The top officers of the board of the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers voted to increase their monthly stipends by more than four times the current pay effective Thursday, when a $20 hike in union dues for members simultaneously kicks in, according to an email obtained by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

SHOPO’s board of directors approved an increase of the monthly stipend for union president Robert Cavaco from $1,400 to $6,000. The vice president, Steven Keogh, will see his stipend increase from $800 to $5,000. Secretary John Asing and treasurer Derek Pa will see their pay increase from $800 a month to $4,000 a month.

SHOPO members will see their dues increase from $80 to $100 a month starting Thursday. By comparison, the police union in San Francisco charges members $148.60 a month and Sacramento police union members pay $130 a month.

“Upon assuming office, the new SHOPO State Board recognized that our members at the Maui, Kauai, and Hawaii police departments were not being provided the service and attention from their union that they deserved,” the SHOPO board said in a statement to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

“We also recognized that our union must refocus its energy on providing high-quality service to each of our 2,700 members, and so we set out to deliver on these priorities and to further professionalize our union. We realized that this came with significantly higher personal costs of time away from our families, hundreds of additional hours to serve our members per month, and the use of our vacation and personal days to meet the needs of our members,” the statement said.

A SHOPO membership meeting on the dues increase is scheduled for Thursday, and the increases might not be sitting well with some members.

“The promises they made during their campaign were clearly lies,” said a 10-year HPD veteran who spoke to the Star-Advertiser on the condition that he not be identified. “They betrayed our trust, and they should be removed from office. … This is outrageous.”

SHOPO is made up of four separate chapters — Honolulu, Maui, Hawaii, and Kauai — each with its own board of directors elected by the membership of the respective chapters.

Each board is run by a chapter chair who is also a member of the state board of directors. In addition to the four chapter chairs, the state board includes the president, vice president, secretary, treasurer and three directors at large, who are elected by the entire statewide membership.

The board’s notice to SHOPO members of a dues increase cites rising legal costs, hiring more business agents, building and property maintenance, increased pay for SHOPO staff, the hiring of a California-based political and communications consulting firm and as other reasons for the increase in monthly dues.

Between 2019 and 2021, the union says, legal costs incurred have risen 97 percent. “Progressive prosecutors pursuing unworthy charges, changes to laws impacting our members, and an increase in the number of grievances and department-­initiated discipline cases have driven our legal costs higher,” reads the Friday email.

The monthly allowances for board members have not been increased since 2011, SHOPO said.

“Since that time, housing costs, groceries, gas, and everything else costs more. The responsibilities and workload of State Board members has substantially increased. As such, a monthly allowance has been created for each Chapter’s Vice Chair and an increase has been made for State Board Members,” the email continues.

In addition to top leadership, the pay for Kauai County Chapter Chair Kennison Nagahisa, Maui Chapter Chair Nicholas Krau, Hawaii Chapter Chair James “Kana” Correa and Oahu Chapter Chair Nicholas Schlapak will increase from $800 a month to $3,000 a month.

The three director-at-large positions, held by Shawn Cavaco, Christopher Calio and Carmel “Mel” Hurley will go from earning $600 a month to $1,000 a month.

Chapter vice chairs, previously uncompensated, will now receive $500 a month.

“The increase in the Directors’ monthly allowance is being done to offset the financial burden Directors face by not working any special duty assignments as well as their existing practice of using a significant amount of their comp time and vacation leave for SHOPO business.”

SHOPO board members do not “have full release time,” according to the email, juggling their police work with union duties, and “regularly burn” their own compensatory time and vacation time to do union work and are not reimbursed. SHOPO estimates its president and vice president spend about 128 hours a month of personal time doing union duties.

“Board members are unable to work OT shifts and special assignments for OT in order to meet their obligations to serve the membership,” according to Friday’s email. “This significantly decreases their overall take-home pay.”

Union leadership told its members that their new allowance comes with “financial protections and cost saving measures.”

The president, vice president, treasurer, secretary and chapter chairs may not work special duty overtime shifts — only uniformed overtime shifts, the union said. Officers working special duty assignments “can work up to 96 hours a month making anywhere from $50 to $75 an hour,” the union said.

The union says it has eliminated all per diem payments for travel as a cost-saving measure. Per diem amounted to about $20,440 a year over the past five years, according to SHOPO. The union no longer buys mobile phones for board members or pays for their cellphone bills.

“We concluded that it made sense to align our stipends with what other law enforcement unions provide their boards and create policies to ensure there are no financial conflicts in the service of our members,” the email said. “Thus, we put in place that State Board Officers and Chapter Chairs are prohibited from working any special duty jobs, we limited their personal income, and we’ve eliminated per diem payments for all travel. The reality is that when union officials have to divide time and resources between the department job, family, and serving the union statewide, the membership will not get the level of service they deserve. This is especially true for our outer island members. That’s been the past practice, and we’re putting that to an end.”

SHOPO was founded in 1971.

“It is our responsibility to be good financial stewards of the membership’s money. We acknowledge that this is an increased expense, and we ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility,” read the email. “After an honest 8-month evaluation, the State Board of Directors realizes that properly supporting and serving SHOPO members in all four counties requires a substantial amount of personal time from Directors. We cannot accomplish this goal while working special duty employment.”

Shopo Monthly Allowance Final by Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Scribd