STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1585

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.C.R. No. 107

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.C.R. No. 107 entitled:

"SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION REQUESTING THE OFFICE OF INFORMATION PRACTICES TO EXPLORE A TRIAL PRELIMINARY INCLINATION PROCESS FOR INCOMING PUBLIC APPEALS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to request that the Office of Information Practices explore a trial preliminary inclination process for incoming public appeals.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Information Practices, Hawaii Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, League of Women Voters, and The Civil Beat Law Center for the Public Interest.

Your Committee finds that when public appeals cannot be resolved without formal enforceable rulings by the Office of Information Practices, the Office normally prepares enforceable rulings on a first-come first-served basis. Your Committee also finds that the preparation of formal enforceable rulings by the Office of Information Practices is time-consuming and expensive. Unless additional resources are provided to the Office of Information Practices or the Office experiments and finds an effective way to modify its procedures, the Office of Information Practices will be unable to quickly resolve those incoming public appeals that require a formal enforceable ruling by the Office of Information Practices.

This measure requests that the Office of Information Practices explore a trial preliminary inclination process for incoming public appeals, wherein the Office will prepare a short preliminary inclination, which will be published online for public access. Your Committee further finds that this measure is intended to encourage the Office of Information Practices to re-examine its internal processes, and if the trial preliminary inclination process yields positive results, expand this process to other appeals, with the hope that the Office will be better able to resolve public complaints in a more expeditious manner.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Government Operations that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 107 and recommends that it be referred to your Committees on Judiciary and Ways and Means.

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

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LAURA H. THIELEN, Chair