CONFERENCE COMMITTEE REP. NO. 60

Honolulu, Hawaii

                 , 2009

RE:    S.B. No. 564

       S.D. 2

       H.D. 1

       C.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2009

State of Hawaii

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2009

State of Hawaii

Madam and Sir:

     Your Committee on Conference on the disagreeing vote of the Senate to the amendments proposed by the House of Representatives in S.B. No. 564, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO FIRE PROTECTION,"

having met, and after full and free discussion, has agreed to recommend and does recommend to the respective Houses the final passage of this bill in an amended form.

     The purpose of this measure is to clarify fire inspection laws by:

     (1)  Clarifying that the county fire chiefs or their designees are authorized to inspect all buildings and facilities, except state-owned airport facilities, and not only those that are state-owned or county-owned; and

     (2)  Requiring fire safety inspections at least once every five years or as often as practicable or necessary instead of every two years for all buildings other than public schools.

     Your Committee on Conference finds that requiring the County Fire Chief, or the Chief's designee, to inspect all buildings and facilities at least once every five years or as often as deemed practicable or necessary provides the County Fire Chief with much needed flexibility in carrying out inspection duties.  Limited resources are available to the County Fire Chief and over the years the number of facilities to inspect has greatly increased.  This measure ensures that resources are focused on buildings and facilities that are more in need of immediate inspection, thus ensuring that fire prevention and pre-fire planning issues are timely addressed.

     Your Committee on Conference has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Clarifying that the County Fire Chief is authorized to inspect all buildings and facilities; and

     (2)  Changing the effective date to upon approval.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the managers of your Committee on Conference that is attached to this report, your Committee on Conference is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 564, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Final Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 564, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, C.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the managers:

ON THE PART OF THE HOUSE

ON THE PART OF THE SENATE

____________________________ FAYE HANOHANO, Co-Chair	____________________________ WILL ESPERO, Chair
____________________________ MARILYN B. LEE, Co-Chair	____________________________ J. KALANI ENGLISH, Co-Chair