STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1014

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 100

S.D. 2

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 100, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO INTOXICATING LIQUOR,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to provide that leaders of nonprofit organizations shall be exempt from county liquor commission criminal history check requirements for license applicants.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Maui Arts and Cultural Center.

Your Committee finds that existing law governing the issuance of liquor licenses allows the respective county liquor commissions to request applicants for a liquor license, which includes any board member for a nonprofit organization, to submit to a criminal history record check and fingerprinting at a designated location for the retention of the nonprofit's liquor license. Your Committee further finds that the practice of fingerprinting is invasive and discourages many highly qualified potential leaders from submitting themselves for consideration, ultimately disadvantaging the nonprofit. This measure will remove this potential barrier to public service by exempting certain officers, directors, and board members of nonprofit organizations from fingerprinting requirements.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Deleting language that would have exempted leaders of nonprofit organizations from county liquor commission criminal history record check requirements for liquor license applicants;

(2) Inserting language providing that a county liquor commission of a county with a population of less than five hundred thousand shall not request that leaders of nonprofit organizations be fingerprinted for liquor licenses; and

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

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 100, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 100, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary,

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KARL RHOADS, Chair