STAND. COM. REP. NO. 523

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 741

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection, to which was referred S.B. No. 741 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO INTOXICATING LIQUOR,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to authorize the several county liquor commissions to adopt rules, which may include reciprocity agreements among the counties, prohibiting any person from working as a server or seller at a licensed premise unless the person is certified as a server or seller and providing for a certification program with training for servers and sellers.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from Outrigger Hotels Hawaii.

 

     Your Committee finds that requiring training and certification of servers and sellers of intoxicating liquor will protect consumers by ensuring that servers and sellers have an adequate understanding of state law regarding the service of intoxicating liquor to patrons.  Your Committee further finds that this measure will reduce underage drinking and the over-service of intoxicating beverages to adult patrons.  Finally, your Committee finds that exempting employees who are not servers or sellers and for whom the delivery of unopened bottles of beer, wine, or liquor is merely occasional and incidental to job duties and those employees whose only contact with intoxicating liquor is restocking minibars prevents the overbroad application of this measure to employees such as hotel housekeepers, bell captains, or desk agents who may be included in a broad interpretation of this measure but who do not play a meaningful role in the sale or service of intoxicating liquor.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Specifying that the certification requirement of this measure does not apply to employees who are not servers or sellers and for whom contact with intoxicating liquor in the course of employment is merely occasional and incidental or is limited to the stocking of minibars; and

 

     (2)  Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 741, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 741, S.D. 1.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection,

 

		____________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair