Report Title:

Re-establishing County Liquor Commissions and Liquor Commission Adjudication Boards Under New County-Established Regulations

Description:

Authorizes counties to establish new liquor commissions and liquor control adjudication boards and establish their own qualification, compensation, and staffing procedural guidelines.

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

2486

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2004

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

Relating to liquor.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The purpose of this Act is to allow counties to establish new liquor commissions and liquor control adjudication boards and establish their own qualification, compensation, and staffing procedural guidelines for its operation.

SECTION 2. Section 281-1, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending the definition of "liquor control adjudication board" or "board" to read as follows:

"Liquor control adjudication board" or "board" means a board [established by county charter], within a county, that shall have the jurisdiction to hear and determine complaints or violations of liquor laws and to impose penalties as may be provided in this chapter."

SECTION 3. Section 281-11, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§281-11 County liquor commissions and liquor control adjudication boards[; qualifications; compensation.]. (a) [A liquor commission or liquor control adjudication board, consisting of not less than five members, no more than the minimum required for a quorum of whom shall belong to the same political party at the time of appointment, may be created for each of the counties. The elected executive head of each county may nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the legislative body of the county, shall appoint the members of the commissions and boards. The elected executive head of each county, by and with the advice and consent of the legislative body of the county, may remove from office any of the members. The commission or board shall designate one of its members as chairperson. Each member shall be a citizen of the United States and shall have resided in the county for which appointed for at least three years immediately preceding the date of the member's appointment.] Each county by charter or ordinance:

(1) Shall establish a liquor commission; and

(2) May establish a liquor control adjudication board.

Commission members and board members, if established, shall be appointed according to guidelines established in subsection (b) and shall not be employees of the county.

(b) [Upon the expiration of the term of each commissioner or board member, the commissioner's or board member's successor shall be appointed for a term to expire five years from the date of the expiration of the preceding term.

The tenure in office of every commissioner or board member shall be for the terms provided and until their successors are duly appointed and qualified.

Any vacancy shall be filled by appointment for the remainder of the unexpired term. No person shall be a member of any commission or board who is or becomes engaged, or is directly or indirectly interested in any business for the manufacture or sale of liquor or who advocates or is or becomes a member of, or is identified or connected with, any organization or association which advocates prohibition, or who is an elected officer of the state or county government or who presents oneself as a candidate for election to any public office during the term of the person's appointment hereunder. This provision shall be enforced by the elected executive head of the county by the removal of the disqualified member whenever such disqualifications shall appear.] Counties shall establish for their commission and board, if established, by charter or ordinance the following:

(1) The number of members;

(2) The method for appointing members;

(3) Term lengths for members;

(4) Qualification and disqualification for members;

(5) The method for selecting a chairperson and other officers;

(6) The number of members needed for a quorum;

(7) The number of votes to approve an action;

(8) The compensation and expense reimbursement amounts for members;

(9) The method for filling a member vacancy prior to the expiration of the member's term;

(10) The method for replacing members temporarily unable to serve; and

(11) The method for removing members.

(c) [The amount of compensation and reasonable expenses for travel and other costs necessarily incident to the discharge of the members' duties shall be established by each county.] A provision of a county charter or ordinance that is implemented and conforms with subsection (b) shall supersede any conflicting provision of this chapter.

(d) Each member of [the] a commission or board, before entering upon the duties of the member's office, shall take and subscribe to an oath that the member will faithfully perform such duties according to law, which written oath shall be filed with the elected executive head of each county."

SECTION 4. Section 281-13, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§281-13 Meetings. Meetings of the liquor commission or the liquor control adjudication board may be held at any time and as often from time to time as the commission or board deems necessary for the proper transaction of its business, upon call of the chairperson or by any other [two members of the commission or board.] means authorized by charter or ordinance. The administrator shall give notice of the meetings as the commission or board may prescribe to the several members, and give any other notice thereof directed by the commission or board.

[A majority of all the members of the commission or board shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, but the affirmative vote of a majority of all of the members shall be necessary to determine any matter before it.]"

SECTION 5. Section 281-17, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (a) to read as follows:

"(a) The liquor commission, within its own county, shall have the sole jurisdiction, power, authority, and discretion, subject only to this chapter:

(1) To grant, refuse, suspend, and revoke any licenses for the manufacture, importation, and sale of liquors;

(2) To take appropriate action against a person who, directly or indirectly, manufactures, sells, or purchases any liquor without being authorized pursuant to this chapter; provided that in counties which have established [by charter] a liquor control adjudication board, the board shall have the jurisdiction, power, authority, and discretion to hear and determine administrative complaints of the director regarding violations of the liquor laws of the State or of the rules of the liquor commission, and impose penalties for violations thereof as may be provided by law;

(3) To control, supervise, and regulate the manufacture, importation, and sale of liquors by investigation, enforcement, and education; provided that any educational program shall be limited to licensees and their employees and shall be financed through the money collected from the assessment of fines against licensees;

(4) From time to time to make, amend, and repeal such rules, not inconsistent with this chapter, as in the judgment of the commission seem appropriate for carrying out this chapter and for the efficient administration thereof, and the proper conduct of the business of all licensees, including every matter or thing required to be done or which may be done with the approval or consent or by order or under the direction or supervision of or as prescribed by the commission; which rules, when adopted as provided in chapter 91 shall have the force and effect of law;

(5) Subject to chapter 76, to appoint and remove an administrator, who may also be appointed an investigator and who shall be responsible for the operations and activities of the staff. The administrator may hire and remove hearing officers, investigators, and clerical or other assistants as its business may from time to time require, to prescribe their duties, and fix their compensation; to engage the services of experts and persons engaged in the practice of a profession, if deemed expedient. Every investigator, within the scope of the investigator's duties, shall have the powers of a police officer;

(6) To limit the number of licenses of any class or kind within the county, or the number of licenses of any class or kind to do business in any given locality, when in the judgment of the commission such limitations are in the public interest;

(7) To prescribe the nature of the proof to be furnished, the notices to be given, and the conditions to be met or observed in case of the issuance of a duplicate license in place of one alleged to have been lost or destroyed, including a requirement of any indemnity deemed appropriate to the case;

(8) To fix the hours between which licensed premises of any class or classes may regularly be open for the transaction of business, which shall be uniform throughout the county as to each class respectively;

(9) To prescribe all forms to be used for the purposes of this chapter not otherwise provided for in this chapter, and the character and manner of keeping of books, records, and accounts to be kept by licensees in any matter pertaining to their business;

(10) To investigate violations of this chapter, chapter 244D and, notwithstanding any law to the contrary, violations of the applicable department of health's allowable noise levels, through its investigators or otherwise, to include covert operations, and to report violations to the prosecuting officer for prosecution and, where appropriate, the director of taxation to hear and determine complaints against any licensee;

(11) To prescribe, by rule, the terms, conditions, and circumstances under which persons or any class of persons may be employed by holders of licenses;

(12) To prescribe, by rule, the term of any license or solicitor's and representative's permit authorized by this chapter, the annual or prorated amount, the manner of payment of fees for the licenses and permits, and the amount of filing fees; and

(13) To prescribe, by rule, the circumstances and penalty for the unauthorized manufacturing or selling of any liquor."

SECTION 6. As part of the charter or ordinance provisions required by section 281-11, Hawaii Revised Statutes, as amended by this Act, a county may terminate all or some of the members who sit on the county's liquor commission or liquor control adjudication board on June 30, 2004, regardless of when their terms expire.

Until all the provisions required by section 281-11, as amended by this Act, take effect, each county's liquor commission and liquor control adjudication board existing on July 1, 2004 shall continue to be subject to section 281-11 as existing on June 30, 2004. Upon the effective date of all the required provisions in this Act, the commission and board shall be subject to those provisions and not section 281-11 as it existed on June 30, 2004.

SECTION 7. The legislature finds that this Act does not mandate any new county program or increase in the level of service under an existing county program. The legislature specifically finds that this Act does not require a county or its liquor commission or liquor control adjudication board to increase the level of the liquor regulation service mandated under chapter 281, Hawaii Revised Statutes, as it existed on July 1, 2004.

SECTION 8. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 9. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2004.

INTRODUCED BY:

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