Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Tourism, to which was referred S.B. No. 2395 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to exempt the Hawaii Convention Center from the freedom of information law, upon request by a potential licensee, if compliance would result in the non-execution of a license agreement.

Testimony in support of this measure was received from the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) and Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. Testimony in opposition was received from the Society of Professional Journalists. Comments were received from the Office of Information Practices (OIP).

This measure is intended to facilitate the booking of business at the Hawaii Convention Center. This measure addresses the situation wherein a potential licensee requests the pre-booking and booking information, including the license agreement, to be kept confidential. A licensee may want to do this for a variety of reasons, including maintaining privacy of planned corporate activities and of corporate publicity. Some companies include a nondisclosure provision in their license agreements as a standard procedure. Testimony indicated that a potential licensee may decide to book at another convention center if the booking information cannot be kept confidential.

The HTA and the OIP met after the hearing on this measure to work out mutually agreeable language. After discussions with the HTA, the OIP found that their positions on the substantive issues were irreconcilable. Thus, your Committee has amended this measure on the recommendation of the HTA, with the full understanding of such by the OIP, by:

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