House Standing Committee on Public Safety

Good morning. Convening our Committee on Public Safety. Today is Wednesday, February 12, 2025, 10:30am here in Conference Room 411. Members we just have one Bill and one piece of testimony. This is House Bill 1096 relating to tenant selection.

Repeals the tenant selection preferences for disabled veterans and the spouses of deceased veterans in the state Low Income Housing program. Members, this already has a House draft, one with a defective date of July 1, 3000. The testimony we received is from Director Wan Safi from the Hawaii Public Housing Authority in strong support. Hi, Director.

Wonderful to see you.

Morning Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. Thank you very much for hearing this Bill. We stand in strong support. Thank you. I'm here to answer any questions.

Seeing no other testifiers and no testifiers via Zoom. Members, any questions? Go ahead Representative Shimizu.

Thank you Chair. You mentioned in your testimony that you do provide direct target assistance to veterans through the Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing. And I wasn't sure if you were aware of maybe how effective that is or how helpful that is.

Yeah. Thank you very much for the question. It is extremely effective. We are the largest provider the housing the state. Currently over 400 folks are registered with us to get the assistance they need. The beauty of it is, number one, they're not bound by one property. They can choose anywhere they want to live in the entire state.

And they also get all the subsidy that they need. And even more important than that, they get services from the VA because we get the referrals directly from the VA and then they provide the services and we provide the subsidy in housing as opposed to the one that we're repealing.

We had note takers for the past seven years.

Correct. Because when it comes to choosing a property that's considered public housing or get the voucher and live anywhere you want, that's much more favorable.

Really?

Follow up question Chair. Go ahead. So the concern of veterans or their spouses falling through the cracks is invalid because as you state, this program through the veterans is much more beneficial. And you said you haven't experienced people coming through your Department anyway.

Yeah, no. Nobody will give up the voucher to come to public health.

That's good to know. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Thank you Chair.

Go ahead.

Director are there any veterans or spouses of who are on a wait list or is there's no wait list?

No, we don't have any on our state wait list.

Okay. Members, seeing no other questions.

Thank you.

No other testifiers. Members, simple Bill. Chair's recommendation is going to pass this as is. Any questions, comments or concerns. All right. Vice Chair for the vote.

Voting on HB1096 HD1. Chair's recommendation is to pass. Thank you. Sorry about that. Voting on HB 1096 HD1. Chair's recommendation is to pass as is. Chair and Vice Chair vote aye. Representative Hashem. Aye. Representative Ichiyama. Excused. Representative Lamosao. Aye. Representative Morikawa. Aye. Representative Poepoe is excused. Representative Woodson is excused. Representative Shimizu. Aye. Representative Souza. Aye. The recommendation is adopted.

Members, we are adjourned.

Good morning. Convening our decision making.

Members. First up, House Bill 1060. This is relating to emergency preparedness and the establishment of Community Readiness Centers program within the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency. Chair's recommendation is to move this forward to continue the conversation as this is going to be an important part of our community being prepared in times of of emergency across the state.

Chair's recommendation is going to be to blank out the amount at page 8 for the amount of the tax to be allotted to this program and to blank out the Percentage at page 9. Technical non substantive amendments for clarity, consistency and style. And a defective date of July 13,000 Members. Any questions, comments or concerns?

Thank you. I'll be voting with reservations. Mostly because these new structures will not be Hurricane 5 resistant, I guess. And imagine. I mean, I would imagine that's when we would need all of these machines and all of this food and batteries to be protected. So it's. Yeah. The fact that that's not included does concern me.

Okay. Thank you, Vice Chair. Representative Shimizu.

Thank you, Chair. I have concerns that the cost for each of these structures was unknown. I believe there could be more analysis and planning before we move forward. Forward with this. And I like the idea that they are engaging community leaders to educate them and prepare them for corrective action in response to an emergency.

But with all of the other things attached, I will be voting no.

Okay. Thank you. Any other comments, questions or concerns? Seeing none.

Vice Chair for the vote voting on HB 1060. Chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments. Chair votes. I, Vice Chair votes with reservations. Representative Hashem. He is excused. Representative Ichiyama. Right. Representative Lamasel. Representative Morikawa is excused. Representative Poipo. Representative Woodson is excused. Representative Shimizu is no. Is that correct? That's correct. Representative Souza.

Aye.

Representative, you have five eyes. And I believe that it passes.

Okay. Thank you. Let's see. Moving on to House Bill 1262 relating to emergency and Budget Reserve Fund Chair's recommendation. After talking with the introducer and listening to the testimony is going to defer this to to move to defer or just to defer this Bill.

We're going to look at other ways in which to provide economic payments for resiliency post disaster, but we're going to look at other mechanisms and phasing of this so we will move this in another time.

Chair's Recommendation Hunt Hospital 1296 relating to major Disaster Fund Members My recommendation, after having read through the testimony looking at Act 10 that was mentioned in the preamble as well as Senate Bill 3068 to facilitate conversation and to move towards the greater transparency that is requested by this Bill is to move an HD one that at page three makes the following changes to Section B to read no later than 21 days after any allotment or transfer by the Governor or the expenditure of any Fund monies, the Administrator shall report to the Legislature on the purpose of the allotment transfer or expenditure.

The report shall describe the allotment, subsequent use of the transfer funds or the expenditure and 2.

Include an accounting for FEMA eligible and ineligible expenses that specify a The date of allotment transfer expenditure b The amount of allotment transfer or expenditure c The program identification number from which funds were transferred or expended, d the program identification number to which funds were transferred, e The impact of the program identification number from which funds are transferred or expended and f A detailed explanation of subsection 1, the uses of resources transferred or expended and the public purposes served by the transfer of these resources at page 8, section 4A at the end of this section to ask to add and insert after each appropriation, transfer, reimbursement and subsequent use of funds and interest earned on Federal reimbursement monies from August 82023 through and leave that blank.

Also to add a defective date of June 303,000 Members. What this does is that this requires the reporting from both the HYEMA Administrator as well as the Budget and Finance Director and the Governor at different times so that we can understand the transfer and expenditure of funds from the major disaster Fund. Any questions, comments or concerns?

Seeing None Vice Chair for the vote.

Voting on HB 1296 Chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments noting the excused absences of Representatives Hashem, Marikawa and Woodson. Are there any Members voting? No. Are there any Members voting with reservations? Seeing None Chair, your recommendation is adopted.

Thank you, Members. That concludes our agenda. We are done.

SA.