staff. We get it. We understand. On the other hand, on the other side of the coin, our Board members—we all want to learn so that if we have appeal hearings, we have an understanding not only of what your department does, but what of the other departments do in the County of Hawaii. We will be well -versed, yeah. So, that's the intent. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Thank you. We appreciate hearing our concerns. Thank you. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. So, please relay that back to the managers especially, yeah MR. LEOPOLDINO: Sure. CHR. CABANAS: that we do respect their concerns. We do not expect confidential information to be provided by the board to the Board, yeah? MR. LEOPOLDINO: Okay. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. So, with that, any other comments orWaylen, you have anything else that you'd like to provide? MR. LEOPOLDINO: No, I think that's it. Those were my concerns. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. So, continue to do the good job that you folks are doing. Please let the managers know that we appreciate all that they are doing and the support staff as well, yeah? MR. LEOPOLDINO: Okay, will do. CHR. CABANAS: And you, too. Yeah. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Thank you. CHR. CABANAS: And you, too, keep at it. MR. LEOPOLDINO: Thank you. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. Thank you, Waylen. Page 41 Merit Appeals Board MR. LEOPOLDINO: All right, thank you. CHR. CABANAS: So, may I have a motion and a second to accept MR. YOSHIMOTO: You have a motion. CHR. CABANAS: I had a motion made? MR. YOSHIMOTO: Yeah. You still got to take a vote. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, okay, I did make the motion. Okay. So, we MR. YOSHIMOTO: (Inaudible), yeah, right? CHR. CABANAS: We did, right? MS. YAMADA: I must have stepped out during that time. August 30, 2022 CHR. CABANAS: Can I do it again, just to recap? Thank you. Let's do it again. Okay. So, may I have a motion to accept and file the director's report—the MAB quarterly report and the monthly divisional activity report. MS. DE SOTO: So moved. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you, Kate. Have a second? MR. KUNZ: Second. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you, Charlie. Any discussion? If not, I'll start with rollcall vote with Kate. MS. DE SOTO: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Gay. MS. MATHEWS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Charlie. MR. KUNZ: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Gabriella—aye. Page 42 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 Four ayes. Motion carried to accept the directors two reports the monthly report and divisional monthlyI mean, the quarterly report and the divisional monthly report. Shall we pause at this this time for a little lunch break? MS. MATHEWS: I do have a question first. CHR. CABANAS: Yes? MS. MATHEWS: Is Ryan still sitting out there? Okay, never mind. CHR. CABANAS: No, he went back. So, let's take a recess. It's 12:20 and come back in open session at 12:40—is that okay with everyone? A 20 -minute recess? Okay, thank you, everyone. Page 43 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 RECESS: The Chair called for a recess at 12:20 p.m. RECONVENE: The meeting reconvened at 12:57 p.m. in open session. CHR. CABANAS: It is 12:57 p.m. on August 30'', 2022. We are back from recess and now in open session. Communications (Item 5) Communication No. 22-05, Dated July 18, 2022, From Cost Of Government Commission Chair Michael Konowicz, Vice -Chair Neal Herbert, And Commissioner Shannon Matson, Stating Their Permitted Information Group Has Been Authorized To Study And Investigate County Of Hawaii Boards And Commissions Methods Of Operations. Requests The Merit Appeals Board Provide Feedback To The Questions Listed In Their Letter By Tuesday, August 9, 2022; And Communication No. 22-05.01, Dated July 25, 2022, From Merit Appeals Board (MAB) Chair Gabriella M. Cabanas Responding To Chair Konowicz's Request, Stating This Matter Will Be Placed On MAB's Agenda For Discussion On August 30, 2022 (And Will Provide Their Feedback In Writing To The Commission Shortly Thereafter) CHR. CABANAS: And we are now on Item number 5 "Communications." So, refresh my memory—did I do or did we do a motion? MR. YOSHIMOTO: You did a motion to table. So, Madam Chair, now you need a motion to remove from the table agenda Item number 5. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, okay. Thank you very much, Counsel. So, okayso, we are removing our motion from tabling Cost of Government Commission—and it is now back for any discussion. We had a second, right? MR. YOSHIMOTO: Motion and a vote. CHR. CABANAS: Motion and a voteso, any discussion to accept and file—right? Oh, we need a motion to take it off? Oh, excuse me. Okay. So, thank you very much. So, we need a motion to take off the Cost of Government Commission—Communication number 22-05 and number 22-05.01 off the table and now back in—onto the floor in open session. May I have a motion. MR. KUNZ: So moved. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you, Charlie. May I have a second? MS. MATHEWS: Second. Page 44 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 CHR. CABANAS: Thank you, Gay. Any discussion? If not, I will start with a rollcall vote with Kate. MS. DE SOTO: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you, Kate. Gay. MS. MATHEWS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. Charlie. MR. KUNZ: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. Gabriella—aye. Four ayes for the motion to be carried. So, we are now going to look at the 10 questions, right, that are on the second page of the Cost of Government Commission's letter, July 18, 2022. And the first question is: "Can redundancy and waste be reduced by combining boards/commissions that are like focused?" And we will provide a response to all the 10 questions to the Cost of Government Commission. MR. KUNZ: So, this is specific to us or just general? CHR. CABANAS: It's general. MR. KUNZ: Oh, okay, then yeah, the answer is "yes" then, I guess. MS. DE SOTO: In the sentence above, it says they're looking they look forward to hearing any feedback from with regards to your board or commission no later than Tuesday. So, I thought it was regarding our board and commission? MR. YOSHIMOTO: Yeah, I think so. CHR. CABANAS: Combining our Board. If it's combining our Board, I would say "no" because we have the legal authority to exist under HRS. MR. KUNZ: I agree. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, Number 2: "Is the size of your board/commission optimized? Is island -wide representation optimized? Page 45 Merit Appeals Board MR. KUNZ: "Yes" and "yes." August 30, 2022 CHR. CABANAS: We have five board members, each Board member represents a district, so we do have island -wide representation." Number 3: "Has your board/commission retained its value to the community and achieved positive results?" Definitely, "yes." MR. KUNZ: Any board would be foolish to say otherwise. CHR. CABANAS: Number 4: "Is your meeting frequency optimized? "Yes," `cause we do meet monthly." Number 5: "Has lack of quorums been a problem and affected effectiveness? No, it has not been a problem and we are effective." Agree? MS. MATHEWS: "Yes," because she manages to (inaudible) all on the same page. If we didn't have her, we're in real trouble. CHR. CABANAS: Yes, we have an outstanding secretary -reporter. MS. MATHEWS: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: Let the record reflect that. MS. MATHEWS: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: Number 6: "Is your board/commission conforming to the to the County Charter or should any code changes to guidelines be suggested?" MR. KUNZ: J? MR. YOSHIMOTO: Yes, we're conforming to Charter. No changes, I mean, that's up to the Board as to whether you feel like there should be any changes, although, I would think our authority would be limited because we are the base comes from HRS. So, I would say no changes unless there's something you see as a compelling need but then that would be a different audience, right, it would be the State Legislature. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. Number 7: "Would an audit of your board/commission be of benefit?" I would say "no." What are they going to audit? I think we have the checks and balances. We have an attorney—an outstanding attorney representing us. We have a deputy attorney general that assist the Board in an appeal hearing. So, my answer would be "no," if you all agree. No—okay. Page 46 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 Eight: "Would employing a support staff of secretaries and lawyers for the exclusive use of the Commissions and Boards so as not to distract the workload of other county employees be prudent?" MS. MATHEWS: "No," I like the ones we've got. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, I agree. In other words, instead of a secretary -reporter, we would have pool and that would affect Glynis' classification because she—her position is classified secretary -reporter because she is the secretary -reporter to the MAB, to the salary commission, and to the director. So, it would affect her classification yeah, in HR—"no." MS. MATHEWS: Well, that's not the only thing. If you got a pool secretary, is you're not going to have continuity. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MS. MATHEWS: And, likewise, if you have a pool of attorneys J's actually figured out how to work around our various personalities and that's fairly critical and we rely on his expertise and there's no conflict thereI might ignore him but—and Glynis is invaluable CHR. CABANAS: Oh, yes. MS. MATHEWS: So, to me it's a "no" pool. CHR. CABANAS: Well, her time is dedicated to the Merit Appeals Board. If we had a pool, they will have to be juggling who's going to get the priority. And when that happens, sometimes MS. MATHEWS: (Inaudible.) CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. So, this way, it's very effective to have a dedicated secretary -reporter. Yeah. And when I say "dedicated" the time. Her time is dedicated to MAB. MS. MATHEWS: She's a dedicated, dedicated (inaudible). CHR. CABANAS: Yes, she is. She is dedicated in more ways than one. Okay. We appreciate you, Glynis. Do you feel the love? MS. YAMADA: I do. Thank you. CHR. CABANAS: I know we're in open session, but—okay. Number 9: "What suggestions might you have for using standard A/V equipment and resources across boards and commissions, as well as standardizing how the community can interact with Page 47 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 each board and commission remotely and/or in-person? What equipment, systems and facilities are you using in this regard?" Well MS. MATHEWS: We're using ZOOM, we're using (inaudible). MR. KUNZ: (Inaudible) to address all of this with, not just ZOOM, but everything else (inaudible). CHR. CABANAS: We're dependent on using this room. Well, we used to use the HR conference room but because of COVID and the spacing requirement between people, we are here. So, we use the resources that are available to us in this room and via ZOOM. Yeah. MR. YOSHIMOTO: That's what I'm going to put down then, the Board uses resources available to it, as provided by the County. CHR. CABANAS: Right. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Something like that? CHR. CABANAS: Right. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: And you could say, "i.e. the Council Chambers the Hilo Council Chambers and its equipment"—and then we also use ZOOM, yeah the ZOOM capability here. I mean, we are limited in the sense that we have to depend on the availability of the Councilroom and sometimes it get heavily booked. But we just work around it. I mean, there is no room in existence solely for boards and commissions to meet. We make—we all make use of this Council Chambers. So, this the Chambers is well used. MR. YOSHIMOTO: I'm just wondering if the question is asking whether there should be—and I'm, kind of, taking a deeper dive. I'm wondering if the question is asking that there should be dedicated spaces for all of the boards and commissions to meet, such that they're—say, like a building, where you have 10 or 12 meeting rooms, right. And the public all knows this is the meeting place. But I don't know if that's efficient or cost-effective but—because, right now, we have meetings all over the County whether it's here, whether it's Puna Conference RoomI mean, HR Conference Room. I don't know that it's asking that because to standardize things would be difficult just because I think each board and commission has different needs. So, I think—so your answer on that one is you use the County resources available, right, such as ZOOM and because part of the issue that I am aware of is that every board and commission meets differently. Some are purely in-person, some are still at the hybrid, right—but it's not one Page 48 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 size fits all because we're all different. We have different—so I don't know that you can give a better answer than what we gave, I think. Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: And some commissions, they meet at the Aupuni Center Conference Room but that room doesn't have the ZOOM capability, right—that's why we end up using this room. It's a nice room for just a regular meeting, but if we needed to use ZOOM then we would have to use here. Does this include—Gay's concern about the recording of the meeting minutes or does that not come under here? MS. MATHEWS: Well, it could because Glynis can't be the only person stuck with this problem—every single board that exists—sorry—every single board that exists has to do verbatim—do they have to do verbatim minutes or are you the only one stuck with this problem? MS. YAMADA: I checked with various boards and commissions. Some of them do only summary minutes, they take notes. Some of them do like me, verbatim, they take an audio recording and then they type it out. And then, I had inquired with DEM about the Environmental Management Commission—and he said that they found an app. that does the transcription, however, as far as security concerns it's something I would have to research. MS. MATHEWS: I guess my question is, since we're already using ZOOM, why aren't we using the ZOOM transcription. It does transcription and also does—we did this for our meeting yesterday. It also does real-time— MR. YOSHIMOTO: Closed caption. MS. MATHEWS: Closed caption, which is fascinating. It only the only thing it got wrong was a couple of names—and that was actually spoken by a Swiss person and it couldn't translate the Ukrainian names. But that's that was it. Everything else was absolutely perfect. So—and I've used it in terms of the transcription thing where—what it takes, maybe half-an- hour—you've got this downloaded full transcription with the names of the people there—and, yes, she would have to go through it but it'sit takes much less time than to go through that than it does what she's doing. I just think that she could have better use of her time, if the County employed one major ZOOM license that had that capacity. And, actually, if you're doing it in this room, it would be the same ZOOM license. `Cause we're using the license that somebody that's an adjunct professor—and he can have 300 people on these and the university pays for the whole thing and it's got this full transcription. CHR. CABANAS: I think that's something that might be worth looking into, really, because it would affect a good number of the commissions that have dedicated secretaries. There's a secretary to the fire and police commission, there's one for the liquor commission—and there's Page 49 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 some several other boards and commissions. It might be you're right, it would take less time. And then she could just do a cursory review and correct names and what have you. But this way, she's typing every word. MS. MATHEWS: Yes, I've done that before. I discovered the little transcription button and made them pay for an extra $100. CHR. CABANAS: The only thing is, like, today, we're not doing ZOOM. MS. MATHEWS: But we could. CHR. CABANAS: But we could still, yeah. MS. MATHEWS: Yeah, we could just turn it on the recording section of the thing and have it transcribed. And I'm a little baffled by the argument of security when we're using it with people—one of our next projects is going to be in Ebeye and so, that's ONR and DARPA and a bunch of other funders and I'm pretty sure they're going to be more concerned about security than the County. CHR. CABANAS: How would that work in the executive session? MS. MATHEWS: Oh, it's not like that's going to broadcast. What will happen is Glynis will go through and break it out. So, she would be able to extract the section that's executive session. And so, it's not like we're publicly posting this thing, `cause turn it on and off like we're doing now that we could. So—and it's also possible to turn off the recording during the session, if you wanted to. I've done that just because of some of the people who were involved. But, basically, it's just—she pulls that out, throws in exec. session, and we continue on. So, she's got the whole thing. Just like we're doing now, only she's not having to type it all. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. So, what should we do here? MR. KUNZ: Do we this discussion regarding that, however, is another item beyond what we're doing here, correct? CHR. CABANAS: I don't know. Could it be added to Number 9? MS. MATHEWS: Or 10? MR. KUNZ: As a suggestion, but I somehow feel that it's also bigger than us in terms of CHR. CABANAS: Yes, yes. Page 50 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 MR. KUNZ: So but as a suggestion, we could indicate it. I was just curious when you had mentioned, Gay, where we're going from hereI thought we needed to come up ideas or a decision with this ZOOM capability thing. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, no MR. KUNZ: Okay. So, we canI'm sure we can list that as a suggestion. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MR. KUNZ: Okay. Thank you. CHR. CABANAS: Where would we put it—under 9 or Number 10? Nine? MS. MATHEWS: I think it's 9 because it's an open-ended question on 9—and 10's, kind of, not. MS. YAMADA: What is the suggestion for Number 9? MS. MATHEWS: You get help—electronic help. MR. KUNZ: The suggestion is going to be using a transcribing ZOOM capability (inaudible). CHR. CABANAS: I think that's something that they can look into, anyway—and that would be to reduce manual transcription time, right? MS. MATHEWS: Yes, `cause I feel really bad it's about a 3 to 1 ratio—doesn't it take you three times as long to do this `cause that's what it did me. Three times as long to transcribe it. MS. YAMADA: Every hour is three hours of your time. MS. MATHEWS: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MS. MATHEWS: And you've got to pause it and you could get interrupted, you got to—it's— CHR. CABANAS: So, it can take you two weeks to do, like, say, appeal hearings? MS. YAMADA: If I do it full-time. CHR. CABANAS: If you do it full-time. Yeah. MS. MATHEWS: Yeah. Page 51 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 CHR. CABANAS: That's a lot. MS. MATHEWS: See, it's silly. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, it is. MS. MATHEWS: I mean, there's technology out there. Why are we not using it? MS. YAMADA: And I had just checked with Council Services, Jeanette Aiello, she's the supervisor for committee and council meetings they do everything manual. CHR. CABANAS: Wow. MS. MATHEWS: That doesn't mean it's a good idea. MR. KUNZ: Job security, though. I'm just saying you got to watch. MS. MATHEWS: Yeah. I mean, that may be the argument but it's CHR. CABANAS: Well, it is job security but, actually—see, that's the thing with all of this is, like, we only have, like, eight hours at work. Some people, of course, stay longer. But we could be they could be doing way more, other things that they'd like to do with the time, but they can't ever get to it because they're bound to finish what they're doing manually—if they did it this way, they could have more time to do other things that is on their "to do" list for the department. So, yeah, it's making things more streamlined. MS. MATHEWS: But it's also possible that the Board could ask her to take on tasks, so we wouldn't be willing to do now because we know how time constrained it is. I don't know what those might be but it seems to me that when you're losing three full workdays doing nothing but transcribing when you can get something back in an hour that's almost turnkey that that's a total waste of resources. CHR. CABANAS: Well, look at what she did for, let's say, a regular appeal hearing. She's talking about two weeks, full-time, of actual transcription work at her desk—at least two weeks, `cause it's how lengthy an appeal hearing is. Okay, so we have it noted. And Number 10: "Should all meetings be held both in-person (as permitted) and via ZOOM (or equivalent)?" So, the letter to the Cost of Government Commission, they are going to meet September 8h, so we should get this letter out Page 52 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 MR. YOSHIMOTO: So, the answer to the question, that Number 10 is asking—is both, right. So, in other words, as a standard operating procedure we would have both ZOOM and in-person effective—like, for instance, this meeting we don't have ZOOM because there was no request for ZOOM capability. CHR. CABANAS: I think we should say, "as needed." MR. YOSHIMOTO: Yeah, because— CHR. CABANAS: Or "as applicable" because why do ZOOM well, unless we're going to deal with—go with the recording. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Well—and let me just—other boards and commissions, hypothetically, could have issues with ZOOM meetings—may not be the best method or fit. So, it's not a one - size fits all—and I don't want to get into specifics. CHR. CABANAS: Right. MR. YOSHIMOTO: But I think, at least from my perspective, "as permitted" is better. CHR. CABANAS: So, we should say, "no" then—`cause the question is "all meetings"—or all meetings for us? MR. YOSHIMOTO: Yeah, I think it's pertaining to us, right? CHR. CABANAS: Pertaining to us. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Right. MS. MATHEWS: When you're responding to this, it might be useful to put a little heading at the top that says, "We answered this for our commission, not in terms of generally across the board." Because we've had a couple of questions where we're not sure whether it has to do with us or if it's generic. And I'd hate to see them decide that we were only going to hold in-person meetings, `cause guess what that does to somebody coming from Kona. So, I don't want them to think that it should only be—and, obviously, in-person is the most ideal—but I don't want any misinterpretation. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, I'm looking at their letter. I think this pertains to our Board, if you look at the second paragraph it's, "...authorized to explore the following areas within your board..." the value of your board, the adequacy of your board, the frequency of your meetings, limitations—it's all about our Board. MS. MATHEWS: Except for Number 1. Page 53 Merit Appeals Board CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MS. MATHEWS: It already set a tone. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MS. MATHEWS: And Number 9 is across boards and commissions. CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. MS. MATHEWS: They didn't do a very good job writing these questions. August 30, 2022 CHR. CABANAS: So, going back to Number 10, should all meetings be held both in -person and via ZOOM? Should we say "no"—only as applicable? MS. MATHEWS: What if it's just "yes" because if we have the ability to, we don't have to necessarily do it. CHR. CABANAS: But that's not what the question is. MS. DE SOTO: When they talk about ZOOM, are they also saying that that should be, then, open for the public to access our meetings through ZOOM? CHR. CABANAS: I would think so because our meetings are open to the public. MS. DE SOTO: Well, if we're going to be thinking about what the public needs in terms of consistency and communicationI feel like it should, maybe, be one-way. `Cause, if not, it's hard to keep telling the public this week you can come in via ZOOM, this week in-person. I think that's difficult. MS. MATHEWS: So, are you suggesting just in-person meetings? MS. DE SOTO: No. I'm suggesting I would prefer ZOOM and in-person all the time. MS. MATHEWS: Oh, good. MS. DE SOTO: That way attend—Board members could be either but so could the public. I think given our island and our transportation issues, it makes sense. MS. MATHEWS: And the health of—one of us could have a broken leg or something and still be able to attend from home normally, show up. So. CHR. CABANAS: So, we're going to say, "yes 11 MS. MATHEWS: Yes. Page 54 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 CHR. CABANAS: Okay, Charlie, you okay with that? Okay. Is there anything we need to be made aware of, Counsel? MR. YOSHIMOTO: No. CHR. CABANAS: No? Okay. Okay, so, Number 10 is "yes," yeah? Number 10 is "yes" everyone? Okay. So, who drafts this letter to Liquor—do you want me to do it or MR. YOSHIMOTO: It's up to you. I can help you can start it and I can CHR. CABANAS: I can do it and then you review it? MR. YOSHIMOTO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, that's what we'll do. Okay. And then, do I need to attend as the chair the meeting with them. Because this letter says, "A meeting with you within the next month will be helpful..." but their next meeting is September 8h. So, when is that or should we just send a letter? We can send it this week. MS. MATHEWS: It does say in the second to the last paragraph, "A meeting with you within the next month will be helpful in fulfilling our mandate to report our findings..."so, in theory, they're supposed to contact you. But it's a little vague. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, it is. Well, what I can do is we can draft I will draft the letter. I'll have counsel review it, if he's okay with it, I will—we will finalize it, we will send it to the Commission—Cost of Government Commission. And, in the meantime, I can always call Mr. Herbert following their instructions over here and see if I need to attend or, if I do, will the Board authorize me to represent all of you—if I need to go? `Cause that would require a motion, right? Yeah. MS. MATHEWS: So, is there any issue, Counsel, with her going without you in attendance? MR. YOSHIMOTO: To the Cost of Government Commission meeting? I don't think she needsI mean, I can attend if I'm available, but I don't seeI thought the letter said to meet with him individually no? Am I wrong? MS. MATHEWS: That's what I (inaudible) to. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: It says please contact Neal Herbert, and has his number, or by email to arrange an initial meeting or if you have any questions. Page 55 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 MS. MATHEWS: But it also says in the paragraph above it, "A meeting with you within the next month will be helpful in fulfilling our mandate..."so, they're supposed be contacting you at some point. Again, poorly worded. CHR. CABANAS: Why don't I give Mr. Herbert a call. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Yeah, that's fine. CHR. CABANAS: And let him know because he knewI did call him to tell him, as a follow- up to the letter—making sure they got the letter, which they did, that—hey, we would be meeting today, August 30'', and we would provide the information right after, and he said okay. But if he still wants to meet then, I need a motion to represent the Board as the chair. MS. MATHEWS: So moved. MS. DE SOTO: Second. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. Any discussion? Okay, if not, I'll start with a rollcall vote with Kate. MS. DE SOTO: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Gay. MS. MATHEWS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Charlie. MR. KUNZ: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Gabriella—aye. Four ayes. Motion carried. And thank you for your vote of confidence. Okay. So are we all good with this Cost of Government Commission matter? New Business (Item 6) CHR. CABANAS: Okay. So, moving along on our agenda, there is no "New Business." Page 56 Merit Appeals Board Unfinished Business (Item 7) August 30, 2022 Communication No. 22-04.04, Received On August 9, 2022, From Amanda Furman, Deputy Attorney General, Transmitting The Findings Of Fact, Conclusions Of Law (FOF COL) And Decision And Order Concerning Communication 22-04, Appealing A Recruitment And Examination Action By The Hawaii County Department Of Human Resources And Hawaii County Department Of Environmental Management. Based On The Foregoing FOF COL, The Merit Appeals Board Orders The Instant Appeal, Shall, And Is Hereby, Dismissed With Prejudice For Lack Of Subject Matter Jurisdiction (Board Action Required. Approval Of FOF COL) Executive Session: The Merit Appeals Board Anticipates Convening One Or More Executive Meetings Regarding The Above Matters, Pursuant To HRS Sections 92-4, 92-5(a)(2) And 92-5(a)(4), For The Purpose Evaluating An Officer Or Employee Of The County Of Hawaii, Where The Consideration Of Matters Affecting Privacy Will Be Involved And Consulting With The Board's Attorney On Questions And Issues Pertaining To The Board's Powers, Duties, Privileges, Immunities, And Liabilities. A 2/3 Vote Pursuant To HRS Section 92-4 Is Necessary To Hold An Executive Meeting CHR. CABANAS: Number 7 is "Unfinished Business"—Communication No. 22-04.04. If we need to go into executive session, I will read the verbiage listed below. And if you feel we should discuss this matter further, then we should go into executive session. Otherwise, I'll entertain a motion to approve the findings of fact and conclusions of law. So, whichever you prefer—you want to go into executive session or you want to go straight to that motion? MR. KUNZ: Move to approve. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, is there a second? MS. DE SOTO: Second. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. Any discussion? If not, rollcall vote, starting with Kate. MS. DE SOTO: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Gay. MS. MATHEWS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Charlie. MR. KUNZ: Aye. Page 57 Merit Appeals Board CHR. CABANAS: Gabriella—aye. August 30, 2022 Four ayes. Motion carried to accept the to approve the findings of fact and conclusions of law concerning the Communication number 22-04.04. Director's Report (Item 8) MAB Quarterly Reports: April – June 2022; And MAB Monthly Divisional Activity Report – August 2022 (Executive Session: The Merit Appeals Board Anticipates Convening One Or More Executive Meetings Regarding The Above Matters, Pursuant To HRS Sections 92-4 And 92-5(a)(4), For The Purpose Of Consulting With The Board's Attorney On Questions And Issues Pertaining To The Board's Powers, Duties, Privileges, Immunities, And Liabilities. A 2/3 Vote Pursuant To HRS Section 92-4 Is Necessary To Hold An Executive Meeting) (Previously taken out of order.) Schedule Next Meeting Date (Item 9) CHR. CABANAS: The next item on the agenda is scheduling the next meeting day. So, we're looking at having a meeting in September. Since Mel is not here and we need to check on the availability of the councilroom, I'm going to ask if Glynis could so kindly poll all of us on our availability after the meeting, check with Mel, and J, and Waylen—and also, of course, the availability of the councilroom—and then we'll schedule a meeting date later. So meeting date to be announced. And—if that's okay with everyone? Okay. Adiournment (Item 10) CHR. CABANAS: So, may I have a motion to adjourn today's meeting? MS. MATHEWS: So moved. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you, Gay. MS. DE SOTO: Second. CHR. CABANAS: Seconded by Kate thank you. Any discussion? If not, rollcall vote starting with Kate. MS. DE SOTO: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Gay. MS. MATHEWS: Aye. Page 58 Merit Appeals Board August 30, 2022 CHR. CABANAS: Charlie. MR. KUNZ: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Gabriella—aye. Motion carried. Meeting is adjourned at 1:30 p.m. Thank you everyone. Have a great rest of the week. Respectfully submitted, ilqiu1L1 4) Glynis Yamada, Secretary-Reporter APPROVED: jf.OLAAL et-A4 L . &tauWi5r— Gabriella M. Cabanas, Chair Merit Appeals Board Page 59