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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/09/2018 Emergency Management, Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Attorney, Agency on Elderly Affairs Emergency Management Agency, Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Attorney, and Agency on Elderly Affairs Honorable Arthur Brun Honorable Mason K. Chock Honorable Mel Rapozo Honorable JoAnn A. Yukimura (present at 9:06 a.m.) Honorable Arryl Kaneshiro Excused: Honorable Ross Kagawa Honorable Derek S.K. Kawakami The Committee reconvened on April 9, 2018 at 9:00 a.m., and proceeded as follows: Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Good morning. I would like to call back to order the Budget & Finance Committee and the Fiscal Year 2018-2019 Departmental Budget Reviews. On the schedule for today, April 9, 2018 we will be hearing from the Emergency Management Agency, the Department of Human Resources (HR), the Office of the County Attorney, and the Agency on Elderly Affairs. As we do each morning, we will take public testimony. Is there anyone in the audience wishing to testify? There being no objections, the rules were suspended to take public testimony. There being no one present to provide testimony, the meeting was called back to order, and proceeded as follows: Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Seeing none, I will suspend the rules and we will start with the Emergency Management Agency. There being no objections, the rules were suspended. ELTON S. USHIO, Emergency Management Administrator: Aloha, good morning, Elton Ushio, Emergency Management Administrator; and Chelsie Sakai, Grant Coordinator. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Do we have any questions? I have just a couple. The Electricity, Internet/Cable/Data, and the new Hanalei repeater, is that a new site? Mr. Ushio: I have my Telecommunications Administrator here if I make a mistake, but to my understanding, it is a standalone site, meaning it serves as a booster for that area. It is not connected back all the way to the central system or the core, so what we are planning to do is to upgrade it and that would be the associated data connectivity expense. So that way, it will be a five-channel repeater in that area. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay. Previously, we did not have that amount in because... Mr. Ushio: Previously, if we go back many years, there was no standalone repeater at that location and everything would depend on the repeater at the Kilauea National Wildlife Refuge, Crater Hill. To enhance public safety and overall County communications in the area, we put in that standalone primarily for public safety and now, we, more recently, converted a similar standalone on the west side in Waimea to tie it back into the main system. Now, we want to upgrade this one so that it is connected to the main core, the main system. April 9, 2018 Emergency Management Agency, Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Attorney, and Agency on Elderly Affairs Page 2 Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay. The Other Services, Emergency Mass Notification System cost went down. What was the reason for that? Mr. Ushio: With the Emergency Mass Notification System, we were successful in doing a multi-year procurement and award. Year 1 was covered by Kaua`i Emergency Management Agency (KEMA), Year 2 by Department of Water, and subsequent years are fifty/fifty (50/50). We split the cost in half and so that is the reason. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay. Councilmember Chock. Councilmember Chock: Good morning. Thank you, Elton. When I looked at the "Other Rentals" and the site leases, is that just for property? They are the property lease where we have these equipment? Mr. Ushio: Yes, those are for the radio tower site leases. Councilmember Chock: Okay. Is this all of our site leases that you have to encumber annually or are there more? Mr. Ushio: These are the leases we have where we are paying. We have sites that do not have costs, but these are the ones. Councilmember Chock: Okay. Do those not have costs because they are County property or they were donated to us? Mr. Ushio: For that, I would have to defer to the Telecommunications Officer. Councilmember Chock: Okay. Mr. Ushio: I am not sure of the history on some of those. Councilmember Chock: Okay, but we pay approximately $80,000 for these said property. I know this came up when we had some lease questions this past year, so is that our annual costs? Mr. Ushio: Yes. Councilmember Chock: Okay. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions from the Members? Council Chair Rapozo. Council Chair Rapozo: On the maintenance, Repair & Maintenance (R&M) Equipment, is that all done out of your Office and not Public Works? Mr. Ushio: Our R&M, let me find the item. Council Chair Rapozo: It is for the repeater sites, refurbishing, and air conditioning. April 9, 2018 Emergency Management Agency, Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Attorney, and Agency on Elderly Affairs Page 3 Committee Chair Kaneshiro: It is on page 184. Mr. Ushio: Okay. A lot of these line items are more specialized. If there are problems say, with the air conditioning and fire suppression, our Telecommunications Officer will address it directly with the contractors. For example, if we have generator problems on the site, David will respond and address it. Public Works does some other things like building maintenance—not Public Works, but Parks. The ones that we do maintain on this list are more specialized. Council Chair Rapozo: I noticed you have the backup generator repair, grounds maintenance, air conditioning, and even the fire suppression. So you just contract out, is that what is happening? Mr. Ushio: Let me defer to David. DAVID MIYASAKI, County Telecommunications Officer: Good morning. Council Chair Rapozo: Good morning. Mr. Miyasaki: David Miyasaki, Telecommunications Officer. A lot of these services are under us because like Elton said, they are highly specialized, so I contact vendors directly. Council Chair Rapozo: But like grounds maintenance, what does Public Works as far as their Building Maintenance—I am assuming these are structures. Are these buildings? Mr. Miyasaki: Right. Public Works does the actual building repair, the carpentry, the roofs, and the floors. I do use the Auto Shop for the generator repair. Council Chair Rapozo: Okay. Mr. Miyasaki: For minor repairs, but generally, I need to bring a contractor out of Honolulu because there is a transfer panel. They are not trained with that. Council Chair Rapozo: Okay. Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I have a question on Dues and Subscriptions. We have two (1) new items, Satellite Annual Subscriptions and Radio Service Requests. What are those two (2) items? Mr. Ushio: For the satellite, we have a Homeland Security grant line item where we will be upgrading some of satellite systems. While the grant can pay for equipment, it generally does not cover sustainment or subscription costs over the long-term, so that is what that is intended for. As far as the second line item you mentioned, that was formerly under the County Transportation Agency. It was identified by the Mayor's Budget Team to be out of place in that because the 800 megahertz (MHz) system is centrally managed by KEMA, Radio Service Requests really should be attached to us. That used to cover their repairs and other costs associated with their radios. April 9, 2018 Emergency Management Agency, Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Attorney, and Agency on Elderly Affairs Page 4 Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Chock. Councilmember Chock: The sites that we have, do you see those ever changing? We need those sites eternally, unless there are other potential sites. I guess where I am leading to is, we had that discussion about if we should really look down the road and see acquisition of some of these properties, if feasible. Mr. Ushio: We have been studying that and looking at it, and in all honesty, the radio system as-is now, I think, this infrastructure is what we will end up wanting to stick with primarily because the cost—let us not even consider acquisition of land or if we were to condemn. The cost of establishing a new site is estimated at $1,000,000 to $1,500,000 per site per telecommunication. Radio systems have a finite life. They do not last forever. We have completed recent upgrades and the system should be good for another decade, maybe more, but many of you have heard of reemerging technologies. There is a nationwide initiative called First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet), public safety broadband, which are is cellular-based. With all of these things coming down in the future, we do not know how fast those will develop. In fifteen (15) to twenty (20) years from now, it might be moot to have a 800 MHz system. I think for now, it appears to be advantageous to stick with what is working and what we have here. Councilmember Chock: Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: I just want to say that is a phenomenal answer, Elton, that you have obviously researched well. You are looking both short-range and long-range, so thank you. Mr. Ushio: Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions? Under Equipment, we have Waimea Intrusion/Fire Alarm and UPS Battery Replacement, is the Waimea Intrusion/Fire Alarm going to be an annual cost or is that a one-time cost? Mr. Miyasaki: No, the alarm system is a one-time cost. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Because it was in the budget last year, too. Mr. Miyasaki: Yes. What it is, is we have been slowly building out the alarm systems, so I have been spacing it out as not to make a big impact on the budget. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay. Then, is the UPS Battery Replacement a one-time cost also? Mr. Miyasaki: Yes, that is the main site. The battery system was put in about six (6) or seven (7) years ago, so we are coming up for maintenance on that, and that will be a one-time cost. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay. April 9, 2018 Emergency Management Agency, Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Attorney, and Agency on Elderly Affairs Page 5 Mr. Miyasaki: It will be good for another five (5) to six (6) years. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Thank you. Are there any other questions from the Members? Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: I have a general question about the 800 MHz communication system. We have been in a multi-year upgrade of it and I just wondered where we are right now. Mr. Ushio: Go ahead. David, you can speak more technically. Mr. Miyasaki: As far as converting to the Project 25 (P25) digital standard, the main system, is complete. Earlier, we were talking about the Hanalei system where it is the last piece of the main radio system to convert and we are in the process of doing that right now. We do have some minor security things that we are asking for in Capital Improvement Projects (CIP) later, but as far as all intents and purposes, the main upgrade is done. Councilmember Yukimura: Wow, that is excellent. Do you know if the other Counties have that level of a system, too, now? Mr. Miyasaki: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: So we have a statewide system? Mr. Miyasaki: Well right now, Maui was completed first,we were second, Hawai`i Island just finished, and Honolulu is in the process of upgrading to P25 and should be done in about a year. Once that is done, yes, the whole State is going to be P25. Councilmember Yukimura: Alright, great. Within the system here on Kaua`i, do we have all of that interoperability? Mr. Miyasaki: Yes, we do. Councilmember Yukimura: That is very good. Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions for the Emergency Management Agency? If not, we will move on to HR. Thank you. Councilmember Yukimura: Thank you. JANINE M.Z. RAPOZO, Director of Human Resources: Good morning, Janine Rapozo, Director of Human Resources. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Good morning. Are there any questions for HR? Councilmember Chock. Councilmember Chock: Thank you, Committee Chair Kaneshiro. In looking at all of the budgets that are coming forward, one of the things that stands out clearly and continues to is this gap and being able to bring in workers, employees, and associates that we need to fill qualified positions. The question is really about what can we do? What April 9, 2018 Emergency Management Agency, Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Attorney, and Agency on Elderly Affairs Page 6 are we looking at? I know the Departments are definitely taking the lead on it, but what can we do in supporting us raising the bar? I know it obviously, comes down to salary amounts and you know where we are with that. Are there other strategies that we should be enlisting in trying to ensure that we can get the workforce that we see a gap starting to form in, especially as we get people starting to retire? Ms. Rapozo: The Department is looking at different ways of addressing different types of positions. What we did with police, initially, was to test more often. That does not seem to be the issue, so we are working with police on various methods to see if we can do entry-level positions or apprenticeship programs to try to get them to the point where they can become Police Officer Recruits. Some of the other places where we have issues are the trades; electricians and plumbers. We are working with that Department to look at whether or not we can work on shortage differentials. United Public Workers (UPW) has one (1) salary scale, one (1) step versus some of the other areas like the engineers, we have various steps for the salaries where we could hire above the minimum. With UPW, there is only one (1) step. So what we would have to create is a shortage differential, where you would pay an additional amount like an add pay to the base salary. We have already talked to the City and the State who has that for electricians, and so we are looking at whether or not that is something Kaua`i would need to do. What would happen is you start off with the differential and as the position gets to a point where you are able to recruit more successfully at the entry-level, everyone's differential starts to go away. Those are some of the things that we are looking at to try to help the different Departments and it is different strategies based on the type of position. We are looking at doing some of that. Councilmember Chock: What about in terms of recruitment? Are there any new ways that other municipalities are ensuring that they are getting a good pool of the candidates that are qualified? Ms. Rapozo: Well, social media is a new way to recruit that we are look at as well. I think police is looking at that. We are just making sure those are things that we can do legally, so we are working with the Office of the County Attorney. There are different methods. We are looking at a different workforce right now, so how they look for jobs is different. Sometimes our pay is not as attractive, but our benefits certainly are. But for entry-level or new workers to the workforce, that is not what they are looking for. We have to try to see how else we can entice them with other way. There are certain things we cannot touch, but there are maybe other ways that we can look at and that is kind of the goal this year for the recruitment section. Councilmember Chock: It seems like the whole benefits thing was certainly an attraction years ago and I think it is still for certain positions, but not all. Ms. Rapozo: Yes. Councilmember Chock: Statewide, we are not providing the same kind of benefits that we used to. I think that is really what changed that incentive to consider government work. Are there other ways to boost that incentive part of it that need to be considering and leveling the service? Ms. Rapozo: During negotiations, we have, as an employer group, all of the different Counties and State are looking at different ways, especially on the entry-level Unit 3 clerical staff. We worked with the Union in the last negotiations to try to April 9, 2018 Emergency Management Agency, Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Attorney, and Agency on Elderly Affairs Page 7 see how we could consolidate some of the steps, make the lower steps get paid higher, and not increase the steps on the other end. We have to look at the Unions negotiations team that is usually, a lot of times, people on the farther end of the scale. We always remind them that they need to look at the benefits for the benefit of all versus just a few or just some that have been more long-term. We have worked on it. In the last round, we were proposing to start to shrink the scale year-by-year. That did not quite happen, but we did get at least one (1) step dropped off this last negotiation for Unit 3. Rather than starting at maybe a little lower, four percent (4%) less, someone coming in on Unit 3 will start a little higher. It is a start, but still, we have a lot of work for that. Councilmember Chock: Just to clarify, most of the discussions that you are having, they are statewide discussions. There is nothing that, for instance, the County of Kaua`i can do to stand out as an attractive employer? Ms. Rapozo: We can look at more shortage differentials directly and that would be specific to the County. Councilmember Chock: That is something that we can do without going to everyone else? Ms. Rapozo: Yes. Councilmember Chock: Okay. Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I have a follow-up. As far as say, trade groups like electricians, do you talk to the other Counties and see if they are also having a difficult time hiring those types of trades? Maybe you can pinpoint that every island is having a problem because of the way it is structured with UPW. Have you done that, or have you noticed a trend between the other Counties? Ms. Rapozo: We have and I was surprised that actually, only the City and State have shortage differentials right now for electricians. Maui and Hawai`i Island, at this point, seem to be okay. I do not think people are knocking on their doors, but they are able to fill them. We do have every so often, people who are looking for not just pay, but the hours, the shifts, and as well as the benefits. Every so often, we have maybe some people who have been in the private sector who have said, "Do you know what? I am tired. I kind of just want a forty (40) hour workweek." We, at times do have that, but getting the new workforce in is a little bit more difficult. It is hard to attract them at this point, but we do talk on the different trades to try to see what you are doing and how you can attract more. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I guess that is good information because I was thinking if you saw it across the whole State, then you can say—and UPW has to do everything statewide. They cannot just say, "Oh, Kauai, we will let you do higher wages and then Hawai`i Island will stay here." If you saw the trend that every other County had a difficult time hiring these positions, then you would have a really good case. It sounds like it all depends on the workforce. They may have older people that are doing it in their retirement and we are looking for younger people that want a career in it. It is a different market, I guess. It is hard. Ms. Rapozo: It goes up-and-down throughout the year. Sometimes we have a bunch of applicants and then sometimes, nothing, so it is hard to tell. April 9, 2018 Emergency Management Agency, Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Attorney, and Agency on Elderly Affairs Page 8 Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay. Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: Follow-up. First of all, congratulations on a very successful Employee Awards Banquet. Thank you for all your hard work. Ms. Rapozo: Thank you. Councilmember Yukimura: You said that the new workforce is looking for things that are different than the older workforce, so how are we adjusting our recruiting to address the kinds of things the new workforce is looking for? Ms. Rapozo: Well, I think what we need to do is some of the things we are doing is—I mean, we cannot unfortunately, just say that we are going to raise the salary. We cannot do that. We are at a point where other than if we do a shortage differential, so that is one of the things that we are look at to try to up that. We can promote the benefits more. If they have family, that is something that they will have a set schedule. Quality of life is important, but for some people, it is just whether or not they are going to survive with their salary. It is something that is going to have to make a difference. The medical insurance is something as well, that in last year, we have been able to offer a little bit more affordable plan for everyone and so at least we are able to market that. In the past, it was very difficult if you had a family. Your co-payment was quite a lot. Now, we have a HMSA plan that is cheaper and so it is more affordable. That is another attraction because we have had people that have declined offers not because of the salary, but when they take everything in combination with the medical, their take-home pay is what they are looking at and that is something that we are lucky that we were able to get that plan passed. We are not sure how long it will last, but at this point, at least we have that. Councilmember Yukimura: When did that plan pass? Ms. Rapozo: It started last July. It has been a year and it is going to continue next year, so we will have a July 1st to at least June 30th of next year. Councilmember Yukimura: And then what happens? Ms. Rapozo: Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund (EUFT)is the group that handles our health insurance statewide. We will have to wait to see if they are able to offer it. We also offer Kaiser at a little less expense, and so we have that option as well. Councilmember Yukimura: The decision about HMSA-prime is not a County decision? Ms. Rapozo: Correct. Councilmember Yukimura: It is EUTF. Ms. Rapozo: Correct. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Brun. April 9, 2018 Emergency Management Agency, Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Attorney, and Agency on Elderly Affairs Page 9 Councilmember Brun: Thank you. I know we approved the raises for Department Heads and Deputies. Did everyone go up to the maximum? Ms. Rapozo: No, not everyone went up to the maximum. Councilmember Brun: Who is making all of those decisions; if they are doing their job, if they are worth the raise, and who we are giving the raises to, because I know there were some discrepancies going both ways? Ms. Rapozo: The appointing authority would be the one making that decision. The Mayor has some appointees under him and some Commissions have appointees. For example, my position is under the Civil Service Commission. The Liquor Director is under the Liquor Control Commission. Planning, Water, Fire, and Police, their Commissions would make that decision. The other Department Heads is made by the Mayor and their Deputies are actually made by the Department Heads. Councilmember Brun: The Department Heads? Ms. Rapozo: Yes. Councilmember Brun: Okay. The ones that are under the Mayor, the decision is made by the Mayor or HR? Ms. Rapozo: Mayor and Managing Director, yes. They would let us know that this salary should be at this level. Councilmember Brun: Okay. Ms. Rapozo: That is something that we just process for them. Councilmember Brun: Thank you. Councilmember Yukimura: I have a follow-up. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: I would like to get that information in writing in terms of which appointees on that Salary Resolution are at that maximum. Ms. Rapozo: Okay. Councilmember Yukimura: And which are not. Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Chock. Councilmember Chock: I just read some discussion on some staggering hours at the workplace and how to create that kind of opportunity where people can work at home more. Is that even something feasible that your Department has looked at in terms of... April 9, 2018 Emergency Management Agency, Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Attorney, and Agency on Elderly Affairs Page 10 Ms. Rapozo: Depending on operations. Some Departments have looked at that whether we go to four (4) ten-hour days, or whether or not for the public operations, whether or not we open on weekends. I know there has been some research done with some of the Unions. I know one (1) Department was ready to go to four (4) ten-hour days and then I think some of the employees were not able do it because of family obligations with children. They would not be able to get them from school, et cetera. There are a lot of variables on that, but it is looked at in various Departments, if that is something that can be done. Also, Department Heads can allow flex-scheduling for specific needs, if necessary. Councilmember Chock: Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: In your narrative you talk about—it is under your goals, "To enhance the quality and efficiency of services with technological advancements." Your first objective is to "continue the implementation of the online Performance Evaluations." I want to know just a little bit about this Performance Evaluation module. Ms. Rapozo: In working with the Information Technology (IT) Division, we have been progressing in trying to get this whole Human Resources information system up and running when Del took over. Performance Evaluation was part of that whole system. When Del took over, we kind of have changed course a little bit and we are going to embark on a different, I guess, pathway. So part of the online Performance Evaluation that we were working on that we still plan to implement at some point maybe with a different vendor, would be to have the Supervisors be able to have the Performance Evaluation online and be able to, throughout the year, put in all of the different items. If someone is not improving or needs to improve, we would be able to know right off the bat that they would need to call them in already, talk to them, and make sure that they understand that they are not up to expectations. At the end of a year, which is an annual evaluation, to be able to then present it to them online. There would still be on the one-on-one discussion to go over the evaluation, but everything would be documented online and employees would be able to sign-off online as well. Councilmember Yukimura: This comes into play, this Performance Evaluation, when a Supervisor is evaluating one of his... Ms. Rapozo: Subordinates. Councilmember Yukimura: Yes, subordinates. So you are saying that it allows for more early intervention? Ms. Rapozo: Yes, it kind of is in their face, if you will, as far as being able to know that they can just document it very easily online so that they do not forget something when the annual evaluation comes up that something happened eight (8) months ago or something. It just helps the Supervisor to have a document available very readily. Councilmember Yukimura: And it allows the employee the right to be informed about it? Ms. Rapozo: I believe so. I think Jill can talk a little bit more about it. She was working directly with the vendor. April 9, 2018 Emergency Management Agency, Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Attorney, and Agency on Elderly Affairs Page 11 JILL NIITANI, Human Resources Manager II: Jill Niitani, HR Manager. I think for the Performance Evaluation, what we wanted to try to do was, of course, not get anything less than we have by paper, for one. Councilmember Yukimura: Yes. Ms. Niitani: And that was to at least document what occurred over the past year as far as performance as well as address goals from the previous year and potential for growth. We wanted to make sure that we at least had that. When we looked at what else, because what we want to try to do is enhance our services. Councilmember Yukimura: Right. Ms. Niitani And that included being able to maintain day-to-day. A lot of times when you are doing your evaluation at the annual point, which is what we do in HR, we notify the Departments usually about a month prior to their annual that the Annual Performance Evaluation is coming up. Councilmember Yukimura: Right. Ms. Niitani At that time, is when people work on it, which is not what we necessarily want do because what you are trying to do is figure out what happened twelve (12) months ago? That is something that we wanted to see. We knew that was going to be a problem and internally, too, that is difficult for us as well. We have our jobs to do and we just needed something to be able to go—we sit at our desk with our computer up and it is easy for us to type in, "Okay, today, we had something great happen and I want to document that for the employee" because that is another thing that we see, too, all of the negatives that we remember are put in the evaluation. There are a lot of positives that happen during the year that we want to recognize the employee for. There is a lot that goes into trying to develop that and we have talked to the Departments as well because each Department is a little different. There are Departments where they have maybe multiple people evaluating individuals, so we needed to factor that in as well. It is a lot of discussions it is working with IT, and with the vendor to make sure that they incorporate all of the things that we need to have in the system. Councilmember Yukimura: It sounds interesting. Thank you. Council Chair Rapozo: I have a question. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Council Chair Rapozo. Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. Janine, I guess I am assuming you can answer this. Position 800, HR Manager II (7 months) at $70,581, that is about over $10,000 a month. Is that what the HR Manager makes? It makes more than the Director? Ms. Rapozo: Yes. That would be my position going back there, it would be as if I never left, and so I believe that is going to be more than the Director. Council Chair Rapozo: Okay. Then, the HR Manager III is $88,000, so there is about a $40,000 difference between HR Manager III and II. Does that sound right? April 9, 2018 Emergency Management Agency, Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Attorney, and Agency on Elderly Affairs Page 12 Ms. Rapozo: What position is the HR Manager III? Council Chair Rapozo: I am looking at HR Manager III, EM5, $88,000, but that is twelve (12) month funding. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Position 289. Council Chair Rapozo: What? Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Position 289. Ms. Rapozo: The EM5? Council Chair Rapozo: Right. Ms. Rapozo: That is correct. Council Chair Rapozo: That is $88,000 and then HR Manager II, EM3- and I do not know the difference between a "3" and "5." I assumed that the "5" was higher, but in this case, it looks like the "3"—but that would be over $120,000, so that is close to a $40,000 difference between a higher EM and a lower EM. Is that normal? Ms. Rapozo: It just depends on years of service. I think there is about a fifteen (15) year gap between those two (2) individuals. Council Chair Rapozo: Okay. Is that the position that is being held right now? Ms. Rapozo: Position 800. Council Chair Rapozo: Position 800? Ms. Rapozo: Yes. Council Chair Rapozo: Alright. Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: When we are talking about evaluations of County employees, there is also the evaluation of appointees. I think you folks have some kind of design or guidelines for appointments. Ms. Rapozo: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: For evaluation of appointees. Ms. Rapozo: Yes, we do. Councilmember Yukimura: Is that in writing? April 9, 2018 Emergency Management Agency, Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Attorney, and Agency on Elderly Affairs Page 13 Ms. Rapozo: Yes. There are policies and procedures and there is a tool, which can be used. Some Commissions have decided to use their own tool. Councilmember Yukimura: They have to use some tool, or... Ms. Rapozo: It is recommended in the policy to follow the tool we have or at least something very similar. I do not think I have a Commission that has said that they do not want to use a tool, but everyone usually has one. They may have different categories that they want to focus on because of the nature of the operations. Councilmember Yukimura: Are they required to identify the tool that they are going to use if they do not use your tool? Ms. Rapozo: It usually comes in when the evaluation comes in that they have a different tool. I have worked with the Police Commission and the Fire Commission. I think the Police Commission uses a different tool. It is very similar. It is just that there are a little bit more categories that they want to focus on. Councilmember Yukimura: Jill mentioned how in evaluating an employee, sometimes there are several people who evaluate an employee, and so in terms of Department Heads, do you recommend the 360 approach? Ms. Rapozo: We do not have that in your policy and procedure for the 360. What we do have though, is a procedure to contact peers that will provide input towards the appointee, so most Commissions, as well as the Mayor, do use that as far as contacting various Department Heads or other agencies that they work with to come up with an overall evaluation of the individual. Councilmember Yukimura: Is there any Commission that requests public input because the public is the customer as well? Ms. Rapozo: Not that I am aware of. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay, but these evaluations are posted, right, even though they are in Executive Session? Ms. Rapozo: We do not post them. Councilmember Yukimura: You mean the Civil Service Commission? Ms. Rapozo: The Department of Human Resources. We do not post their evaluation. I believe all that comes out of it is whether or not they have gotten a "satisfactory" or not. Councilmember Yukimura: Right, and I recognize this is in Executive Session, but just like us, we post all our Executive Sessions so the public knows it is happening and can comment. Ms. Rapozo: Oh, I am sorry, you are talking about posting the agenda item, not posting the evaluation. April 9, 2018 Emergency Management Agency, Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Attorney, and Agency on Elderly Affairs Page 14 Councilmember Yukimura: Correct. Ms. Rapozo: Okay. Yes, I believe it is posted. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. I think you might have given this to us before, but can you submit the policies and procedures that you use to evaluate Department Heads? Ms. Rapozo: Sure. Councilmember Yukimura: How would we get the tools or the policies and procedures that a Commission would choose an alternative to the one you have proposed? Ms. Rapozo: It would probably be in their rules. Councilmember Yukimura: Yes, it should be in their rules. Okay. I want to request that of all of the Boards and Commissions. Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions? I have a question on the 89-day contract position that was moved to Parks—Facilities Maintenance. Ms. Rapozo: Yes. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: When an 89-day contract position gets moved to Parks—Facilities Maintenance, is it an 89-day position or does it actually get a position number? Ms. Rapozo: It would take that position number of that 89-day position and I believe it would be converted to full-time. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: So all of the 89-day contract positions have a... Ms. Rapozo: Position number. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: They have a position number? Ms. Rapozo: Yes. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions? Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: I have a question about your HR Internal Revenue System (IRS) payroll and personnel system, which I am pleased that it is really been underway. What is the status right now? Ms. Rapozo: That is the one that with Del Sherman taking over as IT, we are going in a different direction now. I believe he was going to go over that during the Department of Finance's presentation. We were working with the vendor and we had some issues in trying to basically Band-Aid the current system that we have. Del is recommending going on a new path. It is something that is at least not as expensive as what we had thought to get a whole new system. April 9, 2018 Emergency Management Agency, Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Attorney, and Agency on Elderly Affairs Page 15 Councilmember Yukimura: Good. Ms. Rapozo: He is the expert on it and we are like, "I think that is the way we should go," because we have been struggling with what we currently have. Councilmember Yukimura: Is it more integrated system-wise? Ms. Rapozo: I think integrated as well as meeting our needs versus trying to put this round peg into the square hole, which is just not working. With his guidance, we feel that this is a better direction to go. Councilmember Yukimura: That sounds excellent. Do you folks have a timetable? Is there a point of completion? Ms. Rapozo: I think Del would probably be best answering that, but from the preliminary meetings that we had, we were hoping to at least get a Request for Proposal (RFP) out by a month or two (2) and then going out and hopefully getting something before the end of the year. Councilmember Yukimura: Committee Chair Kaneshiro, could we have Del come forward since the Department of Finance is already over? I mean, we are done with that. Jill, you can stay there, too. Good morning. DEL SHERMAN, IT Manager: Good morning. Del Sherman, IT Manager for the County. Did you have questions that you wanted me to answer? Councilmember Yukimura: Yes. I just wanted to know what the timetable is for creating this system of which we have waited for a long time. It is wonderful that you appeared on the scene in order to help with it because we are looking for something that is going to work well. Mr. Sherman: Yes, it is something that has been a long time coming. I think the framework for this system has already been built as far as knowing what our needs are. HR has put a lot of effort into determining maybe where we have some deficiencies and pursuing solutions for those, and then the next iteration of that is where we are at right now as far as looking for a system that is completely integrated and addresses all of these needs. As far as our timeline, we are close to completing an RFP for this product. We hope to have that posted pending review from Purchasing within the next month or two (2), and then see where we end up as far as responses from different vendors and hopefully get a solution proposed that meets all of our needs. Councilmember Yukimura: So you are saying that you are going through the procurement process and then you will have a more firm timetable once you work with your contractor? Mr. Sherman: That is correct. There are a lot of providers for this type of software, so in order to pin down what our timeline might be, we will have to wait and see which one of the these providers is interested in working with us, take an in-depth look at their proposal, and then working out a timeline from there. But we are being pretty ambitious about this project. If everything goes as we hope it does, it would be nice to have made significant progress and actually having something up, running, and working before April 9, 2018 Emergency Management Agency, Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Attorney, and Agency on Elderly Affairs Page 16 the end of the year. That is pretty fast and generally not the norm for this kind of project, but it addresses such a vital need. We are committing as many resources to this as we can possibly afford to so that we can move forward quickly. Councilmember Yukimura: And this is a system that will help minimize errors in calculating payroll calculations that affect both the County and the employee negatively sometimes. Mr. Sherman: Yes, addressing our payroll needs is one of the prime considerations for this project, absolutely. Councilmember Yukimura: Do you have some special needs in terms of interfacing with the State's system? Mr. Sherman: The State has some requirements as far as types of reports that they need and what format those reports are in, so we have definitions for all of those exchanges of data. As we move forward with selecting a vendor, that will be one of the key things that we look at, ensuring that any vendor that responds is able to provide the State the data that they want in format that they need to. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. How about the State providing the data that we need? After we are finished with this, you can go and help the State. Okay. Alright, thank you very much. Mr. Sherman: You are welcome. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Chock. Councilmember Chock: Thank you, Committee Chair Kaneshiro. I was not going to actually have this discussion, but Councilmember Yukimura brought it up so I am just going to dive into it a little bit further. Del, this is more on the evaluation question that she had. When I look at the budget, I see that you are the Countywide Supervisor doing training seminars. There is a line item there for that and also under Consultant Services. This question is regarding really understanding what behavioral tools you folks are enlisting consistently in order to kind of the build capacity because I have been close to it, but also understand that every Department sort of has a little bit of leeway in that. For me, I just want to see what we are all investing in so that we are creating this kind of common behavioral pattern moving forward. I am just interested in the tools that you are enlisting this at this point. Ms. Rapozo: One of the things that we have been trying to work on getting going was, first of all, introductory supervisor training, a one-day orientation for new Supervisors as well as Supervisors who come up the ranks. Then that way, at least they have the tools and know what their responsibilities are. It is not just another title with more pay, but there are definite responsibilities that they need to consider. Then, we have little modules as far as how to do a job evaluation, how to handle a workers' compensation injury, and how to handle a discrimination and harassment complaint? We have all of those nuts and bolts things, and then we also have the other side it, just developing leaders and developing managers, so we are bringing in various consultants. We have brought in Glenn Furuya for his leadership trainings. We have brought in Sarah Wang to do some of the other April 9, 2018 Emergency Management Agency, Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Attorney, and Agency on Elderly Affairs Page 17 types of training, more legal-type trainings. She is an attorney. Jill might be able to help me more. She is kind of in charge of that area, but we have brought in various types of collaboration types of trainings and customer service. Jill and one of our former employees did the Dominance, Inducement, Submission, and Compliance (DISC) training. They are trained in that. Councilmember Yukimura: The what training? Ms. Rapozo: DISC. It is Dominance—you know it better than me. Ms. Niitani: It is what Councilmember Chock was talking about as far as behavioral tools. What we do is we go out and for the DISC training, we have the attendees fill-out a profile and it identifies what personality traits they have that will influence the way they speak to other people, deal with their subordinates, and deal with their Supervisors. There are different levels of the trainings that are provided. The one that we were trained on doing ourselves was just for general employees. If we were to do a leadership training, then we actually brought in Councilmember Chock's organization to do that higher-level training for us. It provides employees, I think, everybody that has attended one of those trainings, the DISC trainings., has come out saying, "Okay, I did not realize that is how I come across to other people and maybe I can better communicate, maybe get my points across if I recognize the other person's personality issues as well." If I am dealing with someone who has a dominant feature, they do not want to deal with the fluffiness of it. They just want to get to the point; when is this due, when is are you going to be able to this done, how much is it going to cost, all of those facts are what they want, and they do not want to hear anything else. If you know that upfront, the communication, being able to work with them, and being more productive in your discussions or meetings, that is what we are hoping to be able to do to have everybody speak the same language, I guess, with regards to that. I think we trained a few hundred people on that. We had hoped that would be able to continue, but with our previous person retiring, it is difficult to continue. Councilmember Chock: Okay. I do not want to take too much time on this, but my interest is in a couple of things. One, the outreach. How many touches are we getting so that we are talking about behavioral change across the whole County operations? Then, the second question would be about, and I do not need the answer right now, but if you have it, it would be great. How do we know that these tools that we are enlisting are making a difference? I think it is a really important question for us to dive into moving forward. Again, maybe it is something that you are developing, but I just want to make sure that it is something tangible for us. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: Can the Council get this kind of training? Ms. Niitani: I think the training went out to everyone. Councilmember Yukimura: So we have been invited? Ms. Niitani: I think so. We can check on that. Ms. Rapozo: Yes. April 9, 2018 Emergency Management Agency, Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Attorney, and Agency on Elderly Affairs Page 18 Councilmember Yukimura: It sounds like a very useful training. Okay. I have another question though. What was it? Councilmember Brun: I think you wanted to sign up for the training. Councilmember Yukimura: I sure do. First of all, I want to say the supervisory training that you are describing sounds so valuable because I think in the past, the County has just promoted people and thrown them into the job with no training at all. Some supervisors, and it is normal, just think of themselves as part of the group that they are supervising and it becomes more camaraderie than a supervisory-subordinate relationship. Then, everybody misses out if there is no training. How long has this training been going? Ms. Rapozo: We have done a few. It has not been as organized as we want it to be, so in this upcoming year, we are trying to organize it. Like Jill said, one of the key personnel working on it retired and so we kind of had to put it on hold a little while. We are now getting the next person up to speed and try to get it more organized where it is every quarter, we will do this and every month, we will do this kind of thing. We have, I think, all of the modules ready to go and we have done it more sporadically versus here and there. It has just been a handful here and there. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any further questions for HR? If not,we will move on to County Attorney. Thank you. Councilmember Yukimura: Thank you. MAUNA KEA TRASK, County Attorney: Aloha, Honorable Chair and Councilmembers. For the record, Mauna Kea Trask, County Attorney and with me to my right is First Deputy County Attorney Matthew Bracken. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Good morning. Do we have any questions for the Office of the County Attorney? Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: In your Successes and Achievements, you talk about drafting new construction contracts. I was just curious what kind of—I mean, first of all, I think templates are wonderful. I just wondered how you are applying that template idea to construction contracts and what kind of construction contracts they are. Mr. Trask: Thank you. The Office of the County Attorney since 2014 or 2015, has created, with the participation of the Department of Finance and the Department of Public Works, a contract template for construction. What it allows the Departments to do is when they have a construction project, there is a ready template that you just point the mouse and click the type of procurement it was, the Invitation for Bid (IFB) number, you fill in the name, whether or not insurance is required, et cetera. It also allows you to attach as exhibits; scope of work, insurance requirements, and everything that you need. What that has done is standardized contracting. The procurement law changes frequently, so it is a lot to expect the individual Project Managers and Departments to keep up on that. We work with Finance to do that, but it is not just construction services. We have standardized, with the help of other Departments, all of our—as many as we can, I will April 9, 2018 Emergency Management Agency, Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Attorney, and Agency on Elderly Affairs Page 19 say. So, you have professional services, goods and services, construction that all goes into County's Sharepoint website, and it has a form so any and all Departments can now just click on the form and "click, click, click." That allows to us standardize what we do, it shortens review time, creates specialties, and all of those kinds of synergies to get more value and productivity with little added costs. Councilmember Yukimura: That sounds excellent. The information that you need in order to draft a contract to do the legal work, you have readily available on a standardized basis? Mr. Trask: Correct, templates. Before, what we saw was Departments used old contracts that they were comfortable with that ranged from the 1970s until now. So you were seeing all different kinds of things and it took a lot of legal review at the backend to try to formalize and get as close as possible. In working with Finance again, that was obviously the best way. We took that opportunity and it has been a couple of years in the making. Councilmember Yukimura: Is that the same thing you are doing with your Advice & Counsel Division Treatise? Mr. Trask: That is more an internal document. What we have done in Advice & Counsel is create a little treatise for ourselves so when someone comes in, no one works with public procurement outside of the government. So if you get someone from criminal law, or a Judge's Clerk, or private, the learning curve is very steep, so you give them the treatise to get them going quick. It also helps us remember what the standards are and we hope that will become a resource for the future because a new County Attorney will not necessarily know that you have to go to Council for liability signoff and for indemnifications. So we are keeping these things. Who needs to sign the document? The Mayor, Finance, when Council needs to sign, and all those kind of the things. Councilmember Yukimura: So it is kind of like an internal checklist for the attorney who are giving advice and counsel for various Departments? Mr. Trask: Exactly, and what you also see sometimes is it also lowers forum-shopping and makes advice consistent so you do not have... Councilmember Yukimura: It avoids what? Mr. Trask: Forum-shopping. Sometimes you will ask one (1) attorney one (1) thing and you may not necessarily like the answer, so you will ask someone else or the question changes a little bit. It is not a bad thing. It is just what happens. We are trying to or decrease that to increase reliability of advice. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay, that is very good. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Brun. Councilmember Brun: Thank you, Mauna Kea. I kind of asked the question of Janine, but when we approved the raises, is this the maximum? April 9, 2018 Emergency Management Agency, Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Attorney, and Agency on Elderly Affairs Page 20 Mr. Trask: Yes. All of the salaries you see here are budgeted at maximum. All of our Attorneys are not at maximum, but we budget the maximum as a practice. Councilmember Brun: My question is, are you at the maximum? Mr. Trask: Am I at maximum? I believe so, correct. Councilmember Brun: Okay. I think you are doing a wonderful job and I just want to make sure that we are taking care of you because I think your Office is doing a fantastic job in saving us money. Mr. Trask: Thank you, but it is team effort. It is not just me. Councilmember Brun: Well, your whole group, that is what I am trying to say. Your whole staff is doing a great job. Mr. Trask: Thank you. We appreciate that. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions? If not.. Councilmember Yukimura: I do. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay. Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: You say there is a continued reduction in the County's reliance on Special Counsel. Are we measuring that by the Special Counsel budget? Mr. Trask: It is. Yes, it is expenditures and tracking it. We have substantially decreased the reliance on it. We have gone out less and all of those types of indicators. Of course, it is unavoidable sometimes. We have to do what we have to do, but we have seen a decrease in reliance on Special Counsel during this past Administration. Councilmember Yukimura: You talk about maintaining high-level of support for our Departments within the limitation of resources. Mr. Trask: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: One of the things is to know how you measure high-level of support that enables you to say that, and the other question is, when does the limitation of resources begin to affect your level of support? I mean, you could be approaching that, but how would you know? Mr. Trask: There are some indicators that we—it is difficult to measure, so I will say that first. It really is. As you know, numbers can be interpreted many ways. Again, with the standardization of contracts and with our—we instituted an electronic case management tracking software, so we have reports. Matt will just show you really quickly. Do you want to turn that around? Our electronic case management is able to quantify workflow, how many requests we get from different Departments, litigation, and all those kinds of things. We look at these reports and we generally see a trend. Really, a lot of it is anecdotally. Our Departments tend to be very happy with the support that they are April 9, 2018 Emergency Management Agency, Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Attorney, and Agency on Elderly Affairs Page 21 receiving. We hear a lot of good things. We work well with them. We are actually able to move more workflow at this point. However, we do believe we are at maximum in order to maintain the level of competency that the client deserves and the amount of work. There have been recent complaints with Public Works, which we understand. It is a high-volume Department, but with the necessary division of the Office and dedication of five (5) full-time Litigators, you are going to see less administrative support. That is where we reallocated some Legal Clerk positions to Paralegals so they can help more with the litigation side and do more of that type of clerical work, which frees up the other Office staff to focus on advice and counsel. But what we have seen is a plateau of what we can do at this point, and so that is why we are coming in for a new position, taking an existing position from Real Property within their Collections Division. It was formerly dated non-judicial foreclosures and the position had funding. They cannot fill it, so they are going to give us the position, a partially-funded Attorney position, enforcement program for the agriculture dedication issue, which is very big. There are some problems with the non-judicial foreclosures. You can abuse the non-judicial foreclosure action, but it does not clear up or address title, so a lot of these properties beginning 2015, TG would not ensure the property, which is a problem. That also leaves us, although we avoid the courts in the initial foreclosure action, if there is any money left over, we have to go interpleader and find out what do with the remnant from $20,000, maybe $15,000. But in some of these properties, especially with kuleana land, you have fifty (50) people with 120nd interests in a property, and that takes up years of time to try to figure out that family tree. So we figured if we put that resource to the courts, you will not have those title problems, you will not have the expensive interpleader litigation on the backend, and you will get the money quicker. One of the things we have seen is just with the current level of debt collections, we were able to collect, in this Fiscal Year, $165,415 in cash payments and another $48,810 in payment plans. We understand people have a lot of the problems and financial resources are strapped, but the County is still entitled to what it is owed. So if we cannot get the money, we encourage people to work with us and get into payment plans, so they do not have to worry about that. It is a compassionate program, but the County is still making these realizations. Right now, we anticipate approximately $3,400,000 in moneys owed to the County and if we can put $80,000 or $90,000 towards that and we can get that, that pays for us and pays for other programs that this County needs. That is one of those value strategies. Councilmember Yukimura: That is a very good strategic move, one of the TrimTabs that, I think, who was talking about? So, you are taking a position that is vacant, moving over to the Office of the County Attorney, and are you going to change that to an Attorney position? Mr. Trask: Yes, so it is like what you saw with Police. The Kauai Police Department (KPD) took decades to get clear certification. Within a year of getting the dedicated attorney, they got it and the program has been on. Assistant Chief(AC) Gausepohl is very happy. Councilmember Yukimura: Right. I do not understand what you showed us, what that meant, or what it is measuring. Can you just briefly explain? MATTHEW M. BRACKEN, First Deputy County Attorney: Our case management software basically provides statistics for everything that we do. Each time we get a request from a Department, it is logged into the case management software, depending where it is; a contract or an agreement. It is basically everything we do, our civil cases or our collection cases. April 9, 2018 Emergency Management Agency, Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Attorney, and Agency on Elderly Affairs Page 22 Councilmember Yukimura: Does that measure number of cases in each category? Mr. Bracken: Correct. Mr. Trask: As well as advice and counsel workforce, too, so opinion requests and contract reviews. Councilmember Yukimura: Right. Basically, what you are showing us there is your caseload? Mr. Bracken: Correct. Councilmember Yukimura: As divided up in categories? Mr. Bracken: Correct, and it can be divided between Attorneys so we can look at each Attorney's caseload. Councilmember Yukimura: Right. Mauna Kea, you mentioned complaints from Public Works. Do you ever survey your clientele and say, "Are we going a good job? What kinds of needs do you have that we have not really been meeting?" Councilmember Yukimura: I have had some of those conversations offline, sometimes. There are definitely discussions that I have had with some people that said, "Hey"—again, Public Works—before, the Office of the County Attorney was not organized in a more modern way and a lot of the resources were going to Public Works and Planning. The effect of that was we were relying heavily on Special Counsel, which comes at a premium. That was seen as a problem by this body, so we can put those five (5) Attorneys and in fairness, our charge is to represent all County Agencies/Departments, officers, and employees in their official capacities. We had to spread out the service. Councilmember Yukimura: I do not think that is the complaint at all, in terms of my thinking. It is just a question of whether the Departments feel serviced and if there are complaints, it may be—because of what you have done, which is correct, but it still may be that Public Works does have some issues. If you were to ask me, for example, I would identify some issues, too, just in terms of feedback. I am just wondering if a more systematic way of getting feedback might be helpful to you. Mr. Trask: I understand. It is nothing broad and formal, but more informal. In my annual review and in this budget cycle, we did identify different Departments who had special need, and Public Works was one of them. We were able to work with Finance to achieve this, but again, hopefully if we get this position, that will free up more time for another existing position to focus more on Public Works. Councilmember Yukimura: Well, I think at a certain point—well, maybe you have reached that point, so you need another position and you found a very creative way to fill it. But if the caseload keeps growing and the demands for services keep growing, it is not a bad thing to ask for more help, if, in fact, you need it. I am just asking how you are determining when you are there. April 9, 2018 Emergency Management Agency, Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Attorney, and Agency on Elderly Affairs Page 23 Mr. Trask: It is a combination of Abacus software and speaking with our Departments. It is hard to articulate, but every week, we meet with Advice & Counsel and go over what is going on with all of the Attorneys in that division. So, we are intimately familiar with the state of our client and who needs what at any given time. In the future, you will need more legal services if you want more services. If you are happy with the current level, which I do not think you should be, you should be expecting more, but with what you have, government, you have to be cognizant of the resources used. It is your decision to make, but we are pretty much at capacity. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Chock. Councilmember Chock: I just have a follow-up on this. I heard the term "evaluation" again, and it sounds like it might be different from what I heard earlier with there being this standard of evaluation that HR is advocating for and utilizing, of which you may be doing something different. Is that true? Mr. Trask: No. When I am talking about my evaluation, I am not appointed by a Commission. Councilmember Chock: Right. Mr. Trask: So it is strictly with Managing Director and the Mayor. When I do mine, you learn more from your mistakes and/or where you need to improve. I am very upfront with the fact that we are at the point where the County Administration needs to be—and this Administration has been very good about this, but the Administrations will have to continue to be very cognizant how their Office of the County Attorney is used because you have a lot of Departments who will—one (1) Department will have four (4) or five (5) different Divisions and each one of those Divisions will ask for a rush; three (3) different rushes on the same day. If the Department Head and/or the Office of the Mayor is not cognizant about how they are prioritizing and what is important to the client, that leaves the decision to us, and a deadline will always take precedence over a non-deadline. Those are the type of things. You can get more out of stone, but if we are left making that decision, oftentimes, people are not happy and that is what we are seeing. Even with the Councilmembers, you will ask me an opinion, I will get another opinion from someone else, and your opinions are just competing. That is just the way things go. I am not at liberty to tell one client that I got one from another client. Councilmember Chock: Okay. Mr. Trask: So the program needs to realize that. Councilmember Chock: I appreciate that. I think the customization is important because the context changes. However, I also think in terms of what Councilmember Yukimura was talking about when she mentioned how it is we are getting feedback from the Departments that there are standard questions. Again, if we are talking about creating clarity around behaviors and how we are doing business, then we all need to be on the same page in terms of this evaluation. My only request, and this is not a request of you, it would probably be more of HR, is that we really look at how those and how they are connecting and overlapping because if not, then we are all moving to a different beat. That is my only feedback. Thank you. April 9, 2018 Emergency Management Agency, Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Attorney, and Agency on Elderly Affairs Page 24 Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions for the County Attorney? If not, thank you. Mr. Trask: Thank you all. Councilmember Yukimura: Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: We will move on to the Agency on Elderly Affairs. Are there any questions for the Agency on Elderly Affairs? I had a question. Kealoha, you folks had a leased vehicle last year, it was in its first year of the lease, and I do not see it in the budget anymore. What happened to that? Please state your name. LUDVINA K. TAKAHASHI, Executive on Aging: Kealoha Takahashi, Executive with the Agency on Elderly Affairs. The lease amount was cut. We are using the motor pool. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: What happened? Did that vehicle get added into the motor pool? Ms. Takahashi: I do not know. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Can someone answer that? Councilmember Yukimura: Maybe Ernie? Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I will send a follow-up on it. Councilmember Chock: I have a question. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Chock. Councilmember Chock: Thank you. Thank you for this budget. I do not really have any questions on what you have submitted here. It looks pretty...I guess, nothing has changed much besides the line item that Committee Chair Kaneshiro mentioned. What I wanted to get more information on was the program that, I guess, it is in coordination with the Fire Department. Ms. Takahashi: Yes. Councilmember Chock: In terms of helping install safety mechanisms into homes, is that correct? Ms. Takahashi: Yes. Councilmember Chock: The application process runs through your Office, is that correct? Ms. Takahashi: We do the assessment. Our staff would go in and assess individuals on what types of grips are necessary. Councilmember Chock: So handholds or... April 9, 2018 Emergency Management Agency, Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Attorney, and Agency on Elderly Affairs Page 25 Ms. Takahashi: Right. The bar handles are usually attached in the bathrooms, so they have a shower chair for them if they do not have one, or an attachable handrail go into the tubs. We would do the assessment and then make the referral, and we will go out every Tuesday with staff along with Fire and Emergency Medical Response (EMR). Councilmember Chock: What are we budgeting for this program and how many do you expect to serve in this next budget year? Ms. Takahashi: Right now in my report, we served two hundred two (202) since we started back in 2016. The budget comes from our Federal grants, so it is small. It is about $5,000 that we use to purchase the equipment. They also install grip tapes and items like that. Councilmember Chock: Okay. If I can remember correctly, you were doing it regionally. Is that correct? Ms. Takahashi: Yes. Councilmember Chock: Where are we at now? Where are you focusing now in this next year? Ms. Takahashi: It is islandwide. Councilmember Chock: Oh, it is islandwide? Ms. Takahashi: Yes. Councilmember Chock: Can anyone apply? Ms. Takahashi: Anyone can call in. Councilmember Chock: What is the eligibility? Ms. Takahashi: Sixty (60) years of age and older. Councilmember Chock: Sixty (60) years of age and older? Ms. Takahashi: Yes. Councilmember Chock: Thank you very much. Ms. Takahashi: You are welcome. Councilmember Yukimura: I have a follow-up. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: Good morning. Ms. Takahashi: Good morning. April 9, 2018 Emergency Management Agency, Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Attorney, and Agency on Elderly Affairs Page 26 Councilmember Yukimura: This is a wonderful program, fall prevention. Ms. Takahashi: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: Do you know whether overtime is involved from the Fire Department? Ms. Takahashi: That, I do not know. Emily Medeiros is the Supervisor and coordinates with Fire. It is whoever is at the station at that time. They will go out and do the assessments, so it is whoever is at the job. If they have an emergency that happens while they are out, then they will go and do their emergency call, but the staff will still continue with their assessment. Councilmember Yukimura: That is interesting if they are using downtime effectively, as long as it does not hurt their response times for emergencies. Do you have a goal for the number of people you want to serve over time, or is this just something that you are doing as you can? Ms. Takahashi: Right. There is no goal. As long as there is a need for it, we will continue. I know Fire has a grant for the Kekaha area, so we support them in getting seniors signed-up as well. We have a radio announcement that goes up by the Chief, so hopefully we will get the attention. This is really for seniors islandwide. Councilmember Yukimura: And you do it by responding to requests? Ms. Takahashi: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: Are you getting a good response? Ms. Takahashi: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: Good. Are you working with the Department of Health's Fall Prevention Program? Ms. Takahashi: We do in meeting, but basically, this is Fire. Councilmember Yukimura: A specific County project? Ms. Takahashi: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: Are they doing that on other islands? Ms. Takahashi: No. Councilmember Yukimura: That is interesting. We are kind of leading the way. Ms. Takahashi: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: Wonderful. April 9, 2018 Emergency Management Agency, Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Attorney, and Agency on Elderly Affairs Page 27 Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Brun. Councilmember Brun: Thank you. Thank you, Kealoha. In the community, there is nothing but great response from your Department and your staff. Thank you for all you that you folks are doing. You folks are doing a great job. Again, that program, is that the maximum salary for that position? Ms. Takahashi: Which position? Councilmember Brun: For your Program Administrative Officer. Again, for Department Heads to improved raises for them. Does this not qualify? Councilmember Yukimura: Is your position a civil service position? Ms. Takahashi: I am a civil service employee. Councilmember Brun: Okay, that is it. Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Chock. Councilmember Chock: Committee Chair Kaneshiro, if I can, I just have a follow-up. This is for the Agency on Elderly Affairs, but this would be to the Fire Department just to ensure as it relates to the question on overtime. It is certainly a program that we want to contribute to and continue, but I think we also need to be cognizant of who is doing it and what it is costing us in potential overtime. If we could get a response from the Fire Department on that. I think it is Prevention. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay. Councilmember Chock: Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: We will send it over in writing. Councilmember Yukimura: Yes. I do not know if it is Prevention, though, because I think it is the line people who are doing it, but we will find out. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: We will let Fire get us an answer on it. Are there any other questions for the Agency on Elderly Affairs? Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: First of all, congratulations on your—I think you are one of the few Departments that actually articulates vision correctly. Ms. Takahashi: Thank you. Councilmember Yukimura: As the end you want to achieve. Ms. Takahashi: I guess it is from our planning. This is the State area plan and for the other Counties as well, we have to make that as part of our area plan when we submit our grants into Federal, that we have those in places. So, that is why. April 9, 2018 Emergency Management Agency, Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Attorney, and Agency on Elderly Affairs Page 28 Councilmember Yukimura: I know. It really comes across clearly how well-trained you are in doing planning. Ms. Takahashi: Thank you. Councilmember Yukimura: Your documents are so helpful. I am referring to your 2019 goals and objectives. Ms. Takahashi: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: "In forging partnership alliances that will give impetus to meeting Hawai`i's greatest challenges for the aging population," which is also well-stated, I feel like they very relevant actions that you have identified. "Explore development of a coalition of transit service providers by the end of Fiscal Year 2016," is transit one of your issues for the elderly? Ms. Takahashi: Transportation always comes up when we do focus groups and so we are trying to look at other vendors out there. We have a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)with Pono Express in case there is a need, that we can make a referral to those other transits. Councilmember Yukimura: Right. I love that you are exploring different ways because I think even transportation alone, is looking at different ways of delivering paratransit service, which is a lot of what your elderly need, such as trips to the doctors that is not easy to access from a regular bus stop or things like that. Tell me about Pono Express and your work with them. Ms. Takahashi: It is just an MOU, so we really have not gelled a meeting to involve all of these different agencies. Councilmember Yukimura: Right. In fact, your fourth goal or action is to establish and update MOUs. Ms. Takahashi: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: And is that the kind of thing you will move towards for your Pono Express? Ms. Takahashi: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: The Pono Express a private taxi system... Ms. Takahashi: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: ...that does all kinds of needs or just medical? Ms. Takahashi: All kinds. Councilmember Yukimura: To the extent that our elderly are willing and able to pay for this kind of service or that their medical coverage covers that, they can call on these people? April 9, 2018 Emergency Management Agency, Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Attorney, and Agency on Elderly Affairs Page 29 Ms. Takahashi: It could be. We have not really worked out details yet. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. I just want to let you know that in the Smart Growth conferences, they talked a lot about different arrangements of that sort. If you want to go to new partners for smart growth, they might have some resources. Ms. Takahashi: Okay. Thank you. Councilmember Yukimura: You also have "explore referral systems to establish access to in-home mental health services." Ms. Takahashi: Yes. What we have is a MOU with a private counselor and so we make referrals to her because she can go in the house, do an interview, and work with the client. She is also able to charge Medicaid. Councilmember Yukimura: How do you certify to make sure that the people we refer our elderly to are upstanding, able, competent, and ethical providers? Do you go through a vetting process? Ms. Takahashi: Yes. We have had that vendor come and speak with a group and provide training as well, and she is known in the community. Councilmember Yukimura: If some other vendor comes forward, you will vet them as well and then put them on our referral list, too? Ms. Takahashi: Yes. In our MOU, we do have inclusion/exclusion and what we are looking for. Councilmember Yukimura: Or indemnification, too? Ms. Takahashi: Yes, we can look into that. Councilmember Yukimura: I can see that if we are the referring body and something happens in that relationship, it could come back to us, so that might be something to consider. Then, pedestrian safety, which I think we saw recently that Honolulu or Hawai`i Island had the worst pedestrian fatality rate in the Country. Ms. Takahashi: Yes, but I think Kaua`i's statistics were really good. Councilmember Yukimura: Kaua`i is okay? Ms. Takahashi: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: But are you folks still tracking that to make sure we stay okay? Ms. Takahashi: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay, that is good. April 9, 2018 Emergency Management Agency, Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Attorney, and Agency on Elderly Affairs Page 30 Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Council Chair Rapozo. Council Chair Rapozo: It is really not a question, but I just wanted to say thank you. The other night, you were recognized for forty (40) years of service. Ms. Takahashi: Thank you. Council Chair Rapozo: Forty (40) years is a long time, so I just wanted to say thank you. Ms. Takahashi: It is not that long. Councilmember Chock: Forty (40) more. Council Chair Rapozo: Well, you do not look like you worked any place for forty (40) years. Ms. Takahashi: Thank you. Council Chair Rapozo: I was very shocked to see that forty (40) years because I would have never guessed. Anyway, thank you, that is an incredible feat. Ms. Takahashi: Thank you. Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you very much. Congratulations. Ms. Takahashi: I work with a great bunch of staff. Council Chair Rapozo: Yes, you have a great job. Ms. Takahashi: Thank you. Council Chair Rapozo: It makes it easier. Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: I want to second Council Chair Rapozo. It is about commitment. I think that this kind of commitment has been really outstanding on your part. Ms. Takahashi: Thank you. Councilmember Yukimura: It has really shown in the results of elderly affairs and I recognize it is amazing team. It takes a leader to put that team together and good leadership, and it is the leaders in the team, too. Ms. Takahashi: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: Outstanding. We are so thankful for the Agency on Elderly Affairs and your personal commitment. Thank you. Ms. Takahashi: Thank you. April 9, 2018 Emergency Management Agency, Department of Human Resources, Office of the County Attorney, and Agency on Elderly Affairs Page 31 Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions? If not, we are done for today. Thank you, again. At this time, I would like to recess the Departmental Budget Reviews. We will reconvene at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow, Tuesday, April 10, 2018, where we will hear from the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, the Transportation Agency, the Housing Agency, and the Department of Liquor Control. Thank you. There being no objections, the meeting recessed at 10:26 a.m.