House Standing Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce

Good afternoon. I'd like to call this meeting on the Consumer Protection and Commerce Committee to order. Today is Wednesday, February 12th. It's 2:00PM a little after 2:00PM and we're in Conference Room 329. Just going to go over some housekeeping before we get started.

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Such behavior may be grounds for removal of the hearing without the ability to rejoin with that, we have a number of items on the agenda. So let's get started with our first bill, House Bill 97, House Draft 1 relating to travel insurance. First up we have DCCA insurance division.

Good afternoon Vice Chair Chun Members of the Committee, Jerry Bump, Acting Insurance Commissioner will stand on our written testimony offering comments on this bill and available for any questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have AGA Service company on Zoom.

Hi, good afternoon. I hope you can hear me. Duke De Haas with Allianz, Richmond, Virginia. Thank you for bringing this bill stand on my our written testimony. I'm very sorry I cannot be there in person. 33 degrees here in an ice storm without power. So I am very envious of your situation. Look like 77 degrees there.

I'm happy to answer any questions. I will not trespass on your time by saying more about it. We submitted written testimony, did request one minor amendment, but happy to answer questions about the bill. I'm also here on behalf of the United States Travel Insurance Association, of which I am co chair of the law Committee. Thank you.

Right. Thank you very much. Next we have the US Travel Insurance Association and American Property and Casualty Insurance Association on Zoom present. That's all I have. Who registered to testify in person or on Zoom. Is there anyone else wishing to testify on this measure? Seeing none. Member any questions?

Okay, let's move on to the next measure. So next up we have House Bill 226, House draft 1 relating to window shield tinting. First up we have Department of Transportation.

Hello Vice Chair, members. Ed Sniffen, Hawaiʻi DOT. Stand in support.

Thank you. Next we have Honolulu Police Department on zoom.

Good afternoon, Chair. Major Stason Tanaka of HPD's District 7 East Honolulu. I initially submitted testimony in opposition to HB 226 relating to motor vehicles. However, looking at the proposed amendments, I just have some comments on it and suggestions.

For example, the proposed amendments talk about the windows being rolled down when the motor vehicle is stopped by a law enforcement officer. I'd like you to consider the definition of roll down. I've been at many roadblocks where I see my officers ask the motorist to roll down their windows and the motorist rolls it down one inch.

So my suggestion would be to maybe include the language of completely roll down. Also they talk about when a motor vehicle stopped by a law enforcement officer, yet it doesn't specify when.

I'm assuming that you mean prior to the approach of the officer to the car, to the vehicle is when you would expect that person to roll it down, but it's not really specified. So if the motorist rolls it down while the officer is standing right outside of the vehicle, then it kind of defeats the purpose.

Another thing that I would say is that it doesn't also take into account inclement weather, like if it's pouring. I think common sense would dictate that an officer would not want the person's car to get soaking wet. But that's just something that is not really clarified in the Bill.

I get the intent of having the windows rolled down. It also doesn't specify as to what is the sanctions if the person doesn't roll down their window, which is something I think you should consider.

When I talk about sanctions, I bring into mind 291C-27, for those of you are not familiar, is the we call it the move over Bill.

I see a lot of vehicles passing fellow officers on traffic stops or even tow trucks that are on the side of the road that motors are supposed to be moving over one lane or slowing down to a reasonable speed. But I don't see that happening.

So these are just things that I would like you to take into consideration and I'll be available for questioning.

Thank you. That's all. I have registered to testify in person or in zoom. Is there anyone else who wishes to testify on this measure. Seeing none, no. We can move on to the next measure. Have any questions.

Next we have House Bill 1179 House draft 1 relating to rural emergency hospitals and first we have Department of Health. Not present. Next Department of Human Services with comments.

Aloha Chair, Members. Junimore Peterson, Med Quest Administrator on behalf of Director Yamane. The Director Department of Human Services stands on a written testimony offering comments and we are available for any questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have Maui Health Systems in support.

Aloha Vice Chair. Deb Cartwright, Chief financial officer administrator for the hospitals on Lanai and Maui. We stand on our written testimony and strong support of this Bill and thank you for your consideration and supporting our ability to better serve especially our kupuna and our long term care beds and our critical access hospitals.

So mahalo and available for questions if any arise.

Thank you. That's all. I have registered to testify in person or on Zoom. Is there anyone else wishing to testify on this measure? Seeing none. Any questions? Seeing none. Let's move on to the next measure. Next up we have House Bill 420 House draft 1 relating to remedies.

First up to testify is the law offices of Philip Thurney in opposition.

Thank you Vice Chair and Committee Members. My name is Phil Nurney. I am an attorney who has represented condominium associations for over 34 years.

I'm here speaking as an individual but I would like to note that I also Chair the legislative Action Committee of the Community Associations Institute and I Chair the Condominium Property Regime task force created by the Legislature in 2023. This is an anti consumer bill.

I've had occasion to talk to both sides of this and they're not really communicating well. What I think is more indicated is the enhancement of the Contractor Repair Act, alternative dispute resolution processes and to get these folks talking. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next we have the Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters in support. Don't see them.

Sorry about that. Mitch Dynanes, Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters I stand by my written testimony but I can offer a little personal issue about what happened.

I'm I guess one of the residents that was kind of involved in this when the lawsuits came about, I'll say about 10-12 years ago these laws in Ewa Beach we have three developers, maybe four at the time, three that went through these lawsuits. So you know the community talk about it.

They talked about materials coming from China, rusting, talk about the houses going to fall down and being a first time home buyer in that area and still there, lifelong resident there. The community talk about it and I'm not a lawyer. Our communities are not, are not lawyers.

But when they came up to our Association and at the time I was the President of my Association there, they offered to go in and check your house for free, see if there's any problems with your house. And at the time our work warranty for our homes kind of expired. We have a 10 year warranty.

It was about 12-13 years down the line. So being a homeowner thinking, hey, there could be all these defects going on. There's kind of a list of laundry list of defects they were saying could have, we'll do it for free. Hey, we don't have warranty on it. Do it.

So, you know, everyone have to opt in or opt out of this situation. But it took priority, probably about two years to two and a half years for it to settle and get anything done. And at the time, a lot of the community Members, we all talk, we don't know when the next hurricane was coming.

We don't know if it's true about our house is going to blow, you know, the roof's going to come off, our house is going to fall down. We don't know what's going to happen. And the anxiety that felt, we felt as a community was just, you couldn't really think about it.

But that was just my exposure to what these things happen with these lawsuits that are coming in.

And I'm just hoping that there's a alternative issue where not only the community but the homeowner and the developer can just work it out, get it fixed and move on instead of having that year, two year, three year lag where we don't know. We're always up in the air of what can or could happen to our homes.

Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have Lip Smith, LLP on Zoom.

Thank you Chair and Committee Members, and thank you for the opportunity to testify on HB420. We strongly urge the House to reject HB420 because it is anti consumer and will endanger Hawaii homeowners and it defeats the Contractor Repair Act's core purposes.

For the last 15 years, I've personally represented Hawaii homeowners in class actions where our goal is to achieve repairs for defective life and safety components. Although I do regret to hear about Mr.

Tainani's experience in the cases that I've managed, we've been able to get more than 4,000 homes with critical life and safety defects that are corroding structural components repaired for homeowners so that they're not bearing that cost and they didn't have to pay any money at all to get the repairs because we were able to achieve wins in our class actions against the builders.

If enacted, HB420 would defeat the Contractor Repair Act's original purposes of speedy, precise and inexpensive resolution of construction claims.

First, HB420 would upend purchase agreements and warranties that are already in place for homes built over the last 20 years where the Contractor Repair act had very specific requirements that builders were following in both their contracts with the homeowners and in the warranties which are still in effect today for many of these homes.

These changes they're proposing would actually contravene and upend many of the terms and the warranties that are already out there, including 10 year warranties that are commonly issued on homes in Hawaii. Second, the HB420's requirements to allow inspections on all homes in class actions would extend rather than shorten litigation.

I'm involved in two cases right now where the builders have insisted on inspecting every home in the case. These are thousands and thousands of homes. It's taking years and years to complete the Contractor Repair act process rather than the period of days that's envisioned by the current act. Third, HB420 is one sided, favoring only the builders.

It incentivizes builders to lowball homeowners and coerce them into taking Low ball offers that won't get them the repairs that they need for these homes and these critical life safety defects. Finally, enacting HP420 will not reduce attorney fees and costs for litigation. It's just going to risk shifting all attorney fees and costs to the homeowners.

I'm here to answer any questions that you may have, and particularly on the class action component of this.

I would urge that if there is some willingness to make an amendment on a provision that the House suggests that the amendment be made to allow a sampling of the homes in the class action rather than all of the homes in the class actions.

We can normally get into a negotiation with the other side where we can say this many homes will qualify. We should go look at a sampling so that we don't wind up spending years and years and years and millions of dollars doing investigations in the litigation. Thank you.

Great.

Thank you. Next we have Holomua Collaborative.

Joshua, we'll stand on our testimony in support.

Chair, thank you.

Standing on testimony in support. Next we have the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii in support. And next we have the Hawaii Realtors in support. So if you folks, even if you're going to stand on your testimony support. Be helpful if you could come up to the mic just so that folks doing this remotely can.

Aloha. Lindsey Garcia from the Hawaii Realtors. We're standing on our testimony and support. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have Building Industry Association of Hawaii on zoom.

Hello, I'm Rosanne Freitas, CEO of BIA Hawaii. And we stand on our testimony. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have Kasdan Turner Thomas Booth llc.

Hi Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, My name is Chris Akita. I am a partner at Kazdan Turner Thompson Booth. We represent homeowners and associations seeking to recover for construction defect claims. I oppose HB 420. This bill does not achieve the Committee's goals of creating more affordable housing.

Instead, it makes homeownership more unaffordable by making it difficult or impossible for homeowners to recover construction for construction defects. And it shifts the cost from of repairing those defects to the consumer. Homeowners would not only be able responsible for the high cost of housing, but they would also be responsible for repairing the developer's mistakes.

This bill does this by preventing homeowners from pursuing their legitimate claim construction defect claims and weaponizing the Construction Contractor Repair act as described further in my testimony. It does this in five ways.

First, it creates special protections for builders and contractors, basically a two year limitation only for construction defect claims, which is significantly more restrictive than any other state or any other area of Hawaii law. It prevents homeowners from recovering for life or safety violations until there's an actual tragedy.

It guts the class action process which is an important consumer protection process for homeowners to recover for these types of defects. It coerces homeowners into accepting inadequate offers by limiting the ultimate recovery and preventing homeowners from recovering costs. It turns the Contractor Repair act into a further one way discovery process.

Finally, this bill will allow developers to weaponize the Contractor Repair Act, leading significantly to delayed and insufficient resolution. Ultimately, HB420 would do nothing to alleviate the problems of affordable housing, but would make homeownership more costly for people in Hawaii. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have the Kapolei Chamber of Commerce on Zoom. President, we have Gentry Holmes.

Good afternoon Vice Chair and Members of the Committee. I'm Debbie Looning and on behalf of Gentry Holmes, we would like to express our very strong support of this bill.

You know the Contractor Repair act under Chapter 672e was intended to provide a means for builders and homeowners to efficiently and collaborative collaboratively address legitimate construction Defects that are discovered within a certain time period.

As a home builder who has existed in Hawaii for over 55 years and who desires to continue building homes here for our local families, we believe that our reputation is of utmost importance.

It is in our best interest to not only build the best homes possible, but if there is any legitimate construction defects, to go in there and repair it as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, our company and a number of other home builders have recently been the target of a rising number of class action lawsuits that have prohibited us, prohibited us from addressing construction defect claims as quickly and efficiently as possible. This harms the homeowner, our companies and the community as a whole.

These types of lawsuits have had a very detrimental effect on the overall housing market by delaying housing construction, restricting mortgage lending, increasing insurance costs, impacting jobs, decreasing supply and increasing the overall cost of housing.

Without reform, our housing crisis will continue to worsen because of the detrimental impacts of such lawsuits on not only potential home buyers, but the construction industry as a whole. As a developer of workforce housing for local families, we find this to be both a undesirable and unacceptable.

This Bill, as amended, offers a solution to establishing clearer guidelines that will lead to a more fair and cooperative process for addressing construction defects. It will reduce unnecessary litigation, stabilize costs, and allow builders to focus on delivering quality homes for Hawaii's residents. I respectfully urge you to pass this Bill out of Committee. Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have AARP Hawaii Aloha Vice Chair Chun and Committee Members. I'm Kaylee Lopez, State Director for AARP Hawaii and we stand on our testimony and opposition to HB 420. We recognize the challenges that developers are faced with.

But at the end of this, I think we're all losing sight of the homeowners and the people who make major investments. For many people, as you know, it's so expensive to live in Hawaii.

The fact that you can even buy a home, you're very lucky to have to then deal with possible defects because I presume a majority of homes don't have that issue. But if you have sunk your life savings and more into the purchase of your home, you shouldn't have to go through the proposed process that's outlined in 420.

Clearly, from hearing from folks, the current process isn't working. And I feel strongly for all those involved if the Legislature can figure out a way to get the parties to the table and come up with absolutely a better way because the process that's in place isn't working. What's proposed in 420 takes a step in the wrong direction.

Importantly, I think there are other jurisdictions. I know we don't like to look elsewhere to see who possibly might have something better than we do, but there are other states that have dealt with this issue. I'm not one who loves studies either, or task force, but there's got to be something better than HB420 that. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up, register to testify.

We have William McKeon on Zoom.

Aoha, Vice Chair Chun and Committee Members. My name is William McKeon. I'm testifying here today from Maui, which is my home, where I've lived the last 40 years. I am here to oppose this bill and these amendments.

This bill is going to cost homeowners millions of dollars, and especially it's going to cost Lahaina residents that are in the process of rebuilding millions of dollars. We know what happened after Hurricane Iniki hit Kauai in 1992. There was a lot of substandard construction.

Unfortunately, there's going to be about 2300 homes and buildings rebuilt in Lahaina, and there's going to be some substandard construction, unfortunately. And passing this Bill is going to make it harder for homeowners in Lahaina that suffer from construction defects to get a recovery. And it's going to add tragedy to tragedy, frankly.

Now, developers and builders, they have a lot of money. They make a lot in profits. And through this Bill and the amendments, they want to make it even harder for homeowners to try to get a recovery that would allow them to repair defective homes. Homeowners can't compete with the wealth and the resources of large developers.

You know, Dr. Horton alone has a net capitalization of about $40 billion and had net profits last year of about $5 billion. Homeowners can't compete with that. This Bill would make that situation even worse by making it even harder for homeowners to try to get their homes repaired. Hawaii clearly has a housing problem.

Uhero says housing starts are Low because of high land costs and a limited amount of land zone for housing and high costs of construction. We all know materials have to come in from the mainland to Hawaii. That adds to the costs. We know there's a labor shortage that adds to costs.

Uhero also notes that a significant problem is the regulatory scheme that developers face. Those that scheme adds fees and costs, and it takes years to get permits and entitlements, and all of that adds to the cost.

What was notable to me was that Uhero does not say that Getting insurance is a problem for developers or builders or that that adds significantly to these problems. Insurance purchased by developers is basically the means by which homeowners can get their defective homes repaired.

And it's necessary for those homeowners to live in a safe home that at least meets the minimum requirements of the building codes. The problems identified by Uhero definitely need addressing. But limiting homeowners remedies is not the answer. The issue that I've seen. I'm also an attorney.

I represent probably 600 owners in Lahaina that I was working with over the last 40 years. And the problem is, you know, how do these folks get a recovery if there's a defect of situation?

As an attorney, you know, homeowners have to comply with the 672e requirements, give notice of the defects, and then the developer and builder in every case I've been in in the last 40 years has failed to come forward with a reasonable offer within a reasonable amount of time.

And there's, there's nothing in this Bill, as amended, that would reinforce the defendants to actually make for the developers to make a reasonable time. Thank you.

Thank you. That's all. I have registered to testify in person or on Zoom. Is there anyone else wishing to testify on this measure? Yes.

Thank you, Vice Chair Chan. Members of the Committee, my name is Lee Tokuhara and On behalf of Dr. Horton Hawaii, I am here to strongly support HB420HD1, which seeks to reform the Contractor Repair Act.

As one of Hawaii's largest home builders, Dear Horton is committed to developing multifamily units, including townhomes and condos and production housing that maximize Oahu's limited land and offer affordable options for our working families. However, the current legal environment undermines these efforts.

The dense nature of our projects and others makes them prime targets for class action lawsuits from construction defect attorneys. The statistics are alarming. Before 2010, only six construction defect lawsuits were filed in Hawaii. Since 2010, that number has surged to 65.

This exponential increase in litigation poses a serious threat to the future of housing development in our state. And once a class action lawsuit is filed and certified, we are legally prohibited from directly communicating with the homeowners involved. This leaves them unaware of their inconclusion in a lawsuit and uninformed about their rights, including the option to opt out.

What this Bill does is fosters a balanced approach that safeguards homeowners rights while enabling builders to continue contributing to our housing supply. The reforms ensure that legitimate defects are addressed swiftly and fairly, reducing unnecessary litigation that ultimately Burdens homeowners, builders and the broader community. We believe we build quality homes. Are they 100% perfect? Well, nothing is.

But if there are legitimate defects, we want the opportunity to work collaboratively and directly with our homeowners to provide solutions. For the sake of Hawaii's working families, I strongly urge you to pass this bill. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Aloha, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, Panemi Tonga III, Operating Engineers Local 3, Political Deputy Director. I believe my Boss has already sent in written testimony in support of HB420.

He did want me to come here in person to relate to you folks how important this is for us, especially for the operating engineers of the construction unions. This could affect our work, and so we have strong support for this. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anybody else wishing to testify on this measure? Seeing none. Members, any questions? Rep. Iwamoto.

Thank you, Chair. This is a question for Dr. Horton. Thank you for your testimony. You indicated that you're not able to contact any of your home purchasers once a claim is filed in court, once it's certified. Certified as a on behalf of attorney, certified in the court process, or certified once the class is certified. Got it.

So there's a lot of room before that happens. I mean, am I wrong that when a class happens, it's showing that there's been a huge. Obviously a substantial or repetitive or something had to reach that class level. But you mentioned that.

You mentioned in your testimony that you were striving to contact the homeowner and hear about what kind of complaints they're having and to work it out. So wouldn't. If they fix. I mean, if you actually did fix things, defects in the home that all these homeowners. Then it wouldn't reach the court system. Right. I mean.

Right, but what's happening? So if a homeowner does make a claim, we are able to address it, work with them. It's in the instance that they're maybe included in a class that they don't know about, that they're not made aware that they're even being folded into a class action.

Okay. And you're not able to reach them before the class action is filed to say, hey, we understand some of you guys are having issues with this or this. Please, we're ready. We have crews ready to fix it.

I understand your question. I just want to make sure I can see the instance that it was a very short turnaround.

Hi, my name is Sarah Love. I'm a local attorney. I work with many of the other attorneys you've heard from today. I do both plaintiffs and defense work, and I have done some work for Dr. Horton as well as other developers and contractors in Hawaii.

Once a lawsuit is filed, whether it's a class action or an Association lawsuit, there is an attorney client relationship that is presumed. And that's when the talking basically stops on the client's side.

Lawsuits can be filed at any place in the spectrum of a case when a lot of people know about it, when a lot of people might not know about it yet. That's a decision that attorneys make about when they want to file. But once it's filed, the talking stops. I got that.

And then obviously there is, you know, questions about. There's always going to be questions about what's being claimed versus what other people think, and you have to kind of work that out. But I think that that's what's happening is the communication is not going on between the sides because lawsuits. The lawsuits are filed.

Okay. I'm trying to. Maybe somebody else heard my question differently. I can let Lee come back. No, somebody's right behind you. Yeah, yeah, please.

Hi, Vice Chair and Committee Members. My name is Tracy Tanaki. I'm the Division President of Dr. Horton, Hawaii. Been working for the company for 21 years. Born and raised here.

To answer your question, maybe I can share it in an example where we were actually going in and when homeowners were filing warranty claims at a community specifically for what we're being sued on now.

We were going in, we were sending a team in of our engineers, our experts, our vendors, and our contractors to go in and do an assessment. And if there was damage, we were fixing it. And then the class was filed and certified and we had to cease all of that.

So we were actually implementing the repair act, but were stopped in doing so further. And doing what we want to do is collaborately work with our homeowners to fix the repairs. I will tell you, in the last 20 years, not only have we seen an increase in litigation claims, they've gotten broader.

And they've actually gotten so broad that they are now affecting homes we haven't even started construction on yet. So it was homes that 800 homes that were permitted ready to start.

And because how we designed it fell into a class, a broad class claim, we couldn't build them because it doesn't make sense for us to start construction, invest in the community, only to turn over houses that are going to automatically get put in a lawsuit.

In addition to that, what we found that it also affected a condominium that we were actually building one block away from our rail station for first time home buyers.

And when the class was filed, we needed to report that to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, Virginia, all of the government agencies that there's pending litigation and they all rescinded their approval to lend. This was a condominium that wasn't even finished construction. We were starting construction.

And so it's now not only affecting builders, but it's affecting homeowners and it's affecting home buyers and our local families that need the Low down payment, government back assistance to get into homeownership. Does that answer your question?

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, to a certain degree. I was just shocked that all the numbers went up so much. And I just know that there's a huge window of time for the builder to reach out to the buyer and to give them assurances and to be really assertive and proactive in avoiding some of this. But thank you.

Thank you for your explanation.

Thank you. Any other questions, Members. Seeing none. Let's move on to the next measure. So next on the agenda we have House Bill 1291, House draft one relating to agriculture. First up we have Department of Ag.

Good afternoon. Chair Matayoshi and Vice Chair Chun. My name is Richard Cohen. I'm the branch manager of Measurement Standards and I'm here to stand on our testimony in strong support of this measure. I'm also available for questions if you should have any. Thank you very much for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you. Next we have synergistic Hawaii Agriculture Council on Zoom.

Aloha. Vice Chair and Committee Members. I'm Suzanne Shriner, administrator for SHAC, testifying in support on behalf of the coffee industry, including the Hawaiʻi Coffee Association, the Kona Coffee Farmers Association. We stand on our testimonies and would just add that this is a very important loophole to close in the statute. And we appreciate your attention on the matter.

I'm available for questions. Thank you.

Great. Thank you. Next we have Richard Cohen on Zoom. Okay. All right. That's, that's all I have. Who registered to testify in person or on Zoom. Is there anybody else wishing to testify on this measure. Seeing none. Members, any questions about coffee. Seeing none. Let's move on to our last measure, House Bill 755.

Let's move on to our last measure, House Bill 755, House draft 1 relating to paid family leave. And first up we have Department of Human Resources, Development.

Good afternoon, Chair Members of the Committee, my name is Brenna Hashimoto. I'm the Director of the Department of Human Resources Development. We'll stand on our written comments providing some concerns about operational impact of such a program. And we would request that the Committee consider excluding state employees, state and county employees from coverage in this program.

I'm available if you have any questions.

Thank you. Next we have Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

Good afternoon. Vice Chair Chun, Representative Martin and representative Koko Iwamoto. I'm Jade Butai, Director of the Department of Labor Industrial Relations. We stand on our testimony appreciating the intent. We can agree on the need for paid family leave. You know, the why isn't that complicated? To us, it's the how that is complicated.

In a way, I think we're all on the same side, but standing on different heels with different views.

You know, from the department's perspective, you know, we need to keep in mind that, you know, to implement a program like, you know, like this, we would need to create a division similar to Unemployment Insurance division in complexity and work and without the federal funding.

But I'm confident that if given the, you know, I'm confident that we can meet the challenges if given the resources and the direction. Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you. Next, we have pride at work Hawaii on zoom.

Good afternoon. Michael Golojuch Jr. he him pronouns President of private work Hawaii. We stand in support of this bill. Well, we would really like to see an entire 100 employer paid. Paid family leave. We believe this is a step in the right direction and we encourage you to move the. Move the bill out. Mahalo.

Thank you. Next, we have Hawaii Public Health Institute in support. Present United Public Workers.

Vice Chair Chun, Members of the Committee, Kamakhana Kaimalo, Government affairs manager, Free Night Public workers. You have our written testimony in opposition agreeing with a DLIR Director. I think we all believe that this is a benefit that should be provided to all workers.

But given that, by all indications, this would largely require public employees to be part of the financial equation, we just don't want to be to be done on the back of public employees. Happy to answer any questions you may have.

All right, thank you.

Let's see.

Next up, we have the Hawaii Restaurant Association on zoom.

Hi. Good afternoon. Vice Chair Chun and Members of the Committee. The Hawaii Restaurant Association stand in opposition to HB 77755 HD1. You know, since coming out of a very soft economy from COVID we are continuing to face insurmountable challenges with Cost increases. This new additional mandate to business will be a sledgeham to our small and medium businesses.

Because if you look at a time schedule of 1128 that's also the same time where our state minimum wage will hit $18 an hour. And that is really going to be a compounding inflationary factor to not just the Hawaii businesses but the community at large. Many restaurants right now offer their employees playtime off.

And this bill, if it passed, will really end up taking away paid time off which gives the employees the flexibility of them to do what they need to do. The fallacy that businesses is limitless, well, that, you know, businesses can Fund almost anything. This is really going to be a killer for small businesses here in Hawaii.

So we really feel that, you know, this is not a time to implement such a bill. Thank you very much for hearing our testimony.

Great, thank you.

Next we have AARP Hawaii Aloha Vice Chair Chun and Committee Members. Arp stands in strong support of HB 755. As we articulated in the prior. You know, in other opportunities to talk about this legislation, it actually is in employers interest to provide paid family leave.

The cost, you know, at this point it would be shared between the employer and the employee. The reality is if someone is able to take leave, they're able to utilize that insurance. And guess what? The employer's not paying them for that time that they're actually on leave. The insurance is covering a portion of that cost.

So I really wish employers would take a look at it and understand it's really to their benefit. Most importantly, we know they care about their employees. I certainly hope they do. And again, providing people paid family leave so they can either bond with a newborn child, take care of a kupuna or a family Member is important.

What we're doing now in Hawaii is making people choose between putting food on their family's table or taking care of a loved one. Hawaii is better than that. I know we are. And so I think this needs to move forward in a way that hasn't been considered previously.

And we really need to see the Legislature step forward and support workers. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have the American Association of University Women of Hawaii on zoom.

Good afternoon from the Big Island. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. Vice Chair Chun and Members of the Committee. I'm Nancy Rustad speaking on behalf of the AW of Hawaii in strong support of this bill. We as an organization have worked for a long time to improve the lives of women, girls and their families.

And I've submitted written testimony on our behalf that we stand behind. But I did want to focus on a couple of points today because I feel that paid family leave, helping workers take time off to care for their own serious health needs or those of their loved ones, or to bond with a new child is really important.

And I think it really contributes or fits directly in with our values about family in Hawaii. I feel that I've experienced the issues around paid family and medical leave from really both sides. Before I retired, I manage employees at large corporations, so I understand the cost of losing valuable employees.

And I also understand the cost of having to recruit, hire, and retrain replacement people. And no matter what the business is, this has an impact both on productivity and the bottom line of any business. And I've had conversations with small business owners here, and I have found they echo some of those same concerns.

The other side of that equation is I found myself in a situation of living in one state while having to provide care for my mother after a medical issue in another state. And the time I could stay with her was limited and I couldn't afford to lose my job at the time.

So I was forced to make arrangements long distance and try to monitor things so that they went well. And you can imagine and the stress this puts on any employee living with this kind of situation. So these situations are really not unique for women and their families here in Hawaii.

The phrase we've heard before sandwich generation still holds true while we're dealing with both Kupuna and Keiki in the same family. I know AARP Hawaii has reported there's over 150,000 of unpaid family caregivers in the state right now. And we know as we're aging in population as a state that's only going to continue to grow.

At the same time, I think we're all aware of the significant challenges we face in maintaining a stable workforce in Hawaii. And I think paid family and medical leave benefits not only our families, but it also benefits our businesses.

And it's time we join the 13 other states in the District of Columbi- Columbia, and in fact, the other developed countries in the world that have paid family leave. Again, no one should really have to choose between dealing with and taking care of their loved ones and their paycheck. So please move Forward and support HB 755. Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have the Hawaii State Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

Aloha Vice Chair Committee Members, I'm Angie Mercado, the Executive Director of the Hawaii State Coalition Against Domestic Violence. We are the Association of Domestic violence service providers in this state. We represent 25 Member programs and we are in strong support of this measure. Two primary reasons we are in strong support of our of this measure.

First, you've read in our testimony the impact that such a measure like this would have on survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking, which is why paid safe leave is included in here.

I want to reiterate that those people are part of the workforce and that we owe them the opportunity to continue to participate in the workforce.

But we also represent the programs who are working with these survivors and in the nonprofit field, especially domestic violence staff advocates, those who are doing shelter work, who are doing legal accompaniment, who are doing medical accompaniment. This is hard work. The amount of training it takes to have effective domestic violence staff is immeasurable.

So the turnover is difficult on our organizations and being able to keep staff is really hard. We compete with big box stores like Whole Foods, Costco and Target for our staff. We need to have the opportunity for our programs to serve survivors of domestic violence.

We need to have a stable workforce, we need to have an efficient workforce, and we need to have a highly trained workforce who are dealing with these complex societal issues. And for this reason, I am in strong support of this measure. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have the Hawaii State LGBTQ Commission on Zoom.

Thank you. Dr. Kathleen Odell, chair of the State LGBTQ Commission. We stand on our written testimony and strong support of House Bill 755. Such workplace protections are essential to preventing discrimination, particularly against LGBTQIA employees who may already face biases in the workplace. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have Retail Merchants of Hawaii on zoom. Hawaii Food Industry Association on zoom, the National Federation of Independent Businesses.

Good afternoon, Vice Chair Members of the Committee, Mike Yosua. On behalf of NFIB, we echo some of the concerns already raised by previous testifiers. We agree that family leave is an important issue that must be addressed. But this bill particularly takes away some of the flexibility and adds some significant costs which really impact Hawaii's small businesses.

I'm available for any questions. Thanks.

Thank you. Next, we have Catholic Charities of Hawaii on Zoom.

Aloha Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, I'm Betty Lou Larson with Catholic Chairs Hawaii. Besides the many populations that have already been discussed, I want to talk about those who are sick and can't afford not to work. This is a public health risk.

As we saw during COVID People will work because they have to, but it also affects our lower income workers. They generally are the ones who have much less of these benefits. In their jobs. And so again, they may be juggling a couple jobs, can't afford not to work.

And these are the families who are really thinking about leaving Hawaii because of the high cost of living. They don't have time to spend with their children and all the problems that occur when families are so struggling that they have a lot of stress.

So we support this bill as others, and we really appreciate your hearing it and moving it forward. Thank you. Thank you.

Next we have H Government Employees Association.

Hello Vice Chair Members. Nui Sebast here with hga. We'll stand our written testimony in opposition to this measure. I do want to emphasize that we represent a lot of Low earning income Members that could be negatively impacted by an additional payroll deduction model.

Thank you. Next we have Hawaii Children's Action Network speaks.

Aloha, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, my name is Nicole Wu with Hawaii Children's Action Network Speaks. We're in strong support of this bill. I encourage you to read the stories that are in the testimony.

So many people are talking about how they've struggled, their families have been harmed, they've lost their jobs when they've needed to take this time off. There really is a need for a program like this, a safety net for our workers.

And there's also reams of research that shows that paid family leave in the other states that have it, California's had it for like 20 years, that it helps families, it helps women. And I encourage you to take a look at our website, paidleavehawaii.org for a lot of that.

I'd like to just educate a little bit in my testimony just to make it clear what we're talking about in this bill. First of all, HB 755 does not require employees to pay into the program. It says that employers cannot ask employees to pay more than half, but employers are perfectly welcome to cover the entire premium.

This is similar to health insurance where, you know, some employers cover it all, but there's a cap on how much employees can pay. So I just want to make that clear. There's no mandate for employees to pay anything, but it caps how much the employers can ask them to pay.

And we also think, and also in the bill, small businesses are only required to pay half as much of a premium as larger employers, trying to recognize the fact that small businesses do struggle with these costs more than larger employers. So that's in the bill.

And we honestly believe that paid family leave in this Bill would save businesses money and it would help small businesses compete Better for the best employees. We worked with Vanderbilt University, which has done analyses of paid family leave bills and laws across the country.

They use Department of Labor data from the states that are running the program, and then they tailor it to our population's ages, our gender, balance, our incomes to come up with how much it would cost and then how much people would be paid under the program in HB 755.

And just to help you understand, the premiums for a minimum wage worker here would be $102 a year. That's less than $2 a week. But that minimum wage worker would get a benefit of $504 a week back under this program. An average worker who makes 62,000 ish a year would pay in 217 a year. That's $4.

That's less than a small latte at Starbucks. And they would be paid 930 per week. So it's a real benefit. And one of the reasons that this is such a sort of cheap insurance program is because it's a statewide program. The larger the pool, the cheaper it is per person.

And these numbers are assuming that the cost split. 50. 50, sure. So compare that to providing paid time off, which is what a lot of employers do out of their pocket. They'd be paying $10,000 or more for the same average employee rather than Paying A.

And this Bill also removes the requirement to pay for temporary disability insuranbe, which is about. It's not much. It's pretty similar in cost to what we're talking about.

And so a lot of employers would actually see cost savings in the premiums that they're paying while having so much more of a benefit and not having to pay their employees when they have time off because the program would be covering them. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, the Chamber of Commerce stand on its threats and testimony not in support of this measure. While we understand the intent of the bill. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have Cassandra Simonson. Dr. Cassandra Simonson on Zoom. Not responding. Okay, maybe you can come back. Next up we have Chloe Vieira Villanueva on Zoom. Oh, okay. Sorry about that.

Aloha, Vice Chair Chan and Committee Members. My name is Pua Enna and I'm from Oahu. I'm a working parent and early learning professional. I am here today in strong support of HB 755 in Hawaii, where many families are living paycheck to paycheck.

It's critical that Hawaii implement programs like this so that families are able to thrive, not just survive. So I'm here today for my son Kiele who was born at 25 weeks gestation.

This program is for working families, Alice, families like mine where my wife and I struggle to provide care for our medically complex child and our sick elderly kupuna parent without paid leave.

So my son was in the Kapi'olani nicu for over five months and after this, his early birth, I only had two weeks of parent leave which my employer did not need to provide. But they did. And so just after two weeks, I had to go back to work full time.

I only saw my baby four hours every weekday between work and my commute home as a Hawaiian immersion toddler teacher. At the time, I was spending nine hours a day caring for other Keiki and sacrificing, bonding with my child for some sense of financial stability and security. We lost our rental apartment.

We were drowning in medical bills due to the high cost of living in Hawaii. Since then I had to put my career on hold to prioritize my son's developmental needs and our family's mental health.

I left the early learning workforce as an infant toddler specialist which there is a shortage of in Hawaii infant toddler specialists to continue my healing care for my keiki. And this program is not only for the economic stability of Hawaii, but for better health outcomes for babies like Kiele Maikiki, growing Keiki Parents, caregivers, kupunas and survivors.

So as a parent, early learning professional and concerned community Member, I hope that our Legislature can do this to help all of the people working hard in Hawaii for Hawaii. Please support this measure. Mahalo for your time and aloha.

Thank you. Next we have Leilani Kaliawa on Zoom.

Aloha everyone. My name is Leilani Kaili Alva. I am a parent of three sons and a community leader here on Hawaii Island. I strongly support paid family and medical leave because no one should have to choose between their job and caring for a loved one.

Eight years ago, my newborn son Jeremiah was hospitalized for seven months at Kapiolani Medical Center. I stayed at his bedside to take care of him. My temporary disability insurance benefit was exhausted and there was no more income coming in.

My husband took off from work without pay and traveled back and forth from Hawaii island to Oahu to give me a break and bond with his child. And it was important for us to be with his newborn baby for his loving care and long term development. We both did not have the benefit of paid time Off.

We struggled financially and there was so much caregiver burnout. Being away from family, it really impacted our quality of life. Our economy and our family units can be stronger and be able to heal and thrive. When this bill is passed, please support paid family and medical leave program. Thank you.

Great. Thank you.

Next we have Patricia Bilyk, Aloha Vice Chair and Committee Members. My name is Patricia Bilyk and I'm an advanced practice nurse, our registered nurse in the specialty of maternal, infant nursing and breastfeeding. I stand in strong support of House Bill 755 House Draft 1.

I've been a nurse in the State of Hawaii for 53 years caring for many families with the issues around the time a baby is born and the care of parents and certainly the little one. I've assisted them also with returning to work issues which often are very early. As the lady just before me said, two weeks.

I've worked with that kind of woman as well. I feel the early time these families spend together is extremely important for a strong parent child relationship. This relationship is a basic foundation of our society and our state and needs to be protected in all ways. I support 12 weeks paid leave.

I'd like even more to be truthful with you with employee contributions, but it would be nice to have 50/50. I'd also appreciate that wage replacement is so important for these families in Hawaii because it takes so much to live in the state. I support this program for private and public workers throughout the state.

It's time for our state to help our local families in their time of need. And I've been testifying on this issue. In fact, I just found in my file some testimony that I did from 20178 years ago. So the time is now. It's right.

And Pono, for our state to do this, please support this bill and move it on. Thank you. Thank you.

Let me go back. Is Dr. Simonson still available?

Yeah.

Hello. Sorry, just one second. I'm sorry for missing. I was in clinic, I'm seeing patients, so I was popping in between seeing little babies. So I appreciate you guys hearing this stand on my written testimony.

I just wanted to point out that one of the main, most important benefits I can see from paid family leave is that it really could reduce the incidence of child abuse, you know, and keeping families stay together, you know, if everybody, you know, can cope a little bit better with having time off.

And so I'm really interested to see, you know, long term studies because we're pretty sure that it would reduce child abuse.

And then the Other thing I just wanted to point out is that retention and recruitment of professionals, doctors, keeping people in the islands, you know, if they really want this, which we know the younger, younger millennials are very into their life work, balance.

And this would really be motivating to keep people here or bring people here for a state that has this. And instead they may go somewhere else. And so that may be another main benefit for our recruitment and retention, which as everyone knows, is a big problem. So otherwise, thank you for the opportunity. I'll stand on my testimony.

Great. Thank you. That's all I have. Who registered to testify online or in person? Is there anyone else wishing to testify on this measure?

Aloha, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. My name is Keopu Rilitz. I'm the Director of policy and strategy with Papa Olokahi. My apologies for our late testimony. Excuse me. But we do want to stand in support of this measure.

In particular, as many other testifiers have shared, some of the earliest years of our lives are where our families are most vulnerable.

And so not only does a measure like this help to support our families for lifelong health and well being, it is also culturally appropriate as native Hawaiians more often tend to be living in multi generational housing and also tend to feel an obligation to care for both Kiki and our elders.

And so I want to just make sure that I highlight that since we did turn it in late and share with you our support. I'm here for any questions. Mahalo.

Thank you. Is there anybody else wishing to testify in this measure? Yeah, please.

Hi.

Thank you so much. My name is Ricardo Molara. I'm an OBGYN here in Oahu and I'm in support of this bill. Many of our patients need extended care postpartum, either for themselves or for their babies.

So this bill will really help them not have to choose between having to go back to work or take care of their families. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else? Singnan Members? Any questions? Representative Iwamoto.

Thank you. Are there any business owners here? Okay. Well, can I ask EPW a question? You made a statement. You concluded with on the backs of public employees. What about this bill is taking away from public employees UPW Members?

Specifically UPW Members? Yes. So in previous committees it was discussed that potentially this could be negotiated. Right. But before getting to that, what we're looking at with this particular bill is a 50/50 split between the employer and the employee. That that actually is money out of our pockets.

Second thing is, and that's for a percentage to be collected by the employer that at this point in time is unknown. Right. So we can't give you a definitive price or what that looks like because it's not specified in the bill.

Secondly, for even entry level for our Members, at this point in time, none of them are actually going to qualify for the 90% weekly benefit. They make too much money. So they'd only be able to pull down either the 55 or 66 or 55.

And given that option, they're going to rely on the leave that they've already accumulated because it's going to be 100% additional to that when they go on this leave. If they choose to take the benefit, they'll still have to pay out of pocket for their medical costs to the utf.

Okay, so is your understanding of this Bill in conjunction with the collective bargaining agreements that you've already negotiated associated, you don't see this as being an add on in terms of benefits? We do not. You're seeing it. It's going to substitute and take away from benefits.

You bring an interesting point. So near term, it's going to be the cost of the program. Long term is if you look as we look forward, we're always looking in the rearview mirror. Right. So future success is determined by past results. Right. That's the way it is with public sectors.

So when you look at the degradation of benefits over the last 20 years, what we're afraid, long term is that this will lead to what has been the cornerstone of public employment forever, which is the 21 and 21, which is 21 days sick, 21 days vacation that's been earned each year.

I'm not saying it's going to happen in two years or three years, but we're looking at maybe 5-10 years down the road.

Okay, so you're saying, Chairman, you're saying that the, when the private sector, when benefits for employees start improving, you're saying public sector's employees aren't able to leverage off of those gains and get better benefits for your Members.

No, that's been the problem for the last civil contract. Okay.

The employer's been stuck at 60/40. Right. 60% paid for by the employer, 40% for the employees. Right. Now that sounds great, but in theory, that's supposed to be negotiable. Right. 10 years ago, you'd see different schedules for UTF based on negotiations. That's no longer the case. So basically, what's actually negotiated is not what's.

Okay.

It's basically whatever is put on the table by the employer.

Okay. And final Question to this test fire. Thank you so much. You haven't. Have you done the math and. And taken it to your Members to vote on or consider?

We have not taken it directly to our membership at large, largely because the conversation we'd have with them, right, they'll say, hey, there's this bill, right? Family leave. And they're like, that sounds great. But then when you dive into the details about what's unknown and what they may have to pay, that's the tricky point.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions?

Yes, actually. Are there any nonprofit organizations who testified in favor of this bill who actually do payroll, who actually look at the cost of being a business owner, or even though you're a nonprofit, you can look at TDI, what you pay. Okay, I see that.

Thank you. Never mind. That's fine.

Okay.

Oh, I didn't testify, but I can, so. Good afternoon, all. I'm Deborah Zeissman. I'm Executive Director of Hawaii Children's Action Network Speaks. So we're a small local nonprofit. We have about 30 employees around the state, actually part time and full time. And we are under pro service. So that's. Actually, they have for many, many employees.

Our current TDI payment is 0.5% of payroll. Estimated for this is approximately 0.7. So I can't speak for anyone but ourselves, but for me, we would likely pay less than we do right now.

And I, as a nonprofit employer, we have been providing for the last several years a paid family leave benefit just as a voluntary benefit to our workers because it's part of our values. But right now, when we have an employee go out and leave, we just pay completely. We just pay.

There's no insurance program, so we just keep paying. And then on top of that, I usually have to figure out how to hire a contractor or a temp or anything to kind of fill that void. So it would help me from that perspective as well as also having a known cost.

Like right now, with tdi, I can plan and budget. I know exactly what percent of payroll I'll be putting in. It's a surprise to me right now when someone goes out on medical leave and I have to scramble as a nonprofit to figure out how am I going to do right by the worker.

But it would give me some continuity when I'm doing budgeting.

So as a business, as an employer, this would actually be a benefit to you. This would potentially save you money because if you're able to split the cost of family leave, which is around 0.75 and if you split the cost, it's around 3.-0.37. Maybe that's still less than .5.

Yeah. It would likely be cheaper for us, I think would also just give us that consistency. I could plan. I would know in advance how much I'd be budgeting month to month. And there are. We do know there are some folks in the for profit sector and the nonprofit sector that provides now the way we are.

So it tends to be white collar workers. But for us it would likely be cheaper savings. The more benefits you offer.

Right now it would be. You'll save more.

It would be cheaper with a more robust benefit for my workers.

But at the very minute, if you're the worst employer, you would still be saving money, in other words. Correct. And you would be. I mean, I hope I'm not. Your employees would be getting more benefits under this plan. Right. So it's cheaper to the employer and yet more benefits, more value, economic value.

That is our analysis of it.

Okay, thank you.

Thanks.

Great. Thank you. Any other questions? Members seeing none. We're going to take a recess. Recession.

Thank you for your patience. I'd like to reconvene the Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce for our 2:00PM hearing. We're going to do decision making for the bills on our agenda. First up, we have House Bill 97, House draft 1 relating to travel insurance. The Chair's recommendation is to adopt DCCA's proposed amendments in their testimony.

Yep, that's it. Any questions or concerns, Members. Chair Iwamoto.

Yeah, thank you. I'm going to vote with reservations mainly because I'm curious. I need to learn more about whether how this affects the insurer when you buy an airline ticket and it offers you insurance, how it's going to affect that in the marketplace.

Okay. Any other questions or concerns, Members. If not Acting Vice Chair Marten for the vote.

Thank you very much. So Chair recommends passing with amendments noting that Rep, Matayoshi and Rep, Tam are excused for the remainder of the hearing unless they show up. And also Rep. Lowen and noting that Rep. Iwamoto is voting with reservations. Rep. Chun is aye. Rep. Ilagan, aye. Rep. Ichiyama, aye. Rep. Kong, aye. Rep. Marten, I vote aye.

And Rep. Pierick, aye. Your recommendation is adopted.

Thank you, Members. Next Bill on the agenda is House Bill 226, House Draft 1 relating to windshield tinting. The Chair's recommendation is to amend to require that the car window be fully rolled down.

And I would also like to note in the Committee report the issue about when a police officer, when a stop occurs, at what point should the window be rolled down and whether or not that should be a petty misdemeanor. And that's something I think the Judiciary Committee can take up in the next Committee.

So with that, are there any questions or concerns, Members.

Based on that amendment, I'm going to be voting NWR. Thanks.

Okay. Note. Do you want to tell me to take the vote.

Yeah, sure. Risa Marten for the vote.

Thank you very much. So voting on HB 226, HD 1 and noting the. With reservations from Rep. Iwamoto. Are there any other reservations. Are there any nos. Seeing none. Your recommendation is adopted.

Thank you, Members. Next measure is House Bill 1179, House draft one relating to rural emergency hospitals. The Chair's recommendation is to move this measure as is. We just want to keep this moving, Members. DHS is trying to figure out whether this Bill will work federally.

So we just want to give them the opportunity to figure that out and we want to just keep this alive for discussion purposes. Any questions or concerns, Members.

Thank you, Chair. I'm sorry. I just wanted to state that I supported DHS's amendment regarding Medicaid protection.

Noted. All right, any other questions or concerns. Seeing none. Marten for the vote.

Thank you. So voting on HB 1179, HD 1 with amendments as is. My bad. Are there any Members voting No. Are there any voting with reservations. seeing none. Your recommendation is adopted.

Right. Thank you. Next we have House Bill 420, House draft 1 relating to remedies. The Chair's recommendation is to reinstate the exemption for fraudulent concealment, but note that it must be pled with particularity.

We're also going to add that if the complaint is dismissed for lack of particularity as to fraudulent concealment, plaintiff will be responsible for the defendant's fees and costs.

And I'd also like to note that Chair Matayoshi, is very interested in this issue and would like to try to convene both sides to work on some kind of compromise before it gets heard in Judiciary. Any questions or concerns, Members.

Thank you, Chair. I'll be voting no.

Any other questions. seeing none. Lisa Marten for the vote.

Okay, voting on HB 420, HD 1 with amendments. Are there any additional reservations or nos.

Thank you. Your recommendation is adopted.

Great. Thank you. Members. Next up we have House Bill 1291. House draft 1 relating to agriculture. Chair's recommendation is to delete the additional $10,000 fine just to know that it's already a class C felony. That's the only change we're going to make. So Members, any questions or concerns.

And we did confer with the Agriculture Chair just to make sure she's okay with that. Seeing none, Lisa Martin for the vote.

Voting on HB 1291, HD 1. Are there any no's, any reservations. Seeing none. Your recommendation is adopted.

Okay, Members, next Bill is House Bill 755, House Draft 1 relating to paid family leave. So the Chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments. We are going to just do some technical amendments just to sort of clean up the measure.

On page 29, lines 2 to 3, we're just going to change the references from temporary disability to medical leave insurance Benefits. On page 35, lines 1 through 4, we're going to do some re-lettering of the paragraphs.

And then on page 35, lines 7 through 21, put back in definitions of child, course of conduct and electronic communications just for consistency. And thank you to everyone who testified on this measure.

The Labor Chair really wants to try to come to some kind of measure that we could actually pass this session and would like to move it on for further consideration. So with that, Members, any questions or concerns. Seeing none. Chair Martin for the vote.

Okay. Voting on HB 755, HD 1 with amendments. Are there any no's. No from Rep. Kong. Are there any with reservations. seeing none. Then your recommendation is adopted.

Right. Thank you, Members. And last up, we have House Bill 490 relating to insurance.

Chair's recommendation is to amend the Bill to study on whether a mutual insurance model can be applied to condominiums in Hawaii, including but not limited to Hawaii condos joining mainland mutual insurance companies, and what laws, if any, would need to be changed to allow this to occur.

Also like to change the date to July 1st, 3000 for further discussion. Members, any questions or concerns. So I just like to mention that this Bill was previously heard in our Committee and we're bringing it up on the agenda for decision making. Any questions or concerns. Seeing none. Representative Marten, for the vote.

Thank you very much. So voting on HB 490. Chair recommends passing with amendments. Are there any no's. Any reservations. Seeing none. Your measure is adopted. Your recommendation is adopted.

Right. Thank you, Members. Meeting adjourned.