Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Education and Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations, to which was referred S.B. No. 1563 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to provide that the military representative on the Board of Education shall participate in all Board discussions except for matters discussed in executive meetings held pursuant to section 92-4, Hawaii Revised Statutes.

Prior to the decision making on this measure, your Committees prepared and circulated a proposed S.D. 1 version, which clarifies the status of the military representative as that of an ex-officio, nonvoting Board member who shall sit alongside other Board members during meetings.

Your Committees received written testimony in support of this measure from the United States Pacific Command. The Board of Education testified orally in support of this measure.

Your Committees find that with the large number of military personnel in the State, it is appropriate to give a military representative a significant role in the Board of Education meetings. Although existing law provides for a military liaison on the Board, your Committees support provisions ensuring that the representative sits alongside other Board members and fully participates in all discussions and debates of the Board, other than executive meetings.

Your Committees further amended the proposed S.D. 1 version of this measure following the hearing to delete the term "ex officio" from the description of the military representative's role on the Board. Your Committees find that there may be some uncertainty over the representative's status as an "ex officio" member, given the different legal and lay interpretations of that term. As amended, this measure is clear that the military representative will be a nonvoting member, who shall sit alongside other Board members at meetings and participate in all discussions except executive meeting discussions.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Education and Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1563, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1563, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.