Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-08-26 Merit Appeal Board Minutes (for Appoval) REGULAR SESSION Merit Appeals Board Hilo Council Chambers Hawaiʻi County Building 25 Aupuni Street, First Floor, Room 1401 Hilo, Hawai‘i August 26, 2025 (Tuesday) Call to Order (Item 1) The regular meeting of the Merit Appeals Board, County of Hawaiʻi, was called to order at 9:01 a.m. by Chair Gabriella M. Cabanas, at the Hilo Council Chambers, Hawaiʻi County Building, 25 Aupuni Street, First Floor, Room 1401, Hilo, Hawaiʻi, on Tuesday, August 26, 2025. Roll Call – Present Ms. Gabriella M. Cabanas, Chair Ms. Suzi Bond, Vice-Chair Mr. Gilbert J. Aguinaldo, Member Absent and Excused Mr. Daniel “Niel” Thomas, Member Also Present Mr. J Yoshimoto, Assistant Corporation Counsel, Office of the Corporation Counsel Ms. Sommer J. Tokihiro, Director, Human Resources Department Ms. Jennifer Sakamoto, Human Resources Manager II, Human Resources Department Ms. Nawaipuhiamaikalani “Nawai” Higa, Employee Development Assistant, Human Resources Department Ms. Junko Calma, Professional Trainee I, Human Resources Department Ms. Glynis Yamada, Secretary-Reporter, Human Resources Department Merit Appeals Board August 26, 2025 Page 2 Call to Order (Item 1) CHR. CABANAS: Good morning. It is 9:01 and the Merit Appeals Board meeting is called to order. We have quorum with three Board members present. I’m Gabriella Cabanas, Chair of the Merit Appeals Board, and with me are—Vice-Chair, Ms. Suzi Bond, to my immediate left. MS. BOND: Good morning. CHR. CABANAS: And to my far left is Mr. Gilbert Aguinaldo. MR. AGUINALDO: Good morning. CHR. CABANAS: Good morning. Mr. Daniel “Niel” Thomas is not present today, so he is excused. We have also, our Assistant Corporation Counsel, Mr. J Yoshimoto. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Good morning, everyone. CHR. CABANAS: Good morning. And our Secretary-Reporter, Ms. Glynis Yamada. MS. YAMADA: Good morning. CHR. CABANAS: Also, present is our Director of Human Resources, Ms. Sommer Tokihiro. MS. TOKIHIRO: Good morning. CHR. CABANAS: Good morning. And your staff is present, so if you’d like to introduce them? MS. TOKIHIRO: Sure. So, today, I brought our Personnel and Organizational Development Division staff. So, the Manager of the division is Jennifer Sakamoto and then her staff includes Junko Calma, who is a Trainee; and then Nawai Higa, who’s an Assistant. We’ll have them give a brief presentation in a few minutes. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. Thank you. Well, welcome, everyone, to our meeting. We have no attorney general representation today because we do not have any hearings. Addendum to Agenda (Item 2) CHR. CABANAS: Any addendum to the agenda—no. Glynis says, “no” there isn’t any. Statements from the Public (Item 3) CHR. CABANAS: Any “Statements from the Public”—no. Merit Appeals Board August 26, 2025 Page 3 Approval of Minutes (Item 4) June 24, 2025 CHR. CABANAS: We have “Approval of Minutes” for the regular meeting, June 24, 2025. Have the Board members reviewed the regular meeting minutes? MR. AGUINALDO: Yes, I did. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. I’m just looking at the meeting minutes which I read. Okay. So, is there a motion to accept and file, and approve the meeting minutes for June 24th, 2025? MS. BOND: So moved. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. A second? MR. AGUINALDO: I second. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. Any discussion? If not, I’ll start a rollcall vote with Ms. Bond. MS. BOND: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Aguinaldo. MR. AGUINALDO: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Three ayes. Motion carried to approve the regular meeting minutes of June 24, 2025. Review of Executive Session Minutes June 24, 2025 (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: We are now on the executive session meeting minutes of June 24, 2025. Have you had the opportunity to read those meeting minutes, Board members? Okay, you want to, kind of, look at a little bit? We can pause, yeah—for the record, “yes.” MS. BOND: Yeah, I haven’t had a chance to finish reading them, if we could take a few minutes— Merit Appeals Board August 26, 2025 Page 4 CHR. CABANAS: Sure. MS. BOND: —to do that, I’d appreciate it. CHR. CABANAS: Sure, we’ll pause. RECESS: The meeting recessed at 9:05 a.m. RECONVENE: The meeting reconvened at 9:08 a.m. in open session. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. So, may I have a motion to approve the executive session meeting minutes for June 24, 2025? MS. BOND: So moved. MR. AGUINALDO: I second. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. Any discussion? If not, I’ll start a rollcall vote with Ms. Bond. MS. BOND: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Aguinaldo. MR. AGUINALDO: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Three ayes. Motion carried to approve the executive session meeting minutes for June 24, 2025. Director’s Report (Item 5) A. Meet and Greet Department Of Human Resources Employees: Personnel & Organizational Development Division CHR. CABANAS: We are now at the “Director’s Report” and the portion on “meet and greet” staff from the Department of Human Resources—the Personnel and Organizational Development Division. (At this time, Ms. Jennifer Sakamoto, Human Resources Manager II; Ms. Junko Calma, Professional Trainee; and Ms. Nawaipuhiamaikalani “Nawai” Higa, Employee Development Assistant, with the Personnel and Organizational Development Division, Human Resources Department, came forward.) MS. SAKAMOTO: Good morning. Merit Appeals Board August 26, 2025 Page 5 CHR. CABANAS: Good morning, Jenny. MS. SAKAMOTO: My name is Jenny Sakamoto, I’m the HR Manager in charge of Personnel and Organizational Development, which is kind of, like, the training division but we recently expanded to do a variety of other programs. So, I’ll talk a little bit more about that but just to give you, just a little bit about me. I’ve been with the County for—I’m finishing up my 18th year, and I’ve had various roles within HR. I’ve worked in the operating department before I came to HR. I was a Classification and Pay Manager before settling in on training. So, kind of, jack-of-all-trades, master of none—kind of a thing. But I really felt like this is where I belong. I really feel like we have to help our employees understand our processes and just become better employees altogether—and we do it a lot through our supervisory training programs. Okay, so I just wanted to reintroduce my staff. So, we have Nawai Higa, she’s our Employee Development Assistant; and then Junko Calma, who’s our Professional Trainee. And so, Junko’s learning to eventually take over some of my regular trainings, so that I can expand some of the other programs that I’m working on—and Nawai just helps me all around with all of our department trainings—not just for our section, but for some of the other managers like our Equal Opportunity section and so forth. So, they’ve both been with us for about a year-and-a-half—both—so they’re both relatively new to the County. So, they are still, kind of learning—but they pick up really quickly. So, I’m very excited because this used to be a division of one, so I used to do everything. So, now that we have help, we can actually provide more training opportunities for our employees. So, Gabe remembers when we were working together—training was just, kind of, a one man show. So, just to give you some background on just some of the programs we do. We do do a lot of regular trainings that we always offer, and we provide most of the trainings in-house, which means we develop it, and we present it to our staff—that includes New Hire Orientation; we do Customer Service; I run a whole Supervisory Training Program that’s made up of about nine classes, where they have to take so many classes in order to get certified, and that gives—takes them from vacancy through termination. We also recently started up an Employee Engagement and Retention Program for supervisors. And that’s to help, kind of, go more in-depth into being a better supervisor, creating a safe and healthy workplace for all of our employees to grow and thrive. And, hopefully, that will create more engagement and interest on behalf of the employee to then, eventually, have better retention, right—‘cause we want to keep our employees throughout their career in government. So, that’s what that employee—I mean, that program is supposed to help facilitate. Merit Appeals Board August 26, 2025 Page 6 And then, we have our Performance Appraisal Review—that’s a mandatory program for supervisors who have to do performance appraisals. And then, the other one that we’ve also included is our Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Training for teams. So, that’s really effective when you have a group of people who always work together, go through that process, and get a better understanding of themselves and their team members—and, hopefully, be able to work together better. So, those are the standard ones that we always offer, that’s in our regular catalog. And then, we also help to bring in outside training. So, that includes working with EAP, which is our Employee Assistance Program. So, Nawai is actually our main coordinator for that. She brings them in—at least three times a year for each of the different topics. They help us do violence in the workplace prevention training for both employees and supervisors, and they also do reasonable suspicion training for supervisors who may have to do that assessment for those that might be under the influence while at work. So, that comes in—we do about, I guess, six of those total a year. In addition to that, now that we have Junko onboard, she’s helping us to coordinate a little bit more supplemental trainings. So, in addition to what I already provide, we’re bringing in outside trainers to help supplement the programs or the topics that we’re not able to bring in in-house. So, that includes—last year, we brought in Kuakahi Mediation Center to do a project management training—that was very popular, so we’ll probably bring that back. In addition to that, we worked with R&D to bring in grant writing and now we’re taking that on. So, grant writing will probably come in October of this year. So, we’re in the process of trying to secure funds for that through the Training Fund monies. She’s also working on bringing in Kuakahi to do facilitation training—that was “by request” from one of our operating departments, but we’ll probably offer a second session for the rest of the County in case they’re interested in attending that. And then, we also, last year—kind of spur of the moment, because we had access to the Training Fund monies—we did a Clerical Conference. So, that was something that they did—I don’t know how long ago—maybe 10 years ago prior to—they, kind of, cut it off at a certain point and then it got unfunded. And because now we had access to that money, we kind of asked Nawai, “Are you willing to do it?”—and she said, “Yes”—and we got it done within a short period of time. All of the participants who came really enjoyed it and they were hoping that we bring it back again this year. So, now, Junko is on board, she’ll probably schedule that for some time in the Spring. So, we’re hoping to keep some of these programs going as much as possible, but we’re looking to see what other kind of supplemental training we can also bring to the County. The next thing that—it kind of expands on what our regular training is—is the Employee Engagement Program. So, I already told you about the training that we do for supervisors, but we also have other programs tied into engagement. And the all—the whole goal is to then affect the retention, right—‘cause we don’t want to just bring in people into the County through our Merit Appeals Board August 26, 2025 Page 7 recruitment efforts, but we also want to be able to retain them so that they stay in government— at least somewhere, right—maybe not within the area that they got hired in, but somewhere throughout the County. So, that’s what we’re looking at doing and part of it is to help, like, new hires feel more comfortable, try to get them to be connected to something—and so, we’ve started by developing a number of different programs. So, one of them is our Mentor Program. We started up a pilot last year. It was very successful, so we’re running it again this year. Right now, we have about seven Mentees that applied, and I’ve already found enough Mentors—so we’re moving forward with that one. The other one that we’re going to start working on—Junko’s bringing in some speakers to do more informational sessions. And so, I don’t know if Sommer already talked about that, but one of the goals is to just bring more attention to the different services that the County already provides that we can, kind of, highlight. So, that’ll serve two purposes—one is to educate our employees on what we do—do for our community, but also to let them know what services that they may be eligible for. So, for example, one of the departments that will be coming in first is Housing. So, they’re going to come in and do a presentation, ‘cause they do financial counseling free—and that’s for anybody. So, whether you’re an employee or the public, you can attend that. And I think they might also talk about some of their other services—‘cause I think they have something on the Home Improvement Loan Program and so forth. So, we’ll get them to come on board. I think they’re the first ones we’re scheduling. And then, the second one that we’re looking at is working with either Office of Aging or Elderly Activities to, kind of, highlight some of the programs for our Kupuna and how they also provide support services for caregivers, ‘cause that affects a lot of our families here, too. So, that’s not going to be the only ones that we look at. We’re going to look to see what other departments within the County we can highlight, but also other types of programs that might be of use to our employees. So—I don’t know—we’re just brainstorming, but one might be, like, how to go apply for a mortgage loan or something like that. So, we’re going to start working on those and, hopefully, we can roll some out before the end of the year, but that’ll be an ongoing program that we’re going to try to continue on as soon as we get moving. The other one that I want to highlight is that we also do the Employee of the Year Awards. So, that’s coming up in October—Nawai runs that whole program and she told me we have about 23 nominees this year, which is kind of nice. So, those supervisors will be coming in and doing presentations to our committee and then it will all be presented on October 2nd, okay. And then the last thing that we’re working on is we brought together a group of employees through our Employee Engagement Committee and they’re representative of all different Merit Appeals Board August 26, 2025 Page 8 departments within the County and they provide us with feedback on the type of programs that they feel might help us engage more of our employees. And so, one of the things that they want to pursue is more networking opportunities because they really feel like networking helps bring people together, it helps us to reach across to other departments and make connections where we might not have already been able to do that. So, they’re helping us come up with different activities that we can try and promote to bring more of our County workers together. So, that’s kind of in a nutshell a lot of the programs that we’re working on. So, it’s not just “training”—we’ve kind of expanded it, and part of it is to, also, look at how we can keep people here. Sorry—I forgot one more program. An important one is our County Tuition Reimbursement Program. So, that one was recently expanded within the last couple of years, it used to be a really small budget. But now, we have over half-a-million dollars that we’re responsible for. Nawai has that program. She works with our committee, she preps. all of the applications that come in, and we’ve helped a lot of people either pursue degrees or even go get their professional certifications or even—I think we had a Toastmaster’s person who wanted to just improve their public speaking and so forth. So, we’re trying to get the word out more, so more people will apply for the program and be eligible—but that’s another part of the retention side ‘cause they have to work so many year—at one year before they’re eligible and stay, so that we can benefit from that education they got. So, I think that’s pretty much majority of the programs that we do. I don’t know—do you guys have any questions or— CHR. CABANAS: Thank you, Jenny. I’ll open it up to the Board. Suzi, any comments or questions? MS. BOND: So, the tuition thing—that doesn’t help with, like, student loans or anything—that’s just going forward, not going back? MS. SAKAMOTO: Right. So, they had to have been working for at least a year and then, from there, any classes that they’re taking may be eligible, but we have all this eligibility that it has to go through. MS. TOKIHIRO: But working for the County, there are some Federal—like student loan forgiveness criteria that people can check into. So, if you work for the County, I believe it’s for about 10 years—I’m not sure of all the criteria but that will—that can benefit people that have existing student loans. MS. BOND: If they still have them in 10 years, the interest has gotten out of control. Merit Appeals Board August 26, 2025 Page 9 MS. TOKIHIRO: Right. Correct, yeah—and there is certain criteria that they have to—kept up with the payments, et cetera. MS. BOND: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Gilbert? MR. AGUINALDO: I have a question. MS. SAKAMOTO: Sure. MR. AGUINALDO: That is pertaining to Housing. I think that the engage—having County employees stay because your guy’s benefits are, like, by just listening—I’m impressed. I’m an employer myself but the County’s more broad, right, the whole entire nine districts we have. But the housing that you talked about, I think it’s a big key factor for our County employees, like, Workforce Housing. I don’t know if there are any available land to do that. I know they have affordable housing—I don’t want to call them low income—affordable housing. But I feel that it’s—we have to engage more for County employees. Then why do they probably leave? It is not leaving because of—you guys give great benefits—maybe in a financial situation they’re in with existing homes they have for rent is high—is creating one program that it builds the outside developer that would—willing to build homes. I think that one would really lure a lot of employees, ‘cause I see—that was the first thing you talked about was housing and home improvement, yeah—if they have already a home that they need to improve because they’re getting older or family—that takes a lot. People going just move—other opportunities—maybe their wages are higher. They’re not going to look at their benefits, but I think it’s a great opportunity for our County. MS. TOKIHIRO: And I would agree, I think Workforce Housing is something that needs to be addressed, in addition to affordable housing and it’s—it would be for County employees but just in general, like, people that are working in—on the west side in hotels, right. And so, I think the island, in general, has a big need for that. And, hopefully, that’s something that the Administration can make progress with as far as future developments. But we do want to engage with the Office of Housing so that our employees know what benefits are available to them and what the options are, because it could even be participation in some of the other housing programs, right, that people may not be aware that they’re eligible for—and just understanding how the programs work, any income—what the income parameters are. But that’s a part of trying to get that information out there so that our employees do understand of things—understand what the County does, as Jenny mentioned—but then, also, understanding that they may be eligible for. Merit Appeals Board August 26, 2025 Page 10 So, we’re really looking forward to being able to roll that out as some type of, like, lunch-and- learn or brown bag sessions where people can use their lunch period to gain some additional information and then connect with others, so. CHR. CABANAS: I think that’s wonderful that you are pursuing the various interests because whatever issues or burdens that employees may have, it may alleviate that for them—and then they can concentrate, too, more at work— MS. SAKAMOTO: Right. CHR. CABANAS: —they’re more focused— MS. SAKAMOTO: Right. CHR. CABANAS: —and they’re not worried about taking care of their ill mother or grandmother—because caregiving is really—it’s really a complicated issue, having gone through it myself. And it’s like—it’s very difficult and, yet, I have knowledge, I know what the resources are—but, at one point in time, taking care of, like, of my mother-in-law who lived to 106 and my mother is 97—I felt lost. It was, like, where do I go? And having that knowledge of resources, even more immediately available, just makes that load really lighter. Yeah, so I think that’s wonderful you folks are doing that—yeah, for the employees. MS. TOKIHIRO: And that was one of the things that has, kind of, come out more recently when we talk about employee benefits. I attended a training where they were saying, “Yeah, you can focus on the benefits that you offer as an employer, but some of these other value-added benefits—things like that may be just general life skills or general life knowledge—if we can help share that with our employees, that is approaching it from that wholistic area”—right? Recognizing that the services or benefits are things that people need, aren’t just things that come with health insurance and flexible working schedules and things like that. So, really, addressing our employees wholistically and trying to meet them where they’re at. And there’s a lot of skills, too, life skills things—budgeting—and as Jenny mentioned, applying for a mortgage that we’re not teaching people in school—and those are very valuable tools and insight. So, we’re trying to incorporate more of that. I appreciate that Jenny and Nawai and Junko are very responsive. I think I’ve tasked them more recently in the last year-and-a-half to try and change-up the way things are being done, and it’s based on feedback that we get from departments. But then, Jenny has also a lot of creative insights and ideas that come out of feedback that she receives from doing the training. And I appreciate—so, for example, her supervisory training, there is a larger program that covers—how many sessions—12? MS. SAKAMOTO: It’s nine. MS. TOKIHIRO: Okay. Merit Appeals Board August 26, 2025 Page 11 MS. SAKAMOTO: We got it down to 9. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, there’s nine sessions, but what we were getting feedback from departments was that because we’ve been promoting more from within and because of our vacancy rates, people who don’t have a lot of supervisory skills are being promoted into these supervisory positions. And so, we found an immediate need to carve out a section of that supervisory training. We’re calling those the “soft skills” to kind of give them—“This is your intro. to being a supervisor”—and, yes, we’d like to see everybody take the full supervisory training program, but we recognize that Jenny can only offer so many of those sessions per year—and we have an immediate need. So, she was able to carve out three sessions, it’s like—“Let’s get you started and then you can take the rest of the program.” And there’ve been a great benefit in that—and people that have taken that shortened—those initial three courses, then want to continue on and do the full program. But I really appreciate the way that her division has taken some—or taken my feedback and taken feedback from the departments and really been able to, kind of, pivot and go in a different direction based on what we’re trying to accomplish for our employees and based on our employee needs and department needs. So, they’re a great group. They work well together—all very creative, have a lot of ideas. And so, I really appreciate them and all of their hard work. CHR. CABANAS: And it shows. So, that’s really exemplary—really. Because then the employees will benefit, the departments will benefit—and when employees have that wealth of information, they not only share it, not only—it’s not only for themselves, but they can share it with their family members. They can also share it with members of the public as they interact with them. So, it’s—sometimes you have to tell a member of the public, “Oh, no, it can’t be done this way”—but through the conversation, you can also share other resources and help them along in other ways as well—so they don’t walk away like, “Oh I didn’t get anything”—they got something. So that helps. Every little bit helps, yeah. MS. SAKAMOTO: We go over that in customer service. CHR. CABANAS: Yes . Yes. MS. BOND: Yeah, one of the most frustrating things, I think, these days in general is that customer service is a non-existent thing. You call someplace and they’re like—and you ask them a question, they’ll “Well, that’s not my job.”—it’s like, then don’t say you’re “customer service” ‘cause it—the thing should be, “Well, that’s not my job but if you go over here, they might be able to help you”—that kind of thing. Merit Appeals Board August 26, 2025 Page 12 So, yeah, customer service— MS. SAKAMOTO: We’re working on it. MS. BOND: Yeah. No—I mean, it’s not just—I just, yesterday, yelled at Direct TV for 45 minutes— MS. SAKAMOTO: Oh, no. MS. BOND: —so, yeah. Customer service—really? CHR. CABANAS: And it’s, for me, it’s—we shop in town and if you’re knowledgeable of something you may go to this one store, ‘cause you can be independent in the purchase—whatever you’re looking for. But, if you’re not knowledgeable and you really need someone to help you, I will always go to that store where customer service is outstanding because I know that they will help me even if I have to pay a little bit more. I will go there, to that store because they will help me choose the product that I’m looking for. So, customer service is really important. Yeah. I think we all know that. But sometimes employees get frustrated, whatever’s going on, and then they’re not customer-friendly to the public. Even though the person may irritate the hell out of you, you still need to be pleasant, yeah, and deal with it. MS. SAKAMOTO: Government workers have a hard job— CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MS. SAKAMOTO: —because a lot of times we cannot make everybody happy— CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MS. SAKAMOTO: —where our job is enforcement or regulatory review. And so, a lot of times that’s our job is to review and make sure it’s aligned with Code or whatever. So, there’s a lot of times where we can’t always give everybody what they want but it’s just a matter of how you deliver that message—and that’s all we talk about in customer service. So, hopefully, we’re getting through to people as they go through the program. But we talk about that in every class that I go over—we talk about communication and delivery and how it works not only with your customers, it works with your family, it works with your co-workers and your boss—and whoever else you interact with. And the more we get that message out, hopefully, we all can work better together, right? CHR. CABANAS: Right. It’s teamwork. Merit Appeals Board August 26, 2025 Page 13 MS. SAKAMOTO: But I’m only one person. CHR. CABANAS: It’s teamwork. MS. SAKAMOTO: So, I’m doing my best. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, you are. You are. And I want to just—want to thank all of you for the exemplary job you’re doing. This is wonderful. I have one question. How—for the tuition program, I think I know the answer, but how did the money increase to about half-a-million dollars? MS. SAKAMOTO: Okay, so if you are not familiar—the program used to only be funded through—forget they called it—forfeitures from our Flexible Spending Account. So, for those that participate, and they don’t use all the money that they put into their account, all of that money comes to us, and we use that to fund County tuitions. So, I think it used to only be $15,000.00 every year. So, we couldn’t even give everybody all of the money that they had requested. We could, kind of, divey it up so it was fair. So, not a whole lot of people used to even know about the program or utilize it. And then, I think because of, like, recruitment efforts and trying to get more people interested in coming to work for the County, they wanted to use that as one of the incentives. And so, they increased the budget to about half-a-million dollars more than what we were normally getting, and so, now we have a lot more money to offer our employees. So, we did a campaign when we first changed all of the criteria. And we did informational sessions throughout one whole month, and people could just log in and listen to what we were—what the changes were to the program. And I think we got some people on board with that—and then, I think we did another round this year because we were seeing that the interest was dwindling, so we wanted to, again, bring it to everyone’s attention. I’ve also added it to New Hire Orientation as an incentive for them to stay with the County for, at least, a year—and you can benefit from that. So, I don’t know how they came up with that dollar amount—maybe Sommer knows—but that was something that happened maybe, like, two years now. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah, I think it’s been in the budget for a couple of years at that level. And, really, it’s—when we’re creating a career in government service, we need to provide opportunities for our employees to go through that professional development. So, for the Tuition Reimbursement Program someone needs to be enrolled in school and be completing all their course work on their own time. But they are—they can get reimbursed for tuition, books, certain supplies—and so, it’s a great opportunity for people interested in pursuing education to take advantage. Merit Appeals Board August 26, 2025 Page 14 And as long as the degree program or certification is related to a service that the County currently provides, it doesn’t necessarily have to be related to your specific job. So, if I’m an accountant and I’m interested in becoming a lawyer, that would be an acceptable program to participate in. So, really, as long as it’s an area or a service that the County performs or conducts or provides—any degree program can be considered, as long as it’s—it has to be accredited, right— CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. MS. TOKIHIRO: —yeah—so from an accredited college or university, but it’s an awesome opportunity. And so, we want to continue to get that word out. We have seen a significant increase in participation but there’s, definitely, room for us to continue to promote that and encourage more employees to participate. CHR. CABANAS: So, this now is County funds—that half-million— MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: —or approximately half-million. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Wow, that is wonderful. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, in addition to the million dollars that the County is also funding for other training—it’s great to see such investment in our employee professional development and it’s occurring in those various forms. So, as Jenny mentioned, we are utilizing training funds to conduct the Grant Writing Workshop and bring in a trainer to give our departments opportunities to send their employees because grants are still a big thing and the ability to successfully write a grant request is, kind of, like, a unique skill—but we’re helping to get that message out, so that then, our County can take advantage of more grant funds. So, it’s nice when the Training Fund is able—to be able to be used for a broad range of participants among our different departments—and then, it ends up being a big benefit to the County as well. So, yeah, it’s a good influx of monies for professional development. MR. AGUINALDO: I have one question. How often does the County, like, HR—do like a career day? MS. SOMMER: We haven’t done a County career day, but that is something that we’ve been talking about. We want to coordinate with all the departments so that they would be present and have representatives there to explain, like, the services that they provide in their individual Merit Appeals Board August 26, 2025 Page 15 departments. We were talking about having Highways come out and bring out some of the big equipment—‘cause a lot of events we include Police and Fire, and fire trucks, and helicopters are awesome. But we want to get the word out about all the other services that the County provides as well. So, definitely, something that we are working on and trying to coordinate. MR. AGUINALDO: I think that would be 100% the best way to outreach for the community, where each department, where the need of employees—or just in general—they can come in, they can ask questions. If was easy, they probably would apply right there. So, I was involved with, more like for seniors—like high school kids. We had it on the Civic— was more like construction before—and mean turn out. Like, in the university right now, at the college—I was awarded the Alumni Award for just good act of good service. And I asked all the different trades—and, right now, they’re so full that the kids just got to take their electives—no more room. And I think, even like for that, for example, if you guys are even providing like this tuition—if they’re 18 and eligible and work under a supervisor—it’s almost like one apprentice. I think that would be something over and beyond that this County hasn’t even entertained because just hearing what you guys offer—even make me want to be one County employee—and I own two companies. So— MS. SAKAMOTO: Why don’t you apply? (Inaudible) some of your friends to apply. MR. AGUINALDO: No—you know, so, I did share with some friends, but with them, they’re—like I said—they have their day job. It’s not where they want to be. But by the time they want to apply or it’s late at night—that’s why giving—I would say, if Mayor Alameda would even allow you guys—if you guys don’t want—maybe once a month or once every other month—I can assure you guys, you guys would fill all those vacancies. Because it’s just people schedule—we all busy. In life we all busy. We forget. And I think creating the opportunity—and, Sommer, you don’t have to even bring heavy equipment—going get people going like have—they like change. They like have one career change, but just what you guys are offering—different departments, like, okay—you can apply here—like, “Oh, my gosh, I never know had all this”—it’s just a County career day. And I think if you guys do that—ho—it would be life-changing. If they’re eligible for coming or work—I know there’s threshold, you got to have maybe certain degrees or qualifications is—if they really interested and you guys help them, guide them along the way, that they got to meet this criteria—you can come work for us, but you got to take this classes or whatever in order to exceed—I think that would be good, yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, we are working with Hawaiʻi Community College— MR. AGUINALDO: Mm-hmm. Merit Appeals Board August 26, 2025 Page 16 MS. TOKIHIRO: —to develop more internship type opportunities and we’re currently evaluating funding sources for that. So, the State Department of Labor used to fund an internship program with Hawaiʻi Community College. And so, we’re trying to revisit that and start all those discussions again, look at how we may be able to use the Federal WIOA funds. And, yeah, focus on more on people in the trades. And we’re also working with Alu Like—just two weeks ago I had a meeting with Councilmember Onishi, Alu Like, and a couple of our department heads. So, looking at different ways where we can create those pathways and connect with people at different levels. So, wanting to bridge those gaps between people who have associate’s degrees or some college, no college, straight out of high school. So, trying to find different opportunities for us to connect—but then, also, to give opportunities for people to come and work for the County short-term, see what that’s like, gain some of that experience, understand how our system operates—so that then, yeah, they’ll have—they’ll be, hopefully, more interested in coming to work for the County but also understand how the process works. So, we’re continuing to meet with HCC to address that, and try and develop those programs. So— MR. AGUINALDO: I think that is good, ‘cause I used to do, like, when dire need—the college needed a guest speaker. So, I go and encourage—not kids, but young adults on their career path. It’s just giving the opportunity. So, like, I know Fire, law enforcement—we got to all understand is—ho, we’re growing. We’re growing so fast that what we going do, right? Like, for me, it’s trades—it’s not a problem having trades people in that—but more so, if they’re like, “Eh, I like try the County”—then I encourage them. But sometimes they, like, “Ho, how we going apply? Like, I don’t know all this online stuff.” I’m not saying they’re not educated, but they’re not so— SPEAKER: (Inaudible.) MR. AGUINALDO: Yeah, tech. savvy—and that’s where I feel that having a career day, taking their name down, help them to apply. I think—and then go through that process—the word is you got to take the time. You no make the time for people, we’re not going get where we need to be. And that’s where the customer service going—and there are great people out there. Yeah, try, maybe that—maybe, I would even come and help. Yeah. That would be something really good, ‘cause I see the list—I continue to see the list. I even like encourage Isabella—my daughter, but she’s majoring in Biology—like, oh, you had something with biology in the County—I would make her even apply. So, it’s things, too—we got to step outside of the box already. Just step outside and, maybe— however we can work—structure that. I’ll even help—maybe in different events—I mean, the Civic is—big parking lot—something, not that would be County Career Day or something you can call them—have all the different departments. They can be on the waiting list. And, if not, Merit Appeals Board August 26, 2025 Page 17 then you guys pick and choose from there—narrow them down, at least you got people interested. So, just an idea. MS. TOKIHIRO: Thank you. MR. AGUINALDO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Again, just remember, too, that for Classification and Pay, they have changed, so part of the minimum requirements is just having a college degree from an accredited college or university. MS. TOKIHIRO: I think you should encourage your daughter to apply for HPD as, like a Criminalist, yeah? CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MR. AGUINALDO: I must say, my daughter is like—I not boasting—but she’s lab and—like, under the microscope. And— MS. TOKIHIRO: So, Criminalist at HPD. MR. AGUINALDO: —and I don’t—like, Gabriella knows my girl. I don’t want her to leave and there are great opportunities here. And that kid is, like, so— MS. TOKIHIRO: That was one of those positions where I think, “Ooh, maybe I should get a degree in science. I can be a criminalist”—‘cause it must be really interesting. MR. AGUINALDO: I give her credit because she’s—like, J knows, she’s a senior now—played three years for our university—NCAA volleyball. She doesn’t take easy classes like her friends—she has STEM classes and that’s what one thing she wanted. I was, like, “Bella, there’s no career opening for lab kind, like, for Police but can try.” And that’s, kind, of like, her career path she wanted. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. MR. AGUINALDO: But some—it’s a good thought—look, Gabriella stay lighting the fire, yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. Well, see, that’s part of the employment counseling, yeah. So, someone like her or anyone else for that matter, they can come to HR, and they should look at all the job postings because there may be something that they might qualify for. And if they don’t qualify for immediately—like she’s a senior or other seniors, or even juniors—and HR is pursuing internships with UH-Hilo—hey, that would be something really good, if—get these potential major graduates and have them intern with some of the departments. It doesn’t have to be only Police. There’s Water Supply— Merit Appeals Board August 26, 2025 Page 18 MR. AGUINALDO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: —Water Supply has a lab—water lab. And so, lot of opportunities but, you see—that’s where we got to connect— MR. AGUINALDO: Yeah, connect. MS. TOKIHIRO: And I think it really is reviewing all of the job postings— MR. AGUINALDO: Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: —because we have made changes to our minimum qualifications to make it more broad. So, yes, now a degree in any bachelor’s degree from an accredited college of university meets a degree requirement—unless there’s some regulatory reason why it needs to be in a specific discipline, but we removed our disciplines to try and open the doors even further. So, yeah, it’s really making sure that people are not eliminating themselves— MR. AGUINALDO: Right. MS. TOKIHIRO: —from consideration by not— MR. AGUINALDO: Coming. MS. TOKIHIRO: —trying— MR. AGUINALDO: Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: —and applying. MR. AGUINALDO: I think—yeah, maybe Gabriella—maybe she—you can use her as a guinea pig—and next thing you know, all these university kids going like come work for you folks. It’s something that we got to try. And we got to try. I think that is a great opportunity because when I got sworn in, I told upstairs—I said, “Micah, we got to collaborate with our university”—and I shared—he says, “What?” I say, “Yeah.” But the difference—County (inaudible) and let’s reach out to these—‘cause they going graduate. They don’t know where to go. They probably thinking, “Oh, I like go mainland”—but you like keep them here to be a valuable asset to—one and only—our County. Not other county or other States—but our County. ‘Cause I went graduate myself—and I stayed. And I made a big impact to our County—and I like the younger ones do the same and not leave. And that’s why, like, the housing, too—how you going keep them? They get one roof over their head, they going feel proud—they going like go work every day, ‘cause you guys are great employers—benefits, pay—good. I mean, you guys offer so many classes that—wow, make me Merit Appeals Board August 26, 2025 Page 19 want to (inaudible) little bit more, like—you guys giving so much valuable tools that maybe the outside sector don’t know or they’re not taking advantage, ‘cause that is a powerful tool, what you guys offering. CHR. CABANAS: And HR also has the Professional Trainee classes. MR. AGUINALDO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: So, like, Junko is a Professional Trainee. She’s getting trained now, more in training—the training area—being professional development area. They have Professional Trainees in Accounting and other disciplines. MR. AGUINALDO: Wow. CHR. CABANAS: So, there’s a lot the County has to offer. So, continue the collaboration with UH-Hilo and HCC. MR. AGUINALDO: Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: And we have identified 22 classes of work that we have career paths for Professional Trainee into the higher levels. We have Professional Trainee I, Professional level—I mean, Professional Trainee II—and then it gets into some of those Professional level positions. And so, we’re creating those pathways and looking to enhance our, kind of, advertisement of those pathways so that people know that those options exist. MR. AGUINALDO: Wow. Ho, big—mean, big change from how many years ago—my daughter’s 21—maybe eight—no, not even—like, maybe 19 years. Wow, big difference. MS. TOKIHIRO: Well, as you mentioned, we have to think outside the box— MR. AGUINALDO: Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: —so we’re trying to do that in a variety of different ways— MR. AGUINALDO: Right. MS. TOKIHIRO: —to address our vacancies but also to meet people where they’re at— MR. AGUINALDO: Mm-hmm. MS. TOKIHIRO: —and times have changed—not everybody is interested in going to long-term schooling and—but then, there is a lot of skills and abilities that we’re able to teach here within— MR. AGUINALDO: Mm-hmm. Merit Appeals Board August 26, 2025 Page 20 MS. TOKIHIRO: —on the job. And so, creating the pathways to do that. That’s why all of our job postings, also they don’t specifically require a degree—it’s a combination of education and experience substantially equivalent to a degree. So, that provides the opportunity for someone to be able to qualify with—through professional level experience. So, it’s not just a degree. So, you could attain a position and not have a four-year degree. So, just a variety of different ways that we’re looking to support our workforce and build our workforce and support the County. MR. AGUINALDO: Wow, that’s good. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you— MR. AGUINALDO: Thank you. CHR. CABANAS: —Jenny and Nawai and Junko, for coming today. We enjoyed the presentation immensely. Thank you very much. MS. TOKIHIRO: Thank you, guys CHR. CABANAS: Thank you, Sommer. Take care. Okay, we’ll do a little pause for a few minutes. RECESS: The Chair called for a recess at 9:54 a.m. RECONVENE: The meeting reconvened at 9:58 a.m. in open session. CHR. CABANAS: So, we are resuming our meeting, and we have our Director of HR, Sommer Tokihiro. Thank you for that meet and greet with Personnel and Organizational Development Division—that was really awesome. Their training has really—they’ve expanded. And, of course, Jenny is fortunate to have two staff members to help her, so that’s wonderful. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah, they’re doing an awesome job. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, I can see, they’re blossoming. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: They’re on full throttle. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah, they are. Merit Appeals Board August 26, 2025 Page 21 B. MAB Monthly Divisional Activity Report: August 2025 (Administrative Services Division, Classification & Pay Division, Equal Opportunity/ADA Division, Health & Safety Division, Labor Relations Division, Personnel & Organizational Development Division, Recruitment & Examination Division, Workers’ Compensation Division CHR. CABANAS: So, Sommer, we have you down for—next, for the MAB Monthly Divisional Activity Report for the month of August 2025. Board members, have you had the opportunity to review her report? Any questions that you have for Sommer? Suzi? Would you like to highlight anything in particular? MS. TOKIHIIRO: So, just a few notes. Our Admin. Services Division—they were actually supposed to attend the meeting with me today as well, but we’ve begun our testing for our new CoHnect system, and so now we’ve spent months and months developing this software. And so, now, in the testing phase we’re going through with the Developer—and we’re testing a variety of different scenarios to see how the systems performs and see if there’s issues. So, basically, we came up with over 300 different scenarios to test, and the testing has been assigned to a variety of different people at different levels. So, some of it is HR Reps. in our departments that would be entering information into the system; some of it is our staff—that includes Admin. Services as well as our Classification and Pay Division; and then we’re all on a Teams meeting with the web Developer and going through the system together, looking at the different fields, looking at the processing—if there’s errors, seeing if there’s any inconsistencies in the information—and so, really, a time-consuming process. And it is on a schedule that demands that they’re online from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 in the afternoon. And I attend as much of the testing as I can because I’m part of an extended steering committee with the software developer to say, “Hey, if there’s an issue”—unfortunately, we’ve had some issues come up in the testing. And so, I’m working with the developer at a different level to say, “This isn’t going to work. We need to find a fix for this”—or “This was not our expectation, we need to correct this”—and just to collaborate with them. So, the testing is a really important component before our go-live in January 2026. So, as much as it can be a little frustrating to find that there’s areas that need to be improved upon, I keep telling my staff I’d much rather find those now because we have the ability to correct it before go-live. So, Admin. Services has been working really hard on that, as well as our Classification and Pay Division—did you have a question, Suzi? MS. BOND: Yeah, I do. What about the people that are not really tech. savvy— MS. TOKIHIRO: So, the County— MS. BOND: —like, seriously? Merit Appeals Board August 26, 2025 Page 22 MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. So, the County is developing a training plan because their—for example, everybody’s going to be entering their timesheets online, which is not actually an “HR component”—that’s through payroll and our Finance Department. But I am part of the group that’s working to—we need to get devices at all of our different sites, provide internet access, we’re going to have to provide the basic level device training before—then the software company can come in and do the training specific to the software. So, it’s a big project and we are working on that, but we’re wanting to make the process as easy as possible for our employees. So, it’s a system that is Cloud-based, so it’s accessible from basically any device, but we need to provide that basic level training to our employees. We cannot assume that everybody has a smartphone, we also cannot require that employees use their own device to access the system. And so, we’re working on that, and we will have a training program for that. MS. BOND: As someone who is non-Cloud friendly—I have a lot of trouble with the Cloud. Every time I put anything out there, it’s gone, and I can’t find it, and can’t get it back. And, I mean, I know it’s—I know where the problem is—I mean, maybe it is them, but—so, be aware that there really are people like me that are tech. idiots. MS. TOKIHIRO: Oh, absolutely. And not, maybe, even tech. idiots—“tech. challenged” or just haven’t had the opportunity or then—required to use technology in the same way. I mean, we do also have employees that haven’t necessarily completed their own timesheet and all the details that goes into it. So, because there’s—through our collective bargaining agreements, there’s certain added benefits—if you work over a certain number of hours at a certain time of day, you’re paid meals, et cetera, et cetera. So there’s—we have employees that may not be familiar with all of those details. So, it’s going to be a learning process from the perspective of technology, but also just in terms of employee benefits as well. MS. BOND: Yeah. I mean, I just now am getting to the point where I can use Google Docs. as a regular thing—and I still can’t figure out how to make a “group” so that I can put them to get—it’s just—I really, I mean I know that a lot of it is my fault, my problem, or my—that’s not where my heads at. I’m much more creative than I am technical. MS. TOKIHIRO: Right, but— MS. BOND: But it’s just one of those things where people—you got to watch out for the people that will fall through the cracks because they just get overwhelmed by it. I get to the point where it’s, like, “I’m done”—I have to shut it down. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah, we are going to have—so we have Readiness Coordinators in our area of Finance but also in the area of HR in every department. And so, those people are the ones Merit Appeals Board August 26, 2025 Page 23 taking the lead within our departments to help be a point of contact and disseminate information about the system within the department. So, the Readiness Coordinators will be a resource for our employees and a resource for training within the departments. We also have our IT Department that’s going to be part of that support, and then we’re also going to be getting additional support from the software developer. So, we’ve got support at a variety of different levels to make sure that everyone’s needs are being addressed. So, we will definitely be taking that into account. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, other questions for Sommer? No? I don’t have any either. I just want to comment that the report from the various divisions are really complete. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah, we’re able to make the change from the ADA Coordinator, so she’s providing more detail on the monthly. CHR. CABANAS: It gives us just a better picture of—just a picture of what is transpiring. So, I just want to “mahalo” everyone for doing that. MS. TOKIHIRO: I will give them that feedback. Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. Do you have anything else, Sommer—otherwise, we’ll move on. MS. TOKIHIRO: No, nothing specifically. Yesterday, we did a staff luncheon. I know the Union call them “Lunch-n-Learns” and I don’t know that I’ll come up with my own lingo for it—but, yesterday, the HR staff had a potluck and we also participated in the Myer’s Briggs Personality Inventory. And it’s meant to be fun but also a good collaboration effort for us to learn about each other and the next—and so we, kind of, have to divide it in two. Yesterday, we learned about our own individual results and then we’ll be having a follow-up to get into groups and learn about the difference—among the different communication styles, different perceptions—and, kind of, practice some group activities regarding communication. And so, I thought it was really—it was a fun activity yesterday that also provided good training and insight for our staff towards that—towards team building. So, I was happy with that. And then on August 12th, we just did an HR Quarterly—so we do quarterly meetings with the HR Reps. in our departments. On August 12th, we actually had 51 participants, which was awesome. And so, we did regular HR updates and information, but we also provided—we brought in someone from our EAP—our Employee Assistance Program—and they did a presentation regarding drug and alcohol awareness. And so, that was really interesting, and informative, and good information for our departmental HR Reps. to have. Merit Appeals Board August 26, 2025 Page 24 So—and then I had the opportunity to work with Suzi in the EOC on July 29th as part of the Tsunami Response—so, yeah. And then, we just did the After Event follow-up to talk about what worked and what didn’t in that process. Yeah. MS. BOND: I missed that meeting, ‘cause I was building dead bodies. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. MS. BOND: Yeah, so. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, yeah, just a lot happening in HR, but I’m glad that the report is—that you’re finding it informative and helpful— CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. MS. TOKIHIRO: —and I’m always happy to answer questions. MR. AGUINALDO: I know, what I heard after the tsunami—I guess, the event, the waves came and, like, low lie—the low areas was all with all muck. But the next morning, they said was like nothing when happen. I think on—your departments on like public roads or whatnot—is always keep the flow going because you’re not staying stagnant blocking roads or whatnot. You guys are just on top of it. And I think Jenny was saying about having, like, not breakout sessions—but within County employees, like you guys fellowsh—I call them “fellowship.” If there was a way you could— there’s so much, what is the amount of County employees—2,900—so it’s, kind of hard to have everybody all at once. But it’s just to have east and west, kind of, mingle with each other is a great thing, too. It’s not like a separate division—east and west—but I think—yeah, I think you guys doing a great job. Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: Thank you. Definitely trying—working at it. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you very much, Sommer. MS. BOND: The tsunami was a really good—was a really good exercise. It was—there was a lot of things that we haven’t done it in a while. I mean, I’ve been working with Civil Defense for what, 18 years now, and this is the longest time we had gone without any kind of a thing—a “gray day” as they call it. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah, and a different opportunity as well for a new Administration— MS. BOND: Right— MS. TOKIHIRO: —we have new department heads— Merit Appeals Board August 26, 2025 Page 25 MS. BOND: —exactly. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. And so— MS. BOND: That was the good thing (inaudible) the room. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. And it was a great collaboration and even the emergency alert system—I mean, I got the text message that says, “You’re to report to the EOC immediately”—and I, actually, called Ryan in our Health and Safety Division and I said, “Is this a thing? ‘Cause, like, I’ve never gotten this text message before”—but they had just switched to this new notification system, so that as department heads and our deputies—we’re sent this text message when they’re activating the EOC for a particular event. So, that was great to see, and we were all there. I mean, I think all of the department heads or representatives for the department—we all had reported within 30 minutes, which was an awesome response—and at least it’s not relying on a phone tree or something else. So, the communication there was good—and then it was a good collaboration in the EOC that night amongst all the different partners. And then, the after-event debrief was good because we looked at things where—are there ways that we need to change how the communication gets out, do we—when is a good time to do certain things and back-off certain things, right—and do we need to change even the number of people that are in the EOC when something is going on. So, I think those after-action things are always important, and Civil Defense will be preparing an after-action report, and they publish it on their website. So, we were all just there to help give feedback to Civil Defense and share our perspectives as far as what worked, where it could be improved, and things like that. So, the report will be coming out. CHR. CABANAS: And internally, within your department, we used to have, like a handbook—but how do you work it now? MS. TOKIHIRO: So, we do have an Emergency Action Plan. Everybody—all of our departments have an Emergency Action Plan. And then, the way that communication works within DHR is we do have a phone tree, and it starts with our managers—so, myself and Danny, the Deputy—communicate to the managers and then the managers communicate to the staff. CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. MS. TOKIHIRO: So—but we do, yes, have an Emergency Action Plan—and first and foremost, especially when it comes to a tsunami is making sure that we get—that we got our County facilities evacuated and make sure that our employees were kept safe and then making sure all the public is kept safe getting people out of beaches and evacuated from Keaukaha and making sure that we try and keep roads as clear as possible. So— Merit Appeals Board August 26, 2025 Page 26 CHR. CABANAS: Did you move any equipment or computers or— MS. TOKIHIRO: We didn’t actually—and I think the tsunami evacuation zone map changed. And so, the Aupuni Center is, like, just on the other side of the line—but, that being said, if people have the time to turn off their computers and move it to the top of their desks, we ask them to do that. But the Mayor was clear that he wanted everybody out of the offices by no later than 4:15 because we wanted to make sure that people had enough time to get where they needed to go. And that’s a challenge in Hilo—traffic flow in any type of emergency and, specifically, an evacuation. So, the focus, of course, we want to do everything we can to preserve and protect our equipment and our files, but he was clear when he wanted everybody to be out of offices to make sure that they were safe, so. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. Thank you, Sommer. MS. TOKIHIRO: You’re welcome. Thank you. CHR. CABANAS: You have a good rest of the work week. MS. TOKIHIRO: Thank you. You guys as well and I will see you in September— CHR. CABANAS: September. MS. TOKIHIRO: —and I will bring our Admin. Services Division at that time. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, if it’s— MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah, as long as it’s— CHR. CABANAS: —if it’s okay with all the timelines that she has. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: Will do. Thank you. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. Okay, so we are back on the agenda. There are no “Communications”—no “New Business”—no “Unfinished Business.” We are now at “Announcements.” Are there any—pardon me? Okay, that’s right. May I have a motion to accept and file the Director’s Monthly Divisional Activity Report for the month of August 2025? Merit Appeals Board August 26, 2025 Page 27 MS. BOND: So moved. MR. AGUINALDO: I second. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. Any discussion? MR. AGUINALDO: No. CHR. CABANAS: If not, I’ll start a rollcall vote with Ms. Bond. MS. BOND: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Aguinaldo. MR. AGUINALDO: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Three ayes. Motion carried. Okay, thank you. Communications (Item 6) (There were none.) New Business (Item 7) (There was none.) Unfinished Business (Item 8) (There was none.) Announcements (Item 9) CHR. CABANAS: We are now on “Announcements”—any announcements? No? Okay. Merit Appeals Board August 26, 2025 Page 28 Schedule Next Meeting Date (Item 10) The Merit Appeals Board Will Convene Its Next Meeting On Friday, September 26, 2025, At 9:00 A.M., At The Hilo Council Chambers, Hawaiʻi County Building, 25 Aupuni Street, First Floor, Room 1401, Hilo, HI 96720 CHR. CABANAS: Scheduling the next meeting date—the Merit Appeals Board will convene its next meeting on Friday, September 26th, 2025, at 9 a.m., at the Hilo Council Chambers, of the Hawaiʻi County Building, at 25 Aupuni Street, First Floor, Room 1401, in Hilo. Adjournment (Item 11) CHR. CABANAS: May I have a motion to adjourn today’s meeting? MR. AGUINALDO: I’ll make a motion to adjourn today's meeting. MS. BOND: I’ll second. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. Any discussion? MR. AGUINALDO: No. CHR. CABANAS: If not, the meeting is adjourned at 10:16 a.m. Thank you, everyone. Respectfully submitted, Glynis Yamada, Secretary-Reporter APPROVED: Gabriella M. Cabanas, Chair Merit Appeals Board