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Personnel Services seeks consultant to review rules as county faces roughly 18% vacancy rate
Summary
Director Cynthia Raza Porter told the committee Personnel Services requests $300,000 in professional services to hire a consultant to review county administrative rules, policies and procedures. Members pressed the department about a reported 600+ vacancies (about an 18% vacancy rate) and recruitment, training and retention measures.
Cynthia Raza Porter, director of the Department of Personnel Services, briefed the committee on her department's FY26 request and outlined an ask for an increase of $300,000 in professional services to retain a consultant to review administrative rules, policies and procedures.
Porter said she wants an outside subject-matter expert to help review and recommend updates to the county's rules that govern hiring, recruitment and onboarding; she explained the department lacks the bandwidth to conduct a comprehensive review in-house and noted the civil service rules were last substantially changed decades ago.
Council members pressed Personnel Services on hiring and recruitment. The department reported roughly 667 vacancies countywide during the hearing, which the director and staff characterized as a substantial challenge and described as roughly an 18% vacancy rate. Porter said Personnel Services operates an applicant-tracking system and maintains application records; hiring processes include screening applicants for minimum qualifications and forwarding eligible lists to departments.
Members and department staff discussed recruitment initiatives the department has undertaken, including a recruitment/retention outreach campaign that included a WorkMauiNui website and promotional materials; the department said about $150,000 was spent on that campaign and reported a modest increase in applications following the outreach. The department also described staff training offerings and LinkedIn Learning usage and said it would provide committee members with written reports on hires, application-to-hire ratios and other request-specific data.
Porter said the $300,000 requested for professional services is intended to fund a comprehensive review of rules and possible statutory recommendations; the department acknowledged a consultant procurement or a budget amendment could be required depending on contract size and scope. Committee members urged faster hiring practices and suggested options such as recruitment incentives, higher step hires and targeted outreach to displaced federal workers.
The committee requested more written data on hires and vacancies and asked the department to provide details on outreach, training and the planned consultant scope before the council acts on the budget.
