Council approves new union contracts

Hawaii County Council members on Wednesday clashed over, but eventually approved, new contracts for unionized county employees.

Kohala Councilwoman Margaret Wille and Kona/Ka‘u Councilwoman Brenda Ford tried to raise concerns over candidates for county offices campaigning during union meetings on county time, but several other council members cut off the line of comment and inquiry. The comments were off topic, Puna Councilman Zendo Kern said.

The practice of inviting union-endorsed candidates to union meetings on county time and at county facilities was brought to light last year by West Hawaii Today. It led to a complaint to the Board of Ethics that was ultimately dismissed, with the board saying even though the practice violated county code, the union contracts approved statewide took precedence.

“The issue at hand is to appropriate funds or not appropriate funds,” Kern said during the meeting Wednesday morning at the West Hawaii Civic Center. “We should be discussing that or not discussing that.”

Ford said she would gladly have supported the contract, if it had addressed those campaigning concerns.

“We’re playing semantics here with this,” she said. “If we appropriate this, the mayor’s going to sign it and it’s a done deal. You can’t negotiate a new contract after you sign a new contract.”

Wille, referencing Kona resident Cheryl King’s testimony opposing the contracts based on those campaigning concerns, said the county has rules against those campaign meetings, but the county’s ethics board declined to uphold those rules. King had filed the ethics complaint.

In her opinion as an attorney, Wille said it was “ridiculous” that the county’s union contract would trump county rules.

Hamakua Councilwoman Valerie Poindexter, who previously worked in human resources for a company employing union workers, said in that job, the union’s contract on some things trumped even federal law.

Wille and Ford said they heard from many county, unionized workers who opposed going to meetings and finding some candidates — the union-endorsed ones — there to speak.

“I do not believe that we’re going back to plantation days if we ask for reasonable things in contracts,” Ford said, adding she believed the union workers do deserve the across-the-board increases. “Based on the complaints I received from union people over issues which I won’t discuss, those union people felt very put upon to be forced to a meeting.”

The two voted against the United Public Workers Unit 1 and employees excluded from bargaining Unit 1, which will cost the county $11 million, and the Hawaii Government Employees Association Units 2, 3, 4 and excluded employees, which will increase costs by $4.7 million.

Puna Councilman Greggor Ilagan was absent. The remaining six council members approved the contracts.

The council also signed off on increasing the county’s bus fares, with all representatives except Ford voting for the hike.

“It’s on the backs of the people least able to pay, seniors, disabled and students,” Ford said. “A lot of our students are riding the bus because the DOE costs to ride the school buses has become exorbitant.”

Poindexter said she heard constituents complaining about some seniors riding without paying any fares.

“They stated that the majority of the bus riders were seniors who were riding free to work,” especially to the Kohala Coast hotels, she said. “Those people can afford the dollar.”

Further, she said, paying a dollar for her own daughter, who has disabilities, to ride the bus is still cheaper than filling her car’s gas tank and driving somewhere.

“I would hate to see it go away because we can’t afford to keep it going,” Poindexter added. “We’d be putting ourselves in a really bad situation.”

Central Kona Councilman Dru Kanuha’s resolution asking the Department of Parks and Recreation to rename a Kailua-Kona walking trail passed, after a bit of amending. The trail, if the department concurs, will be known as the Old Walua Road Toni Fortin Blair Memorial Bicycle and Pedestrian Scenic Route.