STAND. COM. REP. NO.  1060-14

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2014

RE:   S.B. No. 2305

      S.D. 1

      H.D. 1

Honorable Joseph M. Souki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Public Safety, to which was referred S.B. No. 2305, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC SAFETY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to authorize and appropriate funds for the Department of Defense's Civil Defense Division to assemble civilian community teams in each state senatorial district and to hire a coordinator to ensure the proper training of the civilian community teams that will provide community assistance during disasters.

The State Adjutant General and Director of State Civil Defense, Vice Director of State Civil Defense, Civil Defense Agency of the County of Hawaii, and a few concerned individuals supported this measure.  The Department of Emergency Management of the City and County of Honolulu offered comments on this measure.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Deleting the requirement that civilian community teams be separated by state senatorial districts;

     (2)  Requiring that State Civil Defense Division and county civil defense agencies work collaboratively to:

          (A)  Avoid possible redundancy in the responsibilities of the civilian community teams;

          (B)  Ensure funding for the civilian community teams does not overlap with duplicative state and county civil defense programs; provided that the funding may be expended to augment existing civil defense programs if the purposes of the funding are mutually agreed upon by the coordinator, the State Civil Defense Division, and the county civil defense agencies; and

          (C)  Establish boundaries served by the civilian community teams that are mutually agreed upon by community and county partners; and

(3)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for purposes of style, consistency, and clarity.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Public Safety that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2305, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2305, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Public Safety,

____________________________

HENRY J.C. AQUINO, Chair