Bill Text: HI SB2789 | 2018 | Regular Session | Introduced

---

Bill Title: Relating To Administrative Hearing Officers.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2018-01-24 - Referred to LBR/HMS, WAM. [SB2789 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2018-SB2789-Introduced.html

---

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	2789
TWENTY-NINTH LEGISLATURE, 2018
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

 

RELATING TO ADMINISTRATIVE HEARING OFFICERS.

 

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 

     SECTION 1.  The department of human services has the largest operating budget of any state department, approximately $3,304,000,000, including seventy-nine per cent of all the executive branch's federal funds.  The department provides benefits and services to one in four Hawaii residents or nearly 360,000 individuals.

     The department serves vulnerable and needy adults and children statewide and is responsible for diverse and complex programs driven by their own unique and ubiquitous state and federal laws, rules, and regulations.  With little overlap between the wide array of services offered by the department and each program's laws and regulations, the breadth of knowledge necessary for effective management of all the programs is extensive and difficult to develop.

     The department's programs and services include:  protection of vulnerable children and adults; vocational rehabilitation and financial assistance to the disabled; the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program; financial assistance; job training and placement; housing and services for the homeless; Medicaid services for the State's medically needy population; and prevention, treatment, and housing for the State's youthful offenders.

     In addition to helping Hawaii's vulnerable individuals, the department manages significant federal and state funds, and processes vast amounts of information and is currently engaged in investing in an enterprise integrated eligibility system to better serve recipients of public benefits and the State's vulnerable populations.

     As required by federal and state laws, regulations, and administrative rules, the department provides applicants and recipients of public benefits with administrative review processes to request relief from an adverse decision made by the department.  The department also provides an administrative review process for providers of medical goods or services who disagree with a department's decision.

     The department's administrative appeals office receives nearly 1,900 requests annually for administrative relief from applicants or recipients of public benefits or services.  Additionally, the administrative appeals office receives approximately thirty requests per year for administrative review from providers of medical goods or services.  Administrative appeal hearings are held statewide.

     To render timely, impartial, and informed quasi-judicial administrative appeals hearing decisions, the department must maintain a cadre of experienced, trained, and knowledgeable administrative appeals hearing officers to review federal and state laws, regulations, rules, documents, receive testimony, conduct hearings, determine findings of facts and conclusions of law, and render final administrative appeal hearing decisions.

     Timely, accurate, and prompt administrative appeals hearing decisions in contested cases positively serve eligible applicants and recipients to gain access to those benefits and services, as well as support efficiency of government by terminating benefits to an ineligible recipient and allow the department to begin recovery of improperly provided benefits.

     The purpose of this Act is to exempt from civil service, positions to be known as administrative appeals hearing officer of the department of human services to conduct administrative appeals hearings and other required and associated duties.

     SECTION 2.  Section 76-16, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (b) to read as follows:

     "(b)  The civil service to which this chapter applies shall comprise all positions in the State now existing or hereafter established and embrace all personal services performed for the State, except the following:

     (1)  Commissioned and enlisted personnel of the Hawaii National Guard as such, and positions in the Hawaii National Guard that are required by state or federal laws or regulations or orders of the National Guard to be filled from those commissioned or enlisted personnel;

     (2)  Positions filled by persons employed by contract where the director of human resources development has certified that the service is special or unique or is essential to the public interest and that, because of circumstances surrounding its fulfillment, personnel to perform the service cannot be obtained through normal civil service recruitment procedures.  Any such contract may be for any period not exceeding one year;

     (3)  Positions that must be filled without delay to comply with a court order or decree if the director determines that recruitment through normal recruitment civil service procedures would result in delay or noncompliance, such as the Felix-Cayetano consent decree;

     (4)  Positions filled by the legislature or by either house or any committee thereof;

     (5)  Employees in the office of the governor and office of the lieutenant governor, and household employees at Washington Place;

     (6)  Positions filled by popular vote;

     (7)  Department heads, officers, and members of any board, commission, or other state agency whose appointments are made by the governor or are required by law to be confirmed by the senate;

     (8)  Judges, referees, receivers, masters, jurors, notaries public, land court examiners, court commissioners, and attorneys appointed by a state court for a special temporary service;

     (9)  One bailiff for the chief justice of the supreme court who shall have the powers and duties of a court officer and bailiff under section 606-14; one secretary or clerk for each justice of the supreme court, each judge of the intermediate appellate court, and each judge of the circuit court; one secretary for the judicial council; one deputy administrative director of the courts; three law clerks for the chief justice of the supreme court, two law clerks for each associate justice of the supreme court and each judge of the intermediate appellate court, one law clerk for each judge of the circuit court, two additional law clerks for the civil administrative judge of the circuit court of the first circuit, two additional law clerks for the criminal administrative judge of the circuit court of the first circuit, one additional law clerk for the senior judge of the family court of the first circuit, two additional law clerks for the civil motions judge of the circuit court of the first circuit, two additional law clerks for the criminal motions judge of the circuit court of the first circuit, and two law clerks for the administrative judge of the district court of the first circuit; and one private secretary for the administrative director of the courts, the deputy administrative director of the courts, each department head, each deputy or first assistant, and each additional deputy, or assistant deputy, or assistant defined in paragraph (16);

    (10)  First deputy and deputy attorneys general, the administrative services manager of the department of the attorney general, one secretary for the administrative services manager, an administrator and any support staff for the criminal and juvenile justice resources coordination functions, and law clerks;

(11) (A)  Teachers, principals, vice-principals, complex area superintendents, deputy and assistant superintendents, other certificated personnel, not more than twenty noncertificated administrative, professional, and technical personnel not engaged in instructional work;

          (B)  Effective July 1, 2003, teaching assistants, educational assistants, bilingual/bicultural school-home assistants, school psychologists, psychological examiners, speech pathologists, athletic health care trainers, alternative school work study assistants, alternative school educational/supportive services specialists, alternative school project coordinators, and communications aides in the department of education;

          (C)  The special assistant to the state librarian and one secretary for the special assistant to the state librarian; and

          (D)  Members of the faculty of the University of Hawaii, including research workers, extension agents, personnel engaged in instructional work, and administrative, professional, and technical personnel of the university;

    (12)  Employees engaged in special, research, or demonstration projects approved by the governor;

    (13)  (A)  Positions filled by inmates, patients of state institutions, persons with severe physical or mental disabilities participating in the work experience training programs;

          (B)  Positions filled with students in accordance with guidelines for established state employment programs; and

          (C)  Positions that provide work experience training or temporary public service employment that are filled by persons entering the workforce or persons transitioning into other careers under programs such as the federal Workforce Investment Act of 1998, as amended, or the Senior Community Service Employment Program of the Employment and Training Administration of the United States Department of Labor, or under other similar state programs;

    (14)  A custodian or guide at Iolani Palace, the Royal Mausoleum, and Hulihee Palace;

    (15)  Positions filled by persons employed on a fee, contract, or piecework basis, who may lawfully perform their duties concurrently with their private business or profession or other private employment and whose duties require only a portion of their time, if it is impracticable to ascertain or anticipate the portion of time to be devoted to the service of the State;

    (16)  Positions of first deputies or first assistants of each department head appointed under or in the manner provided in section 6, article V, of the Hawaii state constitution; three additional deputies or assistants either in charge of the highways, harbors, and airports divisions or other functions within the department of transportation as may be assigned by the director of transportation, with the approval of the governor; four additional deputies in the department of health, each in charge of one of the following: behavioral health, environmental health, hospitals, and health resources administration, including other functions within the department as may be assigned by the director of health, with the approval of the governor; an administrative assistant to the state librarian; and an administrative assistant to the superintendent of education;

    (17)  Positions specifically exempted from this part by any other law; provided that:

          (A)  Any exemption created after July 1, 2014, shall expire three years after its enactment unless affirmatively extended by an act of the legislature; and

          (B)  All of the positions defined by paragraph (9) shall be included in the position classification plan;

    (18)  Positions in the state foster grandparent program and positions for temporary employment of senior citizens in occupations in which there is a severe personnel shortage or in special projects;

    (19)  Household employees at the official residence of the president of the University of Hawaii;

    (20)  Employees in the department of education engaged in the supervision of students during meal periods in the distribution, collection, and counting of meal tickets, and in the cleaning of classrooms after school hours on a less than half-time basis;

    (21)  Employees hired under the tenant hire program of the Hawaii public housing authority; provided that not more than twenty-six per cent of the authority's workforce in any housing project maintained or operated by the authority shall be hired under the tenant hire program;

    (22)  Positions of the federally funded expanded food and nutrition program of the University of Hawaii that require the hiring of nutrition program assistants who live in the areas they serve;

    (23)  Positions filled by persons with severe disabilities who are certified by the state vocational rehabilitation office that they are able to perform safely the duties of the positions;

    (24)  The sheriff;

    (25)  A gender and other fairness coordinator hired by the judiciary;

(26)  Positions in the Hawaii National Guard youth and adult education programs; [and]

    (27)  In the state energy office in the department of business, economic development, and tourism, all energy program managers, energy program specialists, energy program assistants, and energy analysts[.]; and

    (28)  Positions known as administrative appeals hearing officer in the department of human services.

     The director shall determine the applicability of this section to specific positions.

     Nothing in this section shall be deemed to affect the civil service status of any incumbent as it existed on July 1, 1955."

     SECTION 3.  Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken.  New statutory material is underscored.

     SECTION 4.  This Act, upon its approval, shall take effect on July 1, 2018.

 

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________
	BY REQUEST

 

 

Report Title:

Department of Human Services; Administrative Appeals; Administrative Appeals Hearing Officers; Civil Service Exemption

 

Description:

Exempts from civil service positions known as Administrative Appeals Hearing Officer in the Department of Human Services.

 

 

 

The summary description of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.