County official evaluations begin

Mayor Maryanne Kusaka said Thursday that she has begun a new performance

evaluation plan for her administrative department heads and deputies.

The

mayor made her announcement one day after the Kaua`i County Council, in a move

she called “shortsighted” and potentially harmful to county government,

rejected a Salary Commission-propelled bill that would have tied salary hikes

for department heads and deputies to a performance evaluation.

The

rejected proposal also would have given the mayor and Prosecuting Attorney Mike

Soong $7,000 raises.

“This evaluation plan is an excellent tool for judging

(employees’) performance, and that should be done whether they receive raises

or not,” Kusaka said.

Kusaka’s action was praised by Councilman Gary

Hooser, who spearheaded a proposed charter amendment, that if approved in the

general election Nov. 7 by Kaua`i voters, would allow the council to do

departmental performance audits.

“I’m pleased and happy to see the mayor

focusing on performance evaluation. It will be a great complement to the

charter amendment,” Hooser said.

The biggest difference between the

proposed amendment and the mayor’s plan is that the amendment calls for audits

of entire departments, he said.

Hooser pointed out that department heads

would not necessarily be blamed in a bad performance audit.

“The audit is

not intended to evaluate a department head. It could be a great department head

who just doesn’t have the tools to get the job done right,” Hooser

explained.

The pay-raise proposal, which was backed by Kusaka, was defeated

in a vote Wednesday by the council’s Finance Committee. Council members

promised, however, to return with a new plan for rewarding department heads and

deputies based on performance criteria.

Kusaka said the council’s defeat of

the salary increases was “very shortsighted.” She said it creates “long-term

ramifications on the ability of future administrations to attract qualified

people to government service. If we want to hire the most qualified people, we

need to be willing to pay a competitive salary.”

She said the county failed

this week to hire a Kaua’i-born lawyer, now working in Honolulu, who wanted to

work in the county attorney’s office. The county couldn’t meet the lawyer’s

salary requirement, which a statement by Kusaka described as “a mere $10,000

difference.”

“Did Kaua’i lose a great opportunity? You bet,” Kusaka said.

“Need I say more?”