HILO — It’s not what you know; it’s whom you know.
That lament has a long history on Hawaii Island, where a county government job ranks right up there with a college degree for many parents’ aspirations for their children.
Good jobs are scarce in post-plantation Hawaii County. A job in government, especially county government, is what almost every parent hopes for their child. With government stability and union protection, a county government job is seen as a plum career path with the utmost in job security and retirement benefits.
That might be why county residents are quick to complain to government watchdogs and the media when they believe they see favoritism in the way jobs are handed out.
Last year, West Hawaii Today broke stories about Mayor Billy Kenoi’s campaign manager netting a county management position, and the mayor’s practice of using contract hires rather than going through the civil service merit procedure to hire and promote employees.
Now, government hiring practices will also undergo the scrutiny of the county legislative auditor.
Auditor Bonnie Nims, in her annual audit plan submitted earlier this month to the County Council, said she’ll be looking at Human Resources Department policies. She said her office chose this area of scrutiny based on risk analysis and public complaints.
“We will assess controls in place intended to ensure the fair, uniform and transparent selection of the best employee for the position and identify opportunities for business process improvements based on industry best practices,” Nims said in her summary.
Other areas to be audited during the fiscal year that begins Friday are county overtime practices and the collection of delinquent property taxes. There are also financial and cash-handling audits and follow-up audits to a 2011 Parks and Recreation Department facilities management audit and a 2015 county purchasing card audit.
“It looks like an ambitious plan,” said Finance Committee Chairwoman Karen Eoff, who has scheduled a presentation of the audit plan for the July 7 Finance Committee meeting.
“The audit plan looks to be very ambitious and includes many different programs, agencies and departments,” Eoff said. “The information can be valuable in helping us understand the expenditures of public funds as well as how to improve services to the public.”
Approximately 2,600 of the county’s 190,000 people work for county government. About 57 percent of the county’s operating budget is devoted to their pay and benefits, according to Finance Director Deanna Sako.
In all, some 12,800 people, about 20 percent of the county’s 63,500 non-agricultural workforce, labors for federal, state or county government on the island, according to the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.
Between 2013 and 2015, Kenoi spent more than $1.5 million on contracted employees, using an exemption to sidestep state civil service laws that require employees be hired based on merit.
Many of those 36 positions — agriculture agent, public information officer, information assistant, transit clerk, parks construction coordinator — could in theory have been filled by civil service workers. In some departments, vacancies existed where a civil service hire could be used instead of the contracted one.
The county Board of Ethics last year cleared Kenoi of wrongdoing in the hiring of his campaign manager to a top-paying government position. Kenoi closed his campaign account after the complaint was filed.
The board determined Kenoi wasn’t involved in campaign manager Kimo Alameda’s appointment as executive of the Office of Aging, despite the fact his signature appears on the “request to fill” form recommending Alameda be hired.
The Board of Ethics also ruled that Alameda had the requisite two years supervisory experience. The job was advertised for 10 days, 22 people applied and six were interviewed, HR officials said.
The complaints followed restructuring and centralization of county HR functions under Sharon Toriano, who was named HR director by the county Merit Appeals Board in late 2013.
Neither Toriano nor Kenoi responded to telephone messages for comment by press time Wednesday.
But Toriano had provided this explanation during an interview last year:
“Having a countywide hiring process allows for uniformity and consistency across all of the departments,” she said. “It ensures each position to be filled is necessary and allows for greater fiscal control of personnel costs.”
