STAND. COM. REP. NO. 242

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 523

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Government Operations and Economic Development and Technology, to which was referred S.B. No. 523 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO FAIR PUBLIC ACCESS,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Authorize the Governor to establish a Statewide Fair Access Commission;

 

     (2)  Require the Statewide Fair Access Commission and the Joint Legislative Access Committee to review, evaluate, and make recommendations for improving the level of access by neighbor island and rural Oahu residents to proceedings, information, and services of government; and

 

     (3)  Appropriate funds to carry out the work of the Statewide Fair Access Commission.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Information Management and Technology.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the League of Women Voters of Hawaii.

 

     Your Committees find that public access to government is fundamental to the democratic process.  Due to the State's geography and the fact that most government functions are clustered in the urban core of Honolulu, it is necessary to go to additional lengths to ensure access to state government by residents of Kauai, Maui, and Hawaii Counties.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Clarifying that the Governor is responsible for fair access to the Executive Branch of government;

 

     (2)  Clarifying that the Statewide Fair Access Commission would address public access to the Executive Branch of government;

 

     (3)  Replacing the terms "audio and video broadcasts" with the terms "electronic broadcasts and on-demand electronic recordings";

 

     (4)  Deleting the proviso concerning Judiciary determination of which Judiciary records are not subject to public disclosure; and

 

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

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Government Operations and Economic Development and Technology that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 523, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 523, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Government Operations and Economic Development and Technology,

 

____________________________

GLENN WAKAI, Chair

 

____________________________

DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair