Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Higher Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 904 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to clarify and add certainty to the law relating to the University of Hawaii's authority to manage and control public activities on its lands.

Specifically, the measure provides express statutory authority to the University to allow it to adopt rules to enforce its authority on these lands, including the authority to set, charge, and collect fines for violations of its rules.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the University of Hawaii, the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, and the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

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

Your Committee finds that this autonomous authority should carry with it the necessary legal means to supervise, oversee, and permit public activities on those lands.

Your Committee finds that there needs to be further discussion to address concerns raised about the approval and authority granted to the University from the Department of Land and Natural Resources to manage and control activities on properties owned or possessed, the potential liability, type of violations, fees, and costs.

Your Committee has amended this measure by deleting the new language specifying that the Board of Regents may set, charge, and collect fines for violations with its rules; the maximum fee schedule; and the ability to assess the costs of related contested case hearings.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Higher Education that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 904, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 904, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.