The Law Center submitted the following testimony during the 2022 legislative session. The descriptions of each bill were copied from the Capitol website.

  • H.B. 1579: Extends the deadline by which the transfer of the Oahu regional health care system from the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation to the Department of Health shall take place. Sets the manner by which the Oahu Regional Health Care System should request operational funding during the transitional period. Requires a report to the legislature prior to the regular session of 2023. Exempts the working group from Chapter 92, HRS. Appropriates moneys. Effective 7/1/2060. (HD1)
  • H.B. 1684: Establishes the packaging stewardship program within the department of health to reduce the amount of packaging material that becomes solid waste.
  • H.B. 1809: Establishes a renewable fuels production tax credit. Effective 7/1/2100. (SD1)
  • H.B. 1849: Requires certain information on the financial disclosure statements deemed to be public records for non-paid volunteer members of state boards and commissions to be redacted.
  • H.B. 1874: Allows a board to conduct up to one retreat in private per calendar year; provided that the board does not vote on any matter, make decisions, or deliberate toward a decision on any matter currently pending before the board or likely to arise before the board.
  • H.B. 1885: Establishes a chief data officer and data task force within the office of enterprise technology services to develop, implement, and manage statewide data policies, procedures, and standards and to facilitate data sharing across state agencies. Appropriates funds. Effective 7/1/2050. (HD1)
  • H.B. 1897: Requires all boards to livestream meetings and archive the recordings online.  Requires a board to identify each item on its meeting agenda as an item for action or an item for discussion and allow for oral testimony after each agenda item.  Amends time frame requirements for the posting of board meeting minutes and board packets.  Requires board meeting minutes and board packets to be posted online.
  • H.B. 2026: Defines “board business” and “informal gatherings”. Allows a board to prepare and circulate amongst members a statement on a position previously adopted for purposes of submission to the legislature, under certain circumstances. Outlines when board packets must be available to interested persons. Applies sunshine law to all adjudicatory functions concerning land use. Effective 7/1/2112. (HD2)
  • H.B. 2037: Requires the director of OIP to provide either a ruling or guidance in writing on open records responses and open meetings complaints. Defines “guidance”, “opinion”, and “ruling”. Effective 7/1/2112. Sunsets 6/30/2027. (HD2)
  • H.B. 2171: Establishes a department of law enforcement to consolidate and administer criminal law enforcement and investigations functions of the State effective upon approval and reestablishes the department of public safety as an independent department of corrections and rehabilitation to administer the corrections, rehabilitation, and reentry of the inmate population effective 1/1/2023.  Transfers the law enforcement functions of the department of public safety to the department of law enforcement effective 1/1/2023, and the law enforcement functions of the department of transportation, the non-statutorily mandated functions of the investigations division of the department of the attorney general, and the office of homeland security to the department of law enforcement effective 7/1/2023.  Establishes a training center.  Appropriates funds.  Effective 7/1/3000.  (HD2)
  • H.B. 2178: Requires laws that enact, modify, or extend the availability of a tax expenditure to contain specific information, revenue estimates, and analyses before becoming law. Allows the disclosure of certain tax credit information.
  • H.B. 2235: Exempts members of a county council from the limitation on the number of members that may attend an informational meeting or presentation on matters relating to official county council business for purposes of permitted interactions.  Clarifies that such meetings shall be meetings that are open to the public.
  • H.B. 2303: Clarifies the legislature’s intent regarding internal deliberative and pre-decisional materials of government agencies. Specifies that certain deliberative and pre-decisional materials that are a direct part of a government agency’s internal decision-making process are not subject to disclosure if the disclosure of such materials would impair the agency’s ability to make sound and fair decisions, but only to the extent that the impairment outweighs public interest in disclosure. Effective 7/1/2112. (HD1)
  • H.B. 2312: Establishes the Women’s Corrections Implementation Commission in the Judiciary to ensure implementation of the recommendations from the final report from the House Concurrent Resolution No. 85 (2016) task force, to develop and implement an evidence-based, gender-responsive plan to divert non-violent women offenders, especially those with minor children, from the criminal justice system. Requires that the task force also consider model programs including residential, in-person and community-based rehabilitation programs, supportive and subsidized housing, restorative justice, and educational programs.
  • H.B. 2505: Amends Section 1. Act 220, Session Laws of Hawaii 2021, to remove language requiring open meetings to have an in-person location for public access when hosting otherwise entirely remote meetings.
  • S.B. 2123: Requires certain information on the financial disclosure statements deemed to be public records for non-paid volunteer members of state boards and commissions to be redacted.
  • S.B. 2143: Defines “board packet” and requires each state board to make its board packets publicly available at least forty-eight hours prior to the board meeting, but only if the board uses board packets. (SD2)
  • S.B. 2336: Requires the Office of Information Practices to resolve open meeting and open record complaints through either a legal determination on whether a violation occurred or guidance on the relevant legal requirements.
  • S.B. 2368: Exempts members of a county council from the limitation on the number of members that may attend an informational meeting or presentation on matters relating to official county council business for purposes of permitted interactions.  Clarifies that such meetings shall be meetings that are open to the public.
  • S.B. 2478: Reinstates the renewable fuels production tax credit. Applies to taxable years after 12/31/2022. Effective 7/1/2010. (HD1)
  • S.B. 2916: Prohibits the governor or the mayor from suspending requests for public records or vital statistics during a declared state of emergency.
  • S.B. 3089: Prohibits the governor or mayor from suspending requests for public records or vital statistics records during a state of emergency. Allows for a reasonable delay in a department or state or county agency’s response to a request as a result of extenuated circumstances. Clarifies that powers granted for emergency purposes shall not be construed as permitting actions inconsistent with the state constitution. Provides for greater clarity and specificity regarding the scope of suspensions of law. Clarifies that Hawaii’s emergency management system includes coordination between State and county emergency management functions, where appropriate. Clarifies the legal framework governing the extension and termination of emergency periods. Defines “severe warning”. Allows the legislature to, by an affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members to which each house is entitled, terminate a state of emergency, in part or in whole, declared by the governor. Effective 7/1/2050. (HD1)
  • S.B. 3172: Requires that any electronic audio or video recording of a board meeting be kept as a public record, but clarifies that only one version of any recording must be kept. Removes the requirement that a written summary must accompany any minutes that are posted in a digital or analog recording format. Effective 7/1/2112. (HD1)
  • S.B. 3252: Imposes a cap on the costs charged for the reproduction of certain government records. Waives the cost of duplication of government records provided to requestors in an electronic format. Imposes a cap on costs charged for searching for, reviewing, and segregating digital records. Provides for a waiver of fees when the public interest is served by a digital record’s disclosure. Effective 7/1/2050. (HD1)
  • S.R. 185: Requesting the Office of Information Practices to convene a working group to develop a recommendation for a statutory standard for the treatment of deliberative and predecisional agency records.
  • S.C.R. 192: Requesting the Office of Information Practices to convene a working group to develop recommendations for the treatment of deliberative and pre-decisional agency records.
  • H.R. 146: Requesting the Office of Information Practices to convene a working group to develop a recommendation for a statutory standard for the treatment of deliberative and predecisional agency records.
  • H.C.R. 146: Requesting the Office of Information Practices to convene a working group to develop a recommendation for a statutory standard for the treatment of deliberative and predecisional agency records.