State budget lets DLNR
fill 52 vacant positionsMore than 150 jobs have been
unfilled awaiting more fundsDepartment seeks efficiency help
The just-approved state budget gives the Department of Land & Natural Resources funding to start filling 52 staff vacancies, Director Peter Young said yesterday.
The 52 are considered essential, he said. Since January more than 150 staff vacancies have gone unfilled as officials waited to see how much money would be available.
Among top positions open are the administrator of the Historic Preservation Division and its head archaeologist, key forestry positions on Maui and Kauai, and significant technical positions in various divisions, Young said.
The DLNR is a sprawling department with 10 divisions whose duties include managing 1.3 million acres of state land and 565 million acres of ocean, and supervising the people who hunt, fish, hike, boat and play there, plus protecting the plants and animals that live there.
At full staff the department would have 800 employees, but it has not had that many in some time. Young said he asked each division to evaluate vacancies and prioritize needs to come up with the current hiring plan.
For example, Parks Administrator Dan Quinn is recruiting for 12 positions in his 133-person division, including a manager of statewide park operations and of Oahu park operations. Other positions he is looking to fill are "scattered throughout the islands at different levels of responsibility," he said.
The Division of Aquatic Resources will get five staff in administrative and fisheries technician positions, Administrator Bill Devick said.
While the division helped fight the invasion of Salvinia molesta in Lake Wilson shorthanded, it had to slack off on some critical monitoring of rainfall, fisheries and coral reef ecosystems, Devick said.
About $25 million of the $70 million DLNR budget, passed by the Legislature on Wednesday, comes from the state general fund. The rest is generated by user fees and through federal and private grants.
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Department seeks
efficiency help
The state Department of Land & Natural Resources is asking the public to help it figure out "better, faster, more efficient and less costly ways" of doing its job, Director Peter Young said yesterday.
Suggestions for smarter operations for any of its 10 divisions are being solicited in a campaign Young is calling "Making Hawaii a Great Place to Live."
It is an effort that will be seeking public opinion and asking department staff to take a hard look at their mission and how they are meeting it.
DLNR manages state parks, historical sites, forests, reserves and sanctuaries, aquatic and terrestrial wildlife, boating and ocean recreation, and public hunting and fishing areas. It also is the landlord for state-owned agricultural and urban lands leased to private users or other state agencies.
Comments can be e-mailed via the department's Web site at www.hawaii.gov/dlnr; sent to P.O. Box 621, Honolulu, HI 96809; or faxed to 808-587-0390. Contact Deborah Ward at 587-0320.