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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/12/2016 Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Auditor, Office of the County Clerk it { 4/12/2016 DEPARTMENTAL BUDGET REVIEWS 2016-17 • DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES • OFFICE OF THE COUNTY AUDITOR • OFFICE OF THE COUNTY CLERK Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Auditor, and Office of the County Clerk Honorable Mason K. Chock Honorable Gary L. Hooser Honorable KipuKai Kuali`i Honorable Mel Rapozo Honorable JoAnn A. Yukimura Honorable Arryl Kaneshiro Excused: Honorable Ross Kagawa The Committee reconvened on April 12, 2016 at 9:02 a.m., and proceeded as follows: Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Good morning. I would like to call back to order the Budget and Finance Committee and fiscal year 2016-2017 Departmental Budget Reviews. On the schedule for today we will be hearing from HR, Office of the County Auditor and Office of the County Clerk. As we do each morning, we will take public testimony at the beginning of the day. Anyone in the audience wishing to testify? Seeing none, up first is HR. I will suspend the rules and Janine, you have the floor. JANINE M.Z. RAPOZO, Director of Human Resources: Good morning Committee Chair Kaneshiro and Councilmembers. For the record, Janine Rapozo, Director of the Department of Human Resources. With me I have staff member Jill Niitani who is an HR Manager II with our office. As you have all received our budget presentation I will like to present a brief PowerPoint on some of our highlights. First of all some of our achievements this past year include first of all the department was restructured and reorganized that allowed for the dedication of one position to work on our human resources information systems or HRIS initiatives, accelerating ongoing efforts towards providing integrated payroll and personnel information system for the county. In addition an HR specialist position was transferred to the classification and pay and labor division, to assist in handling the backlog of classification requests. In the past, requests to reallocate positions were taking months to process. Right now, most requests are completed within two weeks and there are only nine outstanding requests currently, which is down from 33, three years ago. What has also helped the classification process move quicker is the implementation of using NEOGOV system to process these request. As part of the paperless initiative, staff creatively are using NEOGOV hiring module to double as a way for departments to send in classification requests electronically, eliminating paper documents and unnecessary delays as the process can now be tracked. In the area of training, heavy emphasis was placed on supervisory training to ensure that we equipped our managers with the tools necessary to oversee our workforce. A two-prong approach is being used throughout the development -- I am sorry, through the development of an in-house supervisory training module that focuses on employment laws such as ADA, workers' compensation, EEOC and other topics. In addition, workshops are provided by outside resources focusing on communication and leadership skills. Finally, an agreement with State of Hawai'i to provide an alternate deferred compensation program to part-time, temporary and seasonal casual employees has been finalized and awaiting Council's approval. Approximately $65,000 will be saved annually from decreased social security taxes from this program. April 12, 2016 Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Auditor, and Office of the County Clerk (mn) Page 2 For the upcoming year the department's initiatives include first to continue to implement HR's initiatives and modules, including first employee self-service, performance evaluations, and time and attendance.We will also be continuing our supervisory and other training efforts. We will also continue to centralize HR functions such as the county's drug and alcohol testing program, including training for supervisors on reasonable suspicion. Funding for this program has been transferred from various departments to increase efficiency in processing invoices. Organization charts will be standardized and maintained for all departments at HR. Recruitment and hiring efforts for all youth summer programs will be streamlined to the HR department as well. For the upcoming fiscal year, funding for the summer internship program was been transferred out of Mayor's Office into HR. New this summer we will be working with the Office of Economic Development and the State Department of Vocational Rehabilitation to place their program participants in summer jobs in our various departments. Finally, we will look into alternative recruitment methods and incentives for hard to fill positions to attract staff for necessary departments. This coming year all of your collective bargaining contracts will be ending June 30, 2017, and therefore, the next round of negotiations are starting. Given that personnel costs represent a very large portion of our overall budget, the following slides show the various collective bargaining increases that have been incorporated into the fiscal year 2016-2017 budget, based on previously negotiated or arbitrated decisions. So first of all, for Unit 1, who are our blue-collar workers they will be getting a 2% across the board increase on October 1, 2016 and April 1st, 2017 we have 362 employees in this unit and that will be at a cost of about $800,000. For Unit 2, who are blue-collar supervisors, the increases are the same as their subordinates that they supervise, which would be a 2% across the board October 1st and on April 1st. There are 14 members in this unit, and it is a cost of$40,000. For Units 3 and 4 who are our white-collar employees and supervisors, on July 1st, they are going to be receiving a $1,200 lump sum payment, as well as a 1.6% across the board increase on January 1st of 2017. There are 212 white-collar employees and 46 supervisors that comprise this unit. And that will be at a cost for this fiscal year of approximately $810,000 and $60,000 for the two groups respectively. For Unit 13, who are our professional employees, they will be getting a 3.5% across the board increase on January 1st, 2017. For all of these HGEA units, for Unit 13 there are 122 employees and at a cost of about $800,000. Also for all of these HGEA units the step movement plan will continue. For Unit 11, who are our firefighters, there will be a 5% across the board increase on July 1st of 2016, and they will also have a catch-up or regular step movement during this contract period. There are 140 firefighters in the county, and this will be at a cost of $1.3 million. For Unit 12, who are our police officers, on July 1st, they will get a 2.5% across the board increase, catch-up step movement, and their standard of conduct differential will be increased by $0.20 from $3.80 per hour, to $303.80 per hour for police officer 8 and below or 4 per hour for PO9 and above. Also they will be getting a 3.3% across the board increase on January 1st, 2017. And for our new 14 Bargaining Unit, who are our Ocean Safety Officers, a recent arbitrated award includes the following for this coming fiscal year: on July 1st, they were part of Unit 3 and 4 before their unit was created. And therefore, they took the unit 3 and 4 salary scale and will be deleting the first three steps of that particular salary scale, which equates to roughly 12% increase to their base. They will add two steps at the end of the scale, which will roughly be an 8% added to the maximum salary step. Aside from that, they are they got an award of 4% across the board increase and continuation of April 12, 2016 Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Auditor, and Office of the County Clerk (mn) Page 3 their step movement as well. The award also includes pay differentials of $5 per hour for aerial observers, and $3.50 per hour if you are assigned to a rescue craft...if you are assigned as a rescue craft operator, or our jet skis. Their uniform maintenance allowance has also increased to $15 for button shirt, trousers and jackets and $10 for t-shirts and/or shorts. For Unit 14 the total increases has not been incorporated into the fiscal year 2017 budget as of yet as all legislative bodies must approve the funding for these increases. However, because they were part of Unit 3 and 4, these increases were already...some of these increases were also included in the fiscal year 2017 budget we submitted on March 15th based on current Unit 3 and 4 settlement agreements. There are 42 members in this unit. So we already budgeted in this unit $130,500, with the March 15th budget submittal. We will need to put in new funding of about $449,500 in the upcoming May submittal, if the bill passes all the legislative bodies. Finally just a brief discussion on the changes to our budget. Overall 4.5% increase or $102,585 in our department's budget. Salaries and wages accounted for 3.1% or $37,576, mostly due to collective bargaining raises. But also due to the transfer of$24,000 from the Mayor's Office for the summer hire program. We also did reduce vacation line item by $50,000. Benefits went up by 4.5% or 26,729 corresponding to the increases in salaries and wages. Operationally although training was decreased by 10,000 and the NEOGOV on boarding maintenance cost $15,000 was transferred to Finance IT. Increases in arbitration expenses of $20,000 the transfer of funding from the Mayor's Office for the employee awards banquet of $10,000 and the centralization of funding for drug and alcohol testing from various departments of $31,000 resulted in an aggregate increase of 8.6% or $38,280 over the previous budget. That concludes our presentation. Thank you for your time. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Thank you and thanks for the overview on all of the collective bargaining increases. As far as this budget meeting goes, I think we saw a lot of these increases in all of the different departments, but we can focus on the HR budget. Any questions for HR? Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: Good morning. Ms. Rapozo: Good morning. Councilmember Yukimura: Janine, thank you very much for a very succinct and informative presentation. I want to commend you for really impressive progress and commend your leadership and your staff for all of this. Your reduction of your classifications time from months to two weeks is very impressive. And it is such a support to all of the departments and to the individuals, who are seeking the classification changes. So thank you for that. And your focus on supervisory training, I have felt for so long that was one of the keys to better overall county performance. And so your focus on that is really excellent and I am thinking that those who are supervisors must really appreciate the support as well. I am sorry, your PTS program with $65,000 in savings. Can you explain that again? April 12, 2016 Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Auditor, and Office of the County Clerk (mn) Page 4 Ms. Rapozo: So right now employees who are seasonal or part-time or short-term do not have any benefit of a retirement program for them. So thankfully Councilmember Chock actually started us thinking on this and connected us with the right people, and the state already has a program whereby instead of contributing to social security, you would contribute to a deferred compensation plan, which is approved by the IRS. So these employees, who are a lot of times our summer hires, would be able to have this money going to this program, versus social security. And at the same time, we as the employer do not have to pay social security taxes, so we have a savings, as well as summer hires who are usually college students can access the money at the end of their employment. And so it is kind of a win-win for everybody. It equates to just about the same amount of money of take-home and we felt it was a great thing. The state is doing been very successful. Right now it is going to be appearing on your agenda in probably the next week or two to just approve the indemnification of the state. Councilmember Yukimura: Excellent. It is really a win-win. I appreciate how you have taken a Councilmember's suggestion seriously and followed through on it. Because if it has merit, it is worthy of research and implementation. So thank you very much for that. So these collective bargaining increases they were set at four years ago or two years ago. Ms. Rapozo: Correct. Councilmember Yukimura: Whatever the interval was. Ms. Rapozo: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: But this is the last year? Ms. Rapozo: This is the last year. Councilmember Yukimura: And so this coming year you are going to be involved in a lot of collective bargaining negotiations? Ms. Rapozo: Correct. Actually for the employer, which is all the employer grouping including state and all counties I believe there are 14 different contracts that have to be negotiated including teachers and UH Professors. We have eight (8) that affect the county. Councilmember Yukimura: Well, I appreciate that you pay so much attention to all of the areas of your kuleana, and that you will be paying attention to this area as well. Because I think in the past, management has not been very alert, or aggressive in this area and it affects so much. I think we have seen in the budget hearings that it seems to be getting out of hand in some cases. Ms. Rapozo: Yes and I do not think we have done it for the county, but the state mentioned that a 1% increase for collective bargaining equates to $93 April 12, 2016 Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Auditor, and Office of the County Clerk (mn) Page 5 million for the state. So that is something that the state is seriously looking at, and they are very concerned about any type of increases for the coming years. Councilmember Yukimura: It might be good if we can get the figure for the county, because we have a much smaller base. Ms. Rapozo: Correct. Councilmember Yukimura: Yes. Those kind of things help us understand the implications of different proposals, and you know, I recall that I think the police was a 4% increase compounded over 4% a year? Ms. Rapozo: They actually have a six-year contract, but the first two years were zero because those were the furlough years at the time. The last four years they had various increases throughout that four-year period. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. The furlough years I thought public safety got their increases? Ms. Rapozo: It was part of prior contract, but then new contracts stalled for about two years. So those first two years they did not get anything. And then that next year, the third year, into this contract period, they started up. Councilmember Yukimura: So 4% compounded over... Ms. Rapozo: Would be four years. I do not... Councilmember Yukimura: It is a six (6) year contract, so there is four (4) years.. Ms. Rapozo: But the first...correct. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. I do not know what the firefighters' were, but in this last increment, they are 5% across the board increases? Ms. Rapozo: Correct. Councilmember Yukimura: And then you add to that rank-for-rank, and step movements as well? Ms. Rapozo: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: I never did understand step movements. Ms. Rapozo: Step movements is basically a salary scale has steps a through different bargaining units have different amounts of steps on their scale, April 12, 2016 Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Auditor, and Office of the County Clerk (mn) Page 6 and basically it is for longevity. So if you are in the first step, you may stay there. I will use HGEA because they are a little easier. Unit 3 I think the first three or four steps are one year and move to Step B to Step C to Step D and it take a little bit longer where it may be two years in the step and then three years in the step. I think firefighters and police are by the number of years as well. I think it is longer, 3, 4 or 5 years. The intent is that at the end of the day, you will have met your retirement for that particular position, and so this is like your 25 years for police or fire that you have maximized your ability. Councilmember Yukimura: And those steps are like $500 or $1,000 in increase? Ms. Rapozo: It is about a 4% from the step you were on to the next step. Councilmember Yukimura: So a 4% step increase plus a 4% increase on top of that, what is that equivalent to? Ms. Rapozo: Roughly, I mean, if you just add it would be roughly 8%, but I think it is a little bit less when you put it together. That is why different people would have different amounts of increases depending if they are due for a step that particular fiscal year or not. Councilmember Yukimura: Which makes the calculations more complicated than just across the board raises. Ms. Rapozo: Very complicated and I need to thank Jill Niitani because she went and did the spreadsheets for every single position and made changes throughout the year if they got their step in February. So from February to June change the salary again, and across the boards in April, changed the salary again. I think in the past the way departments were budgeting were just take the last whatever they are going to end up with and use that budget because then you will know that you will be covered, but we are budgeting to actuals now and that means doing that type of work so it was a chore but we have all the data and all we need to is keep updating it now. Councilmember Yukimura: Wow. Ms. Rapozo: But it is still a lot of work. Councilmember Yukimura: Oh, yes, I can imagine. But still, a much better way than previously. Thank you, Jill. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Follow-up question. Councilmember Hooser. Councilmember Hooser: Thank you for the presentation. It was very good. Thank you. My question is about the step movements. I understand that there are steps in place, but then when it says here step movement is part of the negotiation, is that correct? April 12, 2016 Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Auditor, and Office of the County Clerk (mn) Page 7 Ms. Rapozo: That is correct. Councilmember Hooser: Additional step movements or just increase in the step? Ms. Rapozo: Just continuation of the step movement plans. There have been times where contracts have been negotiated were step movements were not included and people only get across the board or the lump sum. Councilmember Hooser: So it is negotiated every time basically step movements whether or not they keep... Ms. Rapozo: Keep on the track. Yes correct. Councilmember Hooser: Thank you. Ms. Rapozo: You are welcome. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Chock. Councilmember Chock: Thank you. Thank you for the presentation as well. I wanted to focus in on the challenges that you outlined on page 8 of what you sent over in your presentation. The first one is about drug testing at pre-employment, is that correct? Ms. Rapozo: Yes. Councilmember Chock: I understand that we are having some issues with that. But then we also talked about in your presentation, that we do ongoing drug testing. Is that correct? Ms. Rapozo: So bargaining unit contracts dictate ongoing drug and alcohol testing for current employees. The issue that came up was regarding pre-employment, whether or not that was an illegal search and seizure and so that is why we are reworking our policy to see whether or not we are in compliance with, I guess it was an ACLU case on the Big Island. Councilmember Chock: People who are being considered for employment I mean do they sign an affidavit or something that certify it? Ms. Rapozo: They sign off that they are consenting to the drug test. However, whether or not we can even do it to begin with, because as government, I think is it Amendment No. 4, I think, that is considered an illegal search and seizure, and my question to the attorneys was, you know, it would seem evident that private employers can do this. But he said we are government, and so you take it to the limit as far as what is April 12, 2016 Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Auditor, and Office of the County Clerk (mn) Page 8 an illegal search and seizure by government, and on the Big Island it was determined that a drug test was considered an illegal search and seizure for pre-employment. Councilmember Chock: So we can hire them and they can state that they are clean or state that they have not taken any drugs, and then we can give them a test? Basically that is what you are saying? Ms. Rapozo: We are working with the County Attorney's Office whether or not a collective bargaining agreement can trump the Constitution. Councilmember Chock: Probably not. Ms. Rapozo: Well, I guess right. If you negotiated that agreement, whether or not that is okay? So we are still working on that and trying to make sure we are in line with all the different laws. Councilmember Chock: I had on the second challenge too, Chair if you want me to finish up? Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Follow-up. Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: So what was the purpose of the pre-employment physical? Is that mainly to test for drugs? Ms. Rapozo: The pre-employment physical is basically testing as fitness for the particular position. And so I believe in that particular case, they did a urine test, which was testing the applicant was concerned that they would be able to test for other things like diabetes or things that were not relevant to the job. And so that is where the case originated. Councilmember Yukimura: So all pre-employment physicals have stopped or just urine analysis has stopped and which was violating? Ms. Rapozo: So we are still testing safety-sensitive positions and we are looking at the Big Island's listing that the ACLU agreed to that we are considered safety-sensitive employees such as police and fire anyone with a CDL license. We still are testing that for pre-employment. If a clerical position or something that is considered non-safety sensitive right now they are not going through a pre-employment physical. Councilmember Yukimura: And that is the urine analysis part, not the physical -- not the physical itself? Ms. Rapozo: The entire physical is not being done at this point. April 12, 2016 Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Auditor, and Office of the County Clerk (mn) Page 9 Councilmember Yukimura: Is not the problem with the urine analysis? Or is it with the whole physical? Ms. Rapozo: Part of it would be whether or not any portion of that physical has any type of bona fide reason with the job that they are applying for, whether or not there is a type of reasoning that would eliminate them from the pool. Councilmember Yukimura: So okay. The safety-related employees still get their physicals, like police and fire. Ms. Rapozo: Correct. Councilmember Yukimura: And the drug testing included. Ms. Rapozo: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: Because there is a rational reason for that. Ms. Rapozo: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay thank you very much. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Chock. Councilmember Chock: The second challenge talks about disability slips and so forth. There are two questions I have. One was do we have a more extensive system for recording and intake for I guess these issues that come up for employees and tracking them?And then it kind of brings up the question about how are our workmans' comp claims in terms of resolution and I did not see very much this year going down the line. Just in a few budgets. So it just indicates to me that we have been doing well on those claims. Ms. Rapozo: It has gotten a little better. Especially more of the stress claims are not coming in as fast and furious as they were. Which I think is partly some of the benefits that we are seeing from the supervisory trainings that we are doing, that we are addressing things quicker. Trying to address problems as soon as they occur. So it does not get to the point of the employee filing the claim. We still have the normal physical type of claims especially when Police have any type of, what would you call it? Altercations with suspects or things like that. Those are kind of ongoing, but they are usually not long term. They pretty much get their treatment and they are back, same with Fire. It has not been as bad, and so yes, there seems to be and we do a little bit more safety training as well, too, through our insurance broker with Atlas Insurance. They provide that service. So we are hoping those are the things that are making a difference and those are some of the ways we would look at how the costs are going. As far as with the medical disability slips, we are working very closely with all of the departments to ensure that these slips are valid and whether or not they are bona fide job reasons as to why those slips are there and what they can or cannot do? So we have been doing a lot of letters to doctors, April 12, 2016 Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Auditor, and Office of the County Clerk (mn) Page 10 because a lot of times the doctors are not necessarily in tune with what the position is and they are just handing out these slips. So we are trying to follow-up more with that and letting departments now that we are here and we will help you guys and try to get through this, because for a lot of departments, with new supervisors it is very difficult, they get a note and they do not know what to do. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Follow-up, Councilmember Yukimura? Councilmember Yukimura: That is really good work, and I was wondering do you have statistics showing the reduction in stress claims or workers' comp stress-related workers' compensation claims? Ms. Rapozo: We can get that. Councilmember Yukimura: I think it would be interesting to see that because it has been a...and I did not notice it but Councilmember Chock is correct. It has not come across our desk as much. And so they used to be grueling when they came across our desk, very troubling. So I think you are right about supervisor training and safety training contributing to that reduction. I also noticed that you are doing conflict resolution, and have even trained some of your staff in-house. Ms. Rapozo: Yes. Actually Jill and Ken Villabrille went to a mediation training with KEO that they had over a weekend. And I am actually a trained mediator as well. We have also used the federal mediators to come down. It is a free service to try to do conflict resolution. So over the year we have used that as an alternative to try to resolve conflicts and that has worked very well as well. Councilmember Yukimura: That may be contributing in reduction to the workload for the County Attorneys, because it is preventing basic lawsuits and litigation which are the extreme response when there is no intervening reduction or intervention. Okay, thank you very much. Ms. Rapozo: Yes. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Kuali`i. Councilmember Kuali`i: I want to join in and say thank you for all of the information you have provided. Very useful as far as the budget goes, and in a brief way you have given us really everything that we need. So in 13 pages of a narrative and 8 slides. I just wanted to ask about page 10, where you have the Fiscal Year 15 and Fiscal Year 16 date statistics. When we look at the totals for fiscal year 15, does that represent items that were initiated in `15, or completed in '15? For example like a reallocation, there is 130 showing for fiscal year 15, and 72 showing so far for July to February. Ms. Rapozo: So those figures would be actions taken. So it would be the completion, not necessarily when it was initiated. So there would have been April 12, 2016 Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Auditor, and Office of the County Clerk (mn) Page 11 130 that would have had action taken for reallocation through July 1st of 2014 to June 30, 2015. Councilmember Kuali`i: I was wondering because there might be some overlap. Ms. Rapozo: Yes, we only count it when the action is completed. Councilmember Kuali`i: Okay and my question earlier was about the salaries for each position, because it is very interesting to see all of the collective bargaining unit information and when it does take place. And I did notice that a lot of the raises are either...there is a couple of dates, like 10/1/16 and 4/1/17, and so in essence there are three different periods where an employee is being paid three different amounts. So that master spreadsheet that you worked on is then totaling those three different rates, and periods, to come up with the amount for the year. Ms. Rapozo: Correct. Councilmember Kuali`i: So when we look at any position, and there is a salary total there for the year, it is? Ms. Rapozo: It is the prorated of all the different rates. Councilmember Kuali`i: And so how many employees do we have throughout the county? Ms. Rapozo: About 1,200, 1,200? Councilmember Kuali`i: About 1,200, and then how many are actually on the super spreadsheet? Ms. Rapozo: I think a thousand almost of them... Councilmember Kuali`i: I can see that is a lot of work. I love spreadsheets, I love working on spreadsheets, but that is a lot of work. Does the Human Resources' data system, I do not know what that is necessarily, but where you put everything in. Is there any way to upgrade that system, so that helps with that? So it does not have to be done manually all the time in the future? Ms. Rapozo: Those are some of the things we are looking at with our HRIS. The first was to get the time and attendance, but definitely get the step movements in there, get the across the boards in there, so it could just pop it out for us. That would be wonderful. Councilmember Kuali`i: Thank you. April 12, 2016 Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Auditor, and Office of the County Clerk (mn) Page 12 Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any further questions? Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: You know the memorandum of agreement about the state PTS program that we discussed earlier, is Kaua`i the only county doing this? Ms. Rapozo: We are going to be the first county to do it. It did get a little delayed with the state agreement because they were trying to see if other counties wanted to jump on board and do it all at one time, but right now we are the only ones who are going to. Councilmember Yukimura: That is great. We are leading the way and I bet there will be others in the future. And again, your narrative that was submitted earlier you have done a really great job of laying out last year's goals, and showing us you are...the status of those goals. Thank you for that, and reading off of that, you had as one of your objectives implement a standardized evaluation process and evaluation tool for executive appointees, and with the salary resolution that was before us, this is pretty relevant. So I think it is a really great thing. I just want to ask, I am sure you have let us know, but I would like to learn about this process. So if you could include the Council. Ms. Rapozo: Okay. Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: In your training. Ms. Rapozo: Absolutely. Councilmember Yukimura: I appreciate it. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I have a question. It is not big, but the 89-day contract hire, what is that for? Ms. Rapozo: That was to help us start to streamline some of the processes in our office. And so we have hired 89-day contracts throughout. We just have not been able to complete a lot of the projects that we need to. Some of it what we brought the personnel files looking at possibly scanning that in. We have not been able to successfully have an 89-day contract hire stay with us and finish some of the projects. We had them assigned to do some of the accruals for us. So we could get that done, but they often leave. So we kind of still have that in the budget, so we can still, if we find someone we will be able to try to get caught up on some of the projects that we want to do. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay. Any further questions for HR? Councilmember Kuali`i. Councilmember Kuali`i: Also on page 11, where you have more of the information. There is the bottom chart on general training. So all of these show up in one April 12, 2016 Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Auditor, and Office of the County Clerk (mn) Page 13 column July 2015 to February 2016. Was it because there was not any similar types of training in 2015, or you are just reporting on what happened in 2016 fiscal year? JONI TANI: There were different types of trainings. For example, the leadership trainings we utilized a mainland company before to come down and fly down and talk about at the time with supervisor trainings there are different types of buzzwords and things that have come up. So it is tailored to what is now. So we have done what we thought was a little bit more effective was a local vendor...Glenn Furuga not sure if you guys are familiar with him but he came down and it was really receptive as far the comments that we received. So we are trying to utilize the feedback that we get from these trainings to determine what is going to be up for the next year, or upcoming months? Councilmember Kuali`i: And these numbers represent the number of employees that went through the trainings? Ms. Rapozo: Yes. Councilmember Kuali`i: And then these trainings sort of happen, and I know I have seen some of the announcements and stuff and they happen at different times. Because different employees are available at different times obviously. Ms. Tani: Yes. So what we are trying to do, what Janine had mentioned in the presentation was to make this a little bit more of a structured supervisory module type of program. Where every other month we wanted to tackle a regulatory or statutory law to discuss, such as EEO, sexual harassment and other alternate months we would talk about improving competencies in leadership that we felt were important such as effective communication, interpersonal skills. So we are trying to get that to be more of a regular thing versus "hey, we got a flier or something that comes up and we will set it up." So that is what we are trying to start up. And I think it looks good for the upcoming fiscal year. Councilmember Kuali`i: So my different and last question has to do with positions. Position 702 was reallocated in February, and has been vacant since November 1st. Has it been filled? What is the status of recruitment? Ms. Rapozo: The HR Clerk, a job offer has been made. Councilmember Kuali`i: Offer made. Okay. Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: You know, there has been a lot of attention in the last two, three years to succession planning, and I think there is that proviso that one of the departments are working on. So you folks are working with them on that? April 12, 2016 Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Auditor, and Office of the County Clerk (mn) Page 14 Ms. Rapozo: Yes, part of our restructuring was structuring so that we could have some people supervise others so they start to at least have the management skills other than the technical skills in our office. Jill also just got her Master's Degree in HR management, and I already have three others that have that. So they are all on-board, you know, and we are actually moving some of our clerks around, having them do a little bit more. So everybody can do more and move in the progression at our office. Councilmember Yukimura: That is excellent, and we are hoping the other departments do that, too? Ms. Rapozo: Part of it was using the budget proviso and looking at if someone is going to be leaving who has a lot of institutional knowledge to start that process a little earlier rather than later. Councilmember Yukimura: We are doing that with our Treasurer. Ms. Rapozo: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: And you should let us know if that proviso is working well or whether that needs to be altered or amended in any way. And then I noticed your heavy equipment training and I think I started that when I was mayor because we were getting so much damage to our heavy equipment. And the trainer that we hired is still the trainer today and has been doing really fine work over the last 20 years. But he is also approaching retirement age. So is there some succession planning for this position? Ms. Rapozo: We were looking at that as well. Of course getting another assistant for him was not something that was going to be entertained at this point with new positions. So we are looking creatively at seeing whether or not we know that transportation has a position, and whether or not we could merge with them to try to start to train that person? You know, we are looking at other areas how we can get that done without trying to get another position, and so I agree, we also have within that employee development and help section, whether or not we start to train some of those employees do some of that work? And yes, he has worked very hard and is very committed to doing this heavy equipment training. Councilmember Yukimura: Yes. What about a limited-term contract? For someone, one or two years that has some background in whether it is internal or external? Because I speaking just for myself, but I think the Council would consider something like that, given the importance of having somebody competent in this position upon the retirement of the incumbent. Ms. Rapozo: It is something that we can look at and discuss with the Administration if that is something that we can move forward with. April 12, 2016 Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Auditor, and Office of the County Clerk (mn) Page 15 Councilmember Yukimura: Just in the interest of seamless succession. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any further questions for HR? If not, we are going to take a 10-minute caption break and come back with the Auditor's Office. Thank you, Janine. Ms. Rapozo: Thank you. Councilmember Yukimura: Thank you very much. There being no objections, the meeting recessed at 9:45 a.m. The meeting reconvened at 9:55 a.m. and proceeded as follows: Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Welcome back. Next up we have the Office of the County Auditor and we have Stephanie up here. She is going to take us through a brief presentation about the office. STEPHANIE IWASAKI, Audit Analyst: Thank you, Chair. Stephanie Iwasaki, Office of the County Auditor. Our budget has remained flat for the last two years, as well as the mission and the goals. Having said that, during the absence of the County Auditor and professional staff, we have been maintaining the essential functions of the office, there are two of us in the office. The Program Auditor (inaudible) and the Administration Staff Assistant and in those two years, what we have been doing is continuing the audits for the office, and operating the office. And in the case of audits, we have managed to conduct outsourced audits. And since fiscal year ending 2016, the auditor of the payroll and compensation practices and the audit of the county's hiring practices were completed. In addition to the CAFR, another essential part of our office is to make sure that we are complying with the yellow book standards. Per required by the Charter, and that includes ensuring that our audit manual, which I have here, have all of the revisions needed for peer-review and any revisions made from ALGA or the yellow book standards. In addition to that we are coming up on a peer-review that is due in 2016. So I am in the process of looking at logistics and the staff, and what we can do in order to get this essential part of the yellow book in compliance. As far as the operation is concerned, we are continuing to draft and negotiate contracts for services. We processed and reviewed vendor bills, as well as attend administrative meetings as required. And you will also see a timeline of the current performance audit and financial audit that we are currently doing, and it is the Kaua`i Humane Society Performance Audit, and you will see that we started this back in August of 2015. And also included is a status report of March 16, and status report of April 5th. That is it. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Thank you. Any questions? Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: Yes, thanks for holding the fort together, Stephanie. April 12, 2016 Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Auditor, and Office of the County Clerk (mn) Page 16 Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Actually, let me make one comment. It is that we have been working very hard to try and find an Auditor for the office. We have had numerous interviews. We have been going out through all kinds of publications, advertising for the position. We went through a rigorous interview process, and we still were not able to find an appropriate Auditor for the office. So that is the status of the County Auditor for the office. We have been trying to find one, and it just has not worked out yet. Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: And do not we have an open...what do you all it? An open recruitment? Right. Can we say that we have even made some offers? Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I believe we possibly could say we have made an offer, and we had a very good candidate, and they decided to take another job elsewhere. And so our search continues again. Councilmember Yukimura: Thank you. So I am just concerned about the $47,000 in lease building lease rents. And whether that is going to change this year? Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I think that is a conversation we may need to have in executive session on any type of transition plan. So we will keep that conversation in executive session. Councilmember Yukimura: I do not need to know what the plan is. I guess I just need to know whether we are going to be spending that next year. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: It is in budget for now. If things change, then it changes. But if we are going to have a conversation about any type of transition or moving around, it is go to have to be in executive session. Councilmember Yukimura: I do not think it is an executive session matter. JADE FOUNTAIN-TANIGAWA, County Clerk: The lease amount that you are referencing in totality involves the transition of the Office of the County Auditor that we will be discussing in executive session. So you will see some changes in the May 8th budget. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: The specifics we need to work through. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any other questions from the Members? Councilmember Yukimura. April 12, 2016 Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Auditor, and Office of the County Clerk (mn) Page 17 Councilmember Yukimura: Yes. You mentioned, Stephanie, needing to keep our peer-review. Is that of the Auditor's Office, or is that of the Auditor? Ms. Iwasaki: That would be the Auditor's Office. Councilmember Yukimura: It is? Ms. Iwasaki: I am saying that because we are outsourcing our audits and we are requiring them to follow these standards. We as the office have to make sure they are following the standards, being the manager of the contracts. So the peer- reviewers will have a checklist. They will not be auditing audits per se or reviewing audits, but they will be checking to see if we are managing the office per yellow book. We have a responsibility to do that. Councilmember Yukimura: Are they not as certified auditors peer-reviewed in their work? Ms. Iwasaki: Yes. They are, but because we are contracting them to do that, we are required to make sure they are following those standards. Councilmember Yukimura: But how can we do that, when we do not have a certified auditor to do that? Ms. Iwasaki: Our office well ... I would have to continue that though. We cannot because we still have audits that are being outsourced I would have to continue the operation. Councilmember Yukimura: Yeah. That is what I am thinking. Does the Charter requires a peer-review? Because I think it is of the Auditor. I do not think it is of the office, but I could be wrong. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I will give you time for that answer, Jade. We will come back to that. Councilmember Yukimura: Yes. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any other questions? Councilmember Yukimura: Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I have a question on the line item "Other — Forensic auditors and other professionals." Ms. Iwasaki: The $150,000. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: $150,000, what is that for? April 12, 2016 Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Auditor, and Office of the County Clerk (mn) Page 18 Ms. Iwasaki: That is what is being used to outsource audits. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: So besides ours CAFR, that money can be used for any type of audit, or do we have any audits in particular? Ms. Iwasaki: Any audits. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: So we have $150,000 worth of money to spend on audits right now. Ms. Iwasaki: That is correct. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay. Councilmember Yukimura: Do we have a plan for what kind of audits we want to do? (Inaudible) Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: The audit plan...thank you, B.C... The audit plan if you remember was usually put together by the County Auditor. Councilmember Yukimura: Right. Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: So absent of that, there is no current audit plan. Councilmember Yukimura: Yes and I understand that. But it may just be a plan then to have a holding position until we get a new Auditor?And not try to do audits or to do them as authorized and funded, you know, case-by-case. That is one option. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Yes. My I guess my vision or plan is that although we do not have an Auditor in the office, we would end up spending money on audits using money like that $150,000. Because we are not paying for a salary for an Auditor. We will be saving money on paying for audits and of course for me, an audit is not to slap somebody on the hand. An audit is to try to improve our process, so if there are departments that we want to audit and do performance audits and see how we can improve, that is what I would see us using our audit money for, because if an Auditor was there, they go into every department and telling them how to improve their process anyway. So without having an Auditor there, we probably just going to have to spend the money to do outside performance audits. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any other questions? Any line item questions or any further questions on the Auditor's Office? Okay. I guess you are done. So yes, thank you. And Jade up next we will have Elections. We will go right into Elections already. Councilmember Yukimura: Were you able to find anything? April 12, 2016 Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Auditor, and Office of the County Clerk (mn) Page 19 Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Maybe get back to us in writing. Councilmember Yukimura: Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Do we have any questions for Elections? Obviously our budget has gone up this year, because it is an election year. You always see that up-and-down every other year. Election years we have higher number in there, non-election years we have a lower number. We are kind of working backwards. Elections is on page 24. Any questions for Elections? I did not have any. Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: Good morning, Lyndon. I just wanted to acknowledge the Election Division's mission. To provide open, accessible, fair, and secure election services. I think we often take this for granted. But there are many communities in the United States that actually cannot assume that is going to happen. So I just want to thank you and your staff, Lyndon. LYNDON YOSHIOKA, Elections Administrator: Thank you. Councilmember Yukimura: For working so hard every election season to provide these kinds of services, and I guess, last election, if I recall, you did drive-in voter registration. Mr. Yoshioka: Lyndon Yoshioka Elections Administrator for the record. Yes we did and we will resume those services for this coming election. Councilmember Yukimura: I just wondered if you had any other plans for boosting voter registration during this season just because I do not know, do you know what our voter turnout was last time? Mr. Yoshioka: Not offhand. Councilmember Yukimura: 50%? Mr. Yoshioka: Actually it was higher than that I think. Councilmember Yukimura: Can you get back to us about that? Mr. Yoshioka: Sure. Councilmember Yukimura: Maybe voter turnout for the last five elections. I guess they would be general and primary, but you know, the turnout percentage is of the voter registration base, right? Mr. Yoshioka: Right. Councilmember Yukimura: 40% of those registered. April 12, 2016 Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Auditor, and Office of the County Clerk (mn) Page 20 Mr. Yoshioka: Correct. Councilmember Yukimura: And then do we have any figure for number of people registered versus number of people who are eligible to vote? Mr. Yoshioka: I believe there is a census database, showing voting eligible population that we can reference. We actually discussed that during a meeting yesterday we attended. Councilmember Yukimura: Oh, yeah? • Mr. Yoshioka: Yes. We can get that figure somewhere, and report that back with the five-years of turnout. Councilmember Yukimura: That would be interesting. Because if you take the percentage of people registered times the people who turn out to vote, it is a pretty small number. I think it is probably, you know, less than 50% of those eligible to vote which is kind of a sad statement on our society which claims we are a democracy and so if we could get those statistics, and all of us probably should really do the best we can to encourage people to register to vote. If your office has ways that you are doing that, that we can help with, or partner with, we as community leaders and others, I mean, like the Chamber of Commerce, and you know, other Civic Organizations? That might be a way to up our numbers, and increase Civic involvement. Thanks. I will look forward to getting those numbers. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Follow-up Councilmember Hooser. Councilmember Hooser: Good morning, Lyndon. Mr. Yoshioka: Good morning. Councilmember Hooser: I want to offer my thanks also, for the hard work you folks do. I know there is a lot of stress sometimes down there with people coming in and they think they are registered or not and whatever, and staff has to take the brunt of it. So I would appreciate if you pass my regards on to everyone in our office. Mr. Yoshioka: Thank you. Councilmember Hooser: Kind of following up on Councilmember Yukimura's question is the number of people registered, and the number of people who turnout. So my question is does the office have goals to increase those, specific goals to say we want to go up from whatever, 50% last year, to 55%, whatever that would be? Do you have goals to increase both voter registration and voter turnout? And if so, or if not, would you consider putting some together and actually thinking about how to achieve those? And I would encourage you, I am only one Councilmember, but to tell us what those are? You need resources for advertising or the office wants to host something? Or free bus service on April 12, 2016 Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Auditor, and Office of the County Clerk (mn) Page 21 Election Day? I think would be a great thing. If there is a cost to that, then we should know about that. So do you have goals, and strategies to achieve them, and would you please let us know if you need additional resources to make that happen? Mr. Yoshioka: Before we even get into that, I need to stress that compulsory voting and registration is not a law anywhere either federal or state-level. So what you are somewhat implying is an effort in trying to influence free will. And frankly, I believe and have believed for a number of years that individual's desire to register and vote is really more a function of their overall view of society and government in general, than really the efforts that solely our office can produce. So it really would be something that would require the involvement of more than just our office. As far as hitting a target percentage that you alluded to, no, we do not have a target number per se. But we always try to encourage registration and voting by things such as online voter registration system, which people can now do in the comfort of their own home, when they are ready. You know, voter registration is everywhere. You can get a form downloaded offline. They are at service providers. People call our office, we mail them forms. So I do not know honestly really more ways that you could get registration out there. It is in the phone book, tax book, you know? So the opportunities to register are out there. And we have talked about this at the county and state-level for a number of years and in years past, I understand they used to have...the state used to have a larger budget to encourage voter registration turn out and what have you. Of course we all know during lean times they cut those funds out and they were never replenished. But we would be open to suggestions on how, perhaps, community leaders would be open to suggesting ways we could increase that turnout? We need to also be careful how we do those things not to have our office too closely aligned to any particular effort or organization, because we need to remain unbiased from a governmental standpoint, we are here to provide the mechanism by which elections occur. And we want do that in a very unbiased manner. Councilmember Hooser: I agree 100%, it has to be unbiased. I am certainly not recommend that we force people to vote, or impact free will, but I do think there are things that our county can do to increase...make it easier for voters. And I think that we would have a healthier democracy and a healthier government if more people participated in their government. And so I think it is certainly an appropriate role for your office to play to look at that. And our county to play to say "how can we do that?" I am sure other counties, other places are doing various things and maybe we can look at that to see about being creative and having bus service...I know that is not a new or unique idea to have free bus service on election day. And that does not help...it is not targeted towards candidates. It is just something that we do for other things, we do for other events. So that is possibly one idea, and I mean, if you think that enough is being done, we do not need to do any more, then I will respect that, but I believe we need to do mor, myself. Bus service, would you support having a free bus service on Election Day? Mr. Yoshioka: I want to probably look into it a bit further before we commit one way or the other. I would not want to respond to that at this point in time. April 12, 2016 Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Auditor, and Office of the County Clerk (mn) Page 22 Councilmember Hooser: I certainly hope we do not go in the opposite direction and make it harder for people to vote. I know sometimes there have been efforts to limit remote...like absentee walk-in. We have people walk in here, but it is possible that they would walk-in other places also. So I would like to see...did you have something to say, Madam Clerk? Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: Yes. There are a couple of things that Lyndon was going to touch upon later in the presentation, but one was really that emphasis on convenience. And making it as convenient as possible. The other issue is something that we have been working on this legislative session. This legislative session, the bills that are before the legislature, which Lyndon was going to go into later. Councilmember Hooser: I cannot hear you either. Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: Oh, okay. Lyndon was going to go into that a little later about some legislation that is pending that will make it easier for voters. Councilmember Hooser: Okay. I imagine there are some things that we can do on our own, that are within the law, if we want also as well obviously we have do what the law tells us to do. Thank you very much. Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Kuali`i has a follow-up. Councilmember Kuali`i: So along those lines, I do see on your page 15, you talk about procedures being established to implement late-voter registration. And that because I was saying about same-day registration, right? So this late-voter registration, you are saying that it will go as late as the date of elections, but not until the 2018 primary election. Is that what is in the works already? And that is in line with the state law then? Because these things happen according to state law, not we as a county can make our own laws. So that is already in the works. Mr. Yoshioka: Correct. For 2016, late-voter registration will be held in conjunction with early voting. During the early voting period... Councilmember Kuali`i: That two-week period prior. Mr. Yoshioka: Yes. Unregistered individuals can appear in person at early voting and register and vote. Even though it is after the statutorily designated registration deadline. Now in the 2018 election, that service will be expanded to the polling place on Election Day. Councilmember Kuali`i: So in this election, that two-week early-voting period, where they are still allowed to register to vote, even though it is after voting registration deadline, they will have to come here to the one elections headquarters, if you will? April 12, 2016 Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Auditor, and Office of the County Clerk (mn) Page 23 Mr. Yoshioka: Well, yes, and that was something else I was going to also touch on. Soon after the 2014 election, we received a request from Kaua`i Community College. They asked us to forego use of a facility that we normally used to serve as our ballot-counting center. Because of major renovations to I believe the campus center, it displaced a lot of students, staff, classrooms, and they asked if there was any way we could forego use of the facility at KCC so they could use that facility during the renovation period. So we really try to be good neighbors and work well together. So we were able to fortunately find an alternate site for early voting and I want to take the opportunity to thank the Department of Parks and Recreation for allowing us to use Lihu`e Neighborhood Center during the early-voting period for both primary and general elections to serve as that temporary facility to provide early voting. So early voting will be at Lihu`e Neighborhood Center for 2016 elections and our annex basement which is where we normally have early-voting will be our ballot-counting center. So the late-registration you are referring to will be conducted out of the Lihu`e Neighborhood Center. Councilmember Kuali`i: So that is a change that everybody needs to know about? Mr. Yoshioka: Yes. Councilmember Kuali`i: The two-week period of early-voting, do not show up to the annex basement as you did in past, but go to the Lihu`e Neighborhood Center. Mr. Yoshioka: Correct. Councilmember Kuali`i: That was my next question. I saw it in the presentation also. Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: So actually we are going to be practicing same- day voter registration during the early voting, right? Mr. Yoshioka: Correct. Councilmember Yukimura: If people can come to early voting, register to vote, even though it is past the official deadline, and then vote. And then in the following election, what is that? 2018. Then we are going to be able to do same-day voter registration during the election? Mr. Yoshioka: At the polling place on Election Day. Councilmember Yukimura: At the polling places on Election Day. Mr. Yoshioka: Correct. April 12, 2016 Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Auditor, and Office of the County Clerk (mn) Page 24 Councilmember Yukimura: That is a really big improvement. Councilmember Kuali`i: And the two weeks prior, too. Mr. Yoshioka: And the two weeks prior, too. Councilmember Kuali`i: It will be everything then. You are adding it on as you go. Councilmember Yukimura: Any time people are voting they will be able to register to vote. Mr. Yoshioka: Correct. Councilmember Yukimura: Alright that is great. Councilmember Kuali`i: I have another follow-up. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Follow-up? Councilmember Kuali`i: It is not exactly a follow-up, but along the same lines. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay. Councilmember Kuali`i. Councilmember Kuali`i: The other thing I think in last year or so, Oregon led the way with automatic registration. Is that what they call motor voter? Mr. Yoshioka: They have a version of automatic registration that is run in conjunction with receiving or applying for driver's licenses, and we also have legislation still alive at this current session, that would establish essentially the same thing. With the version of the bill that we have, if you apply for either a driver's license, or a state ID, the way the law is written now, or the proposed law is written now, before the driver's license clerk would even accept the form, you would need to mark off a portion of the form to say yes, you want to register to vote or no, you would not want to register to vote. In other words, they cannot leave that portion of the form blank. It has to be completed, and they will then, the driver's license personnel, would then forward us the forms for anyone who has said yes they want to register to vote. While we are speaking of this, in line with that, we have another bill which is still alive, which would allow for all of that voter registration data to be transmitted to us electronically, rather than we receive hard copy pieces of paper. Which we currently do. Right now, anyone who applies for a driver's license, or state ID, and says they want to register to vote, we get stacks of forms that staff would then need to manually enter into the system. The bill that is moving right now, which we really hope passes, will provide us all the data that is already captured from those forms electronically and uploaded directly into the database. So those are some April 12, 2016 Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Auditor, and Office of the County Clerk (mn) Page 25 additional voter convenience measures to make it as convenient as possible for individuals who register to vote. Councilmember Kuali`i: And in your report, you have actually four pages worth of different bills? So this voter registration bill that is tied to driver's license and civil identification cards, I see that is HB 1652. But other one you talk when you talk about data? Mr. Yoshioka: Actually the one that we initially submitted a few weeks ago was what was alive at that particular point in time. I can provide you the updated list. A lot of have fell out since they have not met deadlines to be in their committees by the legislative calendar. Councilmember Kuali`i: I think if there is anything that is still alive that you are hoping for, I would love to send in supportive testimony and request and ask that everybody else consider doing that, too. Mr. Yoshioka: Yes, we can send you the list of bills that are still alive. But for the automatic voter registration, that is HB 401. Councilmember Kuali`i: HB 401. Mr. Yoshioka: HB 401. Councilmember Kuali`i: What page is that? Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Page 17. Mr. Yoshioka: You know what? I will just forward you the list of reformed bills that we are really hoping make their way. Councilmember Kuali`i: Because this one was from the March period when there was probably still a lot alive that are not alive now. Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: And some amendments have also been made. Councilmember Kuali`i: Okay. Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: So on this motor voter legislation that is pending, you say that people cannot leave the question blank about whether they want to register to vote, but they can say yes or no. Is that correct? Mr. Yoshioka: Correct. April 12, 2016 Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Auditor, and Office of the County Clerk (mn) Page 26 Councilmember Yukimura: So they are not being forced to say yes. Mr. Yoshioka: No. They are not being forced to say yes, and that is actually consistent with federal law. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. Mr. Yoshioka: There is federal law that requires the registration process to be incorporated with the application for a driver's license, but that same federal law also requires that any applicant be given the option to not register to vote. So that is just our way of accommodating that section of law. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. But what it does is it forces people to make a choice. Mr. Yoshioka: Correct. Councilmember Yukimura: Right. And not just ignore it. Mr. Yoshioka: Correct. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Chock has a follow-up. Councilmember Chock: Just along the lines of the bills you are tracking, and trying to advocate for. I know there has been a lot of discussion on the transition to mail, strictly to mail. I guess I wanted to get clearer on if that is the trend that we are moving towards, what are the budget implications for the future office for your office that we need to consider? My understanding is that the State handles, I guess the precinct work, the walk-ins and so forth, but we would be solely responsible for the mail part, the mail ballots, is that correct? And if so, would that cause more of a budget increase for you? And would we get supported by the State for that? Mr. Yoshioka: All versions of the bill have accounted for the fact that if we do transition to vote by mail, poll working will no longer be high budget priority. So the cost that has been shifted to more adequately address the shift in expenses, yes. So again, there are actually three bills that are still alive. Each bill establishes vote by mail in a little different way. On the record, none of what the variations in the various bills include are deal breakers for us. We would be able to work with any of them, but generally speaking, they break the expenses up whereby the State would be responsible for the voting equipment, the expenses associated with the tabulation of ballots, and generally speaking the counties would be responsible for sending ballots, tracking and accounting for the receipt so we have sat and talked about how to make the expenses up, so that we maintain an equitable share of expenses. April 12, 2016 Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Auditor, and Office of the County Clerk (mn) Page 27 Councilmember Chock: Flat budget moving forward no matter what occurs. Okay, thank you. Mr. Yoshioka: We are trying to do that as best as possible, yes. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: I wanted to go back to the issue of the bus. I personally am not sure about free bus, but I am really sure about bus service, and I think we do not do bus service on holidays and Election Days are considered holidays or not? Mr. Yoshioka: I believe that the general is, but I do not know if it is a holiday for everyone. Councilmember Yukimura: I think I would like to check into that, because if holiday service is every two hours, it just does not help at all. And I would just as soon spend money to make it every hour or something like that, because people should have a way to get to the polls conveniently, and of course, when we go to mail, all of those issues will be moot. But until then, transportation is a real issue. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Transportation may be able to answer that question, also. On whether they are on. I know lots of businesses are probably still open, but they I think are required to give their employees two hours to vote. Councilmember Yukimura: Yes, and that actually is why frequent bus service would be important. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any further questions for Elections? If not, we will move on. Thank you, Lyndon. Mr. Yoshioka: Thank you. Councilmember Yukimura: Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Jade, if you want to just briefly go over and we will have any questions. Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: Good morning, Jade Fountain-Tanigawa, County Clerk for the record. There has been a slight revision in our mission statement as we had discussed on occasion. But it now includes, if I could read it, the legislative branch of the county, which includes the Council Services Division, the Records Division, and the Elections Division it is our mission to efficiently, accurately and respectfully provide the public and the Kauai County Council with staff support and assistance required to carry out of the legislative function of the County of Kaua`i. So we tried to mesh the three divisions into our mission statement with the focus on public service/customer service. April 12, 2016 Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Auditor, and Office of the County Clerk (mn) Page 28 Councilmember Yukimura: Thank you. Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: I am not sure, Chair, where you want to touch upon?You just want to open it up for questions? Committee Chair Kaneshiro: We can open it up for questions. We did have your budget presentation ahead of time, and I know Members reviewed it already as far as goals and objectives. I really did not have any questions on the budget line items. So if any other Councilmembers have questions, let me know. Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: Because we have dollar-funded all of our vacant positions, and there is a reduction to the salary and adjust line item, but we have also left in and there is an increase in the vacation remains the same, the vacation credit payout, and it was put in there due to a possible pending retirement. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I will ask a question. Councilmember Kuali`i usually asks and I have it circled here, the Legislative Assistant vacant July 1st, 2015, are we looking to hire that?Are we in the process?Where are we? Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: We are talking about different ways to possibly fill that position, and it kind of dovetails into some of the issues that we are going discuss in executive session. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay. Got it. Any other questions from the Members? Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: I did want to bring up...Chair, you had a question about the consultant. Was it Consultant Services or was it Special Projects? Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Oh yes I E-mailed a question regarding the CZO update but I got an answer so I was (inaudible) Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: And for the Members, I did speak with the Planning Department and the CZO update assistance, we may want to retitle it "General Plan update assistance." As far as the CZO, I think the General Plan will be coming to us first. So we can make that change for the May 8th submittal. Councilmember Yukimura: I have a question. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I believe that was a request from Councilmembers to get a better overview of these plans that are coming in. Councilmember Yukimura? Councilmember Yukimura: So what did we have in mind for GP assistance? April 12, 2016 Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Auditor, and Office of the County Clerk (mn) Page 29 Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: It was similar to what I believe both you and Councilmember Bynum had spoken about a few years ago, but it was to have professional assistance available to kind of provide additional information when necessary to Members, as the CZO update was going to be a very large project with specialized knowledge, and if we did not have that in-house, Members wanted the ability to maybe procure some type of consultant services. Councilmember Yukimura: Right now I do know that I remember the discussion. I am having a hard time really conceptualizing the assistance, but I think there are occasions where we could use consultant services. I am not sure just with the General Plan though. So I am wondering if we can say "and other," or something just to keep it flexible? I guess it is always flexible. But yes, just so that... Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa A professional type of assistance. Councilmember Yukimura: I'm thinking I recalled some specific time and subject that we could use it, and I will think about that, but I mean, so I really am resonating with the idea of some kind of assistance. I am just not sure in the case of the General Plan what it would be? Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: There were also two projects that we funded this year, that we did not anticipate in this budget. One was the homeless summit, which was $10,000. And the other, which we funded and we will continue to fund, is the hiring of the County Auditor. I was very surprised at the cost. We have spent approximately $16,000 just to advertise. I was really shocked. I had not realized how much it would actually cost given it has taken a long time. Councilmember Yukimura: And thank you for raising that. Because I know that the Council as a whole was very determined to do the search thoroughly and professionally. And so we need to and we were kind of learning as we went along. Because I do not think we have ever really done that...well, the search for the Clerk was the closest and I know we used the learning from that process to shape the County Auditor's search. I am wondering if now that we know what we know, whether we can hone in on the more cost-effective ways of advertising and so forth. Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: Absolutely. Councilmember Yukimura: You have so much more knowledge about that now. But I do not object to putting a line item. Although we used it that time the savings from the Auditor's salary...no, we could not. Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: It was determined we could not. Originally we thought we would be able to, but we were not able to. It was determined that because the Council was the appointing authority, it would have to come out of the Council's budget. April 12, 2016 Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Auditor, and Office of the County Clerk (mn) Page 30 Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. So then I think we should put something in there, because we are still wanting to find an Auditor. So in the supplemental we will see that. Okay. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any further questions? Councilmember Kuali`i. Councilmember Kuali`i: I will probably submit this in writing also, but I just wanted to ask if going forward if you could look at breaking out the expense line items regarding "travel" between Councilmembers and staff. And then also, possibly looking at the need and use by Councilmembers, not just for general travel, but for specific travel that might involve board responsibilities, such as HSAC and NACO so maybe just kind of looking at it in three different pieces as opposed to a lump grouping. Okay. Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any further questions from the Members? If not, this is our last department. Going once, twice...okay. Thank you, Jade. And I have just a few announcements for the upcoming budget, and first of all I want to thank everyone, the Administration for working hard on the budget and answering our questions. I know we probably still have a bunch of questions out to you guys. You guys can work on it and get it back to us before the supplemental budget comes in. I really appreciate it. I know I have been initialing off on a lot of questions. So I feel for you guys, but if you can get us answers back, I really appreciate it. It does help us in our decision-making. For the public's information I want to thank the Council for running I think a pretty smooth budget review. The hard decisions are going to be coming up. For the public's information and reminder to Councilmembers call-backs are not needed at this point. We scheduled call-backs for April 14, 15, 18, and 19th and you have open calendars on those days. Staff will be meeting with each Councilmember separately to go over decision-making proposals so they are able to prepare various proposals. These meetings are strictly between Councilmember and staff. The Mayor will transmit his May supplemental budget communication as authorized by the Charter on or before May 8th which is a Sunday so it will be before May 6th. Staff will be preparing a comparison and I am asking the Administration to please submit the various changes as well. So that it is transparent and easy for us to see what has changed from this Budget to the Supplemental. On May 11, 2016 at 5:00 p.m. We will hold a public hearing on the Mayor's March budget submittal and decision-making starts May 12 and continues the 13th and 16th if needed. And again, just thank you to everyone, and this concludes our scheduled Departmental Budget reviews. Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: Chair, I want to thank you for your good leadership, and management of this budget process. And for allowing me to ask questions. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: No problem. I think we finished on-time every day. So that is the main thing. And as long as you got your questions answered. Councilmember Yukimura: Thank you. I also want to thank staff for guiding us the whole time and doing all the work before-and-after the sessions and just keeping us on a straight course. Thank you very much. April 12, 2016 Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Auditor, and Office of the County Clerk (mn) Page 31 Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Thank you. Yes, thank you Council Staff, too, for putting up with us. This concludes our scheduled Departmental Budget reviews and seeing no objections, I adjourn the Departmental Budget reviews for Fiscal Year 2016-2017. There being no objections, the Committee adjourned the Fiscal Year 2016-2017 Departmental Budget Reviews at 10:42 a.m. Res.ectfull submitted, iv'V- 1,4tt K. Sa o Deputy County Clerk 44W ati/LAW-0(ethcki- Darrellyne M. Caldeira Council ,GSeKerrvices Assistant II Codie K. Yamauchi Council Services Assistant OWL CCet; Allison S. Arakaki Counccil��S�e�rv�icrres Assistant 4G Cho l 41114 ri5t �'„►I ichal Nakashima Senior Clerk Typist APPROVED at the Committee Meeting held on June 29, 2016: 1.11., % Ak :it ARRYL If A ESHIRi Chair, Budget & Finance Committee