Thom Williams on revamping Hawaii ERS: Governance, strategy and long-term vision

Respect the perspectives of others and recognize that there are as many perspectives as there are people and or positions if you will. And to understand and respect to know that the members look at our program and this goes slightly differently than the legislature who has a whole different set of stakeholders and and obligations and our board and staff. uh to respect and and invite all of those perspectives, you have to make some tough decisions in the in the inter room period.

But I think those decisions are are made more rational and impactful and and justifiable when you've weighed all of the the different perspectives that are that are involved. In a lot of instances and particularly in a environment where there is civil service and union representation terminations are subject to arbitration and if one is found to have been terminated improperly you are often times awarded restoration of your job and back pay etc. But there were no rules governing those determination.

There would just be a a a back and forth between the complainant and the employer as to what the provisions of the settlement might be and it was oftent times multiple years of service. I would have worked an additional six or eight years and I would have earned overtime and I would have had these levels of increases. It was all hypothetical and and what would occur is that when these settlements were reached, the employer would send us a communication says give this person 12 years of service and here's the back contributions that we would have paid but without interest or anything.

And what we realized and readily was that there was an actuarial impact on the plan because in many instances this made individuals immediately eligible for.