STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2485

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2465

       S.D. 1

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection, to which was referred S.B. No. 2465 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CONDOMINIUMS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to allow petitioners adequate time to be heard at a requested special association meeting and prohibit a condominium board from adopting rules for association meetings that would otherwise require a vote of a majority of the quorum to change.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from one individual.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Community Associations Institute – Hawaii Chapter and Hawaii State Association of Parliamentarians.

     Your Committee finds that current rules generally used for special association meetings limit the opportunity to be heard for the owners who request these meetings.  Your Committee further finds that certain provisions in this measure may conflict with Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, the guidebook on meeting management that governs association and board meetings.  Your Committee additionally finds that condominium associations, not condominium boards, generally have the power to adopt rules for association meetings.

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Clarifying the requirements for an adequate opportunity to be heard at a special association meeting; and

     (2)  Specifying when an association is prohibited from adopting any rule for association meetings that would otherwise require a vote of a majority of the quorum to change.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2465, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2465, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection,

____________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair