Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-10-14 CCC Approved MinutesCOUNTY OF KAUAI Minutes of Meeting OPEN SESSION Board /Committee: I COST CONTROL COMMISSION Meeting Date February 10, 2014 Location Mo'ikeha Building — Liquor Conference Room Start of Meeting: 1:30 p.m. I End of Meeting: 2:32 p.m. Present Chair Arryl Kaneshiro; Vice Chair Laurie Yoshida; Members: Dirk Apao, Joanne Nakashima, Sandi Sterker and Glen Takenouchi Also present: Deputy County Attorney Nicolas Courson; Boards & Commissions Office Staff: Support Clerk Mercedes Youn; Administrator Paula Morikami; Administrative Aide Teresa Tamura; Chief of Police Darryl Perry; Deputy Chief of Police Michael Contrades; Deputy Finance Director Sally Motta. Excused Commissioner Lawrence Chaffin Jr. Absent SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION Call To Order Chair Kaneshiro called the meeting to order at 1:30 p.m. Approval of Regular Open Session Minutes of January 13, 2014. Commissioner Sterker moved to approve the Minutes minutes as circulated. Vice Chair Yoshida seconded the motion. Motion carried 6:0 CCC 2014 -02 Memorandum dated January 17, 2014 from Chair Arryl Kaneshiro to Deputy Chief of Police Michael Contraries, requesting his presence to discuss a recommendation for a Dictation System in the Kauai Police Department including what type of system is needed, costs involved, and how much personnel time would it save. Chair Kaneshiro called for a motion to receive item CCC 2014 -02 for the Vice Chair Yoshida moved to receive. record. Commissioner Takenouchi seconded the motion. Motion carried 6:0 Deputy Chief of Police Contrades stated that in addition to information on a cost and price analysis for a Dictation System he wanted to provide the Cost Control Commission with general information on what the Department is doing and the type of measures that are being taken to reduce overtime. Cost Control Commission Regular Meeting - Open Session February 10, 2014 Page 2 SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION He mentioned that just recently, the Kauai Police Department received an award from the Department of Justice Cops Grant in the amount of $750,000 which the County Council voted to match the grant amount. The grant will allow the Department to hire six (6) new police officers and create a new beat in the Kawaihau district. Deputy Chief Contrades stated that collective bargaining is one of the major causes of overtime in which the Department has no control over. He explained that an officer who is called upon to work overtime during a holiday on which the officer is free according to his work schedule, technically the officer's first day back to work (based on union contract) is considered a holiday and must be paid double overtime and a half. An officer who has to work according to his schedule on a holiday receives twice his wage including overtime if needed. Other areas that attribute to overtime that the department is closely focusing on to reduce overtime include: 1) the rest period overtime; meaning when an officer works too long and is not given enough rest between shifts; 2) working back to back; 3) cancelled days off, 4) called back to work while on vacation; if an officer is called back to work while on vacation due to a major emergency, not only does the department have to give him back a vacation day but pay the officer time and a half, 5) six (6) to seven (7) day provision; 6) court date; and 7) standby in which an officer is put on stand -by notice; these officers receive stand -by pay 24 hours a day. Deputy Chief Contrades stated that this year to minimize overtime expenses for training, the Department brought in specialized officers from other bureaus within the department to assist the patrol services bureau with the training. However, the department found that was not a good idea because it caused major disruption for the specialized units in terms of shortage of manpower to do their own cases. In addition, Deputy Chief Contrades stated that due to the hiring of twenty -three new police officers in the past year, the Department has Cost Control Commission Regular Meeting - Open Session February 10, 2014 Page 3 SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION fewer resources to cover overtime expenses. He stated that although the Department does not have enough staff to efficiently do its job, it is doing a lot to reduce overtime in terms of hiring people to fill in the vacancies; implementing a new coding system so that the officer no longer has to document unfounded reports; fully staffing patrol services to prevent officers from cancelling their days off, cellblock personnel have been added to the Patrol Services Bureau schedule and is now a part of the rotation, which prevents them from having to call in senior officers and specialized unit personnel to work in the cellblock, which will save the Department from having to pay these positions at a higher level; training can now be done online during the officers' shift without having to pay overtime. Deputy Chief Contrades stated that their efforts are showing a significant reduction in overtime expenditures. In July 2013 KPD was expending $289,000 in overtime with a steady decline except for the month of November because it included two holidays; in December the overtime expenses dropped to $135,000. Deputy Chief Contrades acknowledged the Hawaii County Police Department for providing the financial data on what it would cost the County to have a Dictation System in the Kauai Police Department. He stated that based on the information, the initial start up cost for the Hawaii Police Department's (HPD) dictation system came in at $31,000; monthly maintenance cost at $2,000 per month for 12 months cost $24,000 a year; staffing included sixteen (16) clerical staff, two (2) supervisors, and fourteen (14) clerks at a cost of $557,000 which does not include fringe benefits. HPD's annual budget for the dictation system totaled $600,013. Cost Control Commission Regular Meeting - Open Session February 10, 2014 Page 4 SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION Deputy Chief Contrades stated that based on HPD's estimates the startup cost for the first year alone would cost KPD (using the same system) $31,000; monthly maintenance at a cost of $24,000 per year; if the same amount of reports are written with the same amount of staff, the cost would amount to $557,000 with fringe benefits calculated at 89.6% at a cost of $497,000. Other factors that must be taken into consideration include housing for that amount of staff excluding the cost for computers, chairs, desks. Capital improvements will also have to be made because of the lack of office space in the current facility; KPD would to add a new facility to the existing facility which will cost just under $1.5 million excluding the costs for recruitment, background investigations, and time needed to hire the sixteen (16) staff members. The total estimated cost for a new dictation system in the Kauai Police Department would run roughly about $1 million dollars annually including fringe benefits and salaries. He stated that a comparison was made showing the dollar amount expended for report writing overtime, which was significantly less versus purchasing a new dictation system because KPD would have to increase its annual budget up to $539,000 a year just to utilize this type of dictation system. On a three (3) month average a total of 6000 hours went towards report writing overtime, which for an average police officer with fringe benefits equals to $90 per hour. Deputy Chief Contrades shared with the Commission a comment that was made by a clerical staff supervisor in HPD regarding their dictation system. It states "Because of the many accents and local and pidgin English that we speak, there is no database for that type of dialogue, and so human intervention with transcriptions is absolutely a must" The auto transcription that Modal originally tried to sell HPD, once it was explained to them of the intricacies of the human language and the Hawaiian words, the vendor changed its sales pitch and went from an auto transcription system to the system that HPD is now using in which it's clerical staff still does all of the Cost Control Commission Regular Meeting - Open Session February 10, 2014 Page 5 SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION transcribing. Deputy Chief Contrades stated that at a previous meeting, he mentioned that the department purchased two (2) speech recognition software's called "Dragon ". He explained that the software has its setbacks because it does not recognize broken English, accents and Hawaiian words, and that it still requires manual editing. He explained that when they tested the software they found that the surrounding area must remain quiet during the transcribing, which is difficult for the officers in the patrol squad room because the radios are always on. He noted that they will be doing another test of the software in patrol to see how the department can make it work. Based on the financial data, Commissioner Sterker stated that she is not in favor of making any type of recommendation for a new Dictation System in the Kauai Police Department because it is not financially feasible for the County to which the Commissioners unanimously agreed. With no further discussion, Chair Kaneshiro thanked Deputy Chief Contrades for a very informative presentation. CCC 2014 -03 Memorandum dated January 17, 2014 from Chair Arryl Kaneshiro to Director of Finance Steve Hunt, requesting presence to discuss overtime costs for each of the County Departments. Chair Kaneshiro called for a motion to receive item CCC 2014 -03 for the Vice Chair Yoshida moved to receive. record. Commissioner Takenouchi seconded the motion. Motion carried 6:0 Cost Control Commission Regular Meeting - Open Session February 10, 2014 Page 6 SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION (a) Communication dated January 30, 2014 from Director of Finance Steve Hunt to Chair Arryl Kaneshiro, regarding information to the overtime costs for each of the County Departments. The Commission was provided with detailed information of overtime expenditures by Fund and by Department. Commissioner Sterker moved to receive. Vice Chair Yoshida seconded the motion. Chair Kaneshiro called for a motion to receive item CCC 2014 -03 (a) for the Motion carried 6:0 record. *Due to recorder malfunction this portion of the meeting did not record. CCC 2014 -04 Copy of Ordinance No. 959 relating to Charges and Fees. Commissioner Sterker moved to receive. Chair Kaneshiro called for a motion to receive item CCC 2014 -04 for the Commissioner Takenouchi seconded the record. motion. Motion carried 6:0 Announcements Next meeting — March 10, 2014 at 1:30 p.m. at the Mo'ikeha Building, Liquor Conference Room. Chair Kaneshiro noted on the next meeting agenda the following items will be listed: 1) Update from Human Resources; 2) request for a detailed update on how changes to the real property taxes helped increase the General Fund; and 3) Request for information and the presence of the Executive on Transportation Celia Mahikoa to discuss overtime, expanding routes, and financial data on how expanding the bus services would impact the County. Staff acknowledged the request and will draft the memos for review and approval by the Chair before distribution to the appropriate parties. Cost Control Commission Regular Meeting - Open Session February 10, 2014 Page 7 SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION Adjournment Chair Kaneshiro called for the motion to adjourn the meeting. Commissioner Takenouchi moved to adjourn. Vice Chair Yoshida seconded the motion. Motion carried 6:0 At 2:32 p.m. the meeting adjourned. Submitted by: Mercedes Youn, Staff Support Clerk (x) Approved as circulated on 3 -12 -14 ( ) Approved as amended. See minutes of meeting. Reviewed and Approved by: Arryl Kaneshiro, Chair