STAND. COM. REP. NO. 821

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 442

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Ways and Means and Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 442 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO GOVERNMENT,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to address certain staffing shortages in state government by allowing for the limited reemployment of retirants.

Specifically, this measure:

(1) Allows a retirant to be employed without reenrollment in the Employees' Retirement System if the retirant is employed as an investigator of the Department of the Attorney General or in an excluded management position identified by the Department of Agriculture as a labor shortage or difficult-to-fill position; and

(2) Requires reports to the Legislature detailing the reemployment of retirants.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Law Enforcement, Department of Agriculture, and Department of the Attorney General.

Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from eight individuals.

Your Committees received comments on this measure from one individual.

Your Committees find that the Department of Law Enforcement experiences similar staffing shortages for investigators as the Department of the Attorney General and that providing a similar authorization in the measure for reemployment of retirants will assist in filling those positions. Your Committees further find that expanding to all departments the authorization to reemploy retirants for excluded management positions will also help to fill positions, including positions needed for succession planning.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Including language to also make investigators of the Department of Law Enforcement eligible for reemployment as a retirant without reenrollment in the Employees' Retirement System;

(2) Expanding to all departments the provision authorizing reemployment for excluded management positions, and including the need for succession planning as a justification for the reemployment, subject to an unspecified term limit; and

(3) Changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to facilitate further discussion on the measure.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Ways and Means and Judiciary that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 442, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 442, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Ways and Means and Judiciary,

________________________________ KARL RHOADS, Chair

________________________________ DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair