STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1022

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 611

       H.D. 2

       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 Water and Land, to which was referred H.B. No. 611, H.D. 2, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE DIGITIZATION OF HISTORIC PRESERVATION RECORDS,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to the State Historic Preservation Division of the Department of Land and Natural Resources to implement an acceptable data management plan for the digitization of historic preservation records and to establish full-time positions to carry out the Division's services.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources; Historic Hawaii Foundation; Society for Hawaiian Archaeology; Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii; and one individual.

 

     Your Committee finds that the State Historic Preservation Division of the Department of Land and Natural Resources has made enormous strides in resolving the management and performance problems identified by the United States National Park Service and reflected in the corrective action plans.  In May 2014, the State Historic Preservation Division submitted its Corrective Action Plan (2) Final Report, which included the various plans, reports, and operating procedures required to meet the National Park Service's requirements.  In June 2014, the National Park Service accepted and approved all documents submitted as part of the Corrective Action Plan (2) Final Report except the data management plan.  The State Historic Preservation Division has advised the National Park Service and the Legislature that it will work to revise the data management plan to make it acceptable.  Because the data management plan includes digitization of over 3,600,000 pages of documents, as well as creation of several databases, a geographic information system, and integration of all these items into a single functioning system, the State Historic Preservation Division advised the National Park Service and the Legislature that it does not have the funds necessary to implement this project.

 

     Your Committee also finds that transitioning to digital data management, as well as effective ongoing management of the State Historic Preservation Division's records, maps, reports, inventory documents, databases, and geographic information system, requires additional staff.  The National Park Service has directed the State Historic Preservation Division to hire a librarian to oversee its library, reports, and files.  Given the size of the Division's document collections, the librarian and the Division will require four additional administrative staff to support the project and operate the system once the transition is completed.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Clarifying that the purpose of the appropriation in section 3 is to implement a data management plan for the digitization of historic preservation records; and

 

     (2)  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 Water and Land that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 611, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 611, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 


Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Water and Land,

 

 

 

________________________________

LAURA H. THIELEN, Chair