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Home My WebLink About2026-07-23 Merit Appeals Board Minutes REGULAR SESSION Merit Appeals Board Department of Human Resources – Conference Room 101 Pauahi Street, Suite 2 Hilo, Hawai‘i July 23, 2026 (Thursday) Call to Order (Item 1) The regular meeting of the Merit Appeals Board, County of Hawaiʻi, was called to order at 9:02 a.m. by Chair Gabriella M. Cabanas, at the Department of Human Resources-Conference Room, 101 Pauahi Street, Suite 2, Hilo, Hawaiʻi, on Thursday, July 23, 2026. Roll Call – Present Ms. Gabriella M. Cabanas, Chair Ms. Suzi Bond, Vice-Chair Mr. Daniel “Niel” Thomas, Member Absent and Excused Mr. Gilbert J. Aguinaldo, 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 – Personnel and Organizational Development Division, Human Resources Department Ms. Glynis Yamada, Secretary-Reporter, Human Resources Department Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 Call to Order (Item 1) rd CHR. CABANAS: The Merit Appeals Board meeting is called to order at 9:02 a.m., on July 23, 2026. And we are situated at the Department of Human Resources Conference Room, at 101 Pauahi Street, Suite 2, in Hilo, Hawaiʻi. We have quorum today with three Board members present. I’m Gabriella Cabanas, Chair of the Merit Appeals Board—seated with me are Vice-Chair Suzi Bond. MS. BOND: Hello. CHR. CABANAS: And Daniel “Niel” Thomas. Also with us, our Assistant Corporation Counsel J Yoshimoto, and Director of Human Resources Sommer Tokihiro. MS. TOKIHIRO: Good morning. CHR. CABANAS: And our Secretary-Reporter Glynis Yamada. MS. YAMADA: Good morning. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Good morning. CHR. CABANAS: And coming to help with the logistics is Jenny Sakamoto. Hi, Jenny— MR. THOMAS: I think they call this room the “Training Room” or something? CHR. CABANAS: No, it’s the “Conference Room.” MR. THOMAS: ‘Cause I wound up down there with something that says, “Conference Room.” CHR. CABANAS: That’s the “Aupuni Conference Room”—this is the Department of Human Resources Conference Room MR. THOMAS: Ah, okay. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. So, this conference room belongs to the department. Yeah. MR. THOMAS: And they will defend it. CHR. CABANAS: Yes. MS. BOND: Defend their territory. MS. TOKIHIRO: Rigorously. CHR. CABANAS: Anyhow, thank you all, for being here this morning. Gilbert Aguinaldo, our other Board member is absent today. He is excused. And so we will proceed with the agenda. Page 2 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 Addendum to Agenda (Item 2) CHR. CABANAS: There is no addendum. Statements from the Public (Item 3) CHR. CABANAS: And no “Statements from the Public.” Approval of Minutes (Item 4) June 24, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: Approval of meeting minutes for June 24, 2026. Have you all had the opportunity to read in-depth— MR. THOMAS: As long as there’s no quiz. CHR. CABANAS: —the many pages. MS. BOND: I know, it’s like, “Wow, I was here for that.” CHR. CABANAS: The many pages of this meeting. And, yes, I did review it—took me hours. MS. BOND: I have a couple of small— MR. THOMAS: You do—me, too. CHR. CABANAS: Me, too. MS. BOND: —small things. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, you want to go first, Suzi? MS. BOND: Okay, yeah. On page 15, where it says “MS. BOND:” on one, two, three— third/fourth—third time I say something. It’s “Citizen Corps” is “C-o-r-p-s”—it’s like a group, not a company. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, okay. MS. BOND: Like, “Marine Corps” CHR. CABANAS: Right. MS. BOND: So—and then there was one more where it says “junks” in it—it’s like, no, that should be “chunks”—page 81. MR. THOMAS: Page 81 of 10,000. MS. BOND: I know. Page 3 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: Page 81—okay. MS. BOND: Like 320—where—on the second to the last line, “…all of a sudden here’s these big junks of money…”—it should be “chunks.” Up, towards the top, second paragraph—towards the end of the paragraph. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, it says “junks.” MS. BOND: Plenty junks of money, yeah? I thought that, well—did I get my pidgin out for that? CHR. CABANAS: Okay, very good. Good eye, good eye. MS. BOND: Okay, that’s all I got. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, and then I have a few. So, it’s good that we all read it. So page— MS. BOND: So, it proves we actually read it. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. Page 27, third paragraph where it reads, “We had recruitment test scenarios where we’re entering end date…”—and this is Sommer’s report—so, Sommer, if you can help me with this. “…adding a pending a worker…”— MS. TOKIHIRO: Sorry, which paragraph are we on? MS. BOND: Oh, yeah, third— CHR. CABANAS: Third from the top. So, it says, the last sentence, “We had recruitment test scenarios where we’re entering end date…”—that looks okay; it’s this next verbiage, “…adding a pending a worker…”— MS. TOKIHIRO: So, “…adding a pending worker…”—so, that second “a”— CHR. CABANAS: Oh, take out that second “a”— MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. “…converting a pending worker to an employee…”— MS. TOKIHIRO: Correct. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. “…changing assignments—so that could be promotion to another position…”—that sounds okay? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, great. Okay, and then the next page is, let’s see—page 30, where Ms. Tokihiro is listed from the top—one, two—the third “MS. TOKIHIRO:”—the last sentence— well, yeah, the sentence is long but— Page 4 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MS. BOND: Of the first paragraph. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, the third—one, two, three, four—fifth—the fifth paragraph where she says, towards the end, “…basically, the history—like, position history of when that position was last filled, how…”— MS. TOKIHIRO: Sorry, are we on page 30? CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MS. BOND: Yeah, it’s the third “MS. TOKIHIRO:”—first paragraph. MS. TOKIHIRO: Perfect, I got you. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: Okay. CHR. CABANAS: So, it’s the third, last sentence—the last third sentence, “…basically, the history—like, position history of when that position was last filled..”—okay, that looks good; “… how many people have we had in the position…”—okay, that looks good; “…how long…”—it should be “has”—add the “h”—“…how long has the position been filled—like the dates of employment.” Okay, and the then the last—oh, no, not the last one—I have two more. Okay, so the next one is page 44, and it’s the third paragraph, second to the last sentence, “There was an actual transfer paperwork…”—shouldn’t it be “…transfer of paperwork…”— MS. YAMADA: I’m sorry, on page 44? CHR. CABANAS: Third paragraph— MS. YAMADA: Okay. MS. BOND: Third paragraph. CHR. CABANAS: Second to the last sentence. MS. YAMADA: Okay. CHR. CABANAS: “…transfer paperwork…”—shouldn’t it be “transfer of paperwork”— MS. TOKIHIRO: Actually, you could remove the “an”—so it would read, “There was actual transfer paperwork for all the positions…” MR. THOMAS: It’s the type of paperwork. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, okay. “There was…” remove the “an”— MS. TOKIHIRO: Correct. Page 5 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: Okay, remove the “an”—“There was actual transfer paperwork…”— MS. TOKIHIRO: Mm-hmm. MR. THOMAS: It’s a type of paperwork, apparently. MS. BOND: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, okay. Okay, we got that corrected—okay. And then, the last one I had was— MS. BOND: And you got my name right, all the way through—thank you. MS. YAMADA: I took special note of that. MS. BOND: I appreciate it. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, and the last one is page 99, first paragraph, the last sentence, “And you could do something about interview—job interview training or applicant…”—and then there’s a “tra” there. MS. YAMADA: Yeah, ‘cause it was like “applicant tra”—and then, changed the word. So, they’re not finishing the word— CHR. CABANAS: Oh, that was me. Okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: It was re-gathering and re-starting your thought. CHR. CABANAS: My mind was moving too fast. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. MS. YAMADA: Do you want to have it deleted? CHR. CABANAS: I don’t know, it just doesn’t look right. MS. BOND: You were under duress. MS. TOKIHIRO: By page 99, we were all under duress. MS. YAMADA: Especially me. CHR. CABANAS: So, what say you, J—should we change it or leave it? MR. YOSHIMOTO: It’s verbatim, right, so I’ll leave it. CHR. CABANAS: So, leave it—okay, we leave it. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Yeah, it’s okay—you’re good. Page 6 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: Okay. If anyone questions you, you just say, “Well, the Chair’s mind was going too fast.” MS. TOKIHIRO: That’s how the Chair’s mind works. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, so that’s it for the meeting minutes. MS. BOND: Okay. I move to approve the meeting minutes as, amended—is that right? CHR. CABANAS: As amended— MS. BOND: See, I’m learning. MR. YOSHIMOTO: You’ve got to amend the minutes first. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, amend the minutes. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Just note it on the record, so you move to amend as noted on the record. MS. BOND: Okay. I move to amend the minutes, as noted on the record. MR. THOMAS: Second. CHR. CABANAS: Any discussion? No? Okay, I’ll start a rollcall vote with Ms. Bond. MS. BOND: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Motion carried to— MR. THOMAS: Are all these mics. live? Mine’s held together— MS. BOND: Yeah. MR. THOMAS: —with masking tape or something. MS. YAMADA: Yeah, they’re all live. MR. THOMAS: Okay. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, motion carried to approve the meeting minutes—amendments for June 24, 2026. Now we need another motion to approve the meeting minutes, as amended. Page 7 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MS. BOND: So moved. MR. THOMAS: Second. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. Any discussion? If not, I’ll start a rollcall vote with Ms. Bond. MS. BOND: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Motion carried. Director’s Report (Item 5) A. MAB Quarterly Reports: April – May 2026 (Administrative Services Division, Classification & Pay Division, Equal Opportunity/ADA Division, Health & Safety Division, Labor Relations, Personnel & Organizational Development Division, Recruitment & Examination Division, Workers’ Compensation Division) CHR. CABANAS: Okay, moving along. We have our “Director’s Report” for MAB Quarterly Reports, April through June 2026. MS. TOKIHIRO: Okay. So, this is the report for the Fourth Quarter of our Fiscal Year. We started a new fiscal year on July 1—and you will note that the format for the Quarterly Reports— and the Monthly Reports—we’re making those accessible, so they’re easily readable by any individual that would access the records that may need some kind of assistive device for assistance in reading the minutes or reading the report. So, the format was actually one that was created by Alika, our ADA Coordinator, so all divisions are following. So, you’ll notice that some of the graphs and the tables that we previously used have been removed because there are different requirements to ensure accessibility for screen readers to accurately capture the information on the graphs and tables. So, that’s kind of a big change but really important. MS. BOND: Like, I can read it without my glasses. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. Font size is larger— CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, what size is it? MS. BOND: Fourteen. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, 14—and then the headings are 18. MS. BOND: You can tell (inaudible). I was like, “Oh, look, it’s a 14”— Page 8 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MS. TOKIHIRO: Suzi’s preferred size. MS. BOND: Yeah—you’re like, good to be Suzi standard. MR. THOMAS: The type-face. CHR. CABANAS: But makes for easy reading, though. MS. BOND: Yeah. MR. THOMAS: Well, they have type-face, where the “l” has a little thing, so— CHR. CABANAS: Oh, yeah, a little loop—not a loop, but a little curve. MR. THOMAS: —it’s the Number 1 glot and Number 2 glot. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah, so I believe this particular font is “Aptos” which is actually the new default font that Microsoft uses. MR. THOMAS: A-ha. CHR. CABANAS: So, is it “Actos.” MS. TOKIHIRO: “Aptos”—“a-p-t-o-s”— CHR. CABANAS: Oh, “Aptos”—okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. MS. BOND: (Inaudible) for my computer—okay. CHR. CABANAS: So, have you changed everything—your correspondence, memos—to Aptos? We used to use “Century Gothic.” MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. So, the—still—according to our correspondence procedures—the departments’ selected font is “Century Gothic”—that may change. We haven’t changed all of that, yet. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: I just really wanted to make sure that we had consistent reporting for the quarterly and monthly reports that MAB is receiving, and consistency in the font—since it’s all being part of the—saved in the Public Folders. So, we will be continuing to evaluate our correspondence procedures, within HR, going forward. CHR. CABANAS: It looks good. Page 9 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MS. TOKIHIRO: So, I’m happy to answer any questions. I don’t have any big highlights for you from this period. MR. THOMAS: There’s a theme through these documents about training that happens at all levels, in all the departments, and so forth. How can we know more about how training programs are established and how trainers are chosen? So, for instance, different departments have different substantive training aids—any expertise in the trainers? And is this something that’s typically contracted out or done internally or is something—simply above—and so, how are those decisions made? MS. TOKIHIRO: So, we primarily—we try and do as much training as possible internally using our Personnel and Organizational Development Division staff, so that’s going to be Jenny—who was here earlier helping with the Zoom and her team. So, there’s Jenny and then we recently added an additional person in that division—her name is Ulu. She also does training. So, they do our New Hire Orientations, they do supervisory training, they were developing a mentor program; but then we also have training and—sorry, I should back up—that’s going to read as a weird dash in the minutes. Then, they also do customized training based on requests from departments. So, I believe during the last quarter— MR. THOMAS: There’s several references to that. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah, they did specific training for the Building Permit Clerks. And so, they worked with the Building Division and gathered actual scenarios or issues that had happened; and then customized a training for their Building Permit Clerks around those customer service areas where improvements were needed. But then, there’s also training that’s provided by Alika, our ADA Coordinator. She does the Mandatory Anti-Discrimination and Harassment Training; our Admin. Services Division does training specific to transactions. So, there’s a lot of—the training that is provided is specific to the subject matter. MR. THOMAS: Mm-hmm. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, it’s done by the Manager of that particular division for training that comes out of HR. But the County also does have a training provision. So, if there’s training that we don’t offer that an outside agency does—so, for example, we brought in trainers to do specific training— identifying grants and then, also, writing grants. And so, we were able to coordinate that training—Jenny and her team through the Personnel and Organizational Development Division—worked with the company. I believe that company was from the mainland—and then, brought in the trainer and made that training opportunity available to all County departments. MR. THOMAS: Mm-hmm. Page 10 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MS. TOKIHIRO: So, we’re always actively looking for opportunities where we can expand our training offerings but that there may be outside agencies that have things that are timely and of value for the County that we can bring in. We also work with Kuakahi Mediation Center and offer some trainings from them as well. So, it’s an on-going evaluation and effort to see what the County’s needs are and if that’s something that we can provide or there’s an outside agency. MR. THOMAS: So, is it fair to say that Personnel and Organizational Development is our in-house training go-to? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. MR. THOMAS: Those job descriptions, kind of, look for performance and skillsets in that topic of really good trainers? MS. TOKIHIRO: Correct. MR. THOMAS: So, they’re the ones that can kill you by power point or not as the case may be—(inaudible). MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes—I mean, yes and no. We hope not—killing by power point—but, you know, the goal is to—that they’re constantly evaluating needs and then customizing their offerings based on those things. So, Jenny does a very good job with her Supervisory Training Program. The Supervisory Training Program is very comprehensive, but it introduces new supervisors of the intended audience—is new supervisors to all aspects of employee relations. So, it goes through all of the different divisions of HR, what we do in Central HR—what Labor Relations is, what Classification and Pay is, how recruitment impacts things. We talk about—or she talks about communication skills, conflict management, et cetera. It’s a very comprehensive program and it’s lengthy. So, I think it takes several months to get through and it’s about—each training session is four hours. Usually they do the sessions every other week. So, you would be in this training for many weeks. MR. THOMAS: So, how does the work of that department evaluated in—to what extent? Are you happy with it or if it may need improvement? It sounds like a critical activity. MS. TOKIHIRO: It is. And so, we do evaluation forms at the end of all of the trainings, so that we can get feedback on whether or not people felt that the training was of value. A lot of managers—department heads will reach out to me if there’s a specific area or if they have feedback. In the case of Jenny’s Supervisory Training Program—based on just feedback that I was receiving and seeing that we were having so many instances where we had new supervisors that were promoted from within, where individuals were becoming a supervisor that didn’t necessarily didn’t have any prior supervisory experience. I told Jenny that there—I saw an immediate need to carve out, sort of, the soft-skill courses—particularly related to conflict management, employer-employee relations—and to give, kind of, a quick and easy overview to Page 11 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 “These are basic communication skills and basic things to be aware of as a new supervisor.” Before—in a condensed three-session training—while they then later consider going through the whole supervisory training program. So, that was an area where I told Jenny, “I really appreciate your Supervisory Training Program, but I see a need for something—we need to provide immediate skills for people right now that— to help them to succeed in their new roles and to succeed in their interactions with their employees.” MR. THOMAS: So, in general, to what extent are you pleased with how it’s going? MS. TOKIHIRO: I’m very pleased with how it’s going. I think that Jenny has a great team. They’re very innovative. They want to come up with new ideas—they will come up with something that they’ll approach me and say, “We want to try this as a pilot”—and then, through regular monitoring, we decide if that’s something that’s going to go forward or if there’s changes that need to occur. I think that they have a great team. I see them as very responsive to County needs, and I also see them always looking for those value-added opportunities where they’re looking for topics that would benefit the County as a whole or we could bring in outside trainers if it’s not something they can provide. MR. THOMAS: I don’t know if you other Board members see this as so critical as I do. ‘Cause I could picture some kind of briefing of the Board—oh, I know people that actually do this sort of thing—they create these programs, they figure out what the needs are, they have to make decisions on whether to (inaudible) out or whether they have the skillsets among the staff and internally could do it. Just the thought that—I get so much out of these meetings just because of what I hear being talked about—and I think one of the big things that happens in these meetings is the education of all of us. And I could picture carving out ten or 15-minutes of each meeting time for some kind of briefing on a particular topic—why, for instance, training programs and how they’re organized and how to—who decides how a training program is supposed to work, what’s the need, how is it done, how is it evaluated—all that sort of thing. So, just a thought—if you two agree also. CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm, that’s a good idea. Are you—so is that your recommendation, Niel, to the Board. MR. THOMAS: If there’s a consensus among us—yeah. I don’t have to be the only one carrying the torch. CHR. CABANAS: No, no, no. I’m just asking, but it’s your recommendation. MR. THOMAS: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Bond. MS. BOND: It makes sense to me. Page 12 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, me, too. I mean— MS. BOND: The more we find out, the more—the better it is for us. CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. MR. THOMAS: And if it’s done in the context of something that actually seems to be working okay, I think it’s better than the mis-interpretation of us having an investigation of something. MS. BOND: It’s not—yeah, it’s not being brought into the Principal’s Office. MR. THOMAS: Yeah. MS. BOND: It’s actually— MS. TOKIHIRO: Well, it’s kind of—I think we were talking about it either at the last meeting or a couple of meetings ago doing, like, a general overview for the Board. I mean, that was done—I don’t know if it’s been a couple of years, 18-months ago—whatever, but— CHR. CABANAS: It’s over a year. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. So, we can identify a division per meeting, and then I can get information from you folks in advance, what—if there’s something particular you’d like to know— and then ask the division to prepare a short presentation. MR. THOMAS: ‘Cause we brought the division heads in here with their deputies and I think the only request at that time, was just for them to tell us what they do in general. MS. BOND: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, that was a very brief— MR. THOMAS: But what I’m conscious of is the two of you really know how all of this works. MS. BOND: Oh—no. MR. THOMAS: To most of us it’s a foreign language. MS. BOND: She knows how all of this works. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, but whatever the Board needs to—I mean, it’s almost eight years since I’m retired, so things have changed and—which is expected. So, whatever the Board needs, I’m all for it in terms of your and my education—keeping abreast with new things that’s occurring in the department. As long as it doesn’t present a conflict with any upcoming appeal because—and I’ll give you an example. So, we have the Police Records Clerks appeal still hanging there—we’re waiting for HLRB’s written decision. So, I wouldn’t expect something about classification real close to us having the appeal hearing. We spent quite a bit of time at the last meeting on classification Page 13 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 because there were so many questions and that’s why the meeting minutes was quite lengthy— and Sommer did an excellent job in explaining everything about Classification and Pay. So, yeah, that’s all good. So, I think what we can do is, as a Board—I think we need a motion, right? And then a second, as to what you—we need and then our Director can take it from there and maybe schedule something short—15-minutes. Because I know there are questions in different areas and that would help because you folks are still new—your term is now new, right? MR. THOMAS: That’s right. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MS. BOND: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: So, it would benefit— MR. THOMAS: Another five-year sentence or something. CHR. CABANAS: Yes. And that’s why I want that other position filled, so we have a five-Board member. Today, we only have three—there’s—Gilbert is absent—and then that fifth position is still vacant. So— MS. BOND: Yeah, but we shouldn’t hold up us getting some information (inaudible). CHR. CABANAS: No, no—but I have to remind the Administration, again, that we need that position filled because it’s been way over—it’s like over two years, maybe even three years— it’s—c’mon, shouldn’t take that long. Yeah. I’ll go on the record to say that it shouldn’t take that long. So, yeah—so— MS. TOKIHIRO: So, would you like to start with the Personnel and Organizational Development Division? Is that okay? MR. THOMAS: If that’s homebase for training. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. MR. THOMAS: ‘Cause I see training as one of the most (inaudible) critical things that applies everywhere; and, yes, the people who lead that activity are the people that are probably in the best position, if you agree—that can help us understand how it’s done—how those decisions are made and how it’s all evaluated. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, that—so, I’ll just reiterate that that division is responsible for more the Countywide training. We do have managers in other divisions that provide training specific to their subject-matter, but I think what you’re looking for is more for that Personnel and Organizational Development Division. MS. BOND: So, we need to make a motion here, right, that what—that— CHR. CABANAS: Yes. Page 14 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MR.THOMAS: Fifteen-minutes of agenda time can be devoted to educating the Board members to different— CHR. CABANAS: On that particular functional area— MR. THOMAS: On some functional area— MS. BOND: Did any of that make sense? MR. THOMAS: —that the Board would like to learn more about. CHR. CABANAS: Is 15-minutes enough? MS. BOND: So moved—is that—yeah, okay (inaudible). MR. THOMAS: Fifteen-minutes and questions are welcome. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, 15-minutes sufficient. MR. THOMAS: Let them make a presentation as much as 15-minutes, I guess. And I think what we—well, that’s the heart of a motion. I do picture us adding comments and things that we would like to hear. CHR. CABANAS: Or questions—you may have other questions once you hear a 15-minute presentation, so it might take us for 30-minutes. MR. THOMAS: Yeah, we shouldn’t be— MS. TOKIHIRO: But as long as it’s agendized, I think, we have a little flexibility with the time— CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MR. THOMAS: Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: —but as a general parameter, I’ll let Jenny know that her presentation should be approximately 15-minutes. MR. THOMAS: Yeah—just Board orientation and training. MS. BOND: And plus questions. CHR. CABANAS: Do we need to outline the other functional areas it—so, it should be like a flow to me because of what—I mean, we kind of covered it— MS. BOND: Let’s back up and finish the motion and then (inaudible)— CHR. CABANAS: Oh, yeah, go ahead. Okay. MS. BOND: So, I—it’s been moved— Page 15 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MR. THOMAS: That— MS. BOND: No, no—and seconded— MR. THOMAS: Oh, I move then. MS. BOND: Yeah. And seconded— CHR. CABANAS: Any discussion? So, what is the motion, just so that we’re clear on the record. MR. THOMAS: The motion is to add an agenda item for each meeting of the—of asking the Director of Human Resources to provide the Board with training on a topic of the Board’s interest in learning. Does that make sense? MR. YOSHIMOTO: So, you would specify at—with each meeting, if you’d like a (inaudible). MR. THOMAS: Yeah, and in discussion part of the motion, I would say that the Board would be expected, at each meeting, to say what they would like to learn at the next meeting. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: I think that that is probably going to be—what it’ll allow a little bit more flexibility—like, if we start with Personnel and Organizational Development Division—I mean, I understand wanting a flow, but I think if you folks decide at each subsequent meeting, at least we’ll have a general idea what would be on the agenda for the next meeting—so, should there be some appeal issue, we can work around that. CHR. CABANAS: Adjust. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. So, I’m kind of thinking that we would start with Personnel and Organizational Development and then I would probably—unless the Board had a different request—I would suggest, possibly, doing a presentation by Alika in our ADA/EO area; and then kind of proceed from there. MR. THOMAS: If we want them to stay with the general topic of training—yes, you could get that into a specific training—subject matter—how do you do subject matter training on specialized things. Do you have to hire out specialized training in engineering or some other technical area like data analysis and all that sort of stuff. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, to that I would say, “no.” We don’t do that. MR. THOMAS: So, then, the question is, okay, how is the decision made to farm it out, how do you—how do they—what are the standards for finding a training organization that can do training—an exterior organization and then how is that evaluated for effectiveness—but that would be a subsequent topic. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, that would be a question that would arise because I thought you wanted—I thought what I heard was we were going with training—the department has eight Page 16 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 functional areas—Personnel and Organizational Development is one functional area—the training, yeah. MR. THOMAS: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: So, I thought that’s what you wanted to hear; and then in the course of that, you can raise those questions. MR. THOMAS: Maybe so. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MR. THOMAS: Maybe so. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. What do you think, Sommer? MR. THOMAS: I’m mindful of the fact that this is—this proposal is not a project of mine forever— CHR. CABANAS: Oh, no. MR. THOMAS: I do picture the Board’s involvement— CHR. CABANAS: Oh, yeah. MR. THOMAS: —in one, then the next month—see what somebody else comes up with. CHR. CABANAS: Right. MR. THOMAS: One of the others—or the three of us—the four of us. MR. YOSHIMOTO: So, for clarity sake, can you restate the motion? The training—the Board is interested in receiving training from the department. MR. THOMAS: Yeah, the Board would like to have training in matters of—well, training orientation— MR. YOSHIMOTO: To receive presentations on training provided by the department. MS. BOND: Yeah, that’s (inaudible). MR. THOMAS: (Inaudible) of the Board’s choosing—with that choice to be made for—at one meeting for—to—in order to have it happen at the next meeting. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Good. That make sense? No. CHR. CABANAS: I’m sorry, but I’m confused because I feel that it’s not really clear. I hear what you’re saying that, yes, you—the Board will express their interest collectively on what the next training or orientation will be at the next meeting. But, specifically, for this time, for the next Page 17 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 meeting, your—our interest is on the training that’s conducted by the Department of HR. Correct? MR. THOMAS: Yeah, I think— MS. BOND: For the next—yeah. CHR. CABANAS: For the next meeting. MS. BOND: In general, what we’re looking for is orientations on what they do. CHR. CABANAS: Right. So, it’s the different eight functional areas—so, I heard Mr. Thomas say that his interest is on training that’s conducted—not only by the department, but by the County. And so, then, Sommer expressed or relayed that the department does certain training—and there’s other training—external—or training by other departments as well. So, that’s your interest, right? MR. THOMAS: Yeah, I wonder if it’s two motions in there. One is a motion to set up the fact that an agenda item reserved— CHR. CABANAS: Okay. MS. BOND: Yeah. MR. THOMAS: —and then the subsequent motion might be—okay, how do we kick this off and what would we like to have for the next meeting. MS. BOND: I don’t know if that needs to be a motion as much as a request. CHR. CABANAS: No, it should be a motion, but I think we need to help our Director, we need to express collectively what our interest is in terms of training. You want—we want a presentation conducted by staff of DHR on training provided by the County. MS. TOKIHIRO: And I’ll just clarify a little bit to say that the only area that really falls under DHR is what is provided by our Personnel and Organizational Development Division. So, when you raised the question earlier about engineering training, I’m not aware of any engineering training and if there was engineering training that a department identified that they needed, that is such a specific subject matter that the department would likely be going to an external resource. So, I think I just need to clarify that for purposes of providing the orientation and the information, I can have our division heads provide you with an orientation to what they do. But as far as answering specific questions about what may occur outside of our department, I’ll do my best to answer or try and get the information, but we don’t—we’re providing training that is general and broad for the entire County and all of our employees—not specific discipline training. MR. THOMAS: So, are you saying that if a department wants to do a particular kind of training, they don’t bring it to HR for approval? Page 18 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MS. TOKIHIRO: Not necessarily—no. MR. THOMAS: They just do it on their own. MS. TOKIHIRO: They may. It depends on what it is. So, if it’s something that we—they feel like we may be able to assist with—so, for example, the customer service training for our Building Permit Clerks—that—we do customer service training in other venues—and so, that was an area where, yes, we can develop a training for that. If you’re talking about training specific to engineers— MR. THOMAS: What about specifi—what about safety? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes— MR. THOMAS: (Inaudible) automobile safety vehic—County vehicle safety program. MS. TOKIHIRO: Our Health and Safety Division does that. So, under the Health and Safety Division is all of our safety training. MR. THOMAS: So, we could—could you picture that we would ask for a briefing on how safety training is done? MS. TOKIHIRO: You can. You can ask for—I mean, I can even provide a list of all of the different training topics that the Health and Safety Division offers. Each one is administered a little differently—so, like, defensive driving is going to be different than, say, bloodborne pathogens, CPR/first aid, et cetera. So, there is going to be quite a bit of variability in—within their training area, like, how those are administered. MR. THOMAS: There’s a whole other topic there. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. MR. THOMAS: Safety, food safety, vehicle safety, so on and so forth. CHR. CABANAS: Yes. So, Sommer mentioned that Personnel Organizational Development does training—general Countywide training. But each functional area, like the ADA— MR. THOMAS: Mm-hmm. CHR. CABANAS: —Recruitment, Classification, Health and Safety—they do their own specialized training. Like, Recruitment would do interview training— MR. THOMAS: Okay. CHR. CABANAS: ADA— MR. THOMAS: That’s another good topic—yeah. CHR. CABANAS: —ADA would do harassment—violence in the workplace training. Page 19 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MR. THOMAS: Mm-hmm. CHR. CABANAS: Classification might do some other specialized training, maybe on positions descriptions, writing them up. So, they do their internal. Then we have what, 20—how many departments now—23? MS. TOKIHIRO: Twenty-three. CHR. CABANAS: Twenty-three departments and they, in turn, may send their staff for specialized training, like Fire sends their people to Maryland for training, Police sends their officers for training on—all kinds of stuff— MR. THOMAS: So, Sommer’s in the best position to know what these different departments heads do and how those decisions get made— CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, she has a general idea— MR. THOMAS: —and we would like to know more about it. CHR. CABANAS: Right, right. MR. THOMAS: For instance, you’ve got nationwide in states other than Hawaiʻi—they’re all over the place—this huge food safety issue involving lettuce and Jack-in-the-Box or somewhere. It sounds like maybe those safety training activities didn’t pick up on it soon enough and now it’s a big problem. That’s why I think the whole question of training is really something we would love to hear about because we have different perspectives than the people in trenches do. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. So, in that sense, your request is quite broad because there are training aspects in each of the eight different areas of HR. So, definitely happy to have—if you want to—if the Board would like an orientation to the training that each of these divisions provides, we can do that. If you’d like a general orientation to what the functional area of the division is and then you want to ask questions about training—I’ll leave that to the Board to decide, but there is actually a lot of training that we provide internally in all these different areas. I will note that—I mean, just specific to food safety—we wouldn’t do that as much because we’re not handling/producing food usually, in our— MR. THOMAS: I think we have food inspectors, right? MS. TOKIHIRO: No, that’s the State. MS. BOND: It’s not County—that’s— CHR. CABANAS: It’s a State function. MR. THOMAS: Oh, that’s the State—see there’s my ignorance when it comes (inaudible). CHR. CABANAS: It will come under Department of Health— Page 20 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MR. THOMAS: Okay. CHR. CABANAS: —it’s a regulatory matter— MR. THOMAS: Okay. CHR. CABANAS: —which is not—the County has responsibilities for different types of regulatory areas, but food safety is not. Now, if they wanted to do a training session just to help the employees on what’s going on nationwide with that Ciclo— MS. BOND: Yeah, that Cyclosporiasis— CHR. CABANAS: Yes, right, yeah. MS. BOND: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Then, they could a general education matter training. But—yeah, that’s more a State function. MR. THOMAS: Well, there’s another example of I don’t know this stuff so— CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, right. MR. THOMAS: —I would like to. So, yeah. MS. BOND: So, in general, I think what we want is a general orientation from the department, right. And then, yeah, we can ask specific—and if we want to get deeper into the weeds and ask them to come in and do the next week—story I heard on the way in—they’re trying to eliminate bike lane—bike lanes in cities. And I was like—anyway. Once again, pick on the poor guy that can’t even afford a car. So, anyway—so, then we could ask for that. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. I think probably— MS. BOND: Yeah, I think that that’s generally what we want, right? CHR. CABANAS: Yes. MS. BOND: Is that we want a general orientation from the group—more in the woods than, “Hi, I’m Jamie, and I do this”—and then we can ask questions and figure out where we want to go from that—or maybe that is enough for that division, and we can move on. MR. THOMAS: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. MS. BOND: Okay. Does that make sense everybody? So, should we vote on that motion? Page 21 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: Yes, let’s vote. MR. YOSHIMOTO: What is the motion? MS. BOND: So, I think that the motion is that we have—we ask the Department to give us an— once—at each meeting they give us a—somebody gives us a breakdown of different divisions and—so that we can become more informed on what exactly those are in the department. MR. THOMAS: Yeah, call it a “briefing.” MS. BOND: A briefing—briefing’s good. CHR. CABANAS: A briefing—but, Mr. Thomas has identified a need or expressed a need for more information on the training that’s conducted by Department of Human Resources. MS. BOND: Yes, but that’s a specific subject. But we’re just trying to just get is the—so the motion is that we want to get briefings from different—the different departments at each of the next—at subsequent meetings. MR. THOMAS: On topics that the Board chooses. MS. BOND: Yeah. MR. THOMAS: Or requests. CHR. CABANAS: Not “departments”—you want the “divisions”— MS. BOND: Divisions—sorry. MR. THOMAS: Divisions. CHR. CABANAS: ‘Cause if you say “departments” we have 23 departments. MS. BOND: Sorry, sorry, divisions. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. Okay. MS. BOND: Okay. That’s—okay—so that’s been moved. I did that. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. MR. THOMAS: Oh, second. Okay. CHR. CABANAS: Second. Okay. And any discussion? If not, I’ll start a rollcall vote with Ms. Bond. MS. BOND: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. Page 22 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MR. THOMAS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Motion carried. MS. BOND: Okay, so now, he is—expressed an interest in the training. CHR. CABANAS: The training. MS. BOND: So— CHR. CABANAS: So, is there a motion for that? MS. BOND: So, for the next meeting that what we want—we are requesting from the division— the P—whatever— CHR. CABANAS: Personnel— MR. THOMAS: Personnel— CHR. CABANAS: —and Organizational Development— MR. THOMAS: The Personnel and Organizational Development. MS. BOND: The POD group that they give us an overview of what the training—different trainings that they offer. How’s that? CHR. CABANAS: Good. MR. THOMAS: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Is there a second? MR. THOMAS: Second. CHR. CABANAS: Any discussion? If not, I’ll start a rollcall vote with Ms. Bond. MS. BOND: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Motion carried. Okay, so we’ll have Personnel Organizational Development on the agenda for our August meeting. MR. THOMAS: I’m sorry it took so long to get there but— Page 23 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: No, no— MR. THOMAS: —I had to fumble all the way through it—or I did. CHR. CABANAS: That’s okay. All righty. So, let’s see—are there any questions to the Director for the Quarterly Report, April through June 2026? MR. THOMAS: That was my only question. MS. BOND: No. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. If not, may I have a motion to accept and file the Quarterly Report for April through June 2026. MR. THOMAS: So moved. MS. BOND: I second. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. Any discussion? If not, I’ll start a rollcall vote with Ms. Bond. MS. BOND: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms.—Mr. Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Three ayes. Motion carried. B. MAB Monthly Divisional Activity Report: July 2026 (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: Okay, we are now on the MAB Monthly Divisional Activity Report for the month of July 2026. MR. THOMAS: What we just approved was the Quarterly Report? CHR. CABANAS: Yes. MS. BOND: Yeah. MR. THOMAS: Okay. CHR. CABANAS: Now we’re on the July report. MR. THOMAS: The blue tab—yeah. Page 24 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MS. BOND: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, the blue tab. MR. THOMAS: Okay, thank you. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, for July, the start of our fiscal year. Our Admin. Services Division has been busy processing mass pay increases based on our collective bargaining contracts. So, processing those wage increases. And then— MR. THOMAS: What is “mass pay,” anyway? MS. TOKIHIRO: So, mass pay is each of our—most of our 3,000-plus employees are part of a specific bargaining unit. MR. THOMAS: Mm-hmm. MS. TOKIHIRO: And so, on July 1 of every year—usually, each contract calls for some kind of compensation adjustment. MR. THOMAS: Okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: And so, they are making or assisting departments to make those compensation adjustments based on the collective bargaining agreement for each—that each employee is part of. MR. THOMAS: And it all gets recorded into this new software that I can’t even pronounce? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. So, it all gets entered into CoHnect. It’s all documented on Form 13s, which is the documentation that we send to the employee retirement system, so that they’re aware of any changes—personnel changes. And there’s different requirements—it’s not just a matter of hitting a button and changing someone’s salary. We need to make sure that if someone was, for example, on a new probation or in an initial probation, and for some reason they hadn’t had their performance review and they hadn’t been converted from probation to permanent—those processes— MR. THOMAS: Necessary steps, huh. MS. TOKIHIRO: —need to happen first. So, when we’re going through an auditing for mass pay—and mass pay is basically just the mass pay adjustment of all of these employees that occurs on July 1. We’re also auditing all of the personnel transactions for each employee to make sure that there’s nothing missing. MR. THOMAS: And that’s all in Classification and Pay? MS. TOKIHIRO: That’s all in our Admin. Services Division. MR. THOMAS: Admin. Services Division. Page 25 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. MR. THOMAS: And considering how much they have to do—how much lead time does there have to be when that—when the contracts are—labor contracts are agreed? MS. TOKIHIRO: So, we— th MR. THOMAS: They can’t agree on June 18 or something. MS. TOKIHIRO: No. Well, in some cases, depending on how the negotiation process goes, we do start the collective bargaining negotiation process a year in advance of the expiration of any given contract. All of the contracts that we currently have in place are four-year contracts. So, once they have a new agreement—at least they know what happens for the next four years, which makes it easier to plan, say, for—like next July 1. We did have several bargaining units during this last round where we were not able to resolve it prior to July 1. And so, then once the contract was finalized or the arbitration award was issued, there’re instances where it would be retro-active—and that’s a whole different challenge. MR. THOMAS: (Inaudible) but it’s not necessarily within the purview of our Board—do we need to know as much about that? MS. BOND: The State’s fiscal the same as the County or is State September—October to September? CHR. CABANAS: No. MS. TOKIHIRO: We’re all the same—July to June 30. MS. BOND: Okay. Just checking. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, the component of HR that addresses collective bargaining is our Labor Relations Division. MR. THOMAS: Okay. Why, I could picture a briefing on Labor Relations and how they accommodate all of this technical stuff that has to happen to make it—make sure everybody gets the right paycheck at the right time. MS. BOND: (Inaudible.) MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah, and there’s all kinds of different things that happen in Labor Relations. I mean, that’s everything from dealing with the day-to-day where employees may be filing grievances, we regularly are communicating with the Union whether or not there’s a grievance about—and because the—we need to maintain harmonious relations with all of the Unions, and we have several, right—there’s the Police Officer’s Union, the Fire Fighter’s Union, our United Public Workers, and then the Hawaiʻi Government Employee’s Association—HGEA. Page 26 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 So, we have the four different Unions, and I believe it’s nine different bargaining units. MR. THOMAS: Mm-hmm. MS. TOKIHIRO: And then, in addition to that we have employees that are excluded from membership from the Union, but they still follow a collective bargaining unit contract for purposes of compensation adjustments and things like that. So, a lot of different components to maintenance of good labor relations. MR. THOMAS: So, you’re seeing how little most of us—or people like me, know about this sort of thing, like—within the Labor Relations Division is there peaks, and ebbs, and flows of work— and how do you plan on having an adequate staff to step up and make things happen when there’s a lot happening; and under low points when there’s not all that much going on—and then so, what do you do with those people who are otherwise not as busy as they’d might like to be. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, currently, the division is—has two staff members and really the—from a labor relations perspective when it comes to grievances—there’re steps in the grievance process and it has to follow the contract. But the first step is with the department. The second step would actually be with the Mayor, but the Mayor has delegated the responsibility for those grievances at Step 2, to me. And so, ultimately, that’s my responsibility. I then delegate it to a manager, but there’re instances where the Union is specific—they’re requesting that I address the grievance. And so, it’s a division of two—with me and then Danny, the Deputy, as additional people. So, there are definitely times that are busier—collective bargaining is one; arbitration is another; and then just depending on, kind of, the overall pulse of what’s happening in departments, we can be busier with grievances or general questions from the Union. I think the staffing is adequate—but, yes, there’re definitely are peaks and valleys—and because there are things that are out of our control, it makes it very difficult to anticipate at times when you might be busier or slower. So, we do our best. We do work with the Union, we have timeframes in which we need to respond to all grievances, hold grievance meetings, provide the decisions. And we have a good relationship with the Unions—so, if necessary, we request extensions—if we need more time to evaluate the information. MR. THOMAS: I’m conscious of how much time I’m taking up with all of this, so slow me down if we have other pressing matters coming up. CHR. CABANAS: Well, we do have other items on the agenda, but no—if you have a question. So— MS. TOKIHIRO: But that can be—that’ll be a presentation for a future meeting. MR. THOMAS: Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: And I think that that maybe, as we kind of look at—kind of a flow to it—I think I would tend to go with Personnel and Organizational Development, and then get into the ADA/EO, and we can do Labor Relations, and then go from there. Page 27 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MR. THOMAS: Yeah, I’m done for now. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. Sounds good. Okay. MS. BOND: So, another question on this—I know—and I know it’s the “refresh” thing—that’s the program? It says, “Closed Refresh Initiative.” MS. TOKIHIRO: Oh, okay. So, in Recruitment— MS. BOND: Sorry, yeah—context— MS. TOKIHIRO: No, no— MS. BOND: You have to know where my head is. MS. TOKIHIRO: That’s okay, that’s okay—I caught up. The—in the Recruitment Division, they’ve kind of developed their own what they’re calling “Refresh Initiative.” When we don’t have five or more qualified applicants for a particular position after recruitment closes, we have been converting that recruitment to what we call “continuous recruitments”—so, it remains open for us to accept additional applications until we receive at least five qualified applicants that we can refer to a department. But over time, those continuous recruitments, they’re just there. They’re not getting interest, we’re not getting applications, and there—it just kind of becomes dull. And so, even when I go and look at the website, if I’m looking at our job posting and it says, “continuous”—and it will say how many days it’s been open or when it’s going to close. So, if it’s on an initial recruitment, it’s only open for a ten-day period, it will tell you when that recruitment is going to close. But if it’s open on continuous recruitment it’ll show, “Open for more than 360 days, open for greater than six months”—so even when I look at that, I’m like any applicant that would look at our website and see that, is going to go, “Are they even serious about filling this position because why is it just open all this time.” MS. BOND: Yeah, it’s been there for a year. Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: And through, kind of, tracking our statistics we see that when a position initially opens, that’s when we get the greatest number of applications. And then, there’s a low—and then right before it closes—at the end of that ten-day period—we’ll get a spike in applications. After that, we don’t see a whole lot of activity. So, this Refresh Initiative is us working with departments to let them know, “Hey, we’re going to close this. If you want to re-open it for recruitment, that’s fine. We’ll work with you to do that”— but what that does is it refreshes it in the system, so it’ll now show “recruitment closes in ten days,” we may get interest. Also, on our website, if someone has completed a “Job Interest Card”—because they have the opportunity to put in their email address and then complete a Job Interest Card that has, like, 90 different categories of interest. And if they check all of these areas of interest to them, when we Page 28 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 do a new job posting that matches one of those interest areas, they’re going to get notified by email that, “Hey, the County has this opening, check it out.” So, once we close a recruitment and then re-open it, that’s going to trigger those Job Interest Cards to be sent out again. And so, our hope is that we’ll be generating new interest in a position rather than just having it stagnant on the website. MS. BOND: Okay, that makes total sense. MR. THOMAS: Exactly. CHR. CABANAS: So, all these positions “Closed Refresh Initiative”—you’re in discussion with the departments. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: So, let’s say “Account Clerk”—do you really need an Account Clerk? What are you doing during this whole period that this position is vacant? So, if they say they really need it, what’s the time that you re-open it? MS. TOKIHIRO: So, because they would have to submit a new RTF— CHR. CABANAS: Oh, okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: —so they have to— CHR. CABANAS: Oh, okay, a new RTF. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, they would do a new RTF, which does need to get approved by the Managing Director, we do have to schedule it to correspond with when we publish the notice in the newspaper that the position is going to open, and then we open all of our new job recruitments on Sundays. So, timing-wise, it can take a few weeks. MR. THOMAS: “RTF” is “Request to Fill?” MS. TOKIHIRO: “Request to Fill”—yeah. It’s a form that, basically, the department is telling us why they’re filling, what is the method of filling— CHR. CABANAS: Is it shown that this is the second request now for this Account Clerk position, for instance? MS. TOKIHIRO: That’s all tracked in NeoGov. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. Page 29 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: Okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: And so, they can see that. But then, part of the initiative is if someone is coming back and going, “No, we want to recruit for the exact same thing”—the discussion is going be, as you were mentioning, “Okay, well, for this period you haven’t been able to fill it at this level. What are the other options.” So, that’s when we talk about reallocating down for recruitment. And so, maybe instead of being “Account Clerk” you would recruit at “Office Assistant III” or maybe you want to recruit at multiple levels. So, it would be Office—the Account Clerk, which is the permanent class but then also Office Assistant III, Office Assistant II—so then, based on the applications that you receive you can see, “Okay, maybe someone doesn’t qualify at Account Clerk. Maybe they only have this certain amount of experience, but with training and experience that we can provide through the County, they could then be reallocated up to the permanent class.” So, it’s—the discussion with the department is kind of a multi-focal approach, right—giving them the information about how long the recruitment has been open, letting them know what their options are, recommendations that we might have—and then, also, those very, like real discussions about, “Yes, does this capture the duties that you need this person to perform or should we be looking at something else.” So. CHR. CABANAS: Even if you have, let’s say, two applicants—are they being referred or are you waiting for a full five? MS. TOKIHIRO: No, we refer as we receive. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, good. MS .TOKIHIRO: But then, a lot of times departments—if we’re referring, like, one name, they’ll say, “Well, we don’t want to go through the whole—all of the energy of the interview process just for one person”—so, a lot of times they’ll wait until we’ve referred more names—but we’re referring them in real time, as soon as we get them. And we’re encouraging departments to move on them—like, that may be such a great candidate, you don’t want to lose them. So, yeah, it’s an ongoing— MR. THOMAS: You snooze; you lose. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah, it is. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MR. THOMAS: It sounds a little like the strategy for selling tickets to a theater show—you’ve got the seasonal only subscribers and then you have the general public gets to pick tickets— and then when tickets slow—offer it two for one deal. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, other questions for our Director? If not— MS. BOND: I move we— Page 30 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: Okay. MS. BOND: —accept the July 2026 report from the Director. MR. THOMAS: Second. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, any discussion? If not, I’ll start a rollcall vote with Ms. Bond. MS. BOND: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Motion carried. Communications (Item 6) CHR. CABANAS: Okay, going back to our agenda. There are no “Communications.” New Business (Item 7) FY 2026-2027 Annual Performance Evaluation Of The Director Of Human Resources (HR): Presentation By The Director Of Human Resources, Sommer J. Tokihiro, Concerning The Department’s Goals And Objectives For FY 2026-2027; Proposed Timeline To Distribute Surveys And Deadline For Responses; SurveyMonkey Questions For FY 2026-2027 (Line Department Survey); SurveyMonkey Questions For FY 2026-2027 (Employee Survey); Merit Appeals Board’s Evaluation Tool For The Director Of HR For FY 2026-2027; Define Target Audience/Survey Participants (Executive Session: The Merit Appeals Board Anticipates Convening One Or More Executive Meetings Regarding The Above Matter, Pursuant To HRS Sections 92-4, 92-5(a)(2) And 92-5(a)(4), For The Purpose Of Evaluating An Officer Or Employee Of The County Of Hawai'i, Where The Consideration Of Matters Affecting Privacy Will Be Involved And 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 “New Business.” For the Fiscal Year 2026 to 2027 the Annual Performance—oh, wait a minute, did I miss something? Oh, no—yeah, I’m good. It’s Fiscal Year 2026 to 2027, the Annual Performance Evaluation of the Director of Human Resources. Page 31 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 FY 2026-2027 Annual Performance Evaluation Of The Director Of Human Resources (HR): Presentation By The Director Of Human Resources, Sommer J. Tokihiro, Concerning The Department’s Goals And Objectives For FY 2026-2027 CHR. CABANAS: Topping it off, let’s start with the presentation by the Director of Human Resources, Sommer J. Tokihiro, concerning the department’s goals and objectives for fiscal year 2026 to 2027. And then, we’ll go into the other items later. Okay, Sommer— MS. TOKIHIRO: Okay. CHR. CABANAS: —all yours. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, Glynis provided you folks with a copy of the evaluation worksheet, which includes the goals— MS. BOND: This one? MS. TOKIHIRO: —that’s the one, yeah, that’s the goldenrod paper that we’re going to use today (SEE ATT. A). MS. BOND: Go goldenrod. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. So, I’m really excited to have another opportunity to present goals on behalf of the department. So, I’m just going to start with Goal number 1. And Goal number 1 is, kind of a continuation of one of the goals from last year, so—“Now that the searchable database has been completed summarizing the qualification requirements for the 759 classes of work in the County of Hawaiʻi compensation plan, working in collaboration with departments DHR will begin the internal review of class specifications that have not been amended prior to” the year “2000 as its next step toward the goal of ensuring all class specifications are current, reviewed on a regular timeframe, and accurately reflect the scope of work.” So, our goal is to bring all class specs.—the review date would be nothing prior to the year 2000. And recognizing that the year 2000 was 26 years ago, we have like 750 classes of work, so we need to do this in phases. We’re going to work through them as quickly as we can, but it is a joint effort between HR and the departments—and, oftentimes, it’s going to be more than one department involved. And so, the process is kind of what I showed you during the presentation of my prior years’ goals where we’re going to do an initial review and make suggestions for revisions, which we do with track changes on. And then we provide what we call our “redline version” to the department for review, and then they may make additional changes; and then it’ll come back to Classification and Pay for review of whether or not those changes are appropriate. And once we agree on that class spec., those changes—it still then has to route through all of the other jurisdictions in the State for review before we adopt it. So, from what I understand, the 2000—up to the year 2000, we’re looking at approximately 70 to 75 classes of work; but, in that, we also need to be aware of career ladders. So, some of Page 32 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 these positions that we’re evaluating in this first group of 70 to 75 haven’t been amended since the 1960’s—and you folks heard this during MAB appeals, right? So, it’s going back to the sixties, seventies, eighties—and so, you may have a position—we’ll say, “Land Surveyor I”—that hasn’t been amended prior—that hasn’t been amended since 1970, but then we may also have Land Surveyor II, Land Surveyor III, Land Surveyor IV—that were all amended at different dates. What the Classification and Pay Division is going to do is, even if not all four or five of those classes fall in this prior to 2000 group, we’re going to be amending them all at the same time. And it’s for consistency, to make sure that the language matches, to also make sure that the minimum qualification requirements match and progress in a manner that makes sense. And we are looking at also ensuring standardized language for things like when a driver’s license is required, defining what the supervisory tasks are—actual supervision. So, we’re approaching or looking at a lot of different things when we’re amending these class specs.— very comprehensive. CHR. CABANAS: I have a question. I’m glad you mentioned the supervision because that was— MS. BOND: That was the trigger. CHR. CABANAS: —brought up in one of the recent appeals— MS. BOND: Right. CHR. CABANAS: So, there’s “technical supervision” and there’s—trying to recall—was it “technical” and “direct” or— MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: So, are they going to define that on the class specs.— MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: —so it will help—okay—the recruitment side—okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. Because I think we—well, we also need to do—I think it’s still a work-in- progress, I’m working with Classification and Pay on that. I think the fact that we use supervision as kind of a clarifying word in both of those instances makes it extra confusing— MS. BOND: Right. Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: —and difficult to distinguish. And so, I think that direction of a work task is different than employee supervision, which includes performance management—and a variety of things. And so, it’s about distinguishing the language. Page 33 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: Because there was a definition when I worked—and I raised the question with the Classifier back then. So, to help our screening staff, she had checked with the State, and we came up with a definition of “supervision,” and we put it on some of the job postings so that it would help not only the applicant, but it would help the person reviewing the applications. So, I don’t know if they found that in the files or the postings, but it is there—and that’s what we used to accept someone’s application. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. And it’s really—I mean, there were a lot of things brought up in that hearing, right, the—and that’s where we’ll get to Goal number 2 as far as updating the Position Descriptions—and that was Mr. Ravey’s appeal. MR. THOMAS: Mm-hmm. Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: Mr. Ravey pointed it out that on the supervisory section of his Position Description, it listed “may supervise Helpers”—et cetera. And then, there’s that qualifying statement that it has to coincide with the Org. Chart, and then the issue of we’re approving Org. Charts every two years but not Position Descriptions. And so, there’s a whole lot of things that need to get clarified and in this process it is—there is going to be a lot of education for the departments. We’re actually—the Classification and Pay Division is going to be meeting with every department to talk about this process that we’re going to go through because it is a process where we need them to engage as well and understand why we’re doing it, and then be able to answer their questions, and then also raise concerns that they have. CHR. CABANAS: So, we’ve had appeals in the past. I had one big one where this person was—she said she was supervising the men on a construction site, but she was not “supervising.” She was actually there to make sure, in general, that they were doing their work, but she wasn’t supervising them. It was a whole drawn out appeal. And so, the question is—is the department going to accept supervision that is just— MS. BOND: More an overseer. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. Oversight—because we did not. I mean, there’s appeals—we did not accept that type of experience, and there is a few other cases that we had. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, the answer is, “No, we don’t.” CHR. CABANAS: You’re not going to, right? MS .TOKIHIRO: No. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, good. MS. TOKIHIRO: And that’s part of distinguishing it, is to—it’s so that people understand what the difference is, right. CHR. CABANAS: Yes. Page 34 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MS. TOKIHIRO: And so—and that’s where we’re working on the language. So—yes, going back and looking at all the historical information that we can find to help clarify that—but that’s part of the distinction is that “No, we’re not accepting that oversight as supervisory experience”—but it’s not—I don’t want it to be something that only we understand why. I want it to be clear— CHR. CABANAS: Yes. MS. TOKIHIRO: —for applicants who are reading our job postings, I want it to be clear for departments, I want it to be clear for anybody who’s reviewing a job posting, a class spec., et cetera—like, this is the experience that is required and either I have it, or I don’t. MR. THOMAS: Are we going to come out of this thing with global definitions of supervisory experience? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. MR. THOMAS: It can be, so— CHR. CABANAS: That’s what she’s saying. MR. THOMAS: ‘Cause that’s what we’re running into with these cases. CHR. CABANAS: Because that becomes the problem. We’re reviewing applications and people say, oh, all kinds of things—but are they really supervising an employee? And so— MR. THOMAS: Where were these global definitions appear? MS. TOKIHIRO: Well, they’ll appear as part of the examples of duties and part of the duties of the position. MS. BOND: On the website. CHR. CABANAS: And, actually, it should be defined on the class spec., it should be defined on the job posting—and that way the department can defend themselves when they reject an application. MR. THOMAS: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: And explain to the applicant that, “Hey, based on what you’ve said here, you do not meet this requirement”—so that global definition is so important. The other thing I wanted to say is our previous Classifier—our Manager there—she had also defined “supervisory aptitude” because some of the classes of work require supervisory aptitude and not supervisory experience— MR. THOMAS: Did you say “aptitude?” CHR. CABANAS: —exactly. Page 35 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MR. THOMAS: And what is that? CHR. CABANAS: It’s a number of examples where they’re the lead person or they’re training the person, so they have the aptitude but not necessarily the experience. Yeah. So, that becomes important and that’s where others can qualify for that certain position. MR. THOMAS: So, we’re trying to move away from descriptions that say, “Must have so many years of supervisory experience”—where what kind of work do they actually do? CHR. CABANAS: Well, no, they may say that—but then have a note below, “Supervisory experience means this…”—“Supervisory aptitude means this…”— MR. THOMAS: Okay. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: And so, the job posting—the information in the job posting comes directly from the class spec.—so defining it in the class spec. will meet both of those criteria because it will define in the class spec., which will appear in the job posting. And then, taking it a step further is the Position Description for the position specific to the role in a specific department that will provide the greater detail about what that supervisory responsibility is— MR. THOMAS: (Inaudible.) MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. MR. THOMAS: What other words can be used besides “supervisory”—“oversight”— MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah, oversight—when it comes to, like, technical supervision, which is more the oversight—it’s directing the work. It’s directing the task to get a work task done. To me, that’s where I don’t feel like supervisor should be part of that. I feel like it should be oversight. MR. THOMAS: Where does it come in, and you can direct the work, and then do you also evaluate how well the work was done? MS. TOKIHIRO: No. MR. THOMAS: Or is that a whole separate activity? MS. TOKIHIRO: That’s a separate—that’s performance management, right. So—and that’s part of the distinguishing traits of what constitutes a supervisor is—who is doing their performance review, who is responsible for determining, like, approval of leave request, who’s responsible for ongoing coaching and performance management, and establishing goals, and addressing any areas where improvement is needed on Annual Performance Reviews. So, someone who’s directing a work task, may have anecdotal feedback for a supervisor that, say, they could provide back to the supervisor and go, “Hey, this guy was on the job and he did Page 36 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 this, this, and that—and it really could have been a problem”—that’s information that the individual providing the oversight could provide to the supervisor for some type of action, but the person who’s actually overseeing that job, would not then be part of doing any kind of— MR. THOMAS: Evaluation. Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. So, kind of really—and that’s where I—we did—there were definitions that Jamie put out of technical supervision and direct supervision—that was based on language that the State had, but I’ve indicated to C&P that I feel that it should be—we should be using different words— MS. BOND: Words, yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: —to help further distinguish it. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, ‘cause it’s going to confuse the applicant and it’s going to create a lot of problems when they start screening the applications and then explaining to the applicant why they may not meet the— MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: —requirements. MS. TOKIHIRO: Because then, why, if we call both “supervisory” then why wouldn’t someone qualify, right? CHR. CABANAS: Exactly. MS. TOKIHIRO: And so, then it becomes—and then, I’m like, talking to my team and going, “Okay, I get it, ‘cause you know how you’re screening this, but try explaining it out loud ‘cause it doesn’t make any sense.” MS. BOND: Well, it’s like you’re trying to explain to me why my 14-15 years of volunteer experience doesn’t amount to—what was it—eight hours or something? CHR. CABANAS: We pro-rated it and it didn’t total out to the required minimum. MS. BOND: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: And so, I had to explain to— MS. BOND: And it was, like, okay, I sort of get it—but it doesn’t really make sense ‘cause what I am doing is this job— MS. TOKIHIRO: Right. MS. BOND: —but because it’s volunteer, all of a sudden it’s not worth anything and— CHR. CABANAS: Well, no. It’s not that it’s not worth it. It’s the amount of time you spent— Page 37 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MS. BOND: Yeah— CHR. CABANAS: It’s two hours a week, I have to pro-rate it to make it equivalent to a 40-hour work week— MS. BOND: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: And if she did it for a year, it’s not a full year at two hours a week. MS. BOND: So— MS. TOKIHIRO: So, there are plenty of those kinds of things where it’s like—it’s sort of, in the alternate universe— MS. BOND: Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: —which would be the private sector. It’s different than how we interpret and apply and whatever in the public sector and the rules that we have to follow—the goal is to try and make it as clear as possible using simple language so that it becomes clearer—so that it doesn’t seem like as much a mystery and causes less confusion. MS. BOND: And even funnier, when I got hired as the—a consultant for the Makani Pahili exercise I did in 2014, I was hired by a company in Washington, DC. They saw that I produced and direct shows—and they went, “Oh, she can do this.” They didn’t come down to how many hours has she done this or anything—the fact that she does this, that makes it a valuable tool. And so, that was, sort of, like—that’s when it made it so funny that I couldn’t qualify. I couldn’t even get 19 hours—whatever it was—after 15 years of volunteering and doing this job, and it was— CHR. CABANAS: And that’s why I say to the departments—what I said to the departments, when it was like, “Okay, you need five years of experience in this…what’s magical about five years?” Right? MS. BOND: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: What’s the magic? What’s the difference between you doing it for two years versus five? Yeah? MS. TOKIHIRO: And that led to—so, recently, we’re going through the process of evaluating Office Assistant. So, we just re-titled from Clerk I, II, III—to Office Assistant; and then now we’re looking at, “Okay, yeah, what’s magical about three years of administrative experience. Can it be accomplished with two years administrative experience?” CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. MS. TOKIHIRO: —I mean, because most of the things that are happening for someone who comes into the County as an Office Assistant, we’re training you to do that because it’s specific to our operation— MS. BOND: Right, right. Page 38 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MS. TOKIHIRO: —and our processes, whatever. So, we are going through and lowering those MQ’s because—yes, what’s magical? Let’s do what makes sense. Let’s find—remove some of these barriers. MS. BOND: Yeah, that’s so arbitrary. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. And it just—yeah, because then if you can do it, you’ve shown you’ve demonstrated—then maybe the language for the minimum requirements needs to be changed. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: I mean, we’re dealing with— MS. BOND: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: —verbiage that has been established way back, way back. MS. BOND: Yeah. And which is why this updating all of this stuff is a really good idea. CHR. CABANAS: It’s important. MS. BOND: And it’s something that definitely needs to be—I mean, reading all of this, it’s like, yep, that’s a good goal. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. MS. BOND: Good luck with that. MS. TOKIHIRO: And then, I know—I’d like to—I mean, I want to come to the Board with something new every year— MS. BOND: Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: —but it’s so important for the County that this work get completed, that it’s—I mean, it’s going to get completed no matter what, but the best way for me to be able to highlight how intensive this is, is to make it a goal. CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. MS. BOND: Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: And so—and we want to continue keep moving forward. CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. It’s a good goal. MS. BOND: Yeah, it’s a good one. CHR. CABANAS: It’s an important goal. It’s significant in so many ways, so many ways. Page 39 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MS. BOND: Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: Okay. So, moving on to Goal number 2, ‘cause we don’t want to just have one goal, right? So, Goal number 2—and, again, this is borne out of feedback and experience that we had during last year with MAB appeals and just in my evaluation of information to—now we’re going to “Develop a searchable database and compile all position descriptions for positions in the County of Hawaiʻi. After the database is completed, working in collaboration with departments, DHR will initiate a review of position descriptions that have not recently been reviewed or redescribed, prioritized as follows: (1) those that have not been amended prior to the year 2000…” then proceeding to “…(2) those that have not been amended from 2000-2010, and (3) those that have not been amended from 2010-2020. This will help ensure position descriptions are current and accurately reflect the class of work and department-specific duties of each position.” So, we already have in place a process. When someone—when a department comes in with a Request to Fill, they have to attach a copy of the Position Description for the position that they’re recruiting for—and it needs to be on our updated form, which was the form that we created in 2016. So, in the process of putting it on this updated form from ten years ago, they’re supposed to be reviewing it in detail, making sure that it’s accurate, making sure that the language is good— they’re supposed to be doing a comprehensive review. The reality is—I don’t know that they actually are. They’re reviewing it, putting it on the form— but we’re not—well, up until this point, we would look at the review—I mean, we’d look at the redescription and if there weren’t significant changes, it would just get approved. And so—and that’s kind of been the practice up to this point. And I want that to change where it’s actually a substantive review on a regular basis, to make sure that the language is accurate, to make sure that the duties that they’re putting in this Position Description actually coincide with the class of work—so we should be looking at the two together. And I’ll tell you that the staff has started on both of these projects and it’s not surprising to me, but it is definitely concerning the things that they’ve already brought to me where there’s inconsistencies, inaccuracies—things that are not correct, things that are on the Position Description that are actually not consistent with the class of work. We even found an instance where there was a class of work that was assigned to an incorrect bargaining unit based on the duties. So—but a lot of these things, we’re not going to find them—until there’s a MAB appeal— MS. BOND: Right. MS. TOKIHIRO: Or until something comes up that draws our attention to it. So, this focused attention and systematic review is going to enable us to dedicate the time, and really focus, and give them the critical eye that they need. Page 40 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 Up until this point, this kind of thing has been department-driven—not driven by HR. HR has never—while we have all the Position Descriptions in our CoHnect system, we don’t maintain Position Descriptions because that’s the responsibility of the department. We create the class spec.—the department defines in the Position Description what they need that individual to do. So, with the almost 3,300 positions in the County, that’s not something that we have taken on, but it’s our responsibility to maintain the classification system—and the only way to make sure that that’s being done correctly is also doing the deep dive into these Position Descriptions as well. So, the review for these—we don’t have to get jurisdiction review and approval of our individual Position Descriptions, but it is going to be an intensive effort working with the department where we’re going to look at the Position Description that we have in our system—and then we’re going to go back to the department and say, “Is this the most current, just to verify?” And then, from that, review the Position Description and make changes, and exchange that information back and forth. MR. THOMAS: What’s “jurisdictional review?” MS. TOKIHIRO: So, because the—in our classification system we have to have equal pay for equal work across all government agencies in the State. So the jurisdiction review would be reviewed by Kauaʻi, Maui— MR. THOMAS: Oh, okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: —the State, City and County of Honolulu. So, we send all of our class specs. to each of those jurisdictions and get their feedback—ask them, “Do you have any concerns with the pricing for the class or…” MR. THOMAS: And you’re saying, on this goal, we don’t have to do that? MS. TOKIHIRO: We don’t have to do it for the specific Position Descriptions. MR. THOMAS: Okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: That’s in the purview of the department. So, but you have 759 classes of work, over 3,000 positions in the County—so, in a class of work you’re going to have possibly— well, I mean, you would have numerous positions in each of the departments. So, like Account Clerk, for example—very common class of work where you would have positions across almost all departments. MR. THOMAS: So, there’s 750 classes of work? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. MR. THOMAS: And then, with multiple positions within each class, you get 3,000— MS. TOKIHIRO: —three-hundred. Yeah. MR. THOMAS: Thirty-three hundred you said. Page 41 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah, I believe it’s 3,300. MR. THOMAS: Okay, good. Thanks. MS. TOKIHIRO: And so, there—so the duties will vary in the Position Descriptions because it’s going to be specific to the operation of a specific department—not where that position is housed; but the duties, generally, will all fall within the same parameter of that class. So you will have some variances as far as the duties that would be occurring in DEM versus Finance and then also different divisions—so you could have an Account Clerk who’s in Payroll or an Account Clerk who’s in Administration. So, it will vary, but it all will generally fall under that class. MR. THOMAS: Good. MS. BOND: So, it’s like a good one. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, very good. MS. TOKIHIRO: Okay. And, finally, we’re going to “Develop a County Career Explorations Program, which we’re going to call ʻImi Ka ʻIke, ʻImi Ka Hana, which means to seek knowledge and explore work. And this program will provide juniors and seniors with exposure to career opportunities throughout County government. So, DHR will administer and coordinate the Program and assign interns to participating departments. In partnership with local high schools, the ʻImi Ka ʻIke, ʻImi Ka Hana Program will allow students to earn income while gaining practical, hands-on work experience and developing professional skills while exploring potential career pathways in public service. For students who may not immediately pursue college or who are still deciding on a career direction, this Program will provide an opportunity to build workplace skills, establish professional connections, and gain confidence through meaningful employment experience. Through the program, training will also be provided in how to complete a NeoGov profile and submit a job application for a position with the County, as well as prepare for and complete job interviews.” So, I’ve been working pretty intensively with the Department of Research and Development, but also with Hawaiʻi Community College on trying to establish more internship programs. So—but the issue is always the funding. So, in the past, there was funding that was provided by the State Workforce Development Division—that funded an internship program that Hawaiʻi Community College had and—but then that funding has since gone away. MS. BOND: (Inaudible.) MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. And then, Research and Development runs our America’s Job Center—and so, they receive those Workforce Innovation Act funds from the federal government. So, there are some—and it’s called WIOA—there are some WIOA funds available, but there are specific criteria in order to be able to get those funds based on an individual participant. Page 42 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 And then, there’s programs like Alu Like—and we’ve been working with Alu Luke as well—and they have funding for some kind of internship opportunities, but their funding has been cut significantly—and even if not cut, their funding has not increased, so as the minimum wage has increased, their budget is restricted to how many people can actually participate, right. MR. THOMAS: Fewer people, yeah, that’s right. CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, within the County—last year, the year before—we developed the Professional Trainee and Professional Development Trainee. We have ten positions in HR and those are positions that provide professional experience opportunities for people who have either a two-year degree or a four-year degree that are trying to gain experience in a certain career path area. And we’ve defined 33 different career paths that departments can use for each of these programs, and all of those positions are fully utilized—and most of those positions are being utilized by current County employees that applied to the specific position to get training in a different area. So, for example, we had an employee in our Department of Parks and Recreation who was interested in information technology and went to a position at the Fire Department where they had a Professional Trainee position for an Information Systems Analyst position. And so, that’s Rule number One in the merit principle is creating careers in government service. And so, it’s our effort to provide these specific training opportunities to help people advance in their career. So, because HR is responsible for those ten positions, we do have to recruit for them through normal civil service procedures because they’re civil service positions—and that gives the person at the end of the program—then they’re able to apply as an internal applicant for vacancies, et cetera. So, the recruitment for all of those positions happens internally within the County first, and then, it goes to an open recruitment. But I was, kind of, becoming—it’s a little disheartening to want to try and develop these internship things and then run into the funding concerns. And it really has been also an area where the Administration, the Mayor, is also interested in creating more opportunities—and this is, kind of, that last bridge that we need to make between people who are in high school or graduated high school, to come into the County and then be able to offer them these other opportunities for advancement as well. So, I asked the Mayor, I said, “Look, I’m trying really hard to come up with these other alternatives and we haven’t gotten anywhere. But I know that I can immediately make an impact if you will allow me to have what we’re cal—it’s a student helper position, but it basically—you just have to be of working age—and we have student helper positions in a variety of different departments, but it’s not something that has been centrally managed.” So, what I asked for was initial allotment of ten positions that can be filled 19 hours a week at 16.50 an hour, I believe—and those positions they’re funded so that they could be filled year around. And so, then, with the ten positions in HR, then we’re able to develop a program where we can work with the high schools and find out what students are interested in; work with our departments, see which areas they’d be willing to provide these mentorship opportunities in; and then match them. And so, then, we would loan this student helper out to a department, but then we would be providing the oversight of the program. Page 43 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 So, on my initial request, I went in thinking I wanted 20—and then I scaled back my request to ten—but, certainly, as soon as we can get them filled and get the program up and running, I’ll be going back and requesting more positions because it’s a way for us to make an immediate impact; and then overseeing it through HR gives more—we can add more things to it—like doing the interview prep., doing the other—just general life-skills/workforce kind of training and orientation. And we’re hoping that students that participate in the program will go back to their friends and say, “Hey, you should check out the County.” And we can provide information. A lot of young people don’t understand all of the different things that the County does, all of the different possibilities for promotional opportunities. I mean, you start working with the County and, in a particular position, and it doesn’t mean you have to do that for 30 years. It means, “You have 3,000 different positions to potentially choose from over your—the life cycle of your career.” So, we’re super excited about this. Our goal would be to eventually have at least two positions available for students from each of our high schools around the island. So, the geographic equity is really important—and it’s important to me, I want our young people to understand that jobs are available in their communities, where they live, where they go to school. So, we’re going to start initially, kind of going Hilo and Kona as we get the program, kind of, figured out—but the goal is to eventually have at least two positions for each high school—and we want to work closely with the guidance counselors in the high schools—different high schools have different training academy paths that they follow now. And so, our efforts will be to, kind of, customize and work with the school based on their needs and the interest of their students. So. CHR. CABANAS: So, this is being funded by HR—your department? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: The ten positions. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. They added the funds to our—yeah. CHR. CABANAS: They added the funds from where? MS. TOKIHIRO: They actually transferred the money from the training provision. CHR. CABANAS: The professional training? MS. TOKIHIRO: No. So, the County has—the Department of Finance maintains a training provision— CHR. CABANAS: Oh, okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: —and there’s a pool of money that is available if a department has a specific need. So, I believe Police and Fire have used it for some of their specialized training; but in my discussions with the Director of Finance, those funds are not being—they’re being used, primarily by Police and Fire, but they’re not being used completely. Page 44 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 So, we were—or we are in a status quo budget, so there weren’t new positions to be added— but this was basically like a net zero change to the budget, just reallocating some of these training funds to HR for these ten positions, and it still allows—there’s still sufficient funds in that training provision to meet other needs. CHR. CABANAS: So, it’s a good idea. Ten—I’m trying just figure it in my mind—ten positions—Hilo, Kona—so how are you going to start it off ‘cause that’s five for Hilo, five for Kona; there’s two high schools in Kona—and this is DOE schools? Not private schools? MS. TOKIHIRO: Correct. Yes. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, DOE. So, you’ve gone—you’ve talked to the superintendents and all of that? MS. TOKIHIRO: We are in process of that. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, a lot of coordination. And the departments will have worksites identified? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. So, we have an initial meeting with the departments that will occur next week to explain what the program is and let them know what we’re trying to do; and kind of hope to get them excited and interested in providing this mentorship opportunity because I do want these opportunities to be meaningful. It’s not just, “Oh, here’s your high school student, go shred paper.” I mean, we want to—so, and that’s where, like, student helper positions—if, say, I know the Department of Environmental Management has one—they can basically select whoever. It doesn’t have to go through, like, the recruitment process. They can just select a student, they have them in there, and they can assign whatever tasks. And, I mean—okay. But this allows us to work more closely with the departments, to provide oversight for, “Hey, tell us what kind of duties you intend to assign to the student? Who is going to be the student’s assigned mentor? We would like to see the student be given the opportunity to really understand what your department operations entail.” So, if they were in HR, they should come and attend the MAB meeting or if they’re with the Planning Department and then there’s a hearing that is going to occur, we’d like to see them attend. CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, this—using that student helper class of work, which is very broad—but then with oversight from HR, allows us to provide more direction and, hopefully, ensure that it’s meaningful. CHR. CABANAS: Can—yeah, the money allocated for CVE is not being fully utilized. Is there a possibility to use that money? Page 45 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MS. TOKIHIRO: I’ve been trying. I really want to use the CVE money, but according to—that money is specifically designated for programs based on—it’s like, I think it’s a Federal thing and then it’s the community college that has to define the programs that are going to participate. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, what’s—it’s an agreement the County has, historically, for Cooperative Vocational Education and it’s County funds, but it’s so under-utilized— MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: —for years. And I just hate to see that money not being used completely and that could help your program, but it is a line item in the budget. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. And we have, I believe, there’s 15 CVE positions. And so, what’s happened is I’ve been working with HCC to try and get them to broaden that course offering to more programs. So, I’m like, “Is there a way that people that are going through the automotive program could be eligible to take this 193, which is the course, at which would then allow them to come to work for the County and our programs?” CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. MS.TOKIHIRO: So, I’ve been working with Craig Mitchell who’s the counselor at HCC, and he’s working with their departments to see if they can expand that offering of that course. But— yeah, we’ve been allowing people to—there’s an initial, like, allotment—like, each department you have 500 hours that you can employ someone in this role. So, we have had greater utilization the last couple of years. So, we have been able to use more of those funds, but the enrollment is not dramatically up. What happens is when we have participants, we allow them to work longer. CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. Because what happens is—‘cause I used to attend those CVE annual meetings, and their CVE students, even with different employers in different fields—and I know the County historically has used the CVE program for the business program, but it doesn’t have to be for the business program solely. I’ve talked to the coordinators there over a number of years and when you go to those annual meetings, you’re going to see there’s people in all—students in different programs that actually could be in the County program. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, for example— CHR. CABANAS: Police Science and— MS. TOKIHIRO: Information Technology. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. IT and there’s— MS. BOND: There’s things like welding— Page 46 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, welding, they have carpentry—I’m trying to think of some of the other trades— MS. BOND: Other trades—yeah. CHR. CABANAS: —that were there. Of course, those were private but they were CVE. So, I don’t understand why it can’t be expanded for the County so you can utilize that funding. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. And I—yeah, we continue to work with HCC. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, (inaudible). MS. TOKIHIRO: They have to—yeah, expand that offering. But, yes, I would—and especially in the trades; and that’s one of the things that—that’s one of the areas where I want more effort to be, and I really want to get department buy-in for these student helper positions in the areas of trades because that’s our audience. I mean, these are kids that may not be interested in college. My son, for example, was like not—he was a hands-on person. He was, like, “Give me the quickest path to getting a job and that’s what I’m going do.” And so, Diesel was his thing, and he went through the program at HCC, and as part of his program in the second year he was able to go and work for R&D. And so, I think that those are more of the opportunities that I want to help cultivate ‘cause we have a lot of opportunities for office-related positions but, really, we need to spread our reach to the trades—and it is so important, just as far as our County operation as well. MS. BOND: Well, especially ‘cause the schools have stopped the trades stuff. They’ve cancelled—so that everybody can be standardized and, seriously, there are so many kids that I know that college is not a thing that they’re going to be able to do. CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: And we need the trades. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: When you need a plumber, you need a plumber. MS. BOND: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: When you need a carpenter—carpentry is an excellent skill. MS. TOKIHIRO: And I think it’s important that kids understand that gainful employment is out there and it doesn’t have to be a “speak now or forever hold your peace” as far as whether or not you want to go to college. Because you—and that’s the other part of the education that we want to provide to students participating in this program—is college may not be for you right now, but as an employee of the County, you may want to pursue college later. We have tuition reimbursement—there’s all these avenues, basically, helping kids to understand—“Come work Page 47 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 for the County, the world is your oyster.” It’s, like, you can do almost anything that you want to do. CHR. CABANAS: And the County has Trade Helper positions— MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: —that they could, kind of, navigate and apply for when your department has postings. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. MS. BOND: Cool. CHR. CABANAS: This is good. MS. BOND: Yeah. MR. THOMAS: Yeah, that’s a good program. CHR. CABANAS: I hope the departments will have worksites— MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: —for the students. MS. BOND: Yes. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes, we are going to make sure. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MS. BOND: Cool— CHR. CABANAS: Very good. MS. BOND: —and I’m glad you’re reaching out to the rural kids, too, eventually. CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. It really is— MS. BOND: ‘Cause there’s the kids in Kohala and the kids in Kaū.ʻ MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: So, do you have someone dedicated to run this program in—what is it, in Recruitment? MS. TOKIHIRO: This one is going to be in Personnel and Organizational Development. Page 48 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: Oh, okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. So, I want them to oversee the internships because I do want the additional training components to be part of it, and I want to see that oversight. I’m not sure that we’ll be able to manage it like a full cohort where all ten people start at the same time. I don’t think that that’s necessarily realistic, but—yeah, Personnel and Organizational Development will be part of that—managing that. CHR. CABANAS: That’s wonderful. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. They’re excited about it. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, yeah, that’s exciting. A lot of coordination—it’s exciting. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. So— MS. BOND: Page 2. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah, that’s all I got. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, it says “Refer to page 2”—is there something else? MS. BOND: Well, there’s the— MR. THOMAS: Financial Management. MS. BOND: Financial Management, there’s Planning—those guys. MS. TOKIHIRO: Oh, sorry, I was so wordy in my goals that it went—the evaluation sheet went to two pages and even with Glynis’ magic manipulation of margins, it just wasn’t happening. So, we had to “Refer to page 1”—“Refer to page 2.” CHR. CABANAS: Okay, it’s the same, right? It hasn’t changed. MS. YAMADA: Right. MS. TOKIHIRO: No, nothing else changed. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, okay. Sounds good. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah, so if there’s any questions, I’m happy to answer them—but, basically, that’s what we’re setting up to. MR. THOMAS: Where are we on the agenda, in terms of break times and that sort of thing? CHR. CABANAS: Do you want to take a little pause—we can. MR. THOMAS: Well— Page 49 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MS. BOND: Since you have—well, 25 miles to get to the bathroom. CHR. CABANAS: It, kind of sounds like it. MR. THOMAS: It takes 25 miles to get there— CHR. CABANAS: Oh, we’re actually—we still have a way to go. So, shall we take a little break—ten-minutes. MR. THOMAS: Okay. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, let’s take a break. MR. THOMAS: ‘Cause it takes ten-minutes to get there, and ten-minutes to get back. CHR. CABANAS: It’s—okay, 15-minutes. MR. THOMAS: Where do we go? I don’t know. MS. BOND: You have to go that way into the building. CHR. CABANAS: You have to go into that entrance. MR. THOMAS: The main entrance? CHR. CABANAS: Yes. MS. BOND: Yeah. And you go all the way back to by the tax thing and— CHR. CABANAS: All the way down. MS. BOND: —and there’s a hallway to the left—and you go down that hallway and it’s at the end. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, so it’s 10:55— MR. THOMAS: I hope there’s signs. MS. BOND: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: You can’t get lost. MR. THOMAS: Send out a search party. CHR. CABANAS: Well, you get a little excursion— MR. THOMAS: That’s right. CHR. CABANAS: —into all the County departments there. Page 50 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MR. THOMAS: All right, I’ll go check them out. Thank you. RECESS: The Chair called for a recess at 10:55 a.m. RECONVENE: The meeting reconvened at 11:12 a.m. in open session. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. MS. BOND: All right. Now what? CHR. CABANAS: So, I think we need a motion to approve our Director’s goals unless you have other questions for her. MS. BOND: No, I don’t have more questions. I move that we approve the Director’s goals for ʻ26-ʻ27. MR. THOMAS: Second. CHR. CABANAS: Any discussion? If not, I’ll start a rollcall vote with Ms. Bond. MS. BOND: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Three ayes. Motion carried. Okay, so going back to the agenda. We are now going—yes? MS. YAMADA: Okay, no, no—go ahead. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, going back to the agenda. Okay, so we’re still on Number 7. I didn’t read the other bulleted items, so I’m going to do that now. So, we’re going to discuss the following: Proposed timeline to distribute surveys and deadlines for responses—and this would be for next year when we do the Director’s evaluation; SurveyMonkey questions for Fiscal Year 2026 to 2027—this is the Line Department survey; SurveyMonkey questions for Fiscal Year ’26—2026 to 2027, which is the Departmental/Employee survey; the Merit Appeals Board Evaluation tool for the Director of HR for Fiscal Year 2026 to 2027; and, lastly, defining the target audience and survey participants. We may go into executive session, so I’m just going to read the following: The Merit Appeals Board anticipates convening one or more executive meetings regarding the above matter pursuant to HRS, Sections 92-4, 92-5(a)(2), and 92-5(a)(4), for the purpose of evaluating an officer or employee of the County of Hawaiʻi where the consideration of matters affecting privacy will be involved and consulting with the Board’s attorney on questions and issues pertaining to Page 51 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 the Board’s powers, duties, privileges, immunities, and liabilities. A two-thirds vote pursuant to HRS, Section 92-4 is necessary to hold an executive meeting. So, next year, I won’t be here on the Board—so we’re going to discuss how you will all evaluate the Director next round. Okay. So, we’re going to have to look at what we did and see if you want to tweak anything or leave it “as is”—up to you—and we’ll take it from there. MR. THOMAS: But you can vote on this, right? CHR. CABANAS: Oh, I can vote on it. Yeah. MR. THOMAS: Okay, sure. Proposed Timeline To Distribute Surveys And Deadline For Responses CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. Okay, so, shall we look at the proposed timeline which Glynis has—the last tab—and see if it’s okay (SEE ATT. B). MR. THOMAS: Did we hit on any issues with this—this is the same as the— CHR. CABANAS: It’s the same. MR. THOMAS: Did we hit any issues with timing here or is the spread of dates okay? CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, this is the same pretty much on the timeline starting in April of next year. MR. THOMAS: May I ask Glynis—did this work out okay, this kind of timing? MS. YAMADA: Yeah, it did. CHR. CABANAS: You had enough time? Okay. MS. BOND: Yeah, the only question we had before was whether or not we should shorten the amount of time that they have had to take the survey, like that it might impel them to do it faster or to do it at all. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MR .THOMAS: Yeah, we did—had this question of— CHR. CABANAS: We did. MR. THOMAS: —how can we get more participation. CHR. CABANAS: Well, this time we wrote to the Managing Director to ask him to encourage the department heads and deputies to—and their staff to participate. So, I don’t know if that made a difference, ‘cause we got a increase from the Line Departments— MS. TOKIHIRO: At the Cabinet meeting that we had in July as well, I did thank people— Page 52 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: Oh, okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: —I just said that my evaluation had been completed and that I thanked them for participating in the survey. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, good. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, I didn’t comment on it beyond that but, hopefully, that was at least something where it was—will kind of get it on their radar. MS. BOND: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Yes, that’s good. Thank you for doing that. MS. BOND: When did that letter go to the department heads? Was that in May or was that in April? MR. THOMAS: It says here in May. MS. BOND: The letter? MR. THOMAS: Friday, May 21— MS. YAMADA: I can check on my computer. CHR. CABANAS: We sent it earlier. MS. BOND: No, I’m talking about the letter to the Managing Director. MS. YAMADA: Yeah, I think it was in May—I think early May. CHR. CABANAS: Early May. MS. BOND: Should we put that in here on the timeline that maybe there should be a letter to the— CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, maybe we should. Yeah. MS. BOND: —letter to the Managing Director. CHR. CABANAS: And then, we did send another letter at the end to thank everyone from the Board— MS. BOND: At the end of—in June? CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, I—Glynis drafted it for me and then we sent it out to thank the departments and to thank the employees here at HR. MS. YAMADA: So, that one is in the timeline— Page 53 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MS. BOND: Okay. MS. YAMADA: —discuss overall rating and with written notice to follow to the Director. MS. BOND: Okay. CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. MS. YAMADA: Do you want me to add in thanking the departments and the HR people— CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, I think we should. Yeah. MS. BOND: Just so that it’s there. CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. Good idea. MR. THOMAS: Mm-hmm. Who is the “Secretary-Reporter?” CHR. CABANAS: That’s Glynis. MR. THOMAS: Oh. All right. CHR. CABANAS: That’s her official title. MR. THOMAS: Secretary-Reporter—okay. CHR. CABANAS: She’s the Secretary— MS. TOKIHIRO: Super star. MS. BOND: Yeah, really, exactly. CHR. CABANAS: —Secretary to Sommer, but she’s also the Secretary-Reporter to two commissions—Salary Commission and to the Merit Appeals Board. MR. THOMAS: Okay. CHR. CABANAS: So, she’s kept very busy. MR. THOMAS: Well, considering these 100-pages of minutes. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, yes—and very efficient. MS. BOND: Right, I know. CHR. CABANAS: Yes. Okay. So, any other suggestions to the timeline? MS. BOND: I mean, yeah—the only other thing would be whether or not we should shorten it for this survey. Page 54 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: How much time— MS. BOND: When does this survey go out? MR. THOMAS: Right before Memorial Day. th CHR. CABANAS: It goes out no later than May 28— MR. THOMAS: No, right after Memorial Day—oh, right before Memorial Day. MS. YAMADA: On May 21. CHR. CABANAS: No—May 21—and it was due May 28. So, that’s a week. MS. BOND: Oh, that’s not—that’s good. Okay. I think that shortens it—‘cause I think it was two weeks last—this last time. CHR. CABANAS: The thing is, we give them a lot of time—they wait on it. MS. BOND: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: They wait till the end, and they forget about it. Yeah. MS. BOND: You have till Friday to get this done, as opposed to— CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MS. BOND: ‘Cause I’m very good at that—like, the GE taxes that I remembered needed to be filed at 2:30 on Monday afternoon. It’s like—oh. MS. TOKIHIRO: But, also, I mean you do a reminder letter as well. CHR. CABANAS: Yes, she does. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Is that in here—let’s see. She does a reminder—an email. MS. YAMADA: I can add it in. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, let’s add it in. MS. YAMADA: In May. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. Thank you. MS. BOND: I mean, even— CHR. CABANAS: You send it—the reminder— Page 55 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MS. BOND: Actually, that—would send them the thing in (inaudible) before it says (inaudible). MR. THOMAS: Yeah, they only have one week to do it—and they kind of hand it in the Friday before Memorial Day—on a Friday, of Memorial Day week. CHR. CABANAS: So— MS. YAMADA: So, I usually remind them three days prior to the deadline. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, that’s good. MR. THOMAS: Okay. MS. BOND: Yeah, that’s good. CHR. CABANAS: That’s good. th MR. THOMAS: ‘Cause some people might use a vacation day on Friday, May 28. CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. MS. BOND: Yeah, that’s true. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. Is there a motion to approve the timeline for the— MR. YOSHIMOTO: As amended. MS. BOND: As amended. CHR. CABANAS: As amended— MS. BOND: Or do we have to vote to accept the amendments first? CHR. CABANAS: —for the Performance— MR. YOSHIMOTO: Yes. MS. BOND: Okay. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, accept the amendments first—okay. MS. BOND: Okay, I move we accept the amendments we have made to the proposed timeline for the Performance Evaluation process. MR. THOMAS: Second. CHR. CABANAS: Any discussion? If not, I’ll start a rollcall vote with Ms. Bond. MS. BOND: Aye. Page 56 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Three ayes. Motion carried. MS. BOND: And I move we approve the timeline for the evaluation ’26 – ’27—evaluation process. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, is there a second? MR. THOMAS: Second. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. Any discussion? If not, I’ll start a rollcall vote with Ms. Bond. MS. BOND: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Three ayes. Motion carried. SurveyMonkey Questions for FY 2026-2027 (Line Department Survey) CHR. CABANAS: Okay, we are now on the external survey questions that— MS. BOND: This is the one that goes to the department heads. CHR. CABANAS: Yes—to the Line Departments and Agencies (SEE ATT. C). And are there any suggestions to tweak the questions in any way? MR. THOMAS: Are we getting any feedback from anybody who has seen this? MS. YAMADA: In the minutes, on Question number 6— CHR. CABANAS: Okay. MS. YAMADA: “Human Resources adjusts quickly to changing priorities.” I guess there was concern about what is “quickly”—it can be interpreted differently, that it might be one thing, one issue. MS. BOND: Should we change it to “efficiently?” CHR. CABANAS: Or “timely.” Page 57 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MS. TOKIHIRO: Or just “adjusts.” MS. BOND: And take out that qualifying word that might be the best way to do it. MR. THOMAS: Yeah, I like that. MS. BOND: What do you think, Mr. Law Man. I saw some very funny pictures of you running for office waving signs. MR. YOSHIMOTO: What? I’m not running for anything. MS. BOND: This was way back, long ago. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Oh, nostalgic. MS. BOND: You were so young, it was so cute. MR. YOSHIMOTO: See what it did to me? No. I think there’s value to taking out the word “quickly” ‘cause that is subject to interpretation, right. I mean, no matter how you describe it, it is—yeah. Whereas “adjusts to changing priorities”—is general but gets to where you want to— CHR. CABANAS: With where you want to be. MS. BOND: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Yeah, I think so. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, that’s a good change. Anything else? MS. BOND: (Inaudible) and that was a good one. MS. TOKIHIRO: I think the—oh, I don’t know if I’m allowed to give feedback on this. MS. BOND: You should. MS. TOKIHIRO: Okay. Well, on Number 5, I think during the review of their responses—we were kind of talking about during our last meeting—how we will reach out to departments regarding certain issues; but as far as, like, seeking out and incorporating knowledge of department goals—that’s a little bit different. We don’t have meetings, say, like, HR does not meet with departments and go, “What are your goals for the department.” We’re, kind of, counting on the department letting us know what direction they want to go in and how personnel or human resources-related matters may be affected. So, I don’t—maybe the “seeks out”—because if we have knowledge of what a departments’ goals is—that’s, definitely, going to be incorporated into what our discussion is. But as far as Page 58 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 us, as HR’s role, as far as like “seeking out” what are the overall goals for your department— that’s not really our role. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. So, should we take “seeks out?” MS. BOND: “and”— CHR. CABANAS: “and”— MR. THOMAS: You can just eliminate “goals”—“seeks out…priorities.” You would do that, I suppose. MS. BOND: Human Resource incorporates knowledge of my department and priorities through…”—“department goals”—“department goal.” MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah, I think my kind of concern is with the “seeks out”— MS. BOND: The “seeking out.” MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. MS. BOND: Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: Because, certainly, if we have knowledge of department goals and priorities— that is what we would be incorporating into discussions. MS. BOND: “Human Resources incorporates knowledge of my department goals and priorities through…”—does that how you want it—does that sound—Suzi, brain, engage. Does that work for you? MR. THOMAS: Are you proposing to eliminate what—“seeks out?” CHR. CABANAS: “..seeks out and”— MS. BOND: “…seeks out and”—so it just says, “Human Resources incorporates knowledge of my department goals and priorities…” CHR. CABANAS: “…of my department goals and priorities through meetings, audits, training, et cetera.” MR. THOMAS: I’m good with that. MS. BOND: Yeah, that works. CHR. CABANAS: I’m good with that. You’re good with that? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. MS. BOND: How about you, Law Man, that works for you? Page 59 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MR. YOSHIMOTO: It sounds good. MS. BOND: Okay. MR. YOSHIMOTO: “Law Man”—there’s a show, I think. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, just remind— MS. BOND: You know what happens when we get to a certain point. MS. TOKIHIRO: Start to need lunch. CHR. CABANAS: I know this is a cozy environment but just be mindful we are being recorded. MS. BOND: Sorry. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, so may I have a—okay, any other changes to any other questions? Otherwise, may I have a motion to approve these amendments? MS. BOND: Wait, hold on a second. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. MS. BOND: The “efficiently assists me”—“effectively”— CHR. CABANAS: Are you looking at Number 2? MS. BOND: I’m looking at all the qualifiers—1 and 2. CHR. CABANAS: Oh. MS. BOND: Do we want to take out the qualifiers? “Human Resources assists me in doing my job.”—“The Human Resources works with me and other members of the department staff”— take out the qualifiers? I’m asking a question, not making a statement. CHR. CABANAS: We’re thinking. MS. TOKIHIRO: Are you asking it of me? I will leave that to the Board because I think that in those qualifiers, like “effectively” I think speaks to the manner in which we’re engaging. So, I’ll leave that to the Board. I mean, I appreciate the sentiment of wanting to be—not be, kind of, overly broader—left it to interpretation of whether or not it’s efficient, but— CHR. CABANAS: I think it—well, for me, it tells me how—what’s the quality because someone can assist but is it efficient? Is it really (inaudible). So, I think the qualifiers for those two are (inaudible)— MS. BOND: Yeah, since we had taken out one qualifier— CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. Page 60 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MS. BOND: —I just thought we should go back and review the other two qualifiers— MS. TOKIHIRO: And, certainly, like even with the numeric rating, I mean they still are able to provide the comments to address— MS. BOND: That’s true—yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. MS. BOND: That’s true. Okay. All right, it was just a question. All right— MR. THOMAS: Very good. MS. BOND: —so do we need to do these individually? CHR. CABANAS: No—oh, we’ll take each one. So, let’s do the external survey. MS. BOND: Okay, I move to approve the amendments we made to the external survey draft. MR. THOMAS: Second. CHR. CABANAS: Any discussion? If not, I’ll start a rollcall vote with Ms. Bond. MS. BOND: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Yes—aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Three ayes. Motion carried. Moving along, we are now on the green sheet, the DHR Internal Survey Draft. MR. THOMAS: Did we approve the— CHR. CABANAS: Oh, no, I’m sorry—you’re right. MR. THOMAS: —document. CHR. CABANAS: We didn’t. MS. BOND: Oh, I’m sorry. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, we got to go back. MS. BOND: I move we approve the external survey draft. MR. THOMAS: Second. Page 61 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: Okay, any discussion? If not, I’ll start a rollcall vote with Ms. Bond. MS. BOND: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Three ayes. Motion carried. SurveyMonkey Questions for FY 2026-2027 (Employee Survey) CHR. CABANAS: Okay, we are now on the DHR Internal Survey Draft (SEE ATT. D). These questions are answered by the employees of the Department of Human Resources. MS. BOND: I just find it interesting that—all right, que—Number C—Number C—yeah. Letter C, it—should there, for one, should there be a—is that a possessive, “Directors annual budget”— CHR. CABANAS: It should be an apostrophe—yes. MS. BOND: So, there should be the apostrophe. And then, just—do they really care whether or not it allows—about the annual budget? I mean— MS. TOKIHIRO: And I think, kind of, beyond the—so I think that my management team could better answer that question than, say, all of the employees of the department— MS. BOND: Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: —just because there’s different levels at which people would be engaged in the budget process. And so, I’m going to say that, like, the employees that are not part of the management team would have less exposure to the budget—but beyond—and just how the budget is established— MS. BOND: Should we put a “not applicable” place in there for the people that doesn’t affect their job, can say that doesn’t apply to my job? MS. TOKIHIRO: So, that could be an option, but just one additional comment is that— ultimately, the budget is not something that we control. MS. BOND: That’s why— MS. TOKIHIRO: So, whether or not the budget for the—whether or not someone feels that the budget is sufficient, those directives come from the Administration. So, as much as I try and be very creative with the monies that are allotted to us, we, as a department—or and, myself, as the Director— Page 62 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MS. BOND: Yeah, you don’t have a lot of say on whether or— MS. TOKIHIRO: I don’t. MS. BOND: Yeah, which is why I asked that question, but— MR .THOMAS: Are we asking whether we should have that in there at all? Or should we refer to the budget as “drafted.” CHR. CABANAS: Well, I like this question because from my own experience, the different Administrations would say, “Cut 10%”—or whatever. It got to a point where I couldn’t cut anything ‘cause I was bare bones with my division. So, that was when I informed the Director of—I’m not going to cut anything else, ‘cause I don’t have anything else to cut. And that’s where it stood. So, it affected what I could do and what I couldn’t do. MS. BOND: Okay. Well, that’s why I asked that question. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. And it affected my staff because when they went to job fairs and all of that, we couldn’t even order pens. MR. THOMAS: Oh, dear. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. So, it was like—I don’t know about now, though, Sommer—how it affects the employees now. MS. TOKIHIRO: It’s not as—I mean, I think, kind of, the budget that HR has—has always, I mean, we rarely see instances in budgets where once you go bare bones, that all of a sudden something gets built up to be this robust budget, again. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MS. BOND: Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, we kind of continued with either status quo or additional reductions. There have been something—the budget has grown, but a lot of that has to do with salaries and wages; and then, the workers’ compensation budget, unfortunately, due to employee injuries—it was, it necessitated an increase in budget. But, the HR budget really hasn’t gone through, like, it’s not like we all of a sudden got money for more training or more—we did get money for additional recruitment advertising. And so, we haven’t seen that where we haven’t been able to buy pens. MS. BOND: Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: But, really, those modifications are based usually on specific needs for a set period of time, as opposed to just an increase in the budget. So, yeah, it can definitely be challenging, ‘cause I do feel like our budget is pretty bare bones— CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. Page 63 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MS. BOND: Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: —for the type of things that we’re trying to do. CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. MS. TOKIHIRO: But, again, my immediate ability to impact that—it’s more just I need to take the directive that I’m given and try and find ways to make work. MS. BOND: Make it work, yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. MS. BOND: Okay, then we’ll leave it alone. Okay. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. MS. BOND: So, “D”—it says, “The director has”—and that was crossed out and “implements”— is that a change that’s being made. MS. YAMADA: Oh, I just forgot to take that out—I’m sorry. MS. BOND: Okay—that’s okay. Just keeping you honest there, Glynis. MS. YAMADA: Thank you. MR. THOMAS: So, if there’s no changes, then you get to just move the document (inaudible). MS. YAMADA: There’s an “apostrophe” in there— MS. BOND: There’s an “apostrophe” in there. MR. THOMAS: Oh, no. MS. BOND: I know, we did it again. MS. TOKIHIRO: And can I— MS. BOND: Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: —raise a comment about “A”— MS. BOND: “A?” MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. So, “The Director understands her leadership role and works with DHR employees to develop a clear vision for the department, with measurable goals and objectives, consistent with the department’s mission.” Page 64 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 So, the goals and objectives that we establish for the department—that’s actually part of the budget process. And there’re goals and objectives that are set for each division that we then report on semi-annually and annually as part of our budget review. So, I don’t know—and I guess, it’s—so it’s just that it’s not going to necessarily involve, again, all employees. It’s going to be the management team. So, I don’t know that— MS. BOND: So, do you want to take out the “with measurable goals and objectives?” MS. TOKIHIRO: No, we actually have those, but it’s just that— MS. BOND: Once, again, that’s more of a management response— MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. MS. BOND: —than an all— CHR. CABANAS: Although the employee should know what the department’s mission is. MS. BOND: Mission is different from— CHR. CABANAS: And they should— MS. BOND: Mission—oh, I see. CHR. CABANAS: —no, but they’re aware of the goals and objectives, right, Sommer? MS. TOKIHIRO: We provide them with the semi-annual and annual reports—yes. CHR. CABANAS: Do they—but they get to see the reports when you submit it to the Board, right? ‘Cause you said that you distribute the reports or the meeting minutes to them. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, we distribute—so Glynis distributes the agenda and then I distribute the reports that I am providing every month. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. MS. BOND: Okay. CHR. CABANAS: So, they see when the objectives are met or not met—they see that report, right? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah—as far as my review? CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah, I shared some information with them. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, they don’t see the monthly reports? Page 65 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MS. TOKIHIRO: That I do share with them. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, so okay. MS. BOND: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: So, they’re aware of the goals and objectives— MS. BOND: Okay, yeah, that’s fine—all right. No, that’s good. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, it’s— MS. BOND: But that’s something that when we’re reviewing it next year—well, when we review it, you can remind us that “A” and “C” are pretty much more management questions than they are overall questions. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. And, I guess, the only kind of caveat—the only part that I’m—that is— “The Director understands her leadership role”—it’s just that “and works with DHR employees”—it’s like “The Director understands her leadership role and develops a clear vision for the department, with measurable goals and objectives,”—it’s just that if we leave it “works with employees”—there are some—there is—yeah. It’s just going to be limited more to— MR. THOMAS: You’re talking about communicates to employees the vision with the department— MS. BOND: —develops a clear—no, I see where you’re saying. We take out “works with DHR employees to”—so that it reads, “The Director understands her leadership role and develops a clear vision for the department, with measurable goals and”—is that what you—is that better? MS. TOKIHIRO: That would be a suggestion just because they—we do have measurable goals and objectives. The employees, everyone is informed of the department’s mission and what those goals and objectives are—it’s just not everybody plays a role in developing those with the team. MS. BOND: Right. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, I’m more just limiting it to— MS. BOND: It puts it more on your shoulders— MR. THOMAS: I think you’re saying you communicate with the employees, the vision of the department and its measurable goals and objectives. MS. BOND: (Inaudible.) MR. THOMAS: It’s not involving them in a decision process. MS. BOND: No, but what we’re asking is does she understand her role, and does she make it clear to us what the role is. Page 66 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: And does she develop that vision because each Director has his or her own management style, priorities— MS. TOKIHIRO: But, also, like, it is always my intent to keep the—all of the staff as informed as possible. So, that’s why when the agenda goes out, I’m sending them the report that I’m presenting to you folks. I’m asking them to review it. I encourage them to review meeting minutes, so that they understand the questions that I’m being asked—and how I’m responding on their behalf. So, that engagement, to me, is very important and is something that I want everyone to be a part of. The reality is that whether or not they choose to do that, that’s up to them. CHR. CABANAS: Then it’s on their own. MS. TOKIHIRO: And then—but I make them aware of where all of that information is. And then, the real direct—the more consistent, direct—like working with—is with my management team. But I will share—and I don’t—I mean, Gabe, could share prior experience—the way that I handle it is not necessarily the way that it was handled under prior Director’s that I worked for, right. CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. MS. BOND: Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, I didn’t know—actually, until I decided that I was going to apply for this position; and I went back, and I started reading all the minutes in preparation, so that I would understand the process. That wasn’t something that, like, the Directors had told us, “Here, here’s the information” or— MS. BOND: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, it is different. And, ultimately, I do feel whether it’s me or somebody else—it is the Director’s responsibility to establish goals and communicate with the employees. MS. BOND: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MS. BOND: And you actually have—there’s more questions later about communicating. MS. TOKIHIRO: Mm-hmm. MS. BOND: So, I don’t think we need to add it to this one. MR. THOMAS: (Inaudible.) Page 67 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: What you’re doing, Sommer, is really ideal. It’s a win-win for you, it’s win-win for the employee, the entire department—because we’ve had Director’s, I’ve worked under how many—eight Directors. They have never, they did not communicate what they shared with the Board. And, sometimes, there was one Director, that person allowed me to sit in on the Board meetings. If I didn’t sit in on the Board meetings, I wouldn’t know what’s going on in the Board meetings. So, what you’re doing is really ideal. It’s perfect. Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah, encouraging them to—‘cause I’d like them to be engaged, too— CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: —because then, there are—I mean, like, the goals are a good example of things that come out of hearings or things that come out of our discussions—that, then, I’m coming back to the staff and going, “Okay, going forward I want to do this because I see that this is important”—and it’s—I’d like them to understand where that comes from, too, right? CHR. CABANAS: Exactly. MS. BOND: Yeah, I mean, sort of, like, that whole reclassification thing— MS. TOKIHIRO: Exactly. MS. BOND: —when that became such a (inaudible) for you. MS. TOKIHIRO: Right. MS. BOND: It was—that was something that was just— MS. TOKIHIRO: And when I’m calling on the team to help prepare to go into hearings or whatever—it is important that they also understand the perspective and how that’s perceived, right. Like, even the way that we prepare for a hearing—the kind of information that we’re presenting—each one, for me, has been a big learning opportunity because it’s very different to explain something in the context of this office, where we live and breathe this. But when you go into a hearing and you’re trying to make it clear or how people understand, that are not part of this—that changes—the perspective and the prep., right? CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MS. BOND: Well, and then just the number of times that you were—I even say, “I’m confused”—and go back and explain. It’s like—it makes a difference. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. But your approach is good—it’s a team approach. It’s like soccer. Soccer—the team needs to know where the goal needs to go—where the ball needs to go, to that goal area. If they don’t know the goal, then it has no meaning as to what they’re doing. And so, I like that. It really provides meaning when they know how—what their contribution is in the HR world and what they’re doing—what it—how it impacts the goal, the objective. I think it’s Page 68 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 very meaningful, ‘cause you’re now—everybody’s working together. It’s not just one division, it’s everybody together—got to be solid. And so, when you come to an appeal, you’re solid at the appeal hearing. Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: And these—some of these goals and the things that I talk to the team about that come out of our meetings, like, Classification and Pay—this is a lot of work for them to accomplish these tasks. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, yeah MS. BOND: Oh, yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: But it’s also awesome that I can say, “This is what I want to do”—give it to them. They take it and run with it, ‘cause ultimately they’re the ones that have to implement it; but then they come back and they’re excited about it because it’s meaningful for them, and they see where they’re making a difference—and then they come to me with, “Oh, well, we also noticed this, this, and this—so going forward, we want to do this, this, and this”—and I’m like, “Exactly.” So, it’s great to—for them to understand the “why” and then get there—it’s that effort from them because they see how important it is, and it really validates the work that they do every day. I mean, I think everybody wants to make meaningful contributions. CHR. CABANAS: Yes. MS. BOND: Yeah, right. MR. THOMAS: Good, good. MS. BOND: Good. CHR. CABANAS: Very good. Okay, so— MS. YAMADA: Can you repeat that last sentence, again, with the change. MS. BOND: Okay. “The Director understands her leadership role and develops a clear vision for the department, with measurable goals and objectives, consistent with the…”—got it? CHR. CABANAS: Okay, any other changes? Otherwise, I’ll call for the motion to— MS. BOND: I move we approve the amendments to the DHR Internal Survey Draft. MR. THOMAS: Second. CHR. CABANAS: Any discussion? If not, I’ll start a rollcall vote with Ms. Bond. MS. BOND: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. Page 69 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MR. THOMAS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Three ayes. Motion carried. Now I need another motion. MS. BOND: I move that we approve the DHR Internal Survey draft. MR. THOMAS: Second. CHR. CABANAS: Any discussion? If not, I’ll start a rollcall vote with Ms. Bond. MS. BOND: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Three ayes. Motion carried. Okay, we are now on the— MS. BOND: Human Resources fiscal—but didn’t we approve this already—the purple one? MS. YAMADA: This is for the— MR. THOMAS: This is for the next—the current— CHR. CABANAS: This is for next year. MS. YAMADA: Yeah, this one is for this section, if you guys want to make any changes. CHR. CABANAS: Any changes. MR. THOMAS: Right. MS. BOND: But wasn’t that the same as the goldenrod one? MS. YAMADA: No, that was Sommer’s goals up here. Sommer’s goals is up here— CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MS. YAMADA: But this is just the remaining part. Page 70 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: We approved Goal 1, 2, and 3—now, is the other goals—"Financial Management”; “Planning, Prioritizing and Organizing”; “Problem solving/Decision Making”; and “Leadership.” (SEE ATT. E.) MR. THOMAS: And those are the same as the goldenrod (inaudible). MS. BOND: Those are the same. MR. THOMAS: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: And we have the correlation with the respective survey. MS. BOND: Right. MR. THOMAS: Yeah. MS. BOND: I don’t see anything that we need (inaudible). CHR. CABANAS: Well, we didn’t delete any questions, we just changed some wording. I think it’s all okay. MR. THOMAS: The purple was the same as the goldenrod, right? MS. BOND: It’s pretty much the same, yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Yes. MR. THOMAS: Yeah. And we approved Goals 1, 2, and 3’s with a separate motion earlier, right? MS. BOND: Right. CHR. CABANAS: Yes. MR. THOMAS: Okay. MS. BOND: So, should we move to approve the— CHR. CABANAS: Can you re-phrase it—are you asking a question or are you doing a motion? MS. BOND: No, I was going to do the motion. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, ‘cause you said, “should”— MS. BOND: Oh. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MS. BOND: Okay. I move that we approve the Fiscal Year Evaluation for ’26-’27. Page 71 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MR. THOMAS: Second. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. Any discussion? If not, I’ll start a rollcall vote with Ms. Bond. MS. BOND: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Yeah—aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Three ayes. Motion carried. Sorry, I— MS. BOND: That’s okay. CHR. CABANAS: I was just being technical. MS. BOND: No, that’s—no. Good. Define Target Audience/Survey Participants CHR. CABANAS: Okay, lastly, the blue sheet will be defining the target audience for the surveys. Who will the surveys go to (SEE ATT. F). MR. THOMAS: Is this proposing any changes? CHR. CABANAS: Well, if you want to. MR. THOMAS: No, I said, does this— CHR. CABANAS: Oh, no. MR. THOMAS: —what we did last year? I think it is. CHR. CABANAS: Yes, yeah. MS. BOND: Yeah (inaudible). MR. THOMAS: Okay, that’s fine. MS. BOND: This one doesn’t even say, “Draft” across of it. I don’t see that there’s anybody else we really need to— MR. THOMAS: Does this cover it, Sommer? CHR. CABANAS: There’s no changes, right, to the departments or— MS. YAMADA: No, I just updated “approximately”—how many people in the bullets. Page 72 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MR. YOSHIMOTO: So, it’s subject to change, right—isn’t the County Auditor going to, maybe, have the authority to appoint on the Charter? MS. TOKIHIRO: They have to—yeah, it’s going to be a Charter amendment that would have to go on the ballot. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, Charter amendment. It’s not approved yet. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah, but potentially. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, okay, so it may change. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: But she has it as an “approximate”— MR. YOSHIMOTO: Approximately—good. MS. BOND: Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Good cover. CHR. CABANAS: Very good. MS. BOND: Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Good job, Glynis. MS. BOND: And the only other one is—I guess the Managing Director is not really the head of the department or anything, huh? ‘Cause you got the Mayor here. CHR. CABANAS: Where are you looking? MS. BOND: I’m sorry, underneath the departments and the agencies. MS. YAMADA: Under the Mayor, includes the Managing Director and Deputy Managing Director. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MS. BOND: So, they would both do it? MS. YAMADA: Yeah. MS. BOND: Oh, because they’re the assistants and—okay, got it. Page 73 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. So, this is not the position. This is the Office of the Mayor. MS. BOND: The Office—got it. Yeah, okay. MR. THOMAS: Office of—okay. MS. BOND: Clarified. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, any—okay, so I need a motion to approve the target audience and survey participants. MS. BOND: I move we approve that. MR. THOMAS: Second. MS. BOND: You finished my sentence, so I was like— CHR. CABANAS: Okay. Any discussion? If not, I’ll start a rollcall vote with Ms. Bond. MS. BOND: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Three ayes. Motion carried. Unfinished Business (Item 8) CHR. CABANAS: Okay, back to the agenda. Okay, there’s no “Unfinished Business.” Announcements (Item 9) CHR. CABANAS: Are there any “Announcements?” MR. THOMAS: Let me ask J—should we make any mention of the fact that you gave us a— gave me an opinion on contributions to political campaigns? MR. YOSHIMOTO: Oh, no, that’s not Board business. No, we’re good. MR. THOMAS: Okay. Are the other Board members aware (inaudible) the issue. MR. YOSHIMOTO: I can share it. Yeah, that’s not an issue. MS. BOND: I love running a non-profit ‘cause then I can stay out of it all. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Well, I can make—why don’t I just make the announcement, then. Page 74 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 MR. THOMAS: Yeah, I think you should. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Okay. So, as an announcement, Mr. Thomas asked a question about— trying to remember the exact, ‘cause there were several questions within the question. Basically, were there any restrictions in a Merit Appeals Board member making political contributions to a candidate for political office, specifically, the County Council. Is that correct? MR. THOMAS: Yeah. MR. YOSHIMOTO: More or less. And I said there wasn’t any direct prohibition legally under HRS 76-41, I believe it is. Yeah, but there are—but there is the Ethics Code that applies to all officers and employees. You folks are considered to be officers as being a part of this Board, and there may be specific circumstances in which the Ethics Code might be implicated or relevant, right. So, in other words, it depends, right. So—but on its face—no. But if there’s any distinguishing fact patterns that require attention—ask the question and we’ll be happy to (inaudible). MR. THOMAS: Then there was a separate question of whether any of this applies to spouses, family members, and things like that. MR. YOSHIMOTO: As to your specific question, it does not—but there are some situations or circumstances within the Ethics Code where immediate family members, it does apply. So, to your situation—no. MR. THOMAS: Okay. MS. BOND: Yeah, it’s one of my favorite things about running a non-profit. People ask me to participate—“I can’t it’s against the non-profit rules.” CHR. CABANAS: So, can we make a contribution to a candidate or cannot? MR. YOSHIMOTO: You can. There’s, again, no legal prohibition— CHR. CABANAS: As a citizen you can, right? MR. YOSHIMOTO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. Okay. MS. BOND: But—yeah, as long as no funny business— CHR. CABANAS: Oh, yes, of course not. MS. BOND: —you don’t end up with a (inaudible) issue. CHR. CABANAS: Well, okay, we’re still on the agenda. MS. BOND: (Inaudible.) Page 75 Merit Appeals Board July 23, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: Okay. 1 MS. BOND: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. So, any other"Announcements?" Schedule Next Meeting Date (Item 10) The Merit Appeals Board Will Convene Its Next Meeting On Friday, August 28, 2026,At 9:00 A.M., At The Hilo Council Chambers, Hawaii County Building, 25 Aupuni Street, First Floor, Room 1401, Hilo, HI 96720 CHR. CABANAS: If not, the next meeting date for the Merit Appeals Board will be on Friday, August 28, 2026, at 9 a.m., at the Hilo Council Chambers, Hawaii County Building, 25 Aupuni Street, First Floor, Room 1401, in Hilo, Hawaii. Adjournment (Item 11) CHR. CABANAS: May I have a motion to adjourn today's meeting? MS. BOND: So moved. MR. THOMAS: Second. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. Any discussion? If not, I'll start a rollcall vote with Ms. Bond. MS. BOND: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Three ayes. Motion carried. Today's meeting is adjourned at 11:55 a.m. Thank you very much. Respectfully submitted, Glyni amad , Secretary-Reporter APPROVED: citJ Cu(n u.0 cu Al • aCt Pre(h.Ct S Gabriella M. Cabanas, Chair Merit Appeals Board Page 76