STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2517

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2591

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Hawaiian Affairs and Water and Land, to which was referred S.B. No. 2591 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO BURIAL SITES,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to allow individuals and ohana members to access burial sites on privately owned lands to identify, monitor, or record burial sites, or to conduct cultural practices related to burial sites.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and nine individuals.

Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from three members of the Maui Lanai Islands Burial Council; Pacific Rim Land, Inc.; and one individual.

Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources and one individual.

Your Committees find that individuals and ohana possess the right to access private property to identify and record burials for inclusion in the State's inventory of burial sites, or to conduct cultural practices related to burial sites. Your Committees have heard the concerns raised in testimony, including questions regarding landowner liability and the scarcity of personnel required to enforce this measure.

Your Committees find that it is important to hold private landowners accountable for burial sites, archaeological sites, or historic property located on their land. This measure will protect and preserve culturally and historically important sites by imposing a fine on private owners that fail to disclose and record these sites.

Accordingly, your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Deleting its contents and inserting language that imposes a fine of $1,000 on any private landowner who:

(A) Fails to disclose and record with the Bureau of Conveyances burial or archaeological sites located on their property that the landowner knew of or should have known of; or

(B) Fails to record their property with the Hawaii Register of Historic Places prior to or concurrently with a real estate transaction when the landowner knew of or should have known that an obligation existed; 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 Hawaiian Affairs and Water and Land that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2591, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2591, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Hawaiian Affairs and Water and Land,

________________________________ LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair

________________________________ MAILE S.L. SHIMABUKURO, Chair