Council questions mayor’s outreach plan by Nathan Eagle – THE GARDEN ISLAND County Council members Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho and Mel Rapozo yesterday continued to attack Mayor Bryan Baptiste’s plan to boost community outreach by adding public relations responsibilities to reallocated positions
Council questions mayor’s outreach plan
by Nathan Eagle – THE GARDEN ISLAND
County Council members Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho and Mel Rapozo yesterday continued to attack Mayor Bryan Baptiste’s plan to boost community outreach by adding public relations responsibilities to reallocated positions within each department.
The dispute has absorbed a portion of each departmental budget review session since the process started last week at the Historic County Building. The issue resurfaced yesterday as the county Public Works and Fire departments justified their funding requests for next fiscal year.
The administration is expected to explain the initiative in detail Friday morning at the mayor’s call-back hearing, but department heads have had to handle the criticism in the meantime.
Iseri-Carvalho and Rapozo said the administration is trying to slip some eight reallocated positions into the budget — a covert attempt to keep the mayor’s Ka Leo O Kaua‘i community outreach program alive for a sixth year.
Instead of administering the program with two full-time employees as done the past fiscal year, Baptiste wants a position within each department to dedicate 25 percent of their time toward developing public relations. He shuffled jobs around and redefined their roles to accomplish this goal.
Administrative officials have said that they have been open about the plan and at least one council member has taken issue with his colleagues’ allegation-slinging.
Councilman Tim Bynum said yesterday that he sees no attempt by the administration to deceive the council and he remains concerned about the accusations questioning the mayor’s integrity.
Iseri-Carvalho said she is concerned about the pay discrepancies among the employees who spend a portion of their time doing community outreach. For instance, a senior clerk at the Fire Department earns a different wage fulfilling the same public relations responsibilities as a clerical assistant at the Public Works Department.
County Engineer Donald Fujimoto said yesterday that he appreciates the opportunity to take advantage of a position that puts an employee in the community to gather feedback on the department.
“We’re hoping this will alleviate some of the burdens that everybody has,” he said, responding to council members’ remarks that all Public Works employees should be conducting community outreach to a certain degree as public servants.
Gary Heu, the mayor’s administrative assistant, told council that this is a transition period and the amount of public relations work some positions are performing would be scaled back.
But beyond these at times exasperated discussions, the council spent the morning session analyzing Kaua‘i Fire Chief Robert Westerman’s proposed $16.84 million budget and five hours in the afternoon dissecting Fujimoto’s multi-agency budget.
The fire station in Lihu‘e is “just not adequate,” Westerman said, noting the pending results of a “space study.”
He also told the council that it should approve continued funding for the Community Emergency Response Team program, which trains residents for disaster preparedness and related operations.
The chief said this is “totally separate” from what the Red Cross offers. It has grown to 60 people this year, he added, but still has not reached “critical mass.”
Fujimoto’s Public Works budget covers wastewater, solid waste, building, highway fund and administrative divisions.
He said the increases proposed for next fiscal year are mostly due to collective bargaining agreements and higher personnel costs — similar to the other departments’ budgets.
Highlights included plans to buy several hybrid vehicles, repair Vidinha Stadium and improve recycling programs.
The council had to reschedule the hearing for the mayor’s proposed $61.25 million capital improvement projects budget. It will be reposted for 8 a.m., April 18, inside council chambers at the Historic County Building.
For more information, visit www.kauai.gov.
• Nathan Eagle, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or neagle@kauaipubco.com
