County salary processhas run amok for years

The county Salary Commission was created by charter amendment in 1988 and

charged with the task of setting salaries for the council and recommending

administrative salaries. Since 1995, the commission, the council and the public

have been deadlocked regarding administrative raises, prompting the current

chairman, Gene Bullock, to suggest abolishing the commission as useless because

its recommendations have been repeatedly rejected (Letters, Nov. 4).

A

review of less-publicized aspects of the commission’s brief history may help

explain the deadlock.

The first administrative raise generated in the era

of the Salary Commission, in 1991, was the largest dollar increase in history.

Using the mayor’s salary as the reference point, the raise amounted to $11,469.

In relation to the interval since the last raise, this was also the largest

percentage increase in history.

Chairman Mark Hubbard referred to the 1991

raise in the course of proposing new raises in 1994, noting that the

administration had received only one raise in six years. The full picture is

this: The mayor received a two-part raise in 1988 totaling $6,084 and the

$11,469 raise in 1991, for a total increase since 7/1/88 of $17,443, or 33

percent.

In 1994 (two years after Hurricane ‘Iniki – do you remember

‘Iniki and its aftermath?) the Salary Commission proposed a four-stage, 19.25

percent increase in administrative salaries to be enacted in a 2.5-year period.

In connection with the proposed raises, Mr. Hubbard was quoted as saying, “The

commission thought that at this time and with this economy that the county

could afford it.” (Kaua’i Times, Oct. 22, 1994). Since the first of the four

projected raises took effect in 1995, the issue of administrative raises has

remained deadlocked.

It is not my intention to accuse or blame the persons

or collective actions of the Salary Commission. Having studied the matter in

some detail, I believe that much of the confusion, conflic, and frustration

associated with the commission’s brief history can be traced to the fact that

the same charter amendment which created the commission also eliminated the one

objective benchmark previously used to determine administrative pay scales

(salaries of department heads must equal the top civil service salary), and the

entire process has run amok or floundered, depending on your viewpoint, ever

since.

HORACE STOESSEL

Kapa’a