STAND. COM. REP. NO. 444

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1118

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 1118 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE HAWAII PUBLIC HOUSING AUTHORITY,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to authorize the Hawaii Public Housing Authority Board of Directors to set the salaries of the Executive Director, Executive Assistant, and other key management personnel subject to federal limitations.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Public Housing Authority and Hawaii Public Housing Authority Board of Directors.

 

Your Committee finds that the Hawaii Public Housing Authority is eighty-six percent federally funded and that over ninety-five percent of the salaries at the Authority are federally funded or funded through rental receipts.  Because of this, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development has mandated that public housing agency boards across the nation be responsible in governing their respective public housing agencies.  Existing state law authorizes the Authority to employ personnel, including an Executive Director and an Executive Assistant and dictates the cap on compensation provided for each position.  This is not consistent with the Department of Housing and Urban Development's guidelines, which require the Board to, among other things, establish the salary of the Executive Director in accordance with a mandatory comparable salary study.

 

Your Committee further finds that the Hawaii Public Housing Authority is one of the largest public housing agencies in the nation, which requires that the Authority employ experienced and talented individuals to manage over 6,000 units in the State's low-income public housing communities.  Having a salary limited to eighty-five percent of that of the Director of Human Resources Development severely inhibits the ability of the Board to recruit and retain qualified personnel with the necessary skills and experience to run a public housing agency of this size.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1118 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Human Services,

 

 

 

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair