Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations and Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 2545 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to make the Office of Information Practices (OIP) a permanent agency within the Office of the Lieutenant Governor, and to appropriate funds for OIP.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from OIP, the Hawaii State Ethics Commission, the Hawaii County Office of Corporation Counsel, Common Cause Hawaii, and Pacific Wings Airlines. The Department of the Attorney General provided comments.

Your Committees find that access to public records by the citizens of this State is one of the hallmarks of a democratic society, which must be protected. Therefore, your Committees support OIP and the invaluable services it provides to both the public and private sectors.

Your Committees further support establishing OIP as a permanent office, but have not determined the appropriate placement for the office.

Your Committees note that under the Constitution of the State of Hawaii, executive agencies that are not temporary nor for a special purpose must be placed within one of the permanent executive branch departments. The Office of the Lieutenant Governor (LGO) is not one of the principal executive branch departments, and therefore your Committees are concerned about the constitutional implications of placing OIP, as a permanent agency, within the LGO.

Therefore, your Committees have amended this measure by replacing its contents with language to create a special Commission to study the best placement of a permanent OIP. This Commission will be charged with additional duties as well, and after the Commission has finished its initial work the Legislature can revisit this issue and finally establish OIP as a permanent office.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations and Judiciary that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2545, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2545, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.