STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1109

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 954

H.D. 1

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2021

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs and Labor, Culture and the Arts, to which was referred H.B. No. 954, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE HAWAII EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to convert the executive officer, public information officer, civil defense administrative officer, branch chiefs, and emergency operations center state warning point personnel in the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency from civil service status to exempt status.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, Hawaii State Energy Office, The Maritime Group, and one individual. Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from one individual.

Your Committees find that there continues to be an insufficient number of Hawaii Emergency Management Agency staff and applicants to fill critical position vacancies with trained, experienced, and qualified personnel. Exempting key Hawaii Emergency Management Agency positions from civil service will create the conditions for a responsive, flexible, and aggressive hiring system that will expedite the filling of these vacancies, as well as improve competitive recruiting and retention of qualified and experienced emergency management professionals. There will also be a reduction of risk to the State in having extended vacancies in these critical positions.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Clarifying that the civil service exemption for emergency operations center state warning point personnel applies if the Department of Human Resources Development Director determines that recruitment through normal civil service recruitment procedures would result in delay or noncompliance; 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 Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs and Labor, Culture and the Arts that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 954, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 954, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committees on Ways and Means and Judiciary.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs and Labor, Culture and the Arts,

________________________________ BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair

________________________________ CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair