STAND. COM. REP. NO. 500

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 968

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Human Services and Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 968 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE ADULT PROTECTIVE AND COMMUNITY SERVICES BRANCH,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds for eleven full-time equivalent permanent positions within the Adult Protective and Community Services Branch of the Department of Human Services.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Maui County Office on Aging.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Human Services.

     Your Committee finds that in 2009, the Adult Protective and Community Services Branch of the Department of Human Services suffered a reduction in staff due to the economic crisis and an expansion of their client population due to a change in statute.  Your Committee further finds that the Adult Protective and Community Services Branch requires additional staff to effectively serve and protect Hawaii's vulnerable adults who are in danger of being abused, neglected, or financially exploited.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Inserting language that authorizes the department of human services to extend the federal ceiling and increase the federal funds available for the positions within the Adult Protective and Community Services Branch; and

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services and Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 968, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 968, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Human Services and Housing,

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair