STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2052

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2386

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2386 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE NATIVE HAWAIIAN ROLL COMMISSION,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish that verification documents submitted by individuals seeking to be included on the roll of qualified Native Hawaiians shall not be disclosed and shall constitute information in which an individual has a significant privacy interest.  

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs; the Executive Director of the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission, Clyde Namuo; the Chairperson of the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission, John Waihee; the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs; and the Aha Moku Advisory Committee.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from Aupuni O Hawaii.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Office of Information Practices.

 

     Your Committee recognizes the privacy concerns of individuals registering with the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission.  Those individuals must submit verification documents that may include names of persons from whom lineal descent can be verified; birth, marriage, or death certificates; statements of kamaaina witnesses; contact information; and birth dates and other personal identification numbers.  Unless the confidentiality of those verification documents and information is established by law, any person could obtain access to those sensitive verification documents and information through a records request. 

 

     Your Committee finds that prospective registrants should not have to choose between maintaining their family and personal privacy and exercising their civic right to participate in reconstituting a Native Hawaiian government. 

 

     Your Committee further finds that the measure as drafted may not prevent the disclosure of verification documents and information.  The Office of Information Practices testified that specifying that verification documents and information are documents in which an individual has a significant privacy interest could create an ambiguity as to whether the Legislature intended the information to be disclosed if the public interest in disclosure outweighs the privacy interest.  Your Committee firmly believes that the verification documents and information should not be subject to disclosure on the basis of a balancing test, and further finds that there is no public interest in disclosing this information.

 

     Your Committee has therefore adopted the amendments recommended by the Office of Information Practices, to ensure the confidentiality of verification documents and information as follows:

 

     (1)  In section 1 of the measure, deleting the language stating that the verification documents shall be subject to section 92F-14, Hawaii Revised Statutes; and

 

     (2)  Deleting section 3 of the measure, which listed the verification information and documents as an example of information in which an individual has a significant privacy interest.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2386, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2386, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

 


Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Hawaiian Affairs,

 

 

 

____________________________

BRICKWOOD GALUTERIA, Chair