STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2853

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2085

S.D. 2

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2085, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE STATE FIRE MARSHAL,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to re-establish the Division of the State Fire Marshal within the Department of Law Enforcement.

Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Office of the Governor, Department of Law Enforcement, Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Maui Fire Department, Democratic Party of Hawaii, and one individual.

Your Committee received written comments on this measure from the Department of the Attorney General, Department of Land and Natural Resources, and Maui Chamber of Commerce.

Your Committee finds that state fire marshals serve an integral role in coordinating fire prevention efforts between state and county agencies. Your Committee further finds that the devastation of the August 8, 2023, Maui wildfires demonstrated a need for Hawaii to re-establish the Office of the State Fire Marshal. Your Committee recognizes that the State Fire Council is best equipped to appoint a state fire marshal, and that the Council is administratively placed within the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Changing the administrative placement of the Division of the State Fire Marshal from the Department of Law Enforcement to the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations;

(2) Changing the entity responsible for appointing the State Fire Marshal from the Director of Law Enforcement to the State Fire Council;

(3) Removing police powers from the State Fire Marshal's duties and requiring the State Fire Marshal to work with state and county law enforcement agencies on enforcement of the State Fire Code;

(4) Changing the appropriation's expending agency to the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations;

(5) Changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to facilitate further discussion on the measure; and

(6) 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 Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2085, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2085, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

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DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair