STAND. COM. REP. 3186

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2004

RE: H.B. No. 2741

H.D. 1

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 2741, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to promote efficiency and accountability within state government by ensuring that the salaries and qualifications for certain state agency civil service exempt positions are subject to legislative review.

Specifically, the measure:

(1) Establishes that unless a deputy director or special assistant position is authorized by law, no state executive department or agency shall establish or fill such a position, without first filing a report with the Department of Human Resources Development that includes:

(A) A justification for the position;

(B) The duties and responsibilities for the position;

(C) The selection criteria and minimum qualifications to be used to fill the position;

(D) The salary range for the deputy director or special assistant position; and

(E) A comparison of the salary range being offered for the position with salaries being paid in the private sector to persons with similar qualifications and responsibilities;

(2) Requires the Governor to annually file a report with the Legislature, at least twenty days prior to the convening of each regular session, detailing:

(A) Each department's or agency's compliance with the filing requirements for each nonstatutorily-established deputy director or special assistant position under the executive branch's control;

(B) The number of such positions under the executive branch's control;

(C) The salaries paid to each person occupying such a position and how it compares with the salary range filed with the Department of Human Resources Development and with salaries being paid in the private sector to persons with similar qualifications and responsibilities; and

(D) Any variance that results in a situation where a person occupying a position covered under the measure is being paid in excess of the salary range filed with the Department of Human Resources Development for that position, and the reasons for the variance;

(3) Establishes criteria to qualify a position as a nonstatutorily-established deputy director or special assistant position as being, in part, a position that has a salary that is not less than fifty per cent of a departmental director's salary ($85,302); and

(4) Abolishes all nonstatutorily-established deputy director or special assistant positions that are not in compliance with the measure as of January 1, 2005.

Your Committee finds that the measure will enable the Legislature, as well as the general public, to determine whether certain deputy director and special assistant positions in state government are necessary and, if so, whether these positions are being filled by adequately compensated, qualified personnel.

Your Committee has amended the measure by:

(1) Deleting the requirement that departments and agencies compare the salary range being offered for a deputy director or special assistant position with private sector salaries;

(2) Adding to the salary amount filing and reporting requirement imposed upon departments, agencies, and the Governor, a requirement that the department, agency, or Governor also include information as to what funding source is being used to fund the position;

(3) Exempting the deputy director, special assistant, and other positions enumerated in section 76-16(b), Hawaii Revised Statutes, from being included in the filing and reporting requirements of the measure;

(4) Changing the annual reporting requirement imposed on the Governor to disclose information regarding affected assistant director and special assistant positions to the Legislature to a quarterly reporting requirement;

(5) Adding positions that are temporarily assigned or loaned to a director's office for at least seventy-five per cent of a fiscal year to the provision that establishes what positions are to be considered as deputy directors or special assistants; and

(6) Changing the effective date from July 1, 2010, to upon approval.

Your Committee believes that the amended measure will better effectuate its intended purpose.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2741, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2741, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

____________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair