STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1960

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 1307

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirtieth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2019

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Judiciary and Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 1307, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AN OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Require the Legislative Reference Bureau to submit a report to the Legislature regarding the existing administrative hearings process in the State and the potential for a centralized office of administrative hearings;

 

     (2)  Require state departments and agencies to provide statistical, non-confidential information on contested case hearings to the Legislative Reference Bureau; and

 

     (3)  Require the Legislative Reference Bureau to research centralized administrative hearings offices in other jurisdictions.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Legislative Reference Bureau.

 

     Your Committees find that in many jurisdictions, administrative adjudications take place within a single agency that combines regulatory, enforcement, prosecutorial, and adjudicatory authority.  Your Committees further find that in certain jurisdictions, the conflict of interest inherent in the same agency acting as prosecutor and judge has led to the establishment of state central hearing agencies, in which an independent administrative law judge, who is completely independent of the agency's prosecutorial functions, presides over the administrative litigation.  This measure will require the Legislative Reference Bureau to compile information about contested case hearings in the State and other jurisdictions and report its findings to the Legislature.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Requiring state departments and agencies to provide data required by the Legislative Reference Bureau in an electronic format approved by the Legislative Reference Bureau;

 

     (2)  Inserting an effective date of March 15, 2094, to encourage further discussion; and

 

     (3)  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 Judiciary and Ways and Means that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1307, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1307, S.D. 2.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Judiciary and Ways and Means,

 

________________________________

DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair

 

________________________________

KARL RHOADS, Chair