HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-11-16 Salary Commission Public Hearing Minutes Page 1
ORIGINAL
TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS
SALARY COMMISSION MEETING
Held at the Hawai ' i County Building, 25 Aupuni Street ,
Hilo, Hawaii 96720, commencing at 9 : 00 a.m. , on
November 16 , 2023 .
REPORTED BY:
TERI HOSKINS, CSR. NO . 452
Registered Merit Reporter
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1 APPEARANCES
2 CHAIR:
3 STEVEN PAVAO
4
5 COMMISSIONERS :
6 JULES DUDOIT
7 DENNIS RIORDAN
8 DONALA KAWA'AUHAU
9 DR. DAWOOD FARAHI
10 LUAHIWA NAMAHOE
11 SAM NELSON
12 TERESA NAKAMA (via Zoom)
13 JUDY GREENBAUM (via Zoom)
14
15 ALSO PRESENT:
16 DAKOTA FRENZ, DEPUTY CORPORATION COUNSEL
17 GLYNIS YAMADA, COMMISSION SECRETARY
18 SOMMER TOKIHIRO, EX-OFFICIO MEMBER
19 STEPHEN FRYE
20 SHANNON KAGAWA
21 SCOTT RUEDY
22 LIZA OSORIO
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1 Thursday, November 16 , 2023
2 9 : 00 a.m.
3
4 CHAIR: Good morning. We ' ll call the
5 meeting to order.
6 First of all , we ' ll start with introduction
7 of commission members .
8 Myself, Steve Pavao, Commission Chair.
9 Start at the end, introduce yourself .
10 MR. DUDOIT : Commissioner Dudoit .
11 MR. RIORDAN: Commissioner Riordan.
12 MS . KAWA'AUHAU: Commissioner Kawa ' auhau.
13 MR. FARAHI : Dawood Farahi .
14 MS . NAMAHOE : Commissioner Namahoe .
15 MR. NELSON: Commissioner Nelson.
16 MS . GREENBAUM: Commissioner Greenbaum.
17 CHAIR: We have a new County HR director.
18 Introduce yourself .
19 MS . TOKIHIRO : Director of Human Resources,
20 Sommer Tokihiro, ex-officio member.
21 DEPUTY CORPORATION COUNSEL FRENZ : And good
22 morning . Deputy Corporation Counsel Cody Frenz on
23 behalf of the Salary Commission.
24 CHAIR: Okay. The purpose of the hearing.
25 The public hearing is being held pursuant to the
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1 Hawaii Revised Statutes Chapter 92 and the provisions
2 of Chapter 204 , Rules Applicable to Salary
3 Adjustments, Title 4 , Rules of the County of Hawaii
4 Salary Commission, to hear testimony concerning the
5 proposed findings of fact in support of the decision
6 to adjust the salaries and salary schedules of elected
7 and appointed officials of the County of Hawaii set
8 forth as Exhibit A, to be effective January 1st, 2024 .
9 Statements from the public, individuals
10 wishing to testify, must register with the Salary
11 Commission or the County Clerk staff by filling out a
12 form at the registration table and handing it to them.
13 Each person may speak for three minutes or,
14 subject to the Chair ' s permission, may have an
15 opportunity to extend beyond the time period. A bell
16 will ring to notify you that you have 30 seconds
17 remaining to summarize your statement .
18 Please submit any written testimony to the
19 staff of the Salary Commission for consideration, or
20 written, emailed, and oral submissions shall be fully
21 considered and included in the record of the hearing.
22 The Commission will consider all comments
23 and materials and make them final at its regular
24 meeting scheduled for Friday, December 22nd, at
25 9 : 00 a.m. , at the Hilo Council Chambers , Hawaii County
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1 Building, 25 Aupuni Street, first floor, Room 1401, in
2 Hilo, Hawaii .
3 Public attendance via the videoconference
4 will be available at the Kona Council Office, West
5 Hawaii Civic Center, 75-5044 Ane Keohokalole Highway,
6 Building A, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii .
7 We also want to acknowledge County Council
8 staff that has been very supportive to the
9 Commission' s work, Scott Ruedy and Relley Araceley.
10 Thank you very much.
11 So we will now move to public testimony. I
12 guess the first person who has signed up is Hugh Ono.
13 MR. ONO: That ' s me .
14 CHAIR: Take a seat there .
15 MR. ONO : Do I need to turn this on?
16 CHAIR: Yes . Push the little button with
17 the voice thing on the far right .
18 MR. ONO : There you go .
19 DEPUTY CORPORATION COUNSEL FRENZ : Could you
20 state your name for the record first .
21 MR. ONO : Yes . My name is Hugh Ono .
22 First of all, good morning and Happy
23 Thanksgiving. I better make this nice, because there
24 are more of you than me .
25 So I want to talk about two things : right,
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1 which is pono, and not right, which is hewa or
2 pilikia .
3 So let me start off by talking about the
4 pono things . First of all, the salary adjustments
5 that are going to be made are not for people; they are
6 for positions . And I think my past observation is
7 that many of the public think that these are awards
8 for the people holding the positions, but they are
9 not . And so I think, in my mind, that ' s a very
10 important factor.
11 I think this is a way of correcting
12 something that was really wrong in the past, where
13 males got paid more than women. And so I sometimes
14 call this a civil service mentality when I hear the
15 public ' s comment about these pay adjustments not being
16 warranted, but indeed they are, because in this modern
17 age, we ' re trying to reach equity between men, women,
18 and all , more and more and more . We ' re not there yet,
19 but we are getting closer and closer, which is really
20 important .
21 The compensations that are being made,
22 public versus private, there ' s a huge difference .
23 When you work for the public sector, you' re not
24 compensated like they are in the private, and I know,
25 because I 've been in both; but, you know, here again,
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1 many people don ' t understand that, that we call that
2 public servant . I ' ve always hated that , because I
3 believe that the proper word is "public employee . "
4 "Servant" implies exactly that .
5 When the last pay adjustment was made, the
6 County Council required that the pay adjustments be
7 put out to public hearing, but when you look at the
8 intent of the Salary Commission, it was never intended
9 to do that . You know, it ' s the only place that you
10 have a salary committee deciding what these salaries
11 should be; and one of the reasons is it ' s political
12 and it ' s in government . In the private sector, you
13 don ' t have a salary commission.
14 And the intent behind the ordinances and the
15 statutes was that the Salary Commission ' s finding
16 would be independent and not subject to hearing; and I
17 believe that ' s a failure on the County Council ' s part
18 of recognizing that .
19 So whatever your findings are were intended
20 to be final . And I think if you look at the statutes
21 and the backgrounds of the statute, you will find that
22 that ' s why this commission was created. Practically
23 speaking, there ' s no need for a commission. You know,
24 the Department of Human Resources could do that . You
25 know, that ' s their job to know about, and they deal
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1 with all the bargaining units .
2 And another thing is that these adjustments
3 should be at regular intervals, and they should be
4 probably coterminous or coincidental with the pay
5 raises that the public employees get . This business
6 of having pay raises once every - - I don' t know when
7 the last one was . Was it 2018? That ' s shameful . And
8 what ' s also shameful is when the people managing these
9 areas, their pay is less than some of the subordinates
10 that are reporting to them; and in many cases, it ' s a
11 deterrent for the subordinates, who could be well
12 qualified to take on these positions, being not
13 interested because the compensation is significantly
14 less .
15 So with that, if you don ' t know where I 'm
16 coming from, I support this pay adjustment . Okay?
17 Really important . And I want to thank you for your
18 time; and hopefully you ' re all on my side because,
19 again, there ' s more of you than me . Happy
20 Thanksgiving.
21 CHAIR: Thank you. Thank you, Mr . Ono.
22 Any other public testimony?
23 Anybody in Kona that wants to testify?
24 MR. RUEDY : Good morning. We have no
25 testifiers here in Kona . Thank you all .
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1 CHAIR: Thank you.
2 DEPUTY CORPORATION COUNSEL FRENZ : Anybody
3 on Zoom that wants to testify?
4 CHAIR: Hearing none, then we would adjourn
5 the meeting. Thank you very much. 9 : 09 a .m. The
6 meeting is adjourned.
7 (Candy Alnas for Council Member Rebecca
8 Villegas entered the Zoom. )
9 CHAIR: Can we get a motion to adjourn?
10 Can somebody make a motion to adjourn?
11 COMMISSIONER NELSON: This is Nelson. I ' ll
12 make a motion to adjourn.
13 CHAIR: And a second?
14 COMMISSIONER GREENBAUM: I second the
15 motion.
16 CHAIR: Any discussion? Anybody have any
17 discussion?
18 If not, then the vote . Anybody in favor
19 signify by saying "aye . "
20 (All members responded affirmatively. )
21 CHAIR: Any opposed?
22 Hearing none, the meeting is adjourned.
23 Thank you.
24 (The meeting adourned at 9 : 10 a .m. )
25
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1 STATE OF HAWAII
2 ) ss .
3 COUNTY OF HAWAII
4
5 I , TERI HOSKINS, a certified court
6 reporter in the State of Hawaii , do hereby certify
7 that the foregoing pages are a true and correct
8 transcription of the proceedings in the above matter .
9
10 Dated this 5th day of December, 2023 .
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Teri Hos ! s jrCSR No. 452 4y
14 Regist_ -ed Merit Reporter
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ISLAND COURT REPORTING & TRANSCRIPTION SERVICES
(808) 933-9800
Ms. Teri H:oskins, Registered Merit Reporter, transcribed the aforementioned proceedings of the
Salary Commission at its public hearing held on November 16, 2023.
Respectfully Submitted,
4 1 Kui 0,6a)
Glynis `amada, ecretary
APPROVED:
Steven Pa ao, Chair
Salary Co fission