Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs, and Government Operations, to which was referred S.B. No. 296 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require certain state officials to complete mandatory ethics courses administered by the Hawaii State Ethics Commission (Commission).

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Education, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the Commission, Hawaii Pro Democracy Initiative, the League of Women Voters of Hawaii, and a concerned citizen.

Your Committee finds that our State's ethics and lobbying laws are complex and can be difficult to understand. Consequently, even public officials with the best intentions can find themselves inadvertently in violation.

Therefore, your Committee believes that it is extremely important for the top public officials in our State to undergo mandatory ethics training, both so that they can personally comply, and also so that they will be better able to carry out their duties in supervising subordinate officials and employees.

For that reason, your Committee has amended this measure to also subject the Governor and the Lieutenant Governor to mandatory ethics training. As the top Executive officials in the State, your Committee believes those offices should also be included, for the same reasons set forth above.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs, and Government Operations that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 296, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 296, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.