Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Water, Land Use, and Hawaiian Affairs and Energy and Environmental Protection, to which was referred H.B. No. 2493 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to ensure the protection of Hawaii's natural resources by establishing an effective enforcement program within the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR). This bill seeks to reduce DLNR's backlog of violations and streamline the enforcement process by establishing the Civil Natural Resource Violations System that is patterned after DLNR's successful pilot program known as the Hearings Officer Administrative Penalty System.

DLNR and Sierra Club, Hawaii Chapter, testified in support of this measure.

Your Committees find that many of DLNR's regulatory violations are considered minor when compared to other criminal violations and are more efficiently handled through a less formal, civil process. As an alternative to a criminal process, a civil process will:

(1) Provide cost savings;

(2) Reduce the caseload on the criminal court system;

(4) Provide more flexibility.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water, Land Use, and Hawaiian Affairs and Energy and Environmental Protection that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2493 and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary.