STAND. COM. REP. NO.1270

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: H.B. No. 1572

H.D. 3

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 1572, H.D. 3, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PARKING FOR DISABLED PERSONS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to amend the disabled parking laws to:

(1) Allow law enforcement and commissioned volunteer enforcement officers to enter private property to enforce disabled parking laws;

(2) Add a definition for "access aisle" which means the area adjacent to a parking space reserved for a person with disability and that is to be used exclusively by that person for the purpose of entering and exiting a vehicle;

(3) Include "access aisle" in the definition for "parking space reserved for persons with disabilities";

(4) Include vascular condition in the definition for "person with a disability";

(5) Redefine "removable windshield placard" and "temporary removable windshield placard";

(6) Repeals provisions for issuing temporary removable windshield parking placards, removable windshield placards, identification cards;

(7) Repeals provisions for replacement of lost, stolen, or mutilated placards or identification cards;

(8) Upgrades fraudulent manufacture or alteration of placards and identification cards from petty misdemeanor to misdemeanor;

(9) Repeals metered parking privileges for vehicles displaying an international symbol of access;

(10) Allows the disability and communication access board to adopt rules for the revocation of temporary removable windshield placards and special license plates, decertification of placards and identification cards, design of identification cards, establishment of fees for placards, and penalties;

(11) Provides penalties for persons displaying invalid placards or special license plates, using placards or special license plates not issued to that person or any passengers occupying the vehicle, parking in an access aisle or obstructing the ingress or egress to a parking space reserved for a disabled person; and

(12) Allows citations to be mailed to the violator.

Testimony in support of this measure was received from the Honolulu Police Department, the Disability and Communication Access Board, and a concerned citizen.

Your Committee believes this measure will assist law enforcement officers in upholding the disabled parking laws, and assist disabled persons in accessing their vehicles parked in disabled parking spaces.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1572, H.D. 3, and recommends that it pass Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs,

____________________________

COLLEEN HANABUSA, Chair