STAND. COM. REP. NO. 644

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2001

RE: S.B. No. 1162

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations, to which was referred S.B. No. 1162 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC NOTICE REQUIREMENTS FOR PUBLIC LAND DISPOSITIONS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to reduce the public notice requirements for certain dispositions of public lands.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources (Department). Common Cause Hawaii submitted testimony in opposition.

Your Committee finds that under existing law, when a public land disposition occurs public notice must be run three times in both statewide and county publications. For dispositions in the County of Hawaii, public notice must also be placed in both the East and West Hawaii newspapers. The cost of publishing notice is passed on to the entity receiving the property.

Your Committee further finds that these costs are overly burdensome to the Department and serve to lessen the competitiveness of the disposition process for State lands. Therefore, your Committee supports this measure, which requires notice to be published only once (twice for drawings) in either a statewide or local publication.

Due to widespread access to the Internet, your Committee also believes that notices should be posted electronically, and has amended this measure to require all notices of public land dispositions to be posted on the Internet in an easily located manner. The Department testified that it is already exploring this option as well. Your Committee believes that posting on the Internet may be the most effective method of providing the public with actual notice of public land dispositions.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1162, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1162, S.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations,

____________________________

CAL KAWAMOTO, Chair