Committee forwards funding for two union contracts covering 2025'129, estimated $71.4 million

The Hawaii County Committee on Finance voted June 3 to forward two resolutions funding tentative collective bargaining agreements for multiple county employee units covering July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2029.

Resolution 188-25 covers Hawaii Government Employees Association (HGEA) bargaining units 2, 3, 4 and 13 and the estimated four-year cost was read into the record as $46,901,771. Resolution 189-25 covers United Public Workers (UPW) Unit 1 and was estimated at $24,463,678 over four years. Councilmembers voted to forward both resolutions to the full council with a favorable recommendation.

Context: Summer Tokihero, director of human resources, told the committee the tentative agreements for HGEA and UPW are four-year deals; finance staff said the proposed fiscal 2026 budget already accounts for the estimated increases. Diana Kagawa of the finance department said the budgetary estimates used a reasonable across-the-board percentage based on prior practice.

Council discussion: Councilmember Kimball asked for an overview of how the tentative agreements are incorporated into the budget; Tokihero and finance staff replied that finance had modeled anticipated percentage increases and included those estimates in the proposed budget. Councilmember Bernicelli urged attention to pay for Unit 3 employees in future negotiations.

Votes: Resolution 188 was moved by Councilmember Inaba and seconded by Councilmember Eustace; the clerk recorded nine members in favor. Resolution 189 was moved by Councilmember Nava and seconded by Councilmember Eustace; the clerk recorded nine members in favor.

Ending: Committee members said they would continue to monitor units still in arbitration and budget assumptions for units not yet settled.