STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1605
Honolulu, Hawaii
RE: H.B. No. 1246
H.D. 1
S.D. 1
Honorable Colleen Hanabusa
President of the Senate
Twenty-Fourth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2007
State of Hawaii
Madam:
Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 1246, H.D. 1, entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO METAL,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this measure is to establish a felony offense of theft of copper.
Your Committee held a hearing on this bill along with H.B. No. 373, S.D.1, on scrap dealers. Your Committee received testimony in support of these bills from the Honolulu Police Department, the Honolulu Prosecutor's Office, Hawaiian Electric Company, Kuliouou/Kalani Iki Neighborhood Board #2, the Attorney General's Office, and the State Department of Transportation. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to these bills from the Public Defender's Office, Okuda Metal,Inc., and Schnitzer Steel Hawaii Corp.
Your Committee finds that besides making the theft of copper a felony, there should be regulations on the sale and purchase of scrap metal by dealers. Scrap dealers transacting the sale of stolen copper contribute to the commission of the criminal conduct.
Your Committee amended the bill by:
(1) Incorporating the scrap dealer regulation of H.B.
No. 373, S.D.1;
(2) Retaining the existing seller's agent language to keep their transactions lawful;
(3) Defining copper more completely; and
(4) Requiring the reporting of suspicious sales.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1246, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1246, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,
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____________________________ CLAYTON HEE, Chair |
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