STAND. COM. REP. NO. 253

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1170

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Water and Land and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs and Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 1170 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ENFORCEMENT OF VIOLATIONS BY THE DEPARTMENT OF LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to provide alternative civil enforcement options that may be utilized by the Board of Land and Natural Resources in the processing of natural and cultural resource violation cases.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Indigenous Consultant LLC/Innovations Development Group, and Nature Conservancy.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from one individual.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Society for Hawaiian Archeology.

 

     Currently, under section 171-6, Hawaii Revised Statutes, the Board of Land and Natural Resources may levy administrative fines and order encroachment removal and damage restoration for violations of natural and cultural resource laws and regulations.  Your Committees find that in many cases the use of these means may not be feasible or optimal.

 

 

     This measure provides flexibility to the Department of Land and Natural Resources and resource law violators.  According to the Department of Land and Natural Resources, the community services in remedial or non-remedial actions responding to resource violations will be imposed only with the prior consent of all the parties involved and will not incur any potential liabilities to the State.  This measure encourages parties to voluntarily come into compliance and to proactively address the violations in every way possible and available to them.  It will also promote the Department's efficiency by saving the time and cost otherwise needed in enforcement actions.  Further, it will promote the participation of various community-based non-profit organizations in partnering with the Department on resource protection and management projects.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Requiring the Board of Land and Natural Resources to adopt rules to implement each of the additional powers contained in this measure to address concerns raised at the hearing on this measure; 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 Water and Land and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs and Judiciary and Labor that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1170, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1170, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Water and Land and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs and Judiciary and Labor,

 

____________________________ WILL ESPERO, Chair		____________________________ MALAMA SOLOMON, Chair
		____________________________ CLAYTON HEE, Chair