STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2160

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2116

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2010

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Education and Housing and Transportation, International and Intergovernmental Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2116 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO INDEMNIFICATION OF COUNTY AGENCIES,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to facilitate the process by which the Department of Education obtains approval for the State to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless a county agency, its officers, agents, and employees for public school purposes and functions on county facilities.

 

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by one county agency and two individuals.  Testimony in support of the intent of this measure was submitted by two state agencies.  Written testimony presented to the Committees may be reviewed on the Legislature's website.

 

     Your Committees find that this measure streamlines an approval process that the Department of Education is required to complete several times every year for the same activities under existing law.  Your Committees have amended this measure by adopting the following proposed amendments:

 

     (1)  Changing the authority to agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless a county agency, its officers, agents, and employees from the Department of Education to the Governor, and specifying that the Governor may delegate this authority to the Superintendent of Education or the Deputy Superintendent, if so designated by the Superintendent of Education;

 

     (2)  Providing that the indemnity provision to be used by the Superintendent of Education or the Deputy Superintendent, upon approval by the Governor, may serve as approval by the Governor for some or all public school purposes or functions on county properties for the remainder of that school year; and

 

     (3)  Providing, as an additional condition to the Governor's delegation of authority to indemnify the counties, that the Comptroller has obtained an insurance policy in an amount sufficient to cover the State's liability that reasonably may be anticipated to arise under the indemnity provision, or has determined that it is not in the best interest of the State to obtain insurance.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Education and Housing and Transportation, International and Intergovernmental Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2116, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2116, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Government Operations.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Education and Housing and Transportation, International and Intergovernmental Affairs,

 

____________________________ J. KALANI ENGLISH, Chair		____________________________ NORMAN SAKAMOTO, Chair