DOGGED PERSISTENCE

DOGGED PERSISTENCE: The bill we’ve been following to appropriate $85,000 to help the Kaua`i Police Department (KPD) with recruiting is up for final passage on Wednesday but not before both a bang and a whimper at last week’s Public Safety Committee meeting.

On Jan. 15 we posted the prepared public hearing testimony of council watchdog Glenn Mickens questioning the need to throw money at the problem without first finding out why we are so dismally behind other islands in keeping our force fully staffed.

Mickens also maintained that the “morale problem”- upon which much of the shortage was blamed for years- hasn’t gotten any better since the ouster of Chief KC Lum and the installation of Chief Darryl Perry.

And on Jan. 20 we reported on the reaction of Council Chair Kaipo Asing at the Jan 14 hearing, generally excoriating Mickens for his attempt to link the shortage to morale and just about calling him a liar regarding the numbers from other islands' departments.

The bang at last Wed.’s (Jan 21) committee meeting was the sound of Mickens' explosive report after he called each department on each island and got the accurate figures.

And the whimper was the way a silent Asing simply skulked out of the council chambers after Mickens’ presentation without any recognition of Mickens' work or an apology for his diatribe the previous week during the “public hearing”- where by law council members are supposed to refrain from comment on public testimony.

Mickens' testimony – reproduced in full below- said that

HCPD (Hawaii County) has a total of 432 police officer positions and 9 of those are unfilled at this time. Meaning that they are about 2% from being completely full.

HPD (Oahu) has a total of 2134 officers and only 10 of those are unfilled or 1/2 of 1%.

Maui PD has 367 officers with 36 vacancies meaning about 10% are unfilled.

And our department according to our organizational chart on our Web site has 141 total officers with 23 vacancies or 16.3%.

And our numbers are actually it’s even worse now than when they were posted

At it’s Jan 23 meeting the Kaua`i Police Commission heard a report from the chief that the latest figure is that we are 28 not 23 officers short and we currently do not even have a recruiting class in progress.

And there was discussion among commissioners about how we can expect a slew of retirements in the near future with many “reaching 20 (years service)” very soon.

The chief reported that a class starting on Feb 2 has 13 recruits, but there are about 40 names on a list of those who passed the test and another 80 on a waiting list to take the test.

It’s not clear if the council had these numbers, but in response to at least one aspect of Mickens testimony, a Councilperson Jay Furfaro-introduced amendment to the bill was passed.

While the original bill required that the department use $65,000 of the money to hire a “consultant”, the amendment would allow them to hire someone (Mickens suggested using a retired officer) to simply run the required “background checks” on applicants since that is apparently why, though there are 120 people who have applied, only 13 are in the current class.

It should be noted that no one from KPD ever appeared before the council to answer questions regarding the bill or on recruiting in general. Nor was there even a request by any council member to have anyone from the department present.

That may be the first time we’ve ever seen a departmental appropriation bill sail though the council without the presence of department personnel at some point to answer questions and shepherd the bill through.

Much of the discussion, especially from Councilperson Dickie Chang, centered around finding out what the other islands’ departments were doing that was working so well and applying it to recruiting on Kaua`i. But it is unknown if that message will reach KPD brass because they simply weren’t there to hear it.

Bill 2296 is expected to pass unanimously on second reading this Wed at the full council meeting which begins at 9 a.m.

Glenn Mickens' Testimony on KPD recruiting :

In my testimony at the Public Hearing on 1/14 I made some statementsbasically trying to back up my theory that this council shouldn't be approving $85 thousand for a consultant and for advertising to get more police on our force.

I made the statement that "I understood" that our other Islands had their police positions filled and since SHOPO sets salaries for the entire state, pay is not, in my opinion, the biggest problem with recruiting. As Jay said, it is part of the entire problem but probably not the largest.

My friend, Council Chair Asing, basically stated that the numbers I was giving for other island's employment status were wrong.

So I called the police departments on Oahu, the Big Island and Maui. What I found out was very interesting.

HCPD (Hawaii County) has a total of 432 police officer positions and 9 of those are unfilled at this time. Meaning that they are about 2% from being completely full.

HPD (Oahu) has a total of 2134 officers and only 10 of those are unfilled or 1/2 of 1%.

Maui PD has 367 officers with 36 vacancies meaning about 10% are unfilled.

And our department according to our organizational chart on our Web site has 141 total officers with 23 vacancies or 16.3%.

So, it appears that besides our unfilled positions of 16.3%, the other Islands are much closer to being 100% full and this was my point. Instead of Kaipo questioning my figures I am sure he could have called the other police departments to confirm or deny the accuracy of my numbers.

Council member Chang made a very good observation at the last meeting when he said that if the other Islands have their positions filled, our department should take a page from their book and find out what they do to fill vacant positions. In fact I complimented the other departments when I spoke to them for their method of hiring and retaining their officers.

So, it would appear prudent to me to do as someone has suggested to help solve some of our problems. Find a retired officer or someone with police experience, put them on an 89 day hire, pay them from the unfilled budget (saving about $79 thousand of the $85 thousand being asked for) and thus not task a working officer with the recruiting responsibility and putting that persons work load on another officer which could only increase problems in the force.

Also, the council passed and adopted Resolution # 2005-65 Draft 1 on December 1, 2005. This resolution established a council investigating committee to investigate the Kauai Police Department.

Since all aspects of the police department were to be looked into under Charter Section 3.17----which must have included hiring and retention practices---the reasons for not being able to fill most vacancies must have been identified. So why are we wanting to spend $85 thousand to duplicate what was done or should have been done?

Again, I am opposed to Bill 2296 and do not believe that the proposed $85 thousand will solve the problem that it was meant to address.