STAND. COM. REP. NO. 123-24

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2024

RE: H.B. No. 2192

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 Consumer Protection & Commerce, to which was referred H.B. No. 2192 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CEMETERIES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to allow the Director of Commerce and Consumer Affairs to appoint a limited owner of a cemetery for which no owner can be found and authorize the limited owner to file complaints for wrongful acts and install security measures.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs; one member of the Honolulu City Council; Pearl City Neighborhood Board No. 21; and three individuals.

Your Committee finds that Sunset Memorial Park in Pearl City, Oahu, has been neglected for years and is the subject of numerous complaints by individuals who have family members buried there. The cemetery is no longer acting under any legal ownership, as the last owners were legal entities that involuntarily dissolved several years ago. As a result, the cemetery is often the target of vandalism and desecration with thieves displacing ashes from copper urns to sell the urns, headstones taken off grave sites, and fires being set. This measure will allow for the appointment of a limited owner that will implement measures to protect the cemetery, and other similarly situated cemeteries, from wrongful acts.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

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

(2) 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 Consumer Protection & Commerce that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2192, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2192, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce,

____________________________

MARK M. NAKASHIMA, Chair