Legislature in Recess – Hearings & Decision Making Still in Progress

The State Legislature is in the middle of its mandatory 5-day recess that started on February 21. The recess period will be over after February 27 with regular session days resuming on February 28. In the meantime several hearings tackling decision making on many of the money and judicial bills are being held in the Ways & Means and Judiciary & Labor committees. Senator Slom has been spending several hours per day at Ways and Means hearings where decisions are being made (or delayed) on bad bills such as SB 69 and SB 894.

The State Land Mammal Bill Passes Out of Committee

SB 775 which would designate the Hawaiian Hoary Bat as the official state land mammal passed out of the Senate TEC committee on February 21 unamended with a 3 to 0 vote. The bill which was introduced by Senator Slom should be heading to the Senate floor for a full third reading vote.

In the photo above: Senator Slom, Legislative aide Matt Rapoza (in the bat t-shirt), Senator Clarence Nishihara and a Dept. of Land & Natural Resources official. Photo by Cassie from the Senate Communications Office.

Reapportionment: Hearing Scheduled for Bill Defining “Permanent Resident”

Last year’s reapportionment did not count large numbers of the residing population in Hawaii which includes the military and some college students. SB 286 is a bill that should fix the problem and bring Hawaii into line with the rest of the United States.

SB286
Reapportionment; Definition of “permanent resident”

RELATING TO REAPPORTIONMENT.
Defines “permanent resident” for legislative reapportionment as any individual counted as a usual resident in the last preceding U.S. census within the State of Hawaii.

(S ) 2/22/2013 - The committee(s) on JDL has scheduled a public hearing on 02-26-13 10:00AM in conference room 016.

LINK TO THE HEARING NOTICE

Send testimony to: JDLtestimony@capitol.hawaii.gov

Next on “A Better Day” with Senator Slom

Senator Slom and Senator Donovan Dela Cruz on the set of “A Better Day”. The next show is in the can with the next new episode airing in March on Olelo Cable TV. Senator Dela Cruz is the chair of the Economic Development, Government Operations and Housing Committee. Senator Slom is the committee’s vice-chair. The PLDC will be among the subjects discussed. The program lasts about 28 minutes.

Floor Action – Day 21

Session Day 21, Senate Floor Session: The following bills passed in the Senate on Third Reading votes 25 to 0 with Sam voting with the majority:

SB 1000 – Access Hawaii Committee
SB 870 – Use of Force by Persons with Special Responsibility for the Care and Safety of Others
SB 890 – Temporary Member on the Hawaii Labor Relations Board
SB 1016 – Registration of Covered Offenders
SB 707 – Repeal PLDC (news-link)

Senator Slom may be introducing a floor amendment to SB 880 which will strengthen the current draft of the bill to incorporate a stiffer sentence for sexual assault of a minor. SB 880 was deferred on the Senate floor for this purpose.

QUICK TAKES

Senator Slom met with U.H. Executive VP for Academic Affairs/Provost Linda Johnsrud. (right) Senator Slom likes to get young staff members involved with the discussion on which the opportunity was taken to discuss issues about the university from a student’s perspective. Senator Slom’s younger staff members including Matt Rapoza and Noelani Bonafacio both attended and graduated from the University of Hawaii. Kaitlyn Baria (back to camera in blue) is a current University of Hawaii student interning full time with Senator Slom at the capitol this semester. The young lady in orange Elise Anderson who was visiting from Senator Espero’s office.

SB 775 which designates the Hawaiian Hoary Bat as the State Land Mammal will be heard in TEC on Thursday Feb. 21 starting at 1:15pm.  

Senator Slom has been getting a number of phone calls and plenty of email opposing SB 69 popularly known as “the gun buy-back bill”. Gun owners and supporters of the Second Amendment are in opposition to the bill. SB 69 will be heard again in the Senate Ways & Means Committee tomorrow Feb. 20 starting at 9:45 am. Senator Slom will be voting “no” on this measure as he did from the bill’s inception.

SB 775: Designating the Hawaiian Hoary Bat as the State Land Mammal

SB 775 was introduced to designate the Hawaiian Hoary Bat as the State Land Mammal. The bill has been referred to the Senate Technology and Arts committee and will be up for a hearing on Thursday, February 21 at 1:15pm. The hearing notice is online. People interested in testifying can send testimony in to the following email address: TECtestimony@capitol.hawaii.gov

Senator Slom introduced the original bill in 2011 as SB 878 which was heard and passed out of the Hawaiian Affairs committee, only to be stalled in the Judiciary and Labor committee.

SB 775

Measure Title:	RELATING TO STATE LAND MAMMAL.
Report Title:	Hawaiian Hoary Bat; State Land Mammal
Description:	Designates the Hawaiian hoary bat as the state land mammal.
Companion:
Package:	None
Current Referral:	TEC
Introducer(s):	SLOM, Keith-Agaran, Tokuda, Wakai

Hawaiian Hoary bat or ʻŌpeʻapeʻa (Lasiurus cinereus semotus)
Laupahoehoe Reserve, Hawai’i

From the Hawaiian Hoary Bat Fansite

“The arrival and establishment of bats in Hawai‘i is perhaps among the most spectacular over-water colonization events in mammalian history. The Hawaiian island archipelago is 2400 miles from the nearest landfall on the North American continent. The distances to other large land masses such as Australia, New Guinea, or Asia are even larger. To our knowledge, two bat species have colonized Hawai‘i since these volcanic sea mount islands arose from the ocean depths. One successful colonization was the Pleistocene Era arrival of the lava-tube bat which survived on Hawai‘i until about 6,000 years ago. This extinct species currently is being described by scientists from the Bishop Museum, American Museum of Natural History, and U.S. Geological Survey. A later arrival, around the end of the Pleistocene (9 to 10 thousand years before present) was the hoary bat from North America. Ōpe‘ape‘a (oh-pay-ah-pay-ah) was the name given to this bat by the early Hawaiians. Over the last few thousand years, isolated in the Hawaiian islands, Ōpe‘ape‘a have decreased in weight by about 30%, become more acrobatic in flight, and have lost much of the white frosting on the fur that its ancestors had. This Hawaiian subspecies (Lasiurus cinereus semotus) of the hoary bat is listed as endangered by both the Hawaii Department of Forestry and Wildlife and by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.”

– Excerpt from the “Natural History and Migration of the Endangered Ōpe‘ape‘a in Hawai‘i” by Frank J. Bonaccorso, Ph.D., Wildlife Ecologist, Pacific Island Ecosystems Research Center, U. S. Geological Survey/BRD

Floor Action: Session Days 8, 9 & 10

The Senate Ways & Means (WAM) Committee met on Feburary 1 to review information from the University of Hawaii Board of Regents regarding salaries and compensation. WAM members asked the U.H. officials several questions regarding salaries and free tickets to sporting events given out to one regent.

Home Schooling Bills on Extracurricular Activities (SB 789 & SB 922):

SB 922: Requires all home school students to enroll at the public school in the student’s service area…. Allows home school students to participate in any extracurricular activities offered by a public school.

Nearly all of the public comment on SB 922 was in opposition to the bill.

“The DOE has no comment or position, even though similar pieces of legislation have been introduced several times over the past 10 years. Their representative stated they will discuss the matter at the board meeting in February. While all the testifiers spoke against SB922, three spoke out specifically for SB789. Opposition to the bill included a vehement opposition to the word ‘enroll’, and language in the bill that only included parent, guardian and blood relatives as eligible teachers, that all homeschooled student must enroll, even if they do not want to participate in extracurriculars, and the future interpretations of the word ‘enroll’. Suggestions given were for education in Hawai’i to include a voucher program, cite the 40-140 form of intent to homeschool instead of requiring the students to enroll, have only those interested in extracurriculars enroll, and using SATs, TB Tests, User Fees, Try-Outs, and Grade-Checks, as requirements of participation.” — Noelani Bonafacio, Senator Slom’s Legislative Aide

In the end SB 922 was deferred, while SB 789 which “allows home schooled students to participate on an equal basis in extracurricular activities offered at the public school they would otherwise be required to attend” without the enrollment requirement will be amended and up for decision making on February 13. Senator Slom has been a longtime supporter of home schooled students and has sponsored legislation to allow home schoolers to participate in sports and other extracurricular activities offered at their area public school.

Home schooled students and their parents (lower two panels) appeared before the Senate Education Committee on January 30 to present testimony on SB 789 and SB 922. Senator Slom could not get a satisfactory answer out of the State Dept. of Education (DOE) official (top panel left) when asked about the issue. The written testimony received from the DOE states that the department has “no comment” on SB 922.

Floor Session Day 8:  Two bills were re-referred to the Health Committee.

Floor Session Day 9:  The Senate adopted the administrative and financial manual of the Senate for the 27th Legislature.

Floor Session Day 10: The Senate Session began with its first, voluntary “moment of contemplation” before the formal proceedings of the session started. Near the end of session, some debate surfaced on the PLDC bill that was taken off the Water & Land committee hearing agenda for January 31.

The PLDC or Public Land Development Corporation  ”is a state entity created by the Legislature in 2011 to develop state lands and generate revenues for the Department of Land and Natural Resources. ” Since its creation as Act 55 in 2011, the PLDC has come under increasing opposition since it creates projects that “are exempt from state and county laws regarding land use, zoning, and construction standards for subdivisions, development, and improvement of land.”

SB1 is one of several bills introduced to abolish the PLDC. Senator Slom also introduced his own bills (SB 780 and SB 781) to repeal both Act 55 and Act 282 relating to the PLDC. None of those bills are scheduled for hearing by the chair of the Water and Land Committee.

Hundreds of emails have come in to Senator Slom’s office urging for a repeal of the PLDC and for SB1 to be heard. Typical of those emails:

“Please hear SB1 and repeal the PLDC.  Let’s not put ourselves in the position of being vulnerable to developer’s decisions on our valuable land.  This is the people’s land, not the government’s only to make the decisions on it’s use.  All need to be involved.  Only responsible, complete oversight of land use should be allowed.” — Mary Louise O’Brien

“It seems clear that there is widespread public sentiment in favor of passing SB1 and repealing the Public Lands Development Corporation (PLDC). In view of this, it is extremely frustrating and reminiscent of the worst of Hawai’i politics that this bill may not even be heard.  I strongly urge you to make sure that SB1 is heard and passed and that the Legislature repeals the PLDC. ” — Richard Frankel

Hundreds showed up at the beginning of session to protest the PLDC and Act 55.