STAND. COM. REP. NO. 330

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 1240

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Higher Education and the Arts, to which was referred S.B. No. 1240 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT PROPOSING A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO ARTICLE X, SECTION 6, OF THE HAWAII STATE CONSTITUTION TO MODIFY THE APPOINTMENT PROCESS FOR THE BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to enact a constitutional amendment to Article X, Section 6, of the Constitution of the State of Hawaii to modify the University of Hawaii Board of Regents' appointment process.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the University of Hawaii System, University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, and two individuals.

     Your Committee finds that the constitutional provision relating to the appointment of members to the University of Hawaii Board of Regents requires that appointment of members be selected from a pool of qualified candidates previously presented to the Governor by the Candidate Advisory Council for the Board of Regents of the University of Hawaii.  This current process does not provide the Governor with the most effective means of appointing the strongest possible candidates.

     Your Committee further finds that enactment of this constitutional amendment would repeal the requirement that the Candidate Advisory Council provide the Governor with a pool of qualified candidates and would give the Governor greater flexibility in choosing the best possible candidates to serve on the Board of Regents.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Higher Education and the Arts that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1240 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Higher Education and the Arts,

____________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair