STAND. COM. REP. NO. 542

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 853

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 853 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE ELECTIONS COMMISSION,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to specify that the Elections Commission is responsible for providing oversight of the Chief Election Officer.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from Common Cause Hawaii and one individual.  The Office of the County Clerk, County of Kauai and Office of the County Clerk, County of Maui submitted comments.

 

     Your Committee finds that existing law allows the Elections Commission to hire and advise the Chief Election Officer but does not empower the Commission to take disciplinary action toward the Chief Election Officer, if necessary.  This measure specifies that the Elections Commission is responsible for providing oversight of the Chief Election Officer.

 

     Your Committee supports the intent of this measure but questions whether specifying that the Commission is responsible for oversight of the Chief Election Officer is duplicative of the Commission's responsibility to advise the Chief Election Officer.

 

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by deleting the language that specifies that the Elections Commission is responsible for providing oversight of the Chief Election Officer and replacing it with language that requires the Commission to conduct a performance evaluation of the Chief Election Officer after each election and submit a written report of the evaluation to the Legislature within ninety days of the certification of the election results.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 853, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 853, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

 

 

 

____________________________

CLAYTON HEE, Chair