Co-chair plan
shows little gain

The old-style behavior prevails
in the Senate despite reorganization

By Mike Yuen
Star-Bulletin

When the 1997 legislative session convened four months ago, the Senate was organized under a new leadership system. Co-chairs were in; a single lawmaker controlling a committee was out. There would be, the new system's proponents maintained, more openness, more cooperation, more collaboration and more communication. There would even be better results, they promised.

But the Senate's new modus operandi hasn't changed legislative culture. When push came to shove during House-Senate conference negotiations, the crunch time when the fate of bills are determined, old-style behavior prevailed.

The Legislature's leaders, House Speaker Joe Souki (D, Wailuku) and Senate President Norman Mizuguchi (D, Aiea), had to inject themselves to break up stalled talks. And they did so behind closed doors, where agreements were reached.

It happened with the state's budget and money-related bills.

It's happening now with talks on reducing the high cost of automobile insurance. Prodded by leadership, the House's and Senate's lead conferees took their discussions underground after being unable reach a compromise by midnight Friday so that lawmakers could vote on the measure and scores of other bills tomorrow, when the Legislature is scheduled to adjourn. Whether there will be a two-day extension for auto-insurance reform should be clearer today.

And like the old days, it appeared that the Senate was ready and willing to play brinkmanship.

Judging from her actions at the negotiating table, Senate Ways and Means Co-Chairwoman Lehua Fernandes Salling (D, Kapaa) was prepared to hold the budget hostage and even force an extension if the House didn't first discuss and act on the Senate's tax relief package.

Longtime legislative observers point to a simple fact as to why the Senate's new way of doing things fell apart during a crucial point in the legislative process: conference committee negotiations are based on an adversarial model.

The House position vs. the Senate position. Compromise can happen, but oftentimes with much pushing and pulling. Of course, bills also survive with the help of horse-trading on other measures.

Senate Co-Majority Leader Les Ihara Jr. (D, Kaimuki), the architect of the Senate's co-chair plan, acknowledges that there were problems with what some have called the "co-co system."

But, he says, "It hasn't been worse than the old system. Under the new structure, you no longer have kings or queens, who had fiefdoms. In the old culture, you tried to maximize your power and minimize others'."

Ihara and others in the controlling Senate Democratic majority -- they're 14 of the chamber's 25 members -- say the co-chair system will be back new year.It will be refined, they say. "For it to be more effective, there has to be communication. What takes time is communication," Ihara adds.

Still, dissident Democratic senators remain unsold on the co-chair system. Although Sen. Joe Tanaka (D, Kahului) is Economic Development co-chairman, from the start he has relegated all committee leadership responsibilities to his fellow co-chairman, Sen. Brian Taniguchi (D, Manoa)."You can't have two," Tanaka says. "That confuses the public and lobbyists. One person has to take the lead and the responsibility."

Co-Majority Leader Mike McCartney (D, Kaneohe) scoffs at that idea. "It's kind of like team teaching in the classroom. Some adapt well to it, for some it takes time and for others it is a challenge," McCartney says.

The House has kept the old system with a single representative chairing a committee, although this year the House Finance panel experimented by having two subcommittee chairmen. Rep. Nathan Suzuki (D, Moanalua Valley) led the tax subcommittee; Rep. Bob Nakasone (D, Kahului), the public works subcommittee.

House dissidents who were unsuccessful in toppling Souki before this year's legislative session began advocated the subcommittee structure.

One of the rebels, Rep. Ed Case (D, Manoa), believes good legislation stems not so much from how a Legislature is structured but on the quality of people in positions of power.

Conferees sign a measure
with no report

House and Senate conferees were apparently in quite a rush to craft a bill dealing with ramifications from a state Supreme Court ruling involving privatization of public services.

The conference committee report that was printed and made public over the weekend has only the page of conferees' signatures attached to the bill -- and no report.

That shouldn't jeopardize the measure's final approval, Senate Co-Majority Leader Les Ihara Jr. (D, Kaimuki) said last night.

During floor debates tomorrow, the lead conferees will give speeches, stating the panel's reasons for shaping the bill the way they did, Ihara said. Their remarks will contain the essence of what would have been in the committee report, he said.

Having just the signature page allowed the measure to beat a midnight deadline Friday for having bills in their final form before approval tomorrow.Conferees beat the deadline by only two minutes.

When bills go through the legislative maze, the changes to the measures can be significant, minor -- or even partisan.

Consider a bill, up for floor votes in the Democratic-dominated Legislature tomorrow, that would establish a Hawaiian language college at the University of Hilo.

A sticking point appears to have been whether to credit former President Bush, a Republican, for federal funding for native Hawaiian education.

Bush and U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, a Democrat, were acknowledged for their support in the House draft that was up for consideration by House and Senate conferees. But the reference to Bush was deleted in the bill that emerged from conference negotiations.

Perhaps the removal of Bush's name should come as no surprise. He wasn't in the original measure, introduced by Senate Education Co-Chairman James Aki (D, Waianae), nor in the draft that moved out of the Senate money committee.

But Bush did get a tip of the hat from the House Higher Education and Finance panels -- if only for a month when the two House drafts were still alive.

Conferees reach no accord
on cutting auto insurance

A Senate leader said late last night that House and Senate conferees still haven't reached an agreement on legislation to reduce the high cost of automobile insurance.

State lawmakers will get some idea as to how close -- or far apart -- the House and Senate are when they hold their respective caucuses today, said Senate Co-Majority Leader Les Ihara Jr. (D, Kaimuki).

Ihara and House Majority Floor Leader Marcus Oshiro (D, Wahiawa) said this year's legislative session, which is scheduled to end tomorrow, will be extended only if both sides have an agreement or are close to reaching an agreement.

It makes no sense to extend if there's no hope for an agreement, they said.

If a compromise is reached tomorrow reforming Hawaii's no-fault system, the Legislature would be extended for two days so that there could be the necessary floor votes on the bill.

The House, backed by Gov. Ben Cayetano, favors a return to a tort-based system, which allows people to sue for accident claims.

The Senate wants to retain no-fault and essentially allow lawsuits only in serious accidents.

Cayetano said, "If they want to extend, I'm certainly willing to agree to an extension so that they can resolve the no-fault question."