STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3083

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 1581

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Water, Land, and Agriculture and Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 1581, H.D. 2, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require contested case hearings of the Commission on Water Resource Management, Land Use Commission, Public Utilities Commission, Hawaii Community Development Authority, and those involving conservation districts to be appealed directly to the Supreme Court.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Building Industry Association–Hawaii, Hawaii Association of REALTORS, Hawaii Farm Bureau, Chamber of Commerce Hawaii, and two individuals.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Judiciary and Department of the Attorney General.

 

     Your Committees find that this measure would substantially reduce the time required to resolve disputes on agency actions involving the Commission on Water Resource Management, Land Use Commission, Public Utilities Commission, Hawaii Community Development Authority, and those involving conservation districts.  Reducing the number of decisions and appeals on an already cumbersome land use entitlement process would improve the predictability and certainty and reduce the risk currently associated with Hawaii's land use entitlement process. 

 

     Your Committees note the concerns of the Department of the Attorney General and have therefore amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Amending section 602-5(a), Hawaii Revised Statutes, to resolve potential conflicts;

 

     (2)  Requiring that the court gives priority to contested case appeals that are of significant statewide importance, relating to the Commission on Water Resource Management, conservation districts, Land Use Commission, and Public Utilities Commission;

 

     (3)  Deleting language that would have allowed the court to reserve jurisdiction and appoint a master or monitor to ensure compliance with its orders, where a court remands a matter to an agency for the purpose of conducting a contested case hearing, because the language is redundant, as the court always has authority to enforce its own orders;

 

     (4)  Removing proposed amendments to section 206E-20, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to avoid confusion;

 

     (5)  Requiring the Judiciary to submit a report to the Legislature prior to the Regular Session of 2019;

 

     (6)  Inserting a sunset date of July 1, 2019; and

 

     (7)  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 Water, Land, and Agriculture and Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1581, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1581, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

 


Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Water, Land, and Agriculture and Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health,

 

________________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair

 

________________________________

MIKE GABBARD, Chair