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2026-09-18 Merit Appeals Board Minutes (DRAFT)
REGULAR SESSION Merit Appeals Board Hilo Council Chambers Hawaiʻi County Building 25 Aupuni Street, First Floor, Room 1401 Hilo, Hawai‘i September 18, 2026 (Friday) Call to Order (Item 1) The regular meeting of the Merit Appeals Board, County of Hawaiʻi, was called to order at 9:00 a.m. by Chair Gabriella M. Cabanas, at the Hilo Council Chambers, Hawaiʻi County Building, 25 Aupuni Street, First Floor, Room 1401, Hilo, Hawaiʻi, on Friday, September 18, 2026. Roll Call – Present Ms. Gabriella M. Cabanas, Chair Mr. Gilbert J. Aguinaldo, Member Mr. Daniel “Niel” Thomas, Member Absent and Excused Ms. Suzi Bond, Vice-Chair Also Present Mr. J Yoshimoto, Assistant Corporation Counsel, Office of the Corporation Counsel Ms. Sommer J. Tokihiro, Director, Human Resources Department Mr. Ryan Chong, Manager II, Human Resources Department Mr. Doug McCormick, Safety Specialist II, Human Resources Department Mr. Kamalu Kualii, Safety Specialist II, Human Resources Department Mr. Steven Kalilikane, Jr., Safety and Driver Improvement Coordinator Human Resources Department Mr. Rex Kalei Livingston, Safety and Driver Improvement Coordinator, Human Resources Department Ms. Glynis Yamada, Secretary-Reporter, Human Resources Department Also Present via Zoom Mr. Henry Kim, Deputy Attorney General, Department of the Attorney General Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 Call to Order (Item 1) CHR. CABANAS: Okay, good morning, everyone. It is 9:00 and the Merit Appeals Board meeting is called to order. We have quorum with three Board members present. Suzi Bond, our Vice-Chair is absent and excused. I’m Gabriella Cabanas, Chair of the Merit Appeals Board—and seated with me, to my left, is Gilbert Aguinaldo. MR. AGUINALDO: Good morning. CHR. CABANAS: And to my far right is Board member Daniel “Niel” Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Good morning. CHR. CABANAS: And to my immediate right, is our Assistant Corporation Counsel J Yoshimoto. MR. YOSHIMOTO: Good morning, everybody. CHR. CABANAS: And to my left, in the back, is Glynis Yamada our Secretary-Reporter. MS. YAMADA: Good morning. CHR. CABANAS: We also have our Director of Human Resources Sommer Tokihiro. MS. TOKIHIRO: Good morning. CHR. CABANAS: And we are very fortunate to have the employees from the Health and Safety Division of the Department of Human Resources present this morning. And so, if you all can introduce yourselves, Ryan, you can start. Ryan is the Manager for the division. MR. CHONG: Good morning, Ryan Chong, Manager, Health and Safety. CHR. CABANAS: If you can state your name, yeah—your full name. MR. KUALII: Aloha. Good morning, my name is Kamalu Kualii, Health and Safety Division. MR. McCORMICK: Douglas McCormick, Health and Safety Division. MR. KALILIKANE: Good morning, Steven Kalilikane, Jr., Safety and Driver Improvement Coordinator. Page 2 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 MR. LIVINGSTON: Aloha, my name is Kalei Livingston, and Driver Safety Coordinator II, as well. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, good morning—and thank you, all, for coming. It is a pleasure and an honor to have all of you here because our Board members wanted to know more in detail about what you all do—and we do—as sometimes things come up in our meetings and it’s better to see the faces that belong to the division and recognize you for all of your hard work. So, thank you very much for coming today. We’re going to go through the agenda just little bit and then we’ll ask Ryan to conduct the presentation for the Board. Addendum to Agenda (Item 2) CHR. CABANAS: We do not have any addendum to the agenda. Statements from the Public (Item 3) CHR. CABANAS: Are there any “Statements from the Public”—there’s no one appearing via Zoom—not yet. Okay. Approval of Minutes (Item 4) July 23, 2026 rd CHR. CABANAS: Approval of meeting minutes for July 23, 2026. Have you, Board members, had the chance to review the meeting minutes? MR. THOMAS: Yes, I have. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. MR. AGUINALDO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: Are there any amendments that you’d like to make? MR. THOMAS: Not for me. MR. AGUINALDO: Not at this time. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, I just have one on page 34, and it’s the first sentence on page 34, where Chair Cabanas states, “Because there was a definition when I worked—and I…” “raised”—it should—it says “…and I rosed the question…”—I don’t know if I said Page 3 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 “rosed” but it should be “…and I raised the question with the Classifier back then.” That’s the only correction I’m suggesting being made—or recommending be made. MR. THOMAS: Move the amendment be adopted. MR. AGUINALDO: I second. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. Any discussion? If not, I’ll start a rollcall vote with Mr. Aguinaldo. MR. AGUINALDO: Aye. MR. THOMAS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Aye—Ms. Cabanas—aye. Motion carried to— MR. THOMAS: Move to accept the minutes, as amended. CHR. CABANAS: Yes, that’s your next motion? MR. THOMAS: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. Any second— MR. AGUINALDO: I second. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, thank you. Any discussion? If not, I’ll start a rollcall vote with Mr. Aguinaldo. MR. AGUINALDO: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Three ayes. Motion carried. Thank you very much. The “Director’s Report” is next on the agenda but since the employees are here from the Health and Safety Division—would we kindly have a motion to take their presentation up first before the “Director’s Report.” Page 4 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 MR. THOMAS: Move changing the order of business as suggested by the Chair. MR. AGUINALDO: I second. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. Any discussion? If not, I’ll start a rollcall vote with Mr. Aguinaldo. MR. AGUINALDO: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Three ayes. Motion carried to take the Health and Safety Division’s presentation ahead of the Director’s Report. 15-Minute Briefing Concerning Training Programs Offered/Conducted By The Divisions Within The Department Of Human Resources: Briefing By The Health And Safety Division; MAB May Determine Which Division Will Provide A Briefing At Its Next Meeting CHR. CABANAS: So, Ryan, thank you—and you may start your presentation. (At this time, Mr. Ryan Chong, Manager II, Health and Safety Division, Human Resources Department, came forward.) MR. CHONG: Good morning, Members of the MAB—and thank you for inviting us to present on what we do. (At this time, he proceeded with his power point presentation; SEE ATT. A.) Just going straight into it, Health and Safety Division—we met the staff or we got the names of the staff—again, Ryan Chong, HR Manager; I have two Safety Specialists II’s, Douglas McCormick, Kamalu Kualii; I also have Safety Specialist I position that is currently vacant; I have a Safety and Driver Program Specialist position that is currently vacant, brand new position, just created; and then I have two Safety and Driver Improvement Coordinators, Steven Kalilikane, Jr., and I have Rex—goes by “Kalei” Livingston. All of our current staff members hold CDL-A licenses, so we have the capabilities to do a lot of driver training as well as regular regulatory training. Total amongst the gentlemen here—101 years of driving experience for CDL; total amongst the 30— Kamalu, Kalei, and Steven—we have about 81 years of operator experience. MR. THOMAS: They don’t look that old. Page 5 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 MR. CHONG: When you add myself into the mix with the CDL experience then we have about 101 years and 40 hours of driving experience. As far as that goes—now, what we do. So, in no particular order, the Health and Safety Division serves as a safety resource to all departments and agencies. Our focus is, primarily, on regulatory compliance although we will assist how ever we can. And so, we’re—we feel like we’re kind of a drop-all place. If somebody’s got something that’s concerning, they call, and we help out—even with the public. A lot of the time we get Department of Health calls at our office—and we don’t know anything about their regulations, but we have their numbers readily available, and we push people out to wherever they belong to or where we think they belong to. So, from here, we got Regulatory Interpretation and Guidance. A lot of people aren’t really familiar with workplace health and safety. They assume that because we can do certain things at home, we can do them at the workplace as well. And that’s not necessarily true—even with the tools that you buy, you can buy home-grade tools from Home Depot—not—many are not appropriate for workplace use because of OSHA regulations—and we’ll talk about OSHA in a second. Our main focus is on safety training, and vehicle and equipment training—that’s where we spend most of our time. We also do safety inspections—these come about on request from the departments. Because we’re part of HR, we don’t belong to any specific department—we don’t go into the department so much and tell them, “Hey, this is what you need to do.” If there is something that is immediately dangerous to life and health that we observe, then we’ll stop it. But other than that, a regular violation—we’ll bring it up to their supervisor. We normally wait until somebody invites us into their house and says, “Hey, can you help us?” At that point, then we’ll assist any way that we can. We also control Safety Policy for the County and Safety Related Contracts and Other Related Duties as Assigned. For us, the biggest related duty that we have is helping out with the Emergency Operations Call Center at Civil Defense during natural disasters. So, typically, when a natural disaster happens, they ask for safety officer— and I usually fill that role as one of the staff officers for Civil Defense. The other thing that they ask for is, can we get additional support to answer calls— answer calls/disseminate information. And so, we coordinate that out of our office for how ever long the issue is going to last—or how ever long they anticipate the issue. We’ve had some issues like COVID where we go months, and months, and months. We had Lala where we had seven days post-arrival of the disaster. We’ve had some that we call on—like Moke—that we call off immediately because there’s really no need, but that’s our other “related duties.” Page 6 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 So, just going down what we do. We are a regulatory compliance and that falls under OHSA, right—Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The two sections that we deal with normally is 29 CFR 1910, which covers General Industry; 29 CFR 1926 covers Construction Industry. Now, most businesses are classified in one of the two—but it really doesn’t matter what you’re classified as—it matters what you’re actually doing. So, although as a government we’re typically “General Industry”—if we have people going out to do construction work—forming up, carpentry, framing, whatever—then we have to follow the construction standard. Construction standard is typically more stringent than the General Industry standard. Along with OSHA, we’re actually one of 26 different states that have a state-run program—and so, we have an intermediate layer—HIOSH. HIOSH is exactly the same thing—their rules come out of Hawaiʻi Administrative Rules12-60 General Health and Safety Requirements. HIOSH has a section that, basically, mirrors everything that OSHA has. They have, like, nine different regulations that they are a little bit more stringent—but, the rule is, you need to be at least as stringent as what federal OSHA is for your state plan. And then, some of the other entities that we deal with is the American National Standards Institute or ANSI, or the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health—and both of those—ANSI is a standard oversight, private-nonprofit organization—oversees the development and maintenance of voluntary consent of standards. The thing about ANSI and NIOSH is typically, they aren’t the regulation— they tell you what the rules are, and OSHA sometimes adopts their rules and incorporates them by reference into the regulation. For instance, safety glasses—ANSI has the rules. OSHA decided, “Okay, we like ANSI’s rules, and we’ll adopt them in their entirety.” So, ANSI says, “Incorporate it by reference, ANSI Z87.1”—and the different years that they say, “Now you have to follow the ANSI standard”—and that’s just how it works for all of the regulatory stuff that we do. On the driving side, we deal mainly with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration or FMCSA—comes out of 49 Code of Federal Regulations Parts 350-399. We also deal with Hawaiʻi Administrative Rules and Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes through the State of Hawaiʻi, Department of Transportation. And some of the industry stalwarts that help FMCSA and HI-DOT are AAMVA, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and also the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices—excuse me. Now, the whole reason why we’re around is the OSH Act of 1970. So, OSHA has a bunch of regulations but it doesn’t have a regulation for everything, and it doesn’t need Page 7 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 a regulation for everything because the General Duty Clause—well, it’s known as General Duty Clause OSH Act of 1970, Section 5(a)(1)—reads, “Each employer -- shall furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees;”— So, they got specific standards that we have to follow and, if they don’t have a standard but we’re doing something that’s unsafe, likely to cause death or serious physical harm—then they can tag us from the General Duty Clause. So, there’s always a way to cite somebody, if you’re not doing things correctly—and that’s our main focus is on regulatory compliance across the County. So, some of things that we do. This slide is bringing up everything that has a specific regulation attached to it. Now, the difficulty with doing this type of compliance regulatory—following the rules—the difficult thing in following the rules is that not everything applies to everybody. Because we do so many different things in the County, each specific department has different needs—each specific division has different needs, even within the division— some Park Caretakers may need this type of training, some Park Caretakers may need the other type of training. And a good example is something like Fire Safety Awareness—does anybody know if you have to be trained in fire extinguisher use? Most people have no idea. They see a fire extinguisher out and they just assume, “Oh, you know what, I can use a fire extinguisher.” Well, if you’re authorized to use the fire extinguisher, OSHA regulations says that you have to be trained annually. If you have an emergency action plan and a fire protection plan that meets OSHA requirements, then you don’t need to be—but everybody in your workplace needs to evacuate. And so, our focus is on regulatory compliance—trying not to get fined while keeping our employees safe—and so, that’s just a tightrope walk. And so, a lot of these are like that where not everybody needs it. So, it’s very, very specific to what the needs are in the specific department, in the division, even down to the specific work classification—what the people are doing. But these are the things that we do for OSHA regulation. These are some of the programs that we have for Vehicle and Equipment Training. For vehicle and equipment training, that one actually is a specific regulation under the Construction Industry Standards—I believe it’s 602. But Construction Industry Standards says that the employer will only let people that are trained and qualified operate machines. And so, for every machine, that’s just a blanket that you need to train on everything. So, although we train somebody for a CDL license, basically, we train them on a tractor- Page 8 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 trailer. Now, for every other CDL vehicle that we drive, they’re supposed to get training because they all operate a little bit differently. And so, that’s what this is for. We also have stuff that aren’t OSHA regulated and aren’t vehicle related. So, something like “Active Attacker Awareness”—it used to be—what was it called—"Active Shooter.” Thank you. It used to be called active shooter. It’s no longer called active shooter—it’s called active attacker because there are ways that people do things that don’t involve shooting. And so, the original came out was “run, hide, fight”—Department of Homeland Security put out that. Now, it’s “avoid, deny, and defend.” Exactly the same concept just they morphed it into something that’s a little bit easier for everybody to understand—avoid, deny, and defend as opposed to run, hide, fight. We have Automated External Defibrillator’s or AEDs. We provide an orientation for that. You folks may have noticed an AED when you walked into the main entrance here. We control about 70 units islandwide at different County facilities. Those need absolutely no training on. Anybody can use them as long as you are mentally and physically qualified to use it. Mental qualifications, basically, is you can understand and follow directions in English. Physical qualifications—if you can go and grab the unit, you can probably use the unit—but the unit is very simple to operate. All self-explanatory—it prompts you along, even through the steps of CPR, if you don’t know it. Back Injury Prevention—again, Back Injury Prevention, Ergonomics—even Flagger Safety—sounds like there should be a OSHA regulation on that, but there isn’t. And for Ergonomics, it’s kind of easy to understand why and that also ties into back injury prevention. For ergonomics, everybody’s body is built different. So, they cannot make a rule that applies to everybody all the time. Whereas, a rule like a hard hat, that applies to everybody the same way all the time. If something falls on your head and it hits you on the head, it’s going to hurt, it’s going to cause injury. So, easy to put in a rule like that. Ergonomics not so easy. And so, ergonomics is one of those things that OSHA’s been looking at for years—no official standard has come out, yet. Heat injuries are something that OSHA’s been looking at recently as well. Flagger Safety the same way. NARCAN Nasal Spray for opioid doses—we have NARCAN in all 70 units—with all 70 AED units that we have out and about at public facilities or County facilities. And then, we also do Unexploded Ordinance Safety just because out in Waimea Camp Tarawa, down in the Waikoloa areas, there’s still a lot of unexploded ordinance out and about. And then some of the programs that we control—we have a CDL Training Program that’s being consulted with the Union right now, so that we made sure that we are fair in how we train people for temporary assignment opportunities. Page 9 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 We control the Employee Assistance Program through Employee Assistance of the Pacific. We have a Fleet Safety Awareness Program—basically it’s random inspections. We choose a date, we choose a couple of base yards, we go out and we check everybody. We check everybody—just to make sure that everybody’s doing what they’re supposed to—everybody’s got their license, everybody’s got their insurance card, everybody’s truck is up to road worthiness—that type of thing. We have our Hazard Assessment and Certification Program because hazard assessments are a requirement by OSHA. When we just got Steven, then he brought over the Landfill Safety and Operation Program, like, we talked about earlier—we have the Public Access Defibrator Program, and then we have our Semi-Annual Checklist for Safety Confirmation Program. Semi-Annual Checklist—again, one of the regulations is that you should periodically check your own workplace. So, we ask every department, every six months in January and July—just take a look around. We give them a checklist—it’s got questions that just prompt people, “Hey, do you have a first aid kit? How often does it get inspected? Hey, do you have fire extinguishers? Do you have the requisite programs, and everybody’s notified to evacuate, or do we need to do the training?”—that type of thing. It's just real, real simple ticklers, but because we’re looking at the whole workplace—it came out to be about 11-pages long—and we just ask everybody to take a look at that every January and July. We also, as part of what we talked about earlier, we offer inspections. When they call us, “Hey, can you look at my place?”—we go out. And we usually take as many eyes as possible, ‘cause everybody’s got kind of their own pet peeve. I don’t like exit signs. Exit signage just a regulatory thing—exit signs has got to be seen from any place in any room—and so, that’s my thing. Somebody else may have fire extinguishers—it’s their thing. But even J—we see J at least once a year in Corp. Counsel because we go in there every January—just walk around, just to make sure that, “Hey, up to regulation”—not only are we looking at regulatory compliance but we’re looking at employee safety. And if you were to ask me which one is more important—hmm, for me, it’s employee safety. I mean, there’s a bunch of ways that you can be safe but not being regulatory compliant. And a lot of our personnel—a lot of people, in general, have figured those ways out, right? The shortcuts. Nobody’s ever gotten hurt in a shortcut before, but there’s a reason why the rule exists—and so, that’s why we’re there to tell them, “You know what, yeah, we understand the shortcut. We understand that nobody’s gotten hurt before, but somebody has, in history, and the rules are written in blood. So, let’s try and get back to the rule.” So, that’s basically what we do. Page 10 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 And, again, we’re a catch-all. If you have some kind of problem, call Health and Safety, and Health and Safety will divide you out to wherever you—we think you should be, if we can’t help you directly. And now I’m open for questions. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you, Ryan, and thank you for the handout to your power point presentation. Board members, you have any questions for Ryan or any of the employees as to what they do? You don’t have any? Niel, do you have any? MR. THOMAS: Only a curiosity with this huge number of rules and having to walk around to see whether things are being done right. How often do you find that an injury has taken place because a rule was not followed or some piece of equipment was missing or so forth—as opposed to there wasn’t a rule— and so, somebody got injured or something bad happened? MR. CHONG: So, most of the injuries that we see are musculoskeletal disorders— strains, sprains, and that type of thing. Very rarely do we see something manifested physically where we can tie that directly to a regulation. There has been one serious accident in the last few years where there was no specific regulation from OSHA but there’s industry standard, and industry standard wasn’t met, and we had a gentleman get seriously injured and subsequently he passed. And so, even for that, right, the weird thing about that is because there is no specific regulation, the fine that we got or the citation that we got was just based off of the General Duty Clause because you’re not doing what you’re supposed to—and this was a reasonably anticipated hazard. MS. TOKIHIRO: I will note, though, that as a result, significant changes were made within the department operation for how the associated work tasks are performed. So, there were significant changes to the operation while the department reassessed with that industry standard, and then backed up and looked at employee safety, looked at available equipment, looked at what our—the County’s ability to safely perform a function and created limits for what our employees would do. And then, there are certain aspects of that work that then, subsequently, became subcontracted out to experts in the field that have all of the necessary equipment to perform those functions in a different manner. So, that one—that injury was significant, but significant changes were made within the County to reassess. While there was no—while the industry standard was not met after looking at everything that transpired, it wasn’t sufficient for the County to continue. Page 11 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 So, it resulted in changes to position descriptions, operations, et cetera, so that if—so that there’re securities in place so that something like that would never happen again. MR. THOMAS: Thank you. I can understand the logic here. Also, in the—sort of toward the beginning of your presentation, you showed us that federal structure for all those regulations. They must have an enforcement team and so on and so forth. And then, there’s the state organization, you’re part of it—and I guess it drops down to the local level here—like what you do. Do we rely on the Feds. to come up with the standards and what we represent or what we do at the State or County level is really to add staff to make sure all of the stuff is complied with. Is that the whole idea? MR. CHONG: So, as far as that goes—feds. set the floor, feds. determine—“These are the rules that we’re going to make, and these are the rules that you have to follow.” Because we have a state plan, Feds. don’t touch Hawaiʻi at all. A couple of years back, they actually took back enforcement power from HIOSH because they weren’t happy with HIOSH—but HIOSH has since gotten them back. Feds. set the floor, HIOSH can be more restrictive—nevertheless, restrictive. So, they can throw additional rules in there—and once it’s written down, then that’s incorporated by reference, and we can get cited on that. On top of that, as the County, we can put additional rules on top—and so, for a good example is our Safety Vest Policy. There is no General Duty Standard that says we have to wear safety vests—safety vests comes out of Federal Highway Traffic Administration and they say that we need to wear safety vests anytime we’re on a roadway. As the County, we’ve made our own policy that says, “Anybody that’s doing these things, needs to have a safety vest on.” So, when HIOSH comes in to do an inspection, if we’re not following our own rules, we can get cited even if no other rule exists. And so, that’s another tightrope walk where people want to, “Okay, we want to make this a rule”—be careful because if you make that rule, that’s what everybody has to stand on. For instance, if we make red shirts on Friday—if you’re not wearing red shirts on Friday, we could get cited for it, if it’s a written rule. And so, that’s where the difficulty comes in. MR. THOMAS: And so, on the staffing side of it, do we represent here in the County and the State a level of staffing that isn’t present from the Feds.—we have to fill in the cracks, so to speak? MR. CHONG: So, that would be at the State level for the HIOSH Office—yes, they’re representing occupational safety and health for the government. For us, we’re not regulatory for outside agencies here at the County, we’re only County employees. So, our concern is health and safety for County employees. And, right now, having this big a staff is wonderful because when I first started, Safety Division was a division of three; Page 12 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 and then, one retired. So, it was just me and the Manager. So, now this is actually really good. MR. THOMAS: So, what led to this ability to staff it up. What were the arguments made at the time? MR. CHONG: I believe—once in HR, the Safety and Driver Improvement Coordinator, which is Junior—Steven and Kalei’s position—once he retired, that position transferred over to the Department of Environmental Management. Department of Environmental Management has the biggest pool of CDL drivers. And so, that was working, and it worked well—but we also have CDL drivers in other departments—so, Parks and Recreation has, Department of Water Supply has, Department of Public Works has. Public Works also had their own SDIC—Safety and Driver Improvement Coordinator, but Parks was left out, Waterworks was left out—and so, when Parks and Waterworks both came in to ask for the position, then I think it was a reorganization going—“You know what, should everybody be stand-alone, or should we all stand under one umbrella.” And so, with the change in Administration, different priorities—then the change was finally made—one umbrella, put it all in the HR Safety. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, it helps to make sure that the communication to the departments is consistent, right. I mean, the SDIC’s, the Safety and Driver Improvement Coordinators in the departments would work closely in the past with the Health and Safety Division. But they were all independently, kind of, doing their—operating their own programs, or if a department had a vacancy, they weren’t conducting any of those programs. They would contact our Health and Safety Division for assistance, but without somebody in their department, there were some of those functions that weren’t occurring. And so, having it centralized in HR, in the Health and Safety Division, now creates these backups, right. So, our Safety and Driver Improvement Coordinators could potentially be assigned to any department that has a need, or they can work together with a single department to address a bigger need quickly, right. So, at certain times of year, Steven would reach out to Ryan when they needed to do the driver audits for everyone that has, like, a CDL at DEM, and so they would partner together. Now, with the centralized function we’re going to be able to have more control over the planning and the scheduling and getting that done on the—on a regular cycle because the team can be working on that throughout the year, in addition to rolling out the actual Driver Training, Equipment Training, and then operating the other—providing the other safety trainings as well. So, we’re really excited to have it all in one place and this team works together really, really well. So, looking forward to adding a couple of additional members, but this is a great start for the County to centralize this function. Page 13 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 MR. CHONG: And although one division has asked, “Is there a weight requirement to work in my division”—there isn’t a weight requirement to work in my division. MR. AGUINALDO: I have one. So, each department you guys’ cover is that the responsibility of the superintendent to oversee their department for the safety aspect or you guys just randomly go or only, like, you indicated—only as they request? MR. CHONG: So, for the most part, every department is responsible for themselves. What we find is a lot of people don’t know what they don’t know. So, we will visit periodically and as we talk to them, discuss various things, and we go, “Eh, you know what, you might be deficient here. Give us a call, let us know what we can do to help.” Unfortunately, one of our divisions, we are housed with them—so, anytime we walk out of our front door or our back door, and we see a deficiency, they get rung up. And our style is not to make an example out of everybody. We just want the thing fixed. So, we don’t ring—we ring up as high on the telephone pole as we need to—to get it fixed, but we’re not trying to make a mountain out a molehill. We just want it fixed, make sure that everybody there understands, “You know what, this is the issue, so let’s fix that and let’s move along.” We don’t want to assign blame to anybody because, again, we don’t know what people—people don’t know, what they don’t know. So, education—constant education. Every time we’re talking to somebody, we’re trying to educate, “You know what, this is what it is. This is where you can look, here’s some reference materials, here’s some resources, and call us if you need any additional help.” MR. AGUINALDO: Yeah, because, I guess, just the presentation was good. Myself, I one contractor and I used to have a lot of employees—and back then was different but, like, the HIOSH, OSHA—a lot of factors. Sommer, it’s a lot. We sometimes take things for granted. But, again, that’s why I asked that question, “Who is responsible,” right? I feel also, every individual employee—you want to go home—you better do it right. And now I just think about it, like, what you said—like, “Ho, how many fire extinguishers, the County has first aid”—all of that. Like, myself, we had like extensive training, so I do weekly “Toolbox” talk—and look, they nodding their head ‘cause it’s the thing to do. Every employee got to read it, got to practice it, and you got to sign it—and you got to turn it in every week. I see, like, outside of the box, I talk to people, they say, “Oh, I kind of hurt my back and strained this”—I, like, “Eh, you guys not doing your morning stretch I think.” Certain projects I go on, I mean, before you even start, I mean, they make you do stretches, they make you do all that because if you go, “Ooh, I think you got to go home”— because just the liability factor of—and when I became an employer I took things so important, like, my employees are just like my family. I take the highest safety aspect in even what they do—even from safety glasses. I, like, sometimes they forget—I come Page 14 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 the way into Hilo, I buy them safety glasses, and I says, “Your eyes is very important”— and little stuff like that and—I’m really impressed on like how—‘cause I always think, like, “Ho, you guys get a lot of employees”—so much, and going to someone and telling them, “I sorry, but they’re not coming home.” That’s—ho— MR. CHONG: And that’s what we want to avoid, right? You come to work with ten fingers, ten toes—you going home with ten fingers and ten toes. And it’s not polite to say but if you too stupid to figure it out, then we will assist you in figuring it out. And that’s why the “220 mark”—kind of, is helpful—when I walk in with Doug behind me— nobody really has an issue because Doug’s behind me. And so, now when we have more people—bigger people—it always helps. The funny—just a funny, quick one— Kalei recently started with us. And as Kalei sits down and hears the discussions and these are the regulations—Kalei is like, “Wow, looking back in my career, there’s a lot of times where I got lucky and nobody got hurt because this, this, this, and this.” And that’s what we’re trying to do, right, because if you make safety a cultural thing, it doesn’t just affect you at work—safety affects you at home. If you go deaf because of workplace occupational noise, that doesn’t stop when you clock out. You’re deaf at home, so that’s the uncomfortable part. So, we try and get all of our guys to understand, “You know what, it’s not because I said so. It’s not because we’re going to get a fine for it. It’s because you being deaf is really uncomfortable. So let’s not be deaf”—but, again, people don’t know what they don’t know. “Oh, we’ve done this all this time and nothing’s happened”—so it’s okay. No, it’s really not. MS. TOKIHIRO: And I think there’s the component of mindfulness and awareness that we can help, kind of, reignite in our employees, which is what the—what they’re working on now through this Vehicle Inspection Program because there’s a lot of attention that goes, of course, to our CDL holders, to our tractor-trailers that are hauling rubbish, and people operating equipment. But we also are incorporating inspection of all vehicles. So, anybody who is assigned or operates a County vehicle, we need to be paying attention to safety checks, and registrations, and making sure that people have their insurance, and all of the things that they should be doing. Because people get into these routines of doing something the same way every day—not being aware of maybe all of the components that should be going into it or all of the things that they should be evaluating when they’re operating a County vehicle. And so, that’s that one-on-one contact where it’s an opportunity to remind and, hopefully, educate—and then catch issues before it becomes a problem. So, I appreciate the opportunity that the division is taking to get out and interact with people, interact with the base yard—provide that education component because that can help Page 15 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 people to be more mindful and aware of their own habits in maintaining a safe workplace and conducting their business safely. MR. CHONG: And like I mentioned earlier, we’re not “enforcement.” We’re a “friend”— come and tell us when you have a problem—and that’s what I want the office to be. We’re a resource. Come tell us you have a problem, and we don’t need to know where the problem exists, but if we can shake the tree for you at a higher level—sometimes the problems fix themselves, and that’s all we need. So, we’re not trying to rat anybody out on the bottom level. We don’t care who’s the block on the top, but if it’s a safety issue and we can provide you with the information to get what you need—then let’s shake the tree from a different angle, and let’s see what falls out. MR. AGUINALDO: Yeah, it’s good, like what you said, Sommer, about vehicle safety, CDL—‘cause myself I have CD—yeah, I have CDL. It’s pretty, pretty gnarly. When having CDL it’s not like before—now, oh, shucks, they—after 911, it was, like, ho—I mean, the vehicle you’re driving or tractor trailer, you could use that as one weapon as well. But it’s so important, because as population grows and—aw, man, you no like have one accident and—shucks, the County never have their insurance—God. Then how things go, but it’s—yeah, as our population grows, more and more—I see more on the Public Works sign—the highway roadway—I see, I mean, cars just speed. And your guys working—and, like, even Department of Water. I know you guys have, like, not “flaggers” now—it’s off-duty police officers, which is good. Another one since—it’s great you guys are under one umbrella, even with Department of Water—and I did the water well for the County for the UH, going up Puainako Extension—shucks, their chlorination room, it’s—I feel that should always get two people. When you walk in that door, if you no use respirator—ho, that sucker, kind of, like, going take you out. That’s the only concern ‘cause they always periodically check, yeah. I mean, that’s something good to see, ‘cause I no think so, these guys use any— that buggah strong man, ‘cause you always got to put the tabs, so that does its own thing. But that is one good one for—I don’t know, maybe things changed from then till now, but that sucker strong. ‘Cause if only one person, they pass out, pau—they stuck in that room—that’s the only concern that I get. I don’t know if things when change— SPEAKER: (Inaudible.) MR. AGUINALDO: Yeah. Like, maybe sometimes just go over there and when the guys are there—yeah. But, yeah, that would be one good one—but that’s it. I good. CHR. CABANAS: Niel, you have some more questions? MR. THOMAS: Well, just one. I don’t know but maybe you can tell me. How do you screen for stupidity? I once fell off a vanity in my wife’s bathroom trying to change a Page 16 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 lightbulb and I guess I rolled with it, so nothing really bad happened. And then, I got a little older and I realized, “You don’t go on, Thomas, on roofs”—and I saw something about ladder safety here, but it’s not the matter of ladder—ladder safety—my ladder was climbing up on the back of my SUV and climbing up onto the roof to change batteries in the weather station—all of which was stupid. Have you screened for that sort of behavior. MR. CHONG: You can’t screen for stupidity—we try and minimize it. And a lot of the time, it’s bringing it to people’s attention when they don’t realize what’s the potential danger. Because you just go, “Oh, you know what, I need to change the lightbulb. Okay, that’s looks like it’s solid enough.” And you step on top and maybe it doesn’t hold your weight. So, it’s just giving people the, “Hey, do you know why we have this rule? Because this happened, and this happened, and this happened.” So, a lot of our presentations will have—and they’re meant as ice breakers, they’re meant as comic relief, but they’re serious accident pictures where, “This is what happens when you do something like that.” If we ever created that program—and we’ve had multiple requests for that program—if we created that program we’d be rich because there is no way to screen out for stupidity. We just try and minimize it while we’re at work. MR. THOMAS: I know that you just work with County employees but has there ever been a thought of an initiative or education program for the general public—people like me? MR. CHONG: For us, we haven’t—mainly because OSHA is concerned with just employees. Like, you can do whatever you want at home, and no regulatory agency is going to tell you anything, which is the weird part—that’s why we’re trying to get the education component here so that it’s second-nature, while you’re at work—you carry that into your personal life. Something like safety glasses, right—we recently updated the Safety Glasses Policy to allow people to wear their own safety glasses because if you have something that’s stylish that you want to wear, then you’re going to wear it while you’re at work—you’re going to wear it while you’re at home. Safety—eye safety is always—if you get blinded at home, that affects how you’re going to work. And so, we did that so that that was allowable. And you got some good safety glass— safety brand—safety glasses brands—polarized lenses, 40 bucks—heck of a lot cheaper than buying Ray-Bans for something like 200. Yeah. But—yeah, I’m sorry, we don’t have that program yet—but if we have one, I’ll put a presentation out. MR. THOMAS: Thank you. Page 17 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: Okay. I have a number of questions—some of it just to, kind of, bring me up to speed ‘cause it’s been almost eight years that I’m retired. I’m glad that you have this handout for us because we will be having new members coming to the Board. The Board supposed to have five members. I like your listing of all of the equipment and because my background was in Recruitment and Examination, this is helpful, I feel, even for staff in other divisions of HR. So, I’m glad you have it all listed. And we had a binder in the office when the previous Safety Driver Improvement Coordinator took the Classifier and myself all around the island. We looked at all the base yards, all the equipment, and we took pictures of what a skid steer is, what a backhoe is, an excavator—because it would help the staff screen applications, ‘cause if you don’t know what you’re talking about, how can you explain it to an applicant. So, the educational component, is it being used for staff because a lot of them are new now—in Recruitment and Exam. and this question is really, I don’t know, maybe for Sommer, but—and Classification—so that when they’re working on class specifications, when they’re working on screening and a recruitment for let’s say, Equipment Operator III or whatever—they know specifically what type of equipment is primarily used for that position or positions—and what it looks like and how they can professionally explain to someone out in the public, about an excavator or bulldozer—there’s different types of bulldozers. So, they have that little help to talk to others. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, to answer your question—yes. So, the Manager of the Recruitment and Examination Division—the former Manager, Michelle Simmons, was coordinating site visits, specifically for that—for all different types of positions, so that the staff could understand what the work was that was being done—and so, equipment is part of that. Our recent social media campaigns where the staff has been going out and interacting with the staff and taking videos of them doing the work, has also provided great opportunities to learn about the equipment, and our Classification and Pay Division has accompanied our Recruitment Division on those visits as well. So, kind of, using every opportunity to be able to get that knowledge, learn, and then share that with the other divisions—and then, it’s good team building for—between our Classification and Pay Division, and our Recruitment Division, particularly, as we’re continuing to move forward with the project about amending our class specifications. And so, the equipment, the language around licensure—that’s all really important for them to understand, but it’s also important for us to standardize how we’re presenting that information. Ryan and I just had a conversation yesterday about a position where it called for a Class IV license, which is a non-CDL license, as well as a CDL license, as well as a Page 18 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 Class III license—and so, that was possibly one of those positions where a class spec. amendment hadn’t been done in quite some time, where that hadn't been looked at. But those are the kinds of things that—yes, the need for that education and to understand what all of that is, so that our C&P and Recruitment Division can look at those things and go, “Okay, wait, does this even make sense?” And then, compare that to what is the equipment that is currently being operated in those positions to make sure that the licensure requirements are accurately reflected. Because in that particular instance, the necessary license is the CDL. And so—and then it’s at what point do they need to present that—is that at the time that they’re filing their application or is it at the time that they’re appointed to the position, et cetera. So, to answer your question—yes, there’s a lot of effort being put into understanding exactly what is required of all of these positions, and we have multiple different ways that we’re getting staff out to understand that—whether through these class spec. amendments, our recruitment efforts, or just the manager trying to get the new staff trained. CHR. CABANAS: So, do they have up-to-date photos, let’s say, of a mini excavator versus an excavator or skid steer—because the situation is, you can have staff this week, but you can hire someone next week or next month, who didn’t have the opportunity to go on a worksite visit. And so, if you have those baseline photos as a reference, then they can go back to it— and it really helps screen applications, and I have other questions later, but I’ll bring that up later. But how should I put it—the men here are really the experts. They know the equipment and they can provide subject matter expertise to staff in the other divisions of HR as well as to staff in the other departments. You folks are the experts, so if you—in your jobs, if you can use that educational component that Ryan has graciously explained— that helps, really, others because, again, if they don’t know what a bulldozer D8 versus a D9 looks like—how are they going to explain that to an applicant. And so, those pictures really become a good reference. And so, I would highly recommend that. MR. CHONG: And we, also—the Managers all communicate with us. When they have a question, they call—and they ask, and we’ve explained the same concept probably, multiple times—but it’s okay. That’s what we’re here for. And unless you’re in the field, unless you understand all the different numbers, there’s no way that you’re keeping them all straight. And so, for us, we’re—“Okay, here. This is what it is. This is this machine”—as far as your pictures go, right now because we have the two SDIC’s on staff—real easy. We could just take photos while we’re out and just drop them in to a dcs folder. Page 19 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MR. CHONG: And everything’s there—labeled. CHR. CABANAS: And it’s labeled. MR. CHONG: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: And it changes, too, right. Because we’re constantly buying new equipment or we’re replacing older equipment—and so, it is good to have the photos and be able to provide that as training; but then, it’s also recognizing, too, that we got to follow-up with the departments and say, “Is this equipment list, is this description still accurate”—because that equipment changes over time. CHR. CABANAS: Yes, it does. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, it’s kind of that—it’s got to be this multi-faceted approach where we’re always keeping the communication open. And there’ve been issues as well that, kind of, unintended consequences as departments have purchased equipment that has requirements that exceed what is in the class spec. for that position. So, departments need to be working with us as well when they’re purchasing this equipment, working with our Labor Relations Division, to make sure that operation of that equipment or if there’s a required license, et cetera—how that gets addressed because we can’t just buy a new piece of equipment and then require the employees to have a certain license. So, it’s working together between the departments, Health and Safety, and our Labor Relations Division to address those things as well. So, the constant communication and sharing of information and really evaluating it from the perspective of all of our different divisions is ongoing and is a key component of how we support our departments. CHR. CABANAS: Any time they’re thinking of buying/purchasing a new piece of equipment, they should be touching base with Health and Safety; and if there—if the success of that purchase is done, then they need to look at the PD and have it—and the class spec.—so all of that should be going on simultaneously with the subject matter experts here so that remind them that, “Hey, did you look at the class spec.? Did you look at your PD?”—especially if it’s a higher level of piece of equipment, ‘cause the additional skill is going to be needed or maybe the classification is still the same—but look at it. Remind them. They need to look at the class spec. and the PD. Yeah. Page 20 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 The other question I have is—thank you for all of that. The other question I had was—is Department of Environmental Management up to speed with their Equipment Operators, ‘cause at one point in time they were short-staffed, and the recruitment was continuous. Have all those positions been filled? MS. TOKIHIRO: I believe that they still have some vacancies, but the Director of the department reported at a recent Cabinet meeting that when he started as Director, they had 60 vacancies department-wide and that’s come down to 30. So, I think that there are still vacancies that they’re working to fill but it’s, definitely, improving—they have more staff. CHR. CABANAS: Specifically, for the Equipment Operator III’s, ‘cause that was a big issue and the promotion—not promotion, but the training of the Solid Waste Transfer Station Attendants into these higher level positions. So the Union got involved and it was a real big thing—but that was, like, over maybe ten years ago. MS. TOKIHIRO: It continues to be a real big thing, but we are working on it. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, that’s part of our consultation with the UPW regarding the Countywide Driver Training Program, is meant to address those areas of needs, so it identifies how we’ll select employees for that training program, based on seniority, based on base yard need—prioritize those—and have a very clear and transparent notification system for the employees within the department—and so, that the Union can understand how those priorities are identified, and those individuals are identified for training. CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, we’re continuing to consult with them on that. CHR. CABANAS: So are Solid Waste Transfer Station Attendants being TA’d to EOIII positions? MR. CHONG: Currently—hang on one second, I’ll let Steve answer. MR. KALILIKANE: Hi. Currently, yes. In the Solid Waste Division we do have SWFA’s that can TA up to EO3 positions. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, okay. MR. KALILIKANE: Now that we do have the staffing available, that makes it a lot easier for us to actually get out there and start getting down on this program— Page 21 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: Right. MR. KALILIKANE: —with the SWFA’s TA’ing and moving up to— CHR. CABANAS: Right. MR. KALILIKANE: —the EOIII positions. Yes. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. And are you assigned to specific departments? So, you switch off between Junior and Kalei, so they can work different departments—it’s not like they’re assigned to Public Works or— MR. KALILIKANE: Not specifically assigned to any department— CHR. CABANAS: Okay. MR. KALILIKANE: —as requests come in. CHR. CABANAS: Right. MR. KALILKANE: Then we’re assigned— CHR. CABANAS: Okay. MR. KALILIKANE: —we’re assigned according to the task at-hand. Yes. CHR. CABANAS: Right. Okay. All right, sounds good. Yes, you’re very fortunate, Ryan, to have the staff because when you’re short-staffed, it’s—even if you want to do more—it’s only so much one can do in a eight-hour day. So, to have these four men—and you all look very capable and look like you’re all happy in doing what you’re doing, and you have a good Manager who’s on it. Congratulations, you folks are doing well. The departments need your expertise, do what you can to help them—under Ryan’s and Sommer’s guidance. It’s so nice to see all of you, and meet the new ones, and see the old—not “old”—but seasoned—seasoned employees experience—it’s nice to have all of you here. Anyone else for questions before they are released? SPEAKER: They did good. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, they did. Wonderful presentation, Ryan. Page 22 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 MR. CHONG: Thank you. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. Good job. Well, guys, it’s Friday—no work till Monday. MR. AGUINALDO: Thank you very much. CHR. CABANAS: Have a good weekend, take care—nice seeing all of you. We’ll take a little five-minute pause. RECESS: The Chair called for a recess at 10:01 a.m. RECONVENE: The meeting reconvened at 10:11 a.m. in open session. CHR. CABANAS: We’re back—the meeting is back in—to order at 10:11 a.m. Director’s Report (Item 5) A. MAB Monthly Divisional Activity Report: September 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: We are now at the “Director’s Report.” Sommer Tokihiro is here to present her MAB Monthly Divisional Activity Report for September 2026. Good morning, Sommer. MS. TOKIHIRO: Hi, good morning. So, you all received the report. I did want to highlight the work being done by Jenny and our Personnel and Organizational Development Division, around our new Student Helper positions, working with the local high schools to fill—we have ten positions that can be used in a variety of departments. And so, what Jenny has done is worked with the schools to let the students know about the opportunities and then the opportun—the students have submitted, like, an information form in an area—defining an area of interest for them, as far as possible future career with the County—and then, Jenny has matched that with our different departments to provide these opportunities. And so, we’re really excited about that as a way for us to be able to provide more of a connection to our high school students about all of the different positions available within the County, all the different services that we provide—but then, also, how they can have a long-term career in government service that can evolve over time. Maybe they’re not interested in going to college right now but if they come and work for the Page 23 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 County and are interested in going to school later, they could benefit from our Tuition Reimbursement Program. So, we’re just really excited to be able to offer more opportunities for an orientation to County government to our high school students. So Jenny’s been working really hard on that—and we sent our procedure out to our departments earlier this week, so that they can actually complete the forms necessary to have a position transferred to their department—so, kind of getting that program up and running, which is really exciting for us. But, as you can see from the report, there’s a lot of things happening in HR, so I’m happy to answer any questions, if there’s an area of specific interest for you. MR. THOMAS: Can you tell us a little more about the process of assisting the Fire Commission in finding a new Fire Chief—what is your role in this—and, otherwise, how is that project going? MS. TOKIHIRO: So, we’ll be administering the Commission’s written assessment next rd week on September 23, and then the Commission will be conducting their interviews th on September 24. So, we assisted the Commission by opening the recruitment through our NeoGov platform. We accepted all of the applications and did the screening. And the Commission—it’s the Commission’s responsibility to select a Fire Chief—and they establish the process to do so. They don’t have to follow the same process that we would follow for a normal recruitment for a civil service position. So, the process that they follow is up to them. And so, our role in assisting them was really to provide them with education about the different options. And then, we did provide training—we provided them a modified version of our Conducting an Effective Job Interview Training, we assisted the Commission Chair—in combination with Corp. Counsel—to formulate the interview questions, to establish a rating rubric for responses to those questions, we helped them to clarify if they were going to be interviewing all of the candidates or if they were going to go through, kind of, an interrogatory assessment process the way that the Police Commission did. So, basically, we’ve attended a number of meetings with the Commission, tried to provide answers to their questions, provided some examples of things that had been done in the past, and tried to provide guidance—and it’s not really guidance, so much as—because it is up to the Commission—but, for general awareness and understanding—working with Corp. Counsel and saying that these are areas that you may want to consider in their process, so— Page 24 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 MR. THOMAS: So, it sounds like the way the Fire Commission works is a little like how we work. I mean, heaven forbid, we should have to through all of that with your position, but is—there’s an analogy there, right? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes, it’s the same. MR. THOMAS: Same? Okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. And so—but I believe the Fire Commission has several new members from the selection of the former Fire Chief—and so, there is always a bit of a learning curve for the Commission to, kind of, get up to speed with their area of responsibility. And then, even kind of identifying, “How do we want to go about this?” And it’s a nine-member Commission and so everybody needs to vote and be on the same page with their process. MR. THOMAS: Well, they’re not personnel professionals—I mean, what you have to tell them about the pitfalls of all of this, it must terrify them. MS. TOKIHIRO: It can. I leave all of that to Corp. Counsel because should there ever be a challenge to any of those processes, it is Corp. Counsel that would address those areas. And so, they’re assigned Corp. Counsel—Cameron as well as Keyra, assisting—is really invaluable for the Commission. MR. THOMAS: And their role is then the same as J’s responsibility to us, is it? MS. TOKIHIRO: It is. Yes. MR. THOMAS: Okay. CHR. CABANAS: You mentioned—you stated the word “vote”—are they using—well, part of the rubric is the scoring method, right? MS. TOKIHIRO: It is scoring—yes. But I believe—and when it gets to the final selection, it’s not purely based on the score. CHR. CABANAS: It’s not? MS. TOKIHIRO: No. CHR. CABANAS: Why is that? MS. TOKIHIRO: Because they—the Commission determined that their process is going to be—they’re going to do a written assessment, and then they’ll do the oral interview, Page 25 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 and then from that scoring—they’ll identify the top three candidates to be considered for final selection. CHR. CABANAS: So, how is that different from our pro—how is it the same as our process? MS. TOKIHIRO: It’s not the same in the detail. I think it was more similar to you folks establishing the process for how you want to select the Director. When I went through the recruitment process for the position, it was a recruitment that also occurred through DHR, and then there was the interview, and then an assessment exercise—so administered differently. CHR. CABANAS: It kind of bothers me, but— MR. THOMAS: Well, isn’t there a measure of subjectivity that’s permitted and natural— that’s how humans operate—they don’t operate on a formula, and you win by one point or not—it’s not the World Cup, is it? MS. TOKIHIRO: I did raise concerns at the Commission meeting, or I provided comments to the Commission when they determined that they were going to use the assessment and oral interview scores as a narrowing component. I suggested to the Commission that they consider possibly identifying a range of scores, say, within—like a score that was within 10% of the top candidate. And I explained to the Commission that if you narrow the scores and you select the top three, there could be a very broad range of scores in the top three candidates, which may not be reflecting true fitness and ability for the position. So, I recommended that they establish a score that would be within a range of the top scoring candidate and then consider for final selection—anybody within that range. Within the civil service system, we consider relatively equal—and so, I felt that if you considered all of the candidates that had scores within a certain range, that would be considered relatively equal, and then the Commission could make a selection from those candidates, after further evaluation, but they elected to go with just the top three scores. MR. THOMAS: I wonder if it’s somewhat comforting to those Commissioners to realize that the Courts are going to—and J can speak to this, I guess—aren’t the Courts going to, kind of, give deference to the expertise of the Commissioners and they’re not going to overturn what their final choice is—from three that are considered, more or less, equal, right? MR. YOSHIMOTO: Yeah, I would agree with that—Courts, generally, give broad deference to the boards or commissions in the appointing process, ‘cause they’re very involved in the entire process—looking at the entire body of work—but when it comes Page 26 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 down to it, I think it’s the—each board or commission’s discretion to make the appointment—or the motion. So, I think the process that Sommer explained is correct. MR. THOMAS: Thank you. CHR. CABANAS: I’m glad you gave them that advice. MS.TOKIHIRO: And we will be administering the assessment on behalf of the Commission. And then, when we provide the assessment, we’ll be providing the application materials to the Commission at that time. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, sounds good. Are there questions for Sommer on the MAB report? I have one, Sommer, and the only reason I’m going to bring it up is because I was at a function and this person was talking about her son—and “Oh, he has a job, but he was looking for other work and…”—I didn’t say anything. She had no idea of my HR background. She had no idea I’m on the Merit Appeals Board. I just listened to her. And she’s saying, “Oh, you know, he had applied for a County job, and, oh, notices came so, so—he had to wait so long. And then his application was not accepted, he didn’t meet the minimum requirements, he didn’t have the required experience”—and all I told her was, “Well, you could call and talk to—find out what was missing”—“Oh, he didn’t want to do that—but, you know, they screen the applications using AI. They look for key words.” I was like, “What?!” I didn’t say anything, I was like in my mind, “What?!” NeoGov is not using AI is it? MS. TOKIHIRO: No. We do not use AI for screening of our applications. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, thank you. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. They are being screened for—by real people in our office, and— SPEAKER: (Inaudible.) MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: I don’t know where she got that from, but that was her perception. I was like—I didn’t say anything. It was like, “Not going there.” Page 27 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 MS. TOKIHIRO: There are tools for that, and I believe that that is a component of NeoGov that is available or is something that they’re working on. It is not an aspect of NeoGov that the County uses nor will we. We have no plans to have any of that screening done by AI tools. So, no, I’m—that’s not accurate. I’m not sure where that information came from. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, I don’t know—that’s her perception. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: But I—afterwards I started to think—now, this person doesn’t want to call—he doesn’t want to pursue it any further. But I’ve had people tell me, “Oh, no, they didn’t want to pursue it”—and I’m saying, “Why not?” I said, “You can get more information.” So, then I started to think—when the Specialists review the applications, if it’s a borderline situation, are they putting like, “More information needed”—in the letters? MS. TOKIHIRO: We, actually, changed the notices a few months ago because we wanted to have the notices be more encouraging that people reach out, if they don’t meet the qualifications. And so, we changed the language to, I guess, at one point it was, like, “Application has been rejected.” And I’m like—no, we’ve already accepted the application, we have the application—if the person doesn’t meet the minimum qualifications based on our initial review, then that’s a different story. So, we updated the notice so that it says, “Based on our review of the information provided in your application, you do not meet the minimum qualifications at this time.” And then the Specialists are providing more detail about what is missing or what we’re not seeing. So, then, it’s a more focused response from the applicant and clearer for them to see, maybe there’s something—they have more experience but because of the way that they described it in the application, we weren’t seeing it. And so, it helps the applicant to understand—okay, go back and look at what you wrote in your application and if that’s accurate—well, then, you can understand you just need more experience. But if you go back to your application and—“Oh, that’s not all of the detail or all of the information about our position”—then they—"about the duties that they performed previously”—they still have that seven-day window to provide the additional information, so that we can assess if that experience will meet those requirements. So, we really spent a lot of time looking at all of our notices but, particularly, the ones where we’re notifying an applicant that they don’t meet—because we want to encourage the applicants to reach out and contact us to get clarification, if needed—but we also want them to be clear and understand how we made our determination and what we still need to see in order for them to proceed in the process. Page 28 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 The staff has indicated to me that after we changed those notices, they have gotten more follow-up contacts, but in a lot of cases, it reduced the number of phone calls looking for that detail because we’re now providing it—as much detail as we possibly can in the letter. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, that’s good. The other question I had, or concern was I remember Chief Mahuna at the Hawaiʻi Police Department—when he first got selected, he mentioned that he was going to make the police recruit—recruitment a priority. But I don’t see anything going on with more advertisements or anything to—outreach to the community for the police officer recruit recruitment. And is it—it’s still open, right? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. So, the police officer recruit, we leave that on continuous—and so, we administer the written exam every month, and then the agility test is also administered every month. The Police Department has had some recent recruit classes that have had increased numbers, which is great. I believe there was some transition—there was more social media and more highlighting of the positions at the Police Department, by the Police Department themselves, when they had a police officer that was assisting with their public information outreach—but through promotion and some transition, that assigned person has transitioned into a new role. And so, I think that there may be some additional changes coming. CHR. CABANAS: Do you folks have a plan to move things more forward for more advertisements or— MS. TOKIHIRO: There’s always efforts to try and evaluate how we’re advertising all of our positions— CHR. CABANAS: (Inaudible) but I’m talking about the police recruit. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah, the police recruits—I actually have been—we had discussions with the former Chief Moskovich and Deputy Chief, at that time, Mahuna—about actually not putting the—not leaving the recruit—recruitment on continuous recruitment and, instead, having a special recruitment, say, every couple of months rather than leaving it on continuous, because it will naturally generate more interest if we closed the recruitment, and then reopen it. And it does take time for them to even have a recruit class, so we’re talking about adding language to the advertisements, so that people applying for the recruit position can understand when they would likely be part of a recruit class, if they were selected. So, it’s a similar process that we’re going through with the Fire Department as well. So, it’s advertising but also changing the method that we do the recruitment to get more attention, so that when you go on to the Jobs website, it’s going to show up as a new Page 29 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 recruitment when it’s open and when the department is actually ready to move forward with another class, as opposed to someone applying now and there isn’t even going to be another recruit class starting for six months. CHR. CABANAS: Well, aren’t they having more continuous classes, though? MS. TOKIHIRO: No. There’s—I think there are three recruit classes a year. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, hmm. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, the initial effort when we put it on continuous recruitment, under Chief Moskovich—and we began administering the exam every month and they were doing the agility every month—they’ve had several successful recruit classes where they’ve filled a number of the vacancies. And so, now, I think we’ll be looking to reassess if we can stagger those a little bit more and do the recruitments closer to when they’re going to have a recruit class, to keep that interest. CHR. CABANAS: There’s pros and cons to having a continuous recruitment—yes, it is a little bit more work for the staff. But, on the other hand, we have other islands recruiting as well, so if you don’t have a recruitment open, these individuals may be applying to City and County of Honolulu, Maui, or Kauaʻi—and Hawaiʻi County doesn’t have a recruitment open. So, it depends on—he says it’s a priority, but I don’t see really anything beyond what they were already doing. So, it kind of makes me wonder. MS. TOKIHIRO: We are working to streamline the application process with them as well. So, in the past, the Police Department—anyone applying to the Police Department would apply through our NeoGov platform and then they would have to do a subsequent written application and provide information to the Police Department. So, it’s basically— it became two applications. And so, what we did was we incorporated their written application into the NeoGov application. And so, it allows for that screening application process to be faster because when the department is referred a qualified applicant, they’re getting all of that required background information as well. So, we’re hoping that that will make the process faster. We’ve also been working with the department—we created a class of work that will allow the department to accept applications for Police Officer II—and this would be for individuals that are already police officers in other States. So, we currently have a process that would allow police officers within the State of Hawaiʻi to transfer, but this new—it’ll be through an open-competitive recruitment—officers that are currently working as a police officer in another state could apply for a position, and then they would come in and have a modified recruit training. Page 30 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 So, in the past, it was that even if you’re a police officer in Nevada and you want to work for the County of Hawaiʻi, you would have to come in as a police recruit. So, we’ve worked with the department to develop a class of work that would have this modified— it’s a modified recruit training, so it’s shortened to have that officer come—become familiar with our state laws, with our department—but then move them through to their field training without having to go through the whole recruit process. So, we’re excited about that because that’ll be another recruitment that we’ll have open and, hopefully, be able to draw more interest from individuals across the country. CHR. CABANAS: When is that going to open? MS. TOKIHIRO: So, the class spec., we’ve been working with the department. The class spec. is just in the process of being finalized and then they’ll be able to submit their Request to Fill for that. CHR. CABANAS: So, I hope when that gets opened up, that they take a higher level step in advertising because nationwide, I’m sure that they’ll get other applicants from other states. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes. CHR. CABANAS: But they have to take it to that level. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: And are they going to pay for it—are you going to pay for the ads? Are they going to do televised ads in Hawaiʻi for other officers who may want to move to the Big Island where homes are not as expensive, and they can live comfortably here on our island? That sort of thing. So, I was hoping that that discussion is ongoing with police because he says it’s a priority but, I guess, these things take time and they’re being worked on. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. And we are trying to provide them with some of our feedback and recommendations and looking for ways that we can help them throughout the process. It’s advertising—it is an important component, but it’s also making sure that when they have lists of applicants, that the applicant understands what the process is. And sometimes that process—because of all of the background checks that are required, it can be lengthy. And then, depending on when all of that is completed and the schedule for when a recruit class is going to begin—there can be delays. Page 31 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 So, it’s really about—yes, notifying people that we have these openings but also making sure that we’re communicating with the candidates and trying to make our process go as quickly as possible. CHR. CABANAS: But that’s where the posting and the supplemental information on the posting comes into play. So, we had something like that for the police recruits, so it shows the timeline. And then, eventually, they shortened that timeline. And so, one would think that they would have something similar for the Police Officer II level, so that people who are working elsewhere as—in law enforcement will know, “Okay, this is going to take couple months, okay, but I’m going to get my application in.” So, they could do the same thing, have their timeline established— MS. TOKIHIRO: And I think there’s— CHR. CABANAS: It’s a good idea. MS. TOKIHIRO: I think there’s— CHR. CABANAS: It’s a good idea. MS. TOKIHIRO: I think there’s more flexibility with having the officers come from other states because they don’t necessarily have to be tied to the regular recruit schedule, too, right? So, yeah, we’re just—we’ve been working with the department and trying to approach it from a variety of different angles to help support them. CHR. CABANAS: See, prior police chiefs did not want to do that. They didn’t want to entertain a transfer at the POII level because they said depending on where these candidates come from, the training is not even close to what they receive here. Well, maybe in part that’s true—if they’re especially from there—if they’re from a small, little town area versus a metropolitan area. So, they didn’t want to do it. So, I’m glad that they’re looking at that. MS. TOKIHIRO: And the department is responsible for determining if someone is coming from a department where the training would be considered equivalent. So, there is some screening for applications within the Police Department where it’s delegated to the department. And so, we’ll do an initial screening in HR but as far as knowing what a comparable training program is from another state, that’s for HPD to determine. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, exactly—because applicants can come from small little towns, so they may be known as the “sheriff” but it’s a very small town compared to someone Page 32 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 coming from Los Angeles or San Francisco or Portland, Oregon. So, you’re right, it’s on them for their evaluation and determination—but it’s a start. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: If they can get officers coming over and then they’re willing to bring them up to the level of training here, then that’s fine. MS. TOKIHIRO: And I think it’s the clarity in the job postings as well, and in the application. This weekend we’re going to be opening recruitment for a School Crossing Guard, and we went through a major, kind of, re-work of the application for a School Crossing Guard because there was just confusion. Like, in the past, it was—you identified which district you wanted to work in, and people didn’t necessarily understand which schools fell in which district. So, we changed the application so they’re indicating which specific school that they’re interested in working at, and then, also there are background checks required for that as well. So we incorporated the Police Department’s background check information into the NeoGov application, so that it’ll just be a single application that they complete. And, hopefully, it’ll be clear for the applicants and then clear for the Police Department where these individuals are interested in working, and then we’ll be able to sort the list based on, “This particular school has a vacancy”—and get the list of people that want to work at that particular school. So, I’m excited to see the results after this recruitment ends—see if we get more interest and if the—if HPD finds that the applicants that they get are better matches for their positions, instead of going through the interview process and then offering the applicant of a school—and then they’re like, “Oh, no, I wasn’t interested in that school. I was interested in this other one”—which was occurring. And so, they would have people that they were interviewing that it would appear, “Oh, okay, they want to work in this district, so any school is fine”—but for our School Crossing Guards, a lot of the individuals are our Kupuna who have grandchildren that attend a particular school. So, they don’t necessarily want to drive across town to be a School Crossing Guard someplace else. So, I’m just hoping that through some of the detail and incorporating the two applications together, things will move faster—they’ll be clearer, and we can get those positions filled. CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm—okay, good. The other concern I had was I was reading the paper about the Ocean Lifeguards, and they have a lot of vacancies. MS. TOKIHIRO: Our Water Safety Officers or Pool Lifeguards? CHR. CABANAS: No, ocean. Page 33 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 MS. TOKIHIRO: Oh, ocean. Okay. CHR. CABANAS: The Water Safety Officers. So, there was a concern, I guess, about them coming for the agility test and then the process taking long for the interview—and I think it was Gerald—the Fire Commission Chair—said in the newspaper article that why couldn’t the interviews occur, like, the same day because some of these applicants were coming from away or taking off from their jobs—and he wanted, I guess, to make it more flexible. I didn’t talk to him but just based on reading what was there in the newspaper—and then the vacancies remain, so the beaches are not guarded. And so, my question in my mind was—how is P&R managing all of that? Are they bringing in temp. hires or are they just leaving the beaches unguarded because that’s really a liability issue. And, if that’s the case, what efforts, if any, can be made to expedite that process to get those interviews done and get people selected? So, can you elaborate on that? MS. TOKIHIRO: So, our Water Safety Officers fall under the Fire Department, and we’ve been working with the Fire Department regarding possibly different recruitment methods, like, do we want to do, like, a continuous recruitment. But in evaluating the difficulty in getting sufficiently sized recruit classes for Water Safety Officers—what the Fire Department found was that people were not passing the agility. And so, for the Police Department that also became an issue in the past—and the Police Department went to a system where if you fail the agility, you would be allowed one re-try— CHR. CABANAS: One more time. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. Before you just had to go cycle through and go through the entire application process, again. And so, working with the Fire Department, they’re looking at a similar type of allowance where, if someone doesn’t pass the agility, then they would be allowed one re-try to see if they can move that faster. Sometimes— CHR. CABANAS: That same day? MS. TOKIHIRO: I don’t believe it’s the same day. I think the re-try is scheduled—the re-take is scheduled at a later date. CHR. CABANAS: According to the article, it sounded like those passed, why couldn’t they be interviewed, like that same day. He mentioned that the interviews were, like, a week later. So, some of them took off from work—why couldn’t it be that—would be later in the afternoon or something. But that takes a lot of collaboration with Fire and HR—so I was just wondering what was going on with all of that because—are the beaches unguarded? Page 34 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 MS. TOKIHIRO: To my knowledge, that I’m not sure. I am more aware of issues that we have, particularly, with our lifeguards at our Kona Pool—that Kona Pool would be closed at times due to staffing issues. As far as the beaches— CHR. CABANAS: But this is the beach, ‘cause you don’t close the beach unless it’s a— MS. TOKIHIRO: Emergency. CHR. CABANAS: —weather—like, how we had Lala and Moke and those cyclones. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, if they’re short-staffed, the department has the ability to call in people on overtime and move staff around. So, I’m not aware of beaches being left unguarded. But, as far as addressing recruitment concerns, again, we’re working with the Fire Department on alternatives for that as well. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, I just hope that they can expedite it because the beaches—I don’t know if you want to comment on it, J—but in my opinion, even as a taxpayer, even if I weren’t on the Merit Appeals Board—I would be concerned if a beach is not guarded and you have a tower there. But, again, it’s the department’s call but still you would like to have the beach monitored. So, I hope they’re addressing it—maybe it’s something you can look into—I don’t know. MR. THOMAS: I think the drift of that article was that there was isolated examples of where there were multiple towers and one was not staffed. So, for instance, there’re three towers at Hapuna—the third tower that they frequently don’t staff, is all the way down at the resort—but the resort has its own safety staff there. So, in a sense, there was some kind of coverage. But I do think that the drift of that article, which I read through was—it was that the vacancy level was abnormally high. CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And if it’s abnormally high, what proactive efforts are being undertaken. That—that’s what kind of stuck out—it’s like—but, if you can check into it, yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. And we are working with them because that—the agility test from them looking at the pool of applicants—I mean, we have qualified applicants but then if they’re not able to pass the agility—that is where the department was taking a look at that first layer. And then, if the applicant doesn’t pass the agility and then has to wait until there’s another recruitment to reapply, that’s going to be a natural barrier to being able to fill those positions faster. Page 35 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 So, the idea of allowing an individual to attempt a re-take one time, I think, will help them to see better numbers. So—because someone could come and take the agility and just really not fully understand what they were going to be tasked with doing. And I believe that there was social media post as well, by the Fire Department, about what is included in those agility test so people can prepare, because that’s also a part of it, even for our police recruits—for people applying for the recruit positions to understand what’s required. CHR. CABANAS: But the posting has—doesn’t it have the information about the agility test? MS. TOKIHIRO: I believe it does— CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: —not everyone— CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, and these individuals have certifications, so it’s not like they’re just coming to the beach to swim. They have lifeguard—American Red Cross certifications. So, but then, I don’t see the Water Safety Officer—I don’t know, is it open on a continuous? MS. TOKIHIRO: I don’t believe it currently is. The Fire Department doesn’t leave that one on continuous because they don’t have the same system setup, like the Police Department has to do the agility test on a regular basis. CHR. CABANAS: So, how do you get one to help themselves when they have the need, they have the vacancies, and a recruitment is not open? How are they going to help themselves? It’s like, “I’m starving, I’m starving, but you know what, I don’t want to eat.” MS. TOKIHIRO: So, we work with them to provide them the information about what’s available and try and identify or provide suggestions that we think may be helpful. So, we will continue to be working with them. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, please do. That’s all I have for the MAB Monthly Divisional Report. MS. TOKIHIRO: If I could just comment on—because Pool Lifeguards, that is also something—it becomes really difficult for us to fill and retain people as Pool Lifeguards, particularly, in Kona—and part of that is just because of the resorts and wages and things like that. Page 36 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 And then, we do have a lot of our Pool Lifeguards that work for Parks and Recreation that will go to join the Fire Department as Water Safety Officers because that’s a promotional opportunity for them. But we’ve developed a Pool Lifeguard Trainee Class of Work. And so, the only requirement for that is that you be a high school graduate, but then once hired into the position, they actually receive the training necessary to get all of the required certifications to become a lifeguard while working at the pool. So, that’s a great way for us to create a career path where we’re going to get someone who’s interested in being a lifeguard, having them work directly with a lifeguard at the pool, get their certification—and once they get their certification, they get reallocated up to lifeguard. And so, from what I understand from the Director of Parks and Recreation, they recently filled four positions with the Pool Lifeguard Trainee Class of Work. And so, we’re really excited about that because it’s a brand new class for the County and, hopefully, it will be a good courier-feeder to fill those vacancies and keep our pools open. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, thank you. So, may I have a motion to—oh, you have a question, Niel? MR. THOMAS: Well, a mahalo for the list of acronyms and common terminology, that’s something that— CHR. CABANAS: Oh, we’re not there yet. Yeah, but we’re not there yet. We need to approve the— MR. THOMAS: Oh, I thought that was part of this, sorry. CHR. CABANAS: No, no, it’s under “C.” So, can we have a motion to accept and file the Director’s Report for the Monthly Divisional Activity Report for September 2026. MR. THOMAS: Move to accept the activity report for September. MR. AGUINALDO: I second. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. Any discussion? MR. AGUINALDO: No. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, may I have—I’ll start a rollcall vote with Mr. Aguinaldo. MR. AGUINALDO: Aye. Page 37 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Three ayes. Motion carried. B. 15-Minute Briefing Concerning Training Programs Offered/Conducted By The Divisions Within The Department Of Human Resources: Briefing By The Health And Safety Division; MAB May Determine Which Division Will Provide A Briefing At Its Next Meeting CHR. CABANAS: Okay, we did the—we had the 15-minute briefing by Health and Safety Division, and it was a very wonderful, informative presentation. And I’m glad that Ryan Chong brought his staff—we all got to meet them—wonderful bunch of individuals. So, thank you, Sommer. MS. TOKIHIRO: You’re welcome. Thank you for having them. CHR. CABANAS: And does the Board want to have another briefing at the next meeting? MR. THOMAS: Let’s work our way through the departments. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. And then, hopefully, we’ll have our new Board member on board by then. MR. THOMAS: Do we have a summary or information package for our new Board member to help them get started? CHR. CABANAS: There is a packet that Glynis will provide to the new member and J does a orientation— MR. THOMAS: I remember that. CHR. CABANAS: —with the new member as well. I mean, the person will have to learn as she goes, but she can do it. MR. THOMAS: But some of these documents we’ve been given along the way, if they can be resurrected and put into that package would be helpful. C. Department Of Human Resources Glossary Of Common Terminology/Acronyms CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. So, let’s go to HR’s Glossary of Common Terminology. So, would you like to start, ‘cause you had asked for it. Page 38 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 MR. THOMAS: I had asked for it and I’m happy to have it. I’m going to keep it digitally on my home computer. So, I’m grateful that you put it together. CHR. CABANAS: So, we had one prior, but it looks like the format is now changed with the other—we had when—I think, it was before you, though, Sommer—becoming Director. MS. TOKIHIRO: It could be. I believe that we updated this for the Board introductory packet within the last—I’m sorry, I’m not remembering, Glynis, exactly when we updated it—but I think we were working on updating it and the format may have changed— CHR. CABANAS: It changed. MS. TOKIHIRO: —during that process. We didn’t change anything— CHR. CABANAS: The only thing is, it’s not dated. MS. TOKIHIRO: Oh, we could add a revised date. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. If you can—yeah, if you can date it. Without going into the merits of any future appeal hearings, but—Mr. Thomas, does it address your questions about Classification and— MR. THOMAS: Yes, as a reference document— CHR. CABANAS: Yeah— MR. THOMAS: (Inaudible.) CHR. CABANAS: You can look at the definitions—reallocation—there is one thing that was not in here—now, my memory—let me think what it was. It will come to me—it’s not coming to me now. But, yes, this is a good baseline—so thank you. I know you chose the format because I think it’s the font as well. MR. THOMAS: We heard a lot about “CDL’s” today and I finally figured out what kind of driver’s license (inaudible)— CHR. CABANAS: It’s Commercial Driver’s License. MR. THOMAS: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. But anytime that they start using acronyms or abbreviations, just stop them and ask, “Oh, what does that mean?” Yeah, because in HR there’s a lot. Page 39 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 MR. THOMAS: A lot of it. CHR. CABANAS: They use a lot—yeah. MR. THOMAS: For sure. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, so this is very helpful. And, yes, it should be given to any new Board member. Yeah. Okay, so—I believe we need to accept and file the amended Department of Human Resources Glossary of Common Terminology/Acronyms. So, may I have a motion to accept and file? MR. THOMAS: I move to accept and file the Glossary of Terminology and Acronyms that’s been updated. MR. AGUINALDO: I second on that. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. Any discussion? MR. AGUINALDO: No. CHR. CABANAS: If not, I’ll start a rollcall vote with Mr. Aguinaldo. MR. AGUINALDO: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Three ayes. Motion carried. The Merit Appeals Board Will Convene Its Next Meeting On Friday, October 2, 2026, At 9:00 A.M., At The Hilo Council Chambers, Hawaiʻi County Building, 25 Aupuni Street, First Floor, Room 1401, Hilo, HI 96720 CHR. CABANAS: Let me just look at what else we have. Can I defer the discussion— well, not defer, but bring it toward the end, the next briefing because are we going to have the October meeting? I won’t be here. MR. THOMAS: The October meeting in two weeks, isn’t it? CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, and actually Glynis has informed the Chair that the—because it’s so early in the month of October, that the reports that our Director usually provides won’t be readily available—‘cause it’s too short of a time. Page 40 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 MR. THOMAS: I wondered about that. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. And then, unfortunately, I have a family commitment that nd came up and I won’t be here October 2, which is the date of our next Board meeting. So—and the room is not available any other time in October. MR. THOMAS: If we managed it—whatever the office is where she works, where Glynis is—that conference room where the Board used to meet— CHR. CABANAS: Yes, in the HR Conference Room. MS. YAMADA: I did mention to the Chair and to J, that we will only have two matters that would be listed on the agenda, which would be only the approval of minutes for August—and the other item would be if the Board wanted, was for the briefing—to schedule a briefing by HR. So, those are two items that are—I guess, they’re—not that they’re not important but if it would— CHR. CABANAS: Then wait, till November. MR. AGUINALDO: Yeah. th CHR. CABANAS: I believe our next meeting is November 24— MR. THOMAS: Thanksgiving week. CHR. CABANAS: Yes. It might be a busy time but at that meeting, we will have other items to discuss concerning the Police Appellants. MR. THOMAS: Mm-hmm. CHR. CABANAS: So, that might take a little long. MR. THOMAS: Is that hearing in October—I mean, in November or December? CHR. CABANAS: No, we need to decide on how we are going to—whether we’re going to consolidate some, take some individually—we have to decide that in November. MR. THOMAS: What did we do last month when we set dates and— CHR. CABANAS: We gave them deadlines for the submittal of their documents. MR. THOMAS: And so, the next thing we have to is figure out whether we’re going to hear all the cases at once or there’s two complainants that are in a different classification than the other. Page 41 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. MR. THOMAS: Five or six or something? CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. Well, some did not follow, apparently, the process— MR. THOMAS: Right. CHR. CABANAS: —before coming to MAB. MR. THOMAS: Are we going to wait till November to figure that out or do we have to do it now? CHR. CABANAS: Well, we gave both parties—County and the eight individuals from the Police Department deadlines, and the two deadlines are in the month of October. I know, I do not like it just dragged on, but we have to give them those deadlines, which we did at the last meeting. MR. THOMAS: And none of those complainants, I think, are with counsel, right? CHR. CABANAS: No, they’re pro se. MR. THOMAS: The six are pro se and the other two just didn’t complete one particular part of a procedure that they had an opportunity to, but I don’t think there’s any argument that they’re somehow disadvantaged during the different classification. CHR. CABANAS: J, would you like to comment? MR. YOSHIMOTO: So, we’re talking about whether we’re going to have the October nd 2 meeting. CHR. CABANAS: Yes. MR. THOMAS: Right. CHR. CABANAS: The Chair is—the Chair won’t be here. MR. THOMAS: (Inaudible) do we put anybody at a disadvantage or create a problem by not having the October meeting and waiting until November until we take these matters up? CHR. CABANAS: No, I don’t think so because they are given deadlines in the month of October. The first deadline, Glynis, is what? If you can refresh my memory. The first Page 42 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 thth deadline is October 20, and then for response—responses is November 4—and th we’re meeting November 24. MR. THOMAS: Well, if we’re not causing a problem for anybody—yeah, I don’t see any reason why it can’t wait until— th CHR. CABANAS: Till November 24. MR. THOMAS: For November. CHR. CABANAS: Is that okay, Sommer, for your reports? MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes, I think that that’s fine. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. MR. THOMAS: Okay, good. nd CHR. CABANAS: Okay, so our next meeting—well, let me backtrack. The October 2 meeting is going to be cancelled. MR. THOMAS: Done on my calendar. nd CHR. CABANAS: Okay, so I’ll need a motion to cancel the October 2 meeting, and th the Merit Appeals Board will meet at the scheduled November 24 meeting. MR. THOMAS: So moved. MR. AGUINALDO: I second. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. Any discussion? MR. AGUINALDO: Not at this time. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. If not, I’ll start a rollcall vote with Mr. Aguinaldo. MR. AGUINALDO: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Three ayes. Motion carried. Page 43 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 And then by that time, our new member will be confirmed by the Council and that person will be here for the November meeting. MR. THOMAS: And will our Vice-Chairman be back by then? CHR. CABANAS: Yes, our Vice-Chair should be here. MR. THOMAS: Okay, so full house. CHR. CABANAS: Yes. MR. THOMAS: Good. CHR. CABANAS: And then—yeah, and then we have—yeah, we’ll have a full Board. We’ll have a five-member Board. SPEAKER: Yeah. 15-Minute Briefing Concerning Training Programs Offered/Conducted By The Divisions Within The Department Of Human Resources: Briefing By The Health And Safety Division; MAB May Determine Which Division Will Provide A Briefing At Its Next Meeting (Note: The discussion below concerns “MAB May Determine Which Division Will Provide A Briefing At Its Next Meeting.” The Health and Safety Division’s presentation concluded earlier.) th MS. TOKIHIRO: So, given the other matters for discussion on November 24—does the Board want to have a briefing by another division of HR at that meeting, or do you want to defer the briefing for possibly a December or a future meeting? It just sounds th like the Board has—it’s going to be a busy day on November 24. CHR. CABANAS: I think so, too. What do you all say? MR. THOMAS: Well, that would mean that we wouldn’t have a briefing in December either, I suppose, if that’s the hearing. Is the hearing in December? CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, the hearing would be—yes, in December. MR. THOMAS: Well, that’s going to be a full day. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, it depends on whether we consolidate, or we have separate hearings, then we might have to have more than one meeting date to hear these hearings. Okay. Page 44 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 MR. THOMAS: Are we going to hear in advance what the issues are with making those decisions about having the hearings and so forth? CHR. CABANAS: No, we need to decide at the November meeting, so we’ll have our discussion then. MR. THOMAS: Okay. CHR. CABANAS: As a Board—why don’t we do that. MR. THOMAS: I’m fine with that. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. Yeah, Gilbert? MR. AGUINALDO: I’m fine with that, too. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, okay. Okay, why don’t we do that. We’ll wait till November th 24. Any problems in your end, Sommer? MS. TOKIHIRO: No. So, okay—so, we’re cancelling the October meeting. CHR. CABANAS: Yes. MR. AGUINALDO: Yes. th MS. TOKIHIRO: And we’re going to meet on November 24. CHR. CABANAS: Yes. MR. AGUINALDO: Yes. MS. TOKIHIRO: Okay. So, do you folks want a division briefing at that meeting or you’re just going to take my two Director’s reports. CHR. CABANAS: I think for time purposes, we’ll just take your two Director’s reports. MS. TOKIHIRO: Okay. Thank you. MR. THOMAS: Yeah, I’m good. CHR. CABANAS: Is that okay? MR. AGUINALDO: I’m good. Page 45 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: Okay. I’m okay with it, too, considering what’s involved—it might be a lengthy discussion. I don’t know, we’ll see. Okay. Okay, so— MR. THOMAS: Are you termed out at the end of this year or— CHR. CABANAS: Yes, I do term out. I have remin—in fact, I saw the Managing Director as I came into the building, and I reminded him. MR. THOMAS: So, we’re going to have one month of full Board. CHR. CABANAS: He said I might be extended for 90 days— MR. THOMAS: Oh, okay. CHR. CABANAS: —but I did tell him. But come January, there should be election of a new Chair. MR. THOMAS: Okay. CHR. CABANAS: Okay—and Vice-Chair. MR. THOMAS: True. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. Okay. All righty. So, we can move on. So, no— MR. THOMAS: Okay—time for a quick break? CHR. CABANAS: Oh, you need a break? Yeah, we can take a short break. Okay. Short break—we’ll pause for about ten minutes. Okay, ten minutes. RECESS: The Chair called for a recess at 11:11 a.m. RECONVENE: The meeting reconvened at 11:20 a.m. in open session. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, we’re back in session at 11:20 a.m. Communications (Item 6) CHR. CABANAS: Okay, so we do not have any “Communications”— New Business (Item 7) CHR. CABANAS: —nor “New Business.” Page 46 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 Unfinished Business (Item 8) Note: This Matter Was Listed On The August 28, 2026, Merit Appeals Board Agenda. The Board Requested The Deputy Attorney General’s Office To Address Questions To Be Limited To The Contents Of The Order Itself: Communication No. 25-06.06, Received August 5, 2026, From Deputy Attorney General Trisha C. Gibo, Transmitting The “Order Declining To Issue Declaratory Rulings And Order Sua Sponte Remanding Case To Merit Appeals Board, County Of Hawaiʻi”; Executive Session: The Merit Appeals Board Anticipates Convening One Or More Executive Meetings Regarding The Above Matter, Pursuant To HRS Sections 92-4 And 92-5(a)(4), For The Purpose Of Consulting With The Board’s Attorney On Questions And Issues Pertaining To The Board’s Powers, Duties, Privileges, Immunities, And Liabilities. A 2/3 Vote Pursuant To HRS Section 92-4 Is Necessary To Hold An Executive Meeting CHR. CABANAS: And we are now on “Unfinished Business” for discussion and appropriate action. This matter may require the Merit Appeals Board going into executive session. So, I’m going to read that verbiage, that the Merit Appeals Board anticipates convening one or more executive meetings regarding the above matter, pursuant to HRS Sections 92-4 and 92-5(a)(4), for the purpose of consulting with the Board’s attorney on questions and issues pertaining to the Board’s powers, duties, privileges, immunities, and liabilities. A two-thirds vote pursuant to HRS, Section 92-4 is necessary to hold an executive meeting. So, at this time, I believe Mr. Kim is appearing via Zoom, and Mr. Kim— (At this time, Mr. Henry Kim, Deputy Attorney General, Department of the Attorney General, appeared via Zoom.) CHR. CABANAS: Hi, Mr. Kim, good morning. MR. KIM: Good morning. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you for sitting in for Trisha C. Gibo, who’s assigned to another trial. So, the Board will be going into executive session at this time. I need a motion for us to do so—so, may I have one, please? MR. THOMAS: I would like to ask a question first of Mr. Kim. To what extent can we continue or have a discussion in open session. The reason I ask is that if we go in executive session that one of the parties to this matter is our Director of Personnel, and if we go into executive session on grounds that we need to have a confidential attorney- client conference with you, they’re going to leave. Page 47 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 And I’m thinking that before that happens, there may be some matters we can discuss that are simply related to the opinion of the Labor Relations Board, which is appropriate document—and maybe we can discuss that in open session, and that means that a relevant party can at least attend that session and, perhaps, participate in that discussion. CHR. CABANAS: Well, I’d just like to state that although the Director of HR is present, her attorney is not. She’s being repre— MR. THOMAS: So, whether she has reservations about staying I could— CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, she’s— MR. THOMAS: —(inaudible) to say that. CHR. CABANAS: She is being represented by the Office of the Corporation Counsel. MR. THOMAS: Mm-hmm. CHR. CABANAS: And that attorney is not here. So, Mr. Kim, would you be able to respond to Mr. Thomas’ question? MR. KIM: I think I understand and—I mean, if the County has concerns about her attorney not being there, of course, it’s up to her. And, as far as the Board goes, it’s my understanding that the Board is seeking legal advice from the Department of the Attorney General regarding this Order. And so, to the extent that you are seeking legal advice and want to discuss this and keep it privileged, it would have to be just between the Board members and me. CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm, that’s correct. That’s my understanding also, as the Chair. I’m sorry, I forgot to introduce our other Board members to you. To my right, is Mr. Daniel “Niel” Thomas, and to my left is Mr. Gilbert Aguinaldo, and I’m Gabriella Cabanas, Chair; our Vice-Chair, Suzi Bond is absent and excused today. And then, we do have our Director of Human Resources present, Sommer Tokihiro; and our Secretary-Reporter seated in the back of the Board is Glynis Yamada. MR. KIM: Thank you. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you for sitting in today. Okay, so— MR. THOMAS: So, for instance, I don’t want to do your thinking for you—are you uncomfortable in any way with participating in an open session as long as we stay that way? Page 48 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 MS. TOKIHIRO: I’m not uncomfortable being here. But, I guess, if the Board is seeking—specifically, seeking legal guidance, then the appropriate venue for that would be executive session. So, I’m not sure what the discussion regarding the filling would be—but if you are seeking legal advice, then it should be in executive session. CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. I think we should go into executive session, so I’m going to entertain a motion if one of the two Board members can make a motion. MR. THOMAS: Not me. MR. AGUINALDO: I make a motion that we enter executive session at this time, if we’re seeking legal counsel by Mr. Kim. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Kim, as the Chair, can I make a second to Mr. Aguinaldo’s motion? MR. KIM: Yes, you can. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, thank you. Then I second the motion. Any discussion? MR. THOMAS: I’m not convinced that any discussion we would have would be seeking legal advice to the extent that we would have a discussion that doesn’t seem to be legal advice. I think we could keep open session and keep our Director of HR here. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, your concern is so noted by the Chair, Mr. Thomas. So, I’m going to take a vote, just for the record, okay? Mr. Aguinaldo. MR. AGUINALDO: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. MR. THOMAS: No. CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Okay, motion has not been approved so it’s dead in the water. We will remain in open session. Thank you for your honest concerns. Okay. So, Mr. Kim, the reason why this is on the agenda is because the Board had concerns when we received it from HLRB and, as you recall, I had talked to Amanda— your Supervising Attorney General—regarding this. I know Trisha is assigned to a jury trial. Page 49 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 And so, I had concerns about this and our Board members had a few questions. So, I’m going to start with Mr. Thomas, since you initially had some major questions. So— MR. THOMAS: Yeah, I’m prepared to get to that when we do reach executive session. Right now, I’m— CHR. CABANAS: Oh, we are in open session. MR. THOMAS: We are in open session now. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. Okay. MR. THOMAS: And my real question here, at this point in open session, is whether our Director of HR and the parties, who are the complainants, and us—all understand what our relationships and roles in this matter are. Let me start, then, with our Director of HR. Could you describe what you see as your role in this matter? Are you a party—and, if so, a party to what? MS. TOKIHIRO: My understanding is that, yes, I am a party because the request for retro pay was not approved by me. MR. THOMAS: And so, as you understand it then, what is the role of the Police Department—what do we call them—the Police Department complainants, is that? MR. KIM: Appellants. CHR. CABANAS: They are Appellants. MR. THOMAS: Police Department Appellants? CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, they exercise their choice to submit an appeal to the Merit Appeals Board based on the decision that I made. MR. THOMAS: So, they started this, and your office objected, right? MS. TOKIHIRO: Correct. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, we cannot discuss the merits of the Appellants case. MR. THOMAS: I’m not going there. Page 50 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, but it takes a lead into the historical background of the appeal. And I don’t want to put the Director of HR in a perilous situation because it could lead more into that. And as Board members, I think we should have the understanding based on the information of the appeal. Our concern was on the HLRB’s response to the Merit Appeals Board with this Order. Basically, what they’re saying is we mis-used the Board’s declaratory ruling procedure. They, kind of, felt like why did we—and, Mr. Kim, you can correct me if I’m wrong, please jump in—but they felt that we just submitted this to HLRB without following three different certifications, and that’s why they were pretty much, like, warning us that if we continue to submit future filings that’s not supported based on any evidence that it could result in the Board considering appropriate sanctions on referral or motion to the Merit Appeals Board—which, to me, is something very, very serious. It’s, like, pretty much scolding the Merit Appeals Board for sending this to HLRB, which the First Circuit Court remanded back to HLRB to make a decision on it, and it’s my opinion that we didn’t do anything wrong. But what happened was, when there was a hearing in April this year—HLRB hearing, this matter—there were no submissions by either party—the County or the Attorney General’s Office—to substantiate or add on to our request for them to look into this matter, as to whether we had jurisdiction or not. And, Mr. Kim, if you could interject, have I said it correctly? Have I missed anything? MR. KIM: I think—my understanding is the same, basically. It’s not a part of the actual Order, it just seems to be some extraneous language. I think it’s your interpretation that you’re being scolded. It seems to me, like, they’re—I think you mentioned “warning” (inaudible)—maybe they’re indicating that this is not something they want to entertain in the future. I think the one difference I see is—they’re citing to Rule 11 and citing the three areas where—their concern—and it can pertain to both the party and/or the attorney. CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm, yes. MR. KIM: And so, if you think that you’re being scolded—it could be that my office is being scolded as well. CHR. CABANAS: Right. It says, “Under Rule 11, a court may impose appropriate sanctions upon the attorney or the party responsible for filing a...”—oh, this is such a long word—“…meretricious petition.” MR. KIM: I actually had to look that up. It’s a real word. It just means “extraneous.” Page 51 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: Yes. Okay. Well, we did it in part because there were eight Appellants with similar concerns and some different situations in how they filed their appeal—I just want to state it that way without getting into the merits of it. Anyhow, what do we do with this? Just file it for—I mean, we read it. We acknowledge it for the record, but what do we do with this, if nothing else? I know it was brought to my attention that we could appeal but the appeal was already very—the time was very short, like, we had to appeal, like, the next day by the time I had checked with your office and talked to Amanda—and you were also present when I called. So, thank you for that. But, so—no, we didn’t appeal but, at this point, what do we do as a Board? MR. KIM: Well, it’s not actually a part of the Order. The Order starts on page 13, Section “V.”—and the Order is pretty explicit and the Board, really, should view this Order as what they need to do. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. MR. KIM: And it plainly states that they are complying with the Courts remand Order— and this is their Order based on the Courts remand Order. CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. Right. MR. KIM: If they’ve dismissed this case that’s indicated (inaudible). CHR. CABANAS: Right. So, basically, they’re saying about—well, there’s about five items listed here—but Number 3, “MAB has the authority to hear and decide the merits of the underlying employment appeals and to enter final orders resolving all aspects of the appeals.” “The entire case is REMANDED to MAB to decide the merits.” And that’s what we’re going to do. The parties have been informed of their respective deadlines, which are in October, and to submit the—any documents they have and pleadings. And we will meet—our October meeting has been cancelled. We don’t have much for th the agenda, so we are going to meet again on November 24, at which time we will look at the Appellants appeals and decide whether we will hear them as a group or th individually. So, we will meet November 24 at 9 a.m. MR. KIM: And Trisha should be back at (inaudible). CHR. CABANAS: Oh, she’ll be done. MR. KIM: Yeah. Her trial should end next week (inaudible). Page 52 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: Oh, okay. Okay. Any questions for Mr. Kim? Mr. Thomas, you have questions? MR. THOMAS: Well, yes, and I have a little different take on this case, and I’d be curious what you think of it. The opinion from this—from HLRB, really does everything that we had hoped they would do, actually, in substance—they said we have jurisdiction, it’s up to us to decide the case on the merits, go forward. And so, to me, this opinion for all that it may have some things that would provoke hypothetical or legal questions—isn’t what’s important to me. I’m keying off of you, as Chair, saying at the last meeting why did this thing take so long. And what I would like to explore with all of us here—and this is part of why I wanted Director of HR here—is to ask a few questions and brainstorm together how we could avoid a detour, like happened, in this case, that left these employees with their case unaddressed for two years. And I think we’ve got the people and the brainpower here to, sort of, figure this out using maybe some of what HLRB said as guidance. And so, my questions really had to do with where do we go from here when a similar case comes up again that will make it easier for HLRB to produce a decision on short order. Because all we go—all we have to do is go to HLRB, somehow, and make it easy for them to make a decision one way or another—do we have jurisdiction or don’t we? That doesn’t sound awfully complicated and shouldn’t take two years. So, if you’re okay with it, I’d like to hear from Counsel, our lawyer. I’d like to hear from HR. I’d like to have us confer with each other on how can we move this forward in a more expeditious way. So, for instance, HLRB says, “Our job as HLRB is to make a decision for you.” You come to us, and you say, being MAB, “We’d like you to make a decision.” And then, HLRB says, “You all sort of sat there like a stone and didn’t give us any reason, or any legal arguments, or any factual basis for making the decision.” Am I right in thinking that HLRB is really not being threatening, not being insulting, not being critical of us—except to say, “You would make our job easier, if you would make your case. You need to say to us, ‘Here’s the legal authority that we’re asking you to give us. Here’s the facts of not the merits of the case but a different topic altogether whether or not you have jurisdiction. Tell us why you think you have jurisdiction. And if you will give us that information, we will give you an answer’”—this is what I would hope they would say, “We would give you an answer forthwith.” We won’t have to defer to court. But when you came in here and said MAB doesn’t really figure in this, which was the drift I think of what we said by not saying anything in that hearing, and you didn’t make any kind of argument—you’re, basically, taking this package of a request for a decision and saying, “We’re not going to tell you what—why Page 53 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 you think you should make a decision. We think you just dumped it all in our lap and say, ‘Here, you figure it out’” So, why don’t we just stop at this point and ask—does any of this makes sense? Does this—something we could take with us for the future and not have that happen again? And as I said, I’m really kind of keying off what our Chair, I think, was asking at the last meeting. Why did this take so long? And does it have to? CHR. CABANAS: Well, this is getting very complicated because we had—the Merit Appeals Board had a different attorney. I don’t know if you were on board yet. MR. THOMAS: I wasn’t. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. So, you’re coming in when things have sort of played out already. We had a different attorney who has since retired and then we had a new attorney come on board in the middle of everything, and tried to—well, not tried—she did what she needed to do to represent MAB. But, initially, with the first attorney when we weren’t sure as to whether we had jurisdiction or not, because of the content of the appeal, which I’m not going to go into. We were advised at that time—take it to HLRB—Hawaiʻi Labor Relations Board. Okay. He said he was going to expedite it with them—no, he did—well, if he did, it didn’t get expedited. Okay. It dragged on and we kept on asking for follow-up with HLRB, what was transpiring. Okay. Basically, they came across—and this is my lay terms—that they didn’t want to do it. They didn’t want to do it for the County of Maui with Maui’s appeal; and they didn’t want to do it for our appeal—and it’s on record in the meeting minutes. And so, we said, “No, we got to press on”—so we filed an appeal, it went to the First Circuit Court. The court remanded it back to HLRB to make a decision. Why there was no additional testimony from both parties—beats me. I don’t understand it myself. I wanted to go to that hearing because it was in Hilo. I was told not to go. ‘Cause if I was going to the hearing, I wasn’t going to be quiet. So, I didn’t go as I was advised not to, and the rest is history. In the meantime, these Appellants are waiting for two years, which to me is totally unacceptable—totally. And I feel bad that it’s dragging out like this because I don’t really know what’s going to happen anyway. It’s a Board matter. MR. THOMAS: I can see your frustration and that’s why, I think, it’s useful to have Mr. Kim here who is the third attorney that is— CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. Page 54 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 MR. THOMAS: —in some way, touched this case. Mr. Kim, do you want to offer any thoughts on—in response to what I just said about what we think HLRB is saying—our resp—duty and responsibility is to support a case for why we would have jurisdiction and have them say you’re right or you’re wrong. MR. KIM: Well, I’m a little bit aware of the history that Gabriella just mentioned, and I don’t really know why you were told not to go to the more recent hearing and what the strategy was for that. I don’t know—I mean, in one way this case is unusual in that it was appealed to the Circuit Court—and that’s going to take time. And as far as telling the court or HLRB what to do—I don’t think that’s something that anybody really has the power to do. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MR. KIM: I mean, if they don’t want to do—if they want to drag this out, it’s up to them. I have a case that, I had a trial in—three years ago—and I still don’t have a decision. I mean, the judge gave us deadlines on Christmas Eve, he tried to force us to settle, we couldn’t settle, threatened us—but we complied with everything. But now, there’s no rule that says a judge has to have a decision out immediately. And that person—I mean, I was obviously representing the State, the defense, but the Plaintiffs has been waiting for three years. So, it’s not terribly uncommon. I mean, I certainly understand your frustration, but the court process is a slow one. MR. THOMAS: But when you read that— MR. KIM: And— MR. THOMAS: When you read that— MR. KIM: Yeah. MR. THOMAS: —HLRB opinion, do you see it as I do as trying to teach us how they would want to operate, specifically, that we should make a case to them for why we think we had jurisdiction. Instead of, like I say, sitting there like a stone and saying, “Look, we really don’t as an organization fit into this, and we aren’t going to tell you why we think you should rule in our favor that we have jurisdiction.” It seems to me, HLRB is saying to us, “Make our job easy. Make your own case. Don’t expect us to make it.” Do you read it that way? MR. KIM: Well, I do sense some irritation that they—they’re being told by the court— they’re being scolded by the court and being told what to do. Page 55 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MR. KIM: Their initial Order was dismissed, and it was remanded back to them. And I suppose they may be frustrated—I don’t know. But I don’t think anybody should be limited in being able to file anything they want to in any venue. It’s their right to have things heard. And I think even if things were done possibly—I mean, this is all speculative—but in a way that they would have preferred, I don’t think this decision could have come out any faster. I don’t know what presenting evidence really would have done. And, like I said, I don’t know why the strategy was—it done that way. But they set the hearing schedules, the initial ones—and then, the later ones that are like—they call it, “hearing on the merits”—which is similar to trial. And those aren’t done any faster unless they want to do it faster. They have a rule which requires them to set hearings, but then they automatically in almost in every case—make a Order that it can go beyond the rule. MR. THOMAS: As I said, I think I’m forward-looking in this matter. I’m not particularly concerned about the dust that have gathered over this case, over the course of three years. I’m thinking about when the next case comes along, have we learned anything from what HLRB has said in this opinion that gives us some hints about how we could present a case that they would feel is easy to rule on. And, in that regard, I wonder whether there’s any indication that this Board, MAB’s Board, met with Counsel before any of these things happened. CHR. CABANAS: We did meet with Counsel, that’s why we have a board meeting. For us to do anything otherwise, we would violate the Sunshine Law—it has to be agendized, we have to discuss as a Board—it’s not only what I think, or you think, or Gilbert thinks, or Suzi thinks—it’s us collectively and we vote on it. And we expressed to the first attorney what we wanted done, what we wanted—we wanted it expedited, ‘cause these Appellants were already waiting over a year. And so— MR. THOMAS: Did we meet in executive session, is that what you’re saying? CHR. CABANAS: We’ve met, yes, we have—but you weren’t party— MR. THOMAS: I know I was not— CHR. CABANAS: —you weren’t on the Board, yet. MR. THOMAS: (Inaudible) okay, for what happened back then. Page 56 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MR. THOMAS: So, there was a meeting with the then-Board members with— CHR. CABANAS: Oh, yeah. MR. THOMAS: —the attorney. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, yeah. MR. THOMAS: We were seeking a legal advice, so we did it in executive session. CHR. CABANAS: Oh, yes. That’s why I said at the previous meetings, I don’t think we did anything wrong. We did everything we could as a Board. And then, for us to get this it was like, “Wow”—they’re telling us now we have jurisdiction—yes, that’s what we wanted to know, but in the course of it, they came up with all this other stuff. And so, what we’re going to do is we’re going to move it forward now. And we’re going to have the hearing, and we’re going to have that November meeting, and we’re going to decide, collectively—we’re going to have a vote and discussion as to how we’re going to do it—a consolidated hearing or individual hearing—hearings—I don’t know, we’ll have to discuss it. MR. THOMAS: So, we go back to the beginning of this and that executive session with seeking advice of Counsel on how to proceed, I wonder whether in a future case we would have chosen a different path that could have avoided this detour to court. CHR. CABANAS: Like what—what would be the detour path? MR. THOMAS: I don’t know, and we don’t have a matter in front of us that’s at that stage and things— CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MR. THOMAS: —so I don’t think we have to decide. But I would think that before we get to the next case, I would want to do as the Board did before—I would want to have an executive session— CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. MR. THOMAS: —have our lawyer from the AG’s office there— CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. MR. THOMAS: —and I would like to brainstorm what choices we might have. Page 57 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: Mm-hmm. MR. THOMAS: (Inaudible) experience, I think, we would probably be inclined to look for advice that convinces us that we might avoid another two-year hiatus and a trip to court and so on and so forth. CHR. CABANAS: Well, we already had a one-year span of waiting time before it even went to HLRB. MR. THOMAS: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: So, why don’t we wait— MR. THOMAS: I think we can’t afford to wait for another case. CHR. CABANAS: —we’ll take one appeal at a time— MR. THOMAS: Mm-hmm. CHR. CABANAS: —and then, if you have questions, we will always have a Deputy Attorney General sit in when it concerns an appeal. We will always. We do—we won’t meet without an attorney from the Attorney General’s Office. MR. THOMAS: Good. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. MR. THOMAS: Mr. Kim, how does that sound to you? MR. KIM: Sounds like the Chair knows what she’s saying. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. I do. MR. THOMAS: I agree. I think from what little I know of past history when I wasn’t here, it sounds like we did everything that we could. CHR. CABANAS: We did everything we possibly could. So, that’s why to get something like this, kind of like, makes me a little whoo-hoo—but it’s, like—oh, well, what other recourse do we have—but, hey, we’re going to move it forward. And we’re going to be fair to both parties—the County and the eight Appellants, and we’re going to move it forward. Page 58 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 MR. THOMAS: Yeah, I see what you’re saying, and I’m fine with that. The next case we might have different brains at the table here on the Board, and who knows what we might end up deciding— CHR. CABANAS: But you always have a Deputy Attorney General— MR. THOMAS: —to have our lawyer here (inaudible). CHR. CABANAS: Because we all come from different career paths, it’s like—that’s why we have an attorney, and it’s not from the Office of the Corporation Counsel because the County is a party in an appeal. MR. THOMAS: And so, if we come to this fork in the road again with a new case— CHR. CABANAS: Yes. MR. THOMAS: —another thing we’ve got is this HLRB opinion. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, because we’re aware of that. MR. THOMAS: —and another (inaudible) look at it and say, “Look, HLRB has gone on the record of saying something that you should take to heart and, therefore, if you’re going to play ball with us, here’s how we would like you to do it.” CHR. CABANAS: Well, we’re not here to play ball with anybody. We’re here to be fair, and objective, and look at and hear appeals, express our concerns—it makes us aware. But just keep in mind just the way the composition of the Merit Appeals Board changes—so does the composition of HLRB changes. MR. THOMAS: That’s true. CHR. CABANAS: So, if we have another HLRB with different members, it might not have gone this way. I know, myself, ‘cause I’ve testified in front of HLRB when I was working for HR. MR. THOMAS: Yeah. CHR. CABANAS: And we won that case. I wasn’t going to go to Honolulu and twiddle my thumbs. I won the case for the County with my attorney, yeah. So, let’s move it forward. MR. THOMAS: I think this has been helpful. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, good. Page 59 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 MR. THOMAS: Director of HR, how’s it sound? MS. TOKIHIRO: I’ll just add that every appeal is different—different set of circumstances, different things to be considered, right. And so, these jurisdictional questions are just very unique. So, it won’t—yeah, we’ll see if there’s a situation that requires this same type of clarification. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah, because we’ve had appeals and the Merit Appeals Board will say, “Okay, we have jurisdiction, let’s hear it.” This case is a little bit more complicated—it’s a whole bunch of different things coming into play, and that’s why we were being cautious. MR. THOMAS: Well, this opinion from HLRB acknowledges that we, as MAB, have a first responsibility to take a position on whether we think we have jurisdiction. So, I think that was the right thing to do, we went to HLRB and said, “We think we have jurisdiction, here’s why”—and I don’t think we said the substance of the “here’s why”—but we said, “We think we have jurisdiction, unless you can think of a good reason why we—HLRB should overturn that decision, we’re going to go forward.” Is that the dynamic that operates, Mr. Kim? MR. KIM: Well, like, the County, the Director just said—every case is—appeal is different. And this was a pretty unique situation, I think, and in my experience I’ve never seen anything like this. So, I think this delay is very unusual and my office will always be advising all the counties. We have different people in my office who are assigned to the various counties in the MAB boards for all the counties. So you’ll always have our office for advice and counsel for your decisions, and Trisha can help you interpret the Order further—if necessary. CHR. CABANAS: I have one question, Mr. Kim. So, Mr. Thomas came on to our Merit Appeals Board during the middle of all of this and so did Mr. Aguinaldo. Yeah. I’m—Suzi Bond and I—Suzi’s not here today—but Suzi Bond and I were here from the first time the appeal came in. We’re going to have another Board member come on board, hopefully, in November. She has no knowledge of any of this. And I’m just wondering, is it okay for us to provide the Board members with the previous meeting minutes, so they can get acquainted with the history of what has transpired. MR. KIM: I mean, if it’s helpful to go forward. CHR. CABANAS: Yes. Page 60 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 MR. KIM: I don’t see why not. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. MR. KIM: It’s not something that you’re making a decision on— CHR. CABANAS: Right. Yeah. MR. KIM: —without hearing evidence or something like that. CHR. CABANAS: Right. MR. KIM: It’s just background information. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. Okay. MS. TOKIHIRO: Just the meeting minutes or would it be the other filings, like if the MAB members didn’t see— CHR. CABANAS: Well, they’re going to see the appeal filings when—they’re going to see the appeals right, they have to, for the new members. MS. YAMADA: (Inaudible.) CHR. CABANAS: They’re going to receive everything, yeah. MR. THOMAS: I’m not sure that we have to insist that they spend an awful lot of time with this because we spent two years just getting to a result that confirms that we had jurisdiction, and that’s all the question that was there. They rightfully didn’t touch anything else. So, here we have a case that now starts with a decision that we have jurisdiction and now we’ll move forward and hear the merits—and that’s where, I think, our new Board members would want to make their attention just as we will. CHR. CABANAS: Okay. So—okay, are we all good? MR. AGUINALDO: I’m good. CHR. CABANAS: Okay, Mr. Kim, I want to thank you so much for sitting in today. MR. KIM: Thank you. CHR. CABANAS: I appreciate all of your assistance. Thank you so much. Page 61 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 MR. KIM: Thank you. Have a good day. CHR. CABANAS: You, too. Okay. So, this matter on our agenda is, we’ll file—actually, th is still open. We’re going to move it forward to our November 24 meeting. Announcements (Item 9) CHR. CABANAS: Are there any “Announcements?” No? Okay. May I have a motion to adjourn—oh. Schedule Next Meeting Date (Item 10) The Merit Appeals Board Will Convene Its Next Meeting On Friday, October 2, 2026, At 9:00 A.M., At The Hilo Council Chambers, Hawaiʻi County Building, 25 Aupuni Street, First Floor, Room 1401, Hilo, HI 96720 CHR. CABANAS: And let me say that the next meeting will be—the Merit Appeals Board meeting will convene its next meeting on November 24, 2026, at 9 a.m., at the Hilo Council Chambers, Hawaiʻi County Building, 25 Aupuni Street, First Floor, Room 1401, in Hilo, Hawaiʻi. Adjournment (Item 11) CHR. CABANAS: May I have a motion to adjourn today’s meeting? MR. THOMAS: Happily, so moved. MR. AGUINALDO: I second. CHR. CABANAS: Any discussion? MR. AGUINALDO: No. CHR. CABANAS: Thank you. I’ll start a rollcall vote with Mr. Aguinaldo. MR. AGUINALDO: Aye. CHR. CABANAS: Mr. Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Aye. Page 62 Merit Appeals Board September 18, 2026 CHR. CABANAS: Ms. Cabanas—aye. Moton carried. Today’s meeting is adjourned at 12:05 p.m. Thank you, everyone. 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