STAND. COM. REP. NO.  152-16

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2016

RE:   H.B. No. 1580

Honorable Joseph M. Souki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred H.B. No. 1580 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE WEED AND SEED STRATEGY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate $400,000 to maintain and expand the United States Department of Justice's Weed and Seed Strategy to prevent, control, and reduce violent crime, drug abuse, and gang activity in targeted neighborhoods by weeding out the criminal element in the community.

The Department of the Attorney General, Principal of Ewa Makai Middle School, Vice Principal of Ilima Intermediate School, School Counselor of Kaimiloa Elementary School, Haseko Development, Inc., Meadow Gold Dairies, McDonald's of Ewa Beach, The Gentry Companies, Meridian Pacific, Ltd., First Hawaiian Bank, Louis Pohl Gallery, Weed and Seed, Parent Community Networking Center, and numerous concerned individuals testified in support of this measure.

     Your Committee hopes that the sum appropriated by this measure will be sufficient to maintain the Weed and Seed Strategy in the locations where it is currently operating and that it will be feasible to expand the Weed and Seed Strategy into additional areas.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1580 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary,

____________________________

KARL RHOADS, Chair