Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2786, S.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to further standardize the Hoisting Machine Operators Advisory Board.

Specifically, this measure places the Board within the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations for administrative purposes, and authorizes the Board to employ a half-time Executive Director and fix the Executive Director's compensation.

Your Committee finds that article V, section 6 of the state constitution requires state executive branch agencies to be placed within the principal departments of the executive branch of state government unless they are agencies or commissions that are both temporary and for special purposes.

In accordance with this constitutional requirement, this measure corrects an oversight in the occupational safety and health law, namely, the failure to place the hoisting machine operators advisory board within an executive department, by attaching that board to the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations for administrative purposes. Your Committee finds that without this amendment, all of the actions of the Board could be challenged on constitutional grounds.

In addition, your Committee finds that the hiring of a half-time Executive Director will greatly assist the Board in performing a number of necessary functions, such as scheduling meetings, receiving and reviewing certification applications, and disseminating application materials, and that funding for the position would be through the assessment of fees from the certification of hoisting machine operators.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2786, S.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Third Reading.