Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Human Services and Water, Land, and Agriculture, to which was referred S.B. No. 927 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to dedicate lands in perpetuity for a senior opportunities center at Lanakila, Oahu.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by Catholic Charities Elderly Services. Testimony in opposition to this measure was submitted by the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Your Committees find that senior citizens benefit from, and deserve access to, senior centers that provide an array of community-based services, including health, social, nutritional, educational, and recreational programs, counseling, and case management services for elders in communities statewide, without regard to ability to pay, thereby preventing premature institutionalization.

Your Committees further find that the Lanakila Multi-Purpose Senior Center (Center) is one of the oldest and largest senior centers on Oahu, providing services to over 3,000 seniors from around Oahu. The Center is an integral part of the community and affords seniors the opportunity to remain involved in community activities.

The Center is situated on a parcel of land set aside for a senior opportunities center by Executive Order No. 2386, issued June 19, 1966. Your Committees understand that the Department of Land and Natural Resource has received a request from the Department of Accounting and General Services to cancel Executive Order 2386 and issue a new executive order transferring control and management over that parcel of land to the City and County of Honolulu, without restrictions on future use. Your Committees strongly believe that such transfer should not occur without first informing the seniors who participate in Center programs and activities and the community at large, and allowing these stakeholders an opportunity to comment.

Your Committees have amended this measure by deleting extraneous language in section 2 and are passing this measure out to facilitate further discussion of this issue.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Water, Land, and Agriculture that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 927, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 927, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.