Salary Commission minutes detail decision-making for ‘market leader’ pay raises

The Maui County Salary Commission voted unanimously, 5-0, last month in favor of double-digit percentage salary pay hikes aimed at attracting and retaining top talent to elected and appointed executive and legislative branch seats held by public officials.

The pay raises go into effect July 1 and range from a high of $325,104 and $292,594 per year, respectively for Managing Director and Deputy Managing Director, to $106,367 and $101,302, for Council Chair and Council Member, respectively. The mayor’s pay will rise to $211,119.

A list of the pay hikes is in a March 28 letter from acting commission Chair Grant Nakama. The raises are on top of 5% increases that went into effect July 1, 2024.

Detailed draft minutes now available from the commission’s March 28 meeting show commission members voting in favor were Nakama, Tambara Garrick, Lois Prey, Gerri Lewis and Andrew Ho. (Commission members who were absent from the meeting were Lindsay Ball, William Curtis Jr., Edwin Misaki and Uvette Josette Sakamoto.)

Their vote was to adopt a 75th percentile recommendation from the “classification and compensation report” carried out by consultant MGT.

According to the MGT study: The percentiles indicate where salaries or salary ranges fall in comparison to the other salaries from the comparable communities. The 50th percentile is the median, or middle, of the data set. For Maui County public officials, the commission opted to go with the 75th percentile, designated as a “market leader.” This is 25% higher than the middle amount paid to public officials in comparable communities.

The commission also had available pay raise options in 50th percentile (average) and 65th percentile (above average).

Those pay raises did not include the Maui County Clerk or directors of the Department of Agriculture and East Maui Water Authority. Those two latter positions are on the commission’s agenda for a meeting beginning at 9 a.m. Friday, April 11, at the Department of Planning Conference Room at the Kalana Pakui Building, 250 S. High St., in Wailuku. Also on the agenda is approval of the March 28 draft meeting minutes.

The agenda is available here. It includes instructions for in-person or online public testimony. Comments are limited to three minutes on any agenda item.

At the commission’s March 28 meeting, Nakama recused himself from voting on the pay raises for the directors of the Agriculture Department and East Maui Water Authority. Because action requires five votes, the commission was unable to vote on those pay raises last month.

The commission also dealt separately with the positions of County Clerk and Deputy County Clerk. Prey proposed the 75th percentile, but Nakama suggested and Lewis agreed that their pay should be at “level 14,” or the same level as Corporation Counsel and Prosecuting Attorney. They decided to put the Deputy County Clerk at 95% of the salary of County Clerk.

The overall motion was passed 5-0. According to commission draft meeting minutes, MGT consultant Rachel Skaggs was asked about the size of the database used “to come up with the values to give credence to the report.”

Skaggs said the consultant conducted more than 300 studies with public sector agencies, local, state and county governments. She summarized the study was based on a robust data set, except for positions unique to Maui County.

For the study, the consultant established a group of comparable communities looking at population, per capita income, total expenditures and number of full-time employees. The consultant narrowed down to list of comparables used in report to about 21 entities that were most comparable based on those criteria.

The minutes say that “Commissioner Ho noted that in Maui County there seem to be directors disgruntled at being paid less than their subordinates.”

Skaggs told commissioners it’s never recommended that directors earn less than their subordinates. “You want to make sure supervisor is at least 5% above subordinates,” according to the minutes. “It does get tricky when you have positions that have a base salary and eligibility for overtime, and they receive a lot of overtime. She believes that the recommendations included in the report would help alleviate some of those issues, depending on what percentile is chosen. But that is an issue that was mentioned throughout the process, people don’t want to move up if they can stay where they are and make more or the same. It is important to make those salary adjustments to make sure directors are not making less than those they supervise.”

“Commissioner Ho noted we need to move in direction to correct it,” the minutes say.

There was no public testimony on the proposed pay raises.

Nakama said that, one to two years ago, the commission asked the administration to fund an independent salary study to help the commission make better-informed decisions for the salaries of elected officials and department directors and their deputies. He recognized and thanked “commissioners who have been part of this years-long process, especially former Chairs Scott Parker and Uvette Sakamoto for starting this study and guiding us to this point.”

In further discussion, Nakama noted that the salary increases are “tied to County’s desire to improve ability to retain and recruit.”

He asked Managing Director Josiah Nishita for information on the number of directors/deputies lost to private sector over the last 2.5 years?

“Managing Director Nishita said he cannot speak to each individual’s circumstance as to why they left, but from the team that was announced at Mayor (Richard) Bissen’s inauguration to present, there are around 11 individuals who have left,” with another set to leave shortly.

In the minutes, Nakama referred to comments from Nishita about “how hard it is at the current moment for the County to recruit and retain directors and deputies.”

“He suspects the people who are thinking of leaving are making a value judgment of sorts and concluding that it is not worth staying for whatever reason, but most likely the pay is not worth staying,” the minutes report.

The commission also considered the impact the pay raises would have on Maui County’s overall budget.

According to the meeting minutes, “the overall pay for all Directors, Deputies and elected officials covered by this only accounts for only 0.43% of the County’s overall budget. So the entire leadership and strategic direction for the County is determined by a group that is collectively accounting for 0.43% of the budget. (Nakama) reported that even with the salary adjustments, the percentage would only increase to 0.5-0.6% of the overall budget. Acting Chair Nakama believes that this minimal increase would be worthwhile for individuals who are making decisions and deciding on the direction of the County, especially with the rebuild.”

To see a listing of current and previous annual pay increases for Maui County officials, view this Salary Commission spread sheet from June 2024 by clicking here.

Comments posted about the pay raises on Maui Now’s Facebook page have been negative, with some incorrectly pointing fingers at the officials who “gave themselves” raises.

The Maui County Charter gives the Salary Commission sole authority to set the salaries of elected and appointed Maui County officials. The mayor appoints and the Council confirms the commission’s nine members.

Others social media complaints about the pay raises stem from individuals bemoaning not getting pay increases themselves, Hawaiʻi’s high cost of living, rising property taxes and casting blame for real or imagined government shortfalls, including the pace of Lahaina’s recovery from the 2023 wildfires.