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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016_0915_Minutes Open_APPROVEDCOUNTY OF KAUAI Minutes of Meeting OPEN SESSION Approved as circulated 10/20/16 Board /Committee: SALARY COMMISSION Meeting Date September 15, 2016 Location Mo'ikeha Building, Meeting Room 2A /213 Start of Meeting: 9:00 a.m. End of Meeting: 9:47 a.m. Present Chair Robert Crowell; Vice Chair Lenie Nishihira (9:02 a.m.). Members: Charles King; Sheri Kunioka -Volz; Cammie Matsumoto; Jo Ann Shimamoto Also: Deputy County Attorney Matt Bracken; Boards & Commissions Office Staff. Support Clerk Barbara Davis, Administrator Jay Furfaro Excused Absent SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION Call To Order Chair King, current chair, called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m. with 5 members present. Approval of Open Session Minutes of April 11, 2016 Minutes Bottom of page 6, Chair King pointed out that while Mr. Furfaro was once a Chair he probably is no longer Chair so we might want to correct that. Also on page 6, Chair King questioned the last sentence of the first full paragraph regarding Attorney Bracken putting something on the table which he did not think was proper that Attorney Bracken would put something on the table. Perhaps it should be Mr. Bracken's suggestion or something along those lines — it was whether we could put 2 amendments to our failed Resolution. Attorney Bracken thought that was what Mr. Furfaro said so Chair King said to leave it. Ms. Matsumoto moved to approve the minutes as amended. Mr. Crowell seconded the motion. Motion carried 6:0 Business SC 2016 -03 Election of Chair and Vice Chair for FY 2016/2017 Chair King suggested this was probably a good time to do (elections) as opposed to the beginning of the year because if you change at the beginning of the year you are changing right in the middle of the deliberations to try to Salary Commission Open Session September 15, 2016 01M SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION get something to the Council in March or April. If we change now it gives someone time to become familiar with what is being proposed. Chair King then stated the floor was open for nominations for a chair. Chair King made note that Mr. Furfaro said he does have someone (potential commission member) to which Mr. Furfaro said we do have a candidate that has signed up. The earlier candidate they talked about to fill the vacancy has chosen not to submit the requirements from the State on the disclosure so he has gracefully bowed out. We have now submitted the HR Manager at the Koa Kea Hotel, Danny Aki, to the Mayor and his name has gone over to the Council; their process takes almost a month and a half now as they don't do interviews during Committee even if they call a special meeting for the Council. Ms. Nishihira asked if (commission member) terms were on a calendar basis versus a fiscal year basis. Mr. Furfaro said all terms are three years and they are on a calendar basis. The only other exception to that is the Mayor has the ability to ask and appoint a carry -over period of 90 days which could take us to March 31St. Mr. Furfaro noted there will be 17 vacancies on the boards and commissions by the end of this year. We have had 2 nominations go over to the Council and 3 people gracefully bowed out from several positions for the reasons of the State disclosure. Chair King said as far as the Chair position they did a lot of work last year and got half of it through with the thought that we could present the other half that did not make it — the lower positions — and whether or not we want to raise anyone else. Mr. Furfaro wanted to bring up the tiers first because we assume from narrative and the feedback from the Council that it was the lower group that did not get their bump, but it is not really that simple because we had people Salary Commission Open Session September 15, 2016 01M- SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION in tier 3 that did not get approved either. The question in going forward is should we remain with the tier schedule or let the approach that the Council had where they picked and chose certain positions and 2 of them covered different tiers. We might want to talk about the tiers or even the possibility of putting in a 5th tier as part of the going forward discussions so we don't end up breaking the continuity of the tier groups. Chair King said they could send in a Resolution for each position too. Mr. Furfaro added that the Administration has now changed the status of the Parks Department; they moved the R &M work that was in Building (Public Works) to Parks so you have given that department additional duties and yet froze them for the 8th year in their earnings. Attorney Bracken stated they needed to do the elections and then move on. Ms. Matsumoto said she did not want to sound presumptuous but her schedule for this academic year will take her away from the office a lot which means off - island and not able to do the position justice. Chair King said if she was chair she could set her schedule better. Ms. Shimamoto nominated Robert Crowell for Chair. Ms. Nishihira offered to be Vice Chair. With no other nominations forthcoming, Chair King called for the vote. Motion carried 6:0 Mr. Crowell assumed the position of Chair for the duration of the meeting. SC 2016 -04 Discussion and decision - making with regard to submitting a Resolution establishing the maximum cap for salaries for the fiscal year 2016/2017 for the lower tier officers and employees included in Section 3- 2.1 of the Kauai County Code a. Draft Resolution 2016 -3 Salary Commission Open Session September 15, 2016 I'._- A1 SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION Mr. Furfaro shared the status of all the bargaining units this year in that they are all up for negotiated salaries. Mr. King said they were in favor of it last year and did not see why they wouldn't be in favor of at least this again this year. In particular we might want to look closer at Parks and Rec. Mr. King said he watches Council meetings during lunch and suggested we should be able to play back to them what they say when they expect more from the departments when we come in with a request for a raise because they are expecting more from the departments but they are not wanting to pay for it. Chair Crowell agreed saying at a minimum they should look at considering the Resolution and look at going back in. Draft Resolution 2016 -3 would bring the Parks and Rec department head up to the higher tiered department heads. Ms. Kunioka -Volz noted the responsibilities of the sections added on to Parks and Rec from Public Works and asked how you treat that department head who has less duties even though they were over - whelmed anyway. Ms. Shimamoto asked what the reasoning was for shifting those responsibilities. Mr. Furfaro said the scope of new work for the Building Department may have prevented them from getting to the normal R &M work which is not a capital piece. Along those ways most of those areas that needed addressing are public contact areas which are improvements to the parks and that may be how they rationalized that. Also the janitorial services now falls under Parks as well. Mr. Furfaro suggested encouraging a presentation from Personnel on the rationale on those changes. Ms. Nishihira asked if that would not be the same logic as with the Director of Human Resources in which that position was elevated and they got more responsibility. Ms. Kunioka -Volz thought it would be interesting to see if there are plans to shift other duties or responsibilities so they don't move Salary Commission Open Session September 15, 2016 01M SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION one position every meeting. Mr. King said they had the Council (increases) in the first Resolution but took them out at their request. Chair Crowell asked if they wanted to entertain putting them back in as they will be dealing with a new Council when this does go through. Attorney Bracken said there will be a new Council but they wouldn't get the raise until the following year. Attorney Bracken explained that it all depends on when it hits — this last one when it hit would have been the new Council. Essentially it is a year gap or a new Council so they would be voting on their own raises but it would be a future raise. Chair Crowell asked if there was further discussion on adding the Council to the Resolution. Ms. Matsumoto thought it was a good idea to go in with a full package. While initially the Commission went in with Council as part of the package it was the Council who wanted to be out. Chair Crowell said they can amend the Resolution to add Council back in. Ms. Shimamoto moved to include the Council in the Resolution 2016 -3 for the new salary caps. Ms. Matsumoto seconded the motion. Motion carried 6:0 Ms. Matsumoto said it was her recollection that there was quite a bit of discussion about the Director of Parks and Recreation and in looking at the Deputy County Clerk the amount is the same and asked if there was any concern expressed about the Deputy County Clerk. Ms. Shimamoto recalled the Commission discussing that as well as the Housing Director. Mr. King said Housing was lowered a tier. Mr. Furfaro said the rationale was the new Housing Director had only been in the position for about 4 months. Salary Commission Open Session September 15, 2016 I'._- • SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION Chair Crowell said one of the things they might ask HR for is the new salary schedules of the other departments on other islands because Councilmember Yukimura referred to another island's Parks and Rec's department head saying that person had a bigger island and was only at something like $99,000. That is research we might want to consider to which Mr. Furfaro said he could pursue that but reminded the Commission when they start comparing these positions that they don't have the same scope and briefly explained some of the differences. Ms. Nishihira asked to be provided with the date of the Council meeting that Mr. King was referring to where they discussed the additional duties in order to get more background. Mr. Furfaro ascertained that was in reference to the Parks and Rec and said he could try and get the minutes from that Council meeting. Ms. Nishihira said if he could give the date she could watch it on line. Ms. Nishihira said when they are talking about Parks and Rec they are talking about the Deputy Director as well to which the response was yes. Ms. Matsumoto said March 23, 2016, and April 20, 2016, were the two big meetings they attended (at Council). Ms. Nishihira said her question was the meeting in which they talked about justifying the movement of the additional duties in order to understand the rationale. Mr. Furfaro clarified what he will find is the theory and presentation that the Administration made to the Council which is what Ms. Nishihira said she wanted to see. Whatever minutes are available will probably show up in late April /early May because that is when the budget discussions are. The CAFR (auditor's report) will be due in the first week of December and Mr. Furfaro will make sure the Commission gets copies of that. Mr. King said what we were recommending with our first Resolution was the council chair go to $71,033 and the councilmembers go to $63,140. Ms. Kunioka -Volz said we would need an update because we only had information for City and County of Honolulu for the council salaries and Salary Commission Open Session September 15, 2016 0M SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION that would far exceed O`ahu's. At the time of our last report the 2015 salary for the council chair of City and County of Honolulu was $64,872 and the council members were $58,056. Attorney Bracken pointed out that did not take into account the $5,000 (sic) Council receives for vehicle and cell phone. (File note: allowance is $6,000) Ms. Kunioka -Volz suggested there would need to be updated job descriptions for Parks and Rec with the addition of the new responsibilities. SC 2016 -05 Report of attendance and discussion on matters presented at the Kauai County Council in relation to Resolution 2016 -1, Resolution 2016 -2 and Resolution 2016 -3. Attorney Bracken said to comply with Sunshine Law and permitted interactions there were a certain number of commissioners at the (Council) meetings so we have to report back who was there and a brief summary of what happened. Mr. King said he only made it to the last meeting but he does not know the date. Chair Crowell said there were two that he attended. Attorney Bracken thought there were 3 meetings altogether — the last meeting would be the last two (Resolutions) 2016 -2 and 2016 -3 and the first two meeting were when they initially discussed 2016 -1. Mr. Furfaro asked each of the Commissioners to go back and visit with their calendars and send us a little note to the best of the recollection which can be compared with records from Council. Mr. King said it looked like he was at the March 16 meeting. Attorney Bracken said they could defer this and have everyone look at their notes and then tally it up at the next meeting. Mr. King moved to defer this item to the next meeting. Ms. Kunioka -Volz seconded the motion. Motion carried 6:0 Announcements HR to research the reorganization of Parks & Rec Salary Commission Open Session September 15, 2016 0i i SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION Department. Staff to check availability of October 20 at 9:00 a.m. for the next meeting and advise accordingly. Asked to repeat an earlier comment Mr. Furfaro said the Commission might want to consider creating a 51h tier again. Mr. King said in listening to some of the discussions about the salaries (it appeared) that Councilmembers were concerned with the person that was in the position as opposed to paying for the position, and we should really make it clear we are trying to figure out what the best salary is for the position and its duties. Adjournment Mr. King moved to adjourn the meeting at 9:47 a.m. Ms. Matsumoto seconded the motion. Motion carried 6:0 Submitted by: Barbara Davis, Support Clerk O Approved as circulated. () Approved with amendments. See minutes of Reviewed and Approved by: meeting. Robert Crowell, Chair