HILO — It’s back to the drawing board in the search for a mass transit administrator, after Mayor Harry Kim decided the advertised salary isn’t high enough to attract the best candidates.
The position for a permanent administrator was advertised at $67,728 annually, compared to the previous salary range of $67,000 to $102,000.
The position will be advertised for 10 days starting Oct. 30 with an annual salary range of $69,084-$127,284. The low end of the range increased because of collective bargaining changes.
Applicants will be able to find the position at https://agency.governmentjobs.com/countyhawaii/default.cfm.
Two mainland applicants and one from Hawaii made the short list and were interviewed. Two traveled on their own dime from the mainland for their interviews, Kim said.
Because the position is civil service, the state law requiring department heads to be a Hawaii resident for a minimum of one year doesn’t apply.
After a committee evaluated the applicants, the job was offered to one of the mainland applicants, who declined because the salary isn’t high enough for such a major relocation, Kim said.
“No way could they take that pay,” Kim said.
Executive assistant Roy Takemoto said the mainland applicants would have had to take a large pay cut to come here.
Increasing the salary range “would hopefully broaden the appeal of this and attract a larger pool of candidates,” he said.
The mayor said he made a mistake allowing the Department of Human Resources to advertise the position at the low end of the salary, rather than a range. The best way to rectify that is to start over, he said.
Kim scoffed at the suggestion floating among some government-watchers that he’s delaying hiring a full-time administrator until the consultant he has on contract, Curt Sharp, gets the required experience to qualify for the job.
Sharp is on his second 89-day contract. He had applied for the permanent position but was rejected by Human Resources before the list of three was sent to the mayor.
“What nonsense,” Kim said. “I’m not going to play games with that. So we will re-advertise it as required by law.”
Kim brought in Sharp, a former U.S. Marine Corps officer, on May 1 to troubleshoot an agency plagued with Hele-On bus breakdowns, late arrivals, and passenger and driver discontent. Former Transit Administrator Tiffany Kai stepped down to another position.
Prior mayors have used the 89-day contract to give at least one preferred candidate the necessary experience to qualify for a full-time job, according to county auditors.
Kim and Acting HR Director Bill Brilhante said the salary range will be the only difference in the new ad. The experience requirements will be the same, they said.
Brilhante said the fact that there were few responses to the last recruitment, and only three candidates qualified, puts the position in the “hard to fill” category, allowing for the salary range.
The job posting requires a “combination of education and experience substantially equivalent to … four years of professional work experience in planning and coordinating activities for a mass transit program, of which one year shall have been in an administrative or supervisory capacity,” along with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, public administration, economics or a related field.
Sharp, 72, claims 45 years experience in transportation networks and logistics, including overseeing more than 500 vehicles and 1,000 staff. But Human Resources disagreed that was “substantially equivalent” to mass transit.
Sharp has spent months trying to clean up the baseyard and maintain and add buses to the fleet. He’s also tried to motivate personnel to work harder.
But his blunt, no-nonsense style hasn’t sat well with some employees, with several telling West Hawaii Today that morale is at an all-time low.