Senate Standing Committee on Labor and Technology

One. Good afternoon, everyone. Happy aloha Friday. Today is March 27, and this is our labor and technology 3PM agenda. We are in Conference Room 225.

This hearing is also being streamed on the Hawaii state Senate's YouTube channel. If you're here for our 03:01PM hearing, we just have a few gubernatorial nominees that we need to take up first before we get to the 03:01. But just a few housekeeping announcements. In the unlikely case of technical failures, this meeting will reconvene here in Conference Room 225 on 03/30/2026 at 3PM. For all testifiers, including those on Zoom, we ask that you stand on your written testimony.

If your oral testimony is different from your written testimony, the time there for each testifier will be one minute. The content including the hearing notice, copies of the measures, and testimony can be found on the legislator's website. If time permits, decision making will occur after we hear from all those offering testimony. For our 03:00 calendar, we got two items. First up on our list is GM759.

This is submitting for consideration and confirmation to the Hawaii workforce development council gubernatorial nominee, Christopher Burnett, for a term to expire on 06/30/2030. And for those, for the nominees, how we run our hearing is we call on the testifiers first, and then we'll call on the nominee to come before the committee. And for the nominees, if you can just explain why you wanna serve and a little brief background of that and then subject to questions from the members.

So with that, we'll begin first with GM 759. First up on our list is d I DLIR director, Jade Butay.

Okay. DLIR stands on their testimony in support. Kamakana Kamiloa, UPW. Chair, UPW stands. It's written testimony, strong support.

K. Standing on written testimony in support. On Zoom, Mike Golachuch Junior? No present, chair. K.

Then I have Noise Abbas, HGA. Chair, HGA will stand in support. Thank you. K. That completes our list of registered testifiers for GM 759.

Anyone else that wishes to testify on this measure? K. I note that there were seven in support, zero in opposition, and zero comments. With that, we'll call on the nominee, mister Burnett. Aloha.

Welcome. And congratulations on your nomination.

Thank you. Good afternoon, chair Elefante, vice chair Lomasnow. My name is Chris Burnett, and, I appreciate you the the opportunity.

If you don't mind speaking a little closer to the mic so that I can hear you. Yep. Perfect.

Thank you for allowing me to be here today. And so just a little bit about myself. I've been with the Hawaii State AFL CIO since 2023. And prior to that, I've I've been in various roles within labor unions since 2011. As far as this nomination, you know, I do wanna serve on the Hawaii Workforce Development Council because I feel like I I can provide I can contribute, to the council and be a voice for the labor community. At

the Hawaii State AFL CIO, I am in a unique position where I have I'm in constant communication with over 70 plus unions in Hawaii. And so based on, you know, the challenges that they face as far as either recruiting recruiting employees or retaining employees, I think I can, provide that service to them and and, address it if I can through the council.

K. Thank you. Any questions? Okay. If not, I think you answered my question. So thank you, mister Burnett. Hey. With that

You're welcome. We'll move on to our next agenda item, which is GM 672. This is submitting for consideration and confirmation to the board of directors of the Pacific International Space Center for exploration systems, gubernatorial nominee, Christian Wong, for a term to expire on 06/30/2029. The only registered testifier that I actually, we don't have any registered testifiers on this, but I do note that there were two in support, zero in opposition, and zero comments. With that, Christian, aloha.

Thank you.

Welcome. If you can share with us about yourself and why you wanna serve, and congratulations on your nomination.

Thanks very much. Thanks for having me. I'm Christian Wong. I'm the founder and director of the Hawaii Science and Technology Museum. We're a STEM education nonprofit that has been serving the state of Hawaii for the past eleven years.

I believe strongly in the mission of Pisces of making STEM industry careers available to our children in Hawaii as well as inspiring them when they're young to be able to envision themselves in in these type of roles. We also have, at HSTM, we have also numerous, cultural programs as well.

And so I feel, my my background as someone who is also in tune with, someone who's born and raised here, who is in also in tune with local Hawaiian culture and able to bring these type of opportunities to our kids in a play space way, making it accessible to our local kids is really important as well.

So I feel that I could serve in this role in Pisces with a good amount of balance and bring a lot to the table for moving the organization forward as well as, serving the community that the organization serves across the state of Hawaii.

Okay. Thank you. Members, any questions for Mr. Wong? K.

The only question that I have for you, mister Wong, are you able to commit your time to serving on Pisces? Yes. I am. I am. Okay.

I this is this would be a priority for me.

Okay. And

I think the only other follow-up question is that I have is,

I mean, in your experience working with students and youth, what are some challenges that you see at a local level going forward on employing some of these folks that wanna go into these type of careers. I know one of them could be salary opportunities. So I'm just curious to know kind of what you've been seeing sort of on the ground, as it relates to this area.

Oh, yeah. Definitely. At a very basic level, I feel that many of the the kids in our communities don't even know these careers exist. So so as an example, through HSTM, one of the things we've been doing is, rocketry days at elementary schools where we, break students into groups where one, you know, a group of four where one kid will be the mechanical engineer, the other will be the electrical, the other will be propulsion, and the other will be mission control.

And we have them work together to build and launch a rocket.

And and these careers are completely unknown to many of the especially the kids in the rural areas that we work with. And so it's so rewarding at the end. Like, I've had more than one student say that that was so fun. I would love to be a mechanical engineer. What do I need to do?

If I do that, can I work for NASA? Like, you know, just having that exposure is oftentimes a big hurdle. They don't even know the career exists. So, definitely, that would be a big part of my priorities at Pisces is to make sure that all of our kids get to know that these types of careers are available to them.

Okay. Thank you. Members, any further follow-up questions? Kate, if not, thank you so much. Appreciate your time.

Thank you.

You're welcome. K. I don't feel a need to recess members. We'll just go right into decision making on these two items. K.

So we'll start off with our first item was his GM759. Chair's recommendation on this one for Christopher Burnett is to advise and consent. Any further discussion? If not, vice chair Lamasau for the vote, chair votes aye.

Okay. Members for GM 157509 recommendation of the chair is to advise and consent. Chair voice votes aye, vice chair also votes aye. Senator Ihara is excused and will be for the remainder of the agenda. Senator Moriwaki.

Aye. Senator Fevella is also excused for the remainder of the agenda. Chair recommendation is adopted.

Thank you so much. Congratulations, Chris. And then our last item on our 03:00 agenda is GM 672. This is for Christian Wong to serve on Pisces. Chair's recommendation for this is to advise and consent.

Any further discussion? If not, vice chair Lamasat for the vote, chair votes aye.

Okay. For, gm 672 recommendation of the chair is to advise and consent. Noting the excused members previously mentioned, anyone present wanting to vote with reservations or no? Hearing none, chair your condition is adopted.

Thank you so much. Congratulations so much, Mr. Wong.

Thank you very much.

Okay. That concludes our 3PM agenda. We're adjourned. Good afternoon. It's still aloha Friday.

Happy aloha Friday, everyone. This is our committee on labor and technology. This is our 301 agenda. Thank you for those for waiting patiently in the audience and on Zoom. Today is 03/27/2026.

We're in Conference Room 225. This hearing is also being streamed on the Hawaii State Senate's YouTube channel. In the unlikely case of technical failures, this meeting will reconvene here in Conference Room 225 on 03/30/2026 at 3PM. For all testifiers, including those on Zoom, we ask that you stand in your written testimony. If your oral testimony is different from your written testimony, your time limit for each testifier will be one minute.

The content, including the hearing notice and copies of the measures and testimony, can be found on the legislature's website. If time permits, decision making will occur after we hear from all those offering testimony. First up is resolution SCR five. This is requesting the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations to study the feasibility of establishing a Hawaii workforce excellence award program. First up on our list is director Butai.

Great. Hello, Friday, Chair Elefante, Madam Vice Chair Lamosau, and Senator Moriwaki, Jade Butay for DLIR. We stand on our testimony in strong support. Through the American Swiss Foundation, I had the opportunity to ask, Martina Hirayama. She's the secretary of education for Switzerland, on what's the primary reason for the success of the book of their vocational training system. She said that, apprenticeship, cannot be seen as a second choice. It must be seen as a pathway to success. Switzerland celebrates success stories from the apprenticeship route. In fact, their current president and their former minister of finance started as an apprentice. And the CEO of UBS, one of the largest banks in the world, also came up through Thank you.

If you can please summarize. Yeah. You you can summarize.

So I think having, the MOF, you know, showcasing role models who came through that bad ways, young people and families can see apprenticeship as a first class option and a aspirational and respected back. Thank you.

K. Thank you, director. That completes our list of registered testifier for SCR five. Anyone else that wishes to testify in this measure? If not, members, questions?

If not, we'll move on to our next set of resolutions, which is SCR 85 and SR 75. This is requesting the Department of Human Resources Development to collaborate with state departments, agencies, and labor organizations in completing the comprehensive review of the classification and compensation systems for all civil service positions under its jurisdiction. And there are testifiers for both. So if you would like to testify for both items, you can comment on that. First up is director for DHRD, Brenna Hashimoto.

DHRD will stand on its written testimony and support for both.

Okay. Thank you. Kamakana Kamiloa, UPW.

UPW is standing on its testimony and support for both.

Okay. Thank you. Standing on testimony and support from DHRD and UPW, and then Nui Sabas.

Here, HGA will stand in support for both. Okay. HGA stands in support for both. Thank you. Anyone else wishes to testify in SER 85 or SR 75?

Okay. Members, any questions? Okay. If not, we will proceed to our next set of items, which is SCR 146 and SR 138. This is requesting a comprehensive overhaul of state civil service job descriptions and classifications to modernize the workforce, improve recruitment and retention, and evaluate the potential use of artificial intelligence as a support tool.

Also, the same with the previous measures, I'll call on both. And if you have comments for both, you could speak for both. First is Director Hashimoto. Okay.

Thank you. Okay. Next is Kamakana Kamiloa for UPW.

Okay, thank you. Okay. That completes our list of registered testifiers. Anyone else that wishes to testify on SCR 146 or SR 138? If not, members, any questions?

Okay. We'll move on to our next set of resolutions, which is SR 76. This is requesting the Office of the Governor to evaluate and make recommendations of the decentralization of the Department of Human Resources Development, hiring and recruitment functions to state departments, divisions, and agencies. First up is Director Hashimoto. Okay.

Thank you. DHRD in opposition. Nui Sebast, HGEA.

HGEA will stand in support.

Okay. HGEA stands in support. Thank you. And that completes the list of registered testifiers. I note that for this one, there were two in support, one in opposition, and zero comments.

With that, that completes our list of registered testifiers. Anyone else on SR 76? If not, members, questions? Okay. I have, questions for DHRD, please.

Okay. Thank you. I, I, I know the public didn't quite hear the four out of the five that you mentioned. Is it the four out of the five on page two of the resolution, Director, that you feel is delegated already to the departments?

Correct. So, departments are already responsible for composing position descriptions. Typically, managers in consultation with the incumbent, if there is one, drafts the position description. They also are involved in accepting applications for vacant positions, on a, on a case-by-case basis if they would like to take on that work, through delegation. They also do some of the minimum qualification reviews for classes for internal recruitments, as well as for classes that they've requested be delegated to them.

They're entirely responsible for conducting interviews for jobs within their department and directly hiring applicants who meet the MQs and have gone through the interview and suitability process. So, all of those things are delegated to a certain extent. Some of them entirely, like 1, 4 and 5, and then 2 and 3 are on a case-by-case basis.

Okay. As a follow-up to that, does each agency need to come to DHRD to request to do that? Any of those five things as listed?

No. Position description, that's typically handled all internally. The only aspect that would come to DHIRD is if a department were proposing to exclude a position from collective bargaining. We do make sure—we do look at those to make sure that they meet one of the statutory requirements for exclusion from collective bargaining under Chapter 89, and then, we are obligated to consult with the exclusive representative or the union on those consult—on those exclusions. So, we would handle that aspect.

Accepting applications, again, we accept applications for open competitive recruitments that we're responsible for handling. Departments would accept applications for internal vacancy announcements as well as any jobs that they have requested delegation and are the, the responsible agency. In terms of completing minimum qualification reviews, it depends on if they're delegated. They do that entirely themselves. If it's our—under our jurisdiction, we handle that.

We do not get involved in conducting interviews unless they happen to ask for DHRD to help out on a panel, but that would be—it's on a case-by-case basis and very rare. If they don't have the expertise in house, they might ask us to sit on a panel. And they handle all of the hiring for applicants. The only time it would come to DHRD is if they're through the hiring process, one of our, one aspect of the process is what we call a suitability investigation.

So, we do a background check, criminal history record check, and if there is, conviction information that is relevant to the job, then they refer those cases to our staffing team, and we would investigate and make a recommendation to the department on whether they should proceed with hiring or not.

But for those cases that are unique, could the departments individually do that themselves on a criminal background check, or they would have to still go through the DHRD?

Some of the work is handled by them. If it's classes of work that require an FBI fingerprint background check, they do handle those themselves. We get maybe, I don't know, 30, 40, 50 a year, so it's not a tremendous amount of work. I don't believe this is something that they would wanna take on. It's, it's a little bit tedious.

There are reasons historically as to why DHRD handled that. It's, it's always best if you have someone outside of the hiring decision who's vetting that, just so that there's an objective analysis, and that managers don't inappropriately use that conviction information to disqualify somebody who, you know, may be otherwise qualified. So, it, it allows for a measure of objectivity when a separate agency is doing those kinds of investigations.

Okay. Thank you. Members, any other questions? Senator Moriwaki.

Yes, Director, what, what positions or classes are not delegated?

Entirely not delegated are, are EMCP classes, so.

All they exclude?

Excluded managerial compensation plan positions, which are typically managers, division chiefs, administrators, those types of—in terms of, sorry, the.

The recruitment.

The recruitment. Well, those can also be delegated, but in terms of classification, those are not delegated.

So, everything else is delegable and have, have been? Or what are the requirements for delegation? Are they stringent? Or if a department wants to, to have the responsibility for recruiting, recruiting or position descriptions, they can do it on their own?

It's simply at their request. As long as they have sufficient staff to be able to manage the recruitment, they can request it. And I don't believe we've ever denied anyone, any department. Sometimes we've have to have to train them to make sure that they know how to use the software appropriately. But, otherwise, we work with them to make sure that they can accomplish that.

Okay. Thank you, Chair.

Okay, and then, some other questions I had more on the vacancy rates. So, if departments, as indicated, have that ability to hire, my speculation would be does—they would be aware of what vacant positions that they would have. But does DHRD work with them to address, you know, hey, are you, if you're saying to department, hey, you have 24% vacancy here in these positions, could you hire here?

But what I've also been hearing anecdotally is that it's hard to get the right person in that because maybe they don't meet the MQs, minimum qualifications, have the work experience, and all that, or it may not classify into what that is. And so, they don't have enough applicants or for, for various reasons. So, I'm just curious to know what DHRD's role is as it come—as it looks at vacancies.

So, we don't we don't look at departments. We don't dive into their specific vacancies on a regular basis. What I can tell you is that on an annual basis...

...Vacancy report that was done by DHRD.

Yes. So, we do look at it annually, but we're not continually—that's part of their department's responsibility to work with their departmental human resources officer to work on filling their vacancies. So, what we do is we take an annual snapshot, and we do track to see where the state as, on a whole, has the most vacancies and try to address, big vacancies, big numbers in terms of, of vacancy total counts.

But what I can tell you is of the, say, 4,000 plus vacant positions in the state, on an annual basis, only less than 40% of those, I think last year it was about 38.5% or so, came to DHRD to recruit. That means that the other 62% of the vacancies never came to DHRD to recruit.

They were in the departments, and either they were trying to fill them internally or they were not recruiting. So, we, we don't have the opportunity to fill positions unless the departments reach out to us through, through our NeoGov software and launch a recruitment. So, I can't answer a question as to why a department is not attempting to fill it. Only they can answer why they haven't launched a recruitment.

We do have our special ARPA funded project team that has been meeting with individual departments on an individual basis to talk about their specific recruitment needs and to come up with strategies moving forward on how we can help them fill vacancies.

But if those ARPA funded positions, aren't those positions set to expire with ARPA funding? So, is the department gonna supplement that with...

We hope...

To funds or other funds for that?

We hope to. We have a pending budget request that we're hoping to be able to transition that whole project because we've seen the real value over the last two years that the project team has been in place. Our vacancy count has come—our vacancy rate has come down because we have a team dedicated to using things like LinkedIn. And we have, through NeoGov, we have another software option called Attract where we can message applicants and encourage them to apply for our vacancies.

I, I, I think from and I, I, I don't know, I'm not sort of in in the operations field, but I think some of the concerns that I've been hearing is that we have this vacancy. If there is—my understanding is there's a monthly HR manager meeting.

And if DHRD is sort of leading all this at the point, my speculation would be, could that be trickle down and working with the different sub different agencies and department HR managers to see how DHRD can help with recruitment and sort of not be a barrier, especially in areas of vacancies, which I can understand the nexus for why agencies may wanna look at, you know, because they know their own set of skills. They know their department.

And so, I know it's a challenge. I know it's a balancing app, but I can understand some of the frustrations.

Right. So, I, I would—I, I don't believe we're a barrier. I believe we are facilitating recruitment. Departments that come to us and submit a requisition and launch recruitment, they fill their jobs. The ones that are not getting filled are the positions that never come to DHRD and are not in recruitment.

So, I, I don't agree that DHRD is a barrier. In fact, I think we facilitate recruitment more than, than hold them back. I think what I'm hear—what I hear from a lot of managers is they're not working with their own human resources offices to troubleshoot and to figure out how to best recruit. You, you mentioned earlier about folks not meeting the minimum qualification requirements.

And for every class of work or every series of jobs within state government, I think you're probably familiar there are different levels.

So, although a position may be authorized at a high level, say a four or a five, say, for example, a social worker five, which is an SR 24, well, below that is a four, a three, a two, and a one. And at the one level, there's no experience requirement. And so, departments need to be using that option if they have somebody who doesn't have a lot of experience or minimal experience, bring the position down to the lower level and recruit.

So, then, you can bring that person on board and then train them up. Right?

And they can be reallocated upward once they do have the necessary experience. So, for every example where, oh, the person doesn't meet the MQs, my, my pushback would be, well, why aren't you bringing it down then to a lower level and train them up? Because we wanna be able to have a career path. I think we spend a lot of time talking about pathways, but we're not using the pathways that are readily available to us.

Yeah. And I, and I think part of the concern, and we've had conversations on this is, we're seeing more and more departments. I think HGN, some of their testimony, I said there's been north of 600 exempt positions that have been created going outside the civil service route because it's—and I know hopefully this pricing classification study will help to address how we reprice, how we class, how we look at trending things going on in the private sector so we can compete.

And I, and I think that's the issue, right? When someone comes in and wants to work for state government, it's, it's because of the flexibility, the balance, the job position.

But when it doesn't meet pay or they're waiting for a long time and they have another offer, then it's frustrating because now the department has to start at square one, and they've gone through all this red tape to get there. So, I, I just hope.

Right.

Part of this dialogue, you know, that DHRD can work with the departments to see and then as a result of the study, can address some of these concerns and how we be competitive as a state workforce.

Absolutely. I mean, that's why that's why DHRD proposed the study in the first place was really to have a comprehensive look from an external viewpoint, right, that can look at minimum qualifications and job titles and the whole structure of how, how we lay out civil service to make us more competitive, more efficient, and open the doors to more applicants. So, absolutely.

Any further follow-up questions? Okay. If not, thank you so much, Director. Okay. With that, last call on this item, SR 76.

If not, we'll move on to our next item, which I think everyone is here for. Next two items that is, which is SCR 139 and SR 131.

This is relating to the workforce development council to recommend to the governor for inclusion in the state unified plan, a comprehensive statewide workforce strategy to ensure that all people of the state have a pathway to a career that enables them to learn, work, and thrive in the state and contribute to a vibrant local economy grounded in community values by 2045. And for these two resolutions, if you'd like to comment on both, we'll accept that for both. We'll start off with in person.

I have Christine how do you pronounce your last name? I'm sorry. Beaule. Beaule. Yeah.

The University of Hawaii stands on its written testimony as well as support.

Thank you, Christine. UHN's support. Jade Butai, DLIR.

We stand on our testimony and support. Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you. On both. Thank you. DLIR stands on their testimony and support for both Matt Stevens on Zoom.

Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. I'm Matt Stevens, executive director of the Hawaii Workforce Funders Collaborative and Convener of the Learn, Work, Thrive Hawaii, and I stand by my written testimony in support of SCR 139 and SR 131. I did wanna briefly underscore a couple of things about why this these resolutions matter.

You know, over the next decade, you know, approximately 170,000 young people who are gonna enter our workforce while we only have about 101,000 projected living wage jobs over that same time period. Solving this persistent structural gap is going to require sustained cross sector coordination and that means strengthening pathways to existing living wage jobs, growing more of them and improving job quality so that residents can remain and thrive here at home.

These are complex challenges and that's going to require durable alignment across education, workforce development and economic strategy. And I think these rezos really help hold that alignment steady by embedding that long term generational horizon within our workforce development planning framework and reinforcing the coordinated action through the workforce development council. It strengthens what's already underway-

If you can please summarize Mr. Stevens? Your time is up.

Alignment steady over time, and so I just wanna thank you for your leadership on this effort, and for this opportunity to provide testimony.

Okay. Thank you so much. Matt Proberg.

Alumula Collaborative will stand on its written testimony

Thank you so much. Also Matt Probert again, but for different companies, the memories. Okay. Okay. Got it.

Thank you. Holomua in support. Erica Nakanishi Stannis. Thank you. Standing under testimony support for both measures.

Yasmine Chaney. I think I got that right. Right? Yes.

I was gonna preview a Wonder Woman sticker.

Oh, okay. Next time.

Yes. Director Cheney. Aloha. Welcome.

Oh, hi. Yasmine Cheney for the Commission on the Status of Women.

I stand on my written testimony and support and would just ask if it isn't already in place for the Workforce Development Council, if they would make sure that the perspectives and needs of women and girls are integrated into this workforce planning and that targeted equity and inclusion strategies are incorporated as well as gender disaggregated data for evaluation and reporting so that we can address persistent disparities such as occupational segregation, wage gaps, and under representation of women in high growth sectors. I would appreciate that.

Thank you very much for your consideration and your support, and I am supporting both of the resolutions.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, director. Keith Demello, Chair of the Workforce Development Council. Okay. Thank you, Chair Demello, in support for both. Sherry Menor, Chamber of Commerce.

The Chamber stands on its written testimony.

Okay. Thank you, Sherry, in support for both measures. And I think that's all I have that have registered to testify. Anyone else on SCR 139 and SR 131? Okat.

If not, members questions, yeah, Vice Chair Lamosao.

I wish Jimmy was here, but maybe DLIR or workforce development, both of you. I'm not sure who can answer this, but thank you, director. I have concerns. This is, like, such an important result. One, because, like, the testimonies have said about how many people leave Hawaii each day.

But when we experience, like, really big disasters, especially with, what just happened on the North Shore On this past in other parts of the state, the Kona Lo, like and what happened in Lahaina, and how it it can exacerbate this issue even more. Do you folks have any numbers of families leaving during those times because they just cannot pick up the pieces to afford to continue living in Hawaii.

I mean, I don't think we have, you know, those numbers. But, you know, when we you know, whether it's under wildfire in Maui or even on this Kona Loam, we already are in the process of collecting data to apply for national dislocated worker grant. I mean, we're you know, we still you know, Merrick, or, you know, she's our administer administrator for workforce development division, has been in contact with the USDOL to to get resources for the people that were impacted.

Okay. Thank you. I have a follow-up then.

Yep.

But is it enough to ensure that they'll stay?

I mean, I don't think it it'll ever be enough because, I mean, that's a you know, that's I mean, the the loss that they had, I mean, that's tremendous. Yeah. And this is and the dislocated worker grant, it's very limited. And and it's you know, it doesn't cover what you know, all the losses they they had, but it's a it's a temporary.

Yeah. Well, thank you for those answers. Well, hopefully, we can try to figure out a more comprehensive way to address some of those issues, especially when we go through those disasters. So that way, it's not just I don't know if it's ever enough that, like, we can get to a point. It it is enough for people to see if we can offer them enough resources.

It's like, thank you.

Thank you. Any further questions for director Butai? Okay. If not, thank you. I have a question for the Workforce Development Council Chair, Demello.

Thank you for being here. So I know part of the Workforce Opportunity innovation Act. Right? There's certain guidelines on what states are supposed to do and counties are supposed to do.

Given that these proposed resolutions is sort of that North Star that does a little more, do you feel, and what you've seen, this is something that WDC can handle this additional workload and move towards sort of this North Star and looking at this, which would be sort of in addition to what your minimum requirements would be?

I do. And I-

If you can speak a little closer to the mic. Sorry. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you. Yeah. I do see this resolution as an example or an opportunity to go beyond compliance, federal compliance, and actually do a little bit more in service to how we can align workforce strategy as it relates to Hawaii's needs and not metrics set elsewhere. I do think that the Workforce Development Council does have the ability to do this. It is a very active council has many committees and very active committees being the former Special Projects Committee chair before I stepped into the WTC chair role.

I can attest to that. There's a lot of active, there's a lot of willingness willingness to, be proactive and a lot of energy. We have an outstanding executive director, who who's behind me, and, also with in partnership with DLIR. Ultimately, though, this resolution or these resolutions in April and further empower the WDC to convene all the various parties agencies specifically in relation to this resolution, but that has to include employers, institutions, schools, communities themselves. Because this isn't a one size fits all.

It's a generational commitment, and there's a difference because what you know what might be right for one island won't be right for another one region. So it's a what we hope that we achieve is a generational commitment in terms of strategy and outcomes into the into the future.

And I think part of one of the concerns I have is that I don't want us to lose sight of what our minimum federal requirements and what we're mandated to do, whether in federal requirements or statue. I appreciate the ambition and the eagerness to work on that. But what I don't wanna have us be in a position is where that jeopardizes. Yes. If we're out of compliance and to just sort of manage that expectation.

Yes.

But I do agree. I think this is something worthwhile to strive for.

To that, to that point, I'm happy to provide a bit of an update that the unified plan is, currently, very near, update. It's required to be updated every two years, and I I know that that work is ongoing right now. We are on track to deliver that update, but the hope is to incorporate this as an additional, more than an addendum, but, incorporate this generational commitment into that requirement.

Thank you. Any further questions? I know we all know who you are, but if you could just identify yourself and who you are.

Sure. Keith DeMello, Chair of the Workforce Development Council.

Okay. Thank you so much, Chair Demello. Appreciate it.

Thank you, Chair.

Yep. Okay. With that, If you're okay with that, we're going to go straight into decision making. Yeah. I'm gonna do a couple of changes.

Recess. Ricky, we're gonna go into recess. Recess subject to the call to Chair.

Good afternoon. Thank you, everyone, for your patience. We're reconvening our 03:01pm agenda. First up on our list is SCR Five, and Chair's recommendation on this measure is to pass unamended. Any further discussion? If not, Vice Chair for the vote, Chair votes aye.

Okay. Members are voting on SCR Five. Recommendation of the Chair is to pass unamended. Chair votes aye. Vice Chair also votes aye.

Senator Ihara is excused for the remainder of the agenda. And then, Senator Moriwaki.

Aye.

Senator Fevella is also excused for the remainder of the agenda. Chair, your recommendation is adopted.

Okay. Thank you. Our next two items is SCR 85 and SR 75. Chair's recommendations on both of these resolutions is to pass both unamended. Any further discussion? Okay. If not, Vice Chair for the vote, Chair votes aye.

Okay. For SCR 85, Chair's recommendation is to pass unamended, i'm sorry. SCR 85 and SR 75, Chair's recommendation is to pass unamended. Anyone present wanting to vote with reservations or no?

Hearing none, Chair your recommendation is adopted.

Okay. Thank you so much, Vice Chair. Our next two items is SCR 146 and SR 138. Chair's recommendation for these two resolutions is that we're gonna pass with amendments. We're going to accept DHRD's proposed amendments in their written testimony.

Okay. Any further discussion? Okay. If not, Vice Chair Lamosao for the vote, Chair votes aye.

Okay. For SCR 146 and SR 138, recommendation of the Chair is to pass with amendments. Anyone present wanting to vote with reservations or no? Hearing none, Chair your recommendation is adopted.

Thank you, Vice Chair Lamosao. Our next item is SR 76. Chair's recommendation on this is we're going to pass with amendments, and the amendments will be in the title. We're going to amend it to including the training of Department of Human Resources Offices, and then further on the.

Human Resource Officers.

Human Resource Officers. I'm sorry. So in the title, we're gonna amend it to include the training of Department Human Resource Officers. And then further on the first be it resolve clause, which begins on line 28 on page 1, we're also gonna include language to state that it includes the training of department and agencies' HR officers. On page 2, we're going to delete language starting on lines 1 all the way to line 14, which has the five things to be evaluated.

So we're gonna just strike out that language on page 2, lines 1 to 14. And that's it. Okay. With that, any further discussion? Okay, if not, Vice Chair Lamosao for the vote. Chair votes aye with amendments.

Okay. For SR 76, Chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments. Anyone present wanting to vote with reservations or no? Hearing none, Chair your recommendation is adopted.

Thank you. And then our last two items is SCR 139 and SR 131. First of all, I just wanna appreciate the hard work of the Workforce Development Council and, Chair DeMello, you and your team, and the executive director, you and your team and staff, and DLIR as well for your work on this and all the advocates that have come out to support this. Really appreciate that. We look forward to seeing what that final report will be.

With that, Chair's gonna recommend that we pass as is. And then in the committee report, what I'd like to do in hearing from testimony from Director Chaine from the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, I'd like to incorporate some of their language that they have in their testimony.

With the underlying language that in the committee report we will highlight that factors that are critical to achieving gender equity and eliminating barriers faced by women in the workforce, and secondly, ensuring that perspectives and needs of women and girls are integrated into the workforce planning.

So we'll include that, those two lines in the committee report. With that, any further discussion? If not, unamended for both. Vice chair for the vote, Chair votes aye.

SCR 139, SR 131 recommendation of the Chair is to pass unamended. Anyone present wanting to vote with reservations or no? Hearing none, Chair recommendation is adopted.

This concludes our agenda for today. Everyone, please have a great weekend. Stay safe. We are adjourned.