STAND. COM. REP. NO. 151

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: H.B. No. 1059

H.D. 1

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Public Safety, to which was referred H.B. No. 1059 entitled:

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

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to convert the emergency management specialist series positions at level V and higher in the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency from civil service status to exempt status.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Defense and Hawaiʻi Emergency Management Agency. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Hawaii Government Employees Association, AFSCME Local 152, AFL-ClO.

Your Committee finds that there continues to be an insufficient number of Hawaii Emergency Management Agency staff and applicants to fill critically important position vacancies with trained, experienced, and qualified personnel. Your Committee further finds that exempting key positions of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency from civil service is one way to expedite the filling of these essential positions, but that addressing the underlying administrative problem of the State's lengthy hiring timeline, increasing position pay, and offering modern and attractive recruitment and retention incentives are better alternatives to systematically address the filling of these critical vacancies.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Changing its effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

(2) Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

Your Committee respectfully requests your Committee on Labor, should it choose to deliberate on this measure, to further consider the issues raised in Act 234, Session Laws of Hawaii 2024, including those regarding repricing, and further examine the barriers that impede agencies from engaging in negotiating more competitive salaries.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Public Safety that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1059, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1059, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Labor.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Public Safety,

____________________________

DELLA AU BELATTI, Chair