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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2010-03-16 Merit Appeals Board MinutesHilo, Hawaii Tuesday, March 16, 2010 The regular meeting of the Merit Appeals Board, County of Hawaii, was held in the conference room of the Department of Human Resources, 101 Pauahi Street, Suite 2, Hilo, Hawaii, on Tuesday, March 16, 2010. Present: Mr. G. Rick Robinson, Chair Mr. Gary Yoshiyama, Vice Chair Mr. Henry "Hank" Silva, Member Mr. Brian J. De Lima, Member Mr. Kenneth M. Rowe, Member Mr. Ronald K. Takahashi, Director of Human Resources Ms. Sharon Toriano, Deputy Director of Human Resources Ms. Diane Noda, Deputy Corporation Counsel Ms. Velma Y. Menezes, Secretary- Reporter Ms. Yumi Nakamura, Clerk III Chair Robinson called the meeting to order at 9:34 a.m. MINUTES OF JANUARY 19, 2010 MOTION: Mr. Rowe moved that the minutes of January 19, 2010 be approved as circulated. The motion was seconded by Mr. Silva and unanimously carried. NEW BUSINESS A) Communication No. 10 -01, received March 2, 2010, from Teri J. Botelho, appealing her termination from employment with the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney. Ms. Noda informed the Board that Mr. Reece had telephoned Ms. Menezes regarding his availability for the hearing date. He indicated that ffawai`i 0oanty is an 6gnaf OWmh4hity Providea and eWtoya. he would not be available in April or June. The County requests that the hearing not be set in May, as one of Ms. Noda's key witnesses, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Joyce Seelen, will be in trial the month of May. Ms. Noda also received information that Deputy Attorney General Julian White is requesting that it not be set in July. Because he had handled the previous case, and they did have a circuit court matter regarding this case, he prefers to continue to handle it rather than sending a substitute. In August, the employer's witness Dale Ross is not available, but if the Board is inclined to set it in August they'll make accommodations. Ms. Noda will prepare a declaration from Ms. Ross. The Board noted the extensive length of time between the filing of the appeal and the actual hearing, but Ms. Noda stated that when Mr. Reece called her yesterday, he did confirm that a date after July would be fine with him. It was decided that Ms. Noda would first check with her witnesses on the availability of Monday, August 16, 2010, at 10:00 a.m., for the hearing, and if that date is all right, the parties would proceed with that hearing date. DIRECTOR'S REPORT 1) Mr. Takahashi formally introduced the new Deputy of Human Resources, Sharon Toriano, who started on March 1, 2010. Ms. Toriano came from the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation where she spent 17 years first in Kona as the former HR director for the Kona and Kohala Hospitals, and most recently at the Hawaii Health Systems Corporate Office in Honolulu. Sharon is a resident of West Hawaii and brings much needed experience to the job. 2) The Department of Parks and Recreation has decided to unfund the County Band positions. Their budget that was submitted to the Council on March 1 did not include funding for both the East Hawaii and West Hawaii bands. The bands were made civil service two to three years ago and are going through formal reduction- in- force/layoff procedures. Mr. Takahashi's department is working with the Department of Parks and Recreation on this. One full -time HGEA employee is involved, which is the Band Director. The Band members are six - hour -a -week employees, who are excluded from V collective bargaining. They're not in the union but they are civil service, so they are entitled to layoff procedures. It will be difficult for individuals to be placed in any other position because of their six - hour -a -week employment. Layoff procedures afford the employees the opportunity to get placed in comparable, vacant positions for which they qualify; but again, comparable means six - hour -a -week type positions for which, at a cursory review, there are none. They are also entitled to bump people with less seniority in positions that are in the same or related series as their current positions; and, again, given their types of positions, and after a cursory review, there are none. The Band Director is a full -time, Unit 13 HGEA employee. The first step of the process is to identify and consider vacant positions that he would qualify fo r. Mr. Takahashi noted there is a special pension set up for band members. He believes there may be five of them who would qualify for that right now. The rest are relatively young and new to the Band. Initially, the Band was under the Mayor's Office. As an agency under the Mayor, the Band Director would report directly to the Mayor. There was a Charter amendment that moved that position to the Director of Parks and Recreation. When that happened, the civil service exemption for that position went away because the positions were no longer under the Mayor in the Mayor's Office. When the Band got moved to Parks and Recreation, there was no state statute for an exemption from civil service, so at that time, former Director Michael Ben took action to convert them to civil service as they no longer had an authority to exempt them. The process of converting the Band Director and the entire Band to civil service occurred back in 2007. 3) Mr. Silva asked to return to the issue of Appellant Teri J. Botelho. He stated that he already was leaning toward a particular position in her situation, and while he would do his best to be impartial, he thought that he should perhaps recuse himself from the hearing. Ms. Noda noted that Mr. Silva volunteers at the Kona office where Ms. Botelho was employed. She will consult with her client department on this development. 3 Mr. Silva stated that he would offer this up in case anyone has a problem with it. Ms. Noda stated that while she will consult with her clients about Mr. Silva recusing himself, she will also check with her witnesses for other available Mondays in August for a hearing date, in addition to Fridays, as a quorum may be more of a concern now. 4) Mr. Takahashi reported on furloughs. They finally have an agreement with the United Public Workers for zero up to 13 days of furlough for the remainder of this fiscal year which ends on June 30, 2010, and from zero up to 24 days of furlough from July 1, 2010 for the following fiscal year ending June 30, 2011. Indications are that the counties will furlough the 24 days for the following fiscal year. Mr. Takahashi is surveying the departments right now and asking for furlough plans and how to implement these furloughs come July 1. The Mayor's preference right now is everybody gets furloughed and the County shuts down on designated days, hopefully on the same day as the State. If a department's operations won't allow for a shut down, such as Police Dispatch, they are asking them to come up with a plan on how they're going to do their furlough so that they can consult the unions on that. Right now, they're in the process of having the departments look at their operations, and they are supposed to submit any furlough plans to Mr. Takahashi by the end of this month. 5) Chair Robinson commented that in looking at the reports of accidents in the activity report, there was one incident where a police officer's subsidized vehicle was being driven by someone else, whom he assumes was the officer's family member that was involved in an accident. He asked why that was reported in the activity report if a police officer's subsidized vehicle isn't in essence considered a County vehicle. Mr. Takahashi stated that he would look into it and report back to the Board. Chair Robinson stated that a lot of the reported accidents seem to be with Parks and Recreation and wondered whether it's just from the use of hand tools and maintenance. Mr. Takahashi noted that like the Police and Fire accidents, he believes it comes in trends. Mr. Rowe stated that at the last meeting he had asked that they look at a comparison of accidents, where there might be a spike or where it's a continuous thing. Mr. Takahashi stated that he would talk to Ms. Kamaka about their concerns. In response to Chair Robinson's inquiry into the workers' comp program, Mr. Takahashi responded that the expenditures for workers' comp has leveled off. Chair Robinson asked that Mr. Takahashi have the division heads give updates to the Board, which would help new members, Mr. De Lima and Mr. Rowe. Mr. Rowe noted that the activity report included the reclassification of a golf maintenance supervisor position and asked what it was reclassified to. Mr. Takahashi explained that when the position became vacant, they reviewed it to make sure the position description accurately described the duties and responsibilities the job entailed. When a position in a department becomes vacant, they ask the department to take a look at their position descriptions, as that's when changes should be made. Right now Mr. Takahashi's classification section is working on a reorganization to consolidate the Mass Transit Agency with the Motor Pool. They're doing it through a County Code change to consolidate services under Mass Transit, and it will be called the Transportation Department. NEXT MEETING DATE Chair Robinson stated that the Board's next meeting will tentatively be scheduled for April 20, 2010. If there are no agenda items, they will forego having a meeting. MOTION: Mr. Rowe moved to adjourn the meeting. The motion was seconded by Mr. De Lima and unanimously carried. 5 100� .O% The meeting adjourned at 14:17 a.m. a �Pp G. Rick Robinson Chair 9 Respectfully submitted, Ronald K. Takahashi Secretary vym