Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2880 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands for the maintenance and upkeep of Puea Cemetery.

Testimony in support of the measure was received from three private citizens. The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands submitted comments on the measure and recommended that if the measure is to move forward in the legislative process, that another expending agency be designated, since the Puea Cemetery is not situated on Hawaiian Home Lands.

Your Committee finds that Puea Cemetery in Kapalama is one of four major state cemeteries on Oahu. The oldest marker in the cemetery dates back to 1903 and other markers indicate that the buried include persons of Hawaiian, Filipino, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Puerto Rican, Korean, English, and Irish ancestry. A portion of the cemetery, owned by the Kaahumanu Society, is well maintained and protected by a chain link fence. However, the rest of the cemetery is not fenced in or otherwise contained. As a result, the cemetery, which is located within an urban, residential area and adjacent to public roads and walkways, suffers from the thoughtless and disrespectful actions of those who litter the grounds, walk over graves, and walk their pets through the cemetery.

Your Committee has amended the measure by replacing the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands with the Department of Accounting and General Services as the expending agency.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2880, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2880, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.