STAND. COM. REP. NO. 23

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 478

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Human Services and Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 478 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE HAWAII PUBLIC HOUSING AUTHORITY,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds for thirty permanent full-time equivalent multi-skilled worker civil service positions to assist the Hawaii Public Housing Authority in repair and maintenance of low-income housing properties.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Public Housing Authority.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from United Public Workers.

 

     Your Committee finds that a flexible, multi-skilled workforce will allow the Hawaii Public Housing Authority to schedule and arrange staff in multiple areas of repair and maintenance that require increased manpower at any time and for any duration at low-income public housing properties.  This flexibility allows the Hawaii Public Housing Authority to schedule and arrange work in accordance with the needs of the agency, maintain multiple low-income housing properties at a high level that would otherwise leave repair and maintenance idle, and focus on the living environment and safety needs of the residents at low-income public housing properties.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Clarifying that the thirty multi-skilled worker civil service positions requested by the Hawaii Public Housing Authority are non-exempt;

 

     (2)  Deleting language that would have appropriated funds to establish multi-skilled worker civil service positions in the Hawaii Public Housing Authority;

 

     (3)  Inserting language to establish thirty full-time equivalent permanent multi-skilled worker civil service positions in the Hawaii Public Housing Authority to assist and support public housing operations statewide; and

 

     (4)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services and Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 478, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 478, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Human Services and Housing,

 

 

 

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair