Clarifies the authority of the University of Hawaii to manage any real property owned or leased by the university or otherwise under its control by authorizing the board of regents to adopt rules pursuant to chapter 91, Hawaii Revised Statutes, relating to public activities permitted or occurring on university lands.

A BILL FOR AN ACT

SECTION 1. Pursuant to the Constitution of the State of Hawaii and statutory enactment, the University of Hawaii is vested with autonomous authority to control and manage its educational and proprietary affairs. Such authority extends to the use and oversight of lands and real property owned, leased, or otherwise demised or transferred from various owners, including state, federal, or private entities, to the university for the furtherance of its educational, research, and agricultural experimentation.

Such autonomous authority presumably carries with it the necessary legal means to supervise, oversee, and permit public activities on those lands and may be implied from the autonomous character of the university. Nevertheless, the purpose of this measure is to clarify and add certainty to the law relating to the university's authority to manage and control public activities on lands that it may own or otherwise possess, by providing express authority to the university to adopt rules pursuant to chapter 91, Hawaii Revised Statutes, relating to public activities permitted or occurring on its lands unless there is an applicable preemptive substantive rule or law of statewide concern.

SECTION 2. Section 304-4, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (a) to read as follows:

"(a) The board of regents shall have management and control of the general affairs, and exclusive jurisdiction over the internal organization and management, of the university. It may appoint a treasurer and such other officers as it deems necessary. It may authorize any officer, elected or appointed by it, to approve and sign on its behalf any voucher or other document [which] that the board may approve and sign. It may delegate to the president or the president's designee the authority to render the final decision in contested case proceedings subject to chapter 91, as it deems appropriate. It may purchase or otherwise acquire lands, buildings, appliances, and other property for the purposes of the university and expend such sums of money as [may be], from time to time, may be placed at the disposal of the university from whatever source. All lands, buildings, appliances, and other property so purchased or acquired shall be and remain the property of the university to be used in perpetuity for the benefit of the university. The board of regents, in accordance with law, shall manage the inventory, equipment, surplus property, [and] expenditures [of the university], and any real property owned or leased by the university or otherwise under its control, and, subject to chapter 91, may adopt rules[,] further controlling and regulating the same."

SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.