House Standing Committee on Human Services & Homelessness

Aloha kakahiaka. It's Tuesday, January 28th, 9:00am in the State Capitol Conference Room 329. Welcome and thank you for being here. Committee members and testifiers on our first human services hearing of 2025. The first measure up is HB431 relating to housing appropriates fund for the Kauhale Initiative and also for HHFDC.

And first up to testify in person in support is DHS.

Good morning. Chair, Vice Chair, Committee Members. Joseph Campos, Deputy Director, Department of Human Services. Here on behalf of Director Yamane, the Department of Human Services supports the measures and provides comments.

As we also defer to HHFDC, Budget and Finance and the State Office on Homelessness and Housing Solutions, we want to point out several comments that we made in the testimony. The first is that in part two, section two, the governor has requested 50 million per year for program ID 777HMS777.

In addition, regarding part three, DHS agrees that additional funds are needed to development permanent supportive housing. And finally in regarding part four, this is establishing Kauhale's Special or Kauhale Initiative Special Funds in Chapter 346. We just want to point out that it is only in session law, so we would need to figure that out.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next up we have from the Hawaii State Council on Developmental Disabilities, Daintree.

Thank you. Chair. Good morning committee. Thank you so much for hearing this bill. We're very excited about it and we stand in strong support. We provided testimony and thank you so much.

Thank you very much. Next up we have from the Statewide Office of Homelessness and Housing Solutions we have John Mizuno.

Thank you Chair Marten, Vice Chair Olds and Committee Members. First, on behalf of my entire office and Governor Green, I wanted to thank the House of Representatives and a majority caucus for the introduction of House Bill 431.

This bill is unprecedented in funding 50 million for our Kauhale projects along with another 12 million to HHFDC which may also focus on potential Kauhale relating to affordable housing and housing for people with disabilities and special needs. The total of 62 million targeted at housing inventory for people in need has never been done before.

The most recent point in time count in January of 2024 revealed that 3000 I'm sorry, 6389 people in our state were experiencing homelessness with the majority on Oahu. These numbers are not just figures. They represent individuals and families in desperate need of our help.

Now what we're looking at to the Committee Members, the House, and if the Senate's listening, we're looking to make history. Governor Green made it clear that his administration and my office would like to cut homelessness in half by the end of 2026.

My goal is to cut chronically homeless or chronic homeless in half, which would be approximately 2,200 people. These are the people that are, when I say chronically homeless, living without any shelter, living remotely, maybe on a beach, totally off the grid. Now, I understand the general homeless count is 6389. I get that.

But if we can get the chronically homeless, at least half of them get beds, get housing inventory for them, I think that would be a great accomplishment. And thereafter, we go for the general count of 6389, which would be about 3200 beds.

If we can get that, we will have done something that no other state has done in the nation. Cut homelessness in half. And the time is light speed within three years. That's what we're trying to do here. In 2024, our office established 17 Kauhale projects. Let me make that clear.

Some Kauhale projects were already existing, but as of 2024, we have now had have in our inventory 17 Kauhale projects. We recently added the Kulia Kauhale in Waianae last week, bringing our total to 18 Kauhale, which represents an inventory of 835 beds for our people that were previously homeless or facing housing instability on the verge of being homeless.

Our goal is to build at least 30 Kauhali by November 2026, with at least 3 Kauhali on each neighbor island. This ambitious plan is not just a government initiative, but a collaborative effort that involves Governor Green, the counties, the mayors, private businesses, faith based organizations. Yes. Churches, nonprofit organizations, service providers, and the community.

I wanted to share with the committee the success of our Return to Home program, which we passed a couple years ago.

Can I. Can I actually stop you there?

Yes.

We're, we're just going to stay on this measure, but we appreciate your testimony and appreciate that program as- as well.

Okay.

And that will come up at a different hearing.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. If there's any other questions, feel free to ask me. I'll be here to answer questions. Thank you very much.

All right, next up, we have from Catholic Charities Hawaii, Betty Lou Larson.

Good morning, Chair Marten, Members of the Committee. I'm Betty Lou Larson, and this is a very exciting day for us. This is a day when we can start looking at how to provide permanent supportive housing. We have the Kauhales. Great model. It's going full blast.

But we need to start a structure, an ongoing structure that we can then provide. Look at, well, how do you keep these people who are homeless, who are elderly, who are frail, who have special needs, permanently living in the community without institutional care? And that's what permanent supportive housing does for many populations.

For the chronically homeless to be successful, you have to have those ongoing services. And that's what this bill provides. What's important about this bill and what we support, we support the Kauhales, but we also support this new initiative, which is, so, I think, necessary for the long term. So this is the start.

What we need is the three legs. We need the development, of course, but we also need rental subsidies because these needs to be deeply affordable. Like the Kauhales. They are deeply affordable because these people usually are at 30% AMI, really more like 10% or 15% of AMI.

And you need those ongoing services to help that chronically homeless person maintain themselves, to help someone who's mentally ill really have the services that they cannot be out on the streets. They would be in a safe place, and they can then over time, improve, hopefully. But these are permanent supportive housing. These are permanent places.

So we thank you very much for looking at this bill. We thank you for the start of funding, and we hope that we will continue to work with you over the years on this very important subject. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much. Betty Lou. Next up is Liam Chinn from Reimagining. Is he online? Okay, we have Reimagining Public Safety in Hawaii Coalition online.

Good morning, Chair. Good morning, Members. Thanks for allowing us to testify. Our Coalition represents over 25 organizations and entities across the State of Hawaii focused on public safety, and we are in full support of this bill. We're going to speak from a public safety standpoint about why we support this.

Currently, 40% of all the people sitting in jail in Hawaii are homeless, and many more are suffering from mental illness and addiction. This is according to DPS's intake data, 40% of all the people in jail are homeless.

Over the past few years, justice system actors from across the state, from police to judges to prosecutors, have been meeting and are in agreement that Hawaii has a robust diversion mandate. Vulnerable residents, including homeless, will be diverted out of jail and into treatment and housing, which will significantly reduce the jail population.

Unfortunately, this mandate is currently failing due to severe underfunding of necessary diversion infrastructure. The question often asked by law enforcement and judges is divert to where? This is why this bill is so important and we must ensure its passage. We need significant investment in 24/7 supportive housing for justice involved individuals.

Kauhale is extremely cost effective compared to the cost of incarceration. For example, it costs $112,000 a year to incarcerate someone at O triple C, whereas a Kauhale is roughly between 20 to 30,000 per person. So very cost effective. Lastly, supportive housing improves public health and public safety.

A study by Partners in Care revealed that the recidivism or reoffending rate for individuals in Hawaii who receive supportive housing is 12.8% versus 50% without housing, 12% with supportive housing, 50% without. This demonstrates that housing through these type of high impact investments dramatically improves public safety.

So, thank you for passing this and continue to make significant large investments like this into diversion infrastructure and the root causes of poverty and crime.

At a time when we're talking about building $1.0 billion super jail, certainly, certainly we can afford $50 million for diversion infrastructure which could reduce the jail population by at least half and actually lead us to be able to build a smaller jail, potentially a much lower cost. Thank you again for passage.

Thank you very much. We also had written comments from Department of Budget and Finance testimony in support from the Kauai County Housing Agency and support from Hawaii Substance Abuse Coalition and the Democratic Party of Hawaii and the Hawaii Health and Harm Reduction center and Going Home Hawaii, as well as three individuals.

Is there anybody else here who would like to testify on this measure? Yes. Please come up and just state your name for the record, please.

Aloha Chair Martin, Vice Chair Olds and Members of the Committee. Carrie Ann Shirota, Policy Director for the ACLU Hawaii. We strongly support this measure. Some years ago we passed a report that focuses on decriminalizing housing and this directly aligns with that message.

We applaud the governor and legislature for acknowledging that we have a public health and public housing crisis. The solution to houselessness is housing, not handcuffs.

Affordable safe housing, whether Kauhale or government permanent supportive housing would stop the flow of people who do not belong in our overcrowded jails, people who are houseless, people who are poor and unable to afford bail, people with disabilities, people who are struggling with trauma, mental health and drug addiction. And let's not forget who is incarcerated.

Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are disparately represented in our carceral system.

Currently, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is requesting 30 million to expand contracts for planning with consultants to construct an expanded jail to replace O triple C. Hawaii has limited resources and we cannot afford to build both a proposed $1.0 billion super jail and to adequately defund diversion infrastructure, staff and programs, including Kauhale and supportive housing in our community.

Please invest in Kauhale and supportive housing to the scale required to meet the needs of our under resourced communities. Mahalo.

Thank you. Is there anybody else wishing to testify? All right, seeing none. We'll move on to our next measure, which is HB 225 relating to squatting. And first up we have Department of Human Services with comments.

Good morning, Chair, Vice Chair, Committee Members. Joseph Campos, Deputy Director, Department of Human Services. The Department appreciates the intent of this measure. Defers to the Department of the Attorney General and other named Members of the task force. We currently do work with law enforcement to do outreach efforts on public lands. But we want to stress the fact that, when it becomes private lands, we do need to get owner consent. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next up, we have the Office of the Public Defender with comments.

Good morning, Chair Lisa Marten and Vice Chair Ikaika Olds. Jerry Villanueva. I'm here from the Public Defender's Office. We support this bill, and we would like to be able to have a voice in trying to find a solution to this issue. That's all I have. And if there's any other questions, then feel free to address me later.

Thank you very much. Next up, we have... Oh, that's all we have in person. We also had opposition from the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands and support from one individual. Is there anyone else wishing to testify on this measure? Please come up. Oh, you can go ahead.

John Mizuno, Statewide Office on Homelessness Housing Solutions. We may have submitted our testimony late, but we're going to stand on our testimony in support, in support of the intent.

Okay, thank you very much, Director.

Good morning, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. My name is Margaret Leong. I'm a Deputy Attorney General with the Human Services Division. We did not submit testimony. However, we wanted to just make comments that we do not take any position on the bill itself. We do, however, recommend consideration of tasking the Department of Attorney General with doing an internal study and then issuing a report in lieu of a workgroup. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Okay. Seeing no others who want to testify on this measure, we'll move to our next one, which is HB 280, relating to the Community Outreach Court. It makes that court permanent and appropriates funds. And we have—first up, we have, in support, the Judiciary.

Good morning, Chair Marten, Vice Chair Olds, and Members of the Committee. My name is Tin Ann Alvauh, and I'm the Section Administrator for the Specialized Program Services Section in the Judiciary, and Community Outreach Court is in my section. I'm here today to express the Judiciary's strong support for House Bill 280.

The Community Outreach Court, established in 2017, addresses the legal needs of Hawaii's vulnerable populations, including those experiencing poverty and homelessness. Operating as a mobile court in non-formal community-oriented settings, it resolves nonviolent cases through alternative sentences, like community service, while connecting participants with social services to help them regain stability.

Currently, the COC has court out in Kakaʻako, Waiʻanae, Kāneʻohe. We just started in Waimānalo last year, and next month, we will hold our first hearing at the McCully-Moiliili Library. As Chief Justice Recktenwald emphasized in the State of the Judiciary address, the Judiciary must evolve to meet society's changing needs.

Community Outreach Court exemplifies this mission by bringing justice directly to the communities where people live, ensuring that individuals have access to legal systems, in a way that is accessible, equitable, and responsive to their unique challenges. The Judiciary strongly supports the passage of House Bill 280.

I'm happy to answer any questions you may have and thank you for this opportunity to testify.

Thank you for coming today. Nice to see you. Next up, we have, also in support, the Office of the Public Defender.

Good morning, again, Chair Marten, Vice Chair Olds, Members of the Committee. Since Community Outreach—oh, I'm sorry—Public Defender's Office. And since Committee Outreach Court started in Honolulu 2017, the Program has helped so many people to get off the streets and into stable housing and receiving services.

Funding started just through federal grant, and then, it was through the generosity of the Legislature that we were able to continue. And so, we first started in one courtroom in Honolulu, with just a handful of participants, and then we were able to expand slowly through the years. Waiʻanae to, let's see, Kāneʻohe.

And then we had Wahiawa for a while, but then during COVID, we had to pull back on that. But now that we're starting back again, we're pulling out of COVID, we need to expand the Program.

This Program has helped so many people, and with a permanent funding source, will be able to help more people and get to the—in the community—get them off the streets and help them in getting back to be productive members of our community. Thank you. If any other questions, then feel free to ask.

Thank you very much. We also had written testimony, in support, from the Hawaii Substance Abuse Coalition. Is there anyone else wishing to testify on this measure? Seeing none. Committee Members, I apologize. It's been a while. I was rusty. I didn't ask before if you had any questions. Do you have any questions for our testifiers?

I have a couple questions on the first bill.

I think that window has been missed, but we can definitely have those offline when we recess. Yeah. Okay. Seeing none, we will move on to our next measure, HB 701, relating to taxation, which establishes a refundable family caregiver tax credit for non-paid family caregivers. And we have first up from the Department of Taxation, comments.

Good morning, Chair, Vice Chair, and Committee Members. Garrison Kurth, Department of Taxation. Department stands on its written testimony providing comments, and I'll be here for questions. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next up, we have in person the Executive Office on Aging. Caroline.

Good morning, Chair Marten, Vice Chair Olds, and Members of the Committee. My name is Caroline Cadirao, Director of the Executive Office on Aging. And I'm here to stand in support of the support the intent of this measure and really to give value to what our unpaid caregivers give every day when they're caring for their loved ones, keeping our older adults from higher levels of care such as institutional care. So. And we defer to the Department of Taxation on this measure. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next up, we have from AARP Hawaii, Audrey Suga-Nakagawa.

Good morning, Chair and Members of the Committee. I'm Audrey Suga-Nakagawa. I'm the Advocacy Director for AARP Hawaii. And we stand in strong support of this measure. As the Executive Office on Aging had indicated, these family caregivers are really the backbone of our long term care system.

They're putting countless of hours caring for their loved ones so that they would stay in their home and not be prematurely institutionalized in very expensive long term care facilities. We estimate there's 154,000 family caregivers who are providing these hours of care. And we know that the cost of care is very expensive.

It's averaging about $7,200 out of their own pocket when they're caring for their loved ones at home. And that would include things like the prescription drugs, incontinence supplies, transportation, the kind of equipment that sometimes are needed in the home so that mom and dad can be safe. In 2024, AARP conducted a poll among the Hawaii's registered voters 40 years and over.

45% them indicated that they were former or current caregivers. And 90% of them indicated that they are providing financial assistance and providing and covering the cost of their parents' care or family care. So they know we know that they would truly appreciate, and they indicate they would really appreciate some kind of financial relief. So we want to thank, want to ask for your consideration of passing this bill and thank you for this opportunity to testify and support.

Thank you very much. That is... Oh no. We have on Zoom. Okay, on Zoom. We have the Tax Foundation of Hawaii with comments.

Yeah. Good morning, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. This is Tom Yamachika, President of the Tax Foundation of Hawaii. We submitted, unfortunately, late testimony. I do have a couple of technical comments that I think the Committee should consider. One is that we already have a credit for dependent care expenses necessary for gainful employment in HRS 235-55.6.

So I think it's incumbent upon the proponents of this measure to figure out whether and to what extent that is being duplicated by this measure. Second, we note that the credit as proposed is 100% of qualified expenses up to a limit, which means that the taxpayer, the individual taxpayer who is seeking care is paying nothing while Hawaii taxpayers in general pay everything.

And that really does not create any incentive for the taxpayer to do due diligence before incurring expenses and does not create competition among vendors who then can charge whatever they want because the taxpayer has little motive to seek the most reasonable price. Thank you for the opportunity. I'll be here for questions.

Thank you very much. We did receive your testimony. Appreciate it. In addition, we had testimony in support from the Hawaii Family Caregiver Coalition, written testimony in support from Hawaii Democratic Party, from the Alzheimer's Association of Hawaii, and from 14 other individuals. Is there anyone else who wishes to testify on this measure? Seeing none.

Are there any questions for our testifiers? Seeing none. We will move on to our next measure which is HB753 relating to the Household and Dependent Care Services Tax Credit.

This is to increase the taxpayer's applicable percentage of employment related expenses used to calculate the Household Independent Services Tax Credit allowing people to claim claim more of what is now available to them. We have our first testifier with comments is the Department of Taxation.

Good morning again. Garrison Kurth, Department of Taxation. And the Department stands on its testimony providing comments on Administration and I'll be here if you have questions.

Thank you very much. Next up we have in support the Executive Office on Aging.

Good morning again. Caroline Cadirao. We stand in support of this measure and defer to the Department of Taxation. Similar you know, we just want to advocate for our caregivers who are providing care in the homes. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next up, also in support, we have Betty Lou Larson to Catholic Charities of Hawaii.

Aloha Chair Marten, Vice Chair Olds, Members of the Committee. I'm Betty Lou Larson with Catholic Charities. We feel that this bill is so important because it emphasizes the legislature's priority to reduce the cost of living to enable local families to remain here. We all know how expensive child care is and elder care has been said.

So these costs are perhaps especially on the family side, the workforce side, driving people away. They have to have childcare in order to work, and if they have to pay for it itself, it's extremely expensive. And all of these costs put a big burden on people's cost of living.

We feel that this is a bill that can help by raising it to 50% and to really, I think, fulfill the intent of the Legislature in 2023 when the bill was passed. But it didn't turn out to be exactly what was thought.

So we think that this bill would really provide that extra help to people to be able to help keep them here, be able to help them work and to reduce some of that stress. Because having an elder who's sick and you have to maybe take off work or things like that is very stressful.

And it's also to the advantage of the employer. Everyone's trying to find employees. If they lose employees because of family situations, that's kind of a disaster for the companies also, because it's really hard to replace a good employee whose only reason for leaving is they have to take care of their Ohana.

So thank you very much for hearing this bill.

Thank you very much. Next up in person, we have AARP Hawaii, Audrey Suga-Nakagawa.

Good morning again. I'm Audrey Suga-Nakagawa from AARP, and we stand in strong support of this particular measure as well. And just kind of following on what Catholic Charities has just testified. You know, many of our working family caregivers are, you know, sandwich generation.

So not only are they taking care of younger children, but they're also taking care of an older adult in their family. And so you can imagine the cost of care would be really tremendous when they're getting- when they're facing expenses coming from both sides of the spectrum in terms of the age and family members.

I just want to make a comment to the tax foundation about the caregiver tax credit and about this one. The difference between the two, actually, they're very complementary because this particular bill is about the dependent care. The people who are on the family members who are on the household's taxes as dependents, whether they're adult or children.

But it doesn't count for those who are people who are not living in the same household but are receiving the care or are not considered dependent on their taxes. So the caregiver tax credit bill that we just heard prior really complements this bill as well.

It really becomes all encompassing to provide our caregivers some kind of a financial relief. So this is why we are testifying in support of this bill as well as we did for the last one. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Okay. Okay. So I just have to see if any of them are here. All right, so we have. Next up, I think we're on Zoom with Hawaii Children's Action Network Speaks. Nicole Woo, are you there? Is she there?

Yes, I am. Can you hear me?

Yep, we sure can.

Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. Thank you so much, Chair, for introducing and hearing this bill. As we all know, child care is one of the most expensive costs for families with children here in Hawaii. It's the second highest cost after housing.

Pre K, for example, is at least $13,000 a year, which is a factor, as Betty Lou said, in families not being able to afford to live here and stay here. So this tax credit was created many years ago for child care expenses and also other dependents.

If you have an adult dependent in your house and have to pay for care, you can get a tax credit for those expenses. The amount and the percent that you could claim were stuck at a really low level for many years.

But two years ago, the legislature raised the amount that you could claim for care expenses up to $10,000 per child or dependent, and you could claim up to two of them. However, there's a cap on the percent of expenses that you can claim. That's still stuck at a very low level.

Right now f you make more than $50,000 a year, you can only claim 15% of your care expenses. That's 1.5%. So, for example, if a Pre K tuition for the year is $10,000, the cap on the percent means that you can only claim $1500 in this tax credit.

So we think the cap is really keeping it from being as effective as it can be. We believe that the legislature intended to raise both the amount and the percent two years ago. So we hope that you can raise this percent cap to let families actually get the full amount of the tax credit.

And I put a table into my testimony that shows how this increase in the tax credit would affect different families. Currently low wage workers, for example, those who make minimum wage qualify for some child care subsidies, so they don't have to pay very much in child care.

But when you talk about some families that are at the ALICE level and middle income families, those are the ones who do not qualify for the subsidies and for whom the care expenses are a huge burden.

So we're really targeting kind of the higher part of the ALICE families and middle income families, and hopefully this will be a way to help keep families here in Hawaii. Thank you for hearing my testimony.

Thank you very much. We also have on Zoom Tax Foundation of Hawaii, Tom Yamachika.

Good morning, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, Tom Yamachika from Tax Foundation. We again have technical comments. One being that what this bill introduces is a formula for the amount of the credit, which is much more complex than the table lookup of the old version.

And we're concerned that the taxpayers to whom this measure pertains are going to have some difficulty applying it. It'll be trickier for taxpayers to understand for the department to administer.

We also point out that this measure does add guardrails for a disallowance of the credit by people who have been found to have abused it in the past, which I think is necessary to disincentivize the bad actors. And I will be here for any questions. Thank you very much for the opportunity.

Thank you very much, Tom. Okay, do we have Chloe? Okay. Nobody else is on Zoom. Okay. So we also had testimony in support from American Association of University Women, from Early Childhood Action Strategy, from the Chamber of Sustainable Commerce, and from eighteen individuals. And also comments from Hawaii State AFL CIO.

Members are there any questions of our testifiers? I have a question for the Department of Taxation. When we originally introduced the bill two years ago to raise the amount that could be claimed, you folks had an estimate of what you thought it would cost.

I wonder if you folks have an estimate of the cost for this adjustment, but what you think it might cost, given our current preschool options, etcetera, Ever expanding preschool, etcetera. I wonder if there was. You know, I feel like we need to give the finance chairs something to work with.

We don't have it as of today. I know they're working on all these bills that came out to try and do that. I would imagine the number. There were numbers with that bill in 2023.

I would imagine that's fairly realistic of what it would be, although whatever other changes have happened in the two years could greatly affect that, too. So it's hard to just rely on that. But I can ask if we can get those to you.

If you could. Yeah, get that to this Committee, to me, and I'll share it with my fellow Committee Members. But, yeah, it doesn't have to be now, but before it hits the Money Committees.

Sure.

They'll want to know what they're doing.

Yeah, definitely.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate it. You're welcome. Any other questions? No? Okay, moving on to the next measure, then. HB 900 relating to Child Welfare Services establishes a working group for legal services for youth in the child welfare system within the judiciary. Appropriate spends. We have the judiciary State of Hawaii in support. Written, written testimony.

We have the Office of Wellness and Resilience. Also written testimony and support we have from the National Center for Youth Law. Dana in person. Yep. Come on up, Dana.

Dana Matsunami. Good morning, Chair Martin, Vice Chair Olds, and Members of the Committee. My name is Dana Matsunami. I'm an attorney at the National Center for Youth Law. I live and work here in Hawaii on issues relating to child welfare in our state.

The National Center for Youth Law is in support of House Bill 900, which creates a working group to explore models for legal representation for children in child welfare cases. The working group will be made up of stakeholders from across the state to ensure that any initiatives are culturally responsive and effective for our unique context.

And perhaps most essentially, the working group will have youth Members who are lived experts in Hawai'I child welfare, that is, they were themselves in foster care as children in Hawaii. We applaud this language, and we urge the Committee to consider specifying a percentage requirement that the working group be composed of at least 50% lived experts.

We all know that youth in Hawai'I foster care can experience truly terrible and sometimes fatal outcomes. Child welfare cases determine nearly every critical aspect of a foster youth's life.

Where they live, who they live with, whether and how often they see their parents, siblings, extended family Members, and community, where they go to school, whether they may participate in extracurriculars, what medications they must take, what services they must participate in, and ultimately, whether their legal relationship to their parents and family of origin is permanently severed.

And right now, within that court process, there's no one who has the responsibility and authority to advocate for what the child wants and needs in their case and life in listening sessions and community meetings.

Over the past two years, in part through the Malama Ohana working group, youth have shared some of their experiences in the child welfare system that can be summed up in one quote from this young person. How can you make decisions that change our lives forever without even hearing from us?

Another former foster youth described foster care in Hawaii as a system of luck. Some are lucky and have an adult in their case who goes above and beyond to listen to and advocate for their needs. Many are not.

House Bill 900 is a vital step towards ensuring that no young person in Hawaii foster care's future is left to chance. Research has shown that appointing lawyers to youth in child welfare cases improves outcomes for youth across nearly every metric.

Compared to children without lawyers, they are 40% more likely to leave foster care in the first six months and 45% more likely to reunify with their parents. They experience 30% fewer placement moves and 65% fewer unnecessary school moves.

By creating a working group that centers youth lived experts, this Bill works towards our shared goals of keeping youth safe and families and communities together.

The National Center for Youth Law is in support of this Bill as a vital step towards ensuring youth in Hawaii foster care have the opportunity to thrive and a voice in decisions about their lives. Mahalo. Thank you very much.

We have on Zoom Hawaii Children's Action Network. Is there.

Okay.

Yes, I'm here. Can you hear me okay? Yep. Noreen Cole. Okay, great. I'll just go ahead and provide my testimony. My video is loading. That's fine. Okay. Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony and support of this bill. Again, my name is Noreen Cole and I'm with Hawaii Children's Action Network Speaks.

I also served as kokua or support during the community meetings and permitted interaction groups held by the Malama Ohana working group. Thank you, Chair, Vice Chair and the Committee for hearing this Bill and for the opportunity to testify.

This is an important Bill and echoing Dana's testimony, we believe this represents a significant step in establishing leave of council for children and young people in Hawaii who are involved with the foster care system.

I want to highlight the importance and urgency of current and former foster youth being part of the effort and that the proposed working group should be guided and designed by those with lived experience in foster care. Highlighting Dana's testimony earlier, I think that percentage requirement would be great.

We know from an abundance of research and firsthand stories and testimonies that children and youth experience better outcomes in the short term. While involved with the child welfare system and better long term experiences such as with school, when they have a say in the course of their lives and access to legal counsel.

Thank you again for the opportunity to testify and support.

Thank you very much. We also had written testimony and support from the Malama Ohana working group, from the Hawaii Coalition of Child Protective Reform and from four individuals. Is there anyone else wishing to testify on this measure? Come on up, Angela.

Aloha, please. Thank you Chair Lisa Martin. Angela Melody Young, testifying on behalf of work here is in strong support of this House Bill 900 to establish a working group to improve family court processes, including access to legal representation for the child welfare system.

The working group, the board or the Commission to carry out the functions of the working group is made up of a Supreme Court justice. And then if we go down, we see University of Hawaii representative of and also number 10, a parent with lived experience in the state child welfare system.

So the standard structuring for such an act or organized activity is to typically A gathering the primary agencies, B making a list of the board or the Commission's activities to carry out such functions of the primary agencies and C to set common goals as well as legislative priorities and community outreach ideas to discuss within the group.

So my proposed Amendment under number 10 is 8 mom with lived experience. Number 11, proposed amendment A dad with lived experience. Because for equity and policy, ideally you need equitable gender representation from both both genders. This amendment is inclusive of that. Number 12 proposed amendment. A female student with lived experience in the child welfare system.

Number 13, a male student with lived experience in the child welfare system. Number 14, an attorney from Lash or another outside law organization not under the state's purview. These amendments are for more equity and decision making.

And I suggest these amendments because you'd want to get a neutral perspective instead of just perspectives from state state attorneys, as well as for policy to be considerate of the reality of households fighting the welfare system without adequate legal representation. Thank you very much.

Thank you for your testimony. Is there anybody else wishing to testify on this measure? Members, do you have any questions for any of the testifiers? Seeing none, we will move on to our next measure, HB 731 relating to minors.

It authorizes a physician upon consultation with a minor patient who indicates that the minor was a victim of sexual offense with consent of the minor patient to perform customary and necessary examinations to attain evidence of the sexual offense and may also treat. We have in person the Sex Abuse Treatment Center. Then Casales.

Good morning, Chair and Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, thank you so much for allowing me to speak this morning. I know my testimony, written testimony, was kind of a lot. And so I just want to sum up in a nutshell.

Ultimately, we are very supportive of this wider access to survivors, minors, to this type of care following a sex assault. However, we are in opposition of this particular bill in so far as it currently would impact the system of care that is provided to minors as well as adults following a sex assault.

There is a very wide system that is currently available free of charge on the medical side that includes the collection of forensic evidence from the body of a survivor, whether that's a baby in diapers to our kupuna in their 80s and everyone in between. That medical examination is free of charge.

And it is a system of care that includes transfer of that evidence to law enforcement should that survivor elect to engage with the criminal justice system, as well as storage of evidence when that survivor elects to not engage with in the criminal justice system.

So our fear is that any licensed physician being allowed to collect evidence, you have to consider all those other things that come with the collection of evidence, how that impacts the criminal case, if that's what the survivor wants, and if they don't want that, how we're going to handle the collection of that evidence and that ultimate storage of that evidence, along with all the other things that are captured in Chapter 844G.

And so for those reasons, we are asking for opposition in this particular bill. But we would ask that there would just be a lot more consideration as we move forward. So thank you very much. And I'm here for questions, if anybody has them. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

Don't go too far. So we also have on. On Zoom, we have the Attorney General's Office. Okay. Not here. Oh, in person. Lovely.

Good morning, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, Melissa Chee, Deputy Attorney General, we just wanted to provide comments.

Can I ask you to put the microphone a little closer?

Sorry about that. Is this better? So we wanted to provide comments on this bill.

The purpose is to obtain treatment for minors who have been the victim of certain sexual offenses and obtained their evidence, as well as authorizing the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility to receive a minor is committed to the facility to receive care without the consent of the minor's parent or guardian.

As we highlighted in our written testimony, there is Chapter 844G, which is the Sexual Assault Evidence Collection Kits chapter, and that specifies the process for training, collection, preservation of evidence, and how to notify victims of their rights.

Again, as stated in our testimony, individuals who have completed the specialized education and clinical preparation and follow the protocols under the chapter are best suited to conduct examination and evidence such as the the sexual assault nurse committee examiners or the sexual assault forensic examiners.

These protocols help to ensure the victims are not further traumatized, that they are notified of their rights and they maintain chain of custody and ensure police get the DNA testing. We also wanted to provide comments on some of the languages in the bill. As you noted, and if you have any questions, we are here to answer those.

But also part two of the bill we wanted to point out there is a section in the statutes 352-8 that currently authorizes the Executive Director of the Office of Youth Services to act as a natural guardian of youth committed to the HYCF and as such they can provide consent. Again, we're here if you have any questions.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate your testimony. We have on Zoom the Hawaii Association of Professional Nurses. Oh, not present in support. And then we had written comments from SAFE Team Maui County, comments from the Hawaii State Center for Nursing and support from one individual. Is there anyone else present wishing to testify on this measure? Members, are there any questions? Okay.

I have a question for the Sex Abuse Treatment Center. Yeah. So I think it's my perception that the intent of the bill was to eliminate a barrier of parental consent. And so I'm wondering, I wanted to address the concern about the care provider maybe not being.

Not having the right training and qualifications and indicate that we would like it to be someone. If are the people that have the right training and qualifications, are they. Is that in the provider community in general, like certain nurses or physicians will sign up for that additional training or.

Or is it specialists that a care provider would have to then reach out to to have them come or have the patient go to them? How does it work?

Yeah. So currently the way the system works is that every county throughout the state has trained forensic practitioners. On the neighbor islands, those are what we call sex assault nurse examiners. They have gone through some forensic training. There is certification for that. They tend to go through those channels in order to get that specialized training.

Here on Honolulu, we have a pool of physicians that have essentially volunteered to be a part of that system of care. They too undergo that forensic examination training. Now, beyond those very specialized medical professionals, whether they're nurses, the SANEs, or the SAFEs here in Honolulu, can a physician or a nurse or other medical professional undergo that training?

They certainly can on their own. Could they offer that to their individual patients that they may see for sure. But really what we're looking at is just what happens beyond that examination and collection of evidence.

If you are not part of, of a system that collaborates with the other partnering agencies where that evidence will be passed off to. And I don't know what these private practitioners may do with that, quite honestly.

I think what they do is they refer them to a program like Sex Abuse Treatment Center because they know that's where collection of forensic evidence can occur. And then they might pick up seeing that child or that adult thereafter for continued medical care as it relates to the sex assault or something else.

But usually that collection of forensic evidence, most practitioners will refer that to those individuals who have that specialized training. Does that make sense?

When they make that referral? Does that, I mean, what is the. Does then the person have to go make an appointment and wait or is that immediate healthcare, you know, delivery?

Correct.

Does that person come to them? Do they go to, you know, do they travel? How does it, how do the logistics work?

That's my.

So statewide that service is available 24 hours a day. So for Sex Abuse Treatment Center, we offer that medical forensic examination 24 hours a day and it happens over at Kapiolani Medical Center. Also true for the neighbor islands.

They go wherever that SANE is available, making arrangements to go to that forensic examination in the area that is most conducive or convenient for that individual. But it is in across the state. It is a 24 hour service.

All right, thank you very much.

Thank you.

Okay, we have some follow up questions. Sorry, go ahead.

Thank you. Yeah, thank you.

Thank you Chair. Just a follow up question and speaking about that system of care and that ecosystem that we have specifically on our neighbor islands, which is really challenged. I was just really curious about your SANE examiners. What does that pipeline look like as far as numbers? Do we have any of that information?

I do not. I'm not sure.

So just to be clear, 844G does require every county to submit data to the Attorney General's Office regarding the number of sex assault kits that are collected in their jurisdiction, the number that are reported to law enforcement, the number that are not, and any deviations from the timelines that are set out in the statute.

So I don't have the neighbor island numbers for you, but if my recollection is correct, last year's report is. I'm not sure if it's on the website, but I think you can get that information from the Attorney General's Office.

Yeah, I'll go ahead and have my staff take a look at that. On the Big island, we're big.

Correct.

And they are part of the HSART system. So just so that, you know, they are actively engaged in those discussions.

Correct. Correct. And then it's that collection and that chain of custody that's really important for future.

Correct.

Accountability. Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any other questions, Committee Members? Seeing none. Thank you very much. We'll move on to our last measure, which is HB 129, relating to youth fees and fines. It prohibits the assessment of any fees, fines, or court costs against a person who was adjudicated for an offense committed during the person's minority.

Or against the person's parent or guardian and discharges all related debt obligations assessed before the effective date of the act. We have testifying in person in support the Hawaii Juvenile Justice State Advisory Council. Rick Collins, are you here? Nope, not present. The Office of the Public Defender.

And again, good morning, Chair, Vice Chair. Jerry Villanueva, Public Defender's Office. We support this, both this bill, and we stand on our written testimony. And if there's any questions, we're here to address it.

Thank you very much. Then we also have in person ACLU of Hawaii, Nathan Lee.

Good morning, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. My name is Nathan Lee. I'm with the ACLU of Hawaii speaking in support of this bill. I just wanted to emphasize two things from our written testimony. The first is that in 2023, late 2023, the Department of Justice issued a guidance basically saying that youth, children in the juvenile justice system should be presumed indigent and unable to pay fines and fees. And so that was the first.

The second that I want to emphasize is, you know, just looking at the testimony that's been submitted, there is a lot of research that suggests that imposing fines and fees often aligns with racial disparities that are problematic and we can agree should not exist.

They also don't necessarily help the state because the act of collection often costs more than any fines and fees that are recovered successfully. And then finally, I wanted to emphasize that there is extensive research that says that the youth themselves are often more likely to recidivize if fines and fees are imposed on them.

And just to make a distinction, there have been studies that look both at fines and fees and also just at fees themselves, which are often considered like restitutionary measures. And in both of those cases, the research suggests that fines and fees do increase recidivism. So just want to be clear that fines and fees individually and also together have had this kind of negative effect. And so the ACLU of Hawaii is in strong support and here to answer any questions about that as well.

Thank you very much. We have the Department of Education in person.

Hi. Good morning, Chair Marten, Vice Chair Olds, Members of the Committee. I'm Heidi Armstrong representing the Department of Education, and we stand on our written testimony and have provided our comments in our testimony. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I think that's it for in person. We do have some on Zoom, perhaps. Do we have Debt Free Justice Hawaii, Cameron Clark on Zoom? Okay. Were you on the list or is... Oh, okay. Oh, yes. I'm sorry. I did call you folks out and nobody was here at that moment. But come on. Oh no, it's listed as being Zoomed. That's why I didn't get to you yet. Yeah. Please come up.

Good morning, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. Deputy Attorney General Mark Tom for the Department. Department provided comments in regards to House Bill 129. Specifically, we'd just be pointing out that the term reimbursement is used multiple times in this bill. It's 34 sections. So specifically though 12 and 14, which deals with the OVUII sections.

I think there's a little more ambiguity whether reimbursement does in fact cover restitution or does not. Suggestion would be just inserting some language that would not preclude a court from ordering restitution. Or if the Committee would like, they could look at House Bill 2722 from last year.

I think they tried to craft some language to ensure that restitution was not included. Section 25, would also note some amendments in that section just so individuals, minors, juveniles can utilize the accountability program, which is already housed in the Judiciary. That accountability program allows juveniles that are ordered to do restitution to do community service to allow this program to then pay out the restitution to victims.

So allowing them to utilize that by removal of some of these terms and also maybe even looking at the amount. I'm not sure if the 72 hours would limit the accountability program from paying restitution for individuals. So that's something that the Committee might want to take a look at.

And lastly, the Department would also point out to the Committee to maybe, again, mention it's 34 sections, but to look at whether there's a constitutional issue in terms of the title because of the fact that it covers court costs as well, and this title only covers fees and fines. We'll be here for questions. Thank you.

Thank you very much. All right, moving to Zoom. Is Community Alliance on Prisons, Kat Brady here? Not present. Okay. All right. So we had in opposition the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney. In support, Mālama Mākua. In support, Hawaii Friends of Restorative Justice. In support, Opportunity for Youth Action Hawaii. In support, Nā ʻŌpio Waiwai. And in support, three individuals. Members, are there any questions? Oh, I'm... Oh, you wanted to testify as well? Okay, come up, Angela.

Aloha. Angela Melody Young, ROAR, CARES. I will be testifying with a comment. So this policy of fines and fees has oppressed low income teens due to forces above and beyond their control. So my proposed amendment for the first offense, $1,000, cross it out to $100 to serve a term of imprisonment of no more than three days.

So slash out the 33 days. And then for the second offense, for offense that occurs within five years of a prior conviction, the person shall pay a minimum fine of, so slash out $500 instead $50, so lower the fine. And then also to serve a term of imprisonment of no more than one year instead of one year, slash that out, 30 days.

My proposed amendments are based on this idea to create more equity in the policies, and low income households are impacted by generational trauma of domestic violence that gets passed down from one generation to the next. Low income households experience racial disparities.

Pacific Islanders, people of color, and immigrants are amongst those who suffer from wealth and health disparities that makes the vulnerable and marginalized people groups more susceptible to experiencing cycles of domestic violence, abuse, mental health problems, anxiety disorders, drug addictions, which impact their behavior and offenses in community life.

So the lack of resources, the lack of access to adequate mental health counseling, the lack of health care and adequate education, the reason they offend is because of the disparities. A disparity is defined as something like that of an unequal level of economic difference within a demographic.

The injustice of wealth and resources affect juvenile incarceration because offenders don't have equal access to after school programs like in YMCA. So why should the teen offenders experience punishment because of disparities above and beyond their control? This is an inequity.

And when we talk about inequity in policy, we're talking about something that is unjust because of the influences of policymaking. So this policy, if enacted in favor of reducing fines and fees, will set an unprecedented and unparalleled example. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Anyone else wishing to testify? Seeing none. Oh, I'm so sorry. On Zoom we have Cameron Clark from Debt Free Justice Hawaii now present. Go ahead.

Mahalo and aloha mai kākou, Chair Marten, Vice Chair Olds, and Committee Members. I'm Cameron Clark, Co-Coordinator of Debt Free Justice, the national campaign to eliminate court ordered fines and fees against youth. On behalf of the Debt Free Justice Hawaii coalition of youth and community advocates, we respectfully ask for your aye vote on Health Bill 129.

We stand on our written testimony and are available to answer questions on research and data relating to this measure. We wish to offer only brief comments in relation to other written testimony submitted to this Committee. We thank the Attorney General for their thoughtful comments in support.

Amendments to clarify the court's retained authority to order restitution given the availability of programs which allow my minors to complete community service in lieu of payment. The bill's title, quote, relating to youth fees and fines, unquote, does not subject it to constitutional scrutiny.

In the 1977 case of Schwab v. Ariyoshi, the Supreme Court of Hawaii held, quote, to constitute duplicity of subject, an act must embrace two or more dissimilar and discordant subjects that by no fair intendment can be considered as having any legitimate connection with or relation to each other.

All that is necessary is that all matters should be related to each other, either logically or in popular understanding, as to be part of or germane to one general subject, unquote. We appreciate the testimony offered by the Kauai Prosecutor and thank them for being the first county in the State of Hawaii to voluntarily decline to seek new fees and fines in juvenile cases.

In a 2021 policy memorandum, the Kauai Prosecutor stated the following, quote, fees and fines serve no purpose for the government and undermine many of the goals of the Prosecuting Attorney's Office. Ability to pay processes are insufficient to address racial inequity and may even deepen them.

Common sense, economic reality, and decency demand that we not attempt to fund the system on the backs of poor children and vulnerable families, unquote. It is our understanding that this remains a policy of the Kauai Prosecutor. The majority of states across the country, including Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, have taken action to achieve debt free justice for youth. Respectfully ask for your aye vote. Mahalo.

Thank you very much, Cameron. Now seeing no other testifiers, Rep. Garcia, please go ahead with your question.

Thank you, Chair. For the Attorney General's Office. Thanks for being here in person. I've been hearing from the testifiers various sentiments of it's racist, it's not equitable to impose fines and fees on youth. Just want to get some clarification here. So as of right now, here in Hawaii, when a... The testimony states from the Judiciary that the court rarely imposes fines and fees on youths currently here in Hawaii. Is that true?

I can't speak for the Judiciary, but routinely they do find other means of a disposition for juvenile offenders.

And in the event that they do impose fines or fees, if the family cannot pay for those fines or fees, they are offered community service?

That would have to be for the Judiciary as well. But that is something that I believe that the Judiciary would at least consider as a disposition for individuals.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Any other questions? We are going to recess for a few minutes before we reconvene for decision making, giving everybody a chance to ask questions if they missed that opportunity. Okay. We are reconvening the 9am hearing and we will proceed to voting. First up, we have HB431 relating to housing. And Chair recommends passing with amendments as follows.

Technical amendments needed for clarity, consistency and style to eliminate the Kauhale Initiative Special Fund by deleting reference to it on page four, line 18, where it says create a Kauhali Initiative Special Fund to assist the statewide Office of Homelessness and Housing Solutions to implement the Kauhali Initiative as well as where it's referred to on page 11 and 12 and Section 7 and 8 and replace the Kauhali Initiative Special Fund appropriation with an appropriation for the exact same purpose going instead to the State Office on Homelessness and Housing Solutions, HMS 777.

So that is just to keep the same amount of funding. But I'm going to the Department. The next is page 6, line 3. Deleting the sums appropriated under this section shall not lapse at the end of the fiscal biennium for which the appropriation is made, because we can't do appropriations for more than a biennium.

And to blank out the appropriation amounts seen on page 5, line 2, page 10, line 11, page 10, line 17, and page 11, line 6. And finally to defect, the date on page 13, line 10 to June 293000 and the date on line 11 and 12 to July 13000. Vice Chair for the board.

Zero. Any comments? Sorry, my bad. Yes, please. Thank you. Chair, I would just like to comment. This is a great bill. It's really unprecedented. What's what the Governor and his homeless coordinator are trying to achieve.

I would like to note and hope that there would be, when we're giving out this much money, that there would be the opportunity for multiple bids, not just a single bidder for these projects. Because, you know, we need to ensure that costs are being put out with transparency and fairness for the community to really have oversight.

So I just want to say thank you to the Governor's coordinator for his work on this and I look forward to seeing more reports going forward. Thank you.

Chair, thank you for that comment.

Appreciate it. Any other comments?

Seeing None.

[Roll call]

Chair, your recommendation is adopted.

Thank you very much. Okay, next, moving to HB 225 relating to squatting. Again, I recommend passing with amendments on page four, line 19 to page five, line 14. Just note that the public Members listed there as working group Members should be invited by the Chair of the working group.

Add the public Defender to the working group as requested in their testimony, then delete some of the Members. They got a very, very long list of Members. It seems like it would be unwieldy. So delete page 4, line 9, item 8 to 12.

Replace with a single Member of the House appointed by the speaker and a single Member of the Senate appointed by the Senate President rather than multiple Senators and multiple House Members.

And then delete page five, line five, the representative from Chamber of Commerce Hawaii and line nine, a representative from the Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic justice. And then finally defect the date to July 13,000 Members. Are there any comments or questions? Seeing None.

Vice Chair for the vote voting on HB 225. Chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments noting the excused absence of Representative Alcos. Are there any Members voting? No with reservations. Chair, your recommendation is adopted.

Thank you. Next up we have HB 280 relating to the Community Outreach Court. I recommend passing with very minor amendments, technical amendments for clarity, consistency and style, and defecting the date to July 13,000 Members. Are there any comments or questions? Vice Chair for the vote.

Voting on HB280. Chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments noting the excused absence of Representative Alcos. Are there any Members voting no with reservations. Chair, your recommendation is adopted.

Thank you very much. Next measure is HB701 relating to taxation. Again, I recommend passing with amendments on page 6, line 16 to 17, delete the term kupuna care services. There's a definition there that is not needed because I think it was for a previous version of this Bill.

Defect the date to July 1st, 3000 and then add to the Committee notes the concerns that were mentioned by some of the testimony.

So, for example, Department of Taxation that they don't have the expertise or personnel to determine whether care recipients or expenses are legitimate and that the paying the full amount 100% instead of a percentage fails to discourage waste, and then having it refundable allows those with no connection to the state to apply.

And add to that concern raised by the Hawaii Tax foundation that there may be duplication of refunds for the same expenses between the proposed tax credits. So with this and the existing dependent care expenses tax credit, and with that. Are there any questions or comments? No.

Vice Chair for the vote voting on HB701. Chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments noting the excused absence of Representative Alcos. Are there any Members voting? No, with reservations. Chair, your recommendation is adopted.

Thank you very much. Next we have HB 753 relating to the household and Dependent Care Services tax credit. I recommend very minor amendments, technical ones, for clarity, consistency and style, defecting the date to July 1st, 3000 and changing the repeal date to June 30th, 3005. Are there any questions or comments? Members seeing None.

Vice Chair for the vote voting on HB753. Chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments noting the excused absence of Representative Alcos. Are there any Members voting no with reservations. Chair, your recommendation is adopted.

Thank you very much. Next we have HB900 relating to Child Welfare Services. This one I recommend passing with some minor amendments on page 3, line 3.

Replace lines 3 to 5 with have one or more Members conduct at least one site visit to selected jurisdictions in one or more other states to identify possible practices to implement in the state. Also, technical amendments for clarity, consistency and style. Blanking out the appropriation. zero, it contains a blank. Never mind.

We'll leave the blank appropriation blank and defect the date to July 1st, 3000. Members. Are there any comments or questions Seeing None.

Vice Chair for the vote voting on HB 900. Chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments noting the excused absence of representative ALOs. Are there any Members voting no, with reservations. Chair, your recommendation is adopted.

Thank you very much. Next up, we have HB731 relating to minors. I recommend passing with some amendments on page one, line seven. Cross out physician license to practice in the state and instead replace that with licensed healthcare provider properly trained in the medical forensic care of a patient who has experienced sexual assault or abuse.

Replace all references to physician with this Instead on page one, line 15, page two, line 7 and 9 and page three, line one on page three, lines four through seven. Delete that and instead replace it insert with F.

No health care provider who relies in good faith on the minor's consent shall be civilly or criminally liable for failure to secure the consent of the minor's parent, parents or legal guardian prior to rendering care pursuant to subsection A.

This is so that the care provider is exempt only from that specific action, not from anything else they might do. Completely delete Part two and then defect the date.

Part two is the part that talks about youth correctional facility where that is not necessary because it's already in the law that the Director is a legal guardian and then defect the date to July 1st. 3,000 Members. Are there any questions or comments?

Seeing none Vice Chair for the vote voting on HB731. Chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments noting the excuse absence of representative alos. Are there any Members voting? No, no vot with reservations. Chair, your recommendation is adopted.

Thank you. Our last measure, HB129 relating to youth fees and fines.

I recommend passing with some amendments, some amendments just for clarity, consistency and style and then include as indicated in the testimony, include a provision anytime reimbursements is referenced that clarifies that removing the responsibility of any financial reimbursement from the minor does not preclude the courts from ordering restitution to a victim when applicable.

And you can reference to last year's HB 2722 for recommended language in part three, Section 15, page 48, lines 13 to 17 at the request of DOE, strike out the pupil shall repair any damage caused and replace it instead with when appropriate, the principal will assess the extent of the damage and determine if the pupil has the skills necessary to address it.

Then on page 85, lines 19 through 20 on the graffiti section put in pay for the actual cost of having restore it's crossed out in this draft Bill and so instead restore pay for the actual cost of having the damage properly the damaged property repaired or replaced so that the graffiti artists can participate in the judiciary's accountability program Papa Hoike Culeana, which is created specifically for minors to address court ordered restitution and community service and then finally defect the date to July 13,000 Members.

Are there any questions or comments Representative Garcia thank you.

Chair I just wanted to comment on the fact that certain, certain sentiments were mentioned that to impose fees and fines is racist and oppressive. I wholeheartedly reject that, and therefore, I'll be voting no. Thank you.

Any other comments or questions? Members seeing none.

Vice Chair for the vote voting on HB129. Chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments noting the excused absence of Representative Alos. Are there any Members voting no vote?

Because you already know he's.

Yeah.

Going off the script and noting Rep. Garcia's vote. No. Yeah.

Noting Rep. Garcia's vote. No.

Then are there any other.

Are there any other nos with reservations? Chair your recommendation is adopted.

Thank you very much. Mahalo. We are adjourned.