STAND. COM. REP. NO. 149-00

                                 Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                   , 2000

                                 RE: H.B. No. 2467
                                     




Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2000
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce, to which
was referred H.B. No. 2467 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE CONSUMER ADVOCATE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to authorize the Director of
Commerce and Consumer Affairs to retain in-house counsel to
represent the Division of Consumer Advocacy (Division).

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure
from the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA),
Public Utilities Commission (PUC), GTE Hawaiian Tel, Kauai
Electric/The Gas Company, and Hawaiian Electric, Inc.

     DCCA testified that over the years it had experienced a high
turnover of legal counsel assigned by the Office of the Attorney
General to assist the Division.  This turnover has negatively
affected the ability of the Division to represent, protect, and
advance the interests of individual and business consumers of
utility services, which representation requires experienced legal
counsel.  DCCA stated that Division counsel must become
knowledgeable and experienced in dealing with the theories in
which utility rate regulation is grounded, and that include
accounting, engineering, finance, economics, and statistics.  In
addition, counsel must possess the long-term institutional
knowledge of, and be aware that issues raised in one docketed
matter are inter-related with other issues raised in other
dockets.

 
 
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     Your Committee finds that by authorizing in-house counsel
for the Division, this measure would provide for greater
stability in the legal workforce representing consumers before
the PUC, and thus for better representation and protection of the
interests of consumers in PUC regulation.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce that is attached to
this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and
purpose of H.B. No. 2467 and recommends that it pass Second
Reading and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committee on Consumer
                                   Protection and Commerce,



                                   ______________________________
                                   RON MENOR, Chair