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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2001-02-16 Police Commission MinutesHAWAII COUNTY POLICE COMMISSION REGULAR SESSON MINUTES FEBRUARY 16, 2001 HAWAII COUNTY COUNCIL ROOM CALL TO ORDER Chair Okabe called the meeting to order at 10:03 a.m. ROLL CALL Present: Wilfred M. Okabe, Chair Dwight K. Manago, Vice Chair Horace S. Hara, Member Clarence Mills, Member Walter Moe, Member Peter P. Muller, Member Clyde K. Williams, Member Excused: Phoebe M. Lambeth, Member There was a quorum. Also Present: James S. Correa, Police Chief Thomas Hickcox, Assistant Chief Gary Maesato, Business Manager Lincoln Ashida, Corporation Counsel Josie Pelayo, Secretary APPROVAL OF AGENDA Chair Okabe informed that under New Business, the officer in HPC 00 -75 requests executive session. Commissioner Mills moved to place the complaint under executive session. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Williams and unanimously carried. PUBLIC STATEMENTS ON AGENDA ITEMS — None APPROVAL OF MINUTES Commissioner Muller moved to approve the minutes of December 18, 2000, regular and executive sessions. The motion was seconded by Vice Chair Manago and unanimously carried. PERSONNEL ORDERS Commissioner Williams moved to approve Personnel Orders 2001 -009 to 2001 -020. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Moe and unanimously carried. COMMUNICATIONS Commissioner Mills stated that they received a memo from Ms. Pelayo stating that Corporation Counsel Ashida informed her that they may take action on any item listed on the agenda. It does not have to be under unfinished or new business and that they could take action on correspondence listed on the agenda. For the record, he wants this noted in the minutes. Chair Okabe stated that at the last meeting they did take action on correspondence listed on the agenda. Corporation Counsel Ashida informed that this does not have to be in the commission's rules, it is just a general principle of parliamentary procedure. As long as there is a clear record and there's notice you can act on virtually anything that's on the agenda. The key is notice. The memo should be amended to reflect that they could take action on items that are previously listed on the agenda and not items that are put on the agenda immediately before the meeting. February 16, 2001 Regular Session Minutes Page 2 Commissioner Mills moved to accept communications as listed. The motion was seconded by Vice Chair Manago and unanimously carried. COMMITTEE REPORTS Budget and Finance: Vice Chair Manago had no report. Office Management and Staffing: Chair Okabe reported that Josie will be on vacation from March 22 to April 2. She will contact county personnel to make arrangements for coverage. Corporation Counsel Ashida stated he will look into staffing from his office. Rules and Policies: Commissioner Hara had no report. Chair Okabe suggested that members take a look at the rules and regulations and bring up items that might need more clarification. Contractual Services: Commissioner Mills had no report. Commissioner Williams stated that in one of Mr. Russi's correspondence he wanted to give testimony either for or against anybody who's applying for the investigator's position. However, who is applying might be private information. Corporation Counsel Ashida stated that it has to go through the state's procurement process, and under that process, it is confidential. Even the applicants are not supposed to know who is applying. The procurement officer needs to follow procedure in negotiations. He would have reservations about making that information public because it would be against the state procurement law. He could send a letter to Mr. Russi regarding this. Chair Okabe stated that at the last meeting in Kona, Tom Russi and Christine Paul requested public hearings before the commission renewed Wood & Tait contract. The commission at that time voted unanimously to have public hearing on testimony from the public on the investigator's contract. Commissioner Mills stated that it was his understanding that that would be discussed at this meeting today. It is listed under new business and they should discuss it at that time. He has reservations about having public hearings. Public Relations: Commissioner Moe stated that at the next regular meeting he will prepare recommendations relating to public relations. CHIEF'S REPORT Crime: Assistant Chief Hickcox presented a report which is attached. Traffic: Assistant Chief Hickcox presented a report which is attached. Personnel: Assistant Chief Mahuna presented a report which is attached. The twelve new recruits will graduate from the academic portion at the end of June. Field training will follow, and they should received their assignments at the end of September. They anticipate a new recruit class at the beginning of next year. In response to Commissioner Moe's inquiry into the stages of the promotional process, Chief Correa reported that they follow the civil service process. For captains, lieutenants, and sergeants they take a written examination administered by civil service who comes out with a certified list. Civil Service will only give them five names for each vacancy, and they only get the list when the position is available and the mayor gives his approval to fill the position. Once they have the five names, they conduct their February 16, 2001 Regular Session Minutes Page 3 process which is normally the interview process. They always try to maintain a current eligibility list because there have been times in the past when the list was exhausted. The chief is the appointing authority, and he can choose any one of the five. Assistant Chief Mahuna stated that when they receive the five names, they don't know the ranking. They only know that they are the top five, and they don't know who the others are. Chief Correa stated that they have the right to deny all five, but they need to have justification that will substantially standup in a civil service hearing. Commissioner Williams stated that they also must have sound justification for the person they pick. He believes that the public needs to learn how this process works. Civil Service is the one that makes it work. Chief Correa stated that there are a lot of checks and balances. Commissioner Moe stated that the recent past has taught them that if the public understands the process in detail and is informed about it, this issue will be dealt with a lot better and more effectively. Commissioner Williams stated that on many occasions they may get a high- scoring person, in theory, who may not be the best guy to get the job. Sometimes the person who's trained in the field has better field expertise, may be the best qualified individual, may not have passed the test in quite the same manner. Chief Correa stated that depending on the rank, it's the type of experience one has acquired, especially higher up in administration. In response to Vice Chair Manago's inquiry into whether there were qualified applicants for the deputy chief's position or people he had in mind, Chief Correa stated that there are qualified people and he has members of the department in mind. Because it is an appointed position, it is not necessary that he open it up for applications. However, there has to be a desire to be the deputy. All the majors and assistant chiefs are paid substantially higher than the deputy and some are paid higher than the chief. He is working with Civil Service and the Mayor to have someone take the position without a reduction in pay. He hopes the salary commission meets as soon as possible because they are the ones to make the adjustment. He has no time frame for hiring a deputy but would like to do it as soon as possible Finance: Business Manager Maesato presented a report which is attached. He distributed copies of their program based budget. He stated that the department's budget is shrinking due to inflation and collective bargaining increases. Their major cost is overtime pay. Chief Correa reported that holiday pay is included in overtime. Officers must work 24 hours /7 days /week. They don't have control over contractual pay. The only area that they could minimize cost of overtime would be on shortage of manpower. If they had additional personnel, they would not be required to holdover or call back personnel. In actuality, the more individuals they put out there, the better the law enforcement efforts would be, and they would generate more cases for on -duty things which would have an impact on working overtime and going to court. Sick leave and workman's comp has an impact on manpower shortage, but they don't have control over people being sick or injured. Vice Chair Manago informed that Kona now runs manpower shifts of 8 -8 -7. In the first six months, they already have a little over their full year's allocation in overtime, and that's just to maintain the 8 -8 -7. If they had more officers it would cut a lot of this overtime out. They've done studies in Kona and found February 16, 2001 Regular Session Minutes Page 4 that by adding more manpower, part of that overtime will go down substantially. Instead of paying time and a half, they could pay the flat rate and make a savings. Commissioner Williams stated that they need to appropriate money through the council and people need to assist the department in doing this. Chief Correa reported that there are other support areas that are in extreme need, one of which is dispatch. They have a large sum of overtime as a result of dispatchers having to work overtime as a result of injuries or sickness. Automation in dispatch has made the department very efficient which means they are catching more people which means its costing them more money because they are out there conducting more investigations. He has asked for an additional five dispatch positions, but there was no funding for it. They are going to try to find some funding within the department because the reduction of overtime would pay for a few people's salary. Commendations: Chief Correa reported receiving 12 commendations since the last meeting. UNFINISHED BUSINESS — None NEW BUSINESS Corresp. 033, from Tom Russi and Christine Paul, asking for correction to the date of Correspondence 015, request for copy of minutes of November 17, 2000, 9:00 a.m. which included comments by all commissioners, and his request for the commission to provide him a letter stating that the commission voted in favor of holding public hearings before renewing Wood & Tait's contract. Vice Chair Manago stated that the intent was to let Mr. Russi have his day. He complained that the investigation he received was not proper. He wanted to give Mr. Russi his day to come up and explain to them why he felt the investigation was not proper and to give background information on how Wood & Tait conducted their investigations. When he brought this matter up previously, he did not intend to have open hearings, but he just wanted to let Mr. Russi come up and explain what he was dissatisfied about. Commissioner Hara asked if they are having public statements on agenda items on this matter or holding public hearings as they did in the selection of the police chief which was dedicated only to that item. Vice Chair Manago stated that the intent was not a public hearing. Chair Okabe stated that at the last meeting it was stated public hearing, so someone has to move to change from public hearing to public statements, and he will write a letter to Mr. Russi stating that. Commissioner Williams stated that Mr. Russi has been bringing up this subject for four or five years ever since Wood & Tait investigated his case. The gentleman has been to almost every agency that deals with this. He's gotten an answer from the Ombudsman on his cases. They found absolutely nothing wrong, and yet he continues to bring it up. Mr. Russi's cases were decided on years ago, and he doesn't see why he's being given this extra time to bring it up again. This has already been done. It's a done deal. There was nothing wrong. Many agencies looked at this and found nothing wrong with what the commission did, so why does the commission continually give him the floor to bring it up again for the umpteen time. It's done, its over. He needs to accept this and they should move on. The public is not going to know who puts in an application, that's private information. They're going to testify and not even know if the person has applied. February 16, 2001 Regular Session Minutes Page 5 Vice Chair Manago stated that Mr. Russi does not want Wood & Tait to be their next investigator, and he wants to come and present that to them. Commissioner Moe stated that the public should have an opportunity to make statements in relationship to that process. Commissioner Mills inquired as to how this matter would be handled on the agenda. Ms. Pelayo stated that it could be placed on the agenda under Committee Reports, Contractual Services. They could state that requests for proposals are being accepted for investigative services. People will be able to make statements on that agenda item. Vice Chair Manago moved that they change from a public hearing to accepting public statements before they come to a decision on the next investigator. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Muller and carried with Commissioner Mills casting a nay vote. EXECUTIVE SESSION Commissioner Manago moved to meet in executive session to consider charges brought against officers of the Hawaii County Police Department where matters affecting privacy will be considered and a closed meeting is requested by individuals involved and to consult with Corporation Counsel on questions and issues pertaining to the commission's powers, duties, privileges, immunities, and liabilities. The commission convened into executive session at 11:20 a.m. and then reconvened back into regular session at 12:45 p.m. ACTION ON EXECUTIVE SESSION MATTERS Corresp. 035, dated February 7, 2001. Complainant in HPC 00 -69 requests a reconsideration of the commission's decision that there was no misconduct on the part of the accused officer. No motion was made. Corresp. 010, dated December 27, 2000, from former Police Officer Joseph T. Garguile requesting legal counsel in Civil No. 00 -1 -0360. Commissioner Mills moved that the officer was acting within the scope of his duties as a police officer and should be afforded legal counsel. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Manago and carried with Commissioners Williams and Muller casting nay votes. Consideration of Complaints against Hawaii County Police Officers HPC 00 -68A & 68B: Complainants filed a harassment complaint and alleged that the officer on the case did not follow -up on a timely manner. Commissioner Williams moved to sustain the complaint. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Muller and unanimously carried. HPC 00 -71A & 71B: Complainants alleged that an officer told untruths and misleading statements when he issued them a citation and displayed partiality and discrimination by not citing another vehicle with a similar violation. Commissioner Williams moved to decline further investigation because there was no misconduct on the part of the accused officer. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Hara and unanimously carried. HPC 00 -75: Complainant alleged that an officer yelled and used profanity in the presence of her boys following a minor car accident in a grocery store parking lot. Commissioner Mills moved to decline further investigation because there was no misconduct on the part of the accused officer. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Muller and unanimously carried. February 16, 2001 Regular Session Minutes Page 6 HPC 00 -77: Complainant was arrested for DUI. He alleged that while being handcuffed, he told the officer that he was crippled and could not place his arms behind his back. His arms were placed behind his back causing pain. He also alleged that while at the station, the officer pushed him down on a bench. Commissioner Williams moved to decline further investigation because there was no misconduct on the part of the accused officer. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Hara and died with the following votes: Aye: Williams Nay: Mills Muller Manago Hara Moe Okabe The complaint will be continued to the next meeting. HPC 01 -02: Complainant was cited for littering. He alleged that the officer used harsh and violent language and pushed him. Commissioner Mills moved to decline further investigation because there was no misconduct on the part of the accused officer. The motion was seconded by Vice Chair Manago and unanimously carried. HPC 01 -03: Complainant was cited for skateboard violation. He alleged that the officer threatened him with pepper spray and took away his skateboard. Commissioner Williams moved to decline further investigation because there was no misconduct on the part of the accused officer. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Muller and unanimously carried. HPC 01 -04: Complainant called the police because of a family dispute. She alleged that an officer handled himself in an unprofessional manner with regards to his attitude, behavior, and performance. Commissioner Mills moved to decline further investigation because there was no misconduct on the part of the accused officer. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Hara and unanimously carried. Deliberation of Investigated Complaint HPC 00 -46. Complainant filed a harassment complaint. She alleged that the responding officer failed to perform his duty, failed to obey the laws and was not impartial. The complaint was deferred to the next meeting because the investigator was unable to make the meeting. ANNOUNCEMENTS Chair Okabe announced that the next meeting is scheduled for March 16 at the Waimea Community Center, 65 -1260 Kawaihae Road, Kamuela. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 12:55 p.m. SUBMITTED: APPROVED: JOSIE PELAYO, SECRETARY WILFRED M. OKABE, CHAIR