STAND. COM. REP. NO. 48

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 141

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirtieth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2019

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Government Operations, to which was referred S.B. No. 141 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO DISCLOSURE OF ATTORNEY-CLIENT AND ATTORNEY WORK-PRODUCT PRIVILEGED COMMUNICATIONS TO THE OMBUDSMAN,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Specify that disclosure of communications by an agency to the Ombudsman does not waive any existing attorney-client or attorney work-product privilege pertaining to those communications; and

(2) Prohibit the Ombudsman from disclosing privileged communications to others.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of the Ombudsman.

Your Committee finds that under existing law, the Ombudsman is authorized to receive information relating to an investigation and is required to maintain secrecy of all matters obtained in an investigation. However, agencies have declined to provide information to the Ombudsman for fear of waiving the agencies' attorney-client privilege or attorney work-product privilege. Without the ability to obtain all relevant information from the agencies, the Ombudsman is unable to conduct a thorough investigation. This measure allows agencies to freely disclose information to the ombudsman without waiving the agencies' attorney-client privilege and attorney work-product privilege, which will enable the Office of the Ombudsman to obtain information necessary to conduct thorough and complex investigations and give agencies the peace of mind that the Ombudsman will not disclose any privileged communications.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Government Operations that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 141 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Government Operations,

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LAURA H. THIELEN, Chair