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HomeMy WebLinkAbout 03/02/2011 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE• _ MINUTES COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE March 2, 2011 A meeting of the Committee of the Whole of the County of Kauai, State of Hawaii, was called to order by Councilmember Jay Furfaro, Chair, at 3371-A Wilcox Road, Lihu`e, Kauai, on Wednesday, March 2, 2011 at 11:12 a.m., after which the following members answered the call of the roll: Honorable Jay Furfaro Honorable Derek S.K. Kawakami Honorable Tim Bynum Honorable Dickie Chang Honorable Nadine Nakamura Honorable Mel Rapozo Honorable Jo Ann A. Yukimura The Committee proceeded on its agenda item as follows, and as shown in the following committee reports which are incorporated herein by reference: Bill No. 2395 A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND CHAPTER 3, OF THE KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE .SALARIES OF COUNTY OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES [This item was deferred.] JAY FURFARO: Thank you very much. We are called back in our Committee Meeting and I would like to start first of all to thank Mr. Bynum for recessing his Committee and go to Bill No. 2395 please. Laurie Chow, Senior Clerk Typist: Bill No. 2395, a bill for an ordinance to amend Chapter 3, of the Kauai County Code 1987, as amended, relating to the Salaries of the County Officers and Employees. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you very much. I am going to start this Committee of the Whole with suspending the rules and allowing public testimony first. So is there anyone in the audience that would like to speak on this item? Very good, the rules are suspended. Please feel free to come up. There being no objections, the rules were suspended. Phyllis Stoessel: Aloha Chair Furfaro and Council members. My name is Phyllis Stoessel. As I have listened to the discussions regarding Bill 2395, I have wondered how many people think this bill is about establishing performance evaluations in the County. Councilman Mel Rapozo set forth a bill with the stated purpose, quote, "To conform Chapter 3 of the Kauai County Code 1987, as amended, with Section 29.03 of the Kauai County Charter." Several Council members have offered or intend to offer amendments to this bill. It is the amendment that has resulted in much discussion regarding performance evaluations. I believe the scope of bi112395, warrants immediate action. The importance and complicated nature of an acting performance evaluation deserves further consideration and time. I Page 1 of 8 _ • commend the stated purpose of this bill. It amends the salary ordinance which was last amended in 2004. I recommend that this committee approve bill 2395. I also recommend that the council continue its deliberations regarding performance evaluations and present its conclusions in a sepeerate bill if warranted. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Furfaro: Phyllis let me ask members if they have any questions for you. Mr. Chang. DICKIE CHANG: My only question was, did we get your testimony? Ms. Stoessel: I'm going to give it now. Mr. Chang: Okay Ms. Stoessel, thank you Chair. Mr. Furfaro: Hold on Phyllis, any other questions for Phyllis? Ms. Stoessel: Oh excuse me. Mr. Furfaro; Any other questions for Phyllis? Phyllis, I do want to share and I concur with moving on this bill and taking action separately on issues that establish certain criteria for performance reviews using the existing definitions that we have from the H.R. Department. Our particular case and I have given testimony to the Salary Commission about using an updated appraisal form as well that all gets wrapped into it, but for today I had sent seven questions over to the County Attorney of which unfortunately they have not responded to as of this date. So we are probably end up looking at a deferral but I will try and get you some of that material so you can look at items that I'm trying to separate from the salary grading to the performance review. Ms. Stoessel: Thank you. Mr. Furfaro: Any other questions, no. Thank you very much. Is there anyone else in the audience that wishes to speak on bill 2395? Mr. Stoessel, come right up. HORACE STOES5EL: Good morning. Mr. Furfaro: Good morning. Mr. Stoessel: My name is Horace Stoessel, I would like to begin by saying I agree with the previous speaker and I sent in a written testimony, have you by any chance... you have a copy of that. I do not intend to go into that although I am open to any questions you may have. I would like to just make one point, that a word needs to be added to section one of this bill. The bill as it now reads says this... The purpose of this ordinance is to conform Chapter 3 of the Kauai County Code with Section 29.03 of the Kauai County Charter. Said section 29.03 provides that the Salary Commission's findings shall be adopted by resolution, 29.03 says the salary commission's salary findings shall be adopted by resolution, and I think it's important to add that word "Salary" to section 1, at some point. I thank you for your time. Page 2 of 8 • _ Mr. Furfaro: Let me see if there are any further questions Mr. Stoessel. Anyone? Mr. Rapozo. MEL RAPOZO: I just want to say thank you very much. I have asked staff to prepare your suggestion into the amendment. Thank you. Mr. Stoessel: You're welcome. Mr. Furfaro: Anyone else? Horace, thank you very much. Thank you very much. Mr. Stoessel: You're welcome. Mr. Furfaro: Is there anyone else? Mr. Taylor. KEN TAYLOR: Chair and members of the Council, my name is Ken Taylor, I just want to say that I'm in support of the previous two speakers and I would like to see you move forward on approval of this document and deal with the other issues separately. Thank you very much. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you very much. Any questions for Ken? No. Thank you Ken. Any additional speakers? I see none. I'm going to call this meeting back to order of the Committee of the Whole. The meeting was called back to order, and proceeded as follows: Mr. Furfaro: As I mentioned earlier, there was a communication that went to the County Attorney's Office from me dealing specifically with seven salary ordinance questions. They have asked for this deferral. I hope to defer no more than two weeks, get the answers back, and be able to take some action. May I have comments from the other members? Mr. Rapozo. Mr. Rapozo: Attorney's Office? Mr. Furfaro: Mr. Rapozo: Mr. Furfaro: Mr. Rapozo: question. I don't kn. Did we get something back from the County No. Oh we have not? No, we have not. Can we have them up? I just really had one ~w, maybe Amy is not prepared to answer ... Oh okay. Mr. Furfaro: I will suspend the rules and have you come up. There being no objections, the rules were suspended. Mr. Furfaro: Do you have a copy of my memo? Mr. Rapozo: No, I thought I did but I don't. Page 3 of 8 i • MONA CLARK: Yes, I'm Mona Clark, Deputy County Attorney. Mr. Rapozo: I guess the first question is, do you have an idea of when we will get a response from your office? Ms. Clark: I would imagine sometime in the next 7-8 days. Mr. Rapozo: Seven to eight days. There was one question that I had for Al Castillo at the last hearing and it was more of a concern about your office and a potential conflict because Mr. Castillo is on the Salary Ordinance as a County Attorney, and in fact I felt that it was at least at the minimum to get that question resolved because if that question, if there is a conflict or potential conflict, then the other questions will need to go somewhere else. I think if in fact your office has a conflict in this bill because Mr. Castillo is listed as one of the positions that we're going to be discussing. Ms. Clark: Right, as are all the Deputy County Attorneys. Mr. Rapozo: I'm sorry. Ms. Clark: As are the Deputy County Attorneys. Mr. Rapozo: Correct. So and I'm not sure if Al checked with ODC, which I thought he told me he was going to. Ms. Clark: I don't know the answer to whether he did or not and I will check on that. Mr. Rapozo: Is Al in today? Ms. Clark: No. Mr. Rapozo: He's not here today? Is he coming back before... on Friday? Ms. Clark: Yes. Mr. Rapozo: On Friday? Okay well I think we would have appreciated a response, some kind of response. It's unfortunate that we didn't get any response even asking for a deferral. As far as I'm concerned, I'm prepared to vote and I think that anyway that's all I have thank you. There being no objections, the meeting was called back to order, and proceeded as follows: Mr. Furfaro: Do we need to re-package that question to go over? Mr. Rapozo: You know Mr. Chair we didn't even have a motion, so let me just make a motion to approve, and if I could get a second? TIM BYNUM: Seconded. Page 4 of 8 L J Mr. Rapozo moved for approval of Bill No. 2395, seconded by Mr. Bynum. Mr. Furfaro: Okay and we have a second from Mr. Bynum and let me again ask you if you want us to package that question and send it over? Mr. Rapozo: You know I just think that we need to pass the bill. I cannot explain why they didn't respond but you know obviously we have a job to do and again I'm prepared to vote today and move it to the full Council and if the other members feel otherwise that's fine too but you know this has been on the agenda for quite a while and ... Mr. Furfaro: And as I have pointed out I'm willing to introduce something new and separate about the performance segment so and we have a second from Mr. Bynum, Councilwoman Yukimura? JOANN YUKIMURA: Yes Mr. Chair, I think the issues are not irrelevant to this bill and I would like to at least have the opportunity to hear the County Attorney's answers to questions, I mean the more informed we are the better we're prepared to make decisions. I would like to see a deferral for another two weeks. Mr. Furfaro: I've clearly already stated my position that I would like to defer for two weeks and get a vote on the bill itself in two weeks based on some of the questions. Mr. Bynum you have the floor. Mr. Bynum: The question that Mr. Rapozo has raised is one that we should add to the questions in my opinion and... Ms. Yukimura: Talk into your mic please. Mr.Bynum: And get an answer but I'm not surprised we haven't received an answer to your February 23 .memo because these issues are pretty complex and witty and I'm sure it's going to take some time. So I'm in favor of a deferral today. We kind of all understand the issues, do we do this all at once, do we separate it, and we will get there. Mr. Furfaro: Okay so I assume you second the motion so that we could have this discussion. Is there any further discussion? Mr. Rapozo. Mr. Rapozo: And I would agree with Mr. Bynum that the issues are complex but I think a simple memo saying that the issues are complex and we need more time. I think that would be courteous. I guess is what I'm trying to say, but we have no response. I'm guessing we just move forward and that's what I intend to do and I recognize and I appreciate the desire it's like the last bill we had there was many questions about the. overtime money but we voted on it to move it forward without the answers so I'm asking for the same courtesy. Let's move it forward and if they don't provide the answers next week then you can always have that opportunity to send it back to the Committee. Page 5 of 8 ! • Mr. Furfaro: Councilwoman Yukimura. Ms. Yukimura: Yes I think that the bill before us that we moved to full council is not going to be affected by the information we get. The furlough information you know is for learning, but it's not affecting the decision we're going to make about the appropriations bill, the information we get could affect from the County Attorney on this bill before us today could affect our decision making. We would like to try to do amendments there in committee so I think we should hold it in committee until we get that information and I don't know what the rush is. Mr. Furfaro: Okay Mr. Chang. Mr. Chang: Thank you Chair. I'm actually going to support a deferral, I think we do need one deferral and also for the record I will be out of town traveling so I'd like to be back for the decision making process so I will be supporting a deferral. Thank you. Mr. Furfaro: Mr. Kawakami you have a question? DEREK KAWAKAMI: I'm just ready to vote. Mr. Furfaro: Okay so I think we need to act on the motion that's on the floor and then look to somebody else to make a motion on the outcome if it doesn't pass to vote for a deferral. Councilman Rapozo. Mr. Rapozo: Yeah Mr. Chair I didn't realize that two of our members are going to be gone next week and if we do move it out then they would not be part of that discussion, so with that I will withdraw my motion and I will support the deferral simply because I will make sure all seven members are here for the discussion. Ms. Yukimura: Chair, a withdrawal is not necessary, we just have to... Mr. Furfaro: No, a deferral supersedes all motions, so but I am fine to hear the rationale about Mr. Bynum's motion, so I'm going to ask them for a motion to defer? Ms. Yukimura: So moved. Mr. Chang: Seconded. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you. No discussion on a deferral. All those in favor for a deferral for two weeks. All Councilmembers: "Aye" Mr. Furfaro: Thank you very much. Page 6 of 8 • Upon motion duly made Councilmember Chang, deferred. by Councilmember Yukimura, seconded by and unanimously carried, Bill 2395 was The Committee Proceeded on its agenda item, as shown in the following Committee report which is herein by reference: CR-COW 2011-09: on Bill No. 2396 CR-COW 2011-10: on Bill No. 2388 A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE NO. B- 2010-705, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE OPERATING BUDGET OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF HAWAII, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2010 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2011, BY REVISING THE SURPLUS AND APPROPRIATIONS ESTIMATED IN THE GENERAL FUND (525,448-Golf Fund) (Approved.) AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE NO. B-2010-705, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE OPERATING BUDGET OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF HAWAII, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2010 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2011, BY REVISING THE SURPLUS AND APPROPRIATIONS ESTIMATED IN THE GENERAL FUND ($62, 719.00- Golf Fund and ~$'2, 704, 873.00 -Sewer Fund) (Approved.) Page 7 of 8 ! • There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 3:40 p.m. Respectfully submitted, aurie Chow Senior Clerk Typist Approved at the Committee Meeting held on March 30, 2011: JAY FUR Chair, Comm' e o ole Page 8 of 8