Private contract
review begins

A Hawaii County-UPW agreement
allows 60 days to decide whether
a contract is good

By Rod Thompson
Star-Bulletin

HILO -- Hawaii County departments are beginning a review today of private contracts for government services under an agreement reached in Circuit Court.

The review will result in the cancelation of dozens, perhaps hundreds, of contracts because of a state Supreme Court ruling that private contractors can't perform government services previously done by civil service workers.

"We all have to change our habits," said County Attorney Richard Wurdeman following yesterday's agreement.

"Ultimately we're going to have to change a lot of things. It's not going to be status quo any more."

While some new county hiring is expected, United Public Workers chief Gary Rodrigues said the goal is not to pad the county work force.

"We would rather have an efficient work force than a bloated work force," he said.

Having too many employees could result in layoffs during a bad economy, he said. "I'd hate like hell for the county to hire 100 more workers and then find out in six months you have to lay off 100 workers," he said.

The new agreement sets out processes to test whether the contracts are good.

The county has up to 60 days to make a "final determination" if a contract is good, but there is no requirement for how soon any particular review starts.

If a contractor or union disagrees, the matter goes to the state attorney general for an opinion. If there is still disagreement, Oahu Circuit Court will decide the matter so that decisions will apply throughout the state.

A contractor or union that disagrees with a "final determination" also may bypass the attorney general and go directly to court.

For the Big Island, that would probably be a Big Island court, but the parties hope this agreement will be used on other islands.

"We believe this is a good pattern for other counties," Rodrigues said.

A third approach gets the process moving faster, requiring an "expedited review" by the county as soon as requested.

In any case, contracts remain in effect and can be renewed until a final ruling.

Rodrigues said he hopes the process can be completed by October. Deputy County Attorney Ted Hong, calling that "overly optimistic," said he expects completion in a year.

But unlike a previous proposal, there is no deadline. Rodrigues said the union didn't want a deadline for fear the county would delay.

Hong said the agreement is fair.

Wurdeman said, "If the union chose to take a hard line, we would have had a lot of disruption.

"They didn't, to their credit."