Report Title:

UH

Description:

Allows the UH to adopt administrative rules to manage and regulate public activity on lands it controls. Allows the UH to charge administrative fines pursuant to those rules.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

749

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2005

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. Pursuant to the Constitution and statutes of the State of Hawaii, the University of Hawaii is vested with autonomous authority to control and manage its educational and proprietary affairs. Such authority extends to the use and oversight of lands and real property owned, leased, or otherwise demised or transferred from various owners, including state, federal, or private entities, to the university for the furtherance of its educational, research, and agricultural experimentation.

Such autonomous authority presumably carries with it the necessary legal means to supervise, oversee, and permit public activities on those lands and may be implied from the autonomous character of the university. Nevertheless, the purpose of this measure is to clarify and add certainty to the law relating to the university's authority to manage and control public activities on lands which it may own or otherwise possess by providing express authority to the university to adopt rules pursuant to chapter 91, Hawaii Revised Statutes, relating to public activity permitted or occurring on its lands that do not conflict with other statutes or their implementing rules that are applicable to these lands.

SECTION 2. Section 304-4, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (a) to read as follows:

"(a) The board of regents shall have management and control of the general affairs, and exclusive jurisdiction over the internal organization and management, of the university. It may appoint a treasurer and such other officers as it deems necessary. It may authorize any officer, elected or appointed by it, to approve and sign on its behalf any voucher or other document which the board may approve and sign. It may delegate to the president or the president's designee the authority to render the final decision in contested case proceedings subject to chapter 91, as it deems appropriate. It may purchase or otherwise acquire lands, buildings, appliances, and other property for the purposes of the university and expend such sums of money as may be from time to time placed at the disposal of the university from whatever source. All lands, buildings, appliances, and other property so purchased or acquired shall be and remain the property of the university to be used in perpetuity for the benefit of the university. The board of regents, in accordance with law, shall manage the inventory, equipment, surplus property, [and] expenditures[of the university], and any real property owned, leased, or otherwise under its control and, subject to chapter 91, may adopt rules, further controlling and regulating the same.

The board of regents by rule may set, charge, and collect administrative fines for violations of any rule adopted pursuant to this chapter. The board shall provide for administrative procedures, including contested case hearings pursuant to chapter 91, for the purpose of enforcing its rules. The administrative fines shall be consistent with the following limitations:

(1) For the first violation, a fine of not more than $2,500;

(2) For the second violation within five years of a previous violation, a fine of not more than $5,000; and

(3) For the third and subsequent violation within five years of the last violation, a fine of not more than $10,000.

Each day of violation shall constitute a separate offense.

The board's rules shall provide for hearings officers to conduct contested cases subject to appeal as provided in section 91-14. Upon proof, hearings officers may assess against persons found to have violated a rule, administrative costs of the enforcement proceeding, including the contested case. Reasonable attorney's fees also may be assessed.

Enforcement proceedings pursuant to this section are civil. The board of regents may institute court action to collect administrative fines and any administratively assessed costs and attorney's fees."

SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

_____________________________

BY REQUEST