STAND. COM. REP. NO. 543

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 858

       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. 858 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to clarify the Legislature's intent that no board or commission member who has failed to receive the advice and consent of the Senate shall continue in office as a holdover member.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Sierra Club and two individuals.  The Department of the Attorney General submitted comments on this measure.

 

     Your Committee finds that existing law provides that no person shall be appointed consecutively to more than two terms as a member of the same board or commission, provided that membership on any board or commission must not exceed eight consecutive years.  This measure clarifies that it is the Legislature's intent that no person who has failed to receive the advice and consent of the Senate shall continue in office as a holdover member.

 

     Your Committee notes the concerns raised by the Department of the Attorney General that the language in this measure could leave a board without its full complement of members for the balance of the legislative session during which a holdover member's confirmation is rejected.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Adopting the language proposed by the Department of the Attorney General that allows a person whose reappointment to a second consecutive term fails to receive the consent of the Senate to continue in office as a holdover member only until the Senate adjourns sine die;

 

     (2)  Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

 

     (3)  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 Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 858, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 858, 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