RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, it is the State of Hawaii's goal to ensure public safety through the establishment of professional and vocational licensing boards; and

WHEREAS, work in the electrical industry is extremely dangerous, and in the interest of worker and public safety, requires specific licenses with appropriate training; and

WHEREAS, in contrast to all other licensing boards, which focus on a single professional license, the current structure of the combined Board of Electricians and Plumbers governs two completely separate trades; and

WHEREAS, unlike all other professional and vocation licensing boards, in which industry members outnumber public members, on the Board of Electricians and Plumbers, members from the electrical industry are outnumbered by the public members, and the majority of members voting on electrical issues are not from the electrical industry; and

WHEREAS, the National Electrical Code recommends that the majority of board members should be from the electrical industry; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-third Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2006, the Senate concurring, that the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs is requested to support efforts to establish a separate licensing board to exclusively govern the electrical industry in the State of Hawaii; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Director of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and the Chair of the Board of Electricians and Plumbers.

Report Title:

Electricians; board