Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 2395, S.D. 2, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to allow the Hawaii Convention Center (Center) to enter into contracts with licensees requiring confidentiality as a condition to booking events. Specifically, this bill exempts the Center's booking records from the Uniform Information Practices Act until ten days after the event has occurred, upon request of a licensee and if disclosure may result in:

The Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism and the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) testified in support of this bill. The Society of Professional Journalists Hawaii Chapter, Pro-Democracy Initiative, and eight concerned individuals opposed this measure.

The Office of Information Practices took no position on this measure, but suggested, during oral testimony, that the phrase "shall not be subject to disclosure" be changed to "may be withheld from disclosure" to afford the HTA discretion over when nondisclosure may apply. The HTA indicated at the hearing that it was not in favor of this change.

Your Committee finds that allowing the Center to honor nondisclosure clauses will enhance its opportunities to obtain bookings, thus serving the public interest in profitable operations, without unduly impeding public access to information.

Your Committee has amended this measure by deleting its contents and inserting the contents of H.B. No. 2781, H.D. 2, which makes the following amendments to this bill:

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2395, S.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2395, S.D. 2, H.D. 1.