Posted on: Friday, December 13, 2002

Lingle rescinds Cayetano's controversial hiring rule

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

Gov. Linda Lingle has rescinded a controversial executive order issued by her predecessor that gave political appointees and other non-civil servants the same advantages as civil servants when seeking new government jobs.

"The civil service system exists for a reason and that's so that people are treated fairly in employment and everybody has equal opportunity," Lingle said yesterday.

On Nov. 13, in one of his last actions as governor, Ben Cayetano signed Executive Order 02-04, which allowed appointees and other non-civil servants the opportunity to apply for civil service openings before they are advertised publicly, an advantage previously given only to civil servants.

The executive order also allowed appointees and other non-civil servants to retain their salaries, if higher, when they took civil service jobs.

The Cayetano decision was perceived by critics, including union leaders, as a means for the departing governor to take care of those who have held political patronage jobs under his administration by helping them find permanent employment.

Cayetano could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Lingle said she does not know how many non-civil servants took advantage of the executive order, but she said recent hires by state agencies would be reviewed.

"We not only have rescinded (the order) but we are calling for the head of human resources to do an investigation of anybody in the last six months who's been put into one of these positions via this approach. And we're going to be reviewing them and having the departments answer for why someone was allowed into a position like this."

She noted that she has received a number of e-mails from state employees unhappy about Cayetano's executive order.

"Nobody knows better than the existing employees where the waste is in government, where the inequities are in government and this particular decision has really rankled the working people in the state government because ... some people are being given a fairer chance than others," Lingle said.

Randy Perreira, deputy executive director for the Hawai'i Government Employees Association, said the union is "pleased that the governor has taken this step."

"As you might have expected, a number of employees have raised concerns with the executive order and the impact of it," he said.

Perreira said he had knowledge of only a few possible instances where a non-civil servant had taken advantage of the executive order, but added that more worrisome to his members was "the potential for abuse in the future allowing people to move into the civil service like that."

He said the union questioned the timing of Cayetano's move, noting that the union and the administration had been discussing a proposed changed in policy but had not reached a consensus.

The executive order gave non-civil servants a status "almost like civil service," Perreira said, and "allowed individuals to take away opportunities for civil servants. "

"The concern, in the long run, was about the ability to use language as a means of bringing other people into civil service and not by traditional and appropriate means of the civil service recruitment process," Perreira said.

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.