STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3096

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 2420

H.D. 1

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Labor and Government Operations, to which was referred H.B. No. 2420, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ETHICS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish restrictions on the participation in partisan political activities of certain state employees and officers who regularly engage in adjudicatory, regulatory, law enforcement, or investigatory duties.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii State Ethics Commission, Common Cause Hawaii, and one individual.

Your Committees find that the State should ensure that state officials work to promote the best interests of the people of Hawaii. Your Committees support efforts to protect state officials and the public from coercion by high-level state employees and likewise, support efforts to ensure that state programs are administered in a non-partisan fashion.

Your Committees further find that this measure as introduced contained penalty provisions. Without penalty provisions, this measure lacks teeth and does not act as a strong deterrent to employees who may otherwise commit violations; therefore, your Committees believe that the penalty provisions should be reinserted.

Accordingly, your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Reinserting the penalty provision that imposes an administrative fine not to exceed $1,000 for each violation by any officer or employee who violates the prohibitions on political participation; and

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

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Labor and Government Operations that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2420, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2420, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Labor and Government Operations,

________________________________ DONNA MERCADO KIM, Chair

________________________________ JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair