House Standing Committee on Legislative Management

Aloha and good afternoon. Welcome to the House Committee on Legislative Management. It is Wednesday, February 18th. It is 2pm we are in conference room 4:30. We have a number of excellent measures on our agenda. Start with HB 1805 relating to child welfare. First we have the Office of the Ombudsman with comments. Oh no. We read your testimony. Great, thank you. Next we have Office of the Attorney General with comments.

Good afternoon. Chair, Vice Chair, Committee Members, Tiffany Chang, Deputy Attorney General. Just a few quick concerns that we had about this Bill.

Specifically about the definition of state agency and the jurisdiction that would be given to the advocate, the child advocate, in that we were concerned about the implications about any separation of powers and supremacy clause issues because of definition did not specifically exclude the heads of the Executive, the judiciary or any federal or multi state entities.

Our solution, or our suggestion would be, was to have the Child Advocate office be part of the Office of the Ombudsman. But I did review the testimony submitted by that office and perhaps that may not be the most viable solution.

We would be open to, I guess, discussions, but our concern mainly was the jurisdiction of the child advocate. And I'm available for any questions if you have. Great. Thank you so much.

Next up, we have the Hoaloha Project in support. Not present. And the Hawai' I Correctional Systems Oversight Commission in support. All right. Oh, did I. I'm sorry. The University of Hawaii with comments. President.

Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, Farrell-Marie Gomes, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs with the University of Hawaii System. We did submit written testimony on behalf of Vice President Debbie Halbert and we support the legislature's goal of strengthening child welfare oversight.

And we appreciate the opportunity to provide the comments that were submitted in our written testimony. We are here to answer questions if there are any mahalo for the opportunity to testify.

Thanks very much. Is there anyone else wishing to testify on this measure? Seeing none. Members, questions? Seeing none. Moving on. HB2110 relating to Neptism.

First up, we have the Hawaii State Ethics Commission, Director Harris in support.

Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair. Congratulations on the new positions and representative. The Hawaii State Ethics Commission is in strong support of this measure.

Obviously you have our information in the written statement, so I won't repeat it, except simply to note that this has been raised within the commission as essentially what's good for the goose is good for the gander should apply for everyone.

And there are some advantages in that, in that we do have a good cause exception process which allows for exceptions to be granted in cases of special need. Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Thanks very much. Next, we have a number of individuals in support. Is anyone present in the room or on Zoom as an individual? All right, we have the. zero, no, that's it. Members questions. Moving on to HB 2180. This is a fun one relating to voting boards. First, we have the Legislative Reference Bureau with comments.

Okay, we don't. And we also have a number of individuals in support. Are there any individuals present in the room or on ZOOM would like to testify on this measure? Members, any questions? Seeing none. Moving on to HB 2184 relating to lawmaker safety. First up, we have the Campaign Spending Commission with comments.

Good afternoon. Chair Quinlan, Vice Chair Ichiyama and Representative Kamaloa Kristy Chang on behalf of the Campaign Spending Commission. The Commission has strong concerns with the Administration of the Spin Bills. The Hawaii Campaign Finance Law exists to provide transparency to the public, which includes disclosure of addresses of candidates and their committees and contributors.

And this law would require the redaction of that information. A point out in our testimony, there's a couple of things that we know that the Bill is silent on if it was to pass out a Committee is one, that what the commission should do if an elected official is no longer in office, but they haven't terminated they, their campaign or their Committee reports with our office because we would still maintain that information.

And then secondly, the Bill doesn't seem to address appointed officials by the Governor, only elected officials. I'm not sure if you want to extend it to that. And then if it does pass out a Committee, we would ask for additional time so we can work with our vendor as we build out our program, our online filing system, so that we can comply. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up, we have the Attorney General's office with comments.

Vice Chair, Member of Committee Charles Zhongman Lee, Deputy Attorney General. We submitted our written comments to help better implement this Bill. We note that there's one issue, as previously mentioned, it's missing the appointed legislator. And also I believe there is an internal cross reference issue. And so once that's addressed, I think.

We're okay with that. Thank you very much. Next we have the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women in support, League of Women Voters Hawaii in support, the Hawaii Professional Chapter, Society of Professional Journalists in opposition, and a number of individuals both in support and in opposition.

Is there anyone else here or on Zoom who wishes to testify on this measure? Seeing none, we will move on to HB 2219, relating to disclosure, attorney-client, and attorney work product privilege communications to the ombudsman. And we have the Office of the Ombudsman, in support.

The microphone only picks up when you're at the--

Oh, sorry. I just want to clarify that the bill does not require any agency or individual to provide privileged information to my office. It only states that if that information is provided to my office, it doesn't waive that privilege to any other party. Thank you.

Great. Thank you so much. Is there anyone else wishing to testify on this measure? And do the members have any questions? Okay. Seeing none, moving on to HB 2469, relating to a regular session review working group. We have the State Procurement Office, with comments, the Legislative Reference Bureau, with comments, Imua Alliance, in support, and some community members, in opposition.

Is there anyone here or on Zoom that wishes to testify on this measure? Members, do you have any questions? Seeing none, let's take a brief recess. Okay. Returning to our 2:00 p.m. agenda for decision-making. First up, we have HB 1805, relating to Child Welfare.

I do agree that it's a little bit of a tricky move to put it in the Ombudsman's office. So we're going to try another tricky move and we're going to put this in the Attorney General's office. But we will take the Attorney General's suggested amendments in terms of the scope and jurisdiction and the definition of agency.

And we will set the salary at 90% of the Deputy Director of the Department of Health and no technical members. Oh, did I say defective? 7-1-3000 defective date Members' questions Comments Concerns.

Seeing none Vice Chair boarding on House Bill 1805 Chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments. Chair Vice Chair Vote Aye. Rep. Kahaloa A. Aye. Rep. Morikawa Aye. Brett Matsumoto Aye. Chair your recommendations adopted.

Thank you Members. Next up we have HB2110 relating to nepotism. You know, Members, we already have pretty strict House rules regarding nepotism that we also updated a couple of years ago. I think at this time it would be somewhat duplicative to also put this in statute. So we will be deferring this measure.

Next up, we have HB 2180, relating to voting boards. You know, rather than study the issue of whether or not we should have a voting board, let's just change this. We're going to delete all references to the Legislative Reference Bureau, we're going to turn this into a straight-up appropriations vehicle with a blank appropriation funding to go to the House of Representatives, and please let the committee report reflect the testimony of the Legislative Reference Bureau as to the cost, defect the date to July 1, 3000. Members, questions, comments, concerns? All right. Seeing none. Vice Chair.

Voting on House Bill 2180, Chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments, noting the presence of all members. Any reservations? Any noes? Chair's recommendation is adopted.

Thank you very much Members. Next up we have HB 2184. We're going to take the Attorney General's amendments and we are going to make some technical amendments for clarity, consistency and style. Effective date: July 1, 3000. Members Questions, comments, Concerns saying none.

Vice Chair voting on House Bill 2184, Chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments noting all Members present any reservations or no's. Chair the recommendation is adopted.

Thank you very much Members. Next we have HB2219 relating to disclosure, returning client and attorney work product privilege communications to the Ombudsman. Members, we are going to pass this Bill out with a defective date, 7-1-3000. No further amendments are needed. Questions Comments Concerns Seeing none Vice Chair.

Voting on House Bill 22919, recommendation is to pass with amendments noting all Members present any reservations or nos. Chair the recommendation is adopted.

Thank you so much Members. And very last, Bill HB 2469 relating to a regular session review working group. We're going to delete reference to the League of Women Voters, change that to a community member.

We're going to blank out the amounts and put the original amount recommended in the Committee report and we're going to give it a defective date of October 18th, 3000. My son's birthday. I love you, Max. Members Questions, Comments, Concerns Seeing none Vice.

Chair voting on House Bill 2469, Chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments noting all Members present any reservations, any noes Chair the recommendation is adopted.

Thank you Members. We are adjourned.