Senate Standing Committee on Government Operations

Aloha everybody. Welcome to the Committee on Government Operations. We're reconvening today, Tuesday, February 52026 at 3pm for decision making on measures previously heard. On February 3rd we are convened in Conference Room 225. Meeting is being the DM is being streamed live on YouTube.

In the unlikely event that we have to abruptly end this hearing due to technical difficulties, the Committee will reconvene to discuss any outstanding decisions at 3:30pm Tuesday, February 102026 in room 225. And a public notice will be posted on the legislature's website as well. First up we had heard was 2064 relating to state construction projects.

Members, we'd like to defer this one week, time certain to Thursday, February 12th, at 3 pm in Room 225, because we're hearing another measure that is similar, and we'd like to compare the two and integrate them if possible. Okay, next up, 2312, this is one for clarifies. The records created, received and maintained are subject to UIPA.

We'd like to keep this going along for discussion. However, recognizing the concerns, we're going to adopt the recommended amendments of replacing government function with agency function. On page one lines 59 and 14 and page two, lines 15 and 18.

We're going to incorporate the concerns however from the Attorney General's testimony into the Committee report and ask that the next Committee examine them further. Given the time straight, we are going to exempt the ERS for now because of their concerns that they laid out and with effective date of 1-1-2525 for further discussion.

Members questions Comments if not vice chair on 2312. 2312 sir. Yes. I'm sorry.

Hang on. Pass with amendments.

Yep, pass with amendments, sir

[Roll Call]

Okay, thank you very much everybody. Next Bill Senate Bill 2811 relating to state building projects. Given the testimony was in support, we're going to go ahead and move this on. We are making tech non substantive amendments. For the purposes of clarity and consistency, we are going to defect date this to 7-1-2525 as well for further discussion. Members? questions? comments, if Not, Vice Chair.

SD1 Chair's recommendation on SB2011 is to pass with amendments. Of the Members present. Are there any no votes or reservations hearing? None. The measure is adopted.

Okay, thank you so much. Next up, 2662 relating to government accountability. We'd like to go ahead and work on this measure further. So with the committee's indulgence, we'd like to defer this one week time certain to Thursday, February 12th at 3pm in room 225. Next up we have relating to due process SB2744.

We did not receive any testimony on this measure at all and as the rule of the Committee, we won't advance anything without any kind of support. So we're deferring this measure indefinitely. Next up we have Senate Bill 2809 relating to budget related reports, something that I think myself and others have been talking about for a while.

So given that, I'd like to move this Bill along as quickly as possible. So recommendation is as is Members Questions comments If Not Vice Chair, 2809, as is.

Chair's recommendations Class SB 2809, as is the Members present any no votes or reservations hearing None. The measure passes.

Okay, next up, 2862 relating to gubernatorial appointments. Members, we'd like to work further on this measure to try to fine tune it and address the concerns raised. So with Everybody's indulgence, defer one week time certain Thursday, February 12th at 3pm to take a closer look at the issues raised.

Next up we have Senate Bill 2343 relating to the Legislature. We're going to do with this one is defer one week time certain to Thursday, February 12th at 3pm because there is another Bill that encapsulates the report that was actually issued. We'd like to integrate them. Okay and next up is Senate Bill 2336 relating to trees.

Recommendation is a Senate draft one we're going to go ahead. We're going to remove political subdivision. We think that that should be left to Arezzo to urge the counties to adopt this rather than a mandate. And we're going to Defect data to 1-1-2525 Members. Questions Comments if not, vice chair your Bill go.

SB2336 Chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments if Members present any no votes or reservations hearing none. The measure passes.

Okay next up relating to public procurement, Senate Bill 2075. We'd like to go ahead and defer this one week time certain to Thursday, February 12th at 3:00pm in room 225. We're going to look at what other states are doing for the bid preference and also as a way to address any possible constitutional concern.

Next up we have Senate Bill 2308 relating to procurement. This is a small purchase Vendor compliance bill.

What we're going to do is we're going to accept the SBO recommendation on increasing it to threshold to 5000, not 6000, because the 5000 can be tied to the changes that were made in New York and California insofar as the cost increases go and therefore there's a rational relationship to the number being set.

So therefore, we're going to go with the $5,000, but we're going to add an effective date of 7-1-2525 in the measure as well. For further discussion. Members questions, Comments? If not Vice Chair, Chair's recommendation on.

SB2308 is to pass with amendments. Any no votes or reservations of the Members present? Hearing None. The measures adopted.

Okay, next one Senate Bill 2601 related to procurement. What we're going to do is we're going to accept the SBO recommendation of breaking out the misdemeanor is number four in the list of enumerated offenses. That could be enforcement. That could be done by the SPO. We're going to blank out the appropriations in the FTEs.

Because although we understand the concerns of the SPO and being able to address the contracts of 10% and wanting it to 15%, we think that with extra resources there might be a way for them to be able to do this.

We'll have the Committee on Ways and Means look at this issue further since this is their purview and will defect date to 7-1-2525 as well.

Sure. I think what I saw the SPO was to keep in the criminal penalties.

Yeah, we're just, we're just, we're enumerating it as number four right now. It's just part of a paragraph.

Zero, you're gonna put it.

Yeah, it's number four. So pretty much what they asked for.

Okay.

But we are going to go ahead while we gently disagree with the 15 and keep it 10% and then send the FTEs in consideration to Ways and Means.

Very good. Okay, thank you. Cool.

No, thank you. All right, Anybody else? Yeah. If not Vice chair, Chair's recommendation on.

SB2601 is to pass with amendments. Any no votes or reservations? Hearing None. The measures adopted.

Okay. 2397. A suddenly wildly popular Bill to address concerns of the neighborhood board. I've had people personally tell me about this even though I'm from Maui. As a result, we're going to want to fast track this and so we're going to go as is. Members questions? Comments? If Not Vice Chair 2397 as is.

Chair's recommendation is to pass as is Are there any no votes or reservations hearing None. The measures adopted okay.

2219 relating to public access. This one would set up the Capitol Visitor Center. This is something we've tried before but we've run into numerous snags. And so I think in order to try to ensure that something can be done that can be effectuated through legislation, we're going to create a working group to include representatives as follows.

We are going to I'm going to put myself the chair of GBO on it. We're going to invite our the Chair of LMG to come in from the House to come and join us.

A Rep from DAGS, a Rep from IRB, a Rep from the Business Enterprise Program within DHS and a Rep from the Joint Legislative Access Committee and any additional Members as deemed necessary by the working group.

We're removing mention of funding in positions and we'll leave that up to Ways and Means to see if that's needed and a Defective date of 1-1-2525 Members Questions Comments if not Vice Chair Senate Draft one 2219

On SB 2219 Recommendations passed with amendments. Any no votes or reservations?

No.

One. No vote and one excused. The measures adopted.

Okay great. Next up is 2849 relating to public meetings. This one is to help our disabled community. So as a result we're going to make technical non substantive amendments for the purposes of clear clarity and consistency and we'll go ahead and add an effective date of 2525 for further conversation in case something else is needed.

Members Questions Comments if Not Vice Chair 2849 Senate Draft 1 Chair's recommendation is.

To pass with amendments. Are there any no votes or reservations hearing? None. The measure passes.

Okay. Thank you so much. 24:49 relating to public meetings. While we appreciate the intent of trying to define business days by limiting it to specific hours is a little over prescriptive and given that OIP considers this proposed amendment as unnecessary, we're going to defer this measure for this year. Okay, next up 2781 relating to lei.

This is the Bill trying to go ahead and ensure that Hawaii leis are sold. We want to defer this one week time certain Thursday February 12th at 3pm in room 225 to look at how we can go ahead and perhaps mirror the labeling laws that we have to ensure Hawaii products are protected and promoted.

Okay and then that concludes our 3pm decision making agenda. We will now do a brief we'll gavel out of that and Come back in for our 3:01pm agenda. So we're out. Okay.

Aloha everybody. Welcome to the 301 Agenda. We are still convened here in Conference Room 225. Meeting is still being streamed live on YouTube. In the likely event that we get disconnected, we will reconvene to discuss any outstanding business at 3:30pm Tuesday, February 10, 2026 in this room 225.

And a public notice will be posted on the legislature's website. In order to facilitate this hearing in a timely manner, we'll be enforcing a two minute limit on testimony. And as such we please ask you don't read from your testimony submitted and add to it with new thoughts or comments or observations.

And then please, please feel free to stand up on rewritten testimony. So we love that. Anyway, neck. First up is 2983 relating to natural resources. This is offensive. Criminal destruction of a tree on state or county property. Punishable is a misdemeanor. We have Daniel Dunnell, written testimony and support.

We have two individuals, Jennifer and Ted Bolan, both written in support. That's all we have on 2983. Anybody in the audience who really wishes to testify on this. Seeing none. Really can't ask anybody questions because they're not here. So we will move on to the next Bill on the agenda which is.

Chair.

Yes, I know.

I guess amongst ourselves. Do you know what this would do?

We can probably do this on decision making. Okay, decision making. We can talk amongst ourselves about it, but otherwise there's somebody here. I totally have a question but just to keep it rolling so we can get questions. But we can talk later about the addresses so we won't make a move without you. Okay. Okay, let's see.

Next up, 2930 risk management revolving Fund. We have up Keith Regan, comptroller, testifying for DAGS.

Sure. Literally stand on my testimony and support.

Okay, thank you so much. We appreciate that's all we have on this testimony for this piece of legislation. Anybody else wishing to testify? Seeing none. Does anybody have any questions? Seeing none. I'm really looking forward to that spreadsheet. That will be huge for us so. And appreciate the work Ways and Means was doing on trying to flag this issue out for us.

I do have a question. How far are you on the status of coming up with a plan? This. This requires you to come up with a plan, but just wondering how far along you might be with.

Thank you, Chair Members. So we actually have put together a process to be able to analyze the various losses that we occurred in the wildfire from West Maui. We have a list of the buildings that were damaged and destroyed. And so now it's a matter of just priorit, prioritizing that list and providing that information to you folks. So we're pretty far along in that process.

And regarding the insurance you're guaranteed or how does that work with the insurance companies?

So right now we've collected about $125 million in property and liability insurance proceeds from our claim. We anticipate that being somewhere around 210, 211 million, when all is said and done to 200 of that will be property, about 11, little shy of 11 million in liability proceeds.

So your process includes all the, all. The, the total amount. Right.

And how, how we recommend that it be allocated. And then of course we'll have that discussion. Right. About what that's going to look like together.

And my request is that we have this ready for Ways and Means.

Absolutely. Okay. Yep, we're expediting it for you. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Member.

Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay, anybody else seeing none. We'll move on to the next Bill on the agenda which is 2928 relating to procurement. This establishes a small business procurement program, a small business procurement coordinator, positions permanently in the SPO's office. We've been working on this for a couple of years. First up, SPO.

Aloha. Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, my name is Keari Shibuya and I'm the current Small Business Procurement Coordinator under the Small Business Initiative. The State Procurement Office stands on our written testimony.

And I'd like to briefly add that over the past year working on this initiative, I've seen firsthand how critical this program is for small businesses. At every stage of diversity development, I've been able to connect with entrepreneurs who are just starting out and need help navigating the procurement system for the first time.

And at the same time, I've connected with well established businesses who have the capacity and capability to perform the state work, but are facing challenges competing against larger, well established firms. This program helps level the playing field by providing technical assistance to outreach policy and ongoing support. And that is why we strongly support this Bill. Thank you.

Thank you for being here. Appreciate it. Okay, next up, we have DBAD.

Hello, the chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. Jason. Stands on our written testimony in support of this Bill.

Thanks for being here, Jason. We appreciate it. Seiichi Nagai for a Civic Nexus .

Aloha Chair... CEO of Civic Nexus. I am one of the early entrepreneurs that Carrie mentioned. And I stand.

Thank you so much for being here. Appreciate you being here to testify. Kieran Polk, Kapolei Chamber of Commerce. Go ahead.

Aloha. Aloha, Chair, Vice chair, Members of the Committee. Kieran Polk, Executive Director and CEO of the Kapolei Chamber of Commerce. I have submitted written testimony. I'd like to stand on it.

But I'd just like to add, I think it's no secret that our small businesses don't always have the capacity to go through the channels of procurement and what that all encompasses.

And I think that we just really need to put as much energy as we can to support our small businesses here in Hawaii and get them elevated to a point where that leveling of the playing field is there so they can come forward and put their business plans forward to the state, through the state.

And this program does that. It helps them navigate it, and they've just done a fantastic job. I've seen it firsthand in the community. But we've got to look at making it permanent. You can't just put something out there, take it back. It needs to be. They've got the relationships, and it needs to stand present.

And so I'd just like to add that. And thank you for the time.

Okay. Thank you for being here. Appreciate you testifying. Next, we have Lance Royal, individual written in support. Tammy Lee, Department of Transportation Vice Chair.

Members of the Committee. Tammy Lee, Deputy Director for the DOT.

Okay, thank you so much for being here. We appreciate you. Amy Aselby, City and County, Honolulu Office of Economic Revitalization. They have sent communications and support. We have Pamela Tumpap, Maui Chamber of Commerce. She has also sent written communications in support. That's all we have on 2928. Anybody in the audience wishing to testify? Yeah.

Chair. Good afternoon. Keith Regan, Comptroller Director of the Department of Accounting and General Services. I apologize for not submitting written testimony on this measure. Unfortunately, with everything going on, we missed this particular one. Yes, but. But I will say that in the short time that I've had the opportunity to work very.

To work with Keari and her team at the State Procurement Office, I've watched how this program has grown and how it's helped to support small businesses in our community, which ultimately helps us as a Department as we seek to support businesses that may be bidding on or working on projects right for us.

And so the stronger we can make this program and the more that we can support it, I think the better it is ultimately for the entire community. So I would just urge your support of this measure and we strongly support it as well.

Okay, very good. Thank you. Anybody else wishing to testify? Seeing none. Members, questions? Quick question of sbo. I don't know which one. We have a couple of bills moving.

One is a bid preference Bill, another one's one, you know, that lowers the threshold requirements for the projects, which I think a lot of small businesses would be agile enough. Do you see your office as being able to assist the SBO and the Legislature in these endeavors should they pass?

Yes, we're aware of both bills and we have provided comments My the small business program in particular would be happy should these bills pass. We'd be happy to spread the word about them too, the small business community and assist small businesses in being able to implement them.

Okay, great. Thank you. Any other questions? All right, seeing none. We'll move on to the next Bill on the agenda. This is 3068. zero, wait, no, I'm sorry. 2927. My bad everybody. First up, SPO.

Good afternoon, chair, Vice chair, Members of Committee ... State procurement office. We stand on our testimony.

Okay, thank you so much. We have next up sitting County Honolulu budget and fiscal services. They are opposed. We also have Ryan Sakuda for the General Contractors association and they have submitted comments. That's all we have on this one. Anybody in the audience wishing to testify? Seeing none. Members, questions? Seeing none.

We'll move on to the next Bill on the agenda. 3600. This would prohibit a procurement officer from disclosing a competing offer's proposal or evaluation score. First up is DAGS.

Chair We send our written testimony in support.

Okay, thank you so much. Next up, SPO.

The state procurement office stands and its. Written testimony in support.

Okay, thank you very much. And then we also have from General Contractors association of Hawaii. They have written in comments. That's all we have on this measure. Anybody else in the audience of Zoom World wishing you to thank testify. Seeing none. Members, questions? Seeing none. We'll move on to the next Bill on the agenda.

2970 relating to standards of conduct. This prohibits state agency for entering into any contract to procure dispose of goods and services with any business that's owner operated in which a controlling interest is held by a relative or household Member. First up, SPO.

Testimony in support.

In support. Okay, thank you. Next up we have Robert Harris, Hawaii State Ethics Commission. zero, there he is. Hello, sir.

Aloha Chair, Vice chair. My name is Robert Harris. On behalf of the Hawaii State Ethics Commission. I'll try to be brief. We did recommend two amendments. I just want to make sure we address those. Okay.

One is essentially recommending that there is a obligation by the Director and Deputy Director to be accountable for ensuring that the Department follows this law. And so there's a degree of responsibility since they're the ones who are potentially most impacted. And secondly, we do Note that Chapter 84 already has a contracts section. And we suggest that perhaps just incorporating this in that contract section keeps everything in one area. Okay, thank you.

Thank you very much for profiting on those two amendments. Okay, next up we have Grassroots Institute of Hawaii. They have submitted written communication and support. That's all we have on 2970. Anybody else in the audience wishing to testify or zoom Seeing non Members questions, seeing none.

We are going to move on to the next Bill on the agenda which is 3015. And this would require any every government agency that maintains, uses or collects or possesses the home address of a covered public service candidate to ensure the home address is not publicly accessible. First up, we have Office of Information Practice and bless you.

They have submitted testimony and comments. Next up, Campaign Spending Commission. They have submitted.

Not present, Chair.

Not present. Okay. zero yeah, I have them in zoom. Yep, they have submitted comments as well. Ty Nohara, DCCA

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair, Members Committee. My name is. On behalf of DCCA ..., we stand on our written testimony offering comments.

Okay. Thank you for the comments. Doug Meller, League of Women Voters of Hawaii. They have submitted comments to the measure. Sterling Marita, Hawaii Professional Chapter Society Professional journalists. They too have submitted comments. We have late from Jung Min, Charles Lee, Deputy Attorney General.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. My name is Charles, Deputy Attorney General. From the Department of Attorney General. Positive related submission, but we wanted to provide some comments to help implementation.

Okay. We appreciate you coming in and offering those comments, sir. Next up, we finally have late from Ben Krebs Public First Law Center.

Good afternoon, Chair, Members of the Committee, Ben Krebs with the Public First Law Center. So we respectfully oppose this measure for the reasons outlined in our 10 testimony, but we definitely support the idea and concept and what we've previously testified on the previous bills is that, you know, we'd like to see this expanded, right?

So everybody deserves to feel safe in their home and everybody should be able to get their home address off the Internet. So right now the Bill is limited to government employees and we think that that could be expanded to more than just government employees and anybody who's at risk of being and docs.

We also point out that there are, I think, some practical issues that will occur under the Bill as written. So we would encourage the Committee to look at the Chapter 92H framework and try to better fit this measure within that. And happy to answer or try to answer any questions.

Okay. Appreciate you coming in. Appreciate your amendments.

That's all we have on this measurement measure. Anybody else in the audience wishing to testify? Seeing none. Members questions? Seeing none. We'll move on to the next one, 2929. This is public notice. Allows government agency to satisfy public notice requirements by posting notices on official state or county websites while retaining publication as an option.

First up, we have OIP. They have submitted written comments.

We have SPO.

Okay. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Lane Silva, County of Maui. Go ahead. Mr. Silva. I see you.

Yes, aloha. My name is Layne Silva. I'm with the Department of Liquor Control for the County of Maui and testifying on behalf of county of Maui. We strongly support this measure and stand. By our written testimony. I will remain on a call for any questions if needed. And thank you for your consideration.

Thank you so much, sir. Thank you for being here via Zoom. Appreciate it. Okay, then we have Peter Fritz, who is an individual.

Thank you, Chair. First, I'd like to thank the chair for yesterday where he commented upon including an electronic link to sites. And I included that in my testimony to one of the studies. That is in my testimony. I've been testifying on this issue in the past about concerns about electronic formatting. But I have some of the-

Some of the concerns that I have is that there's no longer a requirement to have a centralized place in order to do to where the notices will be published. And SPO expresses the same thing.

Since you have the choice to publish electronically or to publish in the newspaper, how is somebody going to know where to look for the notice? It could change depending upon where they want. And if it was cited in the Yale study that I was in, that I included in my testimony.

It's actually been shown that for certain type of public participation, particularly such as the other day where there was a talk about residential residential facility being located or treatment facility being located in residential areas, that publishing electronically actually reduces the amount of civil complaints versus when it was published in the paper.

I have extensive experience with the public notice requirements in the state calendar, and I've been ever since, they said that they didn't care whether or not a notice was readable by somebody with a disability and all their responsibility was to post the notice on the website.

I checked the notices so much so that it produced an article in the civil beat about state, county agencies that aren't complying with the notice requirement. And so there really isn't any particular standard here for what the notice is have to say for individuals with disabilities. The public notices can actually be posted only on your own website.

Okay, Mr. Fritz, we've reached the two minutes. I'm going to have to have you summarize at this point. What's left.

Okay. The concerns are is what's a date for purposes of posting? Is it 30 days or 29 days and 1 second on the state calendar? It's actually 5 days and 1 second. And that's a particular concern. They're extremely-

Okay, we have to have you go ahead and wrap it up now.

Okay. There are very strong concerns about accessibility for the kupuna as well as for individuals with disabilities. I've set forth many of these things in my testimony and thank you for the opportunity to testify.

No, we appreciate you putting that in the testimony and we'll definitely look at the through this as far as the concerns you raised. So. Okay, thank you very much, sir. That's all we have on 2929. Anybody else wishing to testify? Seeing none. Members, questions? Seeing none.

We will move on to C 2938 relating to search and rescue. First up we have Ryan Endo, Deputy Attorney General. oh, hello sir.

Good afternoon. Chairman McKelvey, Vice Chair Gabbard, Members of the Committee. Ryan Endo, Deputy Attorney General, on behalf. Of the Department of the Attorney General. Our comments were in our written testimony. And we'll be available for any questions.

Okay. Thank you for the comments. We appreciate it. We have Ethan Pearson, Pomerant Oahu Search and Rescue. They have submitted written in support. We have Colonel Dana McLaughlin, Civil Patrol, Civil Air Patrol, Hawaii Wing. They have written support. We have Rosemarie Johnson, Hawaii SAR alliance on Zoom. The President on zoom. Chair. Okay, submitted, written in support.

That's all we have on the measure. Anybody else wishing to testify? Seeing none Members questions of the AG's office? Yeah, seeing none. We'll go ahead and we'll move on to. Excuse me, Chair. Yes?

Someone would like to testify.

Oh, okay. Well, go ahead. Go ahead and Two minutes starts now. Go ahead and testify.

Thank you, Chair, Vice Chair and Committee Members. My name is Rosemary Johnson. I thank you very deeply for placing this on the agenda item and I am very grateful to speak in strong support of education.

I am here to represent the SAR Alliance, which is a group of practitioners, practitioners around the state who are boots on the ground from all of the agencies of the state. We have collaborated last few years on looking at what our problems are, the gaps, and potentially solving that every year.

I just want to make a note that legislation regarding SAR comes and there's no solid foundation for it to stand on. And it always faces this legislation. This Bill right now is that solid foundation so that all legislation in the future has something to stand up and to move forward with in the future.

This Bill also allows to provide centralized oversight and administrative. Administrative Daily Administration that is needless for centralized communication between the currently fragmented interagencies. That's really all I have to say. There is a little. In my testimony. There is a little correcting on the.

The Bill is saying that on the portal of the legislation website where it shows the description. We have clarification there with regards to coordinating interregna communications versus the word designate. So that is a keyword in that the Legislature Bill, the way it's written.

Okay, great. Thank you for being online and testifying. We appreciate it. And we got you written, too. Okay, cool. Okay. Anybody else wishing to testify? Seeing none. Members. Are there any questions?

I do. Attorney General, please. So you. You're.

We'll come to the microphone. Sorry.

So he placement of this office in the Governor's Office, you say it may have constitutional challenges. Has the attorney General sought out or looked at what other agency in the state might be the appropriate agency to administer this program, which is important.

So I did take a look at that. There's no real clean fit. And I did talk it over with my supervisor, and he said, well, that's. Something better left to the decision makers in this matter.

But what would be the. So when we're looking at the capabilities, what would be the closest? I mean, I think Department of Law Enforcement, or is it Human Services? Where would you say that, at least for search and Rescue, which is important and spans all counties, it should be an agency that. That spans all counties.

What might be possibilities so that we could discuss this with agencies that might be relevant.

The. The two. The two departments I did look at were Law Enforcement and Land and Natural Resources. DOD.

DOD because they have HIMA, right?

They do have HIMA. And that would also be a consideration.

Okay, thank you.

Anything else? No. Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay. Excuse me, Chair. Well, someone would like to testify on this Bill.

Yes.

Okay, go ahead.

Can you hear me?

I can hear you. You have two minutes. Go ahead.

Okay. My name is Noelle. I'm with Kauai Search and Rescue. Okay. And I'm not sure why My, my written testimony didn't get in because. No, no, we got you.

We got you written. We did get it.

Oh, okay.

You said you were in support of it.

Oh, I didn't hear that. Well, I was just gonna read it.

No, no, we don't like people reading their testimony. So if you got like something else to offer, then go ahead.

Okay. I don't really have anything else to say except what I wrote down, but we are in support of this.

Okay. Okay. T Any ideas of if the governor's office is unconstitutional. Place it where you think it might be appropriate.

I. I think law enforce law enforcement handles missing persons. We work, we have currently an MOU with our law enforcement agency here on Hawaii. And so they're the ones that call us out and we have all of our standards in place and we work really closely with them and other agencies.

So I see it as, you know, a law enforcement personally just because of how we've done it here on Kauai.

Okay, Noelle, sorry. Thank you so much. Appreciate you weighing in on that. And we have your written testimony as well. Well, okay.

Okay. Yeah, thank you.

Right on. See you. Okay. Anybody else seeing None. Members questions? Hello? Oh, yes, hello.

Hello. Yes, My name is Stacy Haruguchi with Civil Air Patrol.

Okay, you're. We read, we came, we passed you already. We saw your testimony and support, but go ahead. Stacy, if you want to add to your written, go ahead in two minutes is. Sorry.

Yeah, sorry. So this is in response to the Attorney General's office comments. I understand the legalities of needing it to be under a Department within the state. One of the complications is all counties currently have an MOU with the Coast Guard. So they need assistance with any maritime or aviation related search and rescue.

They can immediately skip echelon, go from the county directly to the Coast Guard if they cannot affect a rescue within one hour. However, there is no coordination office to go from the county to let's say the State National Guard to ask for an army National Guard helicopter.

So In July of 2024 there was a real world search and rescue at down Hilo helicopter on the north shore of Kauai and it did go through the governor's office for approval to use that National Guard asset even though Coast Guard assets weren't place.

So it creates a very odd working relationship where a federal entity, I believe ends up asking for state support. It's kind of working in reverse. So that is part of the additional reason for that. State sarcoidator.

In regards to the Attorney General's question or I'm not sure whose question was about the appropriate Department. It would have to be a Department that has a 24.7watch stander because obviously search and rescue can happen at any time. I'm not sure about law enforcement obviously has the 911 dispatchers. I'm not sure about DLNR.

And then for DOD you have the jock under the National Guard and you also have Hyema. So yeah, I'll defer to those experts on which agency has the bandwidth to handle this.

But it does involve obviously aviation, all the fire departments, the volunteer organizations, possibly federal Title 10 DoD assets because they may be able to assist in an extremist situation. But it also requires coordination with INDO PAYCOM for that. That is the conclusion to my comments. Thank you.

Okay. No, thank you for weighing in on the conversation. I think that's, that's helpful. So it looks like we've kind of preliminarily identified two entities that we should reach out to. We do defer decision making one week for reasons like this, but thank you. Anybody else wishing to testify on the measure any more.

I would like to add comments please.

Okay, we're done with that with the testimonies in the question and answers period. So this is for chance for Members to ask any of the individual testifiers questions. So any of the questions from the Members towards any of the individual testifiers. Okay. Seeing none. This does wrap up and conclude the hearing.

Like I said, we are going to be deferring all items on this agenda time certain until next week at 3:30pm in this room 225. Thank you so much for being here and have a great day. Okay, this is a quick reconvene of the Committee on Government Operations.

Just want to make very clear that we will be deferring decision making time certain to Tuesday, February 10th to 2026 at 3pm here in room 225. And this definitely concludes today's hearing on government operations. Thank you for allowing me this clarification.