STAND. COM. REP. NO.1028
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2003
RE: H.B. No. 857
S.D. 1
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. 857 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this measure is to require a sixty-day public comment period following public notification for each proposed new correctional facility site, or expansion of inmate capacity or capital improvement project in excess of $500,000 at an existing correctional facility.
Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Community Alliance on Prisons. HGEA-AFSCME supported the intent of the measure and proposed additional amendments. The Lieutenant Governor, the Department of Public Safety, and the Department of Accounting and General Services opposed the measure.
Your Committee finds that public notification and participation in government decisions that directly impact a community is essential. Involving the public in new correctional facility site selections promotes trust in government. Your Committee finds, however, that public involvement should not unreasonably impact government activities by adding significant costs or causing significant delays. Your Committee further finds that the bill as written would trigger the notification and sixty-day comment period for such things as upgrading fire sprinkler systems or replacing sewage treatment systems in existing correctional facilities.
Weighing both concerns, your Committee amended the bill by:
(1) Deleting paragraphs (1) and (2) and references to these paragraphs;
(2) Deleting the requirement that notice be provided each time a potential site is selected, or before expanding the inmate capacity or beginning a capital improvement project costing in excess of $500,000 at existing correctional facilities;
(3) Adding clarifying language that public notice and comment is only required if an environmental assessment or impact statement is required for a proposed site or expansion of an existing facility under §343-5;
(4) Deleting the phrase "not fewer than" on page 2, line 3;
(5) Deleting the phrase "so as not to impose additional time on the State" on page 2, line 4; and
(6) Reformatting the language without paragraphs, and making technical, nonsubstantive amendments.
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. 857, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 857, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs,
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____________________________ COLLEEN HANABUSA, Chair |
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