STAND. COM. REP. NO. 672-24

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2024

RE: H.B. No. 1598

H.D. 1

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 1598 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE SUNSHINE LAW,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) Require board packets to be made available two business days, rather than forty-eight hours, before a board meeting; and

(2) Clarify that public testimony may be distributed to board members before the meeting.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Public First Law Center; Animal Rights Hawaiʻi; and Society of Professional Journalists Hawaii Chapter. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Office of Information Practices and UNITE HERE Local 5.

Your Committee finds that changing the distribution deadline for board packets to two business days before a board meeting will give the general public and government agencies ample time to review materials prior to the meeting in situations where the meeting may take place following a weekend or holiday. Your Committee further finds that, since written public testimony is among the materials compiled and distributed to board members for use at a board meeting, boards have had to use work-arounds when testimony comes in within forty-eight hours of a meeting in order to avoid violating the forty-eight hour deadline. This measure provides clarity and assists boards in distributing written public testimony to the members in time for those members to read it prior to the meeting.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Adding a definition of "business day";

(2) Changing the effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

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

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1598, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1598, H.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs,

____________________________

DAVID A. TARNAS, Chair