Report Title:

Workforce Development Council; Transfer; Economic Development

 

Description:

Transfer the Workforce Development Council from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations to the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism to assist in aligning Hawaii's workforce development policy with the State's economic development initiatives.

 


HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

3162

TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

 

A BILL FOR AN ACT


 

 

RELATING TO WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL.

 

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 


     SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that aligning the State's workforce development policies and programs with the State's economic development policies is one of the most important issues facing the State.  However, no such alignment currently exists as current programs are fragmented and poorly coordinated due to independent bureaucracies at both the county and State levels.

     Like many other states, Hawaii is taking steps to align workforce and economic development programs.  The assumption is that when you combine Hawaii economic development programs with the State's workforce development programs, department of business, economic development, and tourism officials will coordinate their activities with their counterparts in workforce development in the State of Hawaii to ensure that both long-term planning and current recruitment and expansion efforts take into account the skills of Hawaii's workforce and Hawaii's workforce development systems' capacity to train additional workers.

     Similarly, Hawaii's workforce development professionals would work closely with the department of business, economic development and tourism officials and employers to ensure that their training and job placement efforts are designed to meet the skill needs of existing and future industries, especially those viewed as key to future economic growth and diversification.

     In pursuing this alignment, Hawaii is confronted with the challenge of two systems that operate very differently, with workforce programs historically viewed as a social service targeted to individuals and funded primarily through federal funds.

     Alternatively, economic development is focused on business utilizing state and federal funding.  The different funding streams add a level of complexity to differences among governance and planning structures, performance and reporting requirements, and geographic focus areas.

     The legislature finds that the first important step to resolving these issues is to structurally transfer the State's workforce development council to the department of business, economic development, and tourism.

     If the State desires to identify and ensure coordination of workforce development programs to meet economic development needs, the workforce development council presents itself as the opportunity to create an overarching coordination structure.  Hawaii's workforce education and training functions are spread across multiple state agencies, with no one agency or office overseeing all state workforce activities.

     This structural and statutory change would allow for the most direct path to alignment of workforce development and economic development.

     SECTION 2.  Section 202-5, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

     "§202-5  Organizational relationships.  The workforce development council is placed within the department of [labor and industrial relations] business, economic development, and tourism for administrative purposes and shall act in an advisory capacity to the governor. "

     SECTION 3.  All officers and employees whose functions are transferred by this Act shall be transferred with their functions and shall continue to perform their regular duties upon their transfer, subject to the state personnel laws and this Act.

     No officer or employee of the State having tenure shall suffer any loss of salary, seniority, prior service credit, vacation, sick leave, or other employee benefit or privilege as a consequence of this Act, and such officer or employee may be transferred or appointed to a civil service position without the necessity of examination; provided that the officer or employee possesses the minimum qualifications for the position to which transferred or appointed; and provided that subsequent changes in status may be made pursuant to applicable civil service and compensation laws.

     An officer or employee of the State who does not have tenure and who may be transferred or appointed to a civil service position as a consequence of this Act shall become a civil service employee without the loss of salary, seniority, prior service credit, vacation, sick leave, or other employee benefits or privileges and without the necessity of examination; provided that such officer or employee possesses the minimum qualifications for the position to which transferred or appointed.

     If an office or position held by an officer or employee having tenure is abolished, the officer or employee shall not thereby be separated from public employment, but shall remain in the employment of the State with the same pay and classification and shall be transferred to some other office or position for which the officer or employee is eligible under the personnel laws of the State as determined by the head of the department or the governor.

     All appropriations, records, equipment, machines, files, supplies, contracts, books, papers, documents, maps, and other personal property heretofore made, used, acquired, or held by the agencies, divisions, or offices transferred or placed for administrative purposes under this Act shall be transferred with the functions to which they relate.

     All rules, policies, procedures, guidelines, and other material adopted or developed by the agencies, divisions, or offices transferred or placed for administrative purposes under this Act, shall remain in full force and effect until amended or repealed by the department of business, economic development, and tourism pursuant to chapter 91, Hawaii Revised Statutes.

     All deeds, leases, contracts, loans, agreements, permits, or other documents executed or entered into by or on behalf of the agencies, divisions, or offices transferred or placed for administrative purposes under this Act, shall remain in full force and effect.

     SECTION 4.  Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken.  New statutory material is underscored.

     SECTION 5.  This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2008.

 

INTRODUCED BY:

_____________________________

 

 

BY REQUEST