Pali Highway Update

February 22, 2019 (Hawai‘i State Capitol) — Deputy Director Ed Sniffen briefed Windward O‘ahu Legislators to provide an update on the status of the Pali Highway. The full restoration of the Pali Highway - both Kailua and Honolulu bound will take at least one to three months. The Department of Transportation (DOT) plans to install rockfall fencing and rock sheds on the Honolulu bound side of the Pali Highway to protect from future rock falls.

In the meantime, there are plans to expand the contraflow hours to provide better commute times during the morning and afternoon rush hours and reduce the impacts on neighboring communities. DOT is also working with the City and County of Honolulu to get bus routes back on track and to restore normal operations.

In addition, DOT wants to remind everyone to plan for the H-3 closure on Saturday, March 2nd and Sunday, March 3rd for cleaning. Closures will begin at 10pm in the evening.

On the bright side, during the closure of the Pali Highway, repaving of the Honolulu bound lanes will be fast tracked. Expect a new schedule for the project completion and repaving. A community meeting is being scheduled by DOT, and is yet to be announced.

DOT requests the community be patient with this project. Due to the natural erosion of the Pali and it being a sheer cliff, heavy construction is needed to prevent future rock falls.

Legislative Briefing Town Hall Meeting - March 28, 2019

Legislative Update for February 2019

View the February 2019 Newsletter

Caucus Pushes Bills Addressing Violence Against Women (Civil Beat)

This is a repost of an article originally published by Civil Beat; click here to read the article on civilbeat.org.

The Hawaii Women's Legislative Caucus unveils a package of proposals, including one to require insurance coverage of health services after an assault.

By Chad Blair | January 23, 2019


Photo by Cory Lum/Civil Beat.

From left, Rep. Lauren Matsumoto, Rep. Linda Ichiyama, Sen. Laura Thielen and Sen. Roz Baker at Wednesday's Hawaii Women's Legislative Caucus breakfast at the YWCA.





Survivors of sexual violence might need a lot of help from health care providers, but state lawmakers are concerned that those services may not be covered by insurance companies.

Legislation to require such coverage is part of a slate of proposed bills in the Hawaii Legislature this session addressing violence against women.

"One of the things that we've learned is that after there is an assault women need a lot of time to heal — both physically and mentally," said Sen. Roz Baker, the lead introducer of Senate Bill 1036. "And even though many of our wonderful health plans claim that they cover all these services, we wanted to make sure that that was never an option — that it was going to be covered services and that it was going to be in the statute and it was going to be comprehensive services."

Baker said the goal is not to "malign" insurance companies.

"But we know that things can change, and it's important for all of these services to be adequately covered no matter who your provider is," she said.

The senator spoke Wednesday morning at the Richards Street YWCA in downtown Honolulu, where the Women's Legislative Caucus of the Hawaii Legislature announced its 2019 package of about two dozen bills and resolutions.

Nearly half address violence against women.

They call for extending the time for reporting child sexual abuse, amending the offense of strangulation of a family or household member to include blocking the nose or mouth or applying excessive pressure to the chest, establishing a centralized sex trafficking database and permitting people "bought and sold" in the sex trade to vacate a conviction for prostitution.

Senate Bill 1039 would allow people convicted of some prostitution crimes to request that the offense be vacated, so long as the person is not convicted again within three years of the initial conviction. The bill and its House companion state that "survivors" are "not criminals."

"In our criminal law statutes in Hawaii, there are several crimes where if somebody has been convicted of a crime and they have a clean record for a certain period of time, they can expunge that crime off of that record," said Sen. Laura Thielen, a co-sponsor of SB 1039. "And that's important, because sometimes if you are applying for certain jobs, if that's on your record you would be disqualified for being in those jobs."

Thielen said the legislation would apply to people involved in sex trafficking, either consensually or nonconsensually.

Rep. Amy Perruso is the lead introducer of House Bill 488, which would forbid written nondisclosure agreements involving sex assault and harassment as part of a condition of employment. Employers would also not be permitted to retaliate against employees for disclosing an incident.

"I think this has become nationally important," said Perusso. "We are one of the states that are moving or have passed laws that address this concern, and I think it's really ultimately about preventing the silencing of women. I think we have seen the destructive effects of widespread silencing."

Regulating Midwives

The Women's Legislative Caucus has existed for more than 20 years. It includes all women of the state House and Senate and is bipartisan. Three years ago, it was expanded to include female members of the four county councils to join state lawmakers in advocating legislation at the state and county levels.

In addition to reducing violence against women, the caucus' 2019 package addresses gender equity, women's health and economic opportunities.

House Bill 490 would establish a licensure process for midwives. Traditional birth attendants and Native Hawaiian healers would be exempt from the license requirement.

House Majority Leader Della Au Belatti, lead introducer of the bill, said lawmakers "have long struggled with this issue." She said the proposal came about through "great collaboration" with medical professionals and practicing midwives.

Relating to gender equity, House Bill 483 would require the Legislative Reference Bureau to submit a report on how other jurisdictions oversee enforcement of Title IX. The landmark federal legislation of 1992, later renamed in honor of Hawaii's late congresswoman, Patsy Mink, prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender in education programs receiving federal money.

Last year, the Legislature created a state corollary to Title IX prohibiting discrimination based on sex, gender, gender identity or sexual orientation for an education program receiving state money.

Rep. Linda Ichiyama, the lead introducer of HB 483, said the Legislature has been uncertain how to implement the law — hence the need for advice from the LRB this session.

"It's uncharted territory," Ichiyama said. "No other state has gone this far."

The Women's Legislative Caucus unveiled the bills before an audience at the Y largely comprised of schoolgirls, as it often does to inspire future leaders.

This year's package was dedicated to U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii. Hirono served in the state House from 1981 until 1994 and is a founding member of the caucus.

Hirono was expected to attend Wednesday's breakfast, but she had to catch a plane back to Washington on Tuesday to vote on legislation seeking to end the partial government shutdown.

Alan Yamamoto, Hirono's chief of staff based in Hawaii, spoke in place of his boss. He said that there are a record 131 female members of Congress this year, or 24 percent of total membership. The Hawaii Legislature has 25 female members, or 32 percent.

Those numbers may have been one reason caucus members used words like "hopeful," "optimistic," "encouraged" and "energized" to describe their feelings as the new session gets underway.

2019 Legislative Pre-Session Survey

Opening Day 2019

View the following link for photos from Opening Day 2019: https://bit.ly/2RwXQeS

2017 Mid-Session Survey Results

Measures Aim To Help Domestic Violence Victims Get Help

The Hawaii Women's Legislative Caucus is also backing bills to ensure access to health care and to keep kids safe.

Originally published by Civil Beat; click here to read the article on civilbeat.org.

January 26, 2017
By Chad Blair

County police departments require that complaints against police officers be in writing and notarized.

That concerns female lawmakers in the Hawaii Legislature, who want to do away with the requirement.

"One of the things we've been stressing is that in domestic violence cases, sometimes when the victim reaches out for help, that may be the most dangerous point in time where deadly violence could be unleashed on them," said Sen. Laura Thielen, who introduced the Senate version of a bill to change the process. "And so it's important that, if the victim is willing to reach out, that they be able to keep their identity as the complainant confidential and then to have that investigation held."

Thielen's bill and its House companion are part of 46 bills introduced by the Hawaii Women's Legislative Caucus, a bipartisan coalition of women legislators from both the Senate and House of Representatives.

This year's package focuses on ensuring access to health care, keeping kids safe and stopping violence against women.

Two measures call for removing "redundant investigating and reporting requirements" at Department of Human Services and family courts in cases where temporary restraining orders are sought for alleged domestic abuse - specifically, cases involving family or household members who are not adults, or who are incapacitated.

Another set of bills calls for annual reporting by the Department of the Attorney General to the Legislature regarding testing sexual assault evidence collection kits. Legislation passed last year required all law enforcement agencies and departments responsible for the "maintenance, storage and preservation" of the kits to conduct an inventory and report the information to the attorney general.

Thielen's bill on protecting victims of domestic violence has other purposes.

"You may have other situations where you have friends or family members that want to reach out to help the victim, but again they don't want repercussions against that victim," said Thielen. "Or you may have a neighbor who is tired of hearing the abuse but wants to remain confidential because of fear of retaliation."

Changing Police Commissions

The package contains measures similar to ones that failed to pass previous legislatures. They include bills to amend the composition of county police commissions so that three commissioners on each commission have backgrounds in areas such as women's equality, civil rights and law enforcement.

Thielen is the lead sponsor of the Senate version. She said she is "cautiously optimistic" that the pending retirement of embattled Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha may persuade her colleagues that it's time to change the makeup of commissions.

"There seems to be a lot of dissatisfaction publicly over how the Honolulu Police Commission handled the whole matter with Chief Kealoha," she said. "And so I think people may be more willing to go back and take a look at what's the makeup of the commissions and do we need to have certain representation on it to make sure that the public interest is represented, and that the public has more of an opportunity to weigh in on some of these decisions."

Kealoha, who is under investigation for public corruption, is set to receive a $250,000 cash payment as part of a retirement deal secured from the commission. The proceedings were conducted behind closed doors.

Thielen's police commission and domestic violence bills are part of a slate of legislation this session dedicated to police reform.

HPD CHIEF CANCELS MEETING WITH HAWAII WOMEN'S LEGISLATIVE CAUCUS AND WOMEN HONOLULU CITY COUNCILMEMBERS

The Hawaii Women's Legislative Caucus today announced that they received a call from the Honolulu Police Department's (HPD) Chief of Police's office canceling Thursday's meeting with the Women's State Legislative Caucus and three women members of the Honolulu City Council.

A representative of the Women's Caucus spoke with the office of Chief of Police Louis M. Kealoha to ask that the commitment to meet with the women on Thursday be honored.

"The purpose of Thursday's meeting was for the Women's Legislative Caucus and the three women city councilmembers to have the opportunity to speak with Chief Kealoha directly," said Senate President Donna Mercado Kim, a member of the Women's Caucus. "We hoped to work cooperatively with the police to strengthen efforts to end domestic violence and keep victims safe. We wanted to discuss concerns and questions about HPD's internal policies and procedures regarding domestic violence cases, especially when one of their own officers is a suspect that has been brought to us by victims' service providers."

"The Women's Legislative Caucus and women Honolulu City Councilmembers asked for the opportunity to discuss these issues with Chief Kealoha prior to the public informational briefing so that he could be prepared to respond fully in public, and to, hopefully, open the door to improved partnerships and outcomes in domestic violence cases," said Senate President Kim.

A representative of the Women's Caucus was told the meeting was cancelled because the internal investigation was not yet completed. "We made it clear that the Women's Caucus understands that personnel investigations are confidential and that we have no intention of interfering in that matter," stated Senator Laura Thielen, a member of the Women's Caucus. "We told Chief Kealoha's office that our concern and our meeting is to be focused on the broader HPD policies and response to domestic violence incidents."

The cancellation was completely unexpected. "Many of us rearranged our schedules to suit the Police Chief's requested meeting date and time. We are disappointed at his unexpected cancellation," stated Senate President Kim. "We sincerely hope this is not a sign of the lack of importance the department places on the issue of domestic violence. But it's perplexing to us why he would cancel such an important meeting with so many women leaders."

View the news release

Hawaii Women's Legislative Caucus calls for accountability of HPD in extreme domestic violence case involving its officers

Following the public release of a surveillance video showing a Honolulu Police Department (HPD) sergeant allegedly brutally beating his girlfriend in a Waipahu restaurant, the Hawaii Women's State Legislative Caucus and the three women members of the Honolulu City Council are calling on HPD to explain its policies and procedures for handling criminal actions involving its own officers and how the failure to act that occurred earlier this week is not repeated.

According to reports, HPD officers responding to the scene did not arrest the sergeant, nor did they file any reports of the incident that night. It was only on the following day, after a citizen provided HPD and the press with the surveillance video, that HPD took action to remove the sergeant of his police powers and begin an internal investigation into the incident, according to a Hawaii News Now report.

The Joint Women's Legislative Caucus and City Council members released the following statement:

"We are calling for a meeting with the Chief of Police, followed by an informational briefing with the Honolulu Police Department and Police Commission. The public has a right to know the department's policies and procedures for response to domestic violence or any other crimes when the offender is a police officer, particularly one who serves in a supervisory role.

"HPD officials must explain to the public why the alleged assailant was not charged and arrested given evidence of probable cause, including multiple witnesses who had to come to the woman's aide and a video surveillance depicting the appalling domestic violence assault.

"It is absolutely unacceptable that HPD officers chose not to enforce our domestic violence laws. The fact that the woman denied the incident is to be expected under the circumstances. Indeed, the responding officers' failure to take action clearly communicated that her safety will not be protected by them. If similar situations have occurred in the past, any victim of violence would deny it out of fear of retaliation.

"This incident sends a dark message to victims of domestic violence and all residents of Oahu, that members of HPD, who are supposed to serve and protect, may turn a blind eye to domestic violence or other criminal acts committed by of one of their officers.

"The integrity of HPD has been mired and trust has been lost. We demand public accountability."

View the news release

Art at the Capitol 2014: What's on Your Wall, Senator Thielen?

Join us for the 6th Annual Art at the Capitol on First Friday in April

Friday, April 4, 2014 | Hawaii State Capitol | 4:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.

The Legislature is opening its office doors for an evening of art, culture and history during downtown Honolulu's First Friday in April. View over 500 works of public art, purchased through the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, showcased in state lawmakers' offices. Talk story with your state lawmakers, mingle with original artists and enjoy entertainment from Hawaii Youth Symphony. Featured artist: Otto Piene, kinetic sculptor who created the "Sun" and "Moon" chandeliers in the House and Senate chambers. A pre-recorded interview with Piene will be shown in Room 423.

4:30 p.m. - Program will start on the 3rd Floor
5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. - Self guided tour of the participating offices
Admission: FREE

For more information call (808) 586-6460 or email artatthecapitol@capitol.hawaii.gov.

Art at the Capitol 2013: What's on Your Wall, Senator Thielen?