STAND. COM. REP. NO1267

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2001

RE: H.B. No. 382

H.D. 1

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations and Tourism and Intergovernmental Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 382, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLICATiON OF NOTICE,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to exempt the counties from statewide publication of notice requirements, except when required under the procurement laws and human services contracts.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the County of Hawaii, the Maui County Mayor, the Honolulu County Department of Permitting and Planning, the Chair and five members of the Maui County Council, the Hawaii State Association of Counties, and the Hawaii Newspaper Agency. Common Cause Hawaii suggested amendments. The Department of Accounting and General Services submitted testimony in opposition and also recommended amendments.

Your Committees find that the residents of the State would not be well served by exempting counties from the statewide notice requirements of section 1-28.5, Hawaii Revised Statutes. At the same time, your Committees recognize that it can be particularly burdensome, especially for the neighbor islands, to publish a statewide notice in every instance.

Therefore, your Committees have amended this measure based on recommendations submitted by the Department of Accounting and General Services, to allow the finance directors for Hawaii, Kauai, and Maui counties to determine a single publication for county published public notice on each island. This will enable the public to go to a single source for county published public notice, while at the same time giving the counties greater flexibility in the publication of notice.

Your Committees also amended this measure to include the judiciary and the legislature within the statewide notice publication requirements. Your Committees find that the important functions provided by these institutions mandate their inclusion.

Your Committees also amended this measure to include a provision requiring so-called "vision teams" to post public notice at least six days prior to any meeting or decision making, and to post the minutes of all meetings. A "vision team" is any advisory group created or authorized to be created by charter, ordinance, or by the request or order of a county executive, to provide a vision in the development of public facilities and improvements requiring the expenditure of public funds.

Vision teams utilize public funds on behalf of the people of this State, and your Committees believe that the public has a right to notice of their meetings. Each vision team shall post notices and minutes at two locations: at Honolulu city hall, and at a site selected by the chairperson of that vision team. Your Committees believe that the chairperson should select a single site for all postings for a vision team.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations and Tourism and Intergovernmental Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 382, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 382, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations and Tourism and Intergovernmental Affairs,

____________________________

DONNA MERCADO KIM, Chair

____________________________

CAL KAWAMOTO, Chair