STAND. COM. REP. NO. 338

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2005

RE: S.B. No. 951

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Water, Land, and Agriculture, to which was referred S.B. No. 951 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO FIRE PROTECTION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriately punish a person starting a fire on lands controlled by the Department of Land and Natural Resources by including the costs of fighting the fire as damage for purposes of meeting the requirements of the criminal property damage statutes in the penal code.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Department of Land and Natural Resources. Comments were also submitted by the Office of the Public Defender.

Your Committee finds that fires intentionally set within forest and preservation lands threaten wildlife and plant life, including rare and endangered species. They cause damage to personal and public property and can even threaten lives. Thus, this measure increases the penalties for intentionally setting fires.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Deleting the provision that allows the cost of any federal, state, or county efforts to extinguish the fire to be considered as "property damage";

(2) Increasing the fines for intentionally setting a fire to no less than $2,500 and no more than $10,000; and

(3) Making technical, nonsubstantive changes.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Water, Land, and Agriculture that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 951, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 951, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Water, Land, and Agriculture,

____________________________

RUSSELL S. KOKUBUN, Chair