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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-07-15 Merit Appeals Board Minutes MERIT BOARD OF APPEALS Department of Human Resources 101 Pauahi Street, Suite 102 Hilo, Hawai'i July 15, 2015 CALL TO ORDER The regular meeting of the Merit Appeals Board, County of Hawai'i, was called (Item 1): to order at 11:00 a.m. by Chairperson June R. Rabago, at the Department of Human Resources Conference Room, 101 Pauahi Street, Suite 2, Hilo, Hawaii, on Wednesday,July 15, 2015. ROLL CALL Present: Ms.June R. Rabago, Chair Mr. David K. S. Nahuina, Member Ms. Ida H. Otake, Member Absent and Ms. Julie M.Tulang, Vice-Chair Excused: Also Present: Ms. Sharon Toriano, Director, HR Department Mr. Nick Hermes, Deputy Director, HR Department Mr. Danny Patel, Deputy Corporation Counsel, Ofc. of the Corp. Counsel Ms. Glynis Yamada, Secretary-Reporter, HR Department ADDENDUM TO The Chair directed the Board to the next order of business, Addendum to AGENDA Agenda. (Item 2): (There was none.) STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Board to proceed to the next order of business, FROM THE PUBLIC Statements from the Public. (Item 3): (There were none.) APPROVAL OF The Chair directed the Board to proceed to the next order of business, MINUTES (Item 4): Approval of Minutes. (There were none.) COMMUNI- The Chair directed the Board to proceed to the next order of business, CATIONS Communications. (Item 5): (There were none.) Merit Board of Appeals July 15, 2015 NEW BUSINESS The Chair directed the Board to proceed to the next order of business, New (Item 6): Business. FY 2014-2015 ANNUAL EVALUATION OF THE DIRECTOR OF HUMAN RESOURCES; SURVEY RESULTS; PRESENTATION BY THE DIRECTOR OF HUMAN RESOURCES REGARDING DEPARTMENT'S FY 2014-2015 AND NEXT FISCAL YEAR GOALS AND OBJECTIVES; MERIT APPEALS BOARD'S EVALUATION TOOL FOR THE DIRECTOR OF HR FOR FY 2015-2016 Chair Rabago asked the Board if they had reviewed the Director of Human Resources survey results, which they did. At this time, Ms. Toriano asked if the Board could convene a closed session concerning the survey results. The Board granted her request. RECESS: At 11:04 a.m.,the Chair called for a recess in order to convene a closed session. RECONVENE: The meeting reconvened at 11:24 a.m. Note: During the closed session, a motion was made by Mr. Nahuina to approve the Director of Human Resources Evaluation for Fiscal Year 2014-2015 as "meets expectations." Seconded by Ms. Otake: The voice vote, was as follows: AYES: Board Members Nahuina, Otake, and Chair Rabago—3. NOES: None. ABSENT: Board Member Tulang- 1. EXCUSED: None. Chair Rabago asked Ms.Toriano to proceed with her presentation concerning the Director of Human Resources Goals and Objectives. Ms. Toriano stated that the format remained the same for the tool and she inserted Goals Numbered 1, 2, and 3 (SEE ATT. A). She proceeded with her presentation: Goal #1: Initiate a repricing pilot project for UPW (United Public Workers). This would be a statewide initiative. In January, they anticipate entering into negotiations as all bargaining units will be up for discussion and they have yet to complete the bargaining unit 14 process. Page 2 Merit Board of Appeals July 15, 2015 Goal #2: Revise the County's pre-entry medical exam procedures. This project was initiated a month or two ago and is still a work-in-progress. It's a huge undertaking. This ties in part with the ACLU lawsuit that was filed. Also,they are working in collaboration with the Office of Management (Mayor's office),the Office of Aging, and Blue Zones. She had been asked to do this as a part of the goals. Goal #3: Revise the Title I Rules of the Human Resources Director. Their target date is December 2015. Because of the language revisions concerning the County's pre-entry medical exam procedures due to the ACLU lawsuit, our procedures need to be in concert with our Rules. Ms. Toriano asked the Board whether there were any other survey questions or any amendments to the survey that they would like to entertain for the next fiscal year, and whether they would like to further define the target audience that would be surveyed. The Board would have an opportunity to discuss this again in April of next year before the survey is published. Chair Rabago replied that the Board is inclined to keep everything "as is" concerning the survey questions and the target audience. Chair Rabago asked that a motion be made to approve the Merit Appeals Board's evaluation tool for the Director of Human Resources for Fiscal Year 2015 through 2016 as presented by Ms. Toriano. Motion: Mr. Nahuina moved to approve the evaluation tool for the Director of Human Resources for Fiscal Year 2015 through 2016. Seconded by Ms. Otake. The voice vote, was as follows: AYES: Board Members Nahuina, Otake, and Chair Rabago—3. NOES: None. ABSENT: Board Member Tulang- 1. EXCUSED: None. UNFINISHED The Chair directed the Board to proceed to the next order of business, BUSINESS (Item 7): Unfinished Business. (There was none.) Page 3 Merit Board of Appeals July 15, 2015 DIRECTOR'S REPORT The Chair directed the Board to proceed to the next order of business, (Item 8): Director's Report. HR QUARTERLY REPORTS; STAFFING UPDATE; ITEMS OF CURRENT INTEREST Chair Rabago asked Ms. Toriano to proceed with the reports, staffing update, and items of current interest. Ms. Toriano proceeded to present the following: Director's Report: Typically, the Quarterly Reports are made available and is open for questions by the Board. This is the fiscal year-end reports, which is a culmination of the entire year. She would like to recognize the report submitted by the Health &Safety Workers' Compensation Division. The trend has been fewer claims opened every year. She would like to compliment and give full credit to the staff as they have worked extremely hard to have a presence in the operations. They go out into the field, conduct the investigation, evaluate what could have been done differently, and identify prevention measures. Chair Rabago thanked Ms. Toriano for her report and asked the Board if they had any questions. Mr. Nahuina expressed concern as far as staffing of the Department of Human Resources going into the new fiscal year. In looking at the large number of requests for documents, this would involve a huge number of"people" hours. How is the Department of Human Resources dealing with this? Is the department properly budgeted? When collecting that much information,the employees aren't able to do their jobs that they're supposed to be doing or have been doing. Ms. Toriano replied that there is no doubt in her mind that the workload has increased as a result of the requests they are receiving. Our support was bringing in student helpers who assisted with the Xeroxing during the summer. We would need to look at next year's budget to see if we have adequate resources. Ms. Toriano further commented that technology is great and it brought recruitments in NeoGov with 2,700 applicants. Technology works and the word is getting out, but there was no increase in resources within the department. Also, around the same time, the County Council approved 38 new positions in the budget, which took some time to get them established. There was also a mass Page 4 Merit Board of Appeals July 15, 2015 pay and step increases for bargaining units 2, 3, and 4. This was not a typical pay increase process. The department did get hit hard at the end of the fiscal year. Staffing Update: One of our Human Resources Technician I, who was in our Processing Center accepted a voluntary demotion to the Prosecuting Attorney's Office. One of our Human Resources Assistants, who is on temporary status, would like the opportunity to be Temporarily Assigned (TA) into that vacant position. (At this time, Mr. Hermes distributed two hand-outs concerning the Current and Proposed organizational charts, and proceeded to present additional information.) To get someone up to speed in the Processing Center takes quite a bit of training. The duration of training depends upon the individual and may require anywhere from months to a year, depending on the person's background, ability to learn and to apply principles, and so forth. We will amend our current organizational chart by relocating our Human Resources (HR) Specialist II. The employee would be moved into the Processing Center to help with the workload and volume, during the training period. This employee is very experienced and has performed work in a variety of areas during the course of their career. We're lucky to have this employee in the Processing Center. Our department has been undergoing a transition for a number of years and we continue to transition in the direction of establishing a processing within our department to support multiple functions rather than the more traditional model of each division having their own staff. We do this so we can be more flexible. Going back to the example of when our department was organized, we had larger divisions with very specialized staff. When the economy tanked and the County stopped hiring,what happens to our recruitment staff? We had a variety of positions devoted to handling recruitment, but there was no recruitment to be done. This department started contemplating a model where, if we had positions devoted to a multitude of functions, depending on the economy, the decisions of Administration, and a variety of other outside factors—we could be flexible to what was needed of the department and not be fixated on individualized functions that may or may not meet the needs of the County. We've pooled our resources. Page 5 Merit Board of Appeals July 15, 2015 There are employees who are trained or are in the process of training to support an entire department, primarily, with regard to personnel transactions under Administrative Services, Recruitment and Exam, and Classification and Pay. Employees that remain within an assigned division can focus on the big picture—on the concepts and on working with and helping departments go in the direction that they want to go. All the paperwork is handled by the Processing Center. At this time, Mr. Hermes clarified some questions by Chair Rabago concerning the HR Specialist I, HR Specialist II, and the HR Manger II in the Recruitment and Exam Division. Chair Rabago asked Mr. Hermes if there was any timeline for the training. Mr. Hermes replied that they train to standards where they're comfortable that the employee can meet a standard and perform the task. Chair Rabago commented that when this is submitted for approval, would it be with the caveat that, at some point, they are going back to have a HR Specialist II and HR Specialist I under the Human Resources Manager. She also liked the idea of a HR Specialist II in in the Processing Center, which wasn't there before,to help the center carry on as well as to have the HR Specialist I be a HR Specialist II. Mr. Hermes replied that they generally agree that the intent is to build and foster the development of the Processing Center. Ms. Otake asked Mr. Hermes for clarification to help her understand the organization. Mr. Hermes explained that there are generally 21 agencies or departments. In the old model,there was one division that did recruitment for all of them and another division that did classification and pay. With the new model, you would take one position in the Processing Center; and that one position may have two to four departments, depending on the department's size. For those departments,that one position (person) would be the point of contact for those two to four departments responsible for processing requested actions. Ms. Toriano added that in the old model, and when a person is out of the office, work would come to a screeching halt. Now we have a pool of resources that would have the knowledge to perform classifications,transactions, and so forth. Page 6 Merit Board of Appeals July 15, 2015 The processing center promotes our ability to focus on and learn more about the departments we serve. Mr. Hermes stated that they've already received that kind of feedback from the departments. In the old model, while this didn't always happen but happened on occasion where depending on what a department wanted to do—they would be working with one division at one point,then another division at another point. Sometimes the left hand is not always talking to the right hand. Now,this is all going through one person and they see the whole process. So, we're more informed and knowledgeable of what's going on, and the departments feel like they're better supported because they have that relationship with one person. Chair Rabago commented that it's like the continuity of care but in a personnel management area rather than medical. Mr. Hermes stated that most of the feedback from our staff has been largely positive for those very reasons we've discussed today. The challenges we're working on constantly is managing the volume—the current employees— because, obviously,the higher the volume,the lesser the quality of service that we can provide to each department, employee, and so forth. Mr. Hermes further commented that there is the training aspect. In the old model,to be candid, you can almost get anyone and train them on one thing. But, now, the challenge is finding the right person who has the aptitude, willingness, and work ethic to learn many things and then apply them altogether. So, the hiring and training is certainly possible, but it's very challenging. Items of Current Interest: Ms. Toriano reported that the Board may have read in the paper that the Ethics Board met last week concerning the selection of an Aging Administrator. The allegations against the Administrator and director were dismissed. Another item concerns personnel and organization development. We have been sorely challenged to get the departments to support their staff in attending training opportunities. I've been told that their employees need supervisor training; however,they have a hard time excusing them for the day to attend. There were six supervisory training modules to complete the course. After speaking with the departments, a different approach would be to have course offerings in duration of one to two hours that run over a period time. Hopefully, this will improve attendance/participation. Page 7 Merit Board of Appeals July 15, 2015 Chair Rabago commented that someone would be able to absorb two hours of material better than eight. Ms. Toriano added that they would still have the opportunity to network and there's so much value in that alone. SCHEDULE NEXT The Chair directed the Board to proceed to the next order of business, Schedule MEETING DATE Next Meeting Date. (Item 9): Chair Rabago announced that the next meeting is scheduled on August 26-27 at 9:30 a.m. through 4:30 p.m., in the County Building's Council Room. ADJOURNMENT There being no other business, at 11:55 a.m. Ms. Otake moved to adjourn the (Item 10): meeting. Seconded by Mr. Nahuina and carried by the following vote: The voice vote, was as follows: AYES: Board Members Nahuina, Otake, and Chair Rabago—3. NOES: None. ABSENT: Board Member Tulang- 1. EXCUSED: None. Respectfully submitted, thrtLk) Glynis Yamada Secretary APPROVED: Le�• \�G�il/l ne R. Rabago Chair ST/gy Page 8 HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTOR FISCAL YEAR EVALUATION July 1, 2015 —June 30, 2016 Employee Name: Sharon Toriano Performance Category Rating Exceeds, Meets or Does Not Meet Goal#1 Initiate a Re-pricing pilot project for UPW Initiate negotiations—All BU's and complete BU14 negotiations Goal#2 Revise our Pre-entry medical examinations procedure Health Initiative— In collaboration with Office of Aging, Office of Management and Blue Zones Goal#3: Revise Title I — Rules of the Director Financial Management Attentive to financial budgets and controls, and generally operates within prescribed financial limits. Budget overruns are infrequent, and causes are normally identified and justified. Implements plans to control cost where possible. Effective in managing fiscal resources. Planning, Prioritizing and Organizing - 1, 3,6,7, 8, 10, 11, 12 Prioritizes assignments satisfactorily to minimize crisis situations; shows foresight to prevent potential problems in developing contingency work plans for short and/or long-range plans; identifies and utilizes resources and personnel effectively develops goals of the department consistent with the mission of the county; proposes and reviews benchmarks to monitor work progress and follows up on assignments. Problem Solving/Decision Making - 2, 3,5,6, 10, 11, 12 Understands issues; identifies and clearly defines problems as they occur; accumulates and analyzes relevant information; uses judgment to select workable solutions to problems' presents alternative solutions when making recommendations; understands ramifications to individual and organization. Leadership - 3,4,9, 10, 11, 12 Effectively motivates and supports employees in their professional growth and development to meet individual and group goals. Takes action to solve problems. Maintains a good method of sharing information with superiors and subordinates. Fosters and promotes positive customer service and is effective in meeting the customer's needs. Overall Rating — Meets Expectations Does Not Meet Expectations Evaluator Signature: June 2015 Page 1 ATT. A