LIHU’E — The county Salary Commission adjourned yesterday without making a recommendation on a proposed 14 percent salary increase for Mayor Maryanne Kuskaka and other top county officials. The commissioners said they want more time to study the proposal and
LIHU’E — The county Salary Commission adjourned yesterday without making a
recommendation on a proposed 14 percent salary increase for Mayor Maryanne
Kuskaka and other top county officials.
The commissioners said they want
more time to study the proposal and concerns raised by residents.
Commission Chair Eugene Bullock said the panel needs to look at whether
the raises will adversely affect county operations.
“How will it impact the
people (county employees) who need the resources to do their normal daily
jobs?” Bullock said.
Kusaka’s Administrative Assistant Wallace Rezentes Sr.
said the county’s workforce has remained at about the same level since Kusaka
took office in December 1994.
The cost of the pay hike package, he said, is
relatively small.
The administration has proposed a two-tiered increase.
The first pay raise would amount to 9 percent, would be retroactive to October
and in effect through July 2000. The remaining 5 percent would be included in
the 2000-2001 fiscal budget.
Rezentes said the first increment would
total just over $100,000, which amounts to about .4 percent of the county’s
current $70 million operating budget.
Moloa’a resident Llewella Zablan told
the Commission the County Council should grant raises based on how well the
mayor and her appointees do their jobs.
She also said the Salary Commission
should act independently of a previous commission that recommended raises, an
assessment echoed by incoming Salary Commissioner Roberta Wallace.
If the
Council didn’t act on those raise proposals then “it is moot,” Zablan
said.
Kapa’a resident Glenn Mickens said he favored merit
raises.
County officials have said the mayor and her appointees haven’t had
a raise in six years and that their salaries lag far behind those of their
counterparts in Hawai’i and in Mainland communities.
Big Island Mayor
Stephen Yamashiro makes $78, 563 a year, while Mayor James “Kimo” Apana makes
$87,000 a year. Mayor Kusaka makes $73,118 a year.
Speaking against the
increases, Kauaian Mel Rapozo and another resident, who asked not be
identified, said the Salary Commission shouldn’t consider a raise until the
county surplus is certified in January.
“You don’t know the budget,” the
resident said. “You need to know the working condition of the Council.”
The
Salary Commission is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. on Nov. 30 at the Historic
County Building.
