STAND. COM. REP. NO.384

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2001

RE: S.B. No. 24

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Labor and Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations, to which was referred S.B. No. 24 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to enable public agencies that are ready to implement experimental modernization projects to make their agency operate more efficiently to start their projects this year rather than waiting for the Civil Service Reform Act to take effect next year.

Testimony in support of the measure was received from the City and County of Honolulu Board of Water Supply and the Hawaii Government Employees Association.

Your Committees find that the Civil Service Reform Act, otherwise known as Act 253, Session Laws of Hawaii 2000 (Act 253), contained language that enabled public agencies to engage in experimental modernization projects to make their agency's operation more efficient. However, the effective date of the enabling language is July 1, 2002. An unfortunate consequence of the delayed effective date is that some agencies are ready to implement their modernization projects and, because of the delayed effective date, are unable to do so.

One such agency is the City and County of Honolulu Board of Water Supply (Board of Water Supply). The Board of Water Supply has been working on their project, known as QUEST, for quite some time and in anticipation of civil service reform. Your Committees believe that it was not the intent of Act 253 to impede the progress of any operational modernization project, but rather to foster the proliferation of efficient uses of staff and resources.

Your Committees recognize that through the diligent and collaborative efforts of the City and County of Honolulu Board of Water Supply in working with its employees, no existing employee will lose a job as a consequence of the Board of Water Supply's modernization project.

Your Committees are concerned that the measure as received, may be subject to ambiguity with regard to the definitions of terms contained in section 76-11, Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS), that will be changed by the Civil Service Reform Act on July 1, 2002. Frankly, your Committees believe that simply moving up the effective date of the section of Act 253 which authorizes experimental modernization projects without effectuating the attendant amendments to the pertinent definitions contained in section 76-11, HRS, would only serve to confuse and thus impede the progress of those agencies who are ready to initiate their modernization projects.

In light of this concern, your Committees have amended the measure by:

(1) Deleting the substance of the measure;

(2) Substantially copying the language authorizing experimental modernization projects from section 74 of Act 253 and the prospectively amended language of the pertinent definitions contained in section 76-11, HRS (section 9 of Act 253);

(3) Including language clarifying that state and county personnel agencies are to fully cooperate with agencies implementing experimental modernization projects; and

(4) Making the language effective on July 1, 2001.

Your Committees believe that the amended measure accomplishes the same intended goal of the measure as introduced with the added benefit of clarifying a personnel agency's role in the experimental modernization project process.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Labor and Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 24, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 24, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

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

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CAL KAWAMOTO, Chair

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BOB NAKATA, Chair