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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2010-11-16 Merit Appeals Board MinutesHilo, Hawaii Tuesday, November 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, November 16, 2010. Present: Mr. G. Rick Robinson, Chair Mr. Gary Yoshiyama, Vice Chair Mr. Kenneth Rowe, Member Mr. Ronald K. Takahashi, Director of Human Resources Ms. Diane Noda, Deputy Corporation Counsel Ms. Yumi Nakamura, Clerk III Ms. Velma Y. Menezes, Secretary- Reporter Excused: Mr. Brian De Lima, Member Mr. Henry "Hank" Silva, Member Chair Robinson called the meeting to order at 10:05 a.m. MINUTES OF SEPTEMBER 21, 2010 MOTION: Vice Chair Yoshiyama moved that the minutes of September 21, 2010 be approved as circulated. The motion was seconded by Mr. Rowe and unanimously carried. COMMUNICATIONS A) Communication No. 10 -05, petition of appeal, received October 14, 2010, from Robert J. Crudele, Esq., and William B. Heflin, Esq., Crudele & De Lima, on behalf of Terence S. Ignacio, appealing his termination from employment as a Police Officer from the Hawaii County Police Department. 3$awai`i bounty is an Eaual ®pporturaity provider arad plover. Ms. Noda noted that from what's stated on the appeal, it looks like the Mayor's Office had not issued a written decision. Since the timeline that is set forth in the internal complaint procedures was not followed and time has passed with no written decision, the attorneys for Mr. Ignacio filed the appeal once again with the Merit Appeals Board. Ms. Noda stated that the employer is requesting the hearing not be set on the regular meeting date of December 21, because the Police Chief is not available on that day. They are requesting January 18, 2011 as an alternative. The Board scheduled the hearing for January 18, 2011, at 10:30 a.m. DIRECTOR'S REPORT Mr. Takahashi reported the following: 1) He received notification from Maui's Civil Service Commission that its Director of Personnel Services, Lynn Krieg, is retiring at the close of business on December 30. Ms. Krieg, when submitting her retirement notice, recommended that the commission appoint her deputy, Lance Hiromoto, as the new director. The commission unanimously agreed and appointed Lance Hiromoto as Director of Personnel Services effective December 31, 2010. 2) Mr. Takahashi submitted the department's budget estimates for fiscal year 2011 -2012. Departments went through a different procedure this year and were asked to do zero -based budgeting, which means that each line item has to be justified with reasons as to why the item was needed, why that amount was needed, and what exactly was being budgeted. The bottom line for HR's budget turned out $28,389 less than last year, and the department had already scaled back tremendously last year. However, because furlough adjustments of $141,000 were put back into the budget, as it remains to be seen what will happen to furloughs with collective bargaining, the budget actually is more than last year's. 3) Department reorganization. Ms. Toriano reported that the department's reorganization and initiative to cross train staff has begun. It was an interesting growth exercise, and staff worked very hard to create what they felt was a doable training outline to actually begin cross training, even at the division head level. V The actual reorganization involves taking three positions — one out of recruitment, one out of administration, and one out of classification — and making them generalists where they will be cross trained in all six functional areas of HR. In addition to that, several of the division heads also want the opportunity to cross train and move away from just being a specialist in their functional area; for example, Mr. Takashiba, expressed an interest to cross train in classification, and Ms. Hopp, the trainer, expressed an interest to cross train in labor relations. Mr. Takahashi added that the purpose of cross training is to be prepared in the face of attrition. This has not come down as a mandate. The department is taking the lead, as it has always been one of his goals to get away from specialization and go into the generalist direction so that when the department is faced with these situations of employees leaving, they will be able to work through the challenges. Ms. Toriano informed the Board that she is involved with preparations for West Hawaii Civic Center, and the goal is to start the move at the end of December. Some of the initiatives they're looking at include what service with aloha would look like. Bringing everyone onto one campus, how do they serve the public and how do they make this civic center a community civic center? Mr. Takahashi noted that Human Resources will have a space and a room to hold exams in Kona. There are larger meeting rooms as well that can be utilized for bigger exams. 4) Labor Relations orientation. Mr. Takahashi introduced his manager in Labor Relations, Ian Takashiba. Mr. Takashiba reported that he has been in this position for 5 -1/2 months now. Primarily, a lot of his time is spent working on the employer -level grievances. Basically these are grievances that are not able to be resolved at the division or the department level and are subsequently filed with the Mayor, who designates Mr. Takahashi as the designee for the Step III grievances. Mr. Takashiba listens to the grievances and discusses them with Mr. Takahashi and the departments about a response to the grievance. Right now, all the collective bargaining agreements are expiring come June 30, 2011, so they're in the process of preparing for negotiations. They have 3 received most of the union proposals and are currently reviewing them and working on preparing the County's position for the proposals. On December 6, the new governor will take office, and from there a Chief Negotiator for the State will need to be designated and we should have a better idea of the employer's position. Mr. Takashiba also assists the departments with supplemental agreements which are specific to the needs of the County of Hawaii and which also involves certain departments. An example is a department that wants a 4 -10 schedule, which is a four -day, ten -hour work schedule. The department will seek Mr. Takashiba's assistance, and he'll negotiate with the specific unions. Mr. Takashiba also assists or takes the lead in consulting with various key officials on things that impact the County. In the day -to -day work, he deals with departmental managers and with the HR representatives in applying and interpreting the collective bargaining agreements. He also assists them with some of the day -to -day operations and interpretations. Also as a participant in cross training, he is working on the training program to familiarize the rest of the staff on what the labor relations division does. It's been a challenge, but he believes they're heading in the right direction and staff members are willing and motivated to learn more about labor relations. Mr. Yoshiyama asked about internal complaints and the internal complaint procedure. Mr. Takahashi responded that the department is not involved in that. The Mayor's Office primarily handles that, as the process is set up for complaints to end up at the Merit Appeals Board level; and at the time procedures were being developed, Mr. Ben had decided that MAB shouldn't be ruling on the director's decision. However, they do consult with the Mayor's Office and with Corporation Counsel. The Mayor has designated Mr. Takahashi as the chief negotiator for the County. The process set up by the collective bargaining law is that the State and the county jurisdictions serve as the employer group to negotiate one contract with the various unions. It's one contract that's applicable to the State and all county jurisdictions. The law allows for negotiations of supplemental agreements, whereby individual needs of the specific jurisdiction are addressed that are not common with other jurisdictions. The State Chief Negotiator is the lead person for the employer group in its negotiations with the unions. The way it's set up is those bargaining units that have county representation or county employees in that bargaining unit, the Chief Negotiator needs one county to vote with the position of the State for that position to go across to the union. Mr. Takahashi further reported that he, Ms. Toriano, and Mr. Takashiba will divvy up the negotiations, as it would be very difficult for him to attend every single session. That way, they can serve as each others' backup too, and between the three of them, handle the negotiations for the County. NEXT MEETING DATE Chair Robinson noted that if an appeal is filed in the interim, they will schedule it for January's meeting. There will be no meeting in December. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Mr. Rowe moved that the meeting be adjourned. The motion was seconded by Vice Chair Yoshiyama and unanimously carried. The meeting adjourned at 10:40 a.m. APPROVED: G. Rick Robinson Chair 5 Respectfully submitted, Ronald K. Takahashi Secretary vym