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 S.B. No. 361 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to allow the Department of Public Safety to contract with a private nonprofit corporation for the purpose of managing and implementing expanding Weed and Seed programs.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Honolulu Police Department, the Downtown Neighborhood Board, Waikiki Citizens Patrol, Benefit Capital Financial Services, Inc., Hale Kipa, Inc., Meadow Gold Dairies, the Kakaako Improvement Association, Pacific Gateway Center, and the Kalihi-Palama-Chinatown Economic Development Initiative. The Department of Public Safety and the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawaii supported the intent of the bill. The Executive Director of the Weed and Seed Hawaii Strategy provided background information.

Your Committee finds that Operation Weed and Seed is a national strategy organized by the Department of Justice and managed by the United States Attorney's Office. The Department of Justice will fund up to $175,000, or three sites per county. Hawaii's three designated sites are: Chinatown/Palama/Kalihi, designated in 1998; Waipahu, designated in 2000, and Ewa/Ewa Beach, designated in 2002. Since the inception of the program in the Chinatown/Palama/Kalihi site, crime has been reduced by seventy percent.

Your Committee further finds that the purpose of the Weed and Seed program is to prevent, control, and reduce violent crime, drug abuse, and gang activity in targeted high-crime neighborhoods across the country. The two-pronged approach includes weeding or removing criminals who participate in violent crime and drug abuse from the community, and seeding or providing health and human services and economic revitalization to the site. Communities are responsible for identifying their problem priorities and recommending strategies to deal with the problems.

Your Committee believes that the Weed and Seed program is a valuable investment in our communities' ability to regain control of their neighborhoods. Your Committee amended the bill by:

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 S.B. No. 361, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 361, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.