Bill Text: HI SB2224 | 2010 | Regular Session | Amended

---

Bill Title: Financial Disclosure; Public Records

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-02-12 - (S) Report adopted; Passed Second Reading, as amended (SD 1) and referred to JGO. [SB2224 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2010-SB2224-Amended.html

---

 

 

STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2247

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2224

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2010

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Commerce and Consumer Protection and Water, Land, Agriculture, and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2224 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to make the financial disclosure statements filed by the executive director of the Division of Consumer Advocacy of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, the commissioners of the Public Utilities Commission, and the members of the Board of Land and Natural Resources public records available for inspection and duplication by the public. 

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the League of Women Voters, Americans for Democratic Action, Life of the Land, and Common Cause Hawaii.  Comments were received from the Hawaii State Ethics Commission.  Written testimony presented to the Committees may be reviewed on the Legislature's website.

 

     Your Committees find that as the State undertakes the considerable project of implementing the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative and other innovative energy policy projects, transparency and accountability in the decision making process are vital.  Your Committees find that in light of the important decisions regarding public policy and the expenditure of public money at stake, the public interest in knowing whether potential conflicts of interest exist for certain public officials outweigh those individuals' interest in protecting personal financial information.  Your Committees note that this measure is not intended to imply any present wrongdoing on the part of those individuals to whom it applies.  Rather, it is your Committees' intent to promote transparency in government in general. 

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Narrowing its scope to apply only to commissioners of the Public Utilities Commission; and

 

     (2)  Making nonsubstantive technical changes for the purposes of clarity and accuracy.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Commerce and Consumer Protection and Water, Land, Agriculture, and Hawaiian Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2224, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2224, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Government Operations.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Commerce and Consumer Protection and Water, Land, Agriculture, and Hawaiian Affairs,

 

____________________________ CLAYTON HEE, Chair		____________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair