STAND. COM. REP. NO.1025

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: H.B. No. 176

H.D. 1

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 176, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE WEED AND SEED PROGRAM,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to allow the Department of Public Safety to contract with a private nonprofit corporation for the purposes of coordinating policy, disbursing funds, and implementing community plans related to the Hawaii Weed and Seed Program.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Executive Director of Weed and Seed Hawaii, the Honolulu Police Department, two members of the Weed and Seed Expansion Task Force, Meadow Gold Dairies, the Waikiki Citizens Patrol, and a concerned citizen. The Department of Public Safety opposed this measure.

Your Committee finds that law enforcement efforts alone are unsuccessful in revitalizing a community ravaged by the effects of drug abuse and related criminal activity, poverty, and unemployment.

Your Committee further finds that the Weed and Seed program utilizes a coordinated approach to restoring a community. Law enforcement agencies, social service agencies, private businesses, nonprofit organizations, and members of a community work together to reclaim and rebuild communities. The four key elements to the Weed and Seed program are:

(1) Law enforcement;

(2) Community policing;

(3) Prevention, intervention, and treatment programs; and

(4) Neighborhood restoration.

Your Committee notes that crime in the Kalihi-Palama/Chinatown area of downtown Honolulu has significantly declined since the inception of the Weed and Seed program. Your Committee agrees that the program should be expanded into other high crime areas.

Your Committee amended the bill by deleting its contents and inserting Senate Bill No. 361, S.D. 2 language that establishes a temporary interdepartmental council for coordinating Weed and Seed efforts.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 176, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 176, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs,

____________________________

COLLEEN HANABUSA, Chair