HomeMy WebLinkAboutPersonnel Services FY2013-2014 DEPARTMENTAL BUDGET REVIEWS 04-22-2013
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The departmental budget call-backs was reconvened on April 22, 2013 at 1:38 p.m., and
proceeded as follows:
Personnel Services
Honorable Gary L. Hooser
Honorable Ross Kagawa (Present at 2:22 p.m.)
Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura
Honorable Mel Rapozo
Honorable JoAnn A. Yukimura
Honorable Jay Furfaro
Excused: Honorable Tim Bynum
Chair Furfaro: Welcome and good afternoon everyone from the
Department of Personnel Services. Tell me, are you going to make a PowerPoint
presentation?
THOMAS TAKATSUKI, Human Resources Manager II: Yes.
Chair Furfaro: Okay. Why do I not go ahead and let you begin
with that. Is it covered in this handout?
Mr. Takatsuki: Good afternoon Chair Furfaro, Vice Chair
Nakamura and Councilmembers. For the record, Thomas Takatsuki. I am the Human
Resources (HR) Manager. With me I have Janine Rapozo, Human Resources Manager,
Crystal Fujikawa, Human Resources Manager, and on the end is Pua, our Secretary. As
you have received the Budget presentation, I would like to do a PowerPoint presentation to
highlight some of the information contained in our written presentation. First and
foremost our mission, Department of Personnel Services or DPS, shall serve all County
departments and agencies with the full range of human resource function based upon
merit, principles, and devoid of any bias or prejudice, including recruitment and exam,
classification and pay, labor relations, benefits coordination, employee development and
training, employee relations, and the health and safety for the successful achievement of
Countywide goals. Our organizational chart show ours structure. There is a Civil Service
Commission of which two (2) of our commissioners are here; our Chair Kenny Adams and
Commissioner Roy Morita. Aside from the Personnel Director, the department is made up
of sixteen (16) employees and four (4) divisions. Our Administrative Services Division is
made up of a Personnel Management Specialist in charge of benefit and a Private Secretary
with three (3) HR Clerks. The recruitment and examination division is made up of an HR
Manager and two (2) HR Specialists.
The labor relation and classification and pay division is made up of an HR Manager
and three (3) HR Specialists, of which one (1) position is dollar funded in the Fiscal Year 14
Budget, as highlighted in yellow. This division also manages the Personnel Manager
Specialist in charge of transactions. The Employee Development and Health Services
Division are made up of an HR Manager, one (1) Equipment Operator and Trainer. Our
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primary goal is to continue to transition the various Human Resource functions from the
County departments to DPS. We are currently making some strides in the standardizing
and centralization of some functions, but there are many more that must be transitioned to
DPS. Our specific goals are listed in our presentation on pages 1 and 2. In the
development of objectives, we looked to ensure there were, by division, quantifiable and
broken down into subcategories.
The next section is our successes and achievement. Our majority achievement this
past year has been the restructuring of the department. Aside from having additional
resources, the restructuring has made the department stronger in having the ability to
utilize the knowledge that came with the three (3) staff that transferred from the three
I departments who are now available to serve the entire County. Other achievements
include the centralization of the following functions; all employee personnel files are now
with our department. There is a new-hire process now being done at our office in
conjunction with the new hire orientation program. We will be processing all of the former
enrich program workers. We have also taken and assumed the responsibility due to all of
the seasonal spring enrichment programs. We will be processing all of the summer
enrichment program workers. We continue to do the exit interviews. The temporary
Disability Insurance program was transferred from the Finance Department and handled
by DPS. Previously done at the departments is that the medical insurance enrollment has
been centralized at DPS. Individuals interested in working during the summer can now
complete an online application that will be processed by DPS.
The driver and equipment training has now been extend to other departments, not
only Public Works. The Worker's Compensation Claim process is now being centralized at
DPS. Safety Evaluation and Assessments for liability and Worker's Compensation Claims
have been started and the completion of required annual OSHA report forms has been
handled at DPS. There are other functions that must be centralized so there is still a long
way to go.
These systematic changes are noted without challenges. We have five (5) of new
staff coming on board in October. There was and still is a learning curve that delayed the
implementation of some of the functions. I think the problem was that we had new
employees, but they were all at a different level. They were not at the level that we had
indicated that we wanted to hire. The other challenge is that although we have reduced the
backlog of work, the backlog still exists and has hampered the speed of the transition to
HR. One (1) of the bigger concerns that we have is that departments have shown some
resistance to the moment of duties and the functions and as a result, DPS has slowly
transferring items while at the same time, working with the departments to transfer the
institutional knowledge. Data collection methods have been pragmatic and inefficient due
to limited use and/or understanding of the current system in place. Of course, our recent
change in leadership. That is why I am here.
We would like to address some of the challenges that are specific concerns that were
brought up by some of the departments previous to us. First, we have recruitment in the
Finance Department. I think we created a table to show the various steps that were needed
in order for the department to fill a vacancy. Currently, some of the steps are handled by
1
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DPS, and some are handled by the department. The particular situation that is before
you—we have the timeline of what occurred. On May, 2012, a vacancy occurred for the
Vehicle Title and Registration Technician. Forty-four (44) days later, the department
requested to fill the vacancy. We posted the job for two (2) weeks. A test was administered
and a certified list of eligible applicants was provided to the Finance Department. We took
approximately fifty-seven (57) days to process. The Finance Department scheduled the
interviews and eventually hired an in house applicant who started in the position forty-five
(45) days after the list was certified. Basically, in order to fill this vacancy, DPS took fifty-
seven (57) days and their department took eighty-nine (89) days for a total of one hundred
fifty-six (156) days to fill the vacancy. I think the issue was not really this position, but the
position of—there were three (3) issues or three (3) situations that took place. The hiring of
the in house applicant had then created another vacancy. The Department of Finance did
not request to fill the vacancy until seventy-two (72) days after the vacancy occurred
because this may have occurred due to the department conducting an assessment of the
position and deciding whether to go with the intro, inter, or open recruitment and other
various factors. A request to fill a vacancy was received and then DPS posted the job
internally and certified the list. The certified list was provided to the department after
thirty-seven (37) days. The department then hired an in house applicant fourteen (14)
days after the certified list was provided to the department. In this case, in order to fill the
second vacancy that occurred, DPS took thirty-seven (37) days and the department took
eighty-six (86) days, totaling one hundred eighty-three (183) days to fill the second vacancy.
The hiring of, this in house applicant then created another vacancy. The Finance
Department requested to fill a vacancy after fourteen (14) days. The testing of this position
occurred on April 17th and a certified list was sent to the department on the same day. As
you can see, both the department and DPS was involved with the recruitment to fill a
vacancy. The 'timeframes on this one (1) example shows that the process can definitely be
improved. Therefore, DPS will be, and in some cases, are already offering additional
systems to the department throughout the various phases of the recruitment process. DPS
intends to proactively monitor vacancies and contact departments on their intentions of
whether there will be no changes to vacant position, or if a reposition of the position
description is needed due to changes or departmental needs, or if a re-description is needed
to downgrade the position to an entry level position; provide support and review and
amending the position description with the interview process and with the hiring process,
which is already occurring with most departments. It is a little time consuming process we
have gone through. We are looking at it and trying to streamline that process.
Another concern that came up with the Police Department was that the
departments transferred a Personnel Clerk position. Early on, a meeting was held with the
Kauai Police Department regarding say transfer of position. KPD requested that the
Personnel Clerk position that was transferred from KPD is to be exclusively assigned to
their department. In our meeting with the KPD, they were informed that the Personnel
Clerk was now an HR Clerk and would be, along with other HR Clerks, servicing all
departments including KPD. That one (1) position was not only going to be serving the
Police Department, but serving the Police Department, as well as every other department
within the County. This was never intended to mean that we would not serve KPD, nor
would we not take over the functions. Unfortunately with the departure of the former
Personnel Clerk, it was necessary to hire a new Clerk, and the functions of the KPD
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Personnel Clerk has never been transferred as of this date. Therefore, DPS plans to meet
with KPD to discuss the dealings that were previously assigned to the KPD Personnel
Clerk and began to transfer those duties to DPS. We are basically going to ask them to let
us know what is needed to be done and we will perform that work.
Another concern that has been the Quarterly Vacancy Report provided to the
Council. Staff has found it necessary to rely on compiling various reports manually to get
the necessary information. Part of the problem is that we are not maximizing the use of the
computerized data collection system to collect the needed information. In addition, the time
consuming report that is being generated now may or may not be addressing what the
Council desires. In order to address this, we plan to set up a meeting with the Council
Chair to ensure that the desired data is included on the vacancy report, and that it is in the
desired format. In the short term, DPS will set up an internal committee to revamp the
production of the vacancy report to reduce the manual compilation and streamlining the
data gathering. In the long term, DPS is working with Finance/Payroll and the
Information Technology (IT) division to look into a Human Resources Information System
(HRIS) system, to capture the needed data for this, as well as other reports.
Finally we want to go into a short discussion of next year's Budget numbers. DPS's
Fiscal Year 14 Budget reflects an eight point three percent (8.3%) decrease from our current
Fiscal Year mainly due to the vacant position that has been dollar funded to next year. The
department did see an increase .of twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) that was
transferred from the Finance/Accounting's Budget for the management for the Flexible
Spending program. However, even with this increase, there was still a slight decrease in
the Operating Budget due to cuts in other areas such as equipment, dues, travel, and office
supplies. This completes our presentation. Thank you for the opportunity to present our
Budget highlights and now we will open it up to questions regarding our Budget.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you, Tom. Let me ask you right now,
where are we at when it comes to developing a critical path line here that says this new
department hopes to have an understanding of evaluations, hiring practices, and whatever
those scopes are, complete with everybody trained and ready to take on the duties? Is there
a critical path that is going to tell us at what point are we in compliance with our own goals
of setting up job analysis, hiring practices, the structure per se for determining the
department's involvement with each division?
Mr. Takatsuki: I can attest to the fact that in this point of time, I
do not have a date as to when the total picture will be completed. We have been work on
functions and flow charts of the whole process. We have completed our process when it
comes to working on issues of classification and pay. We have completed a flow chart in
regards to the recruitment and exam process, which at this point is kind of complicated.
We are trying to streamline it more to shorten the period and not extending the period. We
worked on Workers' Compensation and in the other areas of HR. Whether or not it is going
to be done during my term, we cannot guarantee that but we are trying to get to that goal
that you are looking at. The big picture is that we would like to see that, but we are still
struggling with certain aspects of it. If we can get those areas cleared up and met, then I
think we are able to—I am not going to promise to a specific time at this point.
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Chair Furfaro: No, I am asking for a critical path. You present
something to us that says this is the department's organizational functions and you have
already pointed out you have a couple of training issues. I think this should be
communicated to us in some kind of a conceptual plan that says, "You will have this to your
satisfaction by July." We do not have that. We are in need of having a better
understanding of how you are going to get to those goals and the procedure to set that up.
What is part of the division's quantifiable goals to make because you have to interact with
other divisions and then you have to interact amongst yourself. For example, in the
organizational chart, why does the Office of Human Resources have an Equipment
Operator Trainer? Tell me why that is not in Engineering? Why would that position be in
HR?
Mr. Takatsuki: I think the committee that was involved in
conducting the study of HR, I think the push was to have all training centralized within the
Department of Personnel Services...
Chair Furfaro: Let me tell you how I know it should work and I
have a little bit of experience. You should not necessarily have an Equipment Operator
Trainer in your department. What your department should have is a Training Manager
and this person does not have to be the person who has all the skills, but the oversight of
training in general. "Does everybody know how to fill out a Workers' Comp form?" That
should be training that is ongoing. Do people know how to comply with Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and safety standards? That should be part of an
oversight of somebody. Training in general, I can understand comes under HR with a
person like that, but going out in the field, that person is talking to ABC operator, who
during the times that is he training or she is training people, the Training Manager is
assured that that training is occurring. They are reporting on the progress of that training.
This one says we are going to have a person in HR who specifically is an Equipment
Operator Trainer. I cannot relate to that. I have never seen it in my thirty-eight (38) years
of senior management that if I had someone working in the maintenance shop, there was
somebody in HR who was seeing that the training was occurring. They were managing the
training that dealt with how to properly pick up boxes to save the wear and tear on your
back and so forth. There is somebody out in the field that is the trainer, but there is
somebody in HR who is making sure that training is occurring. It is usually produced in a
business training plan. "These are the things they are going to do...they are going to relate
to reducing our (inaudible) premiums...expediting people to get back to work." Those are
HR scopes, but to put an operator in your department, I am wrestling with that. I do not
need an answer right now because I will send it over as a question, but if you want to
answer that, I have a few more pieces to go.
JANINE RAPOZO, Human Resources Manager II: Chair Furfaro, Janine
Rapozo, Human Resources Manager. One (1) of the reasons—you are absolutely right. The
overall management of the training program does belong in the HR. The reason for the
equipment operator to be in HR right now is because it was previously in Public Works only
servicing Public Works. By moving him to a centralized area, we now have him able to
train Parks and Recreation, Transportation, the Water Department; all again, on
equipment and driving training, which every department did not have that. By bringing
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him there right now, we do not need to have a trainer in every department for now. You
are absolutely right; the overall management of the program is in HR.
Chair Furfaro: We need somebody who manages the programs
through the whole County, not just through Public Works. If we are all learning how to
reverse a County trailer that carries Solid Waste from Hanalei because somebody is getting
promoted as a driver, there is somebody earmarked for that. Maybe the discussion is that
that person becomes a shift trainer, but he trains for all departments on how to operate
that kind of equipment. I just wanted to point that out. I am having a problem with
having a truck driver or a tractor operator in the HR department for training specifically
for that.
Ms. Rapozo: As Tom mentioned as one (1) of our challenges,
when you move things to different departments, some other departments are hesitant to
release those functions. Just as an example while I was in Transportation, it was very
difficult to be able to get someone to come and train our people because the person was in
Public Works. I believe that this is actually a better thing, for the entire County so that
there are no territorial issues as far as the person being in Public Works.
Chair Furfaro: Janine, that is the whole reason we are
supporting a new HR Department.
Ms. Rapozo: Absolutely.
Chair Furfaro: So you are not territorially. If you cannot convey
that message to the other departments, first we are all a corporation called the County of
Kauai. That is what I just wanted to say at this point.
Ms. Rapozo: I am in agreement with that.
Chair Furfaro: Tell me a little bit about new hire orientation
and exit interviews. I think it is very important for us that when we hire somebody, we
find ourselves being able to retain that person, whether they grow with the County, get
expanded training, and so forth. It is very important to find out that when people leave,
what was the rationale for their departure? Which one of our HR Managers will be
coordinating this piece called under "successful achievements?" How does this happen? I
presume it is for all departments now.
Mr. Takatsuki: Correct.
Ms. Rapozo: Technically, it is under administrative services,
which was under the Director. It is technically under Tom right now; however, just to let
you know, there is a specialist in that position who started a new hire orientation program
in October. New employees are now scheduled for four (4) hours of orientation that
includes all the new hire forms first. Explanation of benefits, overview of collective
bargaining agreements, a meet and greet with the Mayor, introduction of the Count's
mission and Holo Hobo 2020 projects, the tour of the County facilities, review of countywide
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policies and procedures, and providing each employee with a County identification. That
started in October. Again, as Tom mentioned, one (1) of the challenges is to get a buy in
from all of the departments who were previously doing it. Certain departments were doing
a good job and so it is very difficult to try and move it. I believe we have slowly moved all
the departments to be on board with this on the new hire side. Some of the information
that has come from the supervisors who are now seeing them going on tour during the new
hire orientation were saying, "Wow, I wish I had that when I started." We are seeing a very
good trend here. The department of course is still responsible for their own specific
departmental evaluation.
Chair Furfaro: Let me understand this. When we hire—and I
think it is excellent results so far, but when we hire someone new in Planning, someone
new in the County Clerk's Office, or someone new in janitorial services and so forth; there is
one scheduled orientation where they meet in one melting pot to get the general overview?
Ms. Rapozo: That is correct.
Chair Furfaro: How often is that? If I had a new employee
before they got to the interview, are they waiting for a three (3) week cycle or a one (1)
month cycle? How often do you see that?
Ms. Rapozo: Actually, it is done the day they are hired. We
try to ask all departments to high on the 1st and 16th so we can do it twice a month. There
are stragglers and our Personnel Specialist is doing it right now. She is really committed to
it, so one (1) day later she is doing one (1) more. She is right outside of my office so I see
her sometimes with one (1)person. That is not too efficient, but just to help the department
out she is doing that so that the employee does not come in without anything. It is done on
the first day of their employment.
Chair Furfaro: I sense some there is some lack of efficiencies
that way when we have one (1) person there, kind of on call everyday for an orientation,
because they have to report to their department and get an orientation as well. I would
think if that cycle is done like twice a month or something, it may be more cost effective for
us.
Ms. Rapozo: That is the goal.
Chair Furfaro: That is the goal, okay. What kind of backlog did
you talk about as far as challenges here...backlog of work along with people's resistance to
change? I understand there is going to be resistance for change, and let me tell you, I have
taken Westin Hotels and made them Sheratons and take Sheraton Hotels and made their
Holiday Inns, and taking Holiday Inns and made them Marriott; and everybody says, "This
is how I learned it, from the other guy." The key there is to make sure we are
communicating the reason for the change, the reason for the team needs. Is that part of the
backlog? What are we talking about here when you mention "backlog?"
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Mr. Takatsuki: I think the backlog depends on which division we
are looking into. At this time, I think the majority would have been in classification and
pay division because of the time it takes to do an evaluation of the position, and the time it
take takes to do audit. Sometimes we have requests that come in from the various
departments to do reorganization studies. Reorganizational studies take a while. It could
take anywhere from two (2) to three (3) months, depending on the number of positions that
has to be reviewed. We brought it down to a reasonable number, but the request that
comes in continues to come in. We are trying to get it down on one (1) end and the other
end is still coming in. With two (2) staff, they are doing a pretty good job in taking care of
those issues. I do not think we had that many problems in recruitment and exams. It
depends on whether or not we recruit or whether or not we can or we do not get any
applicants that will apply. It may take a little longer in those situations. With this, I think
Janine has done a good job in trying to get all of the old cases up to where it has to be, and
then working with the third party has been going on. Anything else?
Chair Furfaro: I am just going to ask a couple more questions to
make sure that I understand it, and then I will go around the table and just conduct the
meeting. When we talk about "computerized data collection," is this the new verse of
recruitment critical path? Is this going to be computerized now where I can look at a
computerized report each month that says what my approved vacancies are?
Mr. Takatsuki: I think the report generated there was just to
show a timeline as to how long it took to fill a specific vacancy within the Finance
Department, because I think the question that came up was that it took so long to fill that
last position, but in order to fill the last position there were two (2) other vacancies that had
to be filled. That is the reason why the last one (1) took so long. In regards to the vacancy
report, because it is done manually now...
Chair Furfaro: When will it be automated?
Mr. Takatsuki: That is one (1) of the goals that we are looking
at, which is to get it automated. We basically wanted to meet with the Chair to get exactly
what is being required and in what format? Once we get that done, we can meet with IT to
see how we can better electronically generate the report that is requested.
Chair Furfaro: I would encourage you to meet with IT. This has
been a sore spot for me for a very long time.
Mr. Takatsuki: I understand that. We have been meeting with
IT on the HRIS system to see what can be done.
Chair Furfaro: I have to tell you that when I was the manager
for the Sheraton Waikiki, I had eleven hundred (1,100) employees and an eighteen hundred
(1,800) room hotel. If I had a vacancy that went seventy-two (72) days, the first thing I
would tell HR is that you do not need that position. We are servicing guests everyday and
to see something that goes this long really concerns me. I think the way we need to have it
identified is that we need quick turnaround on these reports so we can ask, "Is it a skill
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problem with this vacancy?" "Is it attitudinal?" "What is the situation there?" I would
encourage you to have the conversation with IT early on.
Mr. Takatsuki: We are already meeting with them.
Chair Furfaro: I assume this is what some of this computerized
data we have been talking about here. For your CIP plan, you have some requirements for
data banking and so forth? Does that show up on this new HR resource information system
to capture data and so forth? Is that something on IT's Capital Improvement?
Mr. Takatsuki: Yes.
Chair Furfaro: It has been identified?
Mr. Takatsuki: Yes.
Chair Furfaro: Okay. Your overall Budget decreased eight point
three percent (8.3%) according to this, so we never got a list that says, "This is all the
current Budget items that we drew all together to be able to justify the eight point three
percent (8.3%) decrease. How did you get to knowing it is eight point three percent (8.3%) if
we did not have a starting point?
Mr. Takatsuki: We used the current year Fiscal Budget.
Chair Furfaro: But current year Fiscal Budget was a
computation of moving those resources. In other words, we never confirmed the costs from
2011-2012 and compared it to the first year we had an HR Department?
Ms. Rapozo: I believe—we presented that last year, but we do
have the information.
Chair Furfaro: I will send the question over.
Ms. Rapozo: I have the information.
Chair Furfaro: Do you want to hand it over now? I do not want
to discuss it, I just want to compare it.
Ms. Rapozo: We do have where all the moneys came from and
what the savings was.
Chair Furfaro: Great. For right now, I just want to say that it
has been a long process, but I have to tell you that we are looking for justifications. I have
a real problem thinking that we are going to have a heavy Equipment Operator Training in
it the HR Department. I am clueless as to where that came from. Those are my general
questions and now I will run meeting and start with Mr. Rapozo.
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Mr. Rapozo: I have a bunch of questions. Let me just start
with the general questions. Where are we on filling the Director's position? Or have we?
Mr. Takatsuki: We are looking into it and I cannot say exactly
what day.
Mr. Rapozo: Yes, but where are we in the process? Have we
posted the job? Have we solicited?
Ms. Rapozo: Councilmember Rapozo, I think we have to defer
to the commission as far as when the Director is going to be hired because it is a
commission appointed Director.
Mr. Rapozo: You folks do not have any idea? You folks do not
communicate with the commission? We are not going to bring them up now because it is
not a commission budget. If you do not know, you do not know.
Ms. Rapozo: I believe they had a couple of meetings that were
held in Executive Session to look at filling the position.
Chair Furfaro: Excuse me, Mr. Rapozo. I have a second part to
that. The second part.is if we are advertising? Are we out posting and soliciting the
vacancy?
Mr. Rapozo: Would that not come under your department?
Ms. Rapozo: No, the commission would have to direct that.
Mr. Rapozo: Okay.
Chair Furfaro: I see commissioners here. I think it might be
appropriate to have them up in case they have some questions as well. They are not needed
to come up right now, but they can before you guys leave.
Mr. Rapozo: The real simple question is if we are looking at
filling that position as soon as possible? Is this a strategy to...
Mr. Takatsuki: Yes, we are looking into filling the position. I
cannot tell you when or how long.
Mr. Rapozo: But as soon as possible? I am asking because I
do not know.
Mr. Takatsuki: Yes. For myself, I really do not know but yes, we
are going fill the position.
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Chair Furfaro: Tom, let us ask the question this way. On July
1St, is the money and benefits identified in this Budget?
Mr. Takatsuki: Yes.
Chair Furfaro: Okay. Why do you not step to the side and we
will ask one (1) of the commissioners to come up and help us just for a few minutes. It is in
the Budget and planned?
Mr. Takatsuki: Yes.
Chair Furfaro: Okay.
CATHY ADAMS, Chair of the Civil Service Commission: Cathy Adams,
Chairman of the Civil Service Commission.
ROY MORITA, Civil Service Commission: Roy Morita.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you. Commissioner, you have the floor.
Ms. Adams: We have been meeting the last several meetings
clarifying the advertisement, the job position, and the responsibilities and to be honest with
you, we have spent a great deal of time trying to update that rather dated document.
Because of concerns, we wanted to make sure that we also had the County Attorney's Office
helping us make sure was done properly. We do not have a date yet for when we are going
to start advertising. It is our belief that the personnel, who have been working very hard in
this conversion, are doing a good job, and we want to support them in what they are doing
and find the right candidate when the time is right.
Mr. Rapozo: I understand that. That is perfectly fine. We, for
budgetary reasons, need to know what we are going to budget in that line. If you are not
going to hire one (1) in the next six (6) months or eight (8) months, then we need to adjust
that salary line accordingly.
Ms. Adams: I understand that and I think realistically
speaking, we are looking at least six (6) months out.
{
Mr. Rapozo: At least six (6) months?
Ms. Adams: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: That is good to know.
Ms. Adams: We want to get the right candidate in this
position.
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Mr. Rapozo: We do too. We want you to get the right
candidate, but no sense funding a line if we are not going to hire. That is my concern. We
will make that adjustment in the Budget. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Cathy, based on what you said, we may adjust
the Budget to reflect that position not being filled until October 1st.
Mr. Rapozo: That is fine.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you. While the commissioners are up, I
will recognize Councilmember Yukimura and anyone else, but let us deal with the
commissioners while they are up.
Ms. Yukimura: First of all, thank you for being here. You are an
integral part of the Human Resources Department. Thank you for your oversight and
assistance in recreating this department because I think it has been long overdue and very
essential to the good operations of the County. Regarding the Director position, thank you
also for timing the time in the securing of an executive level manager is a critical diction
and not something that should be rushed. I support in you taking the time that you need to
make the decision. My question is whether you think it might be helpful to have a
consulting firm...I guess they are called "head hunting firm" to help? I know the Police
Commission did use the help of such a firm when they chose the present Chief. They used
them to screen—I think it started with...I do not know how many candidates, but quite a
list, and they helped them to do the background research and that kind of thing, which in
other executive searches that happened this County, we know did not happen without some
dire consequences. Perhaps you do not need the first six (6) months' salary of the Director
for the salary, but if you need some moneys for that kind of service, and it will help you do a
better search and selection process, then you need to let us know.
Ms. Adams: Thank you. I am sure the commission will find
that a helpful suggestion.
Ms. Yukimura: You need to let us know before we make
decisions on the Budget.
Mr. Morita: Councilmember Yukimura, our discussions is
held in Executive Session, so the point that you brought up was kind of touched upon at one
(1) of our meetings. We have been advised by the attorneys so as we move along, it is going
to be a timely process because our Chair said, we are changing the duties and
responsibilities, and even qualifications of that position. As we update those, we already
discussed how we are going to advertise it. It is moving along but I cannot get into detail
because of the Executive Session.
Ms. Yukimura: I do not want you to but I appreciate that you are
doing a really thorough job because as I remember, that position is so dated to basically just
the Civil Service system, and not to a real Human Resources Department. It is excellent
that you folks are really starting first with the position description and what you need and
0
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want now in this day and age. Just know that you may in your process have some needs
because you are sort of limited into who can staff you too I think, and do some of that work
which is often required in an executive search. If you would take that and think about it
and let us know if you may have some funding needs.
Ms. Adams: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: May I just ask, has the County Attorney advised
you on how to calculate the professional help by going to a recruiter? What it might cost?
Ms. Adams: No.
Chair Furfaro: Okay. I think the County Attorney in the HR
area should know that, and usually you should plan on thirty percent (30%) to forty percent
(40%) of the first year's salary as the finder's fee for a professional recruiter.
Ms. Adams: Okay.
Chair Furfaro: You should just have that in mind, okay?
Ms. Adams: Okay.
Chair Furfaro: Vice Chair, you have a question?
Ms. Nakamura: I just wanted to comment that I am so glad that
you are taking the time to just go back to the very basic documents that will outline the
responsibilities of this new position as you are defining it. To me, it should not be a rushed
process. I think your approach sounds like a good one. Thank you very much.
Ms. Adams: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Any more questions for the commissioners? On
behalf of the entire County Council, first of all, thank you for your volunteerism. Secondly,
let me say how much we appreciate your presence today.
Mr. Morita: If I may say too, Mr. Chair, I want to thank Tom.
He was on the verge of retirement and he knew how critical it was to have his experience
and expertise.
Ms. Adams: He has been an essential element to all of this.
Mr. Morita: To the success so far.
Chair Furfaro: Tom, thank you very much. I guess you know
what it are to be the eggs in the bakery. You hold it together. Thank you very much.
Ms. Adams: Thank you.
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(Mr. Kagawa noted as present in the meeting at 2:22 p.m.)
Chair Furfaro: Essential ingredient. Okay Tom, your crew can
come back up. We are going to get into a routine of going around the table with questions.
Mr. Kagawa, thank you very much. Good to see you. We reported your absence this
morning, knowing that you would be here in afternoon.
Mr. Hooser: This is a question about the vacancy report that
ties to the overall Budget. Does the information that is available tell us what the average
funded vacancy amount would be for the County of Kaua`i? Take all the positions we have,
funded positions and what percentage of a those that would be at any one time, be vacant—
people retiring, quitting, et cetera.
Mr. Takatsuki: I think the current vacancy report is all positions
that are currently vacant so that would take into account whatever the funding should be.
If I am not mistaken, they include dollar funded positions and whatever positions are
vacant. It can be a dollar funded position, not necessarily a position that is fully funded. If
you are asking us to whether or not we can determine what the Budget impact on those
vacant positions if they were all to be filled?
Mr. Hooser: Basically, yes. The County is saving a certain
amount of money every day from vacant positions that are funded.
Mr. Takatsuki: Correct.
Mr. Hooser: That is what I want to know. What is the
Budget impact from those vacancies—average?
CRYSTAL FUJIKAWA, Human Resources Manager: Crystal Fujikawa, HR
Manager. I believe the vacancy report would have the dollar amounts on it, so we could
probably get a figure for you.
Mr. Hooser: Would you be able to give us an average annual
figure?
Ms. Fujikawa: We probably could do that.
Mr. Hooser: That would give us approximate savings from
those vacancies at in point in time?
Ms. Fujikawa: Yes.
Mr. Hooser: Thank you very much. That was my question.
Chair Furfaro: I just want to get some clarity. If you ran a
report that identified from year to year the vacancies for those positions with the salaries
next to them on a spreadsheet, you could give us a number each month that indicates what
{
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the savings is in the year, in the month, for the vacancies until it was filled? You could do
that? Am I seeing everybody shake their head?
Ms. Rapozo: Yes, and I think those are some of the
discussions that Tom wanted to discuss with the Chair as far as the vacancy report going
forward.
Chair Furfaro: I know we had this discussion before, but I want
to make sure we are all copasetic on this.
Mr. Hooser: Just to follow up to be clear on the information I
would like to get. Theoretically, we have one hundred percent (100%) funding of the
positions. Let us say five percent (5%), in theory, we could fund ninety-five percent (95%)
and not impact any Personnel decisions because there is that five percent (5%) float on an
annual basis. Some positions are vacant for a day and some are vacant for a year, but the
average, in theory, we could underfund/short the positions equal to the amount of the
average vacancy?
Ms. Rapozo: I think part of last year's Budget did a little bit of
that where they short funded some of the positions knowing that, that particular vacancy
was going to be for a six (6) month period or something like that. What you are saying is
just on an overall basis to analyze every vacancy report and look at whether or not, what is
the average vacancy amount that we are looking at and whether or not we can fund at that
level? I guess that would be more a Finance question, but we can certainly do it on this end
for the vacancy report.
Mr. Hooser: If you could provide the estimates to the Council,
certainly our Council and our Budget deliberations can look at that also. I realize it may
take some work, and I am personally not requesting to the dollar, a realistic estimate of
what that figure would be. Thank you very much.
Chair Furfaro: Just so you are clear when you are meeting with
me, I do not want the estimates, I want the actuals.
Mr. Takatsuki: I think the meeting what we want with you is to
get the specific requirements and what are the reports that you really want, and then we
can go back and get what you really need.
Chair Furfaro: I have a payroll spreadsheet I can show you, but
I want actuals.
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you. Tom, when we request a vacancy
report, how is that done? Can you guys run to the computer and run the report or are you
taking a list from the departments and punching them into a spreadsheet? That is what
you guys are doing? I understand that is where you want to be, but in essence what Gary is
asking for is a spreadsheet with many formulas built in. That is not available today?
April 22, 2013
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Mr. Takatsuki: We have the vacancy report. From that report, if
the information that Councilmember Hooser wants can interpolate and take data from that
to get a dollar amount that he is looking at, I think that is something that is viable, but as
you say, if it was more electronically done that way, it would be much easier.
Mr. Rapozo: I agree with the Chair that I would like to see
the actuals. That would require tracing that position back to the day it became vacant,
which is on the sheet now. They are showing when the vacancy occurred, but somebody is
going to have to calculate in days and in months, put that formula in the spreadsheet and
basically say on that day that the spreadsheet was created. It is not a living spreadsheet in
other words. Basically, we would get a report that says, "As of this date position a, b, and c
has saved the County x amount of dollars." That would have to be manually calculated
because there is no way you are going to be able to...the spreadsheet is not that right to
calculate how long it has been vacant. That is a lot of work to create that document.
Chair Furfaro: Unless the document is already created, and you
can use the creative talents of providing one.
Mr. Rapozo: I am sure it exists because I would assume that
most corporations would have that as a budgeting tool. I would definitely—if you could
help him Mr. Chair.
Chair Furfaro: We have a meeting set up.
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: JoAnn, did you have your hand up?
Ms. Yukimura: Yes, I have questions.
Chair Furfaro: Go right ahead. I am asking one (1) question at
a time. We have two (2) hours here.
Ms. Yukimura: I want to say first of all, thank you for an
excellent report. I think you have a clear mission and tremendous progress. I was just
pulling my files and recognize "Human Resources Restructuring Task Force Presentation"
the April 12, 2012 presentation, if you look at the progress that has been made since then is
very substantive and shows a lot of work that you all have been doing. Thank you for that.
Perhaps the greatest change in the County over this last year, and I just want to just
commend and thank the commissioners, the Mayor, and the team that has been doing that.
I have some questions about your chart. Who is your name Labor Relations and
Classification Manager? Is that you, Tom?
Mr. Takatsuki: Me.
Ms. Yukimura: You are also acting Director?
Is
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Mr. Takatsuki: Correct.
Ms. Yukimura: Recruitment and Exams Manager is Crystal.
Janine, you are the Employee Development/Health? Okay. You have a vacancy that is the
HR Specialist I Labor?
Mr. Takatsuki: Right.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay. I cannot tell you how thrilled I am to see
that you folks have embarked, with the help of IT, on the Human Resources Information
System. You are all involved in the development of that, so the moneys for that are in the
CIP Budget?
Mr. Takatsuki: Yes.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay. That is being managed by whom?
Finance? IT?
Mr. Takatsuki: Finance.
Ms. Yukimura: Can we discuss that as a CIP issue related to
Human Resources, Chair? Or do we have scheduled another time?
Mr. Hunt: It came before you in Brandon Raines'
presentation from IT. There are three hundred ninety-five thousand dollars ($395,000) that
is dedicated to that project, which involves notice just the HR, but also Payroll, Time in
Attendance, and larger.
Chair Furfaro: I wanted to make sure you pointed out it because
Brandon told us that it would also include Time in Attendance that Planning could use to
keep track of billing cycles and so forth.
Ms. Yukimura: It will have all kinds of uses once we put it in
place, and I presume one (1) of the real benefits is a standard approach to tracking of
employee benefits, pay, retirement, and all of that. That is underway. Do we know what
kind of timetable we have for that that?
Mr. Hunt: We have been having those meetings already.
There is a task force involved in going through and trying to identify the needs of all the
various departments and additional needs that are being brought up as we go through
these hearings. We are still developing that Scope of Work. Some of it looks like we will be
able to do with the existing software that we have. Other components are going to have to
be either brought in as attachments to that or potentially even customized depending on
the Scope of Work that gets determined.
April 22, 2013
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Ms. Yukimura: I am just so grateful that it is underway. As I
mentioned, it was the subject of our audit and that gives even more urgency, but I think
there are so many things that will get better because of it. Thank you.
Ms. Nakamura: I am also looking at last year's presentation, the
creation of this new department, and I wanted to ask you; I noticed some changes in what
was proposed and what was actually—this new position chart dated March 2013. One (1) of
the changes I notice is who is doing the EEO/ADA, and I know when the Mayor did his
position the ADA position went back there. Who ends up doing the EEO portion of the
work?
Ms. Rapozo: That position was ADA Coordinator/EEO Officer,
so that is with the ADA Coordinator position, EEO, working with the Attorney's Office.
Ms. Nakamura: EEO training will be done through the Mayor's
Office as well?
Ms. Rapozo: Through that position.
Ms. Nakamura: Through that position?
Ms. Rapozo: What kind of training? If it is training in general
for harassment and discrimination, or those kind of things, that would come through our
office.
Ms. Nakamura: That is what we see a lot, which lawsuits are not
being compliant with EEO, so that is the concern.
Ms. Rapozo: In January, we did have training for all higher-
level management with the EEOC Commission. That was part of a conciliation agreement
that we had to do. We did that and we are also looking at bringing down some training for
Employee Liability for supervisors. That is next one on the horizon.
Ms. Nakamura: If the EEO person is in the Mayor's Office, are
they correlating with your department as well?
Ms. Rapozo: There is some coordination with our department,
but if you recall, that position was originally supposed to be with HR but the Council moved
it to the Mayor's Office last year. It was part of the entire position that moved.
Ms. Nakamura: Okay. We could move it back if we choose to do
that?
Ms. Rapozo: Yes, that was part of the package as part of the
restructured HR...
April 22, 2013
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Ms. Nakamura: I think the concern was the ADA portion of it,
not so much the EEO portion. If it goes hand in hand, there are implications for that.
Thank you for clarifying that. Also, under the HR Specialist II in your proposal last year,
you had four (4) positions under a Private Secretary-and now you had four (4) positions
under an HR Specialist II and now three (3) positions under a Private Secretary. Can you
tell us how that came about?
Ms. Rapozo: The intent was to have an Administrative
Services Benefits Division. When we went out for recruitment, the level of applications
that were received warranted the department to reassess how we would best meet the
needs. What we did was have the Clerk's report to the Private Secretary and transactions
and benefits were moved separately. As you can see, there are actually lower level
positions than what was originally proposed.
Mr. Takatsuki: Just to add on, the long term goal is to get to the
way it was originally setup.
Ms. Nakamura: Okay. Tom, I understand that you are the HR
Manager II Labor Relations and Classification...
Mr. Takatsuki: Correct.
Ms. Nakamura: And wearing the dual hat of acting Director.
Mr. Takatsuki: Correct.
Ms. Nakamura: Thank you for doing that, but you were going to
retire?
Mr. Takatsuki: Last year.
Ms. Nakamura: Thank you for sacrificing your retirement for the
County. I wanted to ask, because it seems like a top heavy proposed department, that
should you decide to retire, that position still needs to be filled, but it is also filled as one (1)
of the three (3) divisions.
Mr. Takatsuki: Correct.
Ms. Nakamura: Is there any way to fill it by combining divisions?
Mr. Takatsuki: I think the original intent was that at one (1)
point in time, we were looking at instead of being specialists to be generalists. Through
this reorganization, it was determined that it was better to be specialists than generalists
so in that individuals could better help or assist the departments in the areas of their
expertise. The four (4) different divisions, I think in the recommendations of the committee
was necessary to better carry out the duties of the department.
April 22, 2013
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Ms. Nakamura: Okay.
Mr. Takatsuki: In that sense, even based on the number of
employees within each of the divisions, the workload is still very high, very great. They
have a lot of work that they need to do. I think the way it was set up was for the best to
service the entire County.
Ms. Nakamura: The reason why I am asking is because I am
looking at Maui's Personnel Services Department and I do not know if I am comparing
apples with apples, but they are at one million four hundred sixty thousand dollars
($1,460,000) and we are at one million eight hundred thousand dollars ($1,800,000), and I
think they have much more employees than we have. I am not sure what we might be
doing differently from Maui County and what they might not be including.
Mr. Takatsuki: To answer that, I think Maui is similar to what
we were before. They are generalists. They are not specialists. They are employees service
the County in regards to all the different functional areas, which is Recruitment and Exam,
Classification Pay, Labor Relations—the three (3) major functional areas. They service
specific County agencies versus us, where we serve in the specialty area of the entire
County. They have a specific trainer, as the Chair was mentioning, who does the
coordination of all the different types of training programs.
Ms. Nakamura: Okay. Thank you.
Ms. Rapozo: Just to clarify. When the task force looked at
that, Maui has a lot of their Personnel decentralized like how we were. For example, like a
position like Crystal's who was in Public Works, would still be in Public Works so you would
not see it in the Personnel Budget.
Ms. Nakamura: That is not a true, accurate picture.
Ms. Rapozo: Yes.
Ms. Nakamura: Okay, that is good. Thank you.
Mr. Kagawa: Aloha and thank you for your presentation,
although I missed most of it. Same thing as a lot of the Councilmembers, and I have a
history because I used to work for the Council—even our Staff here, it grew from maybe
seven (7) to maybe now fourteen (14) or so. But as a Councilmember, I have gotten to see
and compare the level of service that we are getting here, and in my short time of due
diligence, I found that our Staff really does a lot more than we used to do when I used to
work here. Things are a lot timelier. There are a lot more E-mails coming through and
requests, so I can justify the size increase in this Staff. I think that is what we are going
through with your Staff and the department of as a whole. One (1) of the concerns that
came up during my first audit, from N&K CPAs, Inc., was that in their testing of the
( vacation and sick leave, out of forty (40) samples or so, they found fifteen (15) or seventeen
(17) where the sick leave and vacation was off. I am just wondering if that is the Personnel
April 22, 2013
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or Human Resources Department's job to try and correct that audit findings? Or is it the
different department's job? Whose job is that to correct this problem? I think, like
Councilmember Yukimura brought up so colorfully, either way it is bad. For the employee
if you are short, it is terrible. It is like we are stealing money out of his pay. On the County
end, if we are giving the employee too much, we are losing out and our taxpayers are losing
out. Who is going to tackle this problem? I think I am scared to go deeper into every single
file if we have thirty percent (30%) or so that are off? They say it is both ways off. Some for
the employer, some for the employee, and maybe when you balance it out, the materiality to
the County might be zero, but then it is still hurting one (1) or the other, right?
Ms. Rapozo: It is still not good for the employees.
Mr. Kagawa: Whose responsibility is it to try to correct that
audit finding?
Ms. Rapozo: Right now, the leave balances are at the
department and similar to a lot of HR functions, they were all at the department and that
is why we are slowly bringing it in. Right now, it is still at the departments. It something
that the HR Task Force looked at last time around to see whether payroll needs to be
brought over to HR, along with time and attendance, so that may be something that we look
at in the future because right now we are just trying to get these parts done. I think it is
something that right now is still at the department. If it is an audit finding, I assuming
that the departments will need to correct that, along with Finance's payroll to get that Time
and Attendance corrected.
Mr. Kagawa: Is there one (1) obvious reason why we were
having that discrepancy? Maybe they are not turning in the papers in a timely manner?
Or would you rather disclose that in Executive Session? I do not know if we want expose
some of our weaknesses internally.
Ms. Rapozo: I do not think we would know one (1) answer.
We probably could see that when you have eighteen (18) different departments doing it, you
are definitely going to have some discrepancies in how it is managed and how it is being
done. I think that might be one (1) of the first problems. Secondly, I think the way it is
managed as far as whether you can take some leave without turning in the necessary
paperwork; that again varies from department to department. There may be a variety of
reasons, which I think that is something definitely every department needs to look at.
Mr. Kagawa: What you are saying is that maybe we need to
define a consistent manner of...
Ms. Rapozo: That would be something if we brought it into
HR, would be the consistent policy that would go out.
Mr. Kagawa: Very good. Thank you.
April 22, 2013
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Mr. Rapozo: The follow up is in response to something that
you—and it was talked about throughout the presentation that some of these functions, like
this, what Mr. Kagawa talked about, is still being handled by the departments?
Ms. Rapozo: That is correct.
Mr. Rapozo: Why is that?
Ms. Rapozo: That particular...
Mr. Rapozo: And others?
Ms. Rapozo: As I think Tom mentioned in his presentation,
some of the challenges is that the learning curve of the five (5) new Staff, some of the
challenges is that some of the departments are actually resistant to the change and they
are not...
Ms. Rapozo: Why are they allowed to be resistant, is the
question? You all know my position on this HR when it came up. It was, "Let us figure out
the plan first and then move in, rather than just drop all the positions in there," and now
we have resistance. For me, that is not acceptable. If a department—how can a
department be resistant? That I think baffles me. Once HR became HR and once those
functions were transferred, they do not have a choice, in my opinion. Help me understand
that phenomena, where a department head is going to say, "No, HR, we are keeping it
here." We are paying—remember, this is a very expensive department. The justification
was that we would take all of this, bring it under HR, and we are going to save money, but
in essence what has happened is that we have this well funded department that is doing as
many functions as they can but some departments are still resistant, so we are funding
events in the individual departments because they are resistant. Well, if they are resistant,
somebody needs to send them home without pay, I guess. Correct me if I am wrong, and I
heard that several times today. The resistance to change, like the Chair talked about going
from a Marriott to a Sheraton. It is really simple. "This is the new policy." Has that
occurred? Have the department heads been given the directives that says, "Your function—
whatever it is, now belongs to HR?" Has that even been done yet? Is there a director,
department head, or a division head out there who is saying, "Sorry, we are not doing that?"
Mr. Takatsuki: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: Really?
Mr. Takatsuki: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: Okay. Then I am even more...
Chair Furfaro: You have the answer to that. If they tell you
they are resistant to back, go back and ask them, "Would I miss you if you were gone?"
April 22, 2013
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Mr. Rapozo: I guess it is beyond—you folks have your
department. What do you do? Let us say...I am not going name a department, but a
department says, "No, we are not turning that over. We are not doing it." What is your
recourse? As the newly formed, well funded, all the resources and tools—I see you holding
it up, JoAnn but you cited KPD in there. You cited KPD but in order for KPD to do that, he
has to have some help from the County to have that Personnel person or whatever?
Mr. Takatsuki: We have been trying to work with the
department more to resolve the issue...
Mr. Rapozo: Is that the only department?
Mr. Takatsuki: No.
Mr. Rapozo: That is my point...
Mr. Takatsuki: We are trying to make leeway into this issue. We
try to make everything to come to us, but if it comes to the point that I have to go see the
Mayor to tell him...
Mr. Rapozo: I am seeing the Mayor right now, and I do not
know if he is aware of what is going on, but I will tell you. It is very, very frustrating.
Mr. Takatsuki: Yes, we have been trying to work with the
departments. It is not a matter that we have not been doing anything, but as you say,
change is slow. They have been slowly coming in.
Mr. Rapozo: This was a mandate from the Charter. This is
not something that the Mayor wanted to do or the Council wanted to do. The Charter says
you will have an HR Department. When the presentations were made to this Council...
Mr. Takatsuki: It is not by Charter. No changes have been
made.
Mr. Rapozo: I am sorry, not the Charter. I apologize. I
misspoke because I am buzzing now because I am like, "Hey..." More so, a directive has to
go out.
Mr. Takatsuki: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: We are a multi funding. You are talking about
duplication of services. That is what are a we a e doing and we are here in a Budget bind.
Mr. Takatsuki: All of the directors, when the form of directive
was here, all went out to the departments and agencies, informing them as to what needed
to be done. It has been coming slowly, but there are one (1) or two (2) that is (inaudible).
That is the only resistance.
April 22, 2013
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Mr. Rapozo: Can you provide us with a list of—I will call it is
the "duplication." Is that something that we can get to see the duplication in HR? That has
to be resolved.
Mr. Takatsuki: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: I want to do a follow up to this. This is not a
new item. This is a year now. This is one (1) year that we have talked about this that we
made a conscious decision—and I am really serious, you folks need to have a little bite with
the Administration if people are now falling in line. Did the Council fall in line? We sure
better have. Also, I sign off on our payroll and balance the payroll every time it is due. I
see we have overtime slips attached to overtime hours. I see it is reconciled across the page
and reconciled down the page. Department heads should do that, and I am part time. I am
part time or at least that is what we classify me as. What I am saying is that everybody
needs to be on board a year later and if not, there has to be a serious discussion about the
shortcomings. Those shortcomings need to be documented or else we are not going to get
there. As Mr. Rapozo pointed out, there is a lot of money that is available to do this right.
We need some compliance here. I would like to see that we are going to take a ten (10)
minute break. We are going to 4:30 p.m. so I would like to take a break for ten (10)
minutes.
There being no objections, the department budget call-back was recessed at
2:58 p.m.
The departmental budget call-back was reconvened at 3:10 p.m., and proceeded as
follows:
Chair Furfaro: Okay, we are back from our recess. Before I turn
the floor over to Mr. Hooser, I want to remind everybody that we are going to go from now
until 4:30 p.m. but for tomorrow, from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m., we have the Department of Public
Works, particularly Road Maintenance. At 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., we have the Humane
Society. From 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., we have the Finance Department, Credit Collections
and Merchant Services followed by 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., with the closing the Office of
Economic Development finishing up their Director's Report and CIP. That is the amended
schedule agreed upon today. On that note, Tom we are back on. Mr. Hooser, you have the
floor.
Mr. Hooser: I was just going to briefly follow up. I was also
surprised to hear that we have departments who are resisting or who are apparently trying
to fulfill the responsibilities had their own department, rather than let the Department of
Personnel Services do that. I guess what my question is, "What does that look like? What
are they doing that they should not be physically doing? What specifically is an example of
that?"
April 22, 2013
Department of Personnel Services (cy)
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Ms. Rapozo: One (1) particular example is in our New Hire
Orientation, we wanted to bring that all in and everybody gets the same orientation. We
have a couple of departments that have been doing that for many, many years, so
understandably it is something difficult for them to just say, "Here, take it." They kind of
nurture their employees and feel it is their `ohana there. We are working with them to be
there. Initially, they may be doing that orientation and we are there to make sure that
everything is covered, and then next one, we are going to be taking over. It is a transition
process with all the departments. Other things are like the Personnel files, bringing them
over. I think in general, the department is trying to work with of these departments and
make sure we start to show them what this department will be doing for them and how
they can benefit with that because now they have capacity do to other things within their
department. We have worked with them, sent reminders, spoken to them, and I guess the
final result is that it will have to go to their appointing authority, whether it is the Mayor
or the Commission to say, "Hey, these things are not happening. Please do something." I
think that would be the bottom line on how we are trying to address this problem.
Mr. Hooser: Releasing or transferring Personnel files would
be one (1) area of resistance?
Ms. Rapozo: Yes.
Mr. Hooser: I imagine that during the orientation, there is a
checklist of whether it is harassment policies, alcohol, or whatever polices that you have
that they may or may not be doing the same thing. I would think that would be a potential
legal liability if that employee violated a policy and was not briefed properly.
Ms. Rapozo: That is correct. Once the New Hire Orientation
was brought into the department, it was evident that every department had a little
different version of what was being covered, so by centralizing it, it definitely limits our
liability.
Mr. Hooser: Thank you very much.
Ms. Nakamura: Thank you for that description. When is a
reasonable time for this transition to take place?
Ms. Rapozo: I would like to say within a year. We have had
our challenges with a new leadership. We will probably get new leadership again to see
how we are going to be moving forward. With the team in place right now, we have made
great strides to get further than where we thought we would be. Some of our goals are
getting to those different points. I am hopeful that we can definitely reach most of the goals
by next year.
Ms. Nakamura: This time next year is when you would expect
full compliance or full cooperation?
Mr. Takatsuki: That or sooner.
April 22, 2013
Department of Personnel Services (cy)
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Ms. Rapozo: Tom is saying that or sooner, so I will let him
take the lead on that.
Ms. Nakamura: Really, is it at the end of the year? Next year?
We need so set a goal because it is also a funding issue from our side. If we are saying that
we want to have some economies of scale by setting up HR this way, then what are those
positions that are continuing to do the Public/Personnel function within the department?
We need to look very specifically at those. I guess my next question is, "Besides the Police
Department, what are the other departments who are not fully engaged in this new HR
process?
Mr. Takatsuki: Some of the other departments are probably not
under the control of the Mayor. We have issues and concerns with the Water Department.
We had issues and concerns with the Fire Department but we have resolved all those issues
and concerns so we are okay with them. Some of the smaller departments—one is only
because of the secretary being out that they are unable to find where the files are. The
major departments, as Janine is saying, are that we have been working really closely with
them in trying to resolve these issues. Once we can do that, then we should be able to
perform the functions that we should be performing as HR. As I say, between now and the
end of the year is goal, but I might not be able to reach that goal. Whoever comes after
Y Yg � g g
that, and then we will be work on achieving whatever we need to become an HR
Department.
Ms. Nakamura: Thank ou very much.
Y Y
Chair Furfaro: Tom, remember at the beginning of this, I asked
for your Key Result Areas (KRA). You showed me your KRAs with critical dates; the Key
Result Areas. You need to show us that before you get to the end problem and say, "This is
the end." We want to see some critical routes and areas that you plan to have as measuring
points.
Mr. Takatsuki: Okay.
Ms. Yukimura: You did say that all of your personnel files are
now in your office. Is that not true?
Mr. Takatsuki: All of the files should be in our office, but I have
to say most of them are currently in our office because there are a few that have not...
Ms. Yukimura: That is part of the lag at this point. I hope I did
not hear right, that some files could not be found. They were not Personnel files?
Mr. Takatsuki: No, what I am saying is that within the Liquor
Department, the secretary is not there. She is the one who knows where the files are and
the rest do not.
April 22, 2013
Department of Personnel Services (cy)
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Ms. Yukimura: All right. I have a follow up to the question of
"when will you complete your transition?" In the org chart, you do still have the
Department of Personnel Services, which is I believe because of the Charter. Do you have
any plans to propose a Charter Amendment to complete the transition and to be able to use
the modern language to describe the role and function of your department?
Ms. Rapozo: That was something that the HR Task Force did
look at as to whether or not we would pursue the Charter Amendment in conjunction with
the original consolidation or this restructuring. The task force had felt it would be better to
ensure that the department basically restructures to see how it would work, and then
pursue the Charter Amendment. Then it would just be a matter of a name change versus
debating what the structures were.
Ms. Yukimura: I think that was a good strategy because people
would have been resistant to an idea before they know how it could actually happen and
what you are doing is showing how it can happen and show that a lot of the fears were not
warranted. That is a good strategy, but given that you might reach Tom's goals by this
year and next year is an election year, at which time Charter Amendments will be on the
ballot, that might be something with this Fiscal Year's plan in terms of an objective, right?
Especially if you are quite well underway and you are feeling most people having a comfort
level with it, then it might be something that you can add to your list of target goals or
objectives. I have a new question. That was a follow-up...
Chair Furfaro: She has a new question, too. I will give her the
question and then come to you.
Ms. Yukimura: I was doing a follow up.
Chair Furfaro: You are going to do a follow up?
Ms. Yukimura: I was doing a follow up and I have a new
question, but I can wait.
Chair Furfaro: Nadine, you have the floor.
Ms. Nakamura: I wanted to talk about employee evaluations,
both of directors and all employees. I wanted to find out what kinds of strategies do you
have to do that?
Mr. Takatsuki: This is on evaluations for the directors?
Department heads?
Ms. Nakamura: Yes, I think I want to start with the directors,
but then want to talk about how we incorporate performance evaluations at every level?
Mr. Takatsuki: To regress back, I think our commission was
tasked to find a way to do the evaluations for department heads, and those who are
AMM
April 22, 2013
Department of Personnel Services (cy)
Page 28
appointed by commissions, as well as department heads appointed by the Mayor. They
have completed their task, and I am currently reviewing their recommendation and
hopefully within the next—tomorrow is our commission meeting, but hopefully within the
next commission meeting to provide them with input and comments in regards to what they
have proposed.
Ms. Nakamura: Do you see the departments implementing those
recommendations this upcoming Fiscal Year?
Mr. Takatsuki: Hopefully. I will give you a hopeful answer.
Ms. Nakamura: I am wondering because if we are going to pursue
it, I do not know if there is anything in the Budget that supports that activity. That is why
I am asking.
Mr. Takatsuki: I see what you mean.
Ms. Nakamura: I do not know if it can be done in house or
whether you plan to use some outside resources to assist with those evaluations?
Mr. Takatsuki: I think we can do it in house. I think we have
completed it so it is just a matter of a director reviewing it and making recommendations,
and then if it is all okay, I guess, basically to implement the job performance evaluation
report that they have recommended.
Ms. Nakamura: And working closely with the commissions that
have that oversight responsibility?
Mr. Takatsuki: Correct.
Ms. Nakamura: Thank you.
Ms. Rapozo: Actually just to add to that, the commissions
were directly involved with assisting in providing feedback towards creating the tool.
Chair Furfaro: May I just ask, do you know if the two (2)
presentations that I made to the commission are still alive?
! Ms. Rapozo: I am not familiar with what you are speaking of.
Chair Furfaro: Then I guess they are dead.
Ms. Rapozo: What are you...
Chair Furfaro: I made two (2) presentations; one (1) with
Mr. Mark Hubbard on upward appraisals on performance reviews and 360 feedback. Are
they still alive?
SI
April 22, 2013
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Ms. Nakamura: I guess a follow-up and related question that I
wanted to explore was the evaluation of employees in general. I really believe that this is a
management function, and I do not know how well the County does in actually doing this
on an annual basis. I just wanted to throw that out and get your feedback because I also
see it as a two (2) way thing, which is evaluating the performance of the employee and the
employee evaluating the performance of their manager and the organization that they are
working in.
Ms. Rapozo: Right now, it is housed in all of the departments
to be watching for job performance reviews that should be done annually on their
anniversary date. We are going to be bringing in the monitoring of when someone is due to
HR, and we will be notifying the department as far as when the evaluations are done. First
of all, to make sure it is done because we do have a problem with that. Definitely in all
departments, everyone tends to lag on that, whether it is a probation area, evaluation, or
an annual evaluation; especially recently where Hawai`i Government Employees
Association (HGEA) are tied into raises and there were no raises. It becomes to the point
where people tend to kind of let that go and it should not. If should definitely be at least
annually. We are working on creating a spreadsheet to be sure we can get everyone's date
when they are due, especially for the new hires in making sure that the six (6) month
probationary evaluation is done before the six (6) months are up. Also, to work on the tool
because the tool is very old right now, and try to standardize that for all of our employees.
Ms. Nakamura: What I would like to do in future Budget Reviews
is to just have that. "How many employees are in this organization or this division? How
many of them had annual reviews done?" This is how,management should be evaluated as
well. Are they doing their job? So heads up to Budget that is going to come across in a
future request.
Chair Furfaro: JoAnn, you have the floor.
Ms. Yukimura: Will the Human Resources data system help to
track these job performance functions?
Ms. Rapozo: It is something that the task force is looking at,
as well as expiration of certifications, drivers' licenses, and all of that so that it is all
centralized and we would have one (1) database to be able to do that.
Ms. Yukimura: Theoretically, at the beginning at the month the
manager will have time to evaluate that employee and an annual performance review?
Ms. Rapozo: I believe we are already doing that for Public
Works. HR is already doing that for Public Works, so now we just have to expand it to the
rest of the County.
Ms. Yukimura: Very good, thank you.
April 22, 2013
Department of Personnel Services (cy)
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Mr. Rapozo: The reason it is only Public Works is because
you? Obviously, that does need to go to the other departments. You guys are going to be
the custodians of all the personnel files?
Ms. Rapozo: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: It would make sense that these evaluations have
to come back to you at some point, right?
Ms. Rapozo: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: You expect that to be part of this program as
well? Everybody should be up to date?
Mr. Takatsuki: Correct.
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you.
Mr. Hooser: When the reviews come in, does someone in
Personnel at your office actually look at them or just file them? It seems like typically they
would be "adequate, adequate, adequate," and is there any consultation with the
management to say, "Can you do a little bit more in terms of the conversation and the
details?" Do you actually look at the reviews?
Ms. Rapozo: Not at this point. I do not think there is anybody
reviewing it just to be sure it is complete; however, it is one (1) of the recognized areas that
we need training on as far as how to do performance evaluations on so that is something my
division is looking at in general to train managers.
Mr. Kagawa: I vividly remember, maybe just a month ago, we
had a County employee who takes care of the Waimea Canyon School field, Teddy Perreira.
I remember him proudly saying, "Come take a look at my park." From what I hear,
everybody says what an amazing job he does at that facility. He is almost implying that if
you look at other parks, they will not be as proud to say, "Come take a look at my park." I
know these evaluations that we are going through...it kind of relates to what the teachers'
reluctance was, "Who is doing the evaluating?" You could have a boss doing the evaluation
of an employee like Teddy, who is doing a magnificent job, but if the boss does not like him,
how can we rely on that? I guess my question is, "Who is doing the evaluating and how do
we know that is accurate?" To me, the easiest way to evaluate is to take some pictures
randomly, when the employee is not watching, to show what the condition of the park is.
That would be how to evaluate a park employee. I do not know if words are accurate by a
manager. What is the process for evaluating a Parks' employee?
Mr. Takatsuki: Normally, the supervisor who oversees the
employee at that level is the one who would normally evaluate the worker.
April 22, 2013
Department of Personnel Services (cy)
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Ms. Yukimura: That supervisor is also evaluated hopefully by
the manager. There is some review of supervisor's functioning, right?
Mr. Takatsuki: There is a supervisor above the supervisor;
correct.
Ms. Yukimura: Yes.
Mr. Takatsuki: 1 Whoever supervises the employee is the one who
would normally evaluate. If the supervisor has a section head or division head above him,
who is responsible for that individual would evaluate that supervisor.
Ms. Yukimura: Hopefully the department head or higher level
manager would review the job evaluation performance of the lower level supervisors.
Mr. Takatsuki: The department head normally reviews the
evaluation for the employee, as well as whoever is under him. It goes up the chain of
command. The first line supervisor evaluates the worker.
Ms. Yukimura: Right.
Mr. Takatsuki: If I am not mistaken, then the division head can
initial off that he did review it, but the ultimate individual who assigns the job performance
evaluation is the departmental head.
Ms .Yukimura: Okay. I see. I wanted to say that I think Council
Vice Chair's point about how managers—and I think you were talking about employees
evaluating managers. The Chair's point about upward appraisals is tools for some
evaluation of how managers are managing. I do not suppose we are at that level now. We
do not do upward appraisals at this time do we?
Mr. Takatsuki: Not at this time.
Ms. Yukimura: At some point, is that on your list of things to
look at as possibilities in terms of accountability of managers?
Mr. Takatsuki: Yes.
Ms. Nakamura: If that is h
t e case, then I think it should
be
articulated in your plan or your initiatives for the upcoming year; whatever chunk of it you
will be able to handle this upcoming year. I think that would be helpful so we know that
the steps are being taken to achieve this larger goal.
Chair Furfaro: I am going to hand to the two (2) commissioners
here some of the things had that we do at the Council because we want to be on board with
you folks to get to this plan. At this Council, we already do upward appraisals. I made a
presentation to the Civil Service Commission and it shows the upward appraisals that are
April 22, 2013
Department of Personnel Services (cy)
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based on the values that the Council has. The values are posted in our dining facilities and
right outside of our meeting room. This is mission, vision, and the values; what we are
committed to do, where we are going, and based on what values. That also then leads into
what our continuity plan is for us, and that continuity plan also includes 360 feedback. Our
Auditor now goes to departments and has the evaluation done because he interacts with
them. The upward appraisals are simply from the workforce going up and how they
measure the mission, the values, and the goals that we set. I sent a full copy over to the
Administration a while back. I will give another copy to the commissioners in the back. We
are ready to comply with whatever the team comes up with but in the meantime, we have
changed the Clerk. We have changed a Deputy Clerk. We have hired some new people.
We have promoted some based on these evaluations and so forth. They are excellent
commitments that we need to have from the different department heads. It also ties into,
in our particular case, retirement. We have a County Clerk that will be retiring in January
of 2015. That is only twenty-two (22) months from now. It identifies by a color coded chart
of who is leaving and it is color coded as those who are leaving soon as green colored. Those
who are in transition and invested, they are yellow coded. Those that are just new to the
organization and time and exposure are colored red. You have an idea of where we are at,
but upward appraisals, a 360 from your peers—that is really important, too. We will give
you another copy but we are ready to comply whenever you come out with this but that was
just to give you an idea of what the Council and Elections are doing right now.
Ms. Yukimura: I was intrigued by your report, Tom, on—I am
not sure I remember the exact term, but reorganization analysis. What is the proper
terminology?
Mr. Takatsuki: The reorganization studies that we conducted?
Ms. Yukimura: Okay, reorganization studies. Is that when
department heads want to change their org chart and reclassify one (1) position to another
function and use, and that sort of thing?
Mr. Takatsuki: I think the reorganization is more in line within
a specific department. They want to create a new division. We will go in and we will
review it to see whether or not it is compatible and whether or not they can or cannot. Here
is a case in point. One (1) of the departments wanted to create two (2) new divisions from
going from three (3) divisions to five (5). We reviewed it and made the recommendation as
to whether or not it is feasible or not?
Ms. Yukimura: Okay.
Mr. Takatsuki: As part of that whole thing, is we needed to
classify—review all of the positions that were within that division.
Ms. Yukimura: Right. I have noticed that the really dynamic
departments are—because they are looking to do more with less, they are constantly
reviewing their positions and the changing times. They are saying, "We need to do more of
this when four (4) years ago, we need to do more of that. Now we want to shift positions or
April 22, 2013
Department of Personnel Services (cy)
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create new divisions." To me, that is a very positive thing that departments are doing. You
said that is quite an involved thing and it takes lengthy time because you have only two (2)
positions.
Mr. Takatsuki: Correct.
Ms. Yukimura: In my mind, if it is a positive thing that
departments always want to respond to changing conditions with existing bodies and
positions, we—you would want to facilitate that kind of changes within the department.
Your capacity to support that becomes important. Does that make sense?
Mr. Takatsuki: Yes
Ms. Yukimura: I do not know if it is for this year's Budget, but I
guess I would like to ask if you could look at how you could increase or improve that
capacity so we could better serve our departments in making the kind of changes that they
want to make. That would be helpful input to me.
Ms. Rapozo: Just in response to that, there are two (2) things
happening in that classification section that is Tom's branch, so he is now wearing two (2)
hats. That has diminished the capacity for classification.
Ms. Yukimura: Right.
Ms. Rapozo: The other thing is that there were one (1) more
specialists that were not filled that is now dollar funded. The capacity was placed in there,
but we just do not have it filled right now.
Ms. Yukimura: I see. Are the dollar funded position reflected on
the chart?
Ms. Rapozo: Yes, it is highlighted in yellow.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay. That is the one that is a vacancy but it is
earmarked as"Labor" rather than "Classification."
Ms. Rapozo: Yes. Within the three (3) specialists, right now
the other two (2) have to double up because of that.
Ms. Yukimura: I do recognize that in small divisions with few
Personnel that you have to multi task or have multiple skills in order to do this. Thank you
very much.
Mr. Kagawa: This question is maybe a tough one, but it has
been brought to me because of a lot of the heat that we are taking for some of the things
that have gone on in Planning. These questions kind of came up with from a person who
applied for a Planner job and had a Planning degree but did not get it. It caused him to ask
April 22, 2013
Department of Personnel Services (cy)
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some questions about the history and I guess he was told that in past—and I do not know
any factual information is basing these comments, but in the past, a lot of our planners had
minimum Planning degrees. He said that in recent years, it was his understanding that
out of twelve (12), we had three (3) with Planning degrees. I do not know how accurate that
statement is. I am just wondering, is the reason that we have a lot of people without the
Planning degrees in the Planner positions is because we do not have enough applicants
with the Planning degrees, or have we taken that out of the minimum requirements? I do
not know if you are ready to answer that today. I appreciate an answer because for me, I
am an accountant. I would think that getting an Accounting degree counts for something, if
you have an accounting position. You would not hire a soccer coach for a baseball team,
right? I was wondering what is the reason why we had so many Planner positions filled
with people without Planning degrees, including Public Works. I do not know if you could
answer that now.
Ms. Fujikawa: Including Public Works?
J g
Mr. Kagawa: A Planner position. I would think the priority
would be maybe given to somebody with a Planning degree.
Ms. Fujikawa: Ideally, you would want Planners. It is possible
to be able to substitute either experience or some other degree for these positions. Then
everybody is interviewed in that respect. They are probably evaluated on training and
experience. They are either given points maybe more for a Planning degree, or maybe less
for a more general degree, but then they become all eligible for the position. They are sent
to the department for interviews. That possibly could be the reason. Without knowing
specifically what the situation is, it is hard. We would need to review your specific
situation.
Mr. Kagawa: I do not have the information you folks have. It
was just brought to me by a person who did not get the job and he was a little frustrated
because he had to Planning degree and come to find out after asking around, he heard that
has been a trend. When I heard that, back when I used to work for the County about
twenty (20) years or go, they said most of the Planners have Planning degrees. I was
wondering if that was a trend that maybe we should try and get away from if we are having
issues in our Planning Department. That might help to get the Planning Director and
people who actually have that expertise in that area doing the job.
Ms. Fujikawa: Okay.
Mr. Hooser: I just have a quick follow up. Is the Planning
Department one (1) of the departments that is resisting complying?
Ms. Rapozo: There was not a position that was moved from
Planning, so I do not believe we have had any resistance from them
April 22, 2013
Department of Personnel Services (cy)
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Ms. Yukimura: I am glad to see on page 6 of your successes and
achievements that you are doing consistent exit interviews. How long have you been doing
that?
Mr. Takatsuki: We have been doing exit interviews, I would say,
over fifteen (15) years but the problem that we always had with exit interviews is that the
person is already gone before we were notified as to the termination date. It is always after
the fact so we cannot get in touch with that individual. Now, because we are handling all of
the paperwork, we know exactly when the person is going to be leaving. The Specialist is
able to get a hold of the person and do the exit interview. I am hoping from the exit
interviews that the information we get will assist us in what kinds of problems or issues
that may be out there.
Ms. Yukimura: That is my next question. Are you getting good
information that helps us shape our policies and our procedures by which we deal with our
employees?
Mr. Takatsuki: We have had some pretty good comments. They
enjoyed working where they have been working so the comments have been good. A lot of
them are individuals who are retiring versus people who have been terminated or
otherwise.
Ms. Yukimura: Yes.
Mr. Takatsuki: The comments have been good, but as we go
along we hopefully can use the information that they provide to better provide services and
maybe correct issues or concerns that this individual has with the department by at least
letting the department know these are some of the concerns that was voiced.
Ms. Yukimura: Having positive input is just as good as having
negative input because it is still feedback of a sort and you want your employees to be
happy and satisfied in doing their work, which then leads me to another follow up question.
There has been a lot of emphasis in the private sector. Now with the best places to work,
evaluations that are being done, companies are applying for that status and then are
evaluated. Have you considered participating in this program as a way to increase our
ability to hire qualified people and also as a way to get feedback on how we are treating and
dealing with our employees?
Ms. Rapozo: We have not considered that, but it is definitely
something we should be looking at.
Ms. Yukimura: I do not know of any governmental entities that
have participated, but there are a lot of non profits that are participating. It appears to be
becoming a way of looking at for a corporation to reflect on how it deals with its employees.
Thank you.
April 22, 2013
Department of Personnel Services (cy)
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Chair Furfaro: As we are talking about accretion through
retirement and so forth, one (1) of the things that always concerned me in government is
that we anticipate—and this goes back to the continuity plan, but we anticipate certain key
employees retiring, but we never have a situation where there is an expectation that the
employee who is replacing the departing employee has maybe two (2) weeks of cross
training with that employee. I am not sure how we put it in the Budget going forward, but
it is something I would certainly like you to consider. You have institutional knowledge
there who is it leaving our ranks. I think we want through that in last few years, going
through Planning. We had Keith Nitta folks retiring and so forth, yet there was not any
bridge to have Keith's replacement spend any real, quality of time with Keith. It is
something that for some reason we do not put in the Budget. Keith leaves and the starting
date of his replacement is usually the next day. There is no time to kind of have these guys
exchange information and history, especially in Planning. I think it is something that we
need to look at. Perhaps as we build going forward, we create a line that says, "Okay, we
have four (4) key departures through retirement, so we have to put in a contingency of
sixteen (16) weeks of pay to cover that time. I just would like us to put that somewhere on
the radar screen for continuity that we need something like that. We just went through
almost the same thing with some key people in Budget and Finance who have retired. We
identified their replacement with not having the time that they could exchange
information. "What foundation is there?" Especially in places like Finance and Planning.
It is something that we have to consider. Are there any additional comments?
Ms. Yukimura: On the Personnel commission's line items, they
are zeroed out. Is it put in another part of your Budget?
Mr. Takatsuki: It is with the Boards and Commissions.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay. You have a line item in Boards and
Commissions.
Ms. Rapozo: The entire Budget was moved to Boards and
Commissions because the function was moved to Boards and Commissions.
Ms. Yukimura: Really? Are they zeroed out in every department
where there is a Boards and Commissions?
Ms. Rapozo: I believe Police and Fire is still within the
department, but that is something they are looking at. I believe in Liquor, they still have a
Commission Secretary there. That was done with the retirement of our former Personnel
Services Commission Secretary.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay. The line item on "Consultants"—please
refresh my memory. The "Third Party Administrator and Other Services," what was that
for?
Ms. Rapozo: That is for our Workers' Compensation Claims.
Brandvold Ku Inc.
April 22, 2013
Department of Personnel Services (cy)
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Ms. Yukimura: Okay. Good. Thank you.
Ms. Nakamura: I am looking at the org chart and I wanted to
find out, with the proposed expenditure to put together this new software system that
tracks time; and I am assuming vacation, sick leave, and so forth. Who in the org chart will
be responsible for that piece? I know you are coordinating with Finance.
Ms. Rapozo: That particular function should be under the
Administrative Services and Benefits Division. Right now, that is the division that was
kind of broken up based on the qualifications. Eventually as Tom had mentioned, we do
want to get back to having that division head with the staffing under it.
Ms. Nakamura: That would be the Personnel Management
Specialist I?
Ms. Rapozo: Yes.
Ms. Nakamura: That would benefits and a computer system.
Ms. Rapozo: There is actually a Benefits Specialist,
Transaction Specialist, and the three (3) Clerks.
Ms. Nakamura: That you have under the Private Secretary now?
Ms. Rapozo: Right. That particular division was restructured.
Ms. Nakamura: You want the three (3) Clerks to go under them?
Ms. Rapozo: The three (3) Clerks with the two (2) Specialists
are actually the Administrative Services branch that was restructured.
Ms. Nakamura: Okay. The reason why I am asking is that I
really think it is important as we begin this process to really involve this person in the
initial discussions and implementation of it, if this is the person who is going to be
responsible for it.
Ms. Rapozo: Absolutely, we have two (2) employees that sit on
the task force. I believe the two (2) will be coming from that division now, right?
Ms. Takatsuki: Yes.
Ms. Nakamura: Okay, great.
Ms. Rapozo: The two (2) Specialists.
Ms. Nakamura: Thank you.
April 22, 2013
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Mr. Kagawa: I hope I am not the only one asking all of the
tough questions today. We are in times where we just have to look at cutting everything
down. One (1) of the things that was brought up, and I scratched my head on that one, was
an employee who talked to me about the labor wagon. Are you familiar with that? That is
a case where, say, a worker might be at the Kapa`a Base Yard and he might live in
Hanapepe, he might be able to take his truck home. I guess he would drive that truck to
work every day, and he gets paid from the time he leaves home. Is that agreed upon with
Human Resources or is that agreed upon with the boss?
Ms. Rapozo: It is actually in the Collective Bargaining
Agreement to have labor wagons on Kaua`i.
Mr. Kagawa: What is the benefit to the County of having the
employee drive from Hanapepe to his work site at Kapa`a?
Ms. Rapozo: Are you talking about in a County owned
vehicle?
Mr. Kagawa: In a County vehicle. What is the benefit to the
County?
Ms. Rapozo: I think the original intent of the labor wagon was
to make it efficient for everyone to get to their worksite similar to the plantation days
where you had those (inaudible) trucks and everyone would go to the worksite.
Mr. Kagawa: The benefit is to get them to come to work?
Ms. Rapozo: Well, just to be efficient where they would
centralize at one (1) base and then all go to the worksite. I think that was the original
intent of the labor wagon.
Mr. Kagawa: Do you think that needs to be fixed?
Ms. Rapozo: We have been working with the Union for many,
many years.
Mr. Kagawa: With the price of gas at almost five dollars ($5) or
so a gallon, I find it important that we try and end those types of agreements, where we are
basically throwing g away
money. I hope e that the
United Public
Workers (
UP is watching
because that is something that I find to be quite ridiculous, where we have certain
privileged—a lot of our County employees work in Lihu`e, work in Kapa`a, and they drive to
work. Then you have a few that are allowed to drive the County vehicle, without any
benefit. I could see if they are picking up rubbish on the way home but if they are just
driving to work, then I think that is something—I do not know how much labor wagon deals
there are but if they provide, like I said, no benefit to the County then I think we should
look at ending those agreements as soon as possible.
April 22, 2013
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Ms. Rapozo: I think we agree with you on that.
Ms. Fujikawa: Yes, we agree with you.
Mr. Kagawa: Thank you. Mahalo.
Mr. Rapozo: That is something that we choose to do, right? If
we stop that practice, that is not a mandate, right?
Mr. Takatsuki: It is a Collective Bargaining issue. It is part of
the Unit 1 Collective Bargaining Agreement, so unless we can...
Mr. Rapozo: It is hazard pay, but not everybody gets it.
Mr. Takatsuki: Hazard pay is a determination made based on
whether or not there is a hazard or not
Mr. Rapozo: Right.
Mr. Takatsuki: For us, this issue has been ongoing for many,
many years. We have been trying to get it out. We even did a subcommittee to meet with
the union to try to resolve this and get this thing out but nothing happened.
Mr. Rapozo: What does the agreement say?
Mr. Takatsuki: There is specifically a section—what is the title?
Crystal knows.
Mr. Fujikawa: Transportation.
Mr. Rapozo: Transportation—I am sorry?
Mr. Takatsuki: Transportation to be provided to the work site.
It is part of the agreement. In order to get it out of the agreement, we have to negotiate it
with UPW to have that section deleted. We have been trying to have for many, many years
but we have not.
Mr. Rapozo: How many of these wagons do we have?
Ms. Fujikawa: I believe we have about five (5).
Mr. Rapozo: Five (5) routes and is this is just for Public
Works?
Ms. Fujikawa: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: How do you get to be on a labor wagon?
April 22, 2013
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Ms. Fujikawa: If you are on the route, then you are able to use
it.
Mr. Rapozo: Which route? Who establishes the route?
Ms. Fujikawa: It was established a long time ago before we
started.
Mr. Rapozo: Okay, but does the contract specify the route?
Ms. Fujikawa: No, it does not. It says, "Existing practices shall
continue."
Mr. Rapozo: So they get a car and take the truck home?
Ms. Fujikawa: They have a vehicle. Yes, they do. Of course the
vehicle is also used at the base yard.
Mr. Rapozo: I understand. Are there certain requirements for
these drivers? Do you have to pick up "x" amount of workers and take them to work?
Ms. Fujikawa: It is based on the capacity of the vehicle.
Mr. Rapozo: Okay. I do not know what this guy is driving.
Ms. Fujikawa: Usually about six (6) at the most.
Mr. Rapozo: Okay. Is this person required to fill up the truck
with six (6) people?
Ms. Fujikawa: No, the employees choose if they want to go on it
or not. A lot of them have their own things to do after work so not all of them do...
Mr. Rapozo: The guy get paid from when he leaves the house?
Ms. Fujikawa: The driver is.
Mr. Rapozo: I am sorry?
Ms. Fujikawa: The driver is paid.
Mr. Rapozo: The driver?
Ms. Fujikawa: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: Is that overtime?
April 22, 2013
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Ms. Fujikawa: It is.
Mr. Rapozo: You have got to be kidding.
Ms. Fujikawa: No, we are not.
Mr. Rapozo: Well, we are definitely have to look at that. I do
not know if the attorneys have to look at that or what, but I just do not see—that is
ridiculous. I never knew about that until right now.
Mr. Takatsuki: We will welcome your help.
Mr. Rapozo: It says "existing practice," but I have to believe
that when that was put in it, it was the group truck; the work truck that everybody jumped
in the bed of the truck and they drove to the site. Over the years, evolution jus—they do
not do it anymore and take their own car or catch a bus. There has got to be a way—I think
and I am not sure if it is the attorney but we could have the discussion with them. I would
ask that we see the language and if you could provide us the language of that contract.
Chair Furfaro: It might actually be a Charter violation.
Mr. Rapozo: I think so. It might be.
Chair Furfaro: It might actually be a Charter violation, so send
us the verbiage.
Mr. Rapozo: It is almost like if you are going to be driving
that truck then maybe your hours—I do not know how do you it. This guy gets paid
overtime every single day? He has a free truck and free gas? Okay. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Please understand me, I want the exact language
in the policy that you have so I can send it to the County Attorney for the proper
interpretation as it is aligned with the Charter.
Ms. Yukimura: Is this happening in other Counties as well?
Mr. Takatsuki: It is only us and with language for the State.
None of the other Counties have that language.
Ms. Yukimura: Why does Kaua`i County have it?
Mr. Takatsuki: If I am not mistaken, that is the reason why the
Chair said in a lot of the history on what happened and why it was introduced, all the
people are gone. For me, when I look at it to get intent language on, I cannot tell you what
the intent of the language was going back to 1975 or whatever it was.
April 22, 2013
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Ms. Yukimura: Was it part of your bargaining position this year
to remove it?
Mr. Takatsuki: Yes.
Ms. Yukimura: It was?
Mr. Takatsuki: It was dropped.
Ms. Yukimura: I think the Mayor has been trying to get that out
of the agreement for some time now and working with the Union. We have not come to any
particular agreement.
Ms. Yukimura: Does it even benefit most of the Union members?
Ms. Rapozo: No.
Ms. Yukimura: It is very special interest.
Mr. Rapozo: Five (5) people. Can we have that, Mr. Chair?
Chair Furfaro: Tom, I want to reconfirm what I heard. You said
that condition only exists on Kaua`i?
Mr. Takatsuki: Kaua`i and the State; the language that is
currently in there.
Chair Furfaro: If we are looking at that to get clarification and
remove that on these bargaining unit pieces, you have to remember that we only have one
(1) vote, but I think there is a way to approach it if that policy is not consistent with all
Counties. Maui and Hawai`i island should not be voting on a condition in our Labor
Agreement that does not apply to them. Give us the policy and we will surface it with the
County Attorney.
Mr. Takatsuki: Okay.
Ms. Yukimura: Have you talked to the State about joining forces
on this issue? How complicated is it from the State side?
Mr. Takatsuki: I cannot remember the issue with the State line
by line, but the State's language and our language is slightly different. I think it is best if
we can send you the language and you guys can look at the language and you can have the
attorneys review the language, because there is a slight difference in the language.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay. Thank you.
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Mr. Rapozo: I guess, if you can find out for us with the State.
You have a counterpart in the State that you can chat with, that you have a relationship
with? I do not, otherwise I would but if you do, find out if that entitlement comes with a
policy where if we are going to give you the truck and the gas, and the overtime, then you
have got to pick up people. You have got to bring people to work. Then I do not think it is a
really bad thing and I could stomach that a lot better if I knew the truck was full every day
and you are actually saving five (5) families from having to drive. I could probably stomach
that, but if it is just one (1) guy with a free truck, then I am just curious if the State puts
parameters on that program. In other words, you volunteer for the program—what do you
call that; carpool? "We give you the car but you have to fill it up, and if you do not then you
lose that privilege and give it to somebody else." Anyway, if you could check with the State,
Tom, I would appreciate that, if you have someone to check with that. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Obviously, we would like to see how that also ties
to our gas. Are there any more questions on this item? Tom, I want to share something
with you. I have been on the Council twelve (12) years and the first six (6) years I was
Finance Chair. This was addressing the continuity issue that I talked about. It is in our
Proviso in Section 3, when we have key positions that are retiring, we need to have some
handoff from the new to the old. It says this, "Successor positions for which there is an
existing or anticipated vacancy for which hiring and replacing is critical to the continuity of
the operation. You may hire an overlap, provided that funds are available."
Mr. Takatsuki: I think the departments have been utilizing that
provision.
Chair Furfaro: I just remembered the discussion because we had
so many key people retire, but it is in the Proviso.
Mr. Takatsuki: Yes, I think that was the reason why.
Chair Furfaro: There is not money set aside for it, but if we have
payroll savings, just so HR knows, it can be done.
Mr. Takatsuki: Yes, thank you.
Ms. Nakamura: I wanted to ask the question relating to your
training budget, seventy-two thousand dollars ($72,000). I know that a lot of the other
departments got cut on training and so it good to see some moneys in here. The biggest
complaint I hear from friends who work for the County is that there are managers who
have come up through the ranks and know their job, but may not necessarily know how to
manage people. I wanted to find out—and the other thing is that I was happy to see within
the Budget presentations of Elderly Affairs, Recreation Division, and Procurement; there
was some talk about team building, morale building, kind of working as a unit, and how
you motivate your employees. What are we doing to get those mid managers to learn how
to be a good manager?
April 22, 2013
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Ms. Rapozo: That is certainly something that we recognize
where the supervisors need to have some training because a lot of them are coming up the
ranks. The first thing we are looking at doing is we are going to train them on liabilities
issues, on being a supervisor as far as their responsibility, and whether they do or do not do
things. For that one, we are trying to get here in the next month or two (2) for them. Other
than that, we have been concentrating more on those types of issues first, which is your
harassment, and what you do when you have complaints on different things like that.
Secondary to that is going to be disciplining your employees and what is the County's policy
of how to go about on doing that because that is defiantly lacking too. That would be the
secondary module after the liability. We are working on different types of modules to get to
that level. It has just been a little bit of a challenge to get proper training or trainers for
that, but we are still working towards getting that.
Ms. Nakamura: Do you see yourselves getting to the point where
you are bringing in modules on team building and morale boosting?
Ms. Rapozo: We have done some of those but it has been more
specific when departments are requesting it. We have brought in various people to do those
types of things for specific divisions, but as a whole for the whole County it is something
that we need to look at in general.
1 Ms. Nakamura: Yes. I would like to see somewhat more of
1 proactive measures because other stuff is dealing with what not to do and how to handle
I these difficult situations, but to work on other proactive side...
Ms. Rapozo: Absolutely.
Chair Furfaro: I wanted to have a follow up. I wanted to make
sure that we understand that it is leadership that makes a good manager. It is not about
how to be a good manager. It is about how to be a good leader. I think your two (2) points
on understanding exposure and liability, whether it is property liability or an HR exposure
for the way we discipline and so forth, and then discipline of course. A good leader should
have progressive discipline that is consistent with the rest of the County.
Ms. Yukimura: I appreciate Council Vice Chair raising the
question. I know that like she said, people may be good at their jobs but when they are
elevated to a supervisory position, they have a hard time distinguishing that position from
the employee. They still feel like they are part of the gang and want to be friends yet, and
have a hard time disciplining. The question is—and this comes into place on the
performance evaluations. Even I find it difficult to do performance evaluations, especially if
you have to deliver it face to face. It is hard. I think it is hard at any level. How do we
support them in being able to deliver some difficult things that may come across as
criticism or negative, yet be able to deliver it because it is important for that to be conveyed
to the employee? To me, if we can do some training in that, that would be really helpful
because there is a lot this; I think especially in Public Works but maybe everywhere, where
you are one (1) of the guys or one (1) of the gang, and it is hard to make the distinction of
being a manager/supervisor.
II
r
April 22, 2013
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Ms. Rapozo: I think one (1) of the things that we have been
looking at—and I will be working with the Specialist that does the New Hire Orientation
for new employees is a New Hire Orientation when they become a supervisor so that they
get the very basics to begin with at that point, and then moving forward they would just get
refresher training. That is something that we are looking at doing.
Ms. Yukimura: That would be really excellent. Thank you.
Ms. Nakamura: Again as a follow up because you brought up this
leadership training, I saw there was a line item in the Mayor's Budget for five thousand
dollars ($5,000) for Leadership Kaua`i. Are you guys aware of that line item?
Chair Furfaro: I can answer that. The County, since the
founding of Leadership Kauai, and I was the founding Executive Director, has always sent
two (2) members to training every year. We have some of our fire chiefs that have gone
through it and others. You were one of those. I wanted to say to you, much of that Posner
training material;it fits in all the things that you are talking about.
Ms. Nakamura: My thought is if we can identify those middle
managers and work with Leadership Kaua`i to design something that the County needs. It
may not be a full blown, yearlong process, but something that caters to the needs of the
County of Kauai. They have the tools and resources to assist and we have some training
funding. Is there any way to bring the two (2) together to bolster this great resource that
we have in this community? I just wanted to throw that out and see if we can find some
way to partner.
Ms. Rapozo: Definitely something to look at.
Ms. Nakamura: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: JoAnn, go right ahead.
Ms. Yukimura: This computerized training which has modules,
which I think the Council actually has members and I include myself as being negligent in
doing—where is that in the Budget? How much does it cost? Have you evaluated its
effectiveness?
Ms. Rapozo: It is actually in that training line item.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay.
Ms. Rapozo: We actually pay per user. It is fifty dollars ($55)
per online user for up to eight (8) trainings and twenty-five dollars ($25) per offline user.
When you do the math on that, we are actually paying six dollars and eighty-eight cent
($6.88) per training or three dollars and thirteen cents ($3.13) per trainings for those who
do not have a computer, and annually it runs to about fifty thousand dollars ($50,000).
April 22, 2013
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Ms. Yukimura: Have you evaluated whether it is helping you
achieve your goals in training?
Ms. Rapozo: When we needed to make cuts, I looked at
whether or not it was something that we would do away with. I got a lot of feedback that
said, "No. The employees enjoyed that training, so please leave it on." What happens is
that they do it initially. I do get some feedback initially from some of the employees saying,
questioning, or thank you for this or some supervisors who want to be able to access it later
as refresher training. I have not done an actual analysis, but just more anecdotal kind of
information that I have.
Ms. Yukimura: I am not sure the word "enjoy" would tell us
whether the training is useful.
Ms. Rapozo: Right.
Ms. Yukimura: It is good because you want to keep them going
on it. It has to be somewhat of a positive experience, but whether they are getting the
concepts or whatever, you will be doing it more substantive evaluation over time?
Ms. Rapozo: Yes.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Can I give you some feedback?
Ms. Rapozo: Sure.
Chair Furfaro: The first four (4) modules that I participated in, I
scored one hundred (100) on each one.
Ms. Yukimura: Great.
Chair Furfaro: The next four (4)—I no longer found value in it at
my level. I had no problem doing my part. I think you are aware that I completed all of
them but now to me, it is very time consuming at this time, and it is also somewhat
Y g ,
repetitive for me. You might want to check the different levels.
Ms. Rapozo: We do have it separated by executive managers
as well as supervisory management, and there is the option by the department heads to
say, "Mark me as complete because I looked through it or whatever." I think it was more
awareness for to us make sure that the executive managers are aware of what is going on
for their Staff.
Chair Furfaro: I appreciate you doing that but for so long, I just
find it repetitive now.
April 22, 2013
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Ms. Rapozo: Got it.
Mr. Kagawa: Thank you. I just want to thank the three (3) of
you and the rest of the Staff. I think as we head in the future with the tight budgets and
think "how are we going to improve the island?" I think the power rests with our employees
and for that reason, I do not mind that we are trying to build our Human Resources Staff.
One (1) of the things that stick out and again, it is going to be another tough question.
Historically, Tom, we both have been there a long time and historically we promote based
on user service. I am just wondering now that we are heading into these performance
reviews, if that will allow us to not only credit the years of service, but I think more
importantly, if we can credit the good performance as a even higher value. Tom, the Unions
probably do not want to hear that but in reality, when you talk to our employees—and it is
not all the time, but quite a bit of the time, they say, "Wow. The hopeless guy got
promoted." When the perception is that no matter how hard you work at that lower level,
the guy with the years of service is going to get it. I think that creates automatic lack of
effort. I do not know—with our new department, looking forward if we are trying to change
the way we do it. I do not know if we can do it here from Kaua`i, but why not try? I think if
it will improve government, it would improve our facilities and everything, then that is a
direction I think we should maybe try and move it. Do you have any comments on that,
Tom? Crystal?
Mr. Takatsuki: I think you are correct in the sense that based on
the contract language, they always say the senior person normally gets promoted. For me,
I am of the opinion that the best qualified person should be promoted, but we have an
ongoing issue with the Unions. They always say, "Unless all things equal, seniority
prevails." That is how it has been operating all this time. The Union is kind of strong at it
because basically almost all of the Unions work together; unless, you can break that old
adage about seniority being the issue when it comes to promotion. In certain cases, that is
not the situation. The best qualified may be promoted because a lot of them go through the
interview process, then you rate the individuals based on what they provide at the
interview, and the department head can make their selection as to who they felt was the
best qualified. There are certain bargaining units require that being seniority normally
gets the nudge.
Mr. Kagawa: At least now that we are going through those
performance evaluations, at least we will have I guess a process that we are beginning.
Mr. Takatsuki: That can be a beginning process to look at.
Mr. Kagawa: That can document the value of the employees.
Thank you. I appreciate it.
Chair Furfaro: Members, we are coming up on 4:30 p.m. and we
are coming to a point where we need to close this for HR. Tom, I want to let you know, that
Cathy Adams, one (1) of your commissioners was present at my first presentation on
"Continuity, Upward Appraisals, and 360 Feedback." When she left, I gave her another
copy of our working piece here, and she has that. I also want to tell you that in chatting
April 22, 2013
Department of Personnel Services (cy)
Page 48
with her outside, what great comments she gave us about your willingness to stay on and
your willingness to help us through this organization. As a commissioner, she conveyed to
me how much your work and your efforts are being appreciated by the commission. I just
wanted to share that with you as she shared it with me. Thank you very much. Let us see
if anybody has anything around the table. It looks like we do not. On that note, ladies and
gentlemen, thank you very, very much. We are in recess until 9:00 a.m. tomorrow.
There being no objections, the departmental budget call-back was recessed at 4:25 p.m.