STAND. COM. REP. NO.  367-16

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2016

RE:   H.B. No. 2353

      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. 2353 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EXEMPTIONS FROM CIVIL SERVICE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1)  Restore the second Deputy Director position at the Department of Human Services and exempt this position from civil service; and

(2)  Designate various positions in the Department of Human Services, the Department of Public Safety, Department of Health, Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, and Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism, as permanently exempt from civil services.

The Department of Health; Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism; Department of Human Services; Department of Labor and Industrial Relations; Department of Public Safety; and Department of Human Resources Development testified in support of this measure.  The Hawaii Government Employees Association, AFSCME Local 152, AFL-CIO, and many individuals testified in opposition.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1)  Limiting the exemption period for the positions highlighted in this measure, except for the second deputy director position at the Department of Human Services, to a period of one year; and

(2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for clarity, consistency, and style.

     Should the Committee on Finance further deliberate on this measure, your Committee respectfully requests that it further examine the merits of:

     (1)  Designating the Community/Project Development Director and Policy Director positions in the Department of Human Services, the terms of which currently coincide with the tenure of the Director of Human Services, as permanently exempt from the civil service requirements of chapter 76, Hawaii Revised Statutes; and

     (2)  Permanently exempting positions in the Hawaii State Energy Office, which were previously exempted by Act 73, Session Laws of Hawaii 2010, in an effort to maintain the appropriate staffing quality needed to meet the growing requirements of the State's progressive renewable energy policy.

     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. 2353, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2353, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

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

____________________________

MARK M. NAKASHIMA, Chair