Bill Text: HI HB2296 | 2014 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Department of Human Services; Second Deputy position; Establishment

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2014-02-11 - Passed Second Reading and referred to the committee(s) on FIN with none voting aye with reservations; none voting no (0) and Cachola, Carroll excused (2). [HB2296 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2014-HB2296-Introduced.html

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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	2296
TWENTY-SEVENTH LEGISLATURE, 2014
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

 

RELATING TO ESTABLISHING A SECOND DEPUTY DIRECTOR POSITION FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES.

 

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 

     SECTION 1.  The department of human services has the largest operating budget of any state department, over $2.5 billion, including sixty-seven per cent of all the State's federal operating funds. The department also has the fifth largest staff of any department, with over 2,000 employees staffing its four divisions and three administratively attached agencies.

     Currently, the department has only one deputy director.  Act 223, Session Laws of Hawaii 1994, deleted the second deputy director position, which was prompted by the State's poor economy at that time. 

     The department serves vulnerable and needy adults and children statewide and is responsible for diverse and complex programs driven by their own unique and ubiquitous state and federal laws, rules, and regulations.  With little overlap between the wide array of services offered by the department and each program's laws and regulations, the breadth of knowledge necessary for effective management of all the programs is extensive and difficult to develop.

     The department's programs and services include: protection of vulnerable children and adults; vocational rehabilitation and financial assistance to the disabled; the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, financial assistance, job training and placement; housing and services for the homeless; Medicaid services for the State's medically needy population; and prevention, treatment, and housing for the State's youthful offenders. 

     In addition to helping Hawaii's vulnerable individuals, the department manages significant federal and state funds and processes vast amounts of information - its mainframe computer is the largest in state government.  The department's accounting and budget functions have grown more complex as requirements to track the receipt and expenditure of federal funds has increased the number of departmental appropriation accounts from 51 to 118.  The department also takes on new federal and state programs or mandates on a regular and on-going basis.  In this past year alone, the federal Affordable Care Act required the department to expend significant resources conforming its administrative rules to the Affordable Care Act's new requirements and the development of Kolea –the Med-QUEST division's new integrated eligibility system, which also determines eligibility for advanced premium tax credits and cost share reductions for the Hawaii health connector's clients.  This effort severely taxed the resources of the director's office. 

     The effective management of the department and its programs also requires collaboration within the department, with other state, federal, and local agencies, with the community and the clients served.  Maintaining these necessary collaborations further erodes the ability of the director's office to fully oversee personnel matters, fiscal and budget issues, information technology development, and operational matters related to quality control, program oversight, and reporting.

     The purpose of this Act is to restore the second deputy position that is necessary for the effective management of the department's diverse and complex programs affecting poor and vulnerable adults and children statewide.  The department's budget of over $2.5 billion also makes it especially critical that programs are run well, comply with federal and state laws and regulations, and that state and federal tax dollars are well spent, by programs meeting their objectives and serving the community as intended.

     SECTION 2.  Section 76-16, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (b) to read as follows:

     "(b)  The civil service to which this chapter applies shall comprise all positions in the State now existing or hereafter established and embrace all personal services performed for the State, except the following:

     (1)  Commissioned and enlisted personnel of the Hawaii national guard as such, and positions in the Hawaii national guard that are required by state or federal laws or regulations or orders of the national guard to be filled from those commissioned or enlisted personnel;

     (2)  Positions filled by persons employed by contract where the director of human resources development has certified that the service is special or unique or is essential to the public interest and that, because of circumstances surrounding its fulfillment, personnel to perform the service cannot be obtained through normal civil service recruitment procedures.  Any such contract may be for any period not exceeding one year;

     (3)  Positions that must be filled without delay to comply with a court order or decree if the director determines that recruitment through normal recruitment civil service procedures would result in delay or noncompliance, such as the Felix-Cayetano consent decree;

     (4)  Positions filled by the legislature or by either house or any committee thereof;

     (5)  Employees in the office of the governor and office of the lieutenant governor, and household employees at Washington Place;

     (6)  Positions filled by popular vote;

     (7)  Department heads, officers, and members of any board, commission, or other state agency whose appointments are made by the governor or are required by law to be confirmed by the senate;

     (8)  Judges, referees, receivers, masters, jurors, notaries public, land court examiners, court commissioners, and attorneys appointed by a state court for a special temporary service;

     (9)  One bailiff for the chief justice of the supreme court who shall have the powers and duties of a court officer and bailiff under section 606-14; one secretary or clerk for each justice of the supreme court, each judge of the intermediate appellate court, and each judge of the circuit court; one secretary for the judicial council; one deputy administrative director of the courts; three law clerks for the chief justice of the supreme court, two law clerks for each associate justice of the supreme court and each judge of the intermediate appellate court, one law clerk for each judge of the circuit court, two additional law clerks for the civil administrative judge of the circuit court of the first circuit, two additional law clerks for the criminal administrative judge of the circuit court of the first circuit, one additional law clerk for the senior judge of the family court of the first circuit, two additional law clerks for the civil motions judge of the circuit court of the first circuit, two additional law clerks for the criminal motions judge of the circuit court of the first circuit, and two law clerks for the administrative judge of the district court of the first circuit; and one private secretary for the administrative director of the courts, the deputy administrative director of the courts, each department head, each deputy or first assistant, and each additional deputy, or assistant deputy, or assistant defined in paragraph (16);

    (10)  First deputy and deputy attorneys general, the administrative services manager of the department of the attorney general, one secretary for the administrative services manager, an administrator and any support staff for the criminal and juvenile justice resources coordination functions, and law clerks;

     (11) (A)  Teachers, principals, vice-principals, complex area superintendents, deputy and assistant superintendents, other certificated personnel, not more than twenty noncertificated administrative, professional, and technical personnel not engaged in instructional work;

         (B)  Effective July 1, 2003, teaching assistants, educational assistants, bilingual/bicultural school-home assistants, school psychologists, psychological examiners, speech pathologists, athletic health care trainers, alternative school work study assistants, alternative school educational/supportive services specialists, alternative school project coordinators, and communications aides in the department of education;

         (C)  The special assistant to the state librarian and one secretary for the special assistant to the state librarian; and

         (D)  Members of the faculty of the University of Hawaii, including research workers, extension agents, personnel engaged in instructional work, and administrative, professional, and technical personnel of the university;

    (12)  Employees engaged in special, research, or demonstration projects approved by the governor;

    (13)  (A)  Positions filled by inmates, patients of state institutions, persons with severe physical or mental disabilities participating in the work experience training programs;

         (B)  Positions filled with students in accordance with guidelines for established state employment programs; and

         (C)  Positions that provide work experience training or temporary public service employment that are filled by persons entering the workforce or persons transitioning into other careers under programs such as the federal Workforce Investment Act of 1998, as amended, or the Senior Community Service Employment Program of the Employment and Training Administration of the United States Department of Labor, or under other similar state programs;

    (14)  A custodian or guide at Iolani Palace, the Royal Mausoleum, and Hulihee Palace;

    (15)  Positions filled by persons employed on a fee, contract, or piecework basis, who may lawfully perform their duties concurrently with their private business or profession or other private employment and whose duties require only a portion of their time, if it is impracticable to ascertain or anticipate the portion of time to be devoted to the service of the State;

    (16)  Positions of first deputies or first assistants of each department head appointed under or in the manner provided in section 6, article V, of the state constitution; three additional deputies or assistants either in charge of the highways, harbors, and airports divisions or other functions within the department of transportation as may be assigned by the director of transportation, with the approval of the governor; one additional deputy in the department of human services either in charge of welfare or other functions within the department as may be assigned by the director of human services; four additional deputies in the department of health, each in charge of one of the following:  behavioral health, environmental health, hospitals, and health resources administration, including other functions within the department as may be assigned by the director of health, with the approval of the governor; an administrative assistant to the state librarian; and an administrative assistant to the superintendent of education;

    (17)  Positions specifically exempted from this part by any other law; provided that all of the positions defined by paragraph (9) shall be included in the position classification plan;

    (18)  Positions in the state foster grandparent program and positions for temporary employment of senior citizens in occupations in which there is a severe personnel shortage or in special projects;

    (19)  Household employees at the official residence of the president of the University of Hawaii;

    (20)  Employees in the department of education engaged in the supervision of students during meal periods in the distribution, collection, and counting of meal tickets, and in the cleaning of classrooms after school hours on a less than half-time basis;

    (21)  Employees hired under the tenant hire program of the Hawaii public housing authority; provided that, except during the time period specified in paragraph (27), not more than twenty-six per cent of the authority's work force in any housing project maintained or operated by the authority shall be hired under the tenant hire program;

    (22)  Positions of the federally funded expanded food and nutrition program of the University of Hawaii that require the hiring of nutrition program assistants who live in the areas they serve;

    (23)  Positions filled by persons with severe disabilities who are certified by the state vocational rehabilitation office that they are able to perform safely the duties of the positions;

    (24)  The sheriff;

    (25)  A gender and other fairness coordinator hired by the judiciary;

    (26)  Positions in the Hawaii national guard youth and adult education programs; and

    (27)  From July 1, 2012, to June 30, 2015, persons hired or contracted to perform repair, maintenance, or capital improvement projects work on vacant housing units under the jurisdiction of the Hawaii public housing authority.

     The director shall determine the applicability of this section to specific positions.

     Nothing in this section shall be deemed to affect the civil service status of any incumbent as it existed on July 1, 1955."

     SECTION 3.  New statutory material is underscored.

     SECTION 4.  This Act, upon its approval, shall take effect on July 1, 2014; provided that the amendments to section 76-16(b)(16), Hawaii Revised Statutes, in section 1 of this Act shall not be repealed when section 76-16(b), Hawaii Revised Statutes, is reenacted on June 30, 2015, pursuant to section 5 of Act 159, Session Laws of Hawaii 2012.

 

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________
	BY REQUEST

 

 

Report Title:

Department of Human Services; Second Deputy position; Establishment

 

Description:

Restore the second deputy position for the department of human services.

 

 

 

The summary description of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.