Unions show the money to county workers

Lost in all the news recently about a proposal for higher salaries for the

Kaua’i County mayor, the prosecuting attorney and appointed county

administrators has been the fact that the county’s unionized employees – thanks

to the collective bargaining process – have been getting their

raises.

Salary hikes for Mayor Maryanne Kusaka and others, which were

recommended by the Salary Commission, were rejected this month by a County

Council committee. Meanwhile, some department heads are making more than the

mayor, some unionized employees are in line for annual raises of more than

$1,700, and one union may be close to striking.

Collective bargaining –

contract negotiations – is a legally required process. Representatives of

county government and its various unions hammer out the contracts, usually

every four years.

Recently approved contracts carry into fiscal year

2003.

County spokeswoman Beth Tokioka said the county is represented in

these negotiations by personnel director Alvin Tanigawa.

Four unions

represent a variety of county employees.

The Hawaii Fire Fighters Union and

the United Public Workers (UPW), which represents laborers and other workers,

haven’t yet negotiated new contracts.

According to the county’s Personnel

Services Department, negotiations with the UPW are ongoing. At present, the

county and UPW leaders are awaiting a decision by the labor mediation board. At

issue is pay and the duration of the contract (two or four years).

The

council was briefed Wednesday in executive session by county attorney Hartwell

Blake about preparations “in anticipation of a strike by the UPW.”

Deputy

county attorney Margaret Hanson said the union had taken a strike vote already

but hasn’t acted upon it.

A labor board decision is expected by the end of

this week, and the union will then decide what to do.

Although hopeful

there will be no strike, county officials are preparing for the

worst.

Blake said the last two labor strikes affecting the public on Kaua’i

took place in the early 1980s, when there was a garbage strike and a teachers’

strike.

The negotiations with the Hawai`i Fire Fighters Association is

already in the hands of an arbitrator.

The three-member arbitration panel,

headed by arbitrator Thomas Angelo of California, is reportedly close to

awarding a contract that would give firefighters comparable raises to those

already negotiated by other unions representing police, white-collar and

blue-collar personnel.

The state’s police officers recently won a four-year

contract in arbitration.

The Hawaii Government Employees Association

recently negotiated contracts that will pay blue-collar supervisory workers

such as a grounds maintenance supervisor, a construction maintenance supervisor

or a golf course maintenance supervisor $30,564 the next fiscal year (2001-02).

Currently, these positions are paid $29,388 per annum.

HGEA also negotiated

a contract for non-supervisor, white-collar positions, including secretaries,

personnel assistants and radio dispatchers. These positions, which currently

pay $19,320, will rise to $20,904 July 1, 2001.

HGEA also negotiated new

contracts for white-collar supervisors, including supervising meter readers,

police records supervisors and the tax collections supervisor.

These

positions pay $27,480, a sum that will rise to $29,712 in July of

2001.

HGEA also negotiated contracts for upper-echelon white-collar

workers, including accountants, engineers and real property tax appraisers.

They currently are paid $48,980, a figure that will rise to $50,940 at the

start of fiscal year 2001-02.

Under contracts negotiated by SHOPO (State of

Hawai`i Organization of Police Officers), the lowest-paid police officer in the

county, according to figures released by the county administration, made

$30,876 for fiscal year 1999-2000. That salary rose to $34,306 for fiscal year

2001-02 and bumps up once more next fiscal year, to $36,072.

Things are

almost always better, financially, toward the top of an employment chain. The

Police Department is no exception.

Under terms of the newly negotiated

contract, a police lieutenant who was making $56,364 was bumped up to $56,928

for fiscal year 2000-01. This raise is only $564, but it gets better in fiscal

year 2001-02, climbing to $58,644.

A police division head makes $80,136, a

salary which jumps to $83,340 in fiscal year 2001-02.

Police chief George

Freitas currently earns $66,073.

But a police division head isn’t the

highest-paid employee on the county rolls. Neither is Kusaka, the elected head

of county government, whose annual salary is $73,118. That honor falls to the

seven Public Works division heads, whose current salaries of $81,444 will rise

to $84,696 in fiscal year 2001-02.

All seven, whose names the county

wouldn’t release due to privacy constraints, are supervised by county engineer

Cesar Portugal, whose salary is $69,371.

Overall, as of Oct. 12, the county

had 882 employees covered by collective bargaining contracts.

Out of the

county’s total budget of approximately $67 million, $41.3 million goes to

payroll (salary and fringe benefits). That number accounts for 62 percent of

the county’s total operating budget. The total payroll devoted to union

employees is $38.4 million, leaving $2.9 million for elected officials,

including the mayor and Prosecuting Attorney Mike Soong (current salary

$69,371), and appointees such as the Kusaka’s administrative assistant, Wally

Rezentes Sr., department heads and deputy department heads.

According to

the state of Hawai`i data book, the median family income on Kaua`i is

$40,164.

Staff writer Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext.

252) and dwilken@pulitzer.net