STAND. COM. REP. NO.  188-16

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2016

 

RE:   H.B. No. 2286

      H.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Joseph M. Souki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Labor & Public Employment, to which was referred H.B. No. 2286 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PROFESSIONALLY LICENSED OR CERTIFIED GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to provide professionally licensed or certified government employees with the same privileges and immunities as other state employees.

 

     The Department of the Attorney General, Department of Accounting and General Services, Department of Transportation, Department of Public Safety, Department of Taxation, Office of the Public Defender, and Hawaii Government Employees Association, AFSCME Local 152, AFL-CIO testified in support of this measure.  The Hawaii Association for Justice testified in opposition to this measure.  The Department of Human Resources of the City and County of Honolulu provided comments.

 

     Your Committee notes that concerns were raised in testimony regarding the breadth of the legal immunities provided in this measure.  Specifically, questions were raised on whether the scope of the provided immunity conflicts with general notions of protections for government employees, which historically have centered on the exercise of discretionary governmental functions.  Should the Committee on Judiciary choose to deliberate on this measure, your Committee respectfully requests that this issue be further examined.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by changing its effective date to July 1, 2091.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor & Public Employment that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2286, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2286, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary.

 

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Labor & Public Employment,

 

 

 

 

____________________________

MARK M. NAKASHIMA, Chair